Part 34: Ecological Warfare - Call of Runey

Update 34: Ecological Warfare: Call of Runey


Music: St. Poli Church



Welcome back, all, Bush has recovered from being one with the kitchen counter.

I've already had us take a Cold Medicine, so we'll just have to face this new day with less health and RP than usual.

Hopefully this is the last time in a while this happens, every time it does we miss Anette, and she's the farthest behind on the list.




LARA: Bush, live your life so you don't have to use my services here.


But if I did that, I'd have to farm my own colored grass!



First on the morning rounds is the Clocktower, and Kanno. We've got that Thick Stick for him, so let's turn that in and see what else we have to get him.




KANNO: This is the "Thick Stick" that I wanted. Good job. You certainly are bright.


KANNO: Here is something to reward you. It's handmade.


New staff!



You got Hell Branch!


...oh.

We already have one of these. I was expecting a wind element staff given the emerald, but fine, I guess. I'll just forget to sell it and let it clog up my inventory for a while.



Time to check on the Runeys. Everything should be fine-



It begins.


If you've been wondering when that inevitable ecosystem collapse was gonna happen, so was I. I had foolishly begun to think it might not even happen, but here it is.

The Business District is down to just 4 Grass Runeys of all things, the rest of it's population having died out with no interference on my part.

I've got a lot of Rock and Tree stockpiled, so I guess I'll go grab 60 of one of them and just dump them there.



Lake Poli would also be showing up as dying, but it happens to be at exactly 5 Runeys, which registers as healthy. Mountain Road is presently overrun with Tree Runeys, containing 1 Water, 0 Rock, 26 Tree, 4 Grass.

If I paid closer attention to the Runeys in the air then I'd have noticed this, but you really just filter them out visually after a while.



Music: Summer


Between the Homestead and the Grass Farm I forget about half the time, I've been roughly upkeeping the current state of prosperity in the region.

I could technically take one of the regions out of prosperity and it wouldn't change anything in our growth patterns as the pattern is:

1 region : -1 day of growth time
3 regions: -2 days of growth time
5 regions: -3 days of growth time

...and we're sitting at 4 prospering regions, but it is getting me more Water runeys.


-----------------------------------------------------
~"...I see." - Cinnamon~

...I see.
So you think so, too.
I see.

-----------------------------------------------------


This was in reference to us claiming to not believe the moon is made of cheese.

It's rather hard to intuit her reaction here. This is possibly the least telling reaction she could have sent.

At least it was more than "...Oh."


-----------------------------------------------------
~"Hm..." - Selphy~

A princess...?
I guess a princess with super strength could be fun...
All right! I'll go with that!
Thanks, you're a life saver!

-----------------------------------------------------


It seems like our suggestion went over well, now it's only time to see if it ends up selling well too.

...I don't think we're getting a cut of the royalties though.



I then resume the cooking that was cut short last night. I suppose it's good we passed out at the blender and not the oven. Would've been bad if we burned our house down or something.



Enough gifts made for now, it's time to get on with the rest of the day. And by that I mean more chatting.



Mystery girl's back outside of Mist's house! Been a while since we've seen you!




MYSTERY GIRL: Hello, Bush.


BUSH: What are you doing?


MYSTERY GIRL: I was picking flowers. I wanted to place some on the alter.


MYSTERY GIRL: I really like flowers. Especially cute ones like Toy Herbs.


MYSTERY GIRL: Oh!


BUSH: What's wrong?


Aside from the fact we still don't know her name?




MYSTERY GIRL: A four leaf clover...


MYSTERY GIRL: Did you know? A "Four Leaf Clover" is a talisman for good luck.


MYSTERY GIRL: Let me give this to you.


BUSH: ...Are you sure?


MYSTERY GIRL: Yes. You are a dear friend of mine.



You got Four-leaf Clove!


Apparently it's just a clove, not a clover. Regardless, Bush's ability to make friends anywhere he goes has finally paid off in him finally recieving a gift in return, and a pretty good one at that.

These normally take 40 days to grow and theory I could toss this into the seed maker and save myself the cost of buying seeds, but then that takes work to actually grow. I'll just opt to keep this and use it for something.



They do sell for a lot, 6500g each, but the profit per day just isn't as immediately good as what some of the quick crops can provide.

One of the later watering can upgrades needs this, so that's probably what I'm using it for.



cave berries



runey management




ROSETTA: Say, Bush.


BUSH: Yes?


ROSETTA: I don't know if I should meddle, but are you having a fight with Mist?


uh what

where did this come from




BUSH: Huh? I don't... think I am...


ROSETTA: Oh? Then I just jumped to conclusions...


are you just now noticing the turnip mafia

I'm not sure what this is on about, even my recording stops here for a few moments, with past me being caught entirely off guard about this.

We talked to her normally just a bit ago, when we were talking to the mystery girl.




DANNY: You know about carrots, Bush?


DANNY: They taste disgusting. I can't believe people eat them.


Carrots are alright. Not my favorite food, but they're good in a stew.




TABATHA: I used to be Miss Bianca's father's maid.


TABATHA: Since my age was close to Miss Bianca, I became her maid after a while.


TABATHA: Of course, Miss Bianca had treated me like her maid even before I became her personal one.


Yeah, that checks out.




TABATHA: Humans and elves alike live on this earth. Runes are a testimony to that earth so we must care for it.


And with runes, we can wield the power of magic, enhanced farming, and toaster ovens. No, seriously, they show up in the handheld games and I don't know what else would power them.


I'm really just hopping all over town today, but next up is to fix the runey situation.



One stack of Rock Runeys later and the Business District is safe for quite a while, hopefully.



Next up is Lake Poli, since it's about to die out as well. Now that I'm looking at it, it is extremely barren of runeys. I really just visually filter them out, I failed to notice this at all during the many establishing shots of the lake while we were on the date with Melody.

Oh, and Cinnamon is up here.




CINNAMON: Candy asked me the other day if there's anyone I like.




CINNAMON: ...I don't understand.


Yeah, same. Does she mean like, like, or just "like", you know what I'm sayin'?

I ask because I don't understand that sentence either, and I just said it.



I choose you, Rock Runey! Go!

And so Lake Poli was spared environmental collapse for like another two weeks or something.

The other two regions will start to fall soon, but I'll wait until I absolutely have to take action first. I already shirk most of my daily runey duties as-is.



On the way past the farm on more Runey Duties, we finally spot Phanty helping out with the watering. I figured I'd set 'em to doing that as they're not really doing anything else.

I originally wanted them just as a combat pet, but Pony has entirely cornered the market there. Bush will accept no subsistutes for a battle companion.



In this incredibly out of order day, I'm finally heading to meet Selphy and get a bath at 6:00 PM of all things. Losing 4 hours off the front of the day and having to deal with Runeys just eats so much time.




SELPHY: I think you're looking a bit smarter now.


SELPHY: Intelligence can open so many doors for people!


I don't think that's a matter you can just determine visually, but, thanks, I guess?




SELPHY: I take a bath every day because if I don't keep myself clean, the books will get dirty.


BUSH: Haha... I guess it's always about the books.


SELPHY: Of course!


Um, Selphy, you wear gloves nearly 24/7. In theory, you should only have to wash the gloves and maybe your coat.

Actually, wait, she probably doesn't need to realize this. I have a suspicion she'd consider bathing to be optional and defer to even more reading.



It's not like she doesn't read in the bath already.



Following this, I destroy the floor of the Laga Springs with our hammer. Gotta grind those skills.



Unfortunately, it's time for more

Been a while, but such is our punishment for reaching the bath so late.



This one's pretty short and tame, it's just Candy being annoyed that she hasn't hit adolesence yet. At least it tells us that Cinnamon is six years older than her younger sister, so I guess that puts Candy at somewhere around 12?




NOLAN: Ho-ho! Bush, you must really like baths to stay long enough to get dizzy.


We do indeed like baths, but this isn't a result of that.

Well, let's put it out of mind and get back to the rest of our day. Off to the Inn for a bit of restocking, then it's off to Iris, and then the Lava Ruins to close out the night.



For anyone wondering, Uzuki still doesn't want anything to do with us. It'll be some time yet.



Buying more baking supplies barely dents our supply of cash.

Off to Whale Island!




IRIS: I had a dream about you yesterday, Bush.


IRIS: I laughed because we were even talking in the dream. It's happening right now, too.


Given that this Gelwein guy seems to hardly be a conversationalist, Iris has probably had more conversation with us in this last month than she's had in years.




IRIS: I do have a parasol, but I sleep during the day so I never used it.


That would make sense, yeah.




Instead of the Lava Ruins, I opt to just do some more cooking before the day ends as watering the rest of our field dented our bars pretty hard.

By combining Flour, Chocolate, Milk, an Egg, and Butter, we can make a Choco Cake.



Choco Cake Lv:1 was synthesized.



While it is expensive in terms of materials, it's some pretty solid HP and RP restoraton, alongside some decent buffs. It also happens to be Lara's favorite food, so maybe this'll help get her out of the 2LP deadzone she's been stuck in the whole game.

Not gonna make these all the time, but we can easily spare it at the moment.



And with a little bit of weapon skill grinding, we close this day out.



Ah, proper sleep!

Music: Goodnight



oh, you have to absolutely be kidding me


it's another tornado day

of course









LARA: Did you work until you collapsed again?!


If Bush told you the real reason, (namely that a violent hurricane would've blown through the town unless he knocked himself out,) you'd just make us stay in bed all day, thinking we'd gone delusional.


Ah, yes, and it's also raining today. Rather happy this happened, in fact, saves me from having to water the field today.

I'll put up a guest track in a bit.



Oh, Anette, we'll get you those Pumpkin Tarts someday.




LARA: Chocolate cake? I love this! Thank you!


It's good stuff. Kinda wish I had some right now.




LARA: When you get sick, please take some "Cold Medicine." You have to take it before it gets worse.


Colds don't really get any worse than they start out, and I believe they're fully cured on going to sleep, so they only ever really last one day.

I could be wrong though, Colds are rarely a mechanic I interact with in these games, I'm usually on point about getting them cleared immediately.




LARA: I dislike "Vegetable Juice." Don't you thing we should all eat vegetables just they way they are?


Lara does not like V8.

A core part of Bush's profession in being a chef is that he cuts up a lot of vegetables, making them not just the way they are- an act in direct opposition to this belief.

Of course, he's never made any Vegetable Juice either, so I guess that cancels everything out?




STELLA: The "Four Leaf Clover" is said to be a the talisman that brings you happiness.


STELLA: But in the end, it is up to the person if they really want to be happy.


STELLA: But it serves well as a talisman to give confidence to those holding onto it or by giving it to others.


Man, all this talk about Four-leaf Clovers, and we even got one yesterday! What a coincidence.

still gonna use it to make a watering can though, you can't stop me



Music: Kross' Theme



KROSS: It's summer... I don't have a lot of good memories when it comes to summer.


KROSS: Heh...


KROSS: The sticky humidity, attacking monsters... That year was certainly hell for me...


Damn, you've had a rough life, man. At least Summer's almost over?



Another day at 10:00 AM, another day with half meters.

Oh, uh, right, guest track, uh...

Music: Rune Factory 1 - Kardia Park

It's not the most Summer-y or watery, but it's a track I quite like. I used to be able to play a little bit of this on piano, but that's a skill long since rusted away.




KANNO: You have gotten much better. I suppose the student learns best when the master is great.


BUSH: You haven't taught me anything...


KANNO: Your job for today is to bring me a "Cheap Cloth."


BUSH: "Cheap Cloth," is it? All right.


Didn't we already bring you one of these?

Well, Bush luckily already has one sitting around in his bag I picked up in case I might need it.



Not what I'd expected I'd use it for, but hey, it worked out in the end.




KANNO: Good job. Here is your reward, a "Fire Rod."


what

did we go back in time or something, we already did this



BUSH: You gave me that last time...


KANNO: Really...?




KANNO: *cough cough* My chronic illness...


...Alright, now I'm hoping this is just a bit he's doing because he didn't have anything else planned.




KANNO: I hear that fortunetelling can change the weather. I'd like to know how that works.


You know, nobody in RF2 even questions how Alicia does it. Her mother always gives out to her about finding a real job, but never stops to think she can warp the weather at will.

I mean, I guess Bush can also do it by losing consciousness, but he just stops windstorms.




KANNO: What should I make you do for the next test...? Just you wait.


Please don't let it be a demonstration of Bush's weather magic, he really needs some normal sleep so I can try to make real progress.




CINNAMON: Teaching others is... hard.


CINNAMON: You have to completely know the subject yourself.


One can maybe edge by without knowing it fully, but it really helps to do so. Education is difficult on it's own though, as every student learns different and every day comes with new challenges.

At least she's freelance, and doesn't have to deal with any regulations or overhead institutions.




CINNAMON: Is fishing fun?


BUSH: Yes. It's difficult, but it feels nice when I am able to catch something.


CINNAMON: Try harder.


I'm not exactly sure what that advice is for, but uh, alright?

Outside of hooking live bait, fishing's a pretty chill experience. Nice way to spend a few hours in nature and still feel like you've got a potential goal in mind.




CINNAMON: Time flies when I gaze at the stars.


BUSH: You really like to look at stars, don't you?


CINNAMON: ...Not really.


Alright, whatever you say. Still gonna keep bothering you for constellation information no matter what.



In other news, Selphy has cleaned the library again! Will it stay this way for more than a day?

For this we consult the Magic 8 Bush, just a little shake and...

"Reply hazy"




SELPHY: I was thinking of reading Kanno's books somehow.


SELPHY: But he just won't let me! Stingy book hog!


It's likely because he knows he won't get it back if he does lend you one. It'll get lost in the inevitable booksplosion that will happen tomorrow.




SELPHY: Don't you think Trampoli is a bit inconvienent at times?


There's a lot I could complain about, even the falling sky island, but all of those inconveniences are still less than the fact that I have to deal with Runeys.

Inconvenient, yes, yes it is.




SELPHY: Thanks to that, I learned to get changed and bathe all by myself.


BUSH: But you still forget to eat sometimes.


SELPHY: Oh, come on. Why would you say that?!


You know, Selphy, we have entirely different standards of inconvenience.


-----------------------------------------------------
~Our Homeland: Zzyzx~

"Zzyzx is a chosen nation, lead by the great Emperor Eiselbard. Its people have united under his rule, raised up an army, and will one day conquer the world."

-----------------------------------------------------


As you can tell, the Sechs Empire is filled with very chill and reasonable folk, with no superiority complex whatsoever.

If you've played other RF games, you may better recognize Eiselbard as Ethelberd. Frontier and it's localization decisions, I swear.

Also, why is this nationalist pamphlet in the library?




ROSETTA: Having adventures is fine and everything, but you should come shop here more often.


Unfortunately, I rarely need flower seeds and earrings when it comes to dungeoneering.




GANESHA: I hate "Wool."


BUSH: Why is that?




GANESHA: I just hate how soft and bouncy it is. I just want to tell it to "Toughen up!" Don't you agree?


BUSH: Uh...


GANESHA: That's why you better not ever show me any of that Wool!


This is the weirdest way to not say you have a wool allergy I've ever heard. I just wish it was voice acted- it'd just be perfect.




MIST: If you throw money in a spring, your wish will be granted. Of course, there isn't a spring in my garden.


It'd be great if this was actually a thing, as then I'd have a real reason to dupe wine and just dump a bunch of cash in to see what would happen.




MIST: Oh...? You seem to be wearing normal clothes today.


BUSH: Huh? I wear this every day.


MIST: Oh, I'm sorry... That was in a dream.


He really does wear this every day.




MIST: Yesterday, I had a dream where you were working in your field while dressed strangely.


BUSH: How strangely?


MIST: You had rabbit ears, a long scarf...


BUSH: You can stop right there...


MIST: Really? That's too bad.


The irony of all of this is that we're wearing cat ears and a long scarf at the moment. I guess Bush would never dare wear rabbit ears.




RITA: It seems like Uzuki and her caretaker are arguing over a lot of things.


RITA: But I don't think it's something to really worry about.


BUSH: But... aren't you even a little worried, Rita?


RITA: Worried? Why would I be? Those two are bound together in such a way that a little fighting won't change their closeness.


RITA: You should trust them.


This is mostly a signal that Uzuki's event is closer to being able to be progressed.



She still doesn't want anything to do with Bush though.

We'll just go talk to Eunice instead.




EUNICE: The people of the village don't really need to use the inn.


EUNICE: I guess it feels a bit lonely.


I mean, Uzuki's here. I can't imagine she's just got a room for free.

I'll be honest though, I never see any visitors come by. This is something later games got better at showing with generic travelers.




EUNICE: I haven't seen Tsubute recently.


EUNICE: Where could he have gone...?


We'll find out the answer to this soon enough.




TABATHA: The Sainte-Coquille family is a family of epicures. They are all dainty eaters.


BUSH: Really? Bianca doesn't seem that way...


TABATHA: Well, Miss Bianca may eat fewer times, but she eats enough for 3 to 4 people each time.


TABATHA: She's the kind that just does not gain weight no matter how much she eats.


TABATHA: That's why among her relations, they think that she is the only small eater in the family.


BUSH: Th-that's amazing...


Tabatha, I'm not sure this is exactly what "dainty eater" is meant to imply.

In following generations, this view of the Sainte-Coquille line would gradually vanish, as the trademark extreme appetite would prove to show less and less throughout the years. It's not gone altogether though.

Also, apparently it's pronounced "sont coquille", if the VA is anything to go by. The more you know.



Another day, another bundle of eggs, milk, and wool.



Our first set of pumpkins finally grew. I guess I did go a bit overkill on the fertilizer for this set- I was just trying to get it in before the end of the month, but here we are with 8 more days to go.


-----------------------------------------------------
~"New Soap ♪" - Melody~

We have new soap at the bathhouse♪
Enjoy it's new, refreshing fragrance!

-----------------------------------------------------


This mechanically changes nothing, but getting little advertisements like these are always a nice attention to detail. I wish they did more of them.



Toast Lv:3 was synthesized with expertise!

In preparation of what's to come, I start to bake a whole lot of toast.



It seems my previous estimations of how good toast would be have fallen a little short. It's decent RP restoration and still 50 HP though.

The max HP buff is mostly irrelevant, and honestly that's just how a lot of buffs are in this game without healing spells or high level medicine. I really wish they'd have put healing staves in this game, but alas.



Music: Lava Ruins


And so, Bush's Baked Breads in hand, we descend the Lava Ruins.



All the way to floor where we last left off- B5F.



Peeking down the shortcut staircase into B6F, we can see that the staircase we're looking for will be somewhere to the left and south.



Just to the left of the B5F shortcut staircase is this little crossroads section with farm plots and the blockaded path to the south. This seems like where we'll need to be going.

We'll need a boulder from the north, so let's check north.



Going up the north staircase is just another blockade, but we can see there is another boulder behind it.

So it looks like we're going to have to loop around east, north, and east to get to this.




Well, that was easy and surprisingly painless. I suppose we let loose the boulder and see if we had the right idea.



The boulder smashes some ore on the way down, netting us some silver and a ruby- not bad.



Wow, Alright, I guess that was it. Huh.



LAVA RUINS B6F


We stand in the penultimate room of the dungeon, at last. I go ahead and pop the shortcut door offscreen, and well...



There's no better time than now for this, I guess.



Let's do this!



Music: Mimic Slime

(A new boss theme! This one's pretty good, I have to say.)



...Uh, where is it?



Oh, alright, monsters are just gonna explode from the ground then.



A lot of monsters.



This massive group of hornets is also their upgraded form, which shoots multiple shots, so the game has suddenly turned into a bullet hell.

The sting shots are pretty small hitboxes, though, so they're not too hard to avoid.



They fly right over the Earth Wand, which is a problem, but...



The Gaea staff still hits and it just obliterates the large majority of the horde and scores us a level up in the process.



Next up seems to be about 4 Panthers, an enemy we have yet to see normally. They're usually just beefy melee attackers with high crit, but in this game, they're very dodgy enemies with tons of projectiles they shotgun everywhere.



Said projectiles are pictured here, flying all over the place.



Luckily neither these or the hornets' projectiles hurt very much individually.

I try applying the Water Staff here, but it's rather meh in performance.



Pony can melee these guys for 240 on a pounce, which is hilariously strong, but she's not going to last much longer in this fight. Her large hitbox has led to her soaking up quite a lot of ranged attacks.



Given these Panthers like to stay at range, the water staff is putting in a bit of work though, sometimes it does double hit and that performs some decent damage.

I was also previously wrong about how elements work in this game, as it turns out, it's just two pairs of opposed elements. Fire and Water are super effective on one another, and Earth and Wind are super effective on one another. An attack of the same type, say Fire on Fire, is less effective. Everything else is neutral damage.



In time, the Panthers go down, and Pony is still standing thanks to me keeping her outside her aggro range. Seems like we've still got more monsters incoming, and nothing we've done so far has damaged the boss health bar at the bottom.



alright those are some big trolls




Unfortunately, following this, Pony gets completely bodyslammed by the pictured giant troll, so we're on our own. She did a good job getting us this far.



I whip out the Crescent Axe and start going for the special attacks, and this seems to easily do the trick for these big boys. Their ending lag on attacks give me plenty of time to drop these swings safely, and they're nowhere near as evasive as the last groups of enemies.



Get outta here, ya mug



The flames break apart and spread across the floor...



Well that's a lot of slimes. Luckily, the strategy for the hornets works incredibly well here too.




We end up getting two whole levels from this encounter alone. We've leveled up four times over the course of this fight, even.



The flames coalesce in the center, and...



...This goofy looking thing is what we've gotta fight? This is the ruler of the dreaded Lava Caverns?

Well, it looks kinda like a Runey, so that's more than enough motivation for me to punch it.



So far, the Mimic Slime proves to have pretty low defense, and the axe is cutting right through it. It does have a melee range jump and slam though, which does a hefty chunk of our HP bar.



It can also explode around itself, the hitboxes on which are a bit large, but a bit less damaging than the slam. The extra super-armor granted by using a special attack seems to be letting us poise right through it, though.




It can also use a series of targeted, delayed floor explosions to force us to move. This is probably the most annoying attack it has, as these hurt and we can't afford to tank through them.



We take this opportunity to get back and eat some toast. The lifesteal on our axe really helps the HP upkeep in these prolonged fights as long as the damage isn't too bad.



The most terrifying attack it has is this multi-directional flame wave, which can build up damage really fast if you're not standing in the small blind spots when it lets this loose.

You know it's going to use this when it twists itself, stretching upwards.



I take a brief break from the axe and try to spend some of my RP bar lifestealing from the boss with the Bubble Staff. The ratio restored really isn't good, but it keeps me away from a lot of the damage for a bit.



The fight drags on for quite a bit longer, and I try to stick to a ranged approach with the Water Rod. It does alright, but this boss is more than capable at both melee and range which makes approaching in any manner usually an HP trade.

Honestly, that's how it feels a lot of the time in this game's combat, you just have to trade HP to beat anything. It's not as refined as the games that would follow it.




I end up taking a risk and just charge in for the last few hits. I don't have much HP left, but I estimate just two more swings could take it out at this point, and this guess turns out to be correct.



We cut to a cutscene of a now much smaller mimic slime bouncing around, and...




It just peaces out by jumping into the lava pool.

Uh, okay.



Loot!

But more importantly, victory at last! I have avenged my original playthrough of this game by beating this boss. Lava Ruins can go suck a lemon, I'm done with this place if at all possible. The music's nice, but it's just brutal down here.

Of the loot in note, we get a few pieces of Gold ore, which is a nice jumpstart into some recipes we've been blocked from for quite some time. There's also an assortment of level 10 cooking goods, being Chocolate, Flour, Cooking Oil, and Curry Powder.

These are actually prime duplication candidates, given boss drops is the only way you'll ever get these at this quality.



The boss's specific drop is the Red Core, which is apparently candy-like in nature. I can't believe fighting a candy monster took this much combined effort.




BUSH: I think I saw a stone tablet similar to this somewhere in the village.


The most important item of all is the Relic, the item that will finally let us unlock the next dungeon.

When will that happen? Next time! This update's running long.

See you then!