Part 13: Twin Heaven Fang

We slowly and painstakingly make our way across the goddamn ocean.



Damp hairballs are regular enemies now!



This time, Paula is able to set them on fire. How this does not also burn down the ship around us, I have no idea, but I'm certainly not going to complain if it means I won't be stuck on a raft again.



Seeing that is about the only interesting thing that happens before we reach Nay.

If the name sounds familiar, it's probably because I mentioned it way back in the first post.



Well, either that or you're actually crazy enough to have played this game, in which case why would you do that to yourself.



Nay looks a bit more like Razril, all stone walls and shit. It feels less fortified, though, more just built to last. The music is pretty chill.


Now that I have no need for it, you youngsters can use it as you see fit...

Hey! Maybe this trip will be worth it af



GOD WHY



I hate it already.



Wait!



I take that back.



TWIN

HEAVEN

FANG

bitches!


My husband spends more time looking at his beard than he does looking at me! I'm bored...



...



Never mind. I've gone right back to hating it again.



The human village isn't much fun apart from the smith. Let's get out and head to the Nay-kobold settlement, and look! It's time for another episode of Shit Suikoden IV Gets Right!

Weapons in Suikoden work somewhat differently from most other RPGs. Instead of buying new ones, you improve your current ones at blacksmiths, starting at level 1 and ending at level 16. Most weapons have three separate stages of development and when you reach a new one, its name changes and it usually gets a bigger than usual attack bonus. To use a boring example, you may go from Bronze Sword to Iron Sword and finally Steel Sword.

In Suikoden IV, when a weapon's name changes, this also alters their appearance - a series first, and sadly also last.



The changes aren't always huge, and usually you don't really get any good closeups on your group's stuff, but Lazlo's swords stick out by becoming stained red with the blood of his enemies.

(Somehow.)

(Well, or maybe not, but I prefer to think of it like that.)



Also while we're praising the game, the route is nice and scenic, and I love this bridge for another reason as well, but that's for another time. For now, let me just say I'd love it a whole lot more if it wasn't jam packed with angry bees.



Here's the

uh

music?



Thank you appraiser, this says everything I couldn't say.



Y-Yeah. But it's not like I came back, okay?

Backstory!

Sort of.



Yes.

I'm Perrault. I'm an aspiring writers who dreams of making a living out of it someday.

That was useful to know! I wonder if he has something else to say?



I'm gathering up people to join me.

What's that? That sounds interesting. It'll be good material.

 It will be terrible material 

Wait... Let me get this straight... There'll be a lot of people there, right?



Don't hesitate. Yes! Triple digits! Just you fucking wait I will recruit every single fucking person in this world with a portrait.

And if they won't join up I'll kill them and then you can't write about them anyway.

At long last, this will be my opportunity to reveal my writing to the world! T-Take me there, too!

Certainly, let's go.

Then, I look forward to working with you! Excuse me!

And off he goes.



Here's another!



Sadly, all I can do now is rob him blind, because he won't join until I do some other arbitrary bullshit.

Oh no, no, don't mind me. I'm just talking to myself... Let's see, then, for gold...
Here you go! First place! We have a winner!!

...it's still only 10000 Potch. One of these days, Bang. One of these days.



Face!

Well...

If you bring me along, bad luck will follow...
Sorry, but leave me alone, will you.

I... I didn't want to recruit you a-anyway!



We can use the hot spring, but this time it's entirely pointless. After picking up Perrault, we've done everything there is to do in this island right now, so it's time to head back.



BEES!



Na-Nal is the eastern of the two islands, not too far from Nay.



It has random encounters and probably the most boring music so far.



It's even self-aware! God fucking damn it, Konami!



The only thing of interest on the beach is this chest.



This thing dies pretty quickly and leaves behind a treasure map we may never get around to using.

Fortunately, the next part of town is encounter free.



Well, at least you're not a furry. I accept your challenge!

All right! Well then, are you ready?

Ready... to beat your ass with the power of savestates my mad mahjong skills!



Rita's game is pretty entertaining! It's some kind of Suikoden-flavoured monstrosity of a tile-based game where you pick one tile per round and try to match them up with your other tiles. But then there are the rune tiles...



...and I just realized I don't have enough room in one post to go over everything there is to know about Rita-Pon (as she calls it) so I'm terribly sorry but we're moving on now.



Would you like to see my ship?

Ugh. Hey, little girl! I have candy in the back of my boat!

What's that? Wh-Where? Let's go! I'll definitely go! I'll go, even if you won't let me!

RITA NO

...I will need to teach her a thing or two about trusting strange men on strange boats.

(On the plus side, since she has joined my group, I am now free to lecture her at will!)

I'd better get ready then! See you later!

And so she runs off to swim across the ocean so we can pick her up at headquarters.




We'll have to wait to see her in action, though, because I still have more stuff to do on this island, and I can't stomach another one of those trips right now anyway.