Suikoden V Part #93 - Raging Demon

Part 93: Raging Demon

We're back in the underground passage. (music)

It's the same underground passage as last time.

It has the same enemies as last time.

It begins and ends in the same places as last time, except this time we're going through it in reverse order. Exciting.

(music)

Let's go! It should still be unlocked!

"Unlocked", he says...

There's no one around. We can just head on up the way we came down on our first visit.

And from the infirmary, we can head on straight out into the arena. (Watch this.)

Watch out. It's too quiet.

Fuckballs.

They're all over the place!

And then there's this asshole. (music)

Childerich!

You're too naïve! You guys walked right into my trap. How does it feel to get duped? Ha ha ha ha ha!

Dammit!

How fitting I get to kill you right where we first met. This must be fate!

Childerich may be a rat bastard, but he makes the most wonderful faces.

Uh, you may want to look out...

...behind you...

...Oh well, too late!

Wha--? What the...?! What was that?!

it's the Twilight Rune.

Looks like we've been spared...

(music)

Experiencing a little rift in the "family," huh? Doesn't look like there's any hope for you now.

Grrrrr... I'm not done for yet!

I've been waiting for this!

Come get some!

what

Not you! I was talking to the insane clo

actually never mind

what

Allow me to handle this. Allow me to avenge the humiliation I suffered at the Sacred Games final!

You make a compelling argument.

I believe I have a say in this, too. After all, I never had the chance to prove myself in the competition. Let me fight the trecherous Nether Gate swine!

uh

Well fuck me!

He's all yours, Zegai.

Got it.

This is no game. This is real! Real blood! Real guts! You'll die a slow and painful death! And so will the rest of you! At last, my bloodlust shall be SATISFIED!!!

Because we all remember how badly you kicked his ass the last time you two fought, right?

*gulp!*

What's he drinking?!

Ack... Glaaahhh...

I have a bad feeling about this, Zegai!

Kill... Kill... K-K-KILL... Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!

Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.

And so, Zegai faced off against Childerich...

In a duel to the death!

But...

...it didn't go so well.

Wait! He's gone mad!

*cough* *cough* *sputter*
Y-You're... You're... n-next...
Kah?!
Kraaahhh?!
Khhkk?!
Kah... Kraahh...

What the?!

I like that he at least tries to use his magical life-saving plot device.

But...

We'd better hurry. The bearer of the Twilight Rune is in the castle. We must locate whoever it is at once.

What's wrong with you?! Can't you see what just happened?!

No... Zerase's right. That's what Zegai was fighting for. We can't give up now.

Okay...

Except you didn't really think Zegai would let a nobody like Childerich get the better of him, did you?

Kill... Kill... K-K-KILL... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill...
Kraaah?!
Kah! Kaggh?!
Gaaaaaahhh!
Kk...

Are you all right?!

Yeah.

What happened to him?

It was probably some powerful drug his body couldn't handle. No doubt he wanted to take out as many of us as he could before he died.

What are you doing? The bearer of the Twilight Rune is in the castle. Stop wasting you time here.

Can't even get a breather, huh?

All right, let's get going.

No, no, I can't get going yet, I have things to do!

Like going back and meddling in the flow of time.

Okay, he's mine.

(It's okay, Viki told me it has no consequences whatsoever.)

(Though come to think of it she was kind of drunk at the time.)

Shut up and fight.

(At least I think she was drunk. But it's Viki so it's a bit hard to tell.)

You won't have the benevolent Commander Ferid to save you THIS time! You'll die a slow and painful death! And so will the rest of you! At last, my bloodlust shall be SATISFIED!!!

*gulp!*

What the?!

Gaaahhh...

The rest of it plays out the same.

But now it's Belcoot fighting.

Get thee bent!

Kill... Kill... K-K-KILL... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill...
Kraaah?!
Kah! Kaggh?!
Gaaaaaahhh!
Kk...

Belcoot!

Are you all right?!

What happened to him?

It was probably some powerful drug his body couldn't handle. No doubt he wanted to take out as many of us as he could before he died.

Sort of ironic, isn't it? He drugged me so he could beat me, and now a drug has finished him off, too.

Belcoot has this kind of hilarious "Winners don't do drugs!" thing going.

That is, unless he gets his face stabbed off!

In which case, only the names will change. (Should I have a Belcoot death count? Because it's entirely possible he'll beat out, or at least match, Snowe at this pace.)

All right then, I think we can finally

GAH!

I only lost at the Sacred Games because I was drugged. Mueller's been giving me the cold shoulder ever since.
This guy won the Sacred Games, didn't he? Now's my chance to finally set things right once and for all.

Where did you even come from?!

Okay, Richard, he's all yours.

But fine, you can have your fifteen seconds of fame, too.

Okay, you can count on me.

I hear that all the time.

It doesn't help that you sound like a little kid, too.

I'm going to SLICE that foppish look right off your face! You'll die a slow and painful death! And so will the rest of you! At last, my bloodlust shall be SATISFIED!!!

*gulp!*

Hey, what's...?

(cue Childerich spazzing out again)

Let's see if Richard does any better!

...well he does, but only because him losing just results in the same scene with the names changed again and I can't be arsed to show it off.

That's his line when asked if he's all right, and that's the only difference.

But screw all you guys.

Your Highness...

I'm the protagonist, and with rank comes privileges.

Frey doesn't even get a special intro line.

But it's okay.

He gets revenge instead.

Sweet, sweet revenge.

Rot in whatever miserable Suikoverse afterlife passes for a hell, you insufferable piece of shit.

Kill... Kill... K-K-KILL... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill...
Kraaah?!
Kah! Kaggh?!
Gaaaaaahhh!
Kk...

Frey, are you all right?!

Did you seriously think I'd let that fuckbag beat me in anything resembling a fair fight? I've been waiting months for this.

(Also note the very slight change in Georg's dialogue.)

What happened to him?

It was probably some powerful drug his body couldn't handle. No doubt he wanted to take out as many of us as he could before he died.

It's a bit weird that no one seems to know about the particular drug, since we already heard about it. But oh well.

What are you doing? The bearer of the Twilight Rune is in the castle. Stop wasting you time here.

Can't even get a breather, huh?

All right, let's get going.

And so, finally, we got going.

Do you have any idea how good that felt? He was like RAWR and I was all POW SOCK KBLOWIE and he was all I'M DEAD BLARGH! Fuck it was awesome! My only regret is I didn't have an audience. You guys don't count, you already know I'm the best. (music)

Except Zerase although I think she knows too and just won't admit it because she's a bitch.

I don't remember the way here, but it's just a matter of trying every door until we find one Zerase won't complain about. (music)

I see that even Childerich was no match for you. Impressive... But this is as far as you'll go! I'll strike down anyone who dares force their way into Lord Godwin's castle! Even you, Frey. The fact that you're Her Majesty the Queen's brother means nothing!

Dilber attacks us.

Get the fuck out of my way.

And with that, another enemy falls. (music)

But why? Lord Godwin isn't even at this castle anymore. Why'd you have to risk your life?

So that we can have another pointless A Previous Suikoden Did This, So We Will Too moment. The enemy on a bridge barring your entrance to the castle is another reference to a scene that, again, worked better the first time. Not because that enemy had more of a personality than Dilber, but because he was not fighting for a literal Nazi.

(He also wasn't a complete pushover who goes down in one round.)

Also Dilber's dying portrait is kind of hilarious. *tilts 90 degrees* *is dead*

This is where... Lord Godwin himself someday will rest.

Frey decides not to tell the dying man that he's going to have this place bulldozed and turned into a parking lot.

It was my duty to protect this place, to repay my debt to Lord Godwin.

And then he died.

It was very sad. You know because the music playing here is called "sorrow".

Also I had to fight really hard to resist the urge to paste in Commander Shepard's "I should go" around this point in the video.

How about I just don't? Because

fuck it

can we just go

This is the Godwin family castle. The music that plays inside is a variation on the arena theme. I couldn't find it on the soundtrack, but I think it's worth hearing, so I recorded it in-game.

(Alternately, youtube.)

...well okay so it's entirely possible I missed it because the OST is like 150 tracks but I made an effort so you better appreciate it anyway.

Of course there are generic Godwin troops inside, but we've all seen them before. Only thing of note here is that they have frankly embarrassing amounts of HP, to the point where throwing people like Georg and Miakis at them doesn't even feel like cheating.

I generally like the Stormfist attack (Dilber aside) but the encounter design is lousy. Dilber had 3800 HP; these assholes have 2000. If you plan for a 3800 health boss to be a challenge, don't throw an endless stream of 2k health mooks at me after that! If you plan for an endless stream of 2k health mooks to be manageable, perhaps a 38000 health boss would have been more appropriate.

(You could argue that Dilber isn't supposed to be a great challenge, to show how strong you've become, but it still doesn't make for good gameplay.)

Mooks aside, there's some really nice treasure in here. This is the second most impressive one: the Royal Paradise epic, which boosts, I shit you not, every single skill.

Of course that means you'll probably never use it unless you grind, because it means raising every single skill to A rank.

I've never had every single skill at A rank before, but this time I'm cheating so I'm gonna use it.

The other problem is that the only one who can use it is Frey... or a reasonably good imitation.

Frey can hit SS rank, so it's a huge boost if you grind until he can learn it, and then grind until you can max it. Roy can reach A rank, which is still pretty good, but he can hit S in Untold Clarity so I'd probably just stick with that since he has no use for the magic boosts anyway.

And here's the most impressive treasure, the ticket to 16th-level weapons.

...actually it's not that huge of a step; you get 10-20 points of ATK going up the last level, which is not huge at this stage of the game.

Some interesting wall hangings...

The west side has an exit to the harbour, where we landed on our first visit. This thing was just sitting around here since the beginning of the game?!

It's tempting (although it drains HP every round) but in the end, it's not a dress so it's not good enough for Frey.

Towards the back, there are stairs up to the second floor. This room is the only one we can't access.

In the middle there's a throne room... but there's nothing inside.

And then...

We finally find Sialeeds. Watch this.

(no music)

Georg, you're back, too, huh? And Shoon. It's been a while!

Sialeeds!

I... I can't believe it!

What's the matter? What are you all so surprised about?
Oh, it must be my hair.

(music)

Oh, by the way, Frey. Is Lyon okay?

Sialeeds! Did you really have to do all this? Tell me, why?!

...You don't need to know my reasons.

(music)

The Twilight Rune...

Just like when you took possession of the Dawn Rune. It looks like I've been chosen by a Rune, as well.

Heaven help us...

So that means... the attack on Childerich's soldiers was all YOUR doing?!

It can't be!

What, you don't believe me?

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Sialeeds challenges us to a fight, but between Shoon, Georg, and Miakis, she doesn't get a turn. I'm not sure how much health she has, but it's at best twice as much as the random mooks outside, and they come in packs up to four. Even had I not brought Little Ms. Fuck-Your-Shit-Up, plot-forced Zerase and Frey should have been enough to end the fight in a round and probably wouldn't have given her a turn either.

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