Part 25: A Waste Of Time
On to rescue Roger! (Well, not really, but Yuri doesn't know that.)
Outside the HQ, everything looks perfectly normal. There's nothing out here except for a save point, so let's go inside.
Everything inside looks perfectly normal, too. Somehow, I'm disappointed.
There is a chest in this room with a Ring item, Delay 1. (Picture forthcoming in a future update.)
It seems like there's only one other room in this building. Maybe we're in the wrong place?
A few things around the room can be examined.
What's up with this book?"Love Hat Trick! Nighttime is the Right Time"
The burning flame of love is in the air! Tonight is the night to make your finest love maneuver! Pull off a hat trick with the one you love. Kick off is at six o'clock!
A hat trick with the one you love?! What a stupid book. Kick off is at six, huh...?
This book is falling apart."A Spy Dies at Night III"
The house of evil I had sneaked into was filled with insidious traps. I'd hit a dead end--nowhere to go. I could hear the approaching footsteps of my pursuers. Just then, the hand on the clock reached nine...
Hey! It was just getting good! Where's the rest of it?! Damn missing pages! *sigh* The hand reached nine, huh...?
This book smells suspicious..."It's a Gas! All about Farts"
Farts usually come roughly six hours after eating. (So if you had breakfast, one should come around three o'clock.) Don't try to hold them in or they'll come out your mouth. Be considerate, but commit to healthy farting.
If this place isn't the SG headquarters, then it's the location of the oddest book club in all Europe.
I knew this book smelled... A fart should come around three, huh...?
Looks pretty depressing, this book..."Recital for One"
I'm all alone. I crouch sadly in an empty corner. My only companion is the piano. "La la la, life. La la la, self." My own private concert begins at twelve.
I knew it would be gloomy. Play the piano so late and you'll wake the neighbors! La la la at twelve, huh...?
More importantly, there's a magnificent chest, containing the magnificent Uvall Crest (Arc Cure).
Huh? Looks like it's stopped. Let's see...
Once you've read a book, you can set the clock to the time referenced in the book. The one we need is 9 o'clock. The video below shows what happens at each of the times.
Anyway, setting the hands to 9 makes a platform under the clock rise.
Yuri's entire life is one big comic book.
There's nothing up here but a short hallway with a couple dead ends. There aren't any doors or anything.
The only way this would be more cliché is if Yuri had pulled a book out of a bookshelf or straightened a light fixture.
Yeah, the whole set-up does seem needlessly complicated.
I think Nicolai drafted a bunch of 12-year-old boys to design this place.
Huh? Looks like it's missing a part.
The only other point of interest is a control panel to the left.
Flipping the switch causes the wall of the dead-end closest to the clock to slide back, revealing a door.
Oh boy!
Incidentally, enemies start attacking after you reach the control room. Besides the Gremlins (who cast Red Rave), we also have Clawed Commanders, like the ones that were with Lenny, and Langsuirs, who cast Hail Beak.
I also figured out what our current Aroma Oils do. Mixing Ocean Oil into Misty Oil heals all ally HP (not Lucia's) by 60 points. Mixing Misty Oil into Ocean Oil defends Lucia's allies from Status Abnormalities for one turn.
Anyway, the new room turns out to be a library.
Heading right from the entrance and then following the path down, Yuri finds a Lottery Ticket hidden in the shelves.
Going back to the entrance and heading down, there's a chest with a Thera Root.
Continuing to the right and up from the chest, we find something else.
You got the password.
It doesn't have an inventory entry. Oh well, back to the control room!
The password is entered into the same place where we flipped the switch.
Let's see... It was "unagi."
Doing this opens up the wall south from the painting, revealing another door.
Another library.
There's a chest with a Hit Area Expand in the upper left corner of the room.
There's also something of interest in the upper right corner of the room.
Hey, here's another switch! I'll just give it a little flip...
A section of wall and a bookcase slide away from each other...
Revealing stairs leading down.
It's a storage room of some sort. The chest here contains a Toggle Switch. Looks like we're heading back to the control room.
But first, there's a Seal of the Urn hidden here.
There's another chest here with Strongoids for Joachim. These things force him into his Invisible form.
Anyway, back upstairs!
What's going to happen this time?
The machine starts spinning and glowing, and then the clock starts chiming.
We can now ride the clock up to the third floor.
This leads us to an office.
Complete with jukebox and billiards table. Nicolai gets all the cool toys.
As revenge, Yuri steals a Talisman of Mercy from the table. These things raise Unconscious characters and restore 50% health.
Exiting the office to the right, we find ourselves in a room that looks like it belong in a medieval castle.
There's a save point here, and that means one thing: boss fight!
Looks like another storage room.
Or...not.
There isn't anybody here.
I guess we'd better look for him somewhere else...
Everyone starts to leave...
And then the screen flashes white.
God damn it.
Meet Janus. He is, surprisingly, Light-based. I'll be using Yuri, Joachim, Lucia and Blanca in this fight.
I Fused Yuri into Barbaria for this fight. I've raised Barbaria to level 3, unlocking the Skill Energy Charge, which raises Yuri's Physical Attack.
I start the fight off with Joachim leading a Combo Attack.
I finish the combo with Lucia casting the Combo Magic, Meteor Burst (Dark class damage).
It's super effective!
Janus likes doing this, but he never followed it up with a Special Attack. He does have one (some sort of Light one), but he never used it.
Maybe I just killed him too quickly.
On the plus side, we got a new Tarot card, Justice. On the other hand, instead of Roger, we found some sort of insane, two-headed giant. Now what?