Part 71: CH66: A Tale of Two Bossfights

CH 66: A Tale of Two Bossfights



Skit: Pain is the Great Teacher


: Honestly, I'm still a little worried. I don't know if Lambda really has the power to stop Fodra's core.
I mean, will absorbing all the eleth really do it? There's no way to know for sure.
I guess all we can do is have faith.
: It takes a great deal of fortitude to say that. I wish I possessed the same kind of strength to protect Windor.
: Come now. It is merely youth and inexperience that gives him such strength, Your Majesty.
Remember that, Asbel. Countless trials and tribulations await you, and you must steel yourself.
: Whoa, c'mon now, Captain Malik. There's no need to scare me like that, is there?
: There is truth in the Captain's words. Enduring painful experiences would benefit you in the end.
: Yeah, you know, I guess you're right.
I've never been thrown into a strange environment and had my personality all twisted up by it.
: Gya!
: I've never survived the misery of coming between a friend and a lover before losing them both.

: Urgh!
: Perhaps transcending such hardships would indeed teach me true strength.

: That's all the more reason to focus on the matter at hand with Fodra's core!
: I will give it everything I have! Now who's with me?!
: ...Wait, no one?
: Mmm...
: Hmm...
: ...Hubert and Malik seem to have taken that harder than I would have anticipated.
: Huh? Taken what?



: They were too close to the core.


: How can there be such a huge open space all the way down here?
: It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.
: This place is teeming with life. But...why?
: Because we're approaching Fodra's core.
: Fodra's core...
: What's wrong, Pascal? You seem quiet.
: Well, this place is filled with plants and animals and whatever, right?
: Right.
: I had this same thought when we saw the flowers, but...
: Hey, Pascal, come on. You're starting to worry me.
: There's one thing that should be here, but isn't.
: Which is?
: ...Humans. There aren't any humans here.
: Exactly.
Look at how beautiful this planet is with no people around. I think that's why Fodra's been trying to eliminate all the humans. And this place is the result.
: No way...
: The Little Queens were born from Fodra's core in order to protect it.
: That would seem to match with what we've seen so far.
: Remember what Fourier said about how creatures adapt to survive? Well, it looks like the core had that ability, too. If humans were here, they'd eventually suck the core's eleth dry. I think Fodra is just trying to defend herself.
: So what does that make us?
: From Fodra's perspective, we would seem like the very personification of evil.


: Humans...


: Perish now...
and prepare the way...





: We would not allow them to pass.


So what we've got here is another 10 Little Queen fight, but we've got three different kinds. The two you saw already and a new one.


Magic/Chakram type.


Standard/Kick type.


Gun type.


The gun type has a flower machine gun.


The benefits of opening a fight with an Arcane Bottle.


If you get more than one Eleth Burst back to back, you get a longer one. This applies to the enemies too, so beware.


This is the second go of this particular fight, and I know enough from the previous version of this fight to be scared of their Mystic Arte. Plus I've got 17 of them.


The gun type can do this "light beams from above" deal like the spider-tank robots sometimes do, but it's not always going to hit.


It's important to keep all party members standing. There's three of them and they do a lot of damage.


Like that.


Arcane Bottles are the best. The best.


Gun types have access to their own version of Cheria's Divine Saber. Some other enemies have it too, but this is the fight I noticed it most in.


Great, now we have two gun types at once. Gun types have almost twice as much HP as the others.


Reminder that enemies can do the "perfectly timed dodge" thing we do, but mostly don't. Exceptions are any time we fight a party member one-on-one.


We've finally eliminated all but two Little Queens, making the battlefield a little less crowded.


Oh no no no no no no.


It's taking up like half the battle area.


And also annihilating my dudes.


Help me Arcane Bottle!


Thank fuck she shoots rather than bust out that bs again.


That's another spell I haven't seen before now, called Diabolic Ascent.


Well this is pretty scary. Note that we're in Eleth Break so an enemy Mystic Arte can come out any time we get hit. However if you look closely, the targeted Little Queen is petrified. We can make it.


This close to the wire, it's Elixer time.


I'm not sure which arte is doing the petrifying. None of the attacks here list it on Aselia.


This is also new unless I forgot it from the previous fight, there's a sort of rune and dome assembly that's placed on the ground as a trap.


I activated her trap card!


Unfortunately Cheria kills the last one before I realize I need to revive Richard, so he's not getting xp or sp.


So yeah. That took forever despite me handing out Arcane bottles like candy, and was full of one-shots.





: I've never seen a more tenacious foe...
: They must really hate us...
: Please, stop!
They are not your enemy!
: We hate them... We must destroy all humanity...


: It's just starting to feel...wrong.
: I agree. The fight feels wrong to me as well.
: We're not here to destroy Fodra.
We just want to let it know that humans can change.
And that we're not the same as we were a thousand years ago.
: Asbel...
Okay, everyone. Let's get to the core.


Oh, by the way. Remember those status ailments in the last dungeon? If you didn't get rid of them you'd have ALL FIVE of them on you for the entire fight, and any hit would inflict them on you.





This trippy area is the last bit of future arc dungeon. Dungeon Video, surprisingly short!
I avoid all the enemies in here because they're kind of annoying to fight on Chaos, just giant masses of HP and oneshots. Oh, and they have Nova Barriers for some reason.



Skit: One Big Happy Family


: If Asbel is your father, does that make Cheria your mother?
: Yes. And Pascal is my big sister, and the Captain is my grandfather. Hubert used to be my big brother, but...
If I'm Asbel's child, I guess he's my uncle now.
: I see.
: So you can be my new big brother, Richard!
: Who, me? Your big brother, is it?
: Well done, sire. You're the last to join the family and still nabbed the best position.
: Would you like me to massage your shoulders for you, Grandpa?
: Oh, that would be lovely, Grandson.
: Isn't it great? We're all one big family.
: ...A little to the right there, sonny.


: You're getting a little rough there, sonny. Heh heh!
: Your bones!



Anyway, let's talk a little about the 100-hit combo titles. They're possibly the hardest titles in Graces to obtain, because you have to kill an enemy with a 100+hit combo, with the character in question getting the final hit, 3 times. Not just get a hundred hit combo, but kill with it! This is tricky since sometimes the enemy's hp or your ability to keep the combo going runs out right before the conditions are met.
Demo Video


One good method is to take someone with a massive-hit mystic arte and have them use it twice in a row via Eleth Burst into combo activation. Cheria will demonstrate.




Now if our associates can get 23 more hits...


Perfect, thank you.


There.


BEHOLD!


Also, sometimes things don't work out, here's a 174 hit combo that didn't manage to kill this guy. I tried to get an Hourglass in to continue the combo but it wasn't fast enough.


This is another problem. I've stopped time to keep the combo chain going, but...


Eleth Break stops us from building it



Anyway over the course of this I got everyone except Sophie and Pascal their 100-hit titles. I'd have gotten them for those two too, but I had gained ten levels, going from 75 to 85, and didn't want to outlevel things. I did want to stop getting one-shot quite as much though! The good thing about all that grinding is that it means I can now pick my titles for maximum effect, rather than "which one needs sp". I'll discuss this more later.



: Anyway, once they reached the core they found a teleporter right next to it in perfect working condition. Since they felt they'd came really close to the edge during the fight against my sisters, they went to check in with the Guardians of Riot Peak for fighting tips.



So in the Future Arc we have an all-new, different lineup for the fights we face.
Part 1 of 3


Since we have to change members each floor I use the less-durable people for the early floors. Since I have seven people Cheria is staying out of this. Sure, people can solo the whole game with her, but I can't.


As before we're going up against a lot of things with low def.


This is still on Chaos difficulty.


This guy is something of a miniboss, he hits for 11k unblocked


"Refighting previous bosses 1v1" is the theme here.


Malik has a few problems with solo fighting, but this is still "easy" so I'm not too worried.


This is super-annoying. Fortunately it hits like a kitten, since Malik is going to spend some time staggered.


On the other hand, this is a bit dangerous.


Fortunately I've set up my Eleth Mixer with stuff like this in mind.


"Dodge until you can hit Accel" pays off.


I end up having to do it twice.


If you watch, Malik has a special win quote based on having his new "Combo Kaiser" title.


Richard, thematically enough, gets to slaughter the dudes who betrayed him.


And fight Victoria in a bikini


This is actually a challenging fight.


Victoria can stagger you long enough to get another hit in, which repeats for a good bit.


I also gain the "Prolific Thruster" title
No actually it's for using his A-Artes a ton.



Next up is beast-types.


No. NO!


NOT YOU!!!! Anyway I drop it to "Evil" for my next go because fuck that boar.



Part 2 of 3


Asbel, having some awesome B-Artes, seems more suited to this since Beasts are usually weak to them.


Yeah two bosses at once, real cute.


You're going down, boar!


Do not adjust your screen. I have broken the six-digit barrier.


I am also two-shotting this piece of shit.


Like that.


Hubert faces mecha. Aside from the bows that cause arteseal it's not a big deal.


This guy may be unique to the arena.


He has his very own projectile animation.



Part 3 of 3
Last but by no means least, Sophie fights dragons.




This part was a bit tricky because I had 3 high-hp dragons to deal with.


Fortunately Pascal was there (in spirit) to help out.


This guy is fucking cake in comparison.




: They reached the top, but...


: ...there was nobody there.








: Hey, isn't that...




: Poisson!
: I thought you all might come.
: What are you doing here?
: The guardian is taking the day off, and I am his replacement.
: Guardians get days off?
: Well, to be more specific, he's on strike.
: Two more and he's out.
: Who taught you that? ...Wait, never mind. I can guess.
: A strike, Sophie, is when workers stop doing their jobs in hopes of improving labor conditions.
: So the guardian is unhappy?
: A general strike would also explain why no one repaired that broken elevator.
: Well, anyway, that's my theory.
: What do you mean?
: To be honest...there wasn't a strike. The guardian actually said something about being tired and just walked away.
: Tired...?
: I can understand his sentiments. Standing on top of this tower, day after interminable day... Anyone would grow weary of such a life.
: So the guardian is just gone?
: Oh, not to worry. We found him. I think he just needs a vacation.
: That sounds sweet! I want a vacation, too!
: So instead, you have the honor of facing Riot Peak's temporary master... ME!
: What? YOU'RE going to fight us?
: Pascal would really, really regret that one.
: All right. Fair enough. Let's go!
: Now hold on just one-
: Let's begin!





OK, so let's talk about title setup. Since everyone has mastered every title they have, we can setup our titles for raw utility.


As a frontliner, this is really useful. On higher difficulties (I briefly considered flipping to Chaos before I remembered I'd have to fight the entire tower once more to try again) this is basically "every hit is reduced by 50%."


Same deal.


Since we absolutely cannot use items here, we're dependent on Cheria and Sophie to res people. Cheria gets faster casting speed. I don't know exactly how much faster it makes her, but it's a big difference.


Richard has the fewest titles, so he doesn't get either of those options. Instead I go with this, since I can't use Arcane Bottles.


I also set two res foods to the Mixer. No items means no life bottles!


Can't forget to delete the strategy stuff I setup for maximizing combos on unmoving hulks.



: You'd think it was unfair, 4 of them against a little kid.




Poisson's hammer can give Goldion Hammer a run for its money if you let it get a good hit on you.




If she doesn't hit you during an Eleth Break, you don't get to see what I meant above.


Right here I was wondering if I should have put it on Chaos after all.


Keep in mind that was reduced 50%.


Hubert gets to join in too!


And again. Now we've used both our res foods, all future reses come from Sophie or Cheria.


At this point, Poisson deploys her "launch through the air and land with the hammer" move. I have no idea who she's even aiming at, I'm not even sure if she EVER hits with that one.




Close one.


Nice job missing a completely immobile Cheria there.


And here it comes. If you noticed this game had a lack of Pow Hammers, get ready.


This is a poison hammer. It does what you think it does.


The freeze hammer is the one you worry about though.


Uh-oh.


Yeah I'm feeling pretty glad for that "reduce by 50%" title.


And now it's time for the fucking pain.


Yes it is raining freeze hammers.


These don't do enough damage each to trigger the 50% reduction.


Cheria is now our only hope.


Fortunately, Poisson chose poorly...


...and is too interested in killing the guy I'm controlling.


Faster casting saves the day!


Oh shit, here we go.






See, Goldion Hammer is wielded by a giant robot. This is the same size, wielded by a little girl.






Gotta keep her off Cheria. Fortunately Sophie and Hubert being stacked on top of each other means a single Resurrection is good for both.


I'd say something like, "FINALLY! FUCK!" but that might be the most fun I had with a fight in Graces. Way better than the fight at the start of the update, where we basically have a bullshit-off.



: Poisson probably could have kept going a little further but there wasn't any real point.
: O-Okay, I concede.
: I still don't get why you were the guardian's replacement, Poisson.
: Actually, the first guardian of Riot Peak was an Amarcian.
: For serious?!
: It was his idea to have challengers rise up the tower. I imagine that's why they felt Poisson would make an acceptable replacement.
: I see. That's why the elevator uses Amarcian technology.
: Well, anyway, that's my theory.
: Your theory? Wait, so everything you just said is-
: Completely made up, and quite absurd to boot.
I am here because the Overseer and the current guardian are acquaintances.
: That's interesting.
: The guardian first appeared after an accident with a cryas arte experiment. We believe he came here from another world.
: I've heard of such things. The barriers between worlds being broken in accidents and people coming through as a result.
: Ever since, he's been searching for a way to return to his true home.
: People come to Riot Peak from all over the world. This would be a perfect place to gather information.
: Well, anyway, that's my theory.
: Oh come on! Now this is just getting stupid.
: Must all my ideas be crushed like this?
: In truth, the Overseer and the guardian are simply good friends.
: Um, okay?
: For that reason, I was allowed to work here as part of my training.
: Now it makes sense.
: It does?
: Actually, not at all.
: Well, good luck with the training, Poisson.
: You should come back some time, Pascal. I'd love a rematch!
: You got it!
: Okay, so was any of that actually true?
: It turns out the Guardian really was from a different world, but I'll get into that some other time.