Part 21

We're going to start this update off by doing the Space Magic Quest, just so you won't be surprised when Kylin pops up in the videos later on.

We start in Devin by going up these really big ass stairs.

The general magic spiel. Note that you have to complete one of the Light/Shadow quests and one of the Rune/Arcane quests in order to attempt Space or Time, just like in Blue's quest.

And she tosses us into space. Odd that they gave her a unique sprite, seeing as how she's just a magic drone. Oh well, I'm sure nothing will come of it.

Space is...sugary.

Here's Kylin, the current Space guru. He's some sort of horse thing (a Kirin, actually). We would have had to kill him if we were Blue, and it just doesn't seem right to kill someone who likes candy as much as this guy.

He wants to test us out.

So we go to some sort of Candyland maze.

This place is totally trippin' balls.

At one point we have to walk under the floor.

As well as shrinking so we can go in the smaller doors.

Eventually this door ends the maze. Despite being a "test," the whole thing is really simple, which makes this a very different quest from the Time one, which requires LP loss and actually has enemies in it.

Afterwards we get a chance to recruit him, and if our main character was human, we could choose to buy Space Magic instead. Doing the Time quest with someone besides Blue gives the same options with TimeLord.

Kylin's a monster, but he comes with all of the Space Magic equipped. His stats are quite awesome as well, he can pretty much hold his own in an end boss fight as soon as you recruit him.

Also, you end up in the middle of the damn Koorong sewers after leaving Candyland, for some reason.

Now, back to the main quest.

We'll head for the ring in Manhattan first. It's apparently being sold at the shopping mall.

Or it was, until some jerkface bought it. Lucky for us the shop has no qualms about giving out info on its customers.

Owmi's a pretty little seaside town that doesn't really have much unless your quest brings you here. Most characters will simply know it as the link between Nelson and Koorong.

This is the jerk who got to the ring before us. Capitalism!

As you might expect from Riki's quest, he's evil and drops us in a pit.

For some reason, it takes Riki twice as long to fall down the pit than it took Mei-ling. Stupid Riki, can't even fall to your death correctly.

The basement is full of enemies and items. Most of the items are crap, but there's a Sanctuary Stone (free full heal out of battle, think Tents from FF). and a PearlHeart, which will be useful when we meet...

...this guy. He's pretty much a speed bump for us now, but he'll be a real bitch in a later quest. Before fighting him, though, there's a room below to check (and that treasure is fake, it drops you back to the bottom of the basement if you touch it).

Mesarthim's down here. We'll see her more in Asellus's quest, but anyone else who has a Mystic can come here and recruit her (unless you have Silence, who scares her away because's he's mute).

We trounce the squid, which was so easy that I forgot to screenshot it, and proceed back to the main part of the mansion, where we...

...loot and plunder.

It was an inky process, but yes.

Looks more like some Sonic the Hedgehog reject to me.

He hands over the ring, and warns us that Mei-ling's interest in the rings means she can't be trusted. Obviously, this will never come up again because foreshadowing is for pussies.

The last ring is in the prison Despair, so Mei-ling tries to come up with a way to sneak in.

A passing Liza tells us to go ask Annie for help, then leaves. Please come back, Liza, you could make this quest a bit less painful.

Annie knows of the supposed ring-bearing prisoner, and agrees to take us there.

The Warden stops by, vaguely suspecting our plot to, uh, get into a prison.

I posted this just because I actually thought about it, and neither Riki's Lummox form nor his human form really look at all like a dog, yet everyone brings it up. Oh well.

It's pretty much your standard Freedom Rune quest from here, except Annie takes us a different direction near the end. Kinda like how the Tanzer ring was a lot like a Vitality Rune quest, and how Sei's ring was obtained the same way you'd normally see Sei, and how the Baccarat ring is a lot like the Gold Card quest (but with a different chase scene). Yup, Riki's entire quest is pretty much repurposed side quests. There's one exception, and you'll see it in the next update.

Hey, it's the Warden again.

I suppose that's one way to cut costs.

Surprisingly, he doesn't try to kill us or anything. He's just happy to have visitors.

And that's eight. Just one ring left...and it's a bitch.

By the way, if you're wondering where these nifty art screens went, this one was the only one I got during the entirety of Riki's quest (it came up like four times, too).

Final Riki update tomorrow, thank God.