Part 54: Episode 5: Part 10: The Book of Sermeot.

Episode 5: Part 10: The Book of Sermeot.

Microcline" post="495684057 posted:

Honestly I always felt like this scene was weak and didn't fit with the rest of the game. Traizun as a whole doesn't fit with the rest of the cast. It's like a generically cool anime swordsman who wants to kill his dad wandered in from somewhere else.

One of the things I appreciate about the game is how violence is portrayed. For the most part it's unglamorous and there's weight to the killing. It's more about the circumstances that made our protagonists murderhobos than a capacity to dispatch hordes of ninja.

About the previous updates Traziun scene. Yeah, this about sums up why I've probably always preferred Lexus's death scene or a few to come in E6 as my pick for the series' best scene. And why Traziun is way down my list of favoured characters.



"Did he attack me to save Cetsa? Is she a friend of his?
I'll bet that's it.
I was an idiot for trusting her."



"Now what am I going to do? I've wasted so much time...
And Serena might just be..."

No, I can't accept that...









Why in fucks name is this scene set so I can't see Scatha and half of Dirk, Lun?

You haven't heard? I'm looking for a girl. And right now I'm trying to figure out why her pendant was stained with blood.

Becaussse sssomeone got cut and bled on it hon.
Dirk, tell him about the Pontifex Maximusss Tetsssel.

The head of The Guided?

Yes, he can help you. He can help all of us, heh.

How?

Tetzel has the type of power that reaches all across the Way, heh.
Does he mean political power or...?
"He keeps extensive records in his various fortresses."

What kinds of records?

Records of every wanderer in existence on the Way, heh.

No way. That's impossible. There's hundreds of thousands of wanderers.

Actually, before the destruction of Estrana it was estimated that there were nearly a million wanderers, heh.
That's... not all that many.

My point exactly. How could he have a record of all of them?

He has a quill, Rhue. Whenever someone is born, the quill writes their name and the day of their birth in a book.

This book is called the Book of Eve.
And whenever somone croaks, er, dies, it writes their name and the date of their demise in another book, heh.
This book is called the Book of Sermeot, heh.

You must be kidding.
Yeah this is a lot to lay on us so suddenly.

I've seen the books myself! Heh.

Maybe you have, but you're crazy. I don't have time for this.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGOQpCwrOT0



(I know I'm going to regret this...)



The Book of Sermeot? It's with Tetzel, heh. You'll have to deal with him.

Wonderful...



Not sssso.. I've heard he isss in the midssst of trying to quell a rebellion among The Guided.

The Guided are having a rebellion?

Ssssomeone has ssstirred them up againssst Tetsssel.
Sssacrifa wasss one of the rebelsss. But he wasss overcome by loyalistsss of the Pontifex Maximussss.

So where is Tetzel now?

He has a fortress in the high mountain country. Heh, it's a mighty cold place, heh.
If I were a betting man, heh, and I am, I'd say he's probably there, right now!
Just follow me and I'll get us there, no problaymo, heh.

All right, but you better be telling the truth. Otherwise...

I'm true as true can be! Don't worry!
And with that, we're off.






A whole bunch of the chests here give doubles. The next two chests are 2x Pocite and 2x Wicite.



Also Dirk's Dust Devil XLIFE uprgaded itself, but he's still as mostly useless as ever.



It's absolutely lousy with encounters here too. If you jump that gap over at the left...


You can find this out of the way Stricite. You know, I have 5 free strides and this will make 6? Because I have all my slots filled with Step 1 and 2 Blade Arts because WE'RE FUCKING OVER HALFWAY THROUGH EPISODE 5 AND WE STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN OUR FIRST STEP 3 BLADE ART AND NO I HAVEN'T MISSED ANY!



This new encounter type isn't much of a problem either. It's just that without either Kloe or Cetsa to fill the fourth slot, fights take a bit long.







I switch to Illuminati next, because it has the lowest attack power but highest base XL Gain of our transcendental weapon auras. Hattassar is the opposite with 70 attack power but only 1 (!!!!!) XL Gain.

Anyway, right after this we head up some rocky stairs to find the end of this area.


...

Quite a climate change eh? Heh, that's why I love the Way!

That's where we're headed?

Somewhere over there, yes sir! Heh.
It's going to be a cold one! Heh.

...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUkuYg8d9zs



(I'm... alive?)

(Pain, I've never felt such pain...)





Slade slooowly limps over to the door, not even taking notice of Ghost Horror there.





????: "Don't let her escape!"



Lyrra runs through...


And when the Blood Lyn follow, Slade tries to help but... he can barely move and then Lyrra screams.



(Another innocent girl... I couldn't do... anything...)

No music now, just the howling of wind...


The fortress is hidden in the mountain, heh. It won't be long now!

Excuse me while I go make some special snow, heh.



Lands, it's cold up here. Do you wear that mask especially for situations like this?
What? You were there in Jopaga's lab, which you clearly remembered earlier, when the subject of the formula for her face came up!

... No.

So it's just to hide your true identity? Is someone out to get you?

Ashkt! Preposssterousss! It'sss for no sssuch thing!
I'm no onesss prey!


What the fuck are you doing.


Scatha grabs and/or hits Rhue. It's not clear. There's a thud sound but he doesn't flash red as per usual.

Lands, get your hands off me, what's your problem?!

Apologizsssse for that remark!

... Sorry, princess pit.

...
I acsssept your pathetic apology.


Eshk.

And with that we move on, still without music.




We walk through a couple screens of nothing. No enemies, no loot, nothing at all.





And then we get surprised by a boss! This boss would be a brutal challenge honestly, it has tons of HP and does nasty damage. It's strong against blindness so Dirk' completely useless, as well as most other status effects. So normally, Rhue and Dirk'd be chipping away at it while Scatha heals.
Except nothing can stand up to the almighty power of PRONE and I prevent it from doing much the whole battle by using Hurricane Blade whenever prone wears off.



That's Dust Bowl maxed. I switch to Atmosphere, the air element pattern. Shortly after...



"Don't jes stand there, let's go, heh!"



Been a damn while since we last saw the FF6 dirt cave tileset.


These guys can freeze you and thats about it!



At the end of the cave entrance we come into this big puzzle area. Into the one open door.



This lets us open the metal door which leads us to...







I bet you can roughly guess the nature of this puzzle now. I set it to metal doors and there's also a door to a different hall right below the switch.


Out there we meet a trio of VERY nasty enemies. These guys do nasty damage and uh... That's about it. But they're IMMUNE TO PRONE!!! And they do enough damage that they can cripple or even murder your party before you can even kill one of them if you're unlucky. So the tactic here is to have Dirk blind them.


Yay. I switch to Pandamaare, the Shadow aura. In a nearby room I pick up Key #2 and...



What'sss wrong?

Nothing.


Switch to wooden door which lets us find another switch and...

Well, it's not an interesting puzzle, or even very long or hard. I'll cut it short and say I get a whole bunch of loot and the way to the stairs we need to get out of here. No sign of Tetzel or those books and quill.



The stairs lead to more cave.





Fucking finally. This first attempt of this fight too after I tried like 3-4 times every single random encounter, let alone the boss fights. I'm pretty sure this is what happened every time I've played but I can't remember, so I suspect it might only roll the chance to get this on the first use per battle. Also, yes I checked to make sure I got it.

What's this for?

Do you alwaysss have to pessster me with quessstionsss?

Sorry, nevermind.
lol


This might seem quick to you guys but it's not. Transcendental Sword Auras need 10x the AR that the Weapon and Elemental auras needed per level. I think Weapon and Elemental need 20 AR at level 1 while Transcendental need 200. I fought a LOT of fights. Also I actually forget to switch auras for a little while.







There's not much to say here but this thing is high resistant or immune to both prone and blindness which is annoying. So pretty much just have Dirk and Rhue chip at it while Scatha heals.



That's maxed out too now.


I didn't point this out last time but Transcendental weapons have more bonuses than Weapon and Elemental. You can see they boost things like Poise and Will here and even... DEFENSE!?

Defense is a special case. It's always set to 1, except for if you have one of these Aura's equipped. There's one pattern we have that also has its third level flow increase defense but yeah. These are the only ways to raise your defense.'
Transcendental weapon auras also have a passive bonus (or penalty in Hatassasar's case) that sometimes improves as it levels up. Hatassasar's penalty is that it's high attack power costs 1 XL per attack... and it starts with an XL Gain of 1.
Lastly, do you see how it looks like we'll learn three moves next level of Pandamaare? Those are all actually one attack. The name and power of that move is different depending on how many of the Transcendental auras you have at level 3. I'm not sure if it makes the attack more powerful, but I do know the move has the attribute of all auras at 3, which is very nice for getting around enemy resistances/weaknesses.

Anyway, we enter the room the Hornjaw guarded...






We fade out as Gaius turns around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6FxDfAidI


The floor is shifting... moving.

What is this?

Truth.

...

The memory of your mother resides in the room behind me.
I did not find her death disagreeable, but I was not an active participant in her demise.

You sicken me.

Nevertheless, you will see the face of the true killer behind me.
You will see her death exactly as I did.
You will look upon the very moment of time that she was separated from this plane.

Then step aside, for I am ready to see this man.

Very well.










the end