Part 27: So long and thanks for all the fish

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There are two elevators in the cell block, so the laws of narrative causality demand that as soon as we leave via one of them, someone arrives via the other. Which lift shaft is which is in a state of flux until you collapse the waveform by opening the doors.

Guard: Yes, Prince Enrique.

I wish to speak with them. Take me to them.

Guard: Sir... perhaps it would be best for you to wait out here. The cell is... not fitting... for one of your stature. I'll get the other guards. We will bind the prisoner and bring him to you.

Well I'll finally get to meet the Legendary Air Pirate Vyse. If the rumors that I've heard are true, he'll look like a demon and spit fire... But, my instincts are telling me that he's fighting for all the right reasons.

Guard: Prince Enrique! It's an emergency! I found Admiral Vigoro unconscious in one of the cells. The rest of the cells are empty. It appears that Vyse and the others have escaped!

What?!



Listen carefully. Do not tell anyone about this. Keep the doors to this area closed. Don't let anyone in or out. If you are questioned about it later, tell them that it was a direct order from me, understand?

Guard: Yes, Your Majesty! But...

Very well, then. Good job. Stay here. There's an urgent matter that I must attend to.

Princely shenanigans! Sadly we don't have time to eavesdrop any further, because it's time to try out that key.



While it wouldn't surprise me to hear that Vigoro calls his codpiece The Cannon Room, this is thankfully the key to the actual cannon room. In which the cannon is serviced. As in, the metal cannon. On the Grand Fortress.





That is not helping.



Why do I get the impression that this particular cannon was Vigoro's idea? It would explain why he has the key for it.



That is also not helping.

... Hey. What happened to Gilder?

Sorry about that. Let's get moving!

Hey, where did you go?

I just had to take care of something. Heh, don't worry about it. We should get out of this dump. My men are about to attack.

Normally, a character disappearing in the enemy base and mysteriously reappearing with no explanation is a cause for alarm. Fortunately for us, this is Gilder, and therefore only a cause for awesome.



Running down the barrel of the cannon takes us outside the fortress, where this elevator is waiting to take us up the outside. Which is exactly where we want to be with the Claudia about to start bombarding it, of course.





Welp.





Whoashit. Despite what Aika may think, the cannon we ran down is actually one of the smaller cannons. Let me just put that into perspective for you: The line running across the middle of the fortress is the walkway we ran along to get the elevator. Now, see the smaller cannon next to the gigantic one in the screenshot? Just offscreen is an even smaller cannon, small enough that the barrel doesn't stick out over the walkway.

That is the cannon we ran down to drop onto the walkway.

Whoa! Look at that firepower! Hey, what about Clara?

I'm sure she can hold her own... I think.







Of course, even a “small” shell can be a bit of a problem when it explodes before you can fire it.

That cannon we ran through... It just exploded!

The explosion took out that whole area. They won't be putting that fire out any time soon.

Heh... I, umm, left them a little present... Are you two ready? Here's where the real fun begins.

Gilder, you beautiful bastard.



Meanwhile, watching the fireworks...





......

Ramirez... why? Why are you fighting for the Valuans? What about our orders? What about the Elders?

......

Valuan Soldier: Lord Ramirez, it's an emergency!! One of our cannons exploded and the entire deck is on fire. But no enemy shells hit that area.

Find out the cause of the fire and report back to me. In the meantime, stop firing and set the fortress in defensive mode. There are only two or three ships attacking. Their effect on the wall will be minimal.

Valuan Soldier: Yes, sir!



This is to Fina, by the way. Not the guard.






_{Strictly speaking this is the music for the whole dungeon, it just gets interrupted every few seconds by cutscenes}





Valuan Soldier: Yes, Admiral Ramirez!

I will go investigate the cause of the explosion. Two of you stay here and guard the girl. The rest of you, follow me.

Valuan Soldier: Yes!!!

Two soldiers left behind to guard Fina, eh?



Welp.





Fina! We came to get you out of here.

Vyse!

We got here as soon as we found out where you were. Are you okay?



But this time, I knew that you would come for me. I knew you would find me.

Hahaha... Oh Fina, after all we've been through together... I swear on my oath as a Blue Rogue that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe.

... I know...

Heh... Good one, Vyse. I didn't know you were so smooth with the ladies.



I don't need to hear him say those things. I know he would do the same for me. Whenever I'm in trouble, I have faith that Vyse will always be there to save me. He already saved me once today.

Heh... Good point. Can we save the mushy stuff for later? We just broke out of prison, and we're still in Valua.

Alright. But, how exactly are we going to get out of here?

Well, since we're in the Grand Fortress, there should be Valuan ships docked all over the place. We can borrow one of those. We should be able to reach the docks from the bottom floors of the fortress. We'll have to backtrack a little, but we should be okay.

So, we'll take the elevator back down and look for a ship. Alright! Let's go!



Not pictured: Ominous rumbling.

Hey! Look!

The fortress is rotating. Now's our chance. We should find a ship and get out of here.



So, back on the elevator outside. You know, I've played this game so many times, but the sheer scale of the grand fortress never ceases to amaze me.



See that massive wall of steel? That's the edge of the fortress as it starts to rotate.



This section is pretty fun. It consists of some MGS-style spotlight dodging, and also contains the only two chests of the level. The first contains a Soul Crystal, provided you can persuade Zivilyn Bane to hand it over, while this one contains a Moonberry and thus Aika's next skill.



Epsilon Mirror has a pretty unique effect, but ultimately not a very useful one. For the cost of 10SP, it renders Aika completely invulnerable for a turn and restores 10MP. It would be vastly more useful if I used spells more often, but with the way items work running out of MP just isn't remotely likely.


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Anyway, this is entrance to the docks. Sadly, military types tend not to like you stealing their things. They tend to do unpleasant things to you.



Like set a tank on you.





Meet the Dralkor Lacus, which seems to be the only non-flying vehicle in the entire world. I guess after Valua made the first one they realised that tanks aren't much use in a world with no actual ground. Lacus, by the way, means a pond or lake, which Dralkor means absolutely nothing whatsoever. I really don't know where they were going with this one.



Fortunately, the US name of Dralkor Tank makes a lot more sense, so I'll just call it that instead. The Dralkor Tank is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a tank – it hits hard, and takes hits like...well, a tank. It can actually be a pretty tough fight, mostly because of its Wheel Blast attack – it hits an area for 1500ish damage, so if your party decides to bunch up that's a lot of damage. Even with all the HP I've been pumping into Fina she's still barely cresting the 2000 mark, so it can potentially one-shot her if you're not careful.



Oh yes, and here's Epsilon Mirror, just because.





And there you have it, 10MP and complete invulnerability, along with a nifty new look for Aika.



The Metal Cap effect also carries over into the victory pose if you use it on the last turn of battle.





This isn't good... In a few seconds, this place is going to be crawling with guards.



The lift that tank just rode in on? Uh...

Someone is telling us to get on that thing! I can't see who it is! Vyse, what should we do?



On the other hand, it's not like we have much of a choice. Also, elementary logic _{and cutscene knowledge} should tell you who's waiting at the top of the lift.

If we just stand around here, we're gonna get caught anyway. We should take the lift.

That's true. It looks like that's our only option.

... Alright, let's go.



And there he is, in all his royal purple glory.

Enrique?! You're... the Prince of Valua!!!

You're the Prince!?

Haha... Yes... I am. After you escaped from your cells, I figured you'd head for the docks to try and steal a ship. Please, follow me.

Alright, what's going on? Why is the Prince helping us?

I have no idea. But, we should probably follow him.


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Huh. So this is, what? The ballroom? The grand hall?







It is heavily armored, and can still match the top speed of our Cruisers. And it is equipped with the weaponry of a Heavy Battleship.

It's amazing!



This ship is the prototype. Soon, we will begin building a whole fleet of Delphinus Class Ships. Valua plans to use these ships to take over the world.

With a whole fleet of ships like this, Valua would easily be able to take over the world. Especially since Nasrad has fallen. So, your Royalness... There's still one thing that I can't figure out. Why would you help us escape, then take us to the bridge of your flagship? You've gone through a lot of trouble just to show off...

Yeah. Gilder has a good point.





WHAT?!

Are you serious?

Valua has been taking over other countries by force, destroying their lands, and murdering the innocent. As a Prince of the Valuan Empire, all of the innocent blood spilled by the Armada is on my hands. I've done all I can to convince the Empress, and Galcian, that what Valua is doing is wrong, but I cannot convince them to change their ways. Everything I have tried has failed. I am powerless to stop them. My only chance for redemption is to aid you. Please! Take me with you! I will even go with you as a hostage.



Hmmm, tricky choice. Do we want to escape Valua with the most powerful ship in the world and the allegiance of a prince, or do we want to go back to our cells and be executed?



If you want to sail with us, you must do so as a Blue Rogue.



... Thank you! I will do my part as a member of your crew!!

You know, I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Vyse of the Blue Rogues.



I never would've thought that I'd be riding in the same ship as a Valuan, let alone, the Prince of Valua. But... The Crystals are still in the hands of the Valuans...

Yes... You're right...



What?!

I have the Crystals. I stole them before I came to the docks to find you. I was going to destroy them...



Wow! Enrique, you've done so much for us already... Thank you!

Heh, you act an awful lot like an Air Pirate, for a Prince.

Alright, start the engines!! Let's take the Delphinus and get out of here!!

Everyone: Yeah!!





Let's go! Delphinus, full speed ahead!!!





I wouldn't worry too much about the fortress. The spot where I blew up the cannon should be weak. And if this ship's got the firepower that the Prince said, we should be able to blast our way out.

I don't know, did you see how thick that gate was? It'd take a hell of a lot of firepower to get through that.

Well, here goes!







It's called the Moon Stone Cannon. Until recently, it was only an experimental weapon under development by Lord De Loco. He used data collected from the Red and Green Gigas to develop it. He says that this cannon's power rivals the power of the Gigas themselves... But, the manufacturing cost of this cannon is so immense that this ship is the only ship in the entire Armada equipped with one.

Wow!! That means this ship is as powerful as a Gigas then! I can't believe it!!!

Well then... Vyse, let's give her a test run, shall we? Just use the "S.Cannon" command and we'll be good to go.



Time to break in the Delphinus! Currently it's only equipped with Prototype Cannons as standard armament, which isn't very interesting, but it doesn't matter because the Grand Fortress is completely immune to normal cannon fire anyway. If we're going to punch a hole through that we're going to need something with a little more bite to it.



Moonstone Cannon...FIRE!









That'll do nicely. The Moonstone Cannon costs a little more to fire than the Harpoon Cannon, but by god does it get results.









I can't believe it! We just broke through the Grand Fortress.

You sure know how to break in a new ship.

Now, we can finally continue on our search for the other Moon Crystals!!



Well that was completely awesome. There's a lot of echoes between this and the first escape from Valua, too. We get to try out the Moonstone Cannon in the same place as we did the Harpoon Cannon, and remember how that scene ended with Galcian stranded in the train with a music sting remix of his own theme?





Vyse sure knows how to make an enemy. Anyway, that's a wrap for this time, so tune in next time when we unravel a mystery that will have plagued almost none of you. See you then!

Video List
Fortress Outside
Dralkor Tank
Delphinus