Part 44: Sidetracked (XVI) - Yu must be joking

What's that, you thought we'd be running out of quests by now? Oh no, not by a long shot. So, while I'm waiting for the votes to come in, I'll just amuse myself with some of the remaining ones.



Here's the critter we need to hunt down for the quest in question. It's a big, strong, slow enemy (and should look somewhat familiar to those of you who read the Suikoden IV thread) and it appears on the Xasta Grassland. The fact that it's so slow means we can mop up the bird people that spawned along with them before taking them on.



And since said bird people scale to our levels, that means our levels... start scaling to theirs, so to speak.



Honestly, the bulk of this update is watching numbers go up.



I could think of worse things!



Hey, Snowe got luck!



And I got a shot of Nalkul covering Champo like the big softie he is.



More numbers!



More!



MORE!



Oh, and some support conversations, too.

Yeah?

I've done you wrong, haven't I? Kicking you out of Razril... Even giving you grief afterwards...

Yes. Yes you have.

It's in the past now.

But that's also true.

I'm truly sorry.

It's all right. Really.

And they get more Good Will. See? Lazlo has forgiven him. You should too.



I like Nalkul's switch-out quote. It suits him.

(For he is a cat, you see.)



Noah has a job to accomplish on this map, too.



That's what happens when you let a behemoth get close to you!



Noah is pissed! It won't affect anything, but she's mad. Gonna steal your shit so hard now!



Give me your body parts!



Behemoths are high level and Kyril is... sort of not. This means anything he does on this map is profitable!



Rene, too. She just dug up a giant bird's feather. It's useless to us, but it sells for a couple of hundred bucks in case we're really desperate.



More numbers for Flare! More, I say!



And Kika, too!



...well that was pointless. How many tails do those things have, anyway?



It was Corselia who killed it, by the way.



And there we go! We get 5000 Potch and 1200 SP for this, as well as an Ancient Lunch, a consumable (...naturally) which fully heals the user and boosts their ATK for five turns. Pretty good! But of course I'll probably never get around to using it.



Here's another one we've been able to take on for a good while now. We've actually had the means to finish it for a pretty good while, too, but it's kind of annoying because it means hunting for multiple random drops. I only have one of these even after all the fighting I've done.



This time we're heading to Terana Plain, which is where savage sprouts seem to show up most. They also show up in Xasta, but we were just there and didn't see any. Variation is nice!



Oh yeah, and Jeane joins at level 16 for whatever stupid reason. Check out that MAG stat, though!



Actually never mind the MAG, pay attention to the kitties.

...

Champo!

Huh? Oh, Nalkul... Sorry, I was kinda sleeping...

I can't believe you! Sleeping at a time like this will get ya killed!

Sorry!

I forget how many times I've seen those two do something and just gone "Cat people."



I don't think Champo is getting killed any time soon, though.



Still better than seductive laughter.



Rene dug up a pair of paw gloves. These repeatable areas have a lot of random junk to be dug up, but not much of it is useful at this stage.



Wait, didn't I just say I had one savage sprout root...? FFFFFFF. Savestate abuse, go!



But it's okay because this time I found another support chat. (That's the paw glove dig spot to the left, there.)

Hello.

Hey, you wanna go treasure hunting with me sometime?

What do you think you're doing right now?

Sure!

Except, this time, can we go hunting for food? Something really tasty...

Oh. That kind of treasure hunting.

You want to look for... food? That sounds a little tough... but I'll do my best.

Hey, if you can dig up paw gloves, you can dig up potatoes and stuff. Although judging by the wildlife around here, they might be guarded by beetroot golems or something.



Anyway, I reloaded and killed the second sprout until it decided to drop a root. I'm so glad the RNG in this game allows for that kind of cheese!

Please let me know if you find a Savage Sprout Root.

um excuse me but

That's... a Savage Sprout Root, isn't it? Thanks for finding one!

You're welcome. _{Reward, please. I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart, you know.}

Ah, there you are, Dr. Yu!

Oh, Carrie. What are you doing with these folks?

Nothing, just warming the bench. Hey, it's an important job. I'm sure Nalkul appreciated finding it warm when he tagged out in the previous fight. Otherwise he might have decided to nap on Kyril's laptop instead.

The King of Obel asked me to help. He really wanted you to help them, but you were away.

Oh. My apologies.

Why don't you come too, Dr. Yu?

Well, why not? I'll just leave some medicine at the clinic. No one's seriously ill, anyway. I can assist you all for a while

Yu has really cleaned up his act since IV. It's nice!

Really? It's great to have you on board!

So it is! Not because I'll ever use another healing support character, but for reasons.



Also, we're handing in the quest as usual. It's only worth 1500p and 1000sp, but I have a feeling we'll find a use for those points soon...



...because now we have enough people to upgrade our skills to S rank! Look at this! Isn't it beautiful?



This is less beautiful, though. Another of Jeane's little problems is that she comes with the (completely useless) Charm Rune permanently attached, taking up a slot I could have put, say, a Wizard Rune in. It basically lets other characters protect Jeane as if they had Good Will even if they don't. She had it in IV as well; there it would randomly cause enemies to protect her from other enemies' attacks, which was amusing but rather pointless.

Still, she does come with a higher tier lightning rune, which makes it worth recruiting her all by itself, even if you're not going to use her. It does lack the instant cast Thunder Runner, though, so it should probably be used together with something that does have an instantaneous spell.



And finally, let's take a little break after all that questing.

Yeah... Hard to believe the four of us were together at the Academy not all that long ago!

We've all taken our separate paths.

Strange that I'm the only one who remained with the Knights of Razril.

That is strange, especially since he's support to be the clever one in the group.

You look great in that new armor! Very dashing...

...well, okay, maybe he did it because the uniform impresses chicks.

After the town was freed, the people of Razril fashioned the suits specifically for the new Order.

Really? Wow! Good for you, Keneth!

Huh? But wait, Katarina... Aren't you Commander of the Order now?

I turned down the position at first. I didn't feel ready to take on those responsibilities just yet. But some time has passed, and now I think I'm ready for the task.
Come visit the Order again soon, okay?

Yeah. Paula, we should go visit Razril next!

Yes, I suppose we should.

Heck yeah! I could show you around town!

And I'll give you a tour of the Order's new manor.







Keneth is another of the few returning characters to get a redesign and new artwork. The ex-knights are still wearing their civilian outfits from IV.


Still taking votes for the next real fight (seven characters).