Part 14: Operation Gestahl

A little bit of searching around reveals that Watts has taken up shop in the bottom of one of the buildings (I believe the inn), probably because we're his best source of income. By the time we're through, he'll probably have gotten several hundred thousand gold out of us. Also, ignore any discrepancies between money in this shot and the next one. I certainly didn't discover Watts before I did the Ruins and decide to save the screenshot because I had no orbs for him to work on.



At any rate, it's time to use that load of weapon orbs we've picked up. In some kind of order we have:

Excalibur - Effective against vvil/non-living enemies
Halberd - Confuses enemies
Flail of Hope - Effective against evil/non-living enemies
Bow of Hope - See above
Red Cleaver - Inflicts damage on insects

Notice a bit of a theme here?



Krissie has some kind, encouraging words for Kid without being specific about what Dyluck is. Dead? Missing? Possessed by evil? Take your pick, although you probably should give up if it's the first option.



"He also wants to ask us a bunch of questions at dinner and talk to all of his soldiers to make them understand."

Nothing good can come of this plan. There's a reason you were fighting him..




:facepalm: You know what? There's just no helping some people.




At least we're not all going in here together, so there's a chance that one group could rescue the other when this all goes to shit.



After a pit stop at the inn we head up to the palace, hopefully not missing any of the scintillating cocktail hour with the Emperor. The grounds are actually pretty well kept, although there's something sinister about the architecture.



There are guards posted all over the place to helpfully funnel us into the dining room and keep us from wandering anywhere we don't need to be.. yet. I'm not even going to try to pretend that we're not going to be wandering around this place.



Naturally as soon as we finally reach the dining room, it's immediately obvious that the entire plan has in fact already gone to shit.




You've got to give the emperor points for style, if not for subtlety. He pretty much goes straight for announcing that we're screwed without even the courtesy of a drugged feast or complex trapping mechanism.



The emperor exits and we allow ourselves to be taken prisoner by two idiots we could probably eviscerate in a matter of seconds as part of our cunning, cunning plan.



Step 1: Get ourselves locked in a cell with the Resistance and listen to them bemoan their own stupidity. Noteworthy is that I believe this is the first time the game has mentioned Vandole as the name of the Emperor.



Step 2: Get the guards to let you out and then ask them politely to let everyone else out and pretty please look the other way while you escape.



Step 3: Try desperately to hang on to a ledge after the guards throw you into a pit toward a boss fight.

Boss Fight: Metal Mantis

Metal Mantis Boss Fight Video



We're in full on retread mode here, dealing with a re-colored version of the very first boss of the game. The nice part is that you get a feel for how far you've come by going back to the very beginning.



The biggest new thing he's picked up is a beam attack that doesn't do more than a handful of damage at the best of times.




His Gem Missile has been substantially upgraded to continually be a threat, and he's got some magic to upgrade his physical attacks. The last one is probably a bit more of a threat, as he's already got some fairly decent attack power.



With three people it's much easier to maintain constant damage against such a slow moving and obvious target, and Thunderbolt can lay some serious hurt on it. Our prize ends up being a Glove Orb, hopefully returning that weapon to something approaching relevance.



Winning the fight dumps us in a tiny little outlet with a jumping spring on one side, the first one we've actually seen in ages. It seems like they created this mechanism and forgot about it until now.



Seriously, 1000 GP is kind of an insult at this point. Crank up the cash a bit!



Heading up the stairs leads to our first actual enemies in this dungeon. A slime by any other name... these Grimers aren't quite as aggressive as the drop enemies about reproducing and they have more varied attacks. Other than that, they just look very creepy.



We finally reach the prison again, only to find that the seemingly invincible guards have all conveniently buggered off to let us release the prisoners. Implied plurality aside, however, they're leaving and we're staying around to wreck some shit.




All of the exterior guards have switched to living versions that we can kill now, much improving the place substantially.




A bit of wandering around takes us to a closed room with a couple of handy orbs. This makes 8 orbs in the Empire thus far, and you know we're not done yet. They're just throwing them at us.




Also, there are ninjas (Dark Assassins) roaming around the highways who hide behind conveniently colored panels and/or invisibility cloaks. It's hardly foolproof, but it's kind of a neat trick.



We also encounter a new.. trap.. I suppose. Shadow Zero, visible as the little black stick figure by Boss's feet, just kind of runs off and does nothing but waste your time that you spent opening the chest.



The last outdoors section is in this ominous looking building, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that stepping in here will result in a short road to a boss fight.



Instead, it's the first Vandole Church of Ninjas. Much, much cooler.



There's also a single magical book with... interesting tastes. While it does all the normal things you'd expect one of these books, it also occasionally flips open to a centerfold and gets a bit flustered.



We're moving into more and more central areas now, including what appears to be a barracks. A particularly hilarious glitch results in a pair of enemy soldiers being stuck behind a bed. It's unsporting, but sitting back and plinking them with arrows was certainly amusing.



The final stepping down in this interminable dungeon is an arrangement of panels that blocks our progress forward. We can't go straight up, but instead have to loop around the side and navigate some teleporters to end up passing in front of the statues from the right.



By making our way through his palace and killing everyone we encountered, we've earned Emperor Vandole's grudging respect.



Poor Geshtar is feeling a bit of regret for letting us get away with that whole Sandship fiasco. I imagine the only one who's not giving him shit about it is Thanatos.



The Emperor is either sure that Geshtar will win or just doesn't really give a damn if we know that he's heading out to the remaining elemental palaces. Did they not notice that we went and re-sealed the seeds after they left?



If it weren't for the fact that we've clarified that Geshtar is actually the Mech Rider this would make a lot less sense and he'd seem to be taking things awfully personally. Speaking of the Mech Rider, however..

Boss Fight: Mech Rider 2

Mech Rider 2 Boss Battle Video



Our second repeat battle takes place on the roof of the palace, since everybody agreed on a nice open playing field since anything else would be uncivilized.




His attacks are awfully familiar, although leveling up his Speed Up is a bit of a waste compared to, say, improving an actual damage spell. It's very much the same battle for the most part.



His only new trick is a Wave Cannon that does some decent enough damage, although he only rarely utilizes it in battle.



Thunderbolt will still do plenty of damage, even if you don't have full MP from having already dealt with a previous boss. Other than that, he's very predictable. Once we've done enough damage, it becomes very obvious that we've cost him another bike. Our prize is our 9th orb in the Empire, for the Javelin.



Geshtar's... a bit of a sore loser. I can only imagine that the Emperor won't be too pleased with him burning down his main palace.




We're stuck... until the most unlikely possible rescuer you could imagine shows up, taking time from the whole rescue thing for a bit of theatrics.



Unlike other games that have you flying around on a blimp or some bizarre shuttlecraft, Secret of Mana's cool transport mode is a dragon.




He's not too bright, but he's all ours. It's a nice bit of payoff for rescuing a baby, and it's a great tidbit that you actually call him by playing with his favorite toy.



Flammie is pretty quick and hard to catch on screen, but he's definitely grown in the short time since we left Matango. Our mission, in return for being rescued by Truffle, is to give him a ride back to Matango.



I can't overstate the fact that the game actually gives you a compass heading that adjusts as you move. It's necessary based on the fact that the world moves as you do, but a lot of game haven't thought of even such a simple thing. We can take Flammie anywhere, but a clear space is necessary for landing.



Once we've delivered him Truffle gives us a little tutorial on how to pilot our new dragon. I miss the days when games didn't feel like they had to work so hard to protect a fourth wall that's barely there anyway.



Now that we've visited the Empire.. for some reason.. we can finally get back to that whole "Find Sage Joch" thing that we were tasked with way back in the Water Palace. It's been long enough that you could very well forget that.



Last stop for the day is Watts (They're kind of like Igors, maybe?) to get some weapon upgrades:

Chakra Hand - Raises Intelligence/Wisdom
Fork of Hope - Effective on evil/non-living enemies.
Golden Axe - Inflicts damage on insects.

Truffle Tackle!