Part 25: Legendary Air Pirate Machine

As ever, before actually heading out on the hunt for treasure we have a few things to take care of.



Before we head off looking for Daccat's Island, I should warn the king about Valua's plans.



This one is mandatory and story-essential, but the rest are just things I want to show off before leaving.

Nasultan?

The rulers of Nasr always take on the title of Nasultan. And this is the Royal Palace.

I see. So we should tell this "Nasultan" guy about Valua's plan to attack.

Please... We must speak to the Nasultan right away. Let us through.

Nasr Soldier: What?! You wish to speak to the Nasultan? Do you think we allow commoners into the Royal Palace?



Not the most difficult choice in the game. We're trying to prevent a war, not start one of our own.

I have important information regarding the Valuan Armada. Please let us pass.

Nasr Soldier: Important information about the Valuans? Hmm... Valua is our greatest enemy. If you have information about them, then perhaps we can let you speak to the Nasultan. Very well, I will grant you permission to enter the Royal Palace. Now, if you will follow me.

Heh, not too shabby, kid. Who'd have though that two ruffians like us would be able to meet the Nasultan?

Well, I just figured that if they knew we were doing them a favor, they'd let us in.


Click for video!

_{I could have sworn the music here was on the OST, but I can't find it anywhere and all my saves are past this point. I am not very good at this. No matter, I'll record it next time it comes up and edit it in here}

Valua is planning an attack on Nasrad. They are already organizing their forces. You should warn your people and assemble your fleet right away!



Do not fear, our navy is powerful enough to crush the Valuan Armada.

But, Your Majesty... you shouldn't underestimate them. You need to assemble your fleet or many innocent lives may be lost.



Nasrad is shielded by mountains in the south and sky rifts to the east. It is impossible for them to invade.



He may be a bit of a dick, but I really like the Nasultana's design. His moustache isn't so much waxed as rubberised, and he keeps stretching it and letting it spring back.

The South Dannel Strait is properly guarded and the maelstrom blocks off the North Dannel Strait. In other words, it would be impossible for anyone to invade us! Hahahaha!

But...

Do not worry... Nasr is protected by the Red Moon. Valua cannot touch us. And besides, if someone as young as you can get past the Armada perhaps they're losing their edge. Imagine that... The once mighty Valuan Armada fooled by a boy! Hahahahaha!!!

It's no use, Vyse. I don't think he'll listen to anything we have to say. Let's stop wasting our time and get to looking for Daccat's Island.

I don't know. He seems way too overconfident, but I hope for his sake that he's right. C'mon, let's go.

Aaaand back to Aika. Get used to that because it's going to be happening a lot in this update. Just like Vyse, there's a few things I want to take care of with her as well.



Numero uno, Fina's journal entry, which I totally forgot to show off earlier when it would have actually fitted.



Numero dos, the local loan shark, again because I forgot to show it off earlier.



Osman's Clerk: The owner, Osman, is in the back room.



Oh, Aika.



Anyway, Osman. You know, it never ceases to amaze me how many incredibly minor characters have official artwork for me to make portraits out of. It took me 15 minutes of wandering around just to find this place, and I was actively looking for it.

I am the money lender here in Nasrad. So, if you are in dire need of assistance, you have come to the right place... if I deem you worthy, that is.

Moneylender? Well... actually, we bought a small ship to go looking for Vyse and Cap'n Drachma, but I'm still a little worried. I wish we had enough money to buy a real Air Pirate ship. One with cannons and stuff. But, I suppose we'd need a LOT more money for that...

A, Air Pirates?! Remove yourselves from my shop! I do not deal with thieves!!! I would never lend money to a thief! I would never get any of my precious money back! You would probably just run off with it!! My beautiful money is too precious to just give to the likes of you!! Now go away!!

So much for borrowing money, then. No matter, the treasure of the greatest Air Pirate the world has ever seen is out there for the taking, and we intend to do just that.



It goes without saying that the Claudia's lifeboat is parked right next to Aika and Fina's ship, of course.

Alright! It's a little small, but we bought a ship!

Yes, but the gold that we got from Clara and from working is all gone now.

Don't worry about it, Fina. All we need to do is find Daccat's Treasure and we'll be fine! Let me see, did the map say where the island was located? "The dead will always watch over my treasure. It is located..."

Well, where is it?

Oh, no!! It's torn off! I can't see what it says! Looks like the only way we'll be able to find the island is by this clue. I think this skull on the map has something to do with it. Well, it's not going to do us any good just sitting around and doing nothing. We might as well start searching!

Yes!

So, have you worked out where Daccat's Island is yet? Let's take a stop at the old Deserted Island to mull it over a bit longer.







Yes, it will actually let you rest here. It'll also give you a hint on where to go whenever you leave an area.

On the treasure map it says, "The dead will always watch over my treasure." And there's a skull here on the eastern part of the Valuan continent. I wonder if that has to do with anything...

And if that doesn't do it, nothing will. Remember the Skull Rock discovery from last time? The dead will always watch over my treasure, indeed. Of course, this is kinda dependent on you having found the discovery already, but if you haven't then the guild will be giving out hints on where to find it.



And here it is, Daccat's Island. Not much to look at from outside, but then it wouldn't have stayed hidden for so long if it was. Strangely, the island itself doesn't count as a discovery. Go figure.


Click for video!

There's something written here... It's an old language, but I think I can read it... "When the two become one, the path will reveal itself to you..."

What's that supposed to mean?! Why is Daccat being so stingy?! It's not like any of his gold means anything to him anymore!!!



You can probably see where this is going. Back with Vyse and Gilder, it's time to head the world's most hidden island for the second time in ten minutes.

Okay. There are some directions on the map... "... to the north of the City of the Sands. When the two pieces become whole, the way to the treasure will be known." I can't read anything before that... It's torn off. That's all it says.

"The City of the Sands" probably refers to the city that was here before Nasrad. I think it was called Oasis. So... it's to the north of here, huh? We can get there in no time with my ship.

I'm a sailor without a ship at this point. There's no way I'll be able to search for my friends now. If we do find the treasure, I'd like to use my share to buy a ship.

Hahaha, I like you Vyse, you never give up. Very well... off we go!



Yup. See the giant pressure plates in front of the doors? I told you this part of the game was a little contrived.

There's probably some sort of trick to opening it.

What?! What was that!?



What was that!?

Whatever it was, it just opened the door.

I don't know if that's good or bad.



Hmm... The map said something like... "When the two pieces come together..." I wonder if anyone else is here? Heh... nevermind... what are the chances of that?



I'm not sure how, but the door opened, and there's treasure inside. We should go!





Aaand there's the replacement for the mighty Grendel Wing, which I think got used less than a dozen times. Stupid legendary piece of shit.



And this is new. It looks a bit like a save point, but rather than an anchor it has a boomerang and cutlass in it. You can probably guess what it does.



They're generally found next to locked doors, letting you switch to the other party to look for a way to open it, like so.



Rinse and repeat for the locked door on Vyse's side.



These are the main mechanic of the dungeon past the first corridor. At the moment the diagonal path is pointing to an armour upgrade for Aika and Fina, but one character switch later...



Vyse's side has a second diagonal path, along with some sort of control device.





Theere we go. A bit of shuffling is all it takes to collect all the goodies and get both parties across the gap. Sadly, screenshots really don't do this dungeon justice, and despite being as contrived as all hell it's a really, really fun dungeon. Even if I did get totally lost in the next area.



On the bright side, my total lack of spacial awareness turned up a Moonberry, which it turn turned up Gilder's second Super Move.



Aura of Denial is a pretty fun move, and of course only Gilder could make a status immunity buff look badass as hell. You'll see what I mean when we get to see it in action. As for the move itself, it's exactly what you'd expect – totally useless 99% of the time, borderline essential for the rest.



Finally, the dungeon's Big Puzzle. It's a labyrinth of switches and moving staircases, but honestly if you just pull every lever in the order you get to it it'll work out fine. The reward for completing it? Daccat's Treasure, and one of my favourite scenes in the game.




Click for video!

That's got to be it! Heh, now I can buy my ship.



Oh, yes... I see it! Do you think it's Captain Daccat's Treasure?







Vyse!!



Aika! Fina! You're both okay!!

Vyse!!!



Aika's flying tackle is yet another part that really has to be seen in motion. It's a thing of beauty.



Same goes for Fina's reaction to the reunion here. Completely different to Aika's reaction, yet every bit as emotionally charged.

Vyse... I'm so glad that you are alright... Oh, I'm sorry... I'm a little emotional right now. I'm just so happy!!!



Heh! Well look at you... On top of that, I didn't know that your partner was the cutie I met in Nasr!

We're all together again!

You know what? I was wrong. Drachma isn't the Aeris of Skies of Arcadia, he's the Zoidberg of Skies of Arcadia.

Rumble rumble rumble!

Aww... Now what?!



Celebratory boss fiiiiight!





Just like the rest of the dungeon, Sinistra and Destra here have a duality theme, which is spoiled a bit by the mistranslated name. It should be Sinistra and Dextra, Latin for left and right. No matter though, they're a pretty fun boss, and can really mess you up if you don't know how to deal with them. Firstly, apart from their basic attack everything they do is going to hit the entire party. Destra, the purple one, can freeze over the whole area with Tundra Blast, while Sinistra can fill it with magma with, erm, Explore. Yeah. The real threat, though, is this.



The warning only flashes up for a fraction of a second, and it's all the warning you get that a really, really nasty attack is incoming. Meanwhile, the other head can attack as normal, so you don't even get a respite for a turn.



And if you're not quite quick enough, this happens on the next turn. Very few enemies have team attacks, but the ones that do tend to be on the devastating side.







Ouch. It's survivable, if you know it's coming and defend against it, but the better option is just to murderise one head before they get a chance to use it. Sinstra and Destra are hilariously weak to their opposing element, so my preferred strategy is just to nuke Sinistra with Crystales Boxes and Gunslinger. Under that sort of punishment he shouldn't last two turns.



So damn cool, and yet another thing in this video that has to be seen.



Oh, and Sinistra died. A lot. Once either one of the heads is down, the other way can be taken out in whatever way you see fit. Personally, I went for a cherry tapping with Aika's new boomerang. If you want to see Death Waltz in motion I clumsily glued it onto the end of the video, by the way. Naturally, when I actually wanted them to use it they spent 15 fucking minutes dicking around with Tundra Blast and Explore rather than using it on the first turn. Anyway, they died and we're rich now.







What the?!







And that was when Vyse realised that Daccat was the greatest troll ever to have lived.

I don't believe this...

that's it? No gems... No jewels?!





I haven't laughed this hard in a long time! A good laugh beats a bunch of gold any day.



I understand that friends are important... but he could've at least threw in a little something for our trouble!



Once again, Legendary piece of shit.

Hahaha! I'll bet the greatest Air Pirate of all time spent all of his gold while he was still alive. You can't take it with you, y'know.

Some old bag of bones is in his grave laughing at us right now!!! We ran around like idiots the whole time. and we're still poor!





Of course, you know what we must now do. Remember all the way back in update 2?



There's always the chance that we're actually going to desecrate the grave of the Slightly Legendary Air Pirate Dave, but it's a risk I'm willing to take.

Still, the gang's back together again, so everything is going to be fine forever, right?





Nope. Ramirez is back to finish the job, and with a proper intro for his ship this time. The ship is named after Monoceros, the unicorn, which itself is decidedly ominous.



Excellent...

Vice Captain: With the modifications to our engines, we were able to pass through the sky rift. Our spies have reported that the Nasr fleet is guarding the strait. Nasrad is defenseless. We can take the Capitol without destroying it, sir.



Vice Captain: As you wish, Admiral.

Begin the attack on Nasrad! All vessels, full speed ahead!



And there you have the crucial difference between Galcian and Ramirez. Galcian is merely ruthless – he'll slaughter entire cities if he serves to gain anything from it. Ramirez, meanwhile, will slaughter entire cities just for the hell of it.

Oh well, the party on just got back together, so what's the worst that could happen? Tune in next time to find out!

Video list
Nasultana
Daccat's Island
Sinistra and Destra