Part 60: Drifting Along

Drifting Along

Music: Winter


So updates are going to be slightly slower & shorter until the end, because it turns out it's kind of hard to make a good update when there's jack shit going on in the game other than the occassional festival. (Spoilers: I do eventually start speeding through days faster by growing fewer crops and going to bed at like 1pm. You'll thank me in an update or two.)



But Shi...Mom said...I could come home whenever I wanted.
I see.




I'm pretty sure I've shown this conversation before, but I'm including it to show that the game doesn't really take things out of dialogue rotation when it should.


I'm normally not going to bother showing off these randomized requests, but this one had a pretty notable reward.


Is this even a real choice?

Lemme know if you like it. Actually, check that. Lemme know HOW MUCH you like it!


Why yes, I did just get something worth 42k for free.


As I've said before, I'm not crazy enough to 100% the Sharance Labyrinth, but I'm going to do what I can just to pass the time.


I drag Pia along for shits and giggles. Thankfully, party members get XP even if they've been knocked out.


Along the way, a chest dropped a silly hat that provides more defense than a hairpin. Makes...sense?


The boss of this segment is an old RF1 friend, Greater Demon.


It's no real threat(especially since most of its attacks are easy to dodge), but it takes a while to kill.


The rest of the day is spent crafting, including buffing up Link's new hat.


Tomorrow!



What did you say?
Sometimes harshly.
What?!

Pia.


Oh right, Marjorie's birthday. She loves Relax Tea and Relax Tealeaves, and I conveniently have some leaves in storage, so I'll just give her that.



Grandma told me to at least be quiet for her birthday...

...can every day be Marjorie's birthday?


See, she doesn't even remember how old she is. It'll be fine.



You're so kind. I really love these. Thank you.



Grandpa, he was so happy that he cried.
What?!
Heh heh, but don't tell anyone.

You know, the actual flowers blooming got surprisingly little fanfare. You just see it on the top screen for a bit, and people sometimes comment on it afterwards, and that's it. You'd think it'd at least merit an anime cutscene or something.


Back to dungeon hell. For the record, Link's level is in the mid-50s, so he's starting to get outclassed. Although equipment is more important than your level, I haven't exactly been working super-hard to keep on top of that either.


For a change of pace, I bring GudBoy with me. He's marginally more effective than Pia was.


Blue chests are great because they usually have equipment in them, but...


It's not always good equipment. At least it's a good way to see weapons I've skipped over,


Better loot: Heart Drinks.

Well, slightly better. They raise HP by ten. Link has 2108 HP before drinking this. The stat increase medicines don't really matter much until you're able to mass-produce them, but by that point you've basically 100%ed the game already.

More importantly, boss time!


OCTOPIRATE. Returning from RF2, where he's definitely the coolest boss.


He's actually dangerous, between his attacks hitting hard and his shell making it hard to do actual damage to him. In retrospect I should have gone with a not-hammer so it was easier to hit him.


But he actually goes down faster than Greater Demon did. GudBoy, though. (He'll get better in the morning)


And I'm fortunate enough to get his unique drop. Damn that's a lot of Vitality.


I figure I might as well show off my trophy collection since I'm down here so much now. Incidentally, the wedding memento lets you change your nickname or relive the wedding.


The next day, Pia has a pretty good question.

He's actually got a refight at the very bottom of the Labyrinth, in the 9th area. The 8th area recommends you be level 140. The final area scales with your party's level, but recommends you're level 220. There's a reason I'm not committing to finishing all of that.


Pictured: How to easily grind Pharmacy skill. Step one is buying a shitload of whatever ingredients you need to make the highest level potion you can.


Step two is getting insane amounts of skill levels fast.


Which in turn unlocks even higher level potions to grind with.


On a different note, have some shipping statistics. Completing the Labyrinth is possible if you use the Rosary and are committed to keeping top-of-the-line equipment, but completing all the shipping categories is something you'd only do if you were very, very, very bored and very, very, very completionist.

Completion levels for the other shipping categories:
Medicine: 58%
Weapons & Tools: 18% (There's so many of these, it's nuts)
Accessories: 38%
Cooking: 64%
Fish: 45%
Other(includes things like yarn and assorted monster drops): 66%


I'm not even going to bother marking each day transition. We've already gone through 3 days when that would normally take 1-2 updates by themselves.




"Why did you get into growing flowers?": Apparently the most awkward question to ask.

Hmph. I was very drawn to that tree ever since I was a little boy...
The Sharance Tree?
That's when I started growing flowers because I wanted those flowers to bloom. And you've been growing them ever since.
What a wonderful story...


Time for a bad idea.


The generic monsters are tougher, but not a problem overall.


The real problem comes with this fucker, returning from RF1.


He poisons and paralyzes you a lot, and I didn't bring anywhere near enough Para-gones. The good news is I do have the Medi-Poison spell, but beating him is nearly impossible once you can't cure paralysis.


With my equipment it took me roughly three and a half hours just to make him turn red.


I waste the next few hours constantly healing and trying to kill him, which is made difficult by him moving fast and me moving at a snail's pace thanks to paralysis.


And in the end, I end up healing just a little too slow.


Marjorie was nice enough to give me half my RP back, so I spend it making some brain pills for Link. He clearly needs them.



What?

Hey look, the last(and easiest) fishing contest is arriving.


Noel Grass is supposed to grow in 24 days, but this one grew in half that time. Formula C is potent stuff.


Ondorus not-so-subtly tells us the winning strategy for tomorrow's contest: Fish in a bunch of different places.

As in, 'all the different seasonal dungeons' different. The NPCs can basically never beat the player if you do that.


Character quirk you've probably forgotten about : Monica hates fish.


Sabotage!


You'd think we'd own our wedding tuxedo, but we have to buy it off Evelyn.


This is definitely appropriate fishing wear.



Oh, sorry...wait, you're starting now?!


Yes, sometimes they're for contests. Then you eat them afterwards.



I suppose this makes us rivals.


Back in the crafting grind, I can finally make my own Proof of Wisdom, along with the Proof of Heroism. The Proof of Heroism is probably most useful in the middle of a fight, but I'm past the point of caring about that.


I also learned how to make Invincroid, which would be extremely useful against, say, Chimeras if I was able to make large quantities of it. But I can't.