Part 19: Deo Range (Part II)
Welcome back! Last time we whipped the God Generals (again) and took back Ion.
Behold, a desert that isn't blinding! As I've said before, this is the point where I finally fucked around with the brightness and it makes everything look quite a bit better. Or at least, it does in my opinion.
There's nothing else much to do in the desert, so let's skip right on ahead to Chesedonia.
: “If we go to the Malkuth consulate, they should show us to the ship.”
: “Luke! Another headache? They're becoming more frequent...”
: “...It's gone. I'm okay now.”
: “No, you should get some rest just in case.”
: “Then let's go to the inn. We have to decide what to do about Ion, too.”
: “All right.”Skit: Luke's Headaches
: “Do you think we should have a doctor take a look at Luke?”
: “The best Tear or I can do with our skill is heal surface wounds or poison... headaches are a different matter.”: “We do need to hurry to Akzeriuth... but I suppose we could try asking him.”
“Well, we did get him checked out once back in Baticul, but the doctors couldn't find anything. Besides, Luke would probably call it a waste of time.”: “I see...”
: “Hmm... I doubt the doctors in Chesedonia are better than those in Baticul. We also don't have that much time to begin with.”
: “I suppose so...”Psh, doctors. We'll be fi-
Welp.
: “What's wrong, huh? That's not the way to the inn!”
: “Shut... up...”
: “Hah hah, look at you. You're connected to me. You ARE me!”
: “Master! Are you all right?”: “Luke, what's wrong?”: “Let's see, what next... Turn your sword on that woman.”
: “Shut up! Stop controlling me!”
: “It... it's not … me! My body's just...! S-stop!!”
Well this could be trouble.
Oh by the way, if you're watching the cutscenes, you'll notice I also set the text speed to max, so the whole message appears at the start. This whole update is just a tech upgrade.
: “What's happened to Luke?”
: “Hmm, health problems, huh? If I have to nurse someone, I'd be better off with a rich geezer who's ready to kick it...”: “Did you say something Anise?”
: “...Nothing! Hee hee.”
: “Colonel, do you have any idea what's wrong with Luke?”
: “Hmm...”: “Could it have something to do with that man who looked like Luke? The one they called 'Asch'?”: “I'd prefer to avoid commenting at this point.”: “Jade! Stop teasing us!”: “I'm not teasing anyone. I just feel that Luke ought to be the first to learn of matters that concern him.”Oh that's just rich.
: “Master's waking up.”
: “It's nothing. How do you feel? Does it still feel like someone's controlling you?”: “No... I don't feel anything, now...”: “Dist probably did something to you at Choral Castle. I'll have him remove it when we catch him.”: “I sure hope so. By the way, what are we gonna do with Ion?”: “Until we know the Six God-Generals' objective, we should keep Ion out of their hands.”
: “Could you take me with you? If it's not too much trouble.”
: “Ion! Mohs will be angry with us!”
: “Emperor Peony entrusted me with his letter of peace. So I'd like to report to him about the Akzeriuth rescue operation myself.”: “I think that's a fine idea. Once we're finished in Akzeriuth, you can head back to the capital with me... oh I'm sorry. It's up to Luke to decide, isn't it?”: “...Do whatever you want!”: “Thank you everyone.”Before we leave Chesedonia, we have a handful of things to get done.
First off, we need to do the second part of the Ant Lion Man quest. And once again yes: if you get on the boat before talking to this guy, you're locked out of the quest forever. Typical.
This time he wants a Scimitar and a Magic Lens. Magic Lenses let you see enemy HP and stats, and can be bought from any item store for a dime a dozen. On the other hand the scimitar is weapon that you've already upgraded from. Did you sell the scimitar you had on you, or forget to pick one up in Baticul? Too bad! They don't sell them here, so you're fucked.
So he chucks them down the hole and...
Oh you piece of shit!
So yeah, he starts to short-change you, which I assume is an attempt by the devs to make you quit the quest. We're going to keep at it, though. Maybe we'll eventually get something good?
Speaking of good things, there's something I forgot to pick up last time in Astor's Manor. Let's fix that.
Hidden way back in a remote cornerer of the mansion, tucked away in a drawer is the Time Traveling Hero, a unique accessory for Anise that gives her a huge boost to critical chance. It also alters the look of her doll somewhat. You'll see. At any rate, there are a handful of these dolls that Anise can get. Honestly this is one of the less interesting ones, but it still outshines any other accessory we could put on her at this point.
One final attraction. Back by the Malkuth Consulate is this unmarked shack. Enter it.
In this shack you meet Din, who is the facilitator for Abyss's crafting system. Yes that's right, Abyss has a crafting system... and oh my god is it terrible.
On paper it doesn't sound so bad. Spread around the world map are search points, and by searching them periodically you get trade goods. You can take these goods back to Din, who'll make items out of them. You give him items, specify what type of item you want (Gels, weapons, accessories, potions, etc) and also throw in some gald. The more gald you give (you have three options: Small, Medium, and Large) the better the item you're likely to get. What category of items you can make is determined by how many of certain types of trade goods you bring in. For examply Din won't make you any swords unless you've turned over lots of metal ores.
So what's the problem? The game explains none of this to you. Nothing about search points. Nothing about how you need to go hunting to the far ends of the earth to find said search points, so that you can get certain specific titles for Natalia, which when equipped are the only feasible way of finding rare trade goods. No mention that if you hold off and accrue an absurd amount of material points, that Din will offer you “special requests” that give you lots of good shit. No mention of the fact that even if you do get all those points, you still need to hand over specific items to raise a category's level. No mention of the fact that the level decreases back to one when you've crafted something, and you have to repeat the process over again.
Gah!
Oh, and most insultingly? Some of the best stuff are the “ultimate” weapons for the characters. Except every single character can get a better weapon somewhere else for much less hassle.
So what is all this bullshit good for? Natalia and Guy can both get their best armors crafted from Din, Natalia can get a bow that gives her something very special, you can get a pretty nice capacity core, and you can get some nice rings. But you have to go through so much nonsense just to get that far that it really isn't even worth it. I tried once to craft everything possible from Din, and stopped trying halfway through the playthrough. Once you understand the system it isn't hard, just tedious as all hell.
At any rate, that was a lot of
to sum up a simple statement: the crafting system is shit. I'm not going to be bothering with it until much, much later to show off some stuff.
We head to the Malkuth Consulate. I know I keep harping on it, but once again notice the difference in architecture from Kimlasca. Beautiful marble white columns. Foliage everywhere. Beautifully blue walls. Quite a different approach from Hitler's office, what with his six swords on the wall and the siege ballista installed in the window.
: “We received word via carrier pigeon from Dorian General Grants. He plans to proceed to Akzeriuth with a vanguard unit.”
: “Whaaat?! He's too early!”: “We should hurry, too.”
Huh?
: “Oww! Guy, don't tell me Asch is controlling you, now?”: “I don't think so... I don't hear any voices, anyway...”
: “Curse slot?”: “It's a Daathic fonic arte applied to a person's fon slots. It reads information from the brain, using the person's memories to control him.”: “Shall I call a doctor, or a healer?”: “I'm fine. Let's get on the ship and hurry after Van.”: “Isn't it dangerous, though?”: “The curse slot's power varies depending on the proximity of the user. The user is probably nearby. We should get away from Chesedonia.”: “Right this way.”
: “Only a Fon Master can use Daathic fonic artes... he must be...”
Not ominous at all.
: “You had me worried, you know.”
: “Sorry.”: “Then the curse slot user must have been in Chesedonia after all.”: “It's a good thing we got away from Chesedonia so quickly, Guy.”
: “Yeah. Say, it was Sync who cut my arm like this. Does that mean he's the user?”: “Most likely.”And I guess that's all we're going to say about that for now. Fine then.
Thankfully Dist doesn't show up to try and take over the ferry again, so we cut straight to Kaitzur naval port.
: “It's Deo Range to the northeast.”The devs remember at this point that we have no idea how to get to Deo Pass, so they throw this in. Thank you.
Skit: What We Can Do for Akzeriuth
: “How bad do you suppose things are in Akzeriuth?”: “The miasma is my main concern. Treating victims there on the spot won't have much effect.”: “Yes, evacuation should be our top priority.” “But with the Malkuth and Kimlasca roads both out...”
: “Tear and I can't handle all the casualties ourselves, but we'll do what we can until everyone's ready to evacuate.”: “Both sides have been informed, so hopefully it won't take too long... until then, I guess we're counting on you.”: “Understood. It is the duty of a country's ruler to protect her citizens. We will not abandon them!”: “Right, let's do our best.”Skit: Mohs and the War
: “So if I save Akzeriuth, the war will be averted, right?”: “Well it should be, but I don't know if that'll be enough now...”
: “...Yes, with the tension between Kimlasca and Malkuth, it may take a lot of work to ease tensions.”: “Shouldn't everything be fine as long as Mohs stays out of the way?”
: “Mohs doesn't seem to approve of Ion's actions, so it probably won't be that easy...”
: *Sigh*
: “Aren't you going to speak up for Mohs again?”: “I'm sure you wouldn't listen if I did. Besides, I'm sure he'll understand once we save Akzeriuth.”
: “Humph. Yeah, right...”Skit: Akzeriuth's Ore
: Malkuth controls the mineral resources in this area, right? Well, Akzeriuth is theirs, after all. There're some mines on the Kimlasca side, too, but I've heard their output is lower-quality.: Raw materials are hard to come by in Kimlasca. Especially during wartime...: And if you go through Daath, you have the extra tariffs to deal with.
: I do apologize for the trouble, but the Order needs funds to operate...: I was hoping to have a conversation with you on that point, Ion. It is, of course, thanks to Daath that we are able to sustain trade with Malkuth in the first place. However--
: Please, save the economics discussion for a more appropriate time.: I'm sorry... I shouldn't have brought it up. You're right; we need to focus on Akzeriuth right now.: I do enjoy a lively debate, but the Six God-Generals have me rather concerned here.: Yeah... We should get moving.The game just dumped all three of these on me the moment I left Kaitzur. I didn't really have anything to break it up with, sorry.
Here's Anise's doll using Time Traveling Hero, by the way. It's supposed to look like Cless from Tales of Phantasia.
Oh, and since I was able to get her some decent equipment in Chesedonia I'm going to let Natalia fight. I haven't used her in forever: I forgot how fast she blows through TP.
Here we are.
Deo Pass is a really confusing area if you want to grab any of the loot not on the main path. Otherwise it's probably the shortest 'dungeon' in the game.
: “We shouldn't have wasted time in the desert.”
: “What do you mean 'wasted time'?”: “I mean wasted time. We don't need Ion anymore. The war won't start as long as I'm around.”: “You moron.”: “H-hey!”
: “Luke, even I thought that was arrogant.”
: “The peace is based on the respect the Malkuth Emperor and Father have for the Fon Master. Without Ion there would be no mediator.”: “No, it's not that either country holds respect for me. They merely want Yulia's Score. I'm not really needed.”: “I can't agree with you there. You carry weight as a deterrent, Ion. Even if you do owe it to Yulia's Score.”
: “How does he pull out a line like that at a time like this? You can never tell what that guy's thinking.”: But Luke... you do need to be more careful with your words...Skit: Careless Words
: “That Luke... how stupid can he be, anyway?”: “Still angry, are we? That's not like you.”
: “I-I'm not angry! I love Luke (and his money)!”: “Really? I have to admit, I half expected you to lose your temper on hearing Ion spoken of like that.”: “Huh? N-no, not at all... um... well, okay, I guess it did bother me a little.”: “Indeed. For all his ignorance of the world, that was still quite a careless choice of words. Then again, what more could one expect from Luke?”: “Look, I don't really want to talk about this anymore! Let's go, Colonel!”: “Yes, ma'am.”In case you were worried, don't be: Luke being an asshole is something of a running theme in Deo Pass.
Mieu gets a lot of use out of his new headbutt attack here, since there are both boulders to break and trees to shake.
Also now that she's had a chance to catch a break, Tear learned Resurrection during her down time, which now gives us options to revive people outside of life bottles.
Actually, there's a funny glitch with Tear and this spell, specifically that her AI is actually too good. I'll talk about it when it happens, because I know it will.
Skit: The Road to Akzerituth
: The road is in surprisingly good condition.: Yeah, especially since it's not really used anymore.: How come?: This road was in operation back when Akzeriuth was a part of Kimlasca.: Since Malkuth took it from us, there's been no reason to maintain it any longer.: ...But, if Akzeriuth is Kimlasca's next target, it certainly would make sense to clean it up...
: What is that supposed to mean?: I said "if." It certainly doesn't appear to have seen any recent work. The fact that it's still in such good condition speaks well for the Kimlascan engineers who constructed it.: You have a most...trying way of putting things.
: Hah hah hah... I suppose I do. I'll try to be more careful.
Also these bees, holy shit these damn bees. I turned the difficulty up to hard from this point onward since I'm a little overleveled, and boy do these buggers take advantage of that. They have high attack, high combo rates, poison you, and float all over the damn place making it hard to hit. And like six of them attack at once.
On the plus side, Anise somewhere along the line learned Negative Gate which is a crazy good dark spell with a huge area that deals tons of damage. A lot of people tend to underestimate how good a caster Anise really is. With a good capacity core to boost her Fonic Attack and some carmine chambers on her better spells, she can put out almost as much damage as Jade.
Let's continue on upwards. The treasures around here are all gels, potions and gald.
Though speaking of treasures, Mieu's headbutt can hit trees to make chests drop out of them. Handy!
Once you get up high enough, it drops a fog filter on the background. The problem is it looks less foggy and more like green haze. It's not even the miasma: that's purple. Whatever, PS2 limitations are what they are.
: “Ion!”
: “Are you all right? Do you want to rest a bit?”: “No... I'm fine.”: “No, you have to rest! We're taking a break, everyone!”: “A break? What are you talking about?! Master Van's gone on ahead!”: “Luke! There's no harm in resting a little!”: “Yeah. This is a tough mountain path. There's nothing we can do.”: “I'M the ambassador! If I say we go, we go!”
: “L-Listen you!”: “Let's get some rest. Ion, I trust that's all right with you?”: “Hey!”: “I'm sorry to be a burden, Luke...”: “...Tch. Fine... just for a little.”: “Thank you.”Listen Luke-
Yeah, that!
: “...What are you talking about? I don't have any 'attitude'.”: “...Fine, never mind.”: “...What's her problem? Damn it.”
Ion gets a short break, and then it's back down the mountain.
No green save circle here, which means no boss. We're almost to the end.
Alright, we're on the road again.
: “Stop!”
: “I'm under orders from Grand Maestro Mohs. What about you? Why are you kidnapping Ion and traveling to the Sephiroth?!”
Obviously.
: “What do you mean...?”: “The world is completely controlled by the Score. People read the Score for anything they do. The Score rules their lives. Don't you think that's wrong?”: “The Score doesn't exist to control people. It's merely a tool to help them follow the correct path.”: “Perhaps for you Fon Master, but most people depend on the Score. It controls them. The worst cases consult the Score to see what they should have for dinner. You are no different.”: “We don't go that far, but... if the Score shows the future, then it's best to live as it says...” “The Score you get read on your birthday is a useful reference.”: “Yes, and you hear your life's Score from the moment you're born, so...”: “In the end, relying on the Score makes life easier. Mind you, the Scores other than Yulia's are vague and hard to understand.”: “That's what I'm talking about. This world is mad. Someone has to change it. Tear! Join us!”: “I still don't trust my brother, and you're his trusted partner. Until my suspicions toward him are cleared, I can't return to you.”
Wait... so there is a boss battle? With no healing circle?
Yeah, the first time I played this game I didn't see this fight coming at all. All my guys were almost dead, and I got my teeth kicked in. Hope you saved at that last circle regardless of its color!
: “Tear! Get away from that stupid child!”: “I am not a child!”: “Major, what are you and Van trying to do?!”: “Did Van tell you to stop us? Was this his order too?”: “I will not explain this here. I just want to stop Tear!”: “Why would we listen to you without hearing any reason first?”: “Dammit, don't ignore me!”: “Ugh, you just don't know when to stop. Begone!”
Legretta is an interesting boss. She has no melee attack: all of her physical attacks come from her guns, which means she has no range limitation. She can just decide to target your casters, and bam: they're hit. She's also very fast, but on the flipside she staggers very easily.
Taking advantage of this, it is very easy to back Legretta into a corner and just have Luke and Guy wail on her. If they attack in sync with one another, Legretta will never get a chance to recover unless she busts out Over Limit.
And so the battle rages on as Legretta stands in a corner and gets the shit beat out of her by Luke and Guy, with Jade occasionally jumping in for potshots.
Legretta finally pops over limit and starts casting. She's a first fonon caster, with the spells Eclair de Larmes and Holy Lance. They both hurt a lot, though Holy Lance more so.
Then over limit fades, and it's back to the same dance as before.
Oh yeah, she also has a laser.
Thankfully she telegraphs it a half second before she fires it off, so I was able to free run out of the way.
That's Holy Lance. It would have downed Guy had he not been in over limit.
I also get a ground FoF for the first time, allowing Luke to bust out Rending Quake, where he unleashes an uppercut so manly it rips up the ground underneath the one he's punching and pounds them with rubble.
She retaliates with Searing Sorrow, in which she drops a flaming meteor on Guy and almost kills him. Nice.
Jade also drops a perfectly timed flame burst to end the battle. Had his hit come a half second later, Guy would have died and missed out on all the experience.
I think I'll keep things on hard for now. The fights are much more intense and interesting, but not so hard that it's frustrating me. I've already played unknown: I did my time.
: “Reject? Are you talking about me?!”
: “...So, it WAS you people who resurrected that forbidden technology!”: “Jade, no! There are some things people are better off not knowing!”: “Ion... you knew?!”: “What? Stop leaving me out of the conversation! What are you talking about?! It has something to do with me, right?!”: “...Whose idea was it? Was it Dist's?!”: “Are you talking about fomicry? What good would it do you to know? The die has been cast, Necromancer!”
: “Colonel... you're actually really angry...”: “...I'm sorry, I lost control. I'm all right now. Let's hurry to Akzeriuth.”
: “Master, you mustn't get mad...”: “They all jerk me around and then act like I'm not even here! I'm the ambassador, damn it!”
: “Master...”
This whole thing is turning into a mess, isn't it.
Next Time: Akzeriuth.
Synopsis:
We finally reached Chesedonia, but just as we were about to take care of
things at the Malkuth consulate, I got another one of those headaches and
started hearing voices again. We decided to take a little break at the inn,
just to be safe.
We headed for the inn, but all of a sudden I couldn't control my body. It
seemed like Asch was controlling me instead. He made me pull out my sword and
attack Tear, even though I didn't want to. The headache got so bad I passed
out, and got carried to the inn. How embarrassing...
Jade says that Dist probably did something to me back in Choral Castle.
I'd actually forgotten about that. He said that unless we can find Dist
there's not much we can do about it.
Then we started talking about what to do with Ion. He said he wanted to go
to Akzeriuth, and everybody else decided that we could protect him from the
Oracle Knights that way. They all ignored me. I'M the ambassador, dammit!
Don't leave me out of things!
Ion and Anise ended up coming along, making seven of us. I just want to
catch up to Master Van.
Master Van should be in Chesedonia. We'd better hurry to the Malkuth
consulate.
At the Malkuth consulate, we found out that Master Van had already left
for Kaitzur. Dammit, if only we hadn't gone off to save Ion! Just as we were
about to go after him, this time Guy suddenly grabbed his arm like he was in
pain, and then he threw me back like he was being controlled. Apparently
somebody used something called a curse slot on him, which allowed him to be
controlled. We were going to call a doctor, but he said not to worry, and
that we should go and get on the ship. Ion said the power of the curse slot
weakens with distance from the user, too, so we decided to leave Chesedonia
as soon as we could.
As soon as the ship left Chesedonia, Guy started feeling better. I guess
the user of the curse slot must have been in Chesedonia. That's a relief.
Now we just have to catch up with Master Van.
We finally made it to the Kaitzur military port. Now we just have to head
for Akzeriuth. I want to meet Master Van soon.
We'll have to cross the Deo Pass to get to Akzeriuth. If we don't catch up
with him there, I probably won't be able to meet him until we reach
Akzeriuth...
We reached the Deo Pass, but Master Van wasn't there. I guess he must be
in Akzeriuth already. When I said we shouldn't have wasted time in the
desert, everybody got mad at me. I'm the ambassador--I'm the one who's
important in making peace, not Ion! What's wrong with calling something a
waste of time if that's what it is? We don't need Ion anyway, so what's their
problem? I can't stand these people. I just want to get over the Deo Pass and
to Akzeriuth as soon as I can, so I can rejoin Master Van. Then I can lose
these idiots too.
Bastards, every one of them!
On the way through the Deo Pass, Legretta from the Six God-Generals
attacked us...or more like, she came to talk to Tear into going with her. And
she called me a reject, the jerk! Everybody else started talking about
forbidden technology, and about Ion's knowledge of it, and a bunch of other
stuff I didn't understand. They totally left me out. I'm the ambassador! I'm
the most important one here--the chosen hero! You can all just go to hell!
As long as Master Van's with me, that's all I need. I want to find him
soon.