Part 9: A Very Little Bit Of Progress

Howdy, folks, and welcome back! Last time, on Secret of Evermore, we beat up some Vipers and got a Horn Spear, and--Wait, is that all we really did? Shit, that's not a whole lot. And we're not doing a ton this update, either. But, stick with it, we'll be getting to more interesting things very soon.





You can see a new enemy on this screen. It's a different type of Raptor.



They're quick, speedy bastards, as you'd expect a raptor to be.



Man, what I would do for a bazooka right now. Blow this jerks right off the map.



They've also got some decent power behind their attacks.



And with 50 HP, they've a little staying power, too. They're nothing too insanely dangerous, but they can be a little intimidating at first.



And that 67 damage over there? Yeah, that was Zach. He wasn't taking any of their shit, but we will take their 24 EXP and 48 Talons.



And neither are we, considering we're slamming a spear into this one's noggin.



I'm not sure that's how you're supposed to use a spear, but who am I to question it? I've never done any spear-fighting.



Around here, there are a few different caves scattered about.



But we snag a bit of Clay first.



In this cave, there's no danger, so it's a bit of a breather, if you need it.



Heal and Cure have the same animation, so no .gif for this one.



We've got some leveling to do with Heal, since 22 HP restored isn't exactly all that much. Petals currently heal more, but we'll blow past those soon enough.





I still have not bought any Pixie Dust. I should, at some point, but we'll get there when we get there. I've mostly not bought any since it's kind of expensive, and I'd rather drop that moolah on alchemy ingredients.



Alright, let's scoot and skedaddle. I didn't buy anything, but this place is worth noting.







This little ladder over here is a quicker route up here.



This flower is in the way, but that's a minor obstacle at best.



And there's another cave over here.



Yeah, I'm counting these flowers as non-threats already. Zach can easily one-shot them. At some points, it made leveling the Spear kind of difficult, since he was killing them before I could get close enough to even try. Thankfully, you can make him sniff around for ingredients and ignore combat.





There's another part of Water in the other gourd.





I'm not sure if you really need an inn out here, especially one that's three times the cost of the one in the village. But, hey, if you need it, it's here.



We can save here, too, but we've seen that dialog enough.





We get back to working our way up the path.







I'm still not sure that's how you use a spear, but it works for killin' dinosaurs. And can you really ask more than that?





Huh. What's a Raptor doing in this cave?



...And we're trapped.



There are three of them in here, even you can only really see two. Yeah, I'm hitting two at the same time here.





And Zach kills them so hard, the rock blocking the exit fuckin' explodes. Our dog is the shit.



Several of you were wincing when I bought that armor last update. You had good reason to do so; we didn't particularly need that item, but, hey, I guess that's part of completionism. Or something.



Yeah, this is much better than our previous armor. And it's as good as our previous armor and the armor before it. Dino Skin is pretty snazzy.



Back to...Whatever it is we're doing.



Movin' on up, Heal has also moved on up. It'll heal 41-78 HP now, which, hey, works for me.



These numbers are from a chained Heal. Heal leveled up during it, and when a spell levels during chain-casting, the spells cast after the level will be at the new level.

For instance, if I chained six Hard Balls, and it leveled up after the fourth casting, the final two castings would be at the new level.



This shot is included because I think it's metal as shit.



Coming over here, there's this patch of grass we need to clear out.



Which lets us step on this geyser and get catapulted upward.



As opposed to being catapulted downward. Sometimes I think I'm a little patronizing when I say things like that.



Zach is not diggin' this shit.





There are a few treasures scattered about here, and some enemies.



Thankfully, none of them can travel between the different elevation levels here, though that would have been kind of cool if the Widowmakers could have, since they're spiders.

Or to see a Raptor leaping off a cliff, ready to rain razor-sharp fury upon our heroes, only for our faithful, determined, destructive dog to catch it in mid-air, tearing it down before it can even touch the ground.



Well, whatever. It is a SNES game, and I can imagine something like that might be a touch complicated to get done. Or would look goofy as shit.



There are a series of caves scattered about, too.



They're a series of tunnels that will spit you out of one of these holes; sometimes, it jerks all your progress away, and sometimes it lets you progress further, by getting you to the proper geyser.



And back up we go.



This is one of those things that I'm never sure how to cover in screenshots.



I mean, it's popping in and out of holes. How the hell am I supposed to make that interesting?



There's only so many variations of, "I went in this hole and came out here" that I can do.



That gourd over there? You see it, right?



Yeah, keep that way in the back of your mind. It will not be relevant for...Oh, a very long time.



Instead, I'll pull a Petal out of a spider's splattered innards.



Blasting that Widowmaker with a Hard Ball gains Zach a level, which is worthy of a .



I was going for that gourd on the left and accidentally stepped on this geyser.



It puts us directly above it. We probably could have climbed up here, honestly.



Oh, well. Working my way back up leads to something kind of fun.



Our spear gains its first level!



I burn a Petal and take this one. It works out, because I could have used a little top-up.







Coming up here, we get some Water.



And an expressway back to the bottom, where I can show off the Horn Spear's level 1 charge attack.



It's a little sloppy, but I think it gets the point across well enough.



From here, we step on the geyser that was uncovered when we arrived.





Which brings us back to this level, where we pop into the cave.



Which takes us to the geyser we need to get where we were going. Namely, the top of the volcano.







Hey, cool--



...This may have gone poorly.



Oh, thank goodness.



Zach, you good, buddy? I know you don't like all this air travel.



Ah, this ties into the legend of an ancient moonshiner. Let me see if I can remember how it goes...

"Atop that mountain, a four-armed nine-foot blind man, who also has the tongue of a dragon, makes the strongest whiskey on Earth. They say that if you're crazy, it makes you sane. And if you're sane, you'll never believe a word of this story."



But we're here, and this man only has two arms.



And he appears to see us quite well. Perhaps...Perhaps the legend was wrong.



Or this isn't the right man.



That sounds like a horrible way to enter a volcano. Just awful.



I'm not sure that this sounds much better.



But I suppose it'll keep us from being immediately broasted upon entry.



What, are we going to fly above the rock? Get the hell outta here.



...Oh, yeah, I suppose that is a better solution. Levitate is a non-combat spell, too; there are a couple of alchemy spells that only serve to solve puzzles and to help us progress forward.



And somehow, a chili pepper and a drop of water will let us do that. I've been trying to make some sense out of these formulas, but I've got fucking nothing for this one.



Mud Pepper? Where the hell are those?



...Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

The swamp itself isn't too bad. It's a goddamned swamp, and I dislike it intensely all the same, but the goddamned boss at the end of it...

Ugh.



It'll come next update, though. I'm not going to go full-cheese on this boss; instead, we'll go for Kraft Singles and only slight cheese.



Ash, Clay, Wax and Water are what he sells here, and he has pretty good prices on most of his stuff.



And he's also a save point, so we save up here.



And I pass this message along to you. We're going to stop here, because next time, we're going to go through the Swamp and fight a hugely annoying boss.

Stay tuned!