Part 53: The Weasand of Cados Part 1 (also goddammit Namco)

Skit: Things Get Complicated
And here I thought all we'd be doing at the coliseum was beating bad guys.
Now things have gone and gotten complicated.
I certainly didn't think we'd be seeing Flynn here.
Not to mention that Zagi guy.
And that runaway coward, Regaey, too. It can't be a coincidence. Not with them all here at once.
If it is a coincidence, it's the worst one I've ever heard of. Just how bad can our luck be?
Ya think Leviathan's Claw are the ones callin' the shots this time?
Thinking things through is all well and good, but we don't want Regaey skipping out on us.
No kidding. We'll finish talking later. Let's go.
Woof!




Following Regeay over the world map is mostly uneventful.



Judith learns a new arte, Luna Ascendent, but that's kinda it.







Skit: Days Just Fly By...
Wow, the days just fly by...
What's with you all of a sudden?
Oh, I've just been thinking about how strong we've grown, without even realizing it.
That's because we have terrible luck!
What does getting stronger have to do with having bad luck?
We keep running into one mess after another. The empire, the guilds...everybody hates us!
So all this bad luck made us fight, and so...we got stronger.
...Is that really luck?
It's all right, Karol. As we travel, the winds of luck are little by little turning in our favor.
Exactly. Luck just flies by, too...like the wind!
Yuri, you're...kind of missing the point...



Watch the cutscene!



No sign of him so far.
Do you think he went this way?
Maybe he used this ta get through ta the other side of the mountain.
But this cave is the Weasand of Cados. A powerful monster called Pteropus lives here. It's supposed to be really dangerous. Or at least that's what Nan told me.
Perhaps he went inside without knowing that.






W-w-w-wait... P-please l-let me go.



Well now. Let's have a nice long chat.
What were you trying to gain, setting us up like that back at the coliseum?
And give back that case!





Leviathan's Claw?!






Pretty easy battle.



Raven learns something awesome here though: Love Shot! I didn't get a good picture of him using it, but you can see it flying through the air here:



Love Shot is great, it's a quick instant-cast single-target healing arte. Even better: Use it a hundred times, and it becomes two-target! Use it two hundred times, and it becomes three-target! And even better: Those targets can all be the same person! Needless to say, if you can keep Raven's TP filled, it's excellent for healing HP. (Status effects are a different story, and to be fair it's not the best arte for healing huge amounts of HP at once, but it's still really good.)




Apart from that, easy battle.



Guess this means Ruins' Gate and Leviathan's Claw are connected.
So they pretend to help with the excavations, then swipe materials and sell them later, huh? I'll make them pay...I swear...
How could a guild as famous and renowned as Ruins' Gate do something like that?

Judith starts walking further into the cave.

Judith, wait!



Remember what I said? There's a really nasty monster living in there.



Old Raven can't afford ta get too far from Nordopolica without getting this letter to Belius. The Don'll hit me with another one of his thankless jobs otherwise.
Well I'm going after him. I can't let somebody like that just do whatever with the blastia he takes from the ruins! And I'm gonna get that case back, too!
I...I'm going too!
What are you talking about?! You're staying put here.
I'm not.
Hah. This doesn't sound like something Brave Vesperia can very well pass up.
...Yeah, it's our job to protect Estelle.
If we all go together we're bound to come up with something.







... ...Jeez, aren't ya even gonna try ta stop me from leavin'?


Raven doesn't actually leave, by the way.



Alright, Cados. It's a pretty straightforward cave. Ocassionally the path splits into two or more but it's really obvious which one's the way forward and which one leads to treasure or other stuff.



I feel pretty good about having an all-out physical team now that Raven has Love Shot, so I put Karol in the party, which leads to him learning Reaper Knock!




Reaper Knock is another really cool arte, Karol pulls out one (or three if you charge it!) Baseball and smashes it towards the enemy with his axe/hammer/morning star/whatever. It's one of the few long-range artes he gets and is quite powerful, and it knocks enemies down as well.



Further into the cave, we have a split, and...



Oh, what do we have here? It's another Giganto monster! This is likely the first one you run across if you're playing the 360 version, and it's much easier than that fucking bear in the forest.

Friendly reminder, if you haven't talked to Rich about the Giganto monsters yet, do not kill it or you'll be locked out of that sidequest's rewards.

Watch the battle!



This is definitely no regular monster... Sometimes it's better to run when it gets too much.




Now, I of course completely ignore the fact that its physical defense is higher than its magical one and just charge in with my Yuri/Judy/Raven/Karol party.




At first, this works pretty well, but after a short while the Hermit Drill starts to counter.



Sleepy Bubble is very annoying, as it puts anyone it hits to sleep, and as far as I can tell there's no way to get rid of sleep except for waiting for the enemy to hit you again. Not only that, but Sleepy Bubble releases a huge amount of bubbles, and if you happen to stand right in front of him...







...yeah.




After attempting to recover for a bit I start to realize that this is not going to work without wasting a ton of items, so I retreat.





Skit: The Flames of Battle
Why'd you run away, Yuri?
The way that fight was going, we would've been eaten in no time!
*Woof!*
I'll bet we could've ripped our way out from inside its stomach.
This woman's crazy...
I dunno, I think Judith could pull it off. And that scares me.
*...Whine*
Did you really want to fight that monster so badly, Judith?
It's not that I wanted to fight it... I just don't like leaving things half done.
This was a strategic retreat. Come on. It would've been bad if we'd actually been eaten.
Yeah...
But we should come back here again.
Yeah, if we feel like it.


Scary. But I'm taking Judith up on her request and, after reshuffling my party, try again.

Watch the battle!



Second try with Rita and Estelle goes much better, but still not perfect.




The Hermit Drill gets to show off some other attacks as well, such as:




Rushing forward with his armor in front of him.





Or shooting his spikes (which immediately recover, of course).



And the obligatory Over Limit.







Still, this fight is much easier than the last Giganto, and thus not as interesting. Stay away from him and use long-range attacks and you'll be fine.




Not following my own advice, I rush in to end the battle faster, with the result...




Oh well.



Estelle manages to throw a life bottle at me while the battle is fading out.




The EXP from this battle gets everyone at least a level, which means:






Yuri learns Ghost Wolf, an arte where he cuts through the enemy, then turns around and slashes him again.




Rita gets Spiral Flare.





Estelle gets Dispel, a healing spell for magical elements, as well as...





Dividing Edge, a physical arte where she jumps back then thrusts her sword forward.






And Judith gets Dawn Moon, an aerial arte where she first falls down upon the enemy, then kicks him back upwards.

*Phew*, that's a lot of artes in one update.




Going back here leads into the second part of the cave, which starts another cutscene if you happen to play the PS3 version.





Did ya hear somethin'?
Aye, right here!



Whoa...! ...Huh? Patty?
Oh, we meet again.



Indeed.
So, what exactly is this treasure?



What's that?
U-um... I'm not sure.
Even Estelle the encyclopaedia doesn't know.
The Maris Stella is the most valuable treasure amongst all of Aifread's treasure!
So, have you had any luck finding this Maris Stella yet?



...What a weirdo.
Hey, back in Nordopolica we heard that you're Aifread's granddaughter. Is that true?
What? Is that true, Little Missy? Wonder how the Don'd react if he learned his sworn friend had a grandchild.
Now that you mention it, the Don and Aifread were friends since the formation of the Union, weren't they?
But Aifread having a grandchild can't be true, right? I mean, I've never heard anything about it before.



...Probably.
Probably? What do you mean?
It means that it's a guess.



What she's asking is why you would be guessing who your grandfather is.



You have...
...amnesia?


Jesus fucking Christ, why? Why did anyone at Namco think that this game needed a new character like Patty? It's so fucking cliché, in a game that was really good about that stuff before the PS3 version. I don't even need to go on a lot about it since I'm sure everyone who's reading this agrees with me here. God dammit...


Well, that's how it is.
So what yer sayin' is, you really have no idea if you're Aifread's grandchild or not?
It's absolutely true!
...Probably.
Ah, geez! Are you sure, or are you not? Pick one!
I'm searching for Maris Stella because I'm not sure if I am.
So in other words, you want to meet Aifread to get your memory back, because he might be your grandfather. And in order to do that, you're going around looking for Aifread's treasure, the Maris Stella.
Aye. One day, I'll meet him.
But...



Thank you Judith.

Ah, that's right!





Why are you following us?
I was planning on going this way.
In that case, why don't you come with us?
Aye, sounds good.
We're not going shopping or something like that, you know.
I'm well aware of that. If something happens, I'll lend you a hand.
My, how reliable.


Skit: Amnesia!?
I thought amnesia was something that only happened in stories.
It's actually surprisingly easy to do. You often hear of people getting caught up in explosions due to failed blastia experiments. Their memories get completely blown away.
It's pretty rare to retain no memory whatsoever, though.
It must be lonely.
Yeah...
But even if you can't remember your past, you can make new memories from here on out.
I don't think that sounds too bad at all.
I get it! That's another way of thinking about it.
From here on out, I'll fill my album with memories of Yuri, and Yuri, and Yuri! ♪
That's one creepy album.
I-it'd be nice if you made a little room for us in there, too...
Aye. I'll make sure there's a corner for you.


Yes we sure needed a reminder about that.





Anyway, that's it for today. Feel free to rage about Patty or whatever.