Suikoden Tactics Part #53 - A Warrior's Reckoning (I)

Part 53: A Warrior's Reckoning (I)

This is it. The very last dungeon. Iskas awaits within... as does the evil eye. It all rests on the outcome of this battle.

We are going to kick his ass so hard.

By the way, I wanted to show this off. It isn't perfect (Lino has S-ranked all his skills by now) but +2 SPD is nice for a strong, slow guy. However, he'll be keeping the Master's Vest because fuck Unbalance.

The Guardian Vestment is considerably more interesting. Auto-buffs for defence against all kinds of attacks? It might even be worth it over the magic robe's +5 MAG!

There's also this - the very rarest of rare finds from Graska (it's taken me like three attempts at getting this to finally find one!) and it, too, is pretty cool. I haven't experimented with it (and may need to do so) but even if this only means the HP recovery, that would probably be pretty helpful.

But enough preparation. It is time. (music)

Let's hurry. Iskas awaits.

Kyril... Forgive me for getting you guys caught up in all this.

...dammit Corselia, when I say "time" I don't mean "to apologize. Again."

All we want is to destroy the Evil Eye.
It just so happens that you want the same thing. Don't apologize, Corselia.

Fortunately Kyril has grown rather good at shutting down this kind of shit.

We're with you every step of the way!

Onward!

I feel like I've been waiting forever for you and your friends to arrive, Kyril.

Iskas addresses us from a black screen. It is not very interesting and he does not get a screenshot.

Welcome to your final resting place. Your deaths will be exquisite, I assure you!

He still thinks he can win! Pardon me while I laugh.

This chapter wastes no time. There is the Evil Eye. It's all the way in the back...

...of this facility.

Iskas Must Die. (music)

Naturally, anyone who gets in my way on the road to accomplish that will also die.

So will their friends.

And their families.

And their pet goldfish.

Iskas himself is no slouch. He comes with a Guardian Vestment and Guardian Bracelet (we don't have one), four doses of Mega Medicine, a Fire and Thunder Rune with the associated skills, as well as concentration, at S rank. He's also the highest level character we've seen so far.

On his side, he has four of these things and a considerably greater number of disposable minions.

There's also two chests close to our starting position and I'm not sure why I bother - I mean, this is the final dungeon - but Flare picks up a spare Guardian Vestment.

Lazlo seems to be aware that it's good to keep your shit together in the final dungeon...

...so he splits those eight shots as evenly as he can and kills all three dudes.

By the way, see how we're starting in a kind of trench? The height of those walls is... 2.

If you have mages who don't know Jump and aren't Maxine here, there are lower platforms towards the very back, and it shouldn't be a problem if you put the mages right next to them, but if you just place your characters without looking at the height, there's a good chance you're just wasting time. I brought Jeane on my first run. Put her up front because her MOV is kinda shit... ended up leaving her at the back of the map while people whose movement wasn't terrible cleared out the rest of it. Don't be me. I am a terrible role model.

The thing back here will light up every time its turn comes around...

...and power up random elemental terrain all over the map. This can be both helpful and harmful, obviously, but right now Mitsuba seems to be enjoying it.

Oh no! A caster actually used Silent Lake intelligently and got Lazlo with it! Too bad that's not going to save him.

But you know, it makes me realize something. This place has perfect lighting conditions. This is what the spell should look like, and I haven't even switched my plugin!

Kika still doesn't care much. That's a lot of zeroes! She dodged his attack, countered it, and got parried in turn. It's a pretty badass thing to watch.

...and all my good cheer just vanished.

Wind.

Of.

Mother.

Fucking.

Sleep.

...

Andarc had a projected damage of 292 on this guy, which would have killed him. However...

...that allows Snowe to... get a shitty level and take damage from the terrain. I don't think it was worth it.

Flare hops off the owl for that terrain bonus and fuckblammo! One less cannon.

And one more level. Damn, girl!

Kate weakens a dude and lets Seneca finish him for another good level.

Suddenly, earth terrain!

...we have no one who likes earth terrain. Oh, if only we had brought Pablo, no one cried.

Still, not much of a problem. Oh, and yeah, silence does not block unite attacks. This one kills one of the owl riders... and the caster responsible for that Silent Lake. Revenge is a dish best served with a tornado. That goes sideways. And is made of swords.

Reinforcements! Our first, but not our last, batch for this map.

Lino is too slow to be of any great use, and I'm a bit disappointed that he didn't get to have another conversation with Flare before we finish up here, but he picks up a Hero's Armor from this. I don't know what that does, and I don't really care either. I could also dig up a couple of things here, but, you know. Effort. Caring. Final dungeon.

One of the rune cannons opens its eye and fires!

The soldier morphs into a fishman and slaps Kika for holy shit fuck that's a lot of damage!

But she fillets a guy and gets all those points back. And speaks. I think she's just pretending to be silenced to let the enemy feel some measure of hope.

This guy is like HEY GUYS I AM GOING TO BREATH OF ICE YOU

Snowe is like NO. And then he gets two levels and four points of skill. He really is about as good as it's possible to be when you're wielding a one-handed sword and don't have Extra Move. Not great, but passable.

Andarc gets another almost-kill and an actual level.

Iskas gets more backup that's not going to help.

Seneca gets to finish the fish Andarc shocked.

Lino gets to act just after the Evil Eye turns all the terrain blue again. He doesn't like this, so he takes out the second cannon with First Style (or was it Second Style? Who cares?)

He does not get speed.

Snowe does, though. He is definitely pulling his weight.

Flare hopped on an owl again so she could get here quicker, and then she hopped off again so she could do this.

Dance of the Hawk has the user firing several shots into the air...

...which then come raining down on everything unfortunate enough to be standing in the area of effect. It also causes Shadow Weave (which makes them unable to move, but not act, in case you don't remember my half-assed explanation from like 50 updates ago) but that's irrelevant because these two wouldn't be moving even if they could-

...

You know what I mean.

More levels for Flare!

And Kate!

More enemies for us to kill and get levels off!

...and there went all the elemental terrain. Huh! And Snowe gets a level even though he can't kill the cannon. He will not be satisfied until he has all the levels.

Then the elemental terrain comes back again, and this time it's fire elemental! Only Kyril likes fire elemental and he's so far back he doesn't even matter because someone thought it'd be hilarious to put him to sleep.

Seneca gets shot and stabbed for that level, but it was still worth it.

Flare finishes Snowe's cannon for another great level.

"Hey guys! Did I tell you I've remembered how to talk again?

QUADKILL

And no hitting my dudes with lightning okay please thanks.

He drops a level.

More enemies!

Although it would make for a really metal final dungeon, the cannons don't turn your people into fishmen. However, they do inflict ailments and now Lino is silenced and asleep and out of commission for the rest of the fight.

Kika doesn't like the fire terrain, but there was a caster up there on that purple tile that needed both her and Andarc's attention. At least Andarc is happy about it.

But of course Iskas isn't, and summons more help.

The terrain shifts back to awful, but we're close to done now.

These dudes are all lightning elemental...

...but there's one less of them now.

Oh, and did I forget to mention? Iskas is immune to spells and skills. No double-edged swordcheesing him. You have to beat him to death.

(Which is going to be very satisfying, don't get me wrong!)

Lazlo moves that spell a bit to the right and takes out the caster and the archer partly hidden behind his portrait there instead.

And then, for the first time, he kind of regrets putting on that wizard rune. Ouch!

Iskas' high level and equipment makes him pretty resistant to beatdowns.

And the enemies are going to make it annoying, so I'll wipe them out before going after the boss.

It's also really hard to hit Iskas, so having Lazlo try from the front seems doomed to fail. Instead, he tosses some meds to Seneca, who has been something of a damage magnet on this map.