Part 33: Tales of High Voltage
It's time to go and get Volt to power the Rheairds....er, I mean Rhea-Birds.
This being the solution to "a puzzle" sometime down the line is understandable. I just don't know which one it's alluding to; it's nothing in Volt's Cave, and I don't remember it ever coming up aside from on this sign. Maybe I'm forgetting something blindingly obvious, or maybe it's just being cryptic for the sake of being cryptic.
ikanreed posted:
It falls in the blindingly obvious category. Those are Volt's elemental strengths and weaknesses.
The treasures here mostly like to pretend they matter; even the stat boosts are pointless at this point. When we're done with this dungeon we could very easily get an infinite number of them (could, but won't because it's tedious and time consuming). The other chest contains another Lavendar.
Despite being a ring, as the name implies this constitutes as a shield. Everyone can use it... everyone that is except Cless. This is the only shield that everyone else gets though so it somewhat evens out.
It's nothing great, but it does it's job well; it's certainly better than the shield that Cless is still using at least. Now the real question is, is that because I'm an idiot and have forgot to upgrade it in ages, because I'm stupidly cocky and don't think it matters or because the game paces shields weirdly and gives you a handful early, 1 for most of the past era and then throws all the top tier ones at you within minutes of each other? (the answer is d; all of the above)
: Return tothe Ninja Village at once. If you return now and seek redemption, I will arrange something with the leader of the clan on your behalf.
: Silence!! One who knows nothing of Lord Dhaos' supreme will knows nothing at all!: You are being deceived!: Since you insist on getting in our way, you will have to die...: You leave me no other choice. In accordance with the law of the ninja, I will now carry out your sentence. Prepare yourselves!
Kinda hard to tell but being a ninja and all, the girl massacred the other two ninjas by using her magical anime ninja powers to get behind them and then run through them.
...Yeah, that description sucks but it's been like two weeks since I did this so fuck if I remember it frame-by-frame at this point (I also apparently forgot to make a .gif of it
)
Needless to say, she murdered them in one and they must have been complete wusses to die that easily. Not because she's a girl, or because she's a child (but she is a child; like literally a child) but because she's just not that good.
Being spotted though kinda spooks her a little so she runs off. Not the best of introductions by any means, but at least she didn't try stabbing us which makes something of a nice change.
: Hey! W, wait just a second!
: She's gone...: Eyaaaaah!
: What now?
How did that even happen? It's not even remotely close to the entrance to the cave ahead. She'd have to have jumped onto it of her own accord for some insane reason. So much for her being competent I guess.
: She's being electrocuted.
: Looks like electrocution to me.
: Yeah, that's electrocution for you.
: Yep, she's getting electrocuted.
: We have to help her.: Cless, please go help her.: Cless, go help her.: Cless,you should help her.: Cless, you'd better help her.: W, wait!
: Why are you all making me do it?: Man, I guess I've got no choice...
Oh, this is gonna be one of those kinds of dungeons isn't it? Great...
: ...Yes, somehow.: Cless, are you going to be okay?: Yeah, but I'm still twitching.
: Such are the wonders of electricity.: Everyone, please accept my sincerest apologies for what happened.: What are you doing in a place like this anyway?: A little girl shouldn't be wandering around this place alone.: T, that is...: Is it just me or do her clothes seem a bit out of the ordinary?: P, please excuse me.
: Was it something I said?: Don't know, but she sure did hurry off.: We should get a move on ourselves.Yeah, that was certainly weird but we're here for Volt so we can't afford to get distracted at the moment. We have an important job to do.
As... unique... as that scene with child-ninja was, it served to show us that the dungeon with the Spirit of Thunder would have puzzles based on Thunder in them. Remember the Sorcerer's Ring? We have to use it here to power this circuit for a few seconds. This somehow opens the door that is unconnected to it and lets us run through.
Immediately through the door we find a much needed weapon upgrade for Klaus.
And, yes, this really is the next strongest weapon he can get. That's quite the increase in power.
How did THIS happen? You'd think she'd be cautious after getting attacked already.
: What will it be? Will you join us or will you choose death?: We have to help her.: Cless, please go help her.: Cless, go help her.: Cless, you should help her.: Cless, you'd better help her.: Hey, come on, that routine again?: I cannot die in a place like this...: Man, I guess I've got no choice.
Okay, so we're fighting these guys with just Cless. They're nothing particularly noteworthy, but they're a mini-boss and like to pretend they're a threat (we'd see harder stuff in the regular arena fights). I guess their speed and ability to poison Cless makes them a bit more than a complete joke, but only just. The Hanzo can drop a somewhat uncommon accessory but it didn't this time so we'll get it later; this is literally a random encounter in at least one dungeon later (it's easier there because we have a full party then).
Oh, and you don't need to actually win to continue but it's incredibly easy to do so.
Y'know, if you're not a moron who somehow ends up getting to massacre these guys with Blade of Ascension somehow. Like I am apparently. I don't think I've ever seen that fight go so badly before (this applies to the entire dungeon too).
: So what are you doing here anyway?: ...: ...: ...: ...: You don't have to tell us everything if you don't want to...: How about at least telling us your name?
: Suzu, is it? Then Suzu, would you like to come along with us for now?: N, no... I am truly grateful for your help earlier. P, please excuse me.: What was that all about?: She wouldn't say anything, so there's no way to know.: That's still better than a certain somebody who never shuts up.: And just who might that be!?
: I wonder, just who could it be?: She must have had some sort of reason, right?
Klaus is ever the voice of reason, and gives us our reason to continue onwards. Hopefully the rest of the trip to Volt won't be hindered by evil ninjas.
Back with the actual dungeon, some of the "puzzles" almost live up to their name. Some doors don't open even with a complete circuit unless you flip a switch first. This one is probably the hardest, since you have to go through a hidden passage in a wall. This leads to a switch on the floor you stand on to open this door.
Admittedly buying the Damascus Sword was smarter than I made it sound since I got it after the mini-boss fight here but since it's a random drop it might've happened in the first fight or never. It's a bit of a gamble but it's pretty likely to happen anyway.
We need to take an incredibly long detour through the door on the right to reach the door on the left because of... ninja magic presumably. It's as good an explanation as any given what we've seen so far.
Possibly this is for the best since otherwise we'd miss this broom upgrade.
Oddly, there is a broom weaker than this one but stronger than the Mystic Broom. We can't realistically get that one until after this one so it's pretty odd. Oh we could do it, all we'd have to do is beat the arena several times over, Galf Beast included.
Oh cool, I found this dungeon's rare enemy already. In pretty much every dungeon in the future, even ones we went through in the past, there's at least one rare enemy (usually a dragon) which normally takes forever to track down and beat enough times to get to count for the monster enclycopaedia. I was fortunate enough to find this one without spending several hours looking.
They also have a chance of dropping something usually worth the hassle. Since this guy dropped an axe there's only one of them it could be that makes it questionably worth it, and it's neither of the two this guy drops. The one I was "fortunate" enough to get was a Battle Axe a.k.a the weakest axe. It's literally the worst thing in the game; sure, it's statistically better than, say, the Long Sword but it's more worthless in actual use.
Seriously, look at that. It's got 35 Slash and 2 Thrust. For a fun comparison, the Damascus Sword has 350 Slash and 315 Thrust; that gives it 10x Slash and 107.5x Thrust that the Battle Axe has. Giving you this thing at this point is Namco essentially trolling the shit out of anyone "lucky" enough to get it.
Anyway, now that I'm done bitching like a petulant child to make up for the dungeon being incredibly uninteresting we come to the one part that isn't "flip switch, use ring, run." Here, we have to mash square from this exact spot where Cless is, keep doing that until the generator's fully powered for the three seconds or so it'll last and book it through the door.
Once we're done with that, we come to two chests that mock us with their inaccessibility and, more importantly, Volt.
Volt's "thing" in the entire series is that he speaks in some weird language thing that almost no one can understand. This ends about as well as you'd expect.
: W, was it just trying to say something?
In pretty much every case, Volt gets mad and fights you because he's pissed off at you. Because he can understand you apparently, but you can't understand him.
Aside from the flunkies, Volt doesn't have much else going for him.
He doesn't even have that thing most bosses do where he has a chance of nullifying every element which makes him a pretty big pushover. Shame we can't use that water weakness effectively; Ice Tornado's the best water spell we have access to still, and even with the boosted damage it won't be efficient enough. As you'd expect he can use Thunder Blade and I imagine he's able to use Indignation too though I've never seen that myself so it's just supposition.
The second Fairy Ring is nice though; it means I can finally stop passing that one between everyone as needed. I highly doubt anyone uses the Emerald Ring as is since that's just plain silly.
: Let's form the pact. You understand what I'm saying, don't you?
: W, well whatever...: But which Pact Ring are you supposed to use?: Now that you mention it, that's true...: All right, I'll just line them all up.
: Oh! The Sardonyx Ring is glowing.
Volt is, uh, pretty goddamn powerful now that Klaus can use him. He was pretty ineffectual when fighting you so you might dismiss him as being not worth it. So very wrong; he will easily deal more damage than even Luna at this point, and that's to something weak against Light but not Thunder. Expect Volt to consistantly deal well over 3,000 damage a pop, and he barely costs more TP to cast. Very efficient but it's a shame that he's only a single hit.
You didn't really think we'd skip out on two items did you?
: I knew you were going to say that. 
: Okay, I'll be right back.
: You just shut up! Who would do that anyway!?
: No need to get so angry.: Hmph! Chester, I hate you soooooooooo much!
: Hah! Why would I care what you think anyway!?: Hey, come on, save it for after we're out of here.
: Yeah, yeah...: What's wrong, Arche?: Nothing's wrong!!
Childish spats aside, a third Fairy Ring right now is nice. The Star Cloak is much nicer though.
In addition to being a very nice Defence boost, it also provides protection to Water and non-elemental(!) attacks.
Fortunately, by Volt there's this exit which means we don't need to walk the whole way out of the dungeon.
Skit: The Treasure's Side-Effects
: Yeah, quit getting angry over every little thing.: Hmph!
: It's great that we formed the pact with Volt, right?: I don't think that has anything to do with this issue...: It will be all right, I'm sure...: I hope you're right.Skit: The Pact With Volt
: Now we can make those Rhea-Bird things fly.: Let's head back to the Euclid Academy of Science.: Yeah, we're already short on time.: We should go as soon as possible.
: Yes. If you don't mind, we'd like to try this out right away.
: I need you to use your power to fuel these flying machines here.: Klaus, is everything alright?: Y, yeah. Probably...: Arche, put your broom out there too.: Okay.
: That should do it. All that's left is to explain how to use this.: What is it?: I think it's probably easier just to show you.
: Did the Rhea-Birds just get sucked into that tiny capsule!?: What is that?: This device is called a Wing Pack. Using this, you can keep the Rhea-Birds with you at all times as you travel. Go ahead and take it with you.
: I'm going to go ahead to Alvanista on one of the Rhea-Birds. Please follow me there as soon as possible, it's important that we report to His Majesty about everything that's happened.: You'll be needing a Wing Pack as well then.: Thank you. Now then, everyone, I hope to see you as soon as possible.I'm sure you don't want to sit through a tutorial on how to control the birds; the only thing that matters is that we can land in towns but not take to the skies in them.
Skit: The Rhea-Birds
: We truly owe a lot to Stanley.
: I was worried when we couldn't understand Volt...: Nonsense! Nothing's impossible if you just go for it.: Let's move, we'll need to hurry to catch Harrison.On the one hand, we really do have a pressing need to go to Alvanista as soon as possible.
On the other hand, we can finally get to this fucking tower and I will be damned if I'm passing up the opportunity to check it out now.
Volt; official render. I'm now contractually bound to point out this is based on this appearance in Tales of Symphonia. He doesn't change much to say he goes from "giant ball of electricity with smaller balls" to "giant ball of electricity" though.