The Last Remnant Part #9 - Chapter VII - This calamity is known as the Collapse

Part 9: Chapter VII - This calamity is known as the Collapse

This calamity is known as the Collapse

With the new assignment, the party has been reorganized once again. This time, however, it’s two unions of 5 units each – a drastic increase in the overall health. There’s a reason for this which will become clear soon. But first let’s take a look at our new leaders:

Emma Honeywell

One of Athlum's Four Generals, Stern and driven, but dedicated to Athlum—and her only daughter.
(Voiced by Susan Duerden.)

Class: Swashbuckler
Initial BR: 5
Initial HP: (381)
Str / Int: (28 / 23)

Current Arts

One-Handed: Knee Splitter
Dual Wield: Devil's Due
Remedies: Restore

Future Arts

Invocations @ BR 19
Potions @ BR 32
Hexes @ BR 45

Comments
Emma is one of very few mitra characters who dual-wield. She is combat focused, but knows some mystic arts too. Remedies is particularly helpful. Every character learns at least one mystic art, so I tend to keep Emma as a physical attacker.

Torgal

Leader of the Four Generals, and David's right hand. It is unknown why a sovani, infamous for their pride, works for Athlum.
(Voiced by Johnny Hildo.)

Class: Fencer
Initial BR: BR 5
HP: (419)
Str / Int: (27 / 25)

Current Arts

Dual Power Grip: Fury Blow
Quad Wield: Quad Slice
Evocations: Mystic Missile

Future Arts

Potions @ BR 24
Psionics @ BR 45
Arcana: Whiteout

Comments
Torgal is the first of the relatively few Sovani who join the party. He’s also the first Evocation user you get. Torgal is good at either attacking through physical or mystic arts, although Evocations are better at status effects than at dealing direct damage. Potions don’t do a lot and under advice in my previous playthrough, I tended to turn those off. Psionics will take a while to get, but they are pretty useful as morale control gets increasingly important. He gets a unique item through the main story that he can use.

Be careful.

Hmph, you’re surprisingly competent.

I was glad to help out Dave, but I was kinda surprised myself. Aren’t you guys supposed to be Generals?

Still, the next battle stands to be difficult. Make certain you’re amply prepared.

Rush, we should not waste any time. Let us rescue Miss Irina as soon as possible!

Rush! Those thugs’ve probably got a Remnant. Don’t think it’s gonna be a cakewalk, alright?

There is still much we do not know about Remnants. The idea of one that can fly ought not be so shocking…

So we’re now off… to the tavern.

Who are you?

Me? I’m the monster slayer. Whaddya need?

I need a tutorial!

Tell me about monsters.

Alright, mate. You’ve got the time to sit for a spell? Can’t rush monsters, yanno!

I’m not busy.

Uh… I think we kinda are?
(How much longer will we have to put up with this?)
(Well, at least he’s trying to educate himself. God Emperor knows he could use more knowledge.)
(Knowledge, unfortunately, is not the same thing as wisdom.)

Alright then! Here we go. Well, when you meet with a monster, take a good long look at them. If you really take a minute, you can tell if they’re ready to rumble or not.

A monster’s status can be determined by checking the icon above its head.

Normal monsters on the field have little mood bubbles over their heads. Monsters have four moods. These are:

Cowering – These monsters don’t want to fight and will not attack you unless you engage them.
Neutral – These monsters aren’t too interested in fighting, but will likely get aggressive if you get too close to them.
Aggressive – These monsters will chase you and attack you on sight, but will give up after a short distance if you keep running away.
Vehment – These monsters will chase you and attack you on sight, and won’t stop chasing you ever.
Alerted – These monsters have just spotted you or were startled by you, and they’re about to go Aggressive or Vehement momentarily.

Monsters within encounter range that have (a red outline around their icon) are monsters that can be linked into the battle.

Keep your distance, though; if you can check it out without it seeing you, that’s best. That’s a hunter trick, eh?

Pressing {F}{G}{Mousewheel} calls up the target cursor. Placing the target cursor over a monster will show its name and stats. Lies! It only shows the name. The target cursor can give useful information not only on monsters too far off to see their icon, but people and things in towns and the field. More lies, the cursors range is shorter than the icon visibility, and it doesn’t work on flying-type enemies unless you’re very, very close.

Next is the battle! Now, when you pick a fight with a monster, you gotta be careful – you could end up fighting him and his buddies, to boot.

Monsters that have seen Rush may bring nearby monsters into battle with them. This is called a link.

If you’re hunting for sport, that’s a horse of a different colour. If you want rewards, you’ll want to take on as many monsters as once as you can. But don’t play around, doing any funny stuff when they get close. Even if they look calm, you never know what a beast’s gonna do, eh?

Pressing {Space} when there are no monsters in range launches an Aggro Pull. Aggro Pulling the enemy makes them angry.
means the monsters are completely enraged and will chase Rush anywhere.

There are two exceptions to this. First, getting into a battle, any battle will make the enraged monsters calmer (back to aggressive at most). The other exception will be mentioned soon.

Remember, practice makes perfect. Have some confidence in yourself and you’ll do fine.

Cool, thanks big guy!

Well… that’s enough for now, hmm? Any more and you’ll be putting me out of a job! The rest you’ll just have to figure out for yourself. Happy hunting!

- Dungeon Video: Dillmoor

Music: Rolling Hills, Sprawling Plains

Dillmoor – Long ago this areas was home to a bustling village, blessed with fertile soil by the remnant Rubber Soul.

Yeah, it does. What? You think she’s lying?

Lady Emma is an honest person. I have no reason to doubt her. So this power… Can it be used outside of battles?

What do you mean?

Can you show me its power now?

Hmm, I dunno. I can try, though.

Wh-what just happened?

I see… It holds the power to manipulate time. Proper application of such a power would give a clear advantage when battling monsters, as well as allow you to engage many foes in battle at once. However, it is almost certain that such a power cannot be applied indefinitely. Use it wisely.

Cool. Okay, Torgal, I’ll try.
It’s General… oh nevermind.

Timeshift is now enabled. Press {Shift} to Timeshift, slowing the flow of time for a short while. When in Timeshift, nearby monsters will be marked as encounterable. Pressing {Space} while in Timeshift will launch a battle with all marked monsters.

Something else to know is that after a battle, your Timeshift is always recharged to full, so if you intend to fight, there’s no harm in using it before engaging in battle.

The map of the area.

This dungeon is the Timeshift tutorial. The game wants you to feel comfortable linking together a bunch of monsters at once, which is why they force Rush into one of two unions stacked 5 high, with boatloads of health, so you won’t easily die. That’s what the little bar at the right is for, in NG+ you get that immediately without Torgal’s tutorial messages at the start. Let’s try it on these three Divain.

Enemies play an audio cue when they’re tagged for inclusion into battle, and they get a red outline.

Music: Sword Sparks

Five unions versus two unions is no problem with a party this tough. The downside to this is that Rush isn’t going to get a lot of chances to attack, because he comes up late in the turn order.

But I’m having Rush practice his Mystic arts anyway, because I’m trying to get into the Ranger class when I reach STR 29. ~~Units gain a good amount of art experience when they perform the art, but even if they don’t, they still get a bit just for receiving the art commands.~~ EDIT: Or maybe you get most of the XP for just giving the command, and the rest if it goes off. In either case, giving commands is good, and having them actually get executed helps.

By the way, do you remember the “some monster are weak to mystic/physical” thing from the last two dungeons? Well forget about it. It’s not important, any attack will do the job. Besides, there’s no way to actually know if an enemy is weak to one or another, so why bother worrying?

Nice view, but man, it must have been tough living here, having to go down the hill to get water.

I’m trying to link in that Raptor to the chain before the Timeshift runs out.

I didn’t make it. Just like pressing the Aggro Pull key outside of fighting range makes enemies enraged, so does tagging them with Timeshift. However, you can de-aggro enemies if you activate Timeshift again without anything in range. Getting into combat also deaggros anything that was mad at you. Managing aggro, knowing when is the best time to use Timeshift to trigger or avoid fights is something you’ll learn through experience as you play.

It’s actually pretty easy to dodge most ground-based enemies. Running diagonally will tend to do it. If an Aggressive enemy misses their attack (trying to start a fight), they’ll usually stop chasing you. Not Vehement ones, though.

Okay my Timeshift bar is charged again, so let’s get this party started.

The enemy can only ever field 7 unions at once. And additional ones are held off as Reinforcements, who join in as other unions are killed.

Torgal’s union kills their intended target, but everyone else piles on, and they suffer an unopposed deadlock, two flank attacks and a rear assault. But even so, they’re merely at half-health after all that. It’s hard to lose with a party this strong unless you’re trying to.

Long battles and long battle chains have good results for stat and art growth. There is a limit though, only the first 30 turns of any battle count for stat/art growth. Don’t worry about seeing 30-turn battles, though.

And item drops as well. One thing I didn’t mention is that if you capture a monster, it doesn’t disintegrate into sparkles, but remains on the battlefield.

Obtained Dillmoor Map!

Even though you’ll likely never notice it, because you’ll usually only view Rush from behind, when Rush opens a treasure chest, he grins. If he has a voice acted line on the field (when harvesting), his mouth will also move. It’s the little details that showed the developers cared.

Turn right when you cross this bridge…

And you’ll discover a locked door. We’ll be back quite a while later.

That’s it for Dillmoor.

- BOSS Video: Collapse

This was once a prosperous town. It was centered around the Remnant of Peace, the Rubber Soul

Was there a war?

No. The one the Remnant was bound to passed away. The world is filled with countless Remnants. No two look alike or share the same power. However, they all have one thing in common.

…

And, that is…?

When a Remnant is not bound to a soul, it calls forth disastrous misfortune. This calamity is known as the Collapse.

*nods solemnly*

(I have no idea what he’s talking about.)

“Academy Visistone 18-21” posted:

[Remnants 18] An unbound Remnant is called a Blank Remnant.
[Remnants 19] A Collapse is a misfortune triggered by a Blank Remnant being unbound for too long.
[Remnants 20] The most common effect of a Collapse is the spawning of monsters.
[Remnants 21] Some forms of Collapse are said to affect people's minds.

Ssh… hide yourselves.

I see them. Two men, and…

…a dark-haired little girl.

…!

Music: Evil’s Advance

Emma tries to restrain Rush, but he breaks free.

Blocter misses his tackle too.

WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!

This must be our cue.

Irina!

Irina is flown off.

And the mage in white escaped through a portal. Great job saving your sister there, Rush. But no time to dwell on that. The spell the mage in white cast seems to have had additional consequences.

The Rubber Soul is stirring.

It’s triggered another Collapse!

Music: Struggle Eternal

Mission: Defeat the enemy!

So, who’s ready for a filler boss?

You start out with unfavorable positioning, but that doesn’t usually matter in battles.

The boss will kindly stand by and do nothing if he isn’t attacked, so take out his minions first.

I guess he also is an introduction to status effects. This attack inflicts poison, which is mildly inconvenient at full health, but much more dangerous at low health.

Music: Reversal

Emma started out as a “Swashbuckler”, ostensibly a T3 class, but her stats were only T1, so when her STR hit 29, she was upgraded to a T2 class. Even though she hasn’t got any item arts, she hasn’t got her mystics enough to qualify for Ranger, so she became a Freelancer instead.

Supposedly you need the sum of Mystic Arts to be 2+ greater than the sum of item arts. I fell into Freelancer myself in a couple test runs, and learned that having two basic Mystic Arts at rank II does not do it, nor does having one basic Mystic art at rank III. What has gotten me to Ranger is that I think you need to learn at least one new Mystic art.

Given something that I’m about to do next update, something only possible on NG+, learning Arts quickly will not be a problem. Oh yes…

- Video: Going it alone

It was as you said, Lord David. The flying creature is unquestionably a Remnant.

Confirm this with the Academy.

Yes, my Lord.

Rush is not wearing the expression of someone who thinks “I did a good job back there.” No one actually lectures Rush to tell him that he screwed up. They don’t have to. Rush also does not repeat that mistake again.

Who could be behind all this?

We do not know enough at this point. Verily, this situation is more complex than we’d imagined.

Yes, we should postpone any course of action until we know more.

What about Irina? Should I just keep my fingers crossed?

*frustrated sigh* We are not dealing with an ordinary foe. A well-researched plan is essential.

Dave, come on!

Even David is only going to indulge Rush so far.

Torgal is correct.

If you have any ideas on how to proceed, then do feel free to share them.

*frustrated grunt*

We are dealing with forces that control a Remnant not even the Academy knows about. Jumping to conclusions will only place Athlum in danger. You must understand my position, Rush.

…

Where are you going?

To find Irina, obviously. You know how the people of Athlum are the most important things in your life? Well Irina’s the most important thing in mine.

Well thanks for the help along the way. I’ll go it alone from here.

Rush has no plan, no leads, but if he needs a lucky break to succeed, he’d rather strike out blindly looking for it than sit around helplessly and wait for it to find him. But he’s still a douche in this scene.