Part 38: Return to Tataroo Valley
Last time, Guy's backstory was awkwardly delivered, and we found ourselves on the way to Sheridan to pick up the frequency counter.![](1-01.jpg)
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They are indeed! The anime outright confirms this. They also help Asch get out of Baticul, since they apparently have The Batmobile.
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Awesome.
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Skit: The Dark Wings...
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Are you ready for a lot of old people?
I and M
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...Inside?
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Don't you love mediating conflict between 70 year olds?
Skit: Class I and Class M
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Guy can never be the troll Jade is. He's too nice. And he lacks the balls.
So now we have to go to Tataroo Valley, where it all began. This is actually kind of a dick move, because most players probably don't remember where it is, and if they're like me they also didn't remember to look on the map until they'd sailed aimlessly for 15 minutes. It doesn't help that the Albiore can't fly...
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I don't even want to talk about the physics of this.
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The other dick move is that there's no ports or docks on the continent that the valley is located, which means the Albiore can only get on it by gliding over a beach onto land. There's only a single beach and it's not shown on the map, so you'll circle this thing once or twice unless you get lucky.
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The Albiore actually can't go over bridges, but that's not a problem. See that second bridge in the background? That's our destination.
Return to the Past
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Or perhaps a path has miraculously appeared where none existed before!
...Nah.
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You're amazing.
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Skit: Where it All Began
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Looks a little different in the day, huh? Though the lighting is all the same, since night was just the daytime map with a filter stuck over it.
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This is what I get for not looking at my menu before fighting: Guy and Jade actually left my part during the last update until we picked them back up in the chapel, so they're in the last slots. Whatever.
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The game takes control for a second to point out the new path, but let's ignore it for now. There's an event here that I bet most people end up missing.
So we head back to the place we landed, first.
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It's such a little thing. Just a single word, but...
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Nice view, though I think the game fails to really get across just how massive this valley is supposed to be. Oh well.
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Okay, we cross the new path now. Take a look at the screen shot above. Notice anything out of place? Anything at all?
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This. This right here is the grand mother of bullshit this game has to offer. This boulder is completely camouflaged. New players wouldn't look twice at it. Not to mention that nobody, and I mean nobody in this game, will tell you anything is here. Yet this is probably one of the most important sidequests in the game. And it is 100% optional... well, as long you don't want to get locked out of tons of future sidequests!
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Inside are some ruins, but that's not the interesting part...
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That is.
Mieu Wing
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Those of you with razor sharp memories may remember that Jade mentioned during our first visit to the Zao Ruins that the ring had room for another verse, even after getting Mieu Attack. This is the only hint that Mieu has another power, but good luck remembering that by this point.
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Mieu Wings is Mieu's third and final new power. It lets you hover slightly no matter where you are, which makes monsters disenage from chasing you and also allows you to avoid some later environmental hazards. In addition, when used in specific places it allows you to float up and grab on to ledges, ladders and so on to grab hidden goodies. It's also an absolute requirement if you're planning on doing a handful of late game sidequests. Fortunately this sidquest never expires, but on the other hand good luck finding it if you're a new player or are otherwise unaware of it!
I love this game to death, but the Da Vinci Code shit can seriously take a hike.
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Oh, and you can use it to hit certain buttons. These open the doors here.
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Most of the treasure is irrelevant, but you can never have enough Wing Bottles!
Anyway, back to the surface, we continue our hike to the Sephiroth.
To Conquer Fear
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At that exact point, a violent earthquake hits
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Man, Jade is on the ball today.
So yeah, good thing Guy had that flashback last update, otherwise Anise would have been toast. I guess. Because it was totally impossible for Jade or Luke to run the five feet and help Tear out. Okay game.
Skit: The Cured Guy is a Nice Guy
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I'm going to break my rule here and show a screenshot for a skit. It's kind of hard to convey, but basically Tear, Natalia, and Anise's boxes all start sliding closer to Guy all at once, and...
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If you squint, you can see the entrance across this lake. Almost there!
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Here's an example of Mieu Wing's use. We can fly up into this branch and grab some otherwise inaccessible loot. I guess this might be the devs trying to drop the hint that this power is here, but it's a pretty lame one.
At any rate, we're finally here.
Boss Battle: Uniceros
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A piercing cry is heard.
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Hey look, the first major typo I've seen so far! I'd know too, considering I'm transcribing this beast.
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Because it's killing until we say so.
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The uniceros may seem like a filler boss, but he'll fuck you up if you're not careful. First of all, he has magic. Strong magic. Like, some of the strongest light magic in the game, magic.
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Because of this he throws down a lot of light FoF's, which his AI is programed to exploit. That's an entirely new spell called Flame Circle, and it hurts.
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Second, he flies. There're two primary attacks: A small energy blast and a dive. Both hurt.
Oh, and like that giant circle on the ground? Tear has just recently hit high enough level to unlock the Fourth Hymn, Revitalize With this, Tear has gone from sub-par healer to best healer in the game. Revitalize has a huge range and has five ticks, and as long as Tear's fonic attack is fairly high it'll fully heal you in 2-3 ticks, max, for the whole game. This is an amazing heal, and Tear's best.
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Third, uniceros is very thin. This makes his hitbox kind of janky, so it can be hard to line up a shot coming out of Free Run.
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Finally, uniceros is fast. This isn't much of a problem in and of itself, but once his health is low he'll break away and charge the shit out of your casters for massive damage. Reminds me a lot of the Boar from Graces, minus the burrowing bullshit.
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Oh, and this really doesn't make him hard, but fuck this guy's buckaroo kick. It comes out of nowhere and sends everybody flying.
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Still, I beat the Behemoth, I can sure as hell beat this guy. Though that was a pretty fierce battle to 'knock it out.'
The Uniceros's Revelation
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It doesn't, but the devs missed a great opportunity here to just have the thing spring right back up and attack you for another go. It would have been funny, if nothing else.
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Dungeon Video
Another day, another dungeon. This one isn't quite as impressive as Shurrey Hill in terms of aesthetic it's a little too blue in my opinion but I still like it.
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The gimmick in this dungeon is Mieu attacking these tuning fork looking things. Doing so activates or deactivates nearby switches, which you use to open doors. Pretty basic. Watch the dungeon video if you're really curious for some reason.
Sealed Ring
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One of the seals is already broken due to the ruins having been caved in, so only one to do. This dungeon is much more simplistic than Shurrey Hill, and you can blow through it in like 10 minutes.
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None of the fork puzzles are interesting, except for this tower one that is only mildly irritating due to the floor being the same color as the wave that comes out of the forks when you hit them.
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Anyway, we hit some forks and it stops wind from blowing into this turbine, which breaks the seal. How overly complicated.
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That's the end of the dungeon, but if you do that aforementioned tower puzzle, and you have Mieu Wings, you can manipulate the wind to fly across this gap and get some minor loot.
Anyway.
Setting Into Motion
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It's working all right...
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It took two root level brute force attacks for the system to finally recognize there was an intruder? And the only thing it did was shut itself down? What are these things running, Mcafee?
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We're done here.
Next Time: The plot continues to pick up steam, and a lot of things happen very quickly. Exciting!
Synopsis:
The Dark Wings were waiting for us in Sheridan, and said that they'd
brought Hencken and Cathy with them. I have no clue why we're getting along
with those guys, but now's not the time to be thinking about that. Let's go
see Hencken and Cathy.
We found Cathy and Tamara outside the meeting all. Apparently Hencken and
Iemon are fighting inside. Can't they at least show a little maturity at that
age?
It wasn't easy, but the two finally agreed to work with each other.
They've certainly got plenty of energy for their age.
In any case, we got the measuring device. While we measure the core's
vibration frequency in Tataroo Valley, they'll build us a device to stop the
vibration. Okay, let's get going to Tataroo Valley!
When we reached Tataroo Valley, I made a comment about the last time I was
here that had the girls making fun of me. ...And Tear was cold to me. That
kind of hurt. Why is she always so cold to me...? I guess I'm still a loser.
As we went farther into the valley, we came across a rare butterfly that
can be sold for a lot of money. Anise left us and ran after it... She's just
as bad as always when it comes to money. I'm hardly one to comment, but how
is she going to manage when she grows up?
Just then, an earthquake occurred, and Anise almost fell off the edge of
the cliff she was running along. And Guy saved her! The same Guy who couldn't
stand even the lightest touch of a woman...that's a huge step for him. I hope
the pain in his heart heals quickly.
We found a path we had missed at night, and followed it to find a doorway
with a Daathic seal. This must be where the passage ring is.
As we were going to enter, a monster called a uniceros appeared. Uniceros
don't normally attack people, but this one suddenly charged us. We managed to
knock it unconscious, then had Mieu talk to it. It said that it didn't like
miasma, and since Tear had miasma in her, it had attacked us unthinkingly.
Tear has miasma in her? What's that supposed to mean?
The uniceros eventually left, but I wonder if Tear's okay...
Ion opened the door for us. It seemed hard on him... I wonder if it's just
because his body is weak. Come to think of it, Tear always seems to get tired
when she approaches a passage ring. I hope she'll be okay... Not that I have
any idea what to do about it, so we might as well head inside.
We measured the core's vibration frequency, and made preparations for
lowering the Outer Lands while we were at it. According to Jade, the plan is
to link all the remaining passage rings together, and have them lower the
Outer Lands all at once. Well, if Jade says so... Oops, I was trying not to
just blindly rely on people like that. I wonder why I keep trying to do
that... I guess I'd better be careful.
Anyway, we did what we came for. Let's head back to Sheridan and report
the results.