Part 51: A Palace Stained in Blood

Sounds promising, doesn't it?



So no one's going to be surprised when I tell you we're heading to the palace in Graska next.



Our crew is kind of surprised when the doors lock behind them, though!



Well I'm not sure if Yohn is surprised or not, because that's all she ever says.

Yohn...
So there is something here. Careful, guys...



Suddenly, douchebag out of nowhere!

I'll never go with you, you creep!!

Let's just calm down now, shall we? Wouldn't you like to speak with your grandfather? I bet it's been a while.

Grandfather's alive? If you've so much as harmed a hair on his head...



Hm? Where is he?



what

where



shit.


No... NOOOOOO!! Make it stop!!



The fishman takes a few steps and stumbles down the stairs.



It gets up again...



...but doesn't get very far.



Grandfather!



Iskas is such a glorious douchebag. I can't even hate him as much as the previous game's douchebags because at least he's clever enough to stay where we can't punch him.



I apologize for that sorry display. Let me make it up to you... with some fresh, young specimens.















To no one's surprise.



The palace is a kinda nice-looking area, and it's one of the unrepeatable maps so you won't get bored of it.



The victory condition is a bit different.



Fuckbuckets, that is not pretty!



And these things are hanging out in barred-off rooms on both sides of the throne, where you can only reach them with ranged attacks.



Speaking of which, great job, Kate!



And the enemies have learned not to bunch up in tight formations where Lazlo can just nuke them! He gets rid of the caster on the upper right instead.



Roget and Flare work together to kill the swordsman here.

Well, I say "work together" but what I mean is "Roget fails to one-shot him and Flare picks up the slack". I was rather surprised.



On the Eye Fish's first turn, Andarc will speak up whether he's in the party or not.

Ah... The monster from Middleport...

But... its eyes... They're gone!



Eyes or no eyes, the fish prefers to run away for now.



Kyril Flying Swallows a dude, profits.



All the enemies starting here are water types, and will happily fill the map with blue tiles. This is good if you, like Flare, like water terrain. If you're Kyril, well...



Holy fuck what?!



Kate takes her revenge, but really, what?



This crit lets Flare one-shot a dude!



And profit. Boy, does she profit!



Oh, you dick.



Have some magic sword! Note how this turns the terrain under the enemy fire elemental as well.



The Shredding is such a great spell. Large AoE, long range... nice damage.



But as we kill more fishmen...



...reinforcements keep spawning in. This will continue indefinitely until the cannons are down.



More skill = more uses of Eagle Rune. Good!



okay we get it now stop it



I send Lazlo to kill the big fish, but he mis-aims most of his shot. Lazlo!



Kika finishes it... barely. Holy shit does that thing have defence!



It glows quite prettily as it dies, though...



...and Kika gets more skill.



...oh. That's why.

Though it doesn't really matter as I'm swapping her out for Rene because I want treasure.

Roger...



Kyril can't throw his swallow through enemies, but he can throw it through pillars.



Roget reminds us all that he can still smack fishmen across the head.



The fishmen don't appreciate it!



After all that time, Kyril is eager to show his skills.



I don't remember what this does this time around. Next!



No spellcasting on Flare's watch!



No summoning more fishmen either!



It wasn't much EXP, but it's quite fitting that he got a level out of it. Nice stats, too.



But they're still coming.



The map's only chest has a Chaos Shield. No one we care about uses shields.



From one thing to another, though.


I can't actually park her on the throne because it's not passable terrain, but eh, it's close enough.

"TREMBLE AND GENUFLECT, PEASANTS"

""



Rene picks up another thing. There's one more to go.

But there's a small problem here. Our levels are far too high to meet the experience requirement for an S-rank, so we'll have to settle for the other special item we can get from this map.



Sadly that takes a while and so I stopped recording and don't have any more footage after that last treasure, so just pretend I killed a fuckload of fishmen and dug up a Rage Orb behind the throne.



This is your reward for killing 50 enemies on this map. Not too terrible if you can up the framerate a bit.

For the record, the S-rank is an Imperial Ring which boosts all stats by 5. Pretty nice, especially since it's one of the few ways to boost SPD, but not a game changer like Simeon's Spellbook.



Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the scumbag there.



What? I can't stop now!

Unfortunately, many of my comrades lost their lives bringing that thing back. They fell victim to its eyes.
However, their sacrifice was not in vain. They've played their part in changing our empire.

I don't think you ever had any "comrades."

And once Corselia is in my hands, I will have achieved my final goal.

I told you, she's with me and you can't have her!



Corselia agrees.

Corselia!

Kyril not so much.

Is that so? Very well, so be it.

Huh?

Whether you are alive or dead ultimately makes very little difference to my plan.
I thought it would be easier to gain the support of the people if I served as your regent when we first take power.



Damn, man. That's cold.

He's getting away!

After him!

But despite all that...



...Kyril feels the need to Have Words with Corselia.

Yes?

Promise me you'll never talk about dying again, okay?

Oh...
I'm sorry, Kyril. I promise.

I'll hold you to your word, you know.

What happened to "After him"?

Now come on, let's go!

...odds are he's long gone by now. Good job.

Never give up, Corselia, no matter what.

You're right. I won't!



As it turns out, Iskas is waiting for us outside.

The best is yet to come. I surely hope you haven't forgotten about our ultimate weapon, the eye.

You mean the eye from that monster?

You're smarter than I thought.

"By which I mean you seem to have a brain. I find this fact intriguing and unexpected."

Yes... And it is truly a sight to behold.



I'll be watching for you all by the device itself.

That sounds... final.



But of course we haven't had enough yet.



Miranda does the whole "I am so sad and conflicted" thing except she's really not because she's a bitch.

We're leaving, Miranda.

So Miranda rides off with him.

Because she's a bitch.



What a couple of douches.



Some time later...

Grandfather...

"But listen well, Corselia. I shall not blame you even if you bring this empire to an end."

What?

"No empire lasts forever. If it is fated to fall, so be it. Just don't let it fall into their hands.
Do not bow to the Patriarchal Faction. Follow your heart, trust your mind, and decide what's best for our people."



I neither know nor care. Next!



...I'm starting to think she might just kill herself after all.

Anyway. Did you think four characters was a tiny number? Well Konami agrees, because in the next fight we'll get to use ten people. Motherfucking ten. That means you have eight votes, though you can of course leave some to me if you don't have eight characters you care about.