Part 11: Chapter Eleven: Being the Good Guy Sucks Sometimes

Like Hidon, Donto is also blocked off by mountains. We land the Gyrocopter and go inside.



Hmm, I'm getting a 1984-ish vibe here.

The townspeople here are forced to work in Homncruse's lab. One person says that they'll never be allowed to leave because they all know Homncruse's secret. He also gives us a very handy clue about the lab. If we can shut off the main engine, the lab will grind to a halt.



This is the entrance to the lab, but it's locked tight and there's no way in.



Talking to this guy triggers the siren alerting everyone to start their shift.



The gates are open and we can get inside.



A warp tile takes us to...



This place is one big maze littered with warp tiles that take us up and down the floors. Our goal is the bottommost floor where the engine is located. Fortunately, the enemies here are weak and easily kept away by Repel. The treasures are ok but nothing special, aside from some Roseshoes which go on Tina. After a bunch of warping and wandering around, we make it to the engine room.



There are actually 5 engines total. The 4 engines surrounding the main engine need to be triggered first, so we do so.



After flipping the main engine's switch...



A walled-off lab? Haven't we seen something like that before-



Show of hands, who else expected explosions? The Steeler Lab is actually the mysterious secluded lab in Decatas. It blows sky high and the citizens are quite upset.



Citizens: The laboratory has been explored! They did it! What made them do it? What are you doing with it? If Homncruse finds about it...he'll destroy us all! We're all going to perish!

The mayor chimes in.

Mayor: I'm the mayor of Decatas. Huh...I see...you did it...by the way, I hear you're building a town. OK...I think Homncruse is going to burn this town. Do you think we live in your town? I don't want to hear it! Let's go to Mylawn! OK, let's do it!

The Decatatians evacuate and go invade our town.



What? No, fuck you. Those assholes aren't supposed to be here.



Yeah I'm doing super awesome it's been nice having you guys over but it's getting late so do you think you could-



Whoa, hey buddy, I don't know if you realize it but this is MY town and you can't just-



Wow, you are seriously trying this. We took down THREE of Homncruse's Great Followers. You peons stand no chance.

But of course, since we're the honorable heroes, we have to let ourselves get pushed around instead of harming the "innocent" people.



Don't let them use my computer! Or at the very least, clear the history first!

Mylawn is off-limits for now, as the squatters from Decatas have taken over. Meanwhile...





Godem is the guy closer to the bottom, so it's kind of weird to refer to him in the third-person when there's only two people talking. Godem then teleports away.



Jaguar: Ray...hurry...!

Advice from an unlikely sympathizer? Or a lure into a devious trap?



We fly far south to a secluded island where Brisben is.



This is where we were sent each time we fought a spirit. But this time, there's something far worse waiting for us...



Godem: You are too late! This town is over! Farewell!





Brisben is toasted and the shrines have all been completely obliterated. This COULD have been a crippling setback for us, except that we already beat all the spirits and reached Aqutallion status, so it was kind of pointless for him to blow up the shrines. We use the lone warp pad to take us to an underground dungeon.



This may look complicated at first glance, but most of the stairs lead to treasure boxes and the main path we need to take to the end is fairly straightforward.



I give these to Cody because why the hell not.



This narrow path leads to where Godem is hiding. And it's also a big middle finger to console players who made use of the swap/save trick. Put simply, the swap/save trick is when, before talking to a boss to engage battle, you use the Swap command to go back to the Kustera, talk to Uncle Save to save your game, then swap back to the main party and fight the boss. If you lose, you can just reset and try again and you don't lose any gold or have to do the dungeon over again. BUT, Godem, unlike other bosses, immediately engages you for battle the second you emerge into his chamber, so players who expected to be able to stand right next to him and swap/save got an unpleasant surprise. And Godem is TOUGH.



I love how he says "hi guys", like we're showing up to watch a football game.

Godem: The pit of darkness will be the best grave for homeless people like you.

It seems that he takes the phrase "end homelessness" a bit too literally.

Godem: Sleep in the pit of darkness forever!



Godem's a badass dragon dude, though you wouldn't know it from looking at his field sprite. I mean what the hell is that supposed to be anyway? You can't even tell what it is. I'm convinced that the battle sprites and non-battle sprites (i.e. everything else in the game) were done by entirely different people.





Ray starts off the battle by using Land 3 on himself to increase his luck, which governs critical hit chance. And believe me, we're gonna need that. Leona uses Mirror 3, Tina uses Fast 3, Cody uses Power 2, and Dan uses his newfound Bomb 3 on Godem which deals an impressive 110 damage.



Behold, Bolt 3. It deals an average of 100 damage and it's a hit-all attack. That is bad news. If Dan doesn't have Regain 3 (fully recovers the entire party) then don't even think about going into this battle. Godem is not afraid to use this attack and it can wipe you out in 2 turns. Fortunately, it's just this one spell that we have to worry about, as the rest of his attacks deal moderate-at-best damage. After 5 Fast 3's, Tina starts using Freeze 3 and Dan and Leona keep hitting him with their strongest spells while healing as necessary.



Burn Blade on a critical hit. Obey.



Broken Moons only recover 11 MP but they can be used a few times. I want to save my Moon Drops so I have Leona use a Broken Moon on Dan so he'll have enough MP for both Regain 3 and Bomb 3. Godem goes down a few turns later and we get 8240 exp for the trouble.



Godem: Can't destroy...Homncruse.

He bites the dust and the treasure is ours. There's an Elfinbow (weapon for our archer Kustera), a Bestclaw (Leona), Restore, Ice Sword (give it to Ray so he can combo it with Tina), and the Aqutalium, which is one of the 5 treasures we need to access the final dungeon. All of the followers are now dead, but the big man himself still needs to be defeated. We steel ourselves for the final battle and set off. Until next time...

See Ya!