Part 17: Keita Wakui ~ Allegro
Keita Wakui ~ Allegro
In the interest of some variety, and getting rid of a minor bit of redundancy, I opted to fuse one of the three Kikimora I still had lying around with Hairy Jack. I picked the weakest of the three (the one that had 11 magic) and I can't say I really regret it. Kijimunaa is very definitely not better than a Kikimora on average, despite being a higher level, but it can deal more damage anyway because it is a higher level.
Honestly, it's just because Glamorous just cannot compete with Devotion that Fairies are not as good. They're both spellcasters that heal, but Femmes just have the better racial skill.
I also opted to fuse it because if I didn't we'd never really see it. You will never fight against even a single Kijimunaa.
With our new demon in hand, let's head on over to Bickman. Best get this out of the way at this point in time at the absolute latest, just to be safe.
[Music: Exploration]
So this is the place... Is he not here? We're on time...
Yeah... I don't see him. Could he be somewhere else?
Hmm, no luck. I went to take a quick look aorund, but I don't think Keita's here yet.
Yeah... This is definitely the site seen in that death clip, though. Well, maybe he's running late because he got slowed down by the disaster.
Oh, so it's like that here too? Huh... Hey, here's a thought I just had... What do you think?
Great idea!
Why, thanks! That's what I like to hear from our leader!
Who knows what this guy'll do!? Will you please at least ask him what this is about!?
...What is it? Oh, right. I haven't even explained it yet, hahaha!
How far? Well, between Tokyo and Osaka, that covers the east and west. Other than that... Yeah, but that's my point! The mainland was hit, but what about other places...?
East Timor, or the Demographic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an actual place that actually exists in Southeast Asia near Indonesia. As the name would imply, there is also a West Timor and both occupy the same small island (called, you guessed it, Timor). And part of West Timor is considered East Timor territory or something. It's all very boring and political.
If you'd never heard of it before this game, you're almost certainly not alone: after all, the island is so small that less than 3 million people even live there. I would imagine a lot of people figured Joe just made up, but nope!
Why Timor? Oh... I just like the ring of it! It's so... timorous!
Hmm... Yeah, we have no idea what shape the country's in apart from what we've seen. See? Doesn't that make you wonder? I'm curious how things are in other places. Um... What is it?
Huh!? You mean of Timor!?
Oh, no... Sorry, I wasn't thinking about Timor. But... we haven't gone anywhere open lately, right? Someplace around here should do fine... Ahh, sure, yeah. That'll get us a little closer to Timor.
I had it too... Oh... You did? So were you just laughing at us behind our backs? Um... Daichi... I think most of us had figured it out...
Oh. I guess it was just me left out in the cold, then...Daichi seems a little downcast...
Hmm, well... Is there anywhere open like that around here? Somewhere open... Like a mountain or a river?
Ah... The Yodo River's pretty big. We might be able to see some things, yeah.
Then let's go! It's not too far. I'll show you the way! Follow me![Music: Silence]
Ahh, see now, this is a good vantage point. From here you can see...
...that things are, somehow, even worse than we thought originally.
[Music: Requiem]
Yikes... Is this for real...?
N-No way... This isn't my Osaka...
Youch... Osaka got hit this bad...?
I can't believe this... It's so much worse than I imagined. Wait...! Hey, does this mean that Tokyo's also...!?
It's probably just as bad. Yeah... We couldn't tell, but maybe Tokyo was like this too...It seems the damage is quite far-ranging...
A war you say? Well, hmm, anyone got some spare Devil's Fuge? We might need it soon.
There's no way rescue efforts could deal with this... Is this what Yamato meant when he said we couldn't be saved even if we waited around? Yeah... This is too much for anyone! And what with demons all over the place...
Same here... I'm feeling a little lost. I think we should go back... Well, staying here won't do us any good, that's for sure.You leave the area...
Okay, time to see whether we save Keita now or wait just another half an hour and let him hang.
quote:
Keita Wakui...
Survives 73%
Dies 27%
Well, that answers that I do believe. Quite thoroughly, too. The very-definitely supermajority have spoken, and Keita gets to live up to the title and survive.
[Music: Exploration]
All righty... We're a little late. You think Keita's here already? Please be here...! This is our only chance to save him... Hm...? Hey, is that him!?
Huh? Whoa, there he is!You follow Hinako's gaze to see Keita standing around...
She's part of our group.
...Suuure she is. I don't remember seeing her around earlier. ...There you are, Keita! We finally found you! Where the hell have you been!?
What? None of your business. Leave me alone...
Huh...? Man, shut up... All that yapping is hurting my ears. Wh-What...!? Ugh, this guy is such an ass... *sigh* Well, at least we can rest easy. Hey, listen, Nicaea sent us a--
[Music: Countdown]
......!People are fleeing towards you...
...We'll talk about this later. You guys wait here.
Huh...!? K-Keita!Keita rushed off towards the screams...
Dude, not cool! What's his problem!? Now what do we do!?
*gasp* The stairs...! What's wrong?
Damn...! You're right! Gaaah... So the danger hasn't passed yet!? He's just about to get himself in trouble!? L-Let's go, Hibiki! If we don't, he's gonna die!
We'll save him! You bet we will!Hinako runs off...
Whoa...! You see that? We should hurry after them...
Huh...? What about you...!? Hmph, don't worry. That demon's my prey. So scram, you imbecile. A-All right... Thanks...
So... why are you doing this alone!? Don't you know what you're up against? ...Huh? Why did you come over here? I told you to wait. ...No, I'm going to fight! I can use demons, too! Tch... Fine, you moron.
Holy crap, and here I thought we were safe...!
......! Hey, aren't there more here than there used to be!?
H-Huh? There's a cell phone on the ground where the demon had been... So the cell phone is causing this...? Maybe it's a summoning app gone haywire.
Well, I don't mind that... It's nice that I can fight demons![Music: Challenge to the Fate]
Seems easy enough on paper. Just have to protect Keita and using Hinako is no big deal (I gave her every skill Daichi had). If anything this should be even easier than the previous fight, right? After all, Keita can defend himself!
...ahahahaha no.
There's 4 miasma spots on the map, and three are very nearby. Hibiki and Hinako can take out 2 of them immediately, whereas Io and Joe can attack a Gagyson each. The one Io's gunning for is even stood on the 3rd miasma for good measure.
Much like the fight at the Valgate, there's a new command in certain contexts here. The difference being that this is more than one time only, isn't optional-but-nice and that if we don't do it more demons spawn in at set points later in the fight.
Not even good ones either, so you can't abuse it for easy grinding or whatever.
Io's gonna start the actual combat part of the combat, and be uncounterable right now.
It could have gone better, but at least it's kind of a start.
Over on the other side, Hinako deals with a second miasma and Joe begins to fight too. That this Gagyson is getting +10 Initiative despite being on the defensive should indicate at least one Makara.
Oh, and it's really obvious here that the AI fucking hates your healers and will go out of its way to target Kikimoras almost exclusively. Even when they haven't really healed in this fight; the 2 Kikimoras I still had were lucky to not get destroyed in a single fight. They got attacked that often. It was weird.
They weren't focused on to the absolute exclusion of anything else, but it really stood out as being the main target above all else. Even, surprisingly, Keita.
Okay, so Keita's AI is the opposite and is dumber than a bag of rocks. He does one thing: he charges at the demons and he punches them. He's using Aggravate so he has a Touki of some kind. Makes sense, since it fits his thing. Must be a sort of good one like Bilwis or maybe even the next one higher right?
...Come on! Come get me!Pfft, no. Dude brought a fucking Kobold. Why does he have a Kobold at this point? Because this fight kinda hates you and it hates Keita too and it wants you to suffer at trying to let him live.
Okay, yeah, that's kind of very hyperbolic but Keita does make your job more difficult. Helpless NPCs at least are managable because they don't get in the way. Keita does. And he just killed that Gagyson wiping out the Makara as well.
You don't even get money when Keita kills anything, never mind the usual EXP loss! Fuck Keita.
His one saving grace is that he has a Kikimora and can heal. And if he really needs to desperately heal, he won't charge face-first at things. Most of the time.
A Hare of Inaba opted to run up to both Joe and Keita at this point. Because the demon AI knows it wins if it wipes out the annoying kid, it of course chooses to attack Keita.
The Mokoi in this particular party is the highest leveled demon in the fight (15). In spite of that, it's not really that threatening on its own...
Hang on how did he deal 5 damage to a goddamn Ogre? And his Kobold nearly died. I just... okay, look. Kobold's base level if 3. If I was to bring a Kobold here, it'd get fucking slaughtered by anything and everything. Keita is absurdly lucky he runs on AI rules for demon damage and so it takes his current level. It still gets wrecked because it's a Kobold. It dies to a stiff breeze, never mind a Mokoi bearing down on it!
I realise I'm probably complaining a lot about this fight and it's really not that bad overall. In a straight fight, even with the miasma, it's pretty simple and generally fun.
I just wish Keita had at least a Bilwis instead of a Kobold because then he'd be tolerable and wouldn't need babying to make sure he doesn't kill himself. I'd also prefer him to not be AI controlled, because his AI sucks, but let's not wish for the moon here.
Oh, and the Gagyson came off second best (the Hare died, of course) and Hibiki used Jambavan's Phantasm to skip past and break the phone.
In retrospect, I probably should've left
Alternatively, I should've just given Joe back the Bufu he had earlier. That'd help not completely botch something as easy as 3 Itsumades.
This is pretty shameful, considering it's 3 Itsumades and this'd be the worst party here were it not for Keita (I'm gonna stop harping on about that now). Still, it could be worse...
Meanwhile, Hinako ended up going up against what is probably the actually hardest enemy party here. That's pretty bad luck on her part, since we have no major physical attacks right now and her magic kinda sucks but she has no spells anyway. At least Heqet can sometimes freeze the Jambavan on account of its Ice weakness.
But to speed things up, Hibiki warps over there and murders one of the Jambavans and leaves the other basically crippled. Hinako should have no trouble now.
And to help Keita not get wrecked by the Hare of Inaba's party again, Joe wipes out the biggest problem and the Ogre too. The Hare got supremely lucky surviving with 5 HP.
[Video: Keita Wakui ~ Tactical Genius]
...So of course Keita doesn't take the unimportant kill he was effectively left, since not even he could screw that up. Instead, he pops Aggravate, runs over to an Itsumade, only manages to even hurt the one that was nearly dead. Frankly the only way that could've gone even worse was if Keita got poisoned in the process.
[Video: End]
Hinako's sort of handling herself reasonably well against the thing that can step back and attack unabated. To say she's not quite come into her prime yet, she's doing pretty well. Her only really good demon on offense here is the Heqet and that's only because it has Bufu.
I realise I'm glossing over some of the less interesting bits about this fight, but that's because there's lots of turns waiting for the AI to do stuff here too. At this point, it's sort of mellowed out on that.
Also, wow, Keita's lucky his Kikimora didn't die there. At least only the Kobold got poisoned!
It's also around this point that the one remaining miasma finally spits out a demon. These things take forever to do anything, and when they finally do? Not even really an issue.
Meanwhile, back in the important stuff, Hinako took out her Toubyou problem. This would've gone quicker, but there's a Kikimora in the other Toubyou party that kept throwing Devotions at it.
Joe keeps proving me wrong, though, because he's being remarkably competent and took out both said Kikimora and a Toubyou in a single skirmish. I swear he's not that great, but he's getting results so long as he keeps on doing that he might have some longevity after all.
Granted, he's not as good as Hibiki who's demons are even more up-to-date and deal in overkills. I should probably make more things for other people, huh? I'll get right on that after this fight.
Only showing this because I completely spaced and didn't need to let Io get hit here. This was monumentally stupid on my part.
It went pretty okay in spite of that. I could've easily killed the leader without worry, but eh rather not do that.
And Keita finally does something resembling useful and takes out the Toubyou. Would've rather had Hinako do it but at least he stopped being in the way at the end.
And I do mean "end." So long as no demons are around, we win the fight even if there's miasma left. Can easily handle the phone without worrying about it at this point after all.
I swear it's not as hard or difficult as I made it sound. It's just that Keita is a hindrance more than a help. He's level 13, but his Kikimora is just a stock Kikimora (which is why he failed to do anything substantial with it) and his Kobold is level 10. And a Kobold.
We get a fair bit of EXP out of it though. Hibiki reached level 15 and we can use that and the Gagyson learning Elec Dance at the same time. Gonna fuse up one of my favourite early-ish game demons!
[Music: Over the Brink of Death]
..."Saved" me? What the hell are you talkin' about?
U-Um... Keita? A-Are you hurt anywhere...? Huh...? You too? Are you all messin' with me? Hey, hold up. We're not messing with you, man. In fact...
This vid... This means I was supposed to die? That's right.Keita looks straight at you...
Alright... So that's what Nicaea does.
It seems Keita believes his own death clip...
Yep, that's right! You better thank us, Keita! ...You never answered my question. What's your deal? Where'd you come from?
What...? You? In JP's? Forget it, there's no way you could... No way I could what? Who was it that saved you just now, hmmmmm? ...Dammit.
Ooh! Awesome! Hey, wait up, Keita! Whoa... They're gone.
Whew... I'm glad we managed to save that Keita guy...
Haha, yeah, good job, folks. Should we go after those two? They're pretty far ahead...
You leave the area, following Keita...
[Music: Exploration]
For saving Keita's life, and not pissing him off further, it makes sense. I don't like his Stage 1 resistance being exactly the same as Daichi's but it's functional enough I guess.
It's at this point we can finally buy Toubyous from the auction. We can also buy Mokoi because why bother making one that's good when you can make with pretty average str/vit!
I think I'll settle for making an Angel instead. Get rid of that Gagyson I've been carting around as well as a 5-star Knocker and an make one that has both Force and Elec Dance. It'd have Force Dance anyway, since its a skill it outright starts with, but Elec comes from Gagyson.
Blood Wine, the Divine racial skill, is up there with Femme's for racial skills that I really, really like. See, it costs some HP to use but it restores MP to the entire party she's in. Obviously it's easy to heal up afterwards, so you really just get MP back. It's not enough on its own to give whatever party she's in infinite MP but it's definitely getting there.
Since we've spent a while fighting dudes, I think we should take a break from that and hang out with Hinako and/or go to the Shinsekai to finally meet up with Yamato again. Sound good? Sounds good.