The Let's Play Archive

The Last Remnant

by Stabbey_the_Clown

Part 60: Chapter LII-A - What a complete waste of my time!


What a complete waste of my time!


Music: The Known World





Today, we aren’t doing any sidequests or really anything of too much interest. Instead, it’s time for another round of component hunting. Oh boy!!! (I picked this Allan quote as the chapter title for a reason.)

I had intended to do this before the end of Disc 1, but decided to skip it for being unnecessary. But I’m tired of people complaining about needing components. This won’t stop it of course, but at least they’ll start complaining about wanting different ones.

A lot of components drop from monsters, so we’ll need to hunt them down. To that end, I’m going to bench Rush and Blocter, because they don’t need the art XP. Glenys’s Strength is lagging behind, so she’ll pick up the slack. I’m bringing in Rhagoh, because he still has a quest to do later, and Roberto, because he can get a special item later on. Loki has taken the lead of the Mystic union to boost his art XP (leaders get priority).

This update will have no real story, and will be a lot of short, disjointed visits to various places.




- Video: Rare Enemy: Bandit (Mojcado)


I came to Mojcado Castle in Balterossa because Wild Raptors which can be found here have a chance to drop the Raptor Hide Caedmon is bugging me for. Spoiler alert, they didn’t drop any.

While here, I also went to dig up another material, and found this rare Bandit spawn. Bandits are like rare monsters. They’re respawnable, but unlike monsters, they can drop G and equipment. The Jhana are here because someone wants Jhana Rawhide and I’m trying to get some to drop.

This is a rare occasion of a battle I ran on Turbo, because it was easy.




About time, Emmy. I won’t be including many of these images because a lot of the time I recorded video of fights, but reloaded afterwards, so I technically never ended up doing them. I’ll do a recap at the end of what new arts stuck.




We can do this! Let’s go!




I got some good stuff from the bandit. Not pictured, 15,880 G. That pays more than a lot of our sidequests. I also reached BR 34 from this fight.




Try something new!
Alright. Hopefully it will provide a good addition to our repertoire.

Hexes… Think that stuff’s worth looking into?
Sure! Try something new.
Okay. Dunno if it’ll be worth anything, but I’ll give it a shot.

I wandered into Mojcado castle looking for components, and reached BR 34. That means David can learn Remedies, which are good, but less so since David’s spent time with Herbs. Still, I’ll probably leave them on. Nora can also learn Hexes, which is pretty useful as well.

Hey! You know what would be super-special awesome? War Dragon Rawhide! Let’s find some!
Yeah, let’s go.
Awesome-possum! So let’s saddle up!

Hey, greenhorn. You ever heard of Albic Hide? I bet you would if you came with me to find some.
Okay, sure.
Then come on.

Rush, I have need of a Raptor Hide.

YES YES YES ALRIGHT ALREADY. I’ll go after what Caedmon wants first because he’s been after it for a while, meaning he’ll probably want another upgrade after.

War Dragon Rawhide drops from Abelisks and their upgraded cousins, Noble Abelisks. They’re full-on Dragons, but not nearly as tough as the Rare/Boss Dragons we’ve fought before. Albic Hide is stripped from Albic Qsiti in Elysion’s Catacombs. But Raptor Hide is a split from captured King Raptors. The easiest way to find them is in the Ivory Peaks.






There, killed, captured, and split a couple King Raptors so Caedmon could get his stuff.

Oh, so that Charm of Gliding you got? You’re gonna let me borrow it, right?
Sure, no prob.
Props, man. That’s chill.

Rush, I have need of a Necrodragon Bone. Have we the time to obtain one?
Sure, no prob.
Thank you. Then, let’s not waste any time.

Rush, I have need of a Ruby Crystal. Have we the time to obtain one?
Yeah, let’s go.
You have my gratitude. Let us be off.

The Charm of Gliding is a neat accessory that increases Max and Initial AP by 15%, letting you use more powerful arts sooner. The thing David wants drops from specific Wyvern-type enemies. Paris wants an item, but it’s of low priority, as there’s no way to get him all three items without unlocking some areas via a sidequest.




- Video: Rare Monster Chua


After this, I went to Crookfen to look for something for David which drops from a Wyvern-type enemy. Instead, I found a rare.




And this one reason why I don’t run every battle on Turbo.




I never really recovered, and after this, the Chua died, but only two unions got XP, so I did the fight again.




After a few battles fighting in the active party, Jager learns Beowulf. It’s a single-target attack that does heavy damage. Jager’s special arts are one of the big reasons to use him.




Music: Into the Depths







Some people want Vulture stuff, and Blackdale is the place with the wimpiest enemies that drop it. It’s also changed since Disc 1. Look to the right of the map.




Where there used to be a rockslide barring the way, now it’s gone and there’s more cave back here, including a map transition.




There’s a nearby digging spot which mostly produces nothing at all, but sometimes grudgingly coughs up some Divine Dragonyte ore. That makes it relatively hassle-free to get, given the low travel time. Unfortunately, it also occasionally sprays Mr. Diggs with something that lowers his dig count by 1. That treasure chest has some G in it.






There’s a new section of Blackdale to explore. It’s not that big, and mostly serves as a shortcut to the bottom of Blackdale, letting you bypass those long winding, narrow tunnels.

learned Moonset!






The other point of interest in this tunnel is a treasure chest containing the Simarrionne Remnant. It has no active function, but can be worn as an accessory with unimpressive-looking stats. A party member we haven’t got yet requests it. Coincidentally, they too, are unimpressive.






The Obsidian Trail rejoins the Sapphire Pit. A treasure chest with some customization components is near the end.




Drop down this steep slope and you end up just outside the entrance to the Cuspate Post.




The Schiavona is still here. But not for too much longer. Also still here is a rare monster, the Firtoad.


- Video: Rare Monster Firtoad


Oh, it’s so cute!
Keep them off balance and crush them!




Sure, let’s go.
Excellent. Then, let’s not waste any time.

See that pink text? That means it’s a rare component. Violet is perhaps one of the most obnoxious party members to gather components for. Each and every upgrade she wants has at least one component which requires you to first get a captured monster as a drop, and then split that monster into components. Those components tend to have a low chance to appear when you split the monster.

Spiritlords only appear in the Vale of the Gods, the Great Sand Sea, and Heroic Ramparts, and two of those places require a lot of walking, plus they usually only come in groups of 1. You need to land a 30% chance to CAPTURE them, and THEN you need to get a lucky 5% chance to find the Concealed Spiritlord Hord if you split the captured monster, so that's a 1.5% chance to get the item per monster.

At the time of this writing, I haven’t gotten it yet. I’ve had to start writing this update so I can snag the images and video I need so I can delete the excess videos and free up some HD space.


Rush, you know Grand Beetle Husk, right? Well, I was hoping maybe we could go find some if it wasn’t too much trouble…
Yeah, let’s go.
Really? Thank you so much. Let’s go, alright?

Actually, it IS a lot of trouble. The best/only place we can get that component is from Grand Beetles and Millilegs in the Catacombs. That’s it. Thankfully, it’s a common drop.



Just one which requires a truly obnoxious walk to get. It’s like an additional punishment just for using Rhagoh.


Rush, you ever heard of Anthrovore Bulb? I was hoping you’d come with me to look for some.
Alrighty!
It’s appreciated.

Anthrovore Bulb can be found in several places, but Aveclyff is one of the better spots, considering it has other components we want as well.

Hey! You know what would be super-special awesome? War Dragon Rawhide! Let’s find some!
Yeah, let’s go.
Awesome-possum! So let’s saddle up!

Hey, greenhorn. You ever heard of Albic Hide? I bet you would if you came with me to find some.
Okay, sure.
Then come on.

Rush, I have need of a Ruby Crystal. Have we the time to obtain one?
Yeah, let’s go.
You have my gratitude. Let us be off.

You don’t have déjà vu, it’s just my party members reminding us again what they want.




Music: Limberlost



learned Spark V!

I once again returned to Crookfen to change the spawns for more components, and Nora was surprisingly enough, the second person to reach Spark V. So I swapped her in as the leader for Loki just long enough to…


- Video: Arts Montage 1




There we go. Now, some people have been wondering what the point of Arcanas is if they do such crappy damage compared to Combat Arts. The answer is that Mystics and Arcanas are excellent against unions and the entire battlefield. They seem to do a lot more damage if there are multiple unions than if there’s just one.

I have been deliberately ignoring opportunities to use them in favor of dragging battles on and getting more art XP for everyone. I’ll try to do less of that. Another issue is that right now, only Nora and David have advanced their arts far enough to be able to trigger an Arcana. But Rush, Irina, and two new party members I intend to grab very soon can learn some Arcanas right away, if I set up the conditions properly for them. I’ll do that soon.

That video is a montage of interesting new arts learned while grinding.




Emmy! Use Hundred Flowers!




The high-chance to dodge before a unique art gets performed is the main saving grace for critical-health-only arts. Another thing to note about them is that as long as you’ve triggered the art, it’ll still go off even if you’re healed to full before it goes off.


- Video: Arts Montage 1






Weakling!









23k damage, which is okay, but not spectacular compared to some of the higher-level normal arts and combos, which don’t, ya know, require you to be ALMOST DEAD before you can use them.






You do?
I had a sister as well-my twin, Kate. She was completely opposite to me in personality... She died some years ago, though...

Thanks for the input, Rhagoh. See you in another 5 visits to Celapaleis. 10 more before the sidequest. (Okay I’m seriously going to have to walk in and out of town a bunch.)




I had a buttload of Guild Tasks to turn in at Celapaleis’ Sword of Three Realms guild. A bunch of them re-unlocked some magazines which I already unlocked on the previous playthrough. As much as I’ve bitched about searching for components for my party members now, it’s SO much worse if you need to first complete some unknown guild task to get a magazine to unlock a drop in the first place.

Getting the Eye of the Demon unlocks a special quest. What is it? You’ll find out later. For now, to Elysion.




Music: Flamedrop





We need some Albic qsiti materials, and while I’m here, I might as well pick up that thing for Rhagoh.






This means of course walking through this slow room full of aggressive albics.




What a complete waste of my time!

I couldn’t think of a more fitting title for this update than that.


- Video: Arts Montage 1






Scattered Petals is the ultimate Dual-Two-Handed Combat Art. It’s a three-hit combo for a lot of damage. Well, this is a poor example because this guy resists physicals. It only did 6844 damage. Anyway, we finally got the parts Rhagoh wants, and we hit BR 35.




This stupid aggressive frog is between me and the World Map Teleporter, but I’m not having any of that. Timeshift has more uses than fighting.

Anyway, Violet, Emma and Darien remind me that they want crap… again


Rush, do we have time to do some fighting at the nearest battlefield? My usual training doesn’t feel like it was enough today…
Sounds like a plan.
Ho ho ho! This should be fun!

Master Sykes, would you accompany me to the nearest battlefield? Even at this age, it is poor form to shirk one’s training.
Yeah, let’s go!
I appreciate your indulgence. Let us go at once.




Here we can find some ores, Emmy can get her Anthrovore Bulb, and Rhagoh can get started on the next set of bits he wants.

- Video: Arts Montage 1




This game does not skimp on the model details, even though they could totally get away with it. You can even see a glint of reflected light in her eye. (Well, at least you could going frame-by-frame in the video, and before I resized it down.)




Moonset is the second-strongest Power Grip Art for Katana. It’s a charge into a swift slash describing about a 270 degree arc.




Like Jager, Irina automatically learns her first unique art after a few battles. Irina starts out with very high INT, and her version of Omnistrike differs from Rush’s in a couple of ways. First, Irina’s Omnistrike can only be triggered when she’s at critical health, making it much less useful – and that will eventually make Irina much less useful as a Union Leader for a while. Secondly, while it does physical damage, it scales up based on her INT.

Fighting a couple more times here to get parts for Rhagoh pushed me up to BR 36. That means new arts unlock for some people.




Try something new!
A true man isn’t tempted by every new face that crosses his path… And yet there is something to be said for… fresh experiences.

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

The general guideline for Lotions is that they’re only worth using if the person starts out with them at Eye Cream or higher. This goes double the farther in the game you get. All the instances of Refresh in the party means that Gabriel starting out with Antivenin is going to do nothing even if I don’t disable it.

Like lotions, traps are okay… if you start out with some already learned. Their best parts are the Morale affecting arts, but you need to get past Stun Trap and Land Mine first. Caedmon is a monster with physical attacks, so why would I have him waste time with Traps?

Violet complains about her Concealed Spiritlord Horn again. Emmy wants another item, but I haven’t taken her to town yet to finalize her upgrade. Darien wants his thing. Gaou wants Superior Cotton, which is an easy find in the Heroic Ramparts. Paris wants his Ruby Crystal.




Sure enough, as soon as I enter town, Emmy upgrades her stuff. A LOT of people want Necrotic Metal, but the only place to get it is unavailable until nearly the end of the game. This means that Emmy is now as upgraded as I can get her for a long time, and I won’t have to worry about anyone who wants Necrotic Metal anymore.




Music: Swirling Sands





Not EVERY crafting component is a pain to get. Some are easy.


- Video: Rare Monster Jarama


Nearby, I find this rare Raptor. All the shellflies I brought into the fight are me attempting to capture a Giant Shellfly to split it. I didn’t realize at the time that only the Giant Shellflies in Darken Forest are possible to capture, so I was just adding enemies to the fight for no good reason.




Caedmon finishes it off. This three-hit Scattered Petals delivers 23k damage. Anyway, while we’re here, let’s wander around and take in the sights. La de dah de dah…


- Special Mission Video: Jhana Royals




Red question marks where the name would be? That’s strange. I’ve never seen anything like this before…




Music: Clash of Opposites



Extra Mission: Defeat the Jhana Royals!




Huh… So we’re fighting 4 Rare Jhana groups at once, with more reinforcements in the wings. Well, they’re just Jhana. How tough could they be?








I ain’t ready to die…






Reinforcements?!




Forgive us! We don’t want to fight!

Oh, Rhagoh. But uh, he’s completely correct.






Get up! We’ve got to win this!








We have the HP to barely survive the first attack of three from one union.















We continue to fight!

Brave words, Glenys… but futile.



So what was that? The Xbox version of the game got some DLC to add new challenges – special boss encounters. This was one of them. When the PC version was made, all that DLC was rolled up and added into the main game.






Once the conditions for unlocking them have been met, a mysteriously vague guild task appears. It’s up to you to search it out (or just search the wiki). As bonus bosses, they’re a very tough challenge. My BR 36 butt is nowhere close to being able to handle any of them. There were two that I couldn’t manage to do even with BR 103.

Maybe towards the late game I can do some of them, but for now I just haven’t got anywhere close to the HP needed to handle these fights. Most of them will probably be done in post-game updates after I finish the story. I’ll beat the ones I can, and show off at least the ones I can’t.

But for now, back to hunting Spiritlords and Abelisks.




Jager! Finish this with Beowulf!


- Video: Arts Montage 1


Get ready! I’m ‘bout to OWN you!






Beowulf is a short, swift charge through the enemy which is very powerful. Thankfully it only requires high union morale, and not the critical-health crap.




I have to fight a couple of these to get components for both Paris and Darien, but that should make Darien shut up for a while at least. Thankfully, both normal and Noble Abelisks drop the Rawhide. They’re not too tough.


- Video: Arts Montage 1


I don’t want to…












That’s pretty powerful. It’s actually stronger than Rush’s, but that’s because Irina’s is Int-dependent, and her Int is 20 points higher than either of Rush’s Int or Str.




Hi, Rush. So I was wondering if I should learn Psionics…
Try something new!
You think? Okay, I’ll give it a go… Hopefully it’ll make me stronger!

Okay, that’s enough for now. Back to sidequesting – but not for long, we’ll be getting some more main plot soon, and then we’ll do a couple more cool optional things. I’ll also be attempting to force-learn some more Arcanas. Once I pick up two new party members, I should have all the pieces I need to learn all but one of the Arcana’s.





New Arts Summary

class changed to Master Hunter!
learned Dragon’s Tail!
class changed to Lordly Cavalier!
class changed to Expert Cavalier!
learned:
class changed to Master Mysticknight!
learned:
class changed to Legendary Healer!
class changed to Master Marauder!
learned Poison Gas III!
class changed to Expert Mysticknight!
learned:
learned Beowulf!
class changed to Legendary Scout!
class changed to Expert Paladin!
class changed to Lordly Cavalier!
learned:
class changed to Legendary Scout!
learned:
class changed to Master Scout!
class changed to Lordly Scout!
learned:
learned:
class changed to Legendary Healer!
learned Poison Gas!
class changed to Lordly Marksman!
learned Bluff!
class changed to Bard!


I put Glenys in the lead to boost her flagging stats, and that seems to have helped, as her STR jumped 6 points. Her Speed and Int fell slightly, when she switched from Ranger to Cavalier and was no longer getting the +10% and +8% bonuses. She’s still a bit behind, but not as much as she was before, and she’ll be seeing a good deal more use as a party lead in her next sidequest.

Of all the people who participated, Torgal and Allan were the only ones who didn’t change class or learn a new art. Torgal was benched for half the time (the other half it was Blocter), but I don’t know what Allan’s excuse is.




Rare Enemy: Bandit (Mojcado)
Rare Monster Chua
Rare Monster Firtoad
Rare Monster Jarama
Special Mission: Jhana Royals
Arts Montage 1


About time that’s over and done with.

Next Time: Enough of this weirdo.