Part 34: Ghost Town and Casino

Part 34: Ghost Town and Casino


Welcome to Zozotto, the ghost town. Apparently, this is where the damashi live when they aren't screwing with mortals.


Several of the town's inhabitants are outright hostile, and will attack if you click on them.


Just so. Aside from being white instead of pink, these fellows aren't very different from the regular variety of damashi. I think they managed to Sleep Meis more often than usual, but that may just be bad luck.


And there's the map. The house at the end of the long path is our eventual goal, but right now Meis is in the circle with the four buildings. Let's enter one and see what's inside.


It's a casino! Surprisingly common in JRPG's, although only in one town per world.


This sort runs on coins and exchanges rather than actual money, which is also pretty standard. The rate for buying coins is 50 GG each, so I buy 20 (total cost: 1000) to start out with.


Some of these items are just frighteningly expensive in terms of direct costs. Hell, I'm pretty sure the Thief Ring costs almost half that in regular money. I suppose the game makers knew damn well that the people anal enough to gamble here would be restarting constantly to beat the odds. As for me, I've got save states. After all, this LP is about showing everything off, and there's no way I have enough patience for doing this honestly.


Going down and to the right, we have our first game, which you might recognize on the screen there: Super Rock Paper Scissors. That's right, the luck-based minigames are in the casino too, this time with stakes. There's also a jukebox over on the left, which will play just about any song in the game. Oh, and the damashi is there to explain the rules.


To no real surprise, blackjack is the second casino game, this time with unlimited sets. I have no idea what the box there does, but I can't interact with it.


The last game is actually-wait, how'd he get here?!


And what's he doing to that slot machine?


Why would you think that? He doesn't look anything like a damashi.


Bandiger responds only with silence.

Bandiger?
...



The ocean was cold...so cold. Is there true love in this world? No matter how many years it may take, I shall look for paradise. And for that, I need money! Your money!


Oh Bandiger, will you ever learn not to pick a fight with Meis? I mean, he's basically at the same power level as last time and he hasn't picked up any new tricks (that I saw), whereas I can do this now:


I cut out most of the fight in the video, but I made sure to leave in the new summon. Dumping every summon on him basically ended him then and there, so there's not much else to see.


Oh, but he did drop a Silver Angel this time! Bonus.


Whoa! You're reading that right, folks. Somehow, Thousand Arms managed to sneak in an uncensored swear word for kicking Bandiger's ass one last time. And this is the last time, make no mistake.


In anger, Bandiger beats on the slot machine.


Curiously, triple sevens pop up and the machine deposits the jackpot.


Then it happens again...


And again. I think we know what Bandiger was doing to the machine earlier.



Uh oh, looks like someone else noticed Bandiger's run of good "fortune."


Apparently the Bouncer Damashi is being played by Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. The voice surprised me when I heard it, because I did not expect a thing with its tongue out constantly to sound like that.


Noooo! *Splash*


I think Soushi just gave up on humanity a little.


The game then forces you to leave without even attempting to grab at all the loot. Why, you ask?


Because one of our more unscrupulous party members called dibs. I really wish all that could have been added to the party funds, but I still only have 20 coins once everything is said and done.




Anyway, here's the slot machine game. You put in from one to five coins and you get your result multiplied to the numbers you see on the card there. Of course, thanks to the "let it ride" option in the blackjack game, cards are the easiest way to make tons of money all at once when abusing save states.


Hence how this happened. I should add that getting a blackjack pays 1.5x, which is why the bet isn't a power of 2. Unfortunately, the bet resets to 10 if the payout gets to 5 digits, so gathering all these coins took a few rounds to manage.


So here's what I learned about the rewards I was too lazy to earn fairly: first, the Diamond Ring to the bottom is all gift items, and since I'd rather use dates (for all them smooches) to get the numbers up, I can safely ignore even the ridiculously expensive entries.

As for the rest, the Dama Amulet apparently protects against damashi (why you'd need to protect yourself from them is beyond me), I already have a Thief Ring, and Revive EX and G. Potion are pretty much explained. No, the only two really useful items on this list are the Holy Ring and the Devil Ring, which lowers and raises the encounter rate respectively. That Holy Ring is going to be incredibly useful in shortening my trips back to the Sacred Altars, and if I ever need to grind, equipping the Devil Ring will speed things up for me.


Let's get a photo to commemorate my cheating the system!


Oh yeah, and those other three buildings around the fountain? All casinos. The only difference is the color scheme. Even the coins are interchangeable, and I'm fairly certain the Bandiger encounter happens in whichever casino you enter first.


The green building is the inn, as usual, but the item store is conveniently here as well.



This section in the upper right houses the smithy and the Goddess statue.


It also has a couple rather startling houses.


Enter in the back door, however...


...And the damashi will get angry at you for spoiling their fun. Even though they admit that Meis' party is the first group of mortals to come by in centuries.


The Female Damashi in this house will bribe Meis for keeping quiet about the trick.


An Eldritch Tome of Forbidden Lore That Would Make a Man Insane to Simply Glance upon its Pages isn't much, but hey, free is free.


Here's what the other one does when you approach it.


The Old Damashi in here is much more sporting about the whole thing and will give us a demonstration.


Funny how everything looks different from this side.



Next time: haunted houses and scary ladies.