Part 43: CH36: Gotta Fight 'em All

CH36: Gotta Fight 'em All



: They were going around finishing up some loose ends.


Citizen: Dark Wing has struck again! He's attacking merchants south of here, on Culmar Trail!





Dark Wing: Oh, I used to. But that charade proved more trouble than it was worth.
It's just poor form to leave eyewitnesses alive.
: Hold it!





WEAK!







Trader: Sorry about all this.
He was my partner... I should've been the one to stop him.
: Your partner?
Trader: He and I used to work together as the Dark Wings. We'd only steal from the rich to help the poor.
We used these feathers because they bring good luck.
After we stuck a few hundred to our bodies, there was no one alive who could catch us.
But his greed got the better of him. He took all our feathers and became a ruthless thug.
: So you were collecting those feathers to catch him?
Trader: Exactly. But I didn't think I had enough feathers yet.
: We brought you some more.
Trader: Over 459 feathers... I guess that was enough to beat his luck.
: It wasn't luck. It was the strength of your resolve that stopped him.
Trader: Thanks for sayin' that.
The feathers seem to have lost their power, so I hope you'll accept this instead.
If you ever find any more Jet Black Feathers, please bring 'em to my store.
I don't want what happened with my partner to ever happen again.



So I thought you couldn't do this before fighting the final boss, but you actually can if you're on new game+.


: If it's about the Devil's Beasts, you already told us.
Storyteller: Did I now?
Then at least let me repeat my warning. If you come across one, do not attempt to fight it!
: I don't think we'll be coming across any, as we've already beaten all six of them.
Storyteller: You what?! Th-That's impossible...
: But it's true!
: See for yourself! We brought all their weapons.
Storyteller: It... It's true! I can't believe it! I never thought this day would come!
At long last, my soul is free!
Free from the clutches of he who bound my soul to the lives of the Devil's Beasts!
: You feeling okay, old man?
Storyteller: O brave warriors who have defeated the cursed Devil's Beasts, hear me out!
You must use the golden key to open the door and challenge he who awaits!
Once you do, you too will know the secret that lies hidden within the realm of man!
The true power held by the Devil's Arms!
: "He who awaits?"
Storyteller: The door to his world, Magnus Zero, lies at the place where my body perished!
Where I, Trille, drew my last breath twenty years ago! At the dark heart of Fezebel!
: He's gone!
: Trille... That was the guy who created the Devil's Beasts.
: This may sound strange, seeing how we've fought Maxwell himself, and traveled to Elympios and back, but...
Is this truly happening?
: I believe so. If Maxwell and Elympios turned out to be real, why not this?
: So we're supposed to bring this golden key to the center of Fezebel Marsh, huh?
: I'm still not sure what he was talking about with "he who awaits" and the "true power of the Devil's Arms".
: It's the same as everything else we've faced so far.
If we don't go, we'll never find out. If we do go, we'll have our answers.





: Do you think this is it?
: Yes. It appears to be the entrance to Magnus Zero the old storyteller told us about.
: I guess the portal opened because we have the golden key?
You normally get the key for beating the last boss and loading the clear game save, but since I'm on new game+ I've just got it on me.
: The storyteller said Magnus Zero was the world where "he who awaits"... err, awaits.
And that if we went there, we'd discover the true power of the Devil's Arms.
: I'm kind of scared.
: Yeah. I've got a real bad feeling about this.
: "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread," as they say.
: Then I guess I'm in?
: Heh. Our foolishness hasn't brought us down yet!





: What are we doing back in Fennmont?!
: We're not. This isn't our world at all.
Golden Mage Knight: It is a world created by your own minds. A tour of the battlefields in which you've tasted triumph.
: Identify yourself!


Golden Mage Knight: Now come! Ascend the mountain of corpses! Ford the river of blood! Blaze a path to my side!
With blade and fang, tear the flesh of your foes to ribbons! Let their blood fall like the autumn rain!
: I'm guessing... that was our man?
: It seems so. I cannot yet tell if he's a fool, but I'm quite confident he's no angel.



OK, so now we have the bonus dungeon of the game. It's just a set of random areas from the rest of the game, populated with Magnus Zero's monsters and treasures, connected by warps. Every 5 levels you get a save point, the option to leave, and a store that sells everything except consumable items.

Dungeon Video!
So someone has complained about me always playing as Milla and linking with Jude. Well, Milla and Jude just have the most (and more importantly, greatest variety of) link artes in the game. Also Milla is the best. So that's why. But here I'm linking her with Leia for the dungeon, since everything in here has stuff worth stealing.


Also worth a note is that many of the monsters in the dungeon can call friends. I took advantage of this a while back to farm up arte usage to gain little bonuses on all of my artes (mostly the tp discount). If you're willing to leave your ps3 on for a few days, in one battle your party will eventually kill the maximum possible number of enemies that can spawn in an encounter, even while their damage is capped at 1 per hit.



Trigger Warning: Long fights.
: We couldn't see into Magnus Zero. If we could, I think I'd have surrendered instantly after seeing this fight.


Golden Mage Knight: Welcome, champions of battle! You have done well to make it this far.
: Who are you?
Golden Mage Knight: Even I no longer know who I am. After tens of thousands of years, my name has ceased to be relevant.
: You lived for that long?!
Golden Mage Knight: My identity is of no significance. I desire but one thing.
Battle without end!
: I probably don't have much right to complain, but...
: I don't wanna be friends with this guy!
Golden Mage Knight: There is no need to resist me. For you and I are already as one!
What does that mean?
Those Lilium Orbs you wear are the very roots that sustain me.
A few thousand years ago, I spread them throughout the world to learn more about how humans fight.
: No way! You're the source of the Lilium Orbs?! But... Uh... Why, exactly?
Golden Mage Knight: Having reached the limits of my own power, I needed to find some means of growing even stronger.
Humans may be weak, but they possess an incredible capacity to learn.
Lilium Orbs are the tools that provide me with any new combat knowledge humans devise.
: It was the discovery of the Lilium Orbs that first gave humanity the power to battle monsters.
Without them, we could never have developed the wealth of artes and techniques we use today.
Golden Mage Knight: All of which now belong to me.
: So your power is the embodiment of all warfare in the whole of human history?!
: Were you involved in the creation of the Devil's Beasts as well?
Golden Mage Knight: Indeed I was. I shared a portion of my power with a human who desired it, and had him create them.
I would have been happy if they had grown strong enough to oppose me, or so strong that humanity would need to develop new tactics to defeat them.
I never expected humans to defeat them directly, but it was a most pleasant surprise when you did.
: That's the reason you unleashed them upon the world? Why do you want to fight so badly?
Golden Mage Knight: Because combat is what sustains me!
: ......
Golden Mage Knight: Now come! Let us sup on this banquet of battle!
: This doesn't seem to be up for discussion!





Well, that doesn't seem too bad.


So he's using Alvin's artes.


But with a little more power.


My first time through this I linked with Leia but didn't do so well, so I decided to mix up my lineup a bit.


Here's Scarlet Fang, a linked arte you haven't seen before, triggered off Milla's Sunburst. Jude steps behind the guy and knocks him into the air...


Then Milla smacks him with fire.


Jude joins in.


And then the enemy fucking explodes. It's pretty nice, but the catch is that the initial attack into the air can miss or be resisted, and then you spend a while attacking thin air.


Setting your enemies on fire always helps. That's the 3375.


So yeah, you can steal permanent stat boosters from this guy, which is nice but optional.


I am really, really glad it's not tracking how many times we die. Because it's a lot.


But he goes down eventually.


Uh, I said "goes down" there. Those of you who see the timer at the bottom of the video know what's up.


Uh-oh.




So now we're fighting enemies with Rowen's and Leia's artes. Remember how Leia's artes include healing? So does this guy.


And they can link. You know what that means.


He can also use Leia's buff spells. Unrelated, but you can steal Red Verbena from him.


Took them awhile to use their linked arte. I don't think we've ever seen this one, since I don't normally have Rowen and Leia linked.


Huh, managed to get both of them at once with Scarlet Fang. Almost makes up for the times it totally missed.


Incidentally I don't think Rowen actually has that four-stalagmite PBAOE move.


The enemy getting off a heal isn't fatal, but it sure is annoying.


With EvilDudeLeia dead, EvilRowen is a piece of cake. He's down to 65976/172500 as of this moment despite me not giving a shit about attacking him, in part due to Elize and Leia, and in part due to redistributing some of his HP to the guy I was making an actual effort to kill every time he linked up.


Yup, they're copying Milla, Jude, and Elize. 550,000 hp to go! Despite having two potential healers, I don't think I ever saw him try to heal.


Not taking any chances with that, EvilDudeElize is going first.


Shining Prism is the main threat here, since it inflicts CHARM.


Huh, maybe that move is a thing they give all copies of caster party members.


So uh we've run out of life bottles. OK technically we have two left, but the AI is set to not use the last two automatically.


So I can buy Omega Elixers now. What's difficulty?


These guys haven't really been doing nearly as many linked artes as the Chimaeriad replicas did.





I'm being a big dumb and trying to kill EvilJude because I'm still worried about healing.


Uh-oh.


If I'd lost here at this point I'd have probably thrown a controller.


Not today!


Target... reprioritized. Actually no, I was really dumb and stuck with the EvilJude.


OK I was wrong, this is when I went down to 2 life bottles. I started with 30!


Finally switch over to EvilMilla.


At some point I switch back over to EvilJude.


Huh, they do have more than one linked arte. Up till now they've only done Final Gale.


And then there was one.


And none.


That's without an xp-doubling food, I needed one that gave me +25% to attack and def for physical and magical artes.





Golden Mage Knight: How strong will you become? How long will you continue to fight?
: ......
For as long as we need to.
Golden Mage Knight: Ha ha ha! A fine answer! Then I shall give you the power you'll need.
The time has come to lift the seal on the Devil's Arms!
Now go! Go and wield this infinite power! Fight for all eternity!
Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
: So, uh... Did we beat him?
: I wonder. He didn't seem too broken up about it.
: I'm in shock!
: I can't believe our Lilium Orbs were just tools to serve him.
: It makes quite a bit of sense when you think about it. Lilium Orbs have long inspired man to fight and learn.
: I think there's more to them than that.
My Lilium Orb gave me the power I needed to accomplish what I had to.
I don't think tools are inherently bad or good.
: I agree with Jude.
Whether a tool is used for good or evil depends entirely on the user.
: Well maybe the Devil's Arms are like that too? He said something about lifting their seal.
: I agree. I don't see why we should deprive ourselves. We should use them to help achieve our goals.
: Yeah... Jude's right!
: That's all well and good, but what do we do if Firehead there comes back stronger than ever?
: Simple. We'll just defeat him again.
So you can fight him two more times, but we'll do that later. We also get the Skill tome "Indefatigable" which gives Jude the "Grounded Stance" skill that prevents him from ever being knocked down when he has two feet on the ground, and is shared with the link partner. Let's have a look at these "Devil's Arms."






Soooo. These gain P.ATK and A.ATK based on how many dudes we've defeated. You remember that thing about hitting the cap for adds that can spawn in a battle up above? Yeahhhh, I did that a few times. Needless to say we won't be using those on the final boss, but I'll feel free to use them on anyone we've fought before. Such as, say, rematches with Mister Splitz up there.



So now we've really done all of the pre-boss sidquests. See you next time when we actually go after the final boss.