Part 11: Rhea-wakening

For once, there's actually nothing we can do to put off going to where the game wants us to!



: You can hear me, can you not? In that case, I ask you to listen. The time of disaster is drawing near... Even if only you will hear my words, I still wish for you to know.



: Even as we speak, the life of the World Tree Yggdrasil is coming to an end.
: But isn't death part of any normal life cycle?
: Normal life cycle? The World Tree took root in the days when this world was first given form. It has no life cycle. You must realize what it would mean for mana to disappear from this world. Mana is the source of life from which the Spirits, magic, and all creatures are born and the World Tree is the source of mana itself.

: Were you not aware of this?
: What!? Is that really true? In this entire world, this single tree is the source of all mana?
: That is correct.
: Do you really expect us to just accept a claim like that?
: Everything I have told you is the truth. Perhaps you will be willing to believe me after the World Tree has already withered away? Once the Spirits and magic have vanished and all is lost...



: 100 years from now, in the world in which Mint and I live, magic does not exist. And also, I've seen it for myself.
: This tree had withered away, only the lifeless trunk remained...
: Then it's true? If that's the case...
: Mana is essential if the World Tree Yggdrasil is to continue living. However, the amount of mana consumed by magic should be substantial enough to deplete the supply of mana.
: Then why is it happening?
: That, I do not know. However, whatever it may be, it is capable of consuming mana at an alarming rate.
: Is there nothing we can do to save this tree? If magic disappears from this world, then we have no hope of ever defeating Dhaos.
: And all of my research really will have been for naught...

Surely, the logical conclusion here is obvious. Mana is needed to cast magic; magic is the only thing that can defeat Dhaos. I'm amazed these guys can't put 2 and 2 together in this situation.




: I wish to try something.
: Hm?
: Heal!



: It seems my power alone is not enough. If only I were as powerful a Methodist as my mother, then maybe...
: I don't think this problem has such a simple solution. If mana disappears from this world, magic will vanish along with it...
: Then, if we can't defeat Dhaos before he travels further into the future, we'll have lost our only chance to defeat him?
: If we can't put a stop to whatever is depleting the supply of mana, nothing else we do will matter.
: Unless we can solve that problem, we'll have done nothing but postpone the inevitable destruction of the world.
: You say we need to put a stop to it... but where do we go from here?



...Okay, I take back what I said earlier. At least Klaus is using his head here; I'd expect him to though, given that he's a scholar and all.

: Then if we defeat Dhaos...
: It's possible we could be killing two birds with one stone.
: Although, I doubt things will end up being so simple.
: Currently, of the Spirits known to exist the most powerful is said to Luna, the Spirit of the Moon. And I'be heard that the ring needed to form a Pact with Luna can be found in the Moria Mine. It's controlled by the Kingdom of Alvanista, unsurpassed in their advanced magical culture. If we head there, I'm sure we'll be able to figure out what our next move should be. To get there, first we'll need to head to the Port City, Venezia. From there, we go to Alvanista by sea.

Skit: Short Term v Long Term



: I'm sure there's no simple answer to that question.
: Well, we should really worry about that after we defeat Dhaos.
: Right. Our first priority is to form pacts with more Spirits.

We've been to Venezia before and it's not that far anyway. There is, however, one little thing to do before we go there. Namely, something I missed earlier because I am a dumb moron who does dumb moron things.



Talking to Lenios' wife in Belladam is how we get a recipe from there. I just forgot about it, since it's not something immediately obvious. We're not talking to Lenios himself yet though; we could, but we don't get the reward for talking to his bro yet.

Skit: Alvanista



: First, we need to head to Venezia.
: Venezia?
: Right. We'll take a ship from there to Alvanista.



(you should probably listen to this)

: How horrible...
: Were there no survivors?


...Seems familiar, doesn't it?

There's three things that can only be seen after entering Hamel but before doing anything else. It's a super small window and really, really easy to miss too.

Skit: Desolation



: It's horrible! Unbelievable!
: Were... were there no survivors?
: I don't know. Let's search the area.

Skit: The Wrong Outlook



: What's with you all of a sudden?
: What sins did the peple of Hamel commit to deserve this?
: Why did they all have to die!?
: It's natural to mourn the loss of life, but you're looking at it all wrong.

: We can't change things that have already happened. There's only one thing you should be thinking.
: We can't allow these things to keep happening.
: That's exactly right.

Skit: Hamel



: Who could do such cruel things!?
: Were there truly no survivors?



(you should probably loop this until we reach Venezia actually)

: Oh, I... I seem to be unharmed.
: What in the world happened to this city!?
: Demeter... The Sorcerer who attacked this city... He... He killed my papa and mama...
: If you're going after him, I'll help you!
: Hey, come on, we don't have time to be running around like this!
: But we can't just ignore someone suffering right in front of us.
: Hey, come on, not you too, Mint!
: I know that we've got no time to lose, but still, I...
: There something bothering you two? You're both acting rather strange.



I guess they left that part out when explaining to Klaus what happened. Not sure why, since it's kind of a big event and all.



: But I won't abandon this girl.
: I agree with Cless. I want to help her.
: Well, if you're both going to go that far, then I won't argue with you.
: In that case, why don't you go ahead and tell us what you know about this Sorcerer. If our opponent is capable of using magic, we need to get as much information about him as we can.
: I am not sure exactly where Demeter lives, however I now that when he left this city, he headed north.
: Venezia lies in that direction, so I imagine that if we head there, we should be able to find out more about him...
: Um... I don't know how I can ever thank you enough. Truly, thank you so much. I apologize for the late introduction, my name is Rhea Scarlet.
: I'm Mint. Rhea, it's a pleasure to meet you. Next to me is Cless and over there is Klaus.
: It is my pleasure to make your acquaintances.

That's nice and all, but considered we're kinda in the ruins of your hometown you'd think she'd be a tad less chipper towards the end there. Anyway, Rhea's pretty odd in that despite being an NPC...



She's considered part of the party, because. All this means, is that Rhea won't participate in battle or skits but is counted towards the one thing it makes a difference for. Also we can't change her non-existant equipment, or anything like that.

She's not unique as an NPC-in-party, but the other character who has that trait only does so in the SNES version. In a sidequest that was removed and replaced with a better one.

Skit: Won't Be Sidelined



: I just couldn't let him get away with this.
: I apologize.
: It's fine. Demeter is a Sorcerer, right?
: If we're lucky, someone may have taken notice of him or he might have left a clue behind.

Skit: Demeter in Venezia



: Venezia is to the north, right?
: Then is Demeter in Venezia?
: No, we don't know that.
: We'll just have to go look.

Finding the next trigger in Venezia is a bit of a pain. It amounts to "talk to every NPC in town until you find the right one!" Fortunately, they never change so once you know where they are it becomes much easier (hint: it's the Mayor's House).



Local: He used to research Sorcery in this city long ago and he was always willing to help anyone in need. But a year ago he suddenly changed completely, threw away all of his research and moved to a solitary island in the west.
: We won't be able to get there unless we have a ship. Let's pay a visit to the harbor.

Skit: Vigilantism



: Most likely in order to do some kind of research related to Sorcery. Anyway, we know where he is.
: Let's figure our how to get there.
: R, right.
: Though I doubt there are any scheduled ships to that solitary island.
: Then we'll just have to pay for a ship ourselves.
: If we don't take care of Demeter, he may repeat what he did in Hamel.

Skit: A Solitary Island



: But how are we going to get there?
: We should see if we can take a ship that will take us there.
: right. We can't take no for an answer.

There's two ships in Venezia; one that takes you to Alvanista normally, but the captain is too big a coward to go there right now. So, we'll check out the other one...



Captain: If you don't have a reason to be here, hurry up and get off my ship!
: We were hoping to hire this ship, but if that's a problem...
Captain: Oh, customers? Sorry about that...
: To the solitary island in the west please.
Captain: You mean that island they say Demeter lives on? Let's see, for the fare we include freight expenses, cost of food and insurance, so it'll be 200 gald per person.

Yes, the game makes you pay 800 gald just to go kick a guy's face in. There's no excuse to not be able to afford it, but it's still annoying.



It takes a while to get here, but at least you can speed it up slightly. Still takes a bit too long for my liking though, but I am more than a little impatient.



Once we do dock at the conveniently placed pier next to the castle, we can find this book for Klaus. I guess it's time he get an equipment upgra-



...Oh. Well, uh, we'll just hold onto this for later. This thing actually does have a purpose, I promise!

Skit: Start Searching



: Yeah,
: but goodness, what an eerie island this is.
: Demeter is somewhere on this island.
: We should try and track him down.

Skit: The Lone Sorcerer



: This place has a very eerie feeling to it.
: Let's see if we can get inside.



: Still, why did Demeter want to destroy Hamel?
: I believe he was trying to show the world his power. To that end, Demeter set out to kill his own master...
: His master?
: That's right. My papa...
: Let's get moving.
: We can't allow him to continue doing things like this.

This dungeon is broken into two pretty apparent and different areas. The first...



Is the mansion itself. We have a pretty simple puzzle to solve in the... antechamber? It just involves rotating pyramids and opening the middle curtain. We could do this later, but I do it now just 'cause. It's not officially solved until we go do something else though.



: I wonder if there's anything of interest here. We should probably take a good look around.

There's a few books here we can read (we'll do that later though) and a couple of items to find.



Namely another stat boosting item we won't use for a long while, and something less apparent.



We'll just raid Demeter's drinks cabinet! A Liqueur Bottle is pretty cool since it makes whoever it's used on completely immune to any and all negative ailments for the rest of the fight. The downside, is that it reduces their Attack by 20% for the rest of the fight too. That's not a massive problem though, and we'll use a few of these later so getting some for free never hurts.



And, lastly, the item we came here for in the first place; this key is what we need to finish that puzzle in the entrance hall.

...There's also a shield in this room but I forgot it was there and it doesn't really matter anyway. It's just a shield after all.



...That's a lot of free treasure. This is now my favourite room. There's only one new item though;



It raises Agility by 1. More importantly, it's the last stat boosting herb so there's no more of them! Well, okay, there's four more but they're just better versions of the ones we have. Whatever.

The only other items of note in here are a Savory, an Elixir and some money.



With Demeter's Key, we can get through this door that looks like it was stolen from Tarn's Manor and head through to a courtyard.



In addition to the oddly placed giant tree, this place is different from the rest of the mansion in that it has random encounters! There's just one thing we can fight (a snake) but it's the thought that counts.



: Especially since it was planted in such a strange place...
: Hm? Just now, did you see the tree move?
: Are you sure it wasn't just your imagination?
: I knew it! It's moving!



Meet the two Orcrots.



They'll be your pretend boss fight of the evening.

I say "boss" but that's just because they get the boss music. It's really more of a mini-boss fight since it's so riduclously easy I think even the Sylph put up more of a fight. The only reason Orcrot can pretend to be difficult is because there's two of them. This isn't really a fight so much as it is an exercise in how fast you can mash X and either L2 or R2.



With the Orcrots dead, the sunlight can get into the entrance and finish the puzzle. This occurs immediately when you enter the room, rather than before, if you set the prisms up in advance.



With the puzzle solved, this staircase into the second half of the dungeon opens. It's some kind of basement thing and it actually has random encounters!



See?

Anyway, the Wraith is the only thing here worth a damn since it can sometimes drop Rune Bottles.



Anyway, there's two hidden items here that you can only find by... guessing or looking in a guide. There's no indication they're even there and the first one is a hat for either Klaus or Mint.



The second is a pair of gloves for Cless. Speaking of Cless, the two visible chests here are a Corcesca (the spear we already have) and a helmet upgrade.



Wraiths are dicks who love to cast Tractor Beam if they get a chance. It's non-elemental and will hit everyone in range for a good 2-300+ damage. Plus side: there's an accessory to nullify it. Downside: it's an accessory that's taking the slot of something better.

Anyway, a lot of people consider the next boss coming up to be the first "hard" fight and recommend you do a bit of prep work first. Namely, shoving stat boosts down Cless' throat(not gonna do that) and use a Rune Bottle on... an Hourglass.



This makes it into a Chronoglass which freezes time for 6 seconds. We won't be using this, not because it doesn't work (it does) but because it makes the fight too easy.

Oh, and remember that Protect Ring we had? Let's use a Rune Bottle on that, just 'cause.



Much like how the Chronoglass is the Hourglass but better, this is the Protect Ring but better. It has a 20% chance of nullifying a non-elemental attack. That's lame though, so let's use another Rune Bottle on that!



It becomes the Reflect Ring which has a 20% chance to nullify an elemental attack instead. Using a Rune Bottle on this just makes the Force Ring again so we won't do that. The Reflect Ring and...



The Flare Mantle (30% chance to nullify Fire and Earth damage) are preparations for later bosses really (like two or three). The Flare Mantle is nice though since it boosts defence by a fair bit too.



Also just before the boss fight we get these Elven Boots. They increase in-battle movement by 20% so I give them to Cless. Since, y'know, he's the only melee fighter in the party. Also they sell for 2,000 gald which is what I intend to do with them later. I don't really need or want them, but since we got them I might as well use 'em for now.



I think if you look like that you're pretty much obligated to either be evil or turn evil at once in your life.

: Correct. And what of it?
: You murdered Rhea's parents! Prepare yourself!
: Oh, so you knew the Scarlets, did you? However, what would make you think that I killed the man that was like a father to me? They were killed in an accident.
: What!?
: I wonder just who crafted such an intricate lie for you...
: We heard it directly from the Scarlets' daughter, Rhea!
: The Scarlet couple certainly did have a daughter. However... You mean to say that this girl is their daughter? You should leave here while you still can. But first, allow me to enlighten you as to the truth.



: As for that girl with you, I have no idea who she is or what she hopes to accomplish... But I have had enough of this farce. That girl is nothing but a poor imitation of Rhea!
: How the hell are we supposed to know who's telling the truth?
: Rhea, just tell us that he's lying!!
: If you leave the girl behind, I might be willing to overlook the fact that you broke into my mansion and threatened my life.



: Your mask is finally slipping! You're one of Dhaos' minions!!
: What!? Damn, so you saw it.



: You, go hide somewhere!
: You fools will never leave this place alive!! You're finished!!!



Naturally, Demeter is the proper boss of this place.



He's only really "hard" because he's the first boss to attack you from both sides at once which can apparently catch people off-guard or something? It's really nothing new since random encounters have been doing that since the start.

More importantly: look at his resistances. At first glance, he nullifies literally everything. That's not actually true, however, as each nullification is a cyan-ish colour so it's only a chance (about 20-30% or so) to nullify any given attack. He's also the first boss to have this gimmick and most bosses from now on will do the same. It's only really annoying in extended fights of which there may not be many if this is any indication.

Klaus can one-shot the Golems with Sylph so they're not even remotely a threat. Mint's AI is smart enough to hit at least one Wraith with Toy Hammer at some point so that's not a threat either. Demeter is only slightly difficult because of the Wraiths (since, y'know, Tractor Beam) and the pincer-attack. Demeter only has two attacks; his wannabe Belmont whip thing that also shoots fire and an attack the Hellmaster had... he's basically just one of those, only reskinned and significantly easier. Laaaame.

Oh, and I lied about not using the Chronoglasses. They make him an even bigger joke. Like, you can easily take no damage here with them. Which I did. Because Demeter is a fucking pussy and this fight is not actually hard at all.



: Are you all right!?
: Everyone... t, thank you so much...
: Hold on!
: A, at last, I can... join my parents in the afterlife. I have one final request... Please taje care of my dear friend...
: Rhea, don't give up! What about your friend?
: Rhea!!



: D, did you see that?
: I saw it!
: What in the world was that?
: Rhea has something in her hand. Is this... a ribbon?



???: Where's Rhea? What happened to Rhea?
: Rhea...?
???: Rhea? No... I'm... I'm Arche.
: Wait, you're Arche?

Well, that sure is convenient. Now, didn't someone want us to find her...?



: And to help her friend find eternal peace, that girl Arche gave up her own body, huh? This was possible only because that Arche girl has the ability to use magic, but still... Quite a shocking conclusion to the whole ordeal.



: Oh! I'm sorry...
: It was Arche, right?
: It's fine, don't worry about it. You were Mint, right? But, if you're always mixing us up, I guess that'd be a problem.



: So this time, I'm going to return the favor by lending you my power.
: The face is the same, but the way they act and talk couldn't be more different.
: Well, from now on, it's the real me. So you'll just have to deal. Oh, that's right. These are my dad's way of saying thanks.



Aquamarine reduces water damage and Ruby reduces earth damage. I'm sure you can guess which Spirits they're for already if you've been paying attention.

: And we're off!
: All right, let's set our sights on Alvanista!!

Let's not; with Arche in our party now we can go back and get a few things we couldn't before. Why?



She uses Magic artes. This makes her awesome (if she's ever out of the party, you better have a damn good reason) and since she flies around on a broom in battle she's innately immune to Tractor Beam. Like Klaus, though, she doesn't learn any artes when she gains levels. Instead, she has to either be taught it by someone else, read it in a book on a bookshelf or find the book in a chest.

Skit: Free Pact Rings



: That just goes to show how concerned Bart was.
: While you're traveling with us, try not to be too reckless.
: I'm fine, it'll all be fine. Just leave it to me.
: Then let's make our way to Alvanista.



At Klaus' home in Euclid, we can find the book for Ice Tornado. Not sure why he has it, next to his comics at that, but it means we can disable Ice Needle already since it's the same thing but better basically.

Skit: Her Ribbon



: Thanks. I got this ribbon from Rhea.
: From Rhea?
: Rhea isn't around any more, but when I wear this, I feel like she's still with me in a way.
: I understand that feeling quite well.
: Hehe... That wasn't like me at all, I'm supposed to be the energetic one.
: All rihgt, fight! Let's do our best!
: Yes.



Also in Klaus' home (that's Mirald at the bottom), you can get another spell for Arche. Stone Blast is the weakest Earth elemental spell, but it'll do for now I suppose.

Skit: Elven Privilege



: What do you want me to do? These clappers are essential tools used for Summoning.
: So without them, you can't use your abilities?
: Yeah, that's right.
: Man, it must suck to be a human. I'm sure glad I can just use Sorcery.
: It's better than being a thoughtless Half-Elf who knows nothing about this sort of hardship!

Skit: All Fun and Games



: Don't be so carefree. We're not on a vacation here.
: You don't have to be like that. It's not like we have to be miserable all the time.
: I agree.
: Look, all the young people here agree!
: Wha!?
: No matter what our resident senior citizen says.
: Fine, goodness... If you weren't a Sorceress, I'd have sent you back home to daddy.

If you're interested, Klaus is the oldest party member since he's an earth-shattering 29! Arche knows her JRPG ages alright.



If we talk to Lenios' brother at Venezia we can come back here to get another spell for Arche. Even if you skip the other two, you'll really want to come back and get this one. Since it is incredibly awesome.



Cyclone is, by far, the best spell Arche will have for quite a while. Not only does it hit several enemies multiple times it deals pretty amazing damage at this point too. Hit the right thing with it and you'll be looking at a good 2000+ damage. The problem, is that it costs 17 TP so it's not something to throw around lightly.

Skit: Cless's Sense of Humour



: Was that supposed to be a pun?
: Oh, uh, no. Hahaha...

...Erm, I assume this is a joke based on pronunciation or something? I really don't get this at all but I'm guessing here that "defeat" and "repeat" sound similar in Japanese or are pronounced the same or whatever? It really doesn't translate well into English at all.



Anyway, you may have noticed a cave in the background there. That's where we're actually going next; it's just across the river from Belladam and we're doing it now because, why not?

Skit: Letting Arche Know



: We're going to travel to the Kingdom of Alvanista.
: We need to take a ship from Venezia, correct?
: That's right.



The Cave of the Spirits is a short dungeon with a dumb gimmick that exists only to make it last longer. We shouldn't actually be here yet, but it really makes no difference since the place sucks anyway and I'm getting it over with now because, as the name implies, we can get a new summon for Klaus here.



The password is PASSWORD. No, really. We choose it through four prompts that break it up slightly so it's slightly harder to guess or something? We're supposed to find out by some NPC in Alvanista telling us but I'm minimizing backtracking or something.



The dumb gimmick is this kid right here. We have to escort him through most of the dungeon and he walks so fucking slow and is likely to get caught on level geometry. It's really not fun. We need to do this too since we need him to get past an arbitrary block later in the dungeon.



Also in the dungeon there's some other Clay Kids that both move faster than the one we have to escort and are even bigger dicks. Merely touching them makes us fight them.



Four of them to be exact. They each have 1 HP and 1 TP. Also they give 1 EXP and 1 Gald when you manage to kill them. No big deal right? Ahahaha wrong. These guys are LITERALLY invincible... unless you have the one spell that can damage them. That spell? Tractor Beam. You can't get Tractor Beam until much later. I don't care though, since I'm just gonna run past the lot of 'em.



Once we get past that one screen with the enemy Clay Idols/Kids/Whatever, we reach the four we had to escort the slow one to. Now we can progress through to the end of the dungeon!



Only we can't get into the last room because 2 more Clay Kids are blocking it. The solution?



Flip a switch, which starts an alarm for some reason. This causes the kids to run to the switch and just stare at it. I don't know either. At least now we can finish this dungeon.

Also there's only one item in the entire dungeon. It's in the room we're about to enter. For no reason let's change our formation and artes a little!



Putting everyone as far back as we can, because, uh, why not?



Disabling all of Mint's artes apart from Charge because we might actually need it here? Maybe? (no we wont mint will do nothing but stand around and look pretty or whatever)



Disabling all of Arche's artes apart from Cyclone because it is awesome. I'd do the same to Klaus but he only has Sylph and it's all he needs anyway.

Also I apparently didn't screenshot it but all of Cless' artes are Demonic Blade. You know, the one he got at level 2 and I mastered ages ago?



If you come here before getting Arche, this part is the only thing that can't be done. Arche is irrelevant; we need the Ruby Ring to get Gnome to appear and the two just coincide.



Anyway, Gnome... Gnome is the fucking worst fight yet and I hate his shitty gimmick.



Oh, he doesn't look too bad there, right? Just spam Wind artes and he's a push over? Hahaha, you don't know the fucking half of it. Gnome is the most gimmicky bullshit in the entire game and there is only ONE way to properly fight him. You have no way of knowing this before you start the fight and even then it's not immediately apparent what the problem is. Incidentally, THIS IS THE ONLY FIGHT THAT HAS THIS BULLSHIT GIMMICK! (that i can remember at least)

First, let's fight him the way we're "supposed to." This makes him a complete joke who dies in maybe 30-40 seconds. If you fight him when the game expects you to (much later) he dies even faster this way and it's even less interesting. As if that were possible. At least the music is awesome! (also there a ton of remixes of this that i'd rather people didn't post but i guess i cant actually stop you; i'll be posting them myself later though!)



Now, let's fight him the way you would if you didn't know his gimmick. But first, we need to prepare a little!



The King in Yellow is what we got for kicking Demeter's teeth in. It's not good enough. Instead, let's head back to his home and raid those two chests we couldn't before.



The Halberd is an upgrade for Cless and it's a weird spear. It's actually balanced between both Slash and Thrust; it has 1 less Thrust than the Crecesca but we can't afford to be picky. Gnome is a shit who we can't prioritise either for otherwise he'll take even longer.



The other chest is an upgrade for Klaus. Yes, this one is better than the porn mag we found outside.



The Liber Ivonis will have to do since Klaus will probably be doing some melee at some point. Fighting Gnome the way you'd try to the first time is very TP intensive after all...

Oh and you probably noticed the Necronomicon there. That's Klaus' default weapon. You also probably noticed that King in Yellow and Liber Ivonis are parts of the Cthulu Mythos (apparently). Most of his weapons are. Klaus is kind of a badass.



And, lastly, we need to buy some Orange Gummis and a lot of Flare Bottles. Which I forget to use. Flare Bottles are super-important here since they raise attack power and thus should be used on Cless. They'll make the fight go quicker but its not enough on its own... it'll do though.



On the way back to Gnome, Mint picked up Acid Rain. This and the Flare Bottles will help a ton but the AI is pretty dumb in this fight and shouldn't be left to its own devices. Disable all of Mint's spells aside from Heal or any better restorative artes you have and disable Sylph for Klaus and all of Mint's artes. Yes, even Cyclone. By setting Sylph and Cyclone to the shortcut keys you can reasonably control when they'll be used but its still not foolproof.



This isn't the best arte set-up for Cless by any means. Especially not for this fight.

Now, bear in mind I went and prepared to do this fight the way you would if you didn't expect Gnome's shitty gimmick. He still took me fucking ages to kill. If you went into this fight unsuspecting his bullshit and unprepared you'll be here even longer. He's not as bad in other versions but he's still an unbearable tosser who 's existance is a blight on the universe.



As a wise man once said: "ITS GO TIME!" If you only watch one video in the entire lp watch this one. The whole way through. Even if you get bored keep going; I got fucking bored doing this. Most of the time I was just sat there holding square.

Now, I'm sure you can see Gnome's gimmick here; if not, let me explain. Whenever he does that missile thing, he's invincible. Makes sense, right? I guess, but the catch is that he's invincible arbitarily before he transforms too. He can't be knocked out of the transformation animation either and there are two triggers for it: any character gets too close to Gnome ("too close" roughly translates to he's fucking on-screen) or you take too long to hit him ("too long" roughly translated into more than a fucking second). Now, remember this is on Normal. He took about 13 minutes to die here; that makes 26 minutes on Hard. That makes NEARLY THREE QUARTERS OF AN HOUR on Mania.

Now, Gnome is not the worst fight. He's the most gimmicky, arbitrarily bullshit piece of shit to fight. But he's not the worst. I know, it's hard to believe. Don't get me wrong, I love this game. I just fucking despise Gnome and he's at his worst here; he gets changed drastically in later games and it's always a massive improvement.



: All right, then let's form the pact.
: I like that Ruby Ring there.

Copy/paste the speech from before. Replace "wind" with "earth" and you have the rest of this dialogue.



Hurray? Gnome's alright at the moment, but he'll fall out of use once we get later spirits. Heck, the next two alone are far better than Gnome. If I had to give a rough summary for why I hate Gnome so much, it'd be because he's just plain unfun to fight. If you try to fight him "normally" he takes for-fucking-ever to kill and just becomes a giant slog. If you fight him the way Namco "wanted" you to, he takes mere seconds and its a test of how well you can mash X more than anything else.



At least the one treasure in the dungeon is a decent spell for Arche. Glaive's pretty cool and means that we already made useless a spell we got earlier.

Oh but we got a new weapon for Klaus too! Since Gnome's a later boss that we fought earlier than expected, this is gonna be a great upgrade, right? I wonder what that could be from the Cthulu My-



...Fuck Gnome.









Arche Klein official render.