Part 9

Shingrow Ruins is the site of the final BlackX base. It's got a whole bunch of enemies, plus the occasional mid-boss.

Like this giant frog.

And these...um...children. (They're actually valkyries )

Eventually we make it to the end, which is guarded by some slimes and a transparency effect.

The ones in the front regenerate, and block you from killing the one in the back, which is the real target. Unfortunatly for them, we are more than capable of killing all of them in a single turn.

The little door opens, and we encounter the final BlackX emperor.

Finally, I was wondering when we'd come across the "Villain who offers the hero membership in the evil organization."

Berva was the guy from the Martial Arts Tournament, in case you forgot.

Turns out Doll's in IRPO. Also, she said "penal."

Doll doesn't have the right to critique anyone's hair.

Anyway, we fight Berva, and...

Thrash him soundly.

But it was all part of his nefarious plan to get his ass kicked, run away, and try again later.

Berva runs off to Shingrow Palace, leaving a trail of Yellow Putties behind him.

Funny that the king talks about being enslaved while being fanned by a servant. Anyway, his much more useful wife heals our wounds.

Berva's waiting for us in the arena, which means it's a good idea to go the opposite direction and check the area where Dr. Klein disappeared back when we were last here.

We find the entrance to his secret lab.

There's nothing here besides a few decent items, but it sure is glowy.

We head over to the arena where Berva has been waiting while we engaged in useless side quests.

I forgot decided not to make a video for this fight, but it can pretty much be summed up with the following screenshots:

Liza's DSC is apparently about 500 points better than Red's.

Berva's demise comes with a free laser light show, like all good villains.

We are then treated to a nice outside view of Shingrow Palace before it FUCKING EXPLODES, which I was unable to screenshot due to laughter.

Hmm, sounds like an endgame sequence to me! Quick, let's go somewhere else!

As I've mentioned, Shrike's Bio-Research Lab makes for a great late-game leveling spot. There's two notable things that can be done here, besides grinding.

This is Cotton, a monster who was being subjected to various mad-scientist type experiments.

He's with IRPO too, it seems. Not the most traditional employee, but whatever.

Fuse pops out too. There's not much else to say about Cotton. I imagine he, Doll, Fuse, Silence, Ren, and all the IRPO people would have gotten more backstory had Fuse's quest actually been completed.

Probably this, too. The only other person who might have a scene with Cotton here is Silence, but since he's mute I doubt there'd be much to say.

They understand him, apparently.

The other point of interest here is one of those good ol' uberbosses that pop up often in RPGs these days.

Actually, the EarthDragon here really isn't too hard (I don't think I took much damage at all), but he can absolutely wreck a weaker party. I tend to fight him to see if I'm ready for a quest's final boss. Beating him nets you the DragonShield, which is the best shield in the game as far as I know.

And here's how we look before heading to the final stages of Red's quest.

Final update for Red's quest comes tomorrow, probably early afternoon. Be sure and keep voting for which quest you want to see next, if all goes well I can bring the first update of the next one tomorrow night.