The Let's Play Archive

The Last Remnant

by Stabbey_the_Clown

Part 41: Chapter XXXIV-A - This must be some kind of mistake!


This must be some kind of mistake!


Music: The Seat of Vulcan



Before I go to Nagapur, though, I’ve been putting off getting upgrades for my party members, and doing guild tasks for long enough. I did want to at least wait until opening up Blackdale Second Entrance, though.

So this isn’t really a full chapter as such, it’s a grab bag of a few things. I’m taking this opportunity to get some more Unique Leader talks done, as well as showing off our benched party members.

Because in theory, most of the combat should just be killing mostly trash mobs, I’m reconfiguring the party temporarily. ALL our established leaders, Rush, David, and Emma, are being benched. Rush and Emma for having the most experience and not really needing more, and David because I have 6 Mystics users and David has the highest ranks in mystic arts.

Instead, I’m putting Rhagoh in as the leader of Emma’s union (making it Rhagoh’s Crowd), because he is needed for a quest later on, and so I’d like him to not be dead weight as a union leader.

This must be some kind of mistake!

No really, that’s his actual line. Even he knows he’s worthless. Nora is going in as the leader of David’s union because her Mystics are less developed than Loki’s and her quest is harder than Loki’s.

Be warned: I run a tight ship.

Maddox and Leshau are coming off the bench to join Nora’s Fellows, bringing it up to 5 members. I also shift Violet over to Caedmon’s Team – promoting him and benching Rush.

I shall do my best!







This configuration has several weaknesses that did not become apparent until I actually found a dangerous opponent. I went by the Union of the Golden Chalice to check on any guild tasks that I could possibly turn in.




It’s the same as before. And I only have that one listed as completed because Maddox is in the active party. In order to unlock new guild tasks, I have to increase my guild rank. This is done not through completing a certain number of tasks, no that would be too easy. Instead, you have to do one specific task and then you are promoted.

I’m not going to do every guild task or show them off, but I am going to show off the ones that get you promoted to higher guild ranks. I think I remember where this one is: There’s a Monsterslayer one asking for the head of Dominator, and I recall people complaining about that guy.

In retrospect, I should have taken that as a warning sign.

We’ll be bouncing all over the map, so posting it might help. This is a bonus update so I won’t be doing play-by-plays.



(Click for larger)




Yes, we have not visited Nagapur yet, but I’m putting it on the map anyway. Spoilers, that’s where Nagapur is on the map!






Enter Blackdale (first entrance). On the PC, with the draw distance set to maximum, you can immediately see where Dominator is. If you don’t see him you leave and re-enter. He’s perhaps one of the easiest rares to find.




And he’s a Spiritlord type too. I’ll be dragging these spiders into the fight with me.

Music: Clash of Opposites



- Blooper Video: Rare Monster Dominator (Failure 1)



This guy is a lot nastier than I was expecting for this dungeon. He’s got a lot of powerful attacks and damage-over time.




At this point, I realize that I have actually benched three good healers, including the only Mystic who could revive, plus Rush had the only Psionics that boosted morale. No one in Nora’s union can revive the other two unions, and only Pagus can heal.




- Blooper Video: Rare Monster Dominator (Attempt 2)


We will not lose!

Poison is a deceptively nasty status. This party doesn’t have the healing to easily power through it.






Let’s give this one more try.


- Video: Rare Monster Dominator (Success)


This is not an easy fight. Things might look bad here…




But they turned out all right.

learned Double Time!
learned Double time!
class changed to Adept Marauder!
learned Cascade Strike!
learned Rejuvenate!
learned Mighty Thunderclap III!

Yeah no, Pagus. But the rest of it is good progress.

class changed to Expert Marksman!
class changed to Marauder!
class changed to Adept Healer!
learned Spark IV!
learned Smash!
learned Nimble Focus Strike II!

Before leaving the dungeon, Rhagoh learned a combat art, making him marginally less useless. But seriously, all he starts with is healing, and not even much of that. Restore II is not a high bar to clear.




Rush, your Vespe is impressive, but it would be more so in my possession, wouldn’t you say?
…Sure, you can borrow it.
You have my eternal gratitude. It shall be used spectacularly.

Say Rush, would you could lend me your Elite’s Rod for a bit?
Sure, no prob.
Ho ho ho. You have my gratitude.

I guess maybe I shouldn’t have given Gabriel the good sword from The Fiery Revolt, since he’ll probably get benched sooner or later, but Rush wasn’t going to use it anyway, so who cares. And I suppose anything that helps his damage is good. Vespe boosts his ATK from 52 to 70, which is actually pretty high compared to everyone else.

If I do decide to bench Gabriel, it might be later, since he’s one of only 4 people who can revive. For now, we’re off to Celepalais to turn in the Golden Chalice quest and check in on the Sword of Three Realms guild.




Music: Glittering Gold





…That’s why I hated my husband. I resented everything he was…
Why?
I knew he cared for me. But how could he know how it felt to fall from grace? He wasn’t one of us. He could never understand my rage… or so I thought. Thinking on it now, it’s I who didn’t understand…




Let’s just turn that in and…
Obtained Union of the Golden Chalice Rank 1!




And immediately we get a bunch more Guild Tasks, some of which we can already turn in. I also obtained Sword of Three Realms Rank 1 from killing 5 Vultures.




Actually yeah, I do.
Unlike that arrogant harpy of a mother, Charlotte is a gentle and delicate flower… a true desert bloom. I wonder how I may pick that flower and raise it in a garden of my own…
…You want to kidnap her?
…Perhaps not my best metaphor.
Anyway, I think she’s seen way too much boyfriend trouble. Trust me on that.




I went to Dillmoor to try and get some Purple Divain Rawhide for Violet. The only way to get it is to first capture a Divain, and then there’s a 3% chance you can get some when splitting the captured monster.


- Video: Rare Monster Urraco


I also fought a rare monster.




This was about as threatening as he got (which is admittedly pretty dangerous). Not too tough most of the time.




Try something new!
Hmm! I always have loved learning.

Pagus’s magical healing already is far ahead of his Herbs, but I’m having Pagus learn these up until Vivification Herb, and then I’ll turn the other crappy herb off.

Hmm… Shall I learn Hexes? Or continue with my current studies? Which is the wiser choice?
Try something new!
If you say so. I’ll do my best to make it worthwhile.

Hexes are good, but Violet is built for combat. I’ve got far better mages than her sitting on my bench, so I’m turning these off.




Music: City of Heroes





Hey.
…Hey, kid.
A while ago, you were telling me about your village?
So I left the village, and started making a name for myself as the fierce bandit Loki. Killing people, hunting 'em down, hating them... Every day, that's all I did. And that was all I wanted to do. But one day I met this kid... Frackin' changed everything.
How so?
I'm finishing up a job - casing this house - when I realize there's a little girl there. I don't screw around, I go on and pull my knife.
That’s really messed up!
But right at the part where they usually start screaming and wailing, she pops out and says hi, all cheery-like. Says she just wants to talk...says she wants to be friends. Turns out the girl's blind. 'Course, I didn't believe it at first. I figured she was like the rest, tryin' to pull one over on my. But turned out she just wanted a friend. It was the first time that'd ever happened...the first time I'd come across someone who was actually happy I was there. The first and only... I mean, hell, my own parents don't want shit to do with me, and this random little girl - Reya's her name - wants to be pals. Ain't that a trip...
And that made you decide to change?
...Seriously, she saved me. Who knows what I would become... That's why I been searching for something to fix her eyesight all this time. She's done so much for me... I wanna at least try to pay her back.
If you ever need any help, just ask.




I’m working on it! Sorry for taking a little time off!
There's gotta be some job we can take... Patrol duty, monster hunting, even a blorging fetch quest... Throw me a bone here! Urgh, I'm sure the Ladies're scrambling for cash even as we speak... They understand the concept of needing a place to live and food to eat... I can't understand you people at all.
You know what, fine. We can probably use some weapons components.




Hey.
I was telling my sister about our travels, and she seems to have taken a liking to General Blocter... Sure he's a good guy and all, but as her brother, I'm not sure how I feel about that...




Sounds like a plan.
Excellent. Then, let’s not waste any time.

I got all the stuff Violet needed for her upgrade, so let’s get some other stuff. I looked up what most people wanted for components, and cross-referenced them, and Blackdale Second Entrance actually has a lot of what I need, so this is my next stop.






The Rare monster “Silver Ape” is between me and a harvest point, so I’ll take him out.




He makes like a linebacker and plows through my units.




learned Blue Streak!

About time, Gabriel.




Blue Streak is a one-handed art which does two quick slashes. Finally, Gabriel can put up some acceptable damage. Not really great damage, but it’s better at least. There’s nothing too exciting about harvesting stuff, so it’s not worth any screenshots.






This has been on the books for a while, so it’s overdue.

Should I learn Remedies? Or continue to refine what I already know? What do you think, Rush?
Try something new!
As you say. It should be helpful knowledge.

I might turn this off, as Caedmon’s Herbs are so far ahead of his Remedies that it’s little contest.




Music: Free and Easy





…
B-but, anyway, from now on I'm totally committed to doing anything to help out Baaluk! So go on, gimme an order! I'm all ears! I'm all ready to go, so just say the word!

We’ve actually got almost all the upgrades that we can reasonably get right now. A lot of people are asking for “Meteorite”, which can’t be harvested from anyplace we can currently access, which means they are up to date. So all that’s left is to go after two more monsters who we need to kill for a promotion in Guild rank.




- Video: Rare Monster Prometheus


To obtain Golden Chalice Rank 2, we need to go to this spot deep in Lavafender and fight Prometheus (upper left). The conditions are pretty lenient for him to spawn.




Spinning Lariat is his primary threat, and it does a lot of damage.




Music: The Seat of Vulcan





What’s going on?
… Well, so long as we're to be fighting together, there's no need to keep hiding this from you, I suppose... I don't know if you know it or not, but I was once a general in the Celapaleian army. I'm not the strongest of people, but my pride and devotion to my position is still unmatched by anyone. However... Everything changed after...
After what?
Hum hum? That yama over there - did he just move? He did, didn't he?
I didn’t see anything.
...I'm sorry, this is all I can say for now. Constant vigilance, after all... For now, please let me alone.

Well, thanks for that, Maddox.






Ruler of the Dawn will get us a promotion in the Sword of Three Realms guild. The conditions to get him to spawn are tougher, but it’s easy to know when they’re wrong. First, one of the Raptors at the entrance must be asleep. If they’re both awake, you can immediately leave. Secondly, only Raptors and Roseflies can be present. If you see anything else on the map, like a Wyvern, Demon, or Evil Eye ahead, leave immediately. Even so, that just means that a rare monster has spawned. There are several who can spawn under those conditions.




One of them is Royalguard. Apparently their normal attacks have a rare chance of causing Instakill.




But Ruler of the Dawn is the real target here. It’s not much of a threat.




Another combat art for a magic user. Nora’s STR is actually higher than her INT. I forgot to turn Switchback off for her. We’re done faffing about. Let’s head to Nagapur!




Music: Swirling Sands



- Video: Heroic Ramparts 2 / Rare Monster Dragon Rana


This time we’re heading for the east exit.




Down by the water there is a hidden Rare monster. There’s a guild task to kill it later, but while we’re here….




Dragon Rana is a Leap Frog type enemy.




Its attack is pretty dangerous.




This is why Art management, and not mixing combat and mystic units is important. I forgot to turn off Nora’s Switchback, and now the mystic union is getting options to use combat arts.






Poison is actually decently effective in this game.






And Gabriel for the win.




We have to pass through the arena used in The Standoff to get to Nagapur.






And here we are, after… two months of nothing but sidequests. But don’t worry, things are going to pick up really soon.




New Arts Summary

I wasn’t specifically grinding – I only gained two BR total – but combat happened, and here are the results. I wasn’t recording all the battles, and sometimes I recorded a battle but loaded a game and ended up not fighting those battles, so I got these changes from a pair of Before and After videos.

class changed to Expert Mysticknight!
class changed to Lordly Mysticknight!
learned:
class changed to Expert Scout!
learned:
class changed to Master Healer!
learned:
learned:
class changed to Marauder!
class changed to Adept Scout!
class changed to Scout!
learned:
class changed to Expert Cavalier!
learned:
class changed to Master Healer!
learned:
class changed to Adept Marksman!
learned Smash!
class changed to Adept Marauder!
learned:


Baulson became a scout, which was not a surprise – I expected he would become a scout, because I needed him to use Herbs. He was supposed to be the Sacrificial Scout, so Blocter wouldn't have to. Well, THAT worked out. Gabriel become a Scout, which is actually perfectly fine. He does have another class he can advance into from there (if I use him enough).

Pagus learned Revitalize, which is helpful, and he’s made some progress towards Vivification Herb. Violet and Rhagoh are also getting closer to Revitalize as well, although Rhagoh doesn’t matter so much.

Also, it turns out that units on the bench, while they don’t make progress towards gaining Arts, do slowly gain stats while on the bench, which is helpful.



Blooper: Rare Monster Dominator (Attempt 1)
Blooper: Rare Monster Dominator (Attempt 2)
Rare Monster Dominator (Success)
Rare Monster Urraco
Rare Monster Prometheus
Heroic Ramparts 2 / Rare Monster Dragon Rana


Discussion Question: As a "behind the scenes" update, was this worthwhile? Did you enjoy seeing the benched party members in action, or was it not enough specificity on them (and you want the benchees to have more focus)? Would you be interested in seeing more updates like this, or no more updates like this again?


I’ve recorded material for the next two updates. Some really amazing stuff coming next week.


Next Time: Auf wiener schnitzel, Nagapur!