Part 15: Update XIV - A Rare Moment Of Introspection

Update XIV - A Rare Moment Of Introspection



♪ BGM: An Undignified Trip - dungeon2.mid ♫

Alright, so we just got dropped into some weird forest, let's spend some time orienting ourselves. I see a treasure chest, that's a good place to start.



Basic Sabre obtained!

Useful! Let's check out our new current protagonist.



So, Asgar's got hit with a bit of the old level drain as well.



He seems to be more physically focused than Valnar and Alaine.



He also comes bundled with a spell, which is something that's going to come in handy more than once over the next few bits. Though it's kind of troubling we have a low amount of blood points and the spell costs quite a bit - more than a quarter! Using it three times in one battle means we're below the threshold where we get hit with the blood rage after the battle.



We find another locked chest here. You know, I'm never going to come back for these. What's going to be in these is not going to be worth it. Anyway, there's nothing else in this small area, so let's head out to the world map.



♪ BGM: A Truth Revealed - WraithTouch.mid ♫

You'll notice that this place is now marked with a flag, which was a thing we could turn off in the extra options menu. We will not do that because why in the fuck would I want to have to remember where all these places are?



We don't have much room to go explore, but we find another place here.



♪ BGM: An Undignified Trip - dungeon2.mid ♫



Not a lot going on here, just some forest, but those steps over to the right look like they go somewhere.



♪ BGM: Crush Them - Xboss06.mid ♫

I try to avoid enemies, but really, it's a fool's errand most of the time. I'm not going to give stat blocks for every single enemy in the game, especially ones like these, which can just attack normally.



Asgar's spell packs a bit more of a punch than his regular attack, which is going to be required in some tight situations.



Blood sucking makes it possible to use spells a lot more, since you can regain your blood points from enemies, and you get an additional chance to inflict the Bleeding condition (80% on this enemy - chances to inflict conditions are governed mostly by resistances that are set on each enemy).



Bleeding causes the enemy to periodically lose HP, so it makes it easier to kill them.



This is going to be quite important. Basically, we have no real ability to heal in this segment beyond items, and as such we need to get our hands on as many healing items as we can get. Furthermore, we can't actually use many healing items because of The Secret Plan, so we also need to be a miser in regards to not dying. It's going to be an interesting balancing act, I can tell.



Also, the motif we established in the last game of red chests being locked with Intelligence checks is gone now. Now chests can just be whatever the fuck.



While exploring, we also run into some bees. Bees suck, because they don't have any blood for us to suck.



Also, they can poison us, which of course causes us to regularly lose HP, which is also bad.



And of course, poison doesn't wear off after battle, which means that we're going to have to burn a serum on curing this every time it happens.



We find some more healing items, which is good, because I need to burn some of those right away, since I'm at 10 HP after the third battle.



We then find the exit of this area without further incident.



♪ BGM: Underground Crawling - creeper.mid ♫

Well, let's see where it leads me to...



Nothing too special here either. We're just meandering through a cave now.



We run into some bugs. Like the bees, they don't have any blood to suck, which sucks.



En route through the cave, we of course pick up all the secrets we can find.





We also run into some of these "brown lizards". These are annoying.



They have this skill called "Screech", and it boosts their Attack from 27 to somewhere around 39, and that means that instead of doing damage somewhere around 3, they do something more along the lines of 10. Triple damage is not fun.



On to the next level. Also, everything makes you hungry, Asgar.





I head down to the bottom left corner because I thought I saw something in RPG Maker. Here, let me show you what I saw:



Looks like a chest, right? Well, let's look into the event and solve the mystery:



So there we go - the chest only appears if the switch "LEICHT" (i.E. "Easy") is set. So Easy not only gives you all those benefits we've seen before, but it also gives you extra items. Man, playing on Easy would have been... well, easy.



Perhaps this way I can get off of this small island...





So that's something that can definitely come in handy. Blood rage can really fuck with you (as evidenced by the time I got fucked after a boss battle in VD1).



While walking around, I get quite confused about Asgar's hair. He clearly has a ponytail here...



...but from every other angle, it just looks like regular long hair. Weird.





Oh, hey, a stat boosting item, those are always neat. I'm holding off on using it, though. Not sure who this would be best on.



Another savestone! I'm gaining these at a better rate than I'm using them right now, which is somewhat comforting. On to the next level!



Nothing much interesting here.



I end up going into a secret passage to get an item, but an enemy follows us into it, forcing an encounter. I'm trying to avoid these and not doing well. Anyway, we head to the end of this level and make it back outside!



♪ BGM: An Undignified Trip - dungeon2.mid ♫



Not a lot going on in this map either, apart from the one part we'll see at the end. We're back to fighting bees and snakes again, and bees still suck.



Hey, there's something useful aga-



Oh fuck, sneak attack!



Two bees and a snake. A bit of trouble, but nothing major. Now, back to that helmet.



...well, it's something. Not looking a gift two points in Defense in the mouth.



So we're basically done with this part and about to return to the world map, and we're like 60% of the way to level 2. The Secret Plan requires us to be lower than level 10 at a certain point, and to be quite honest, now that I've gotten to that point while recording footage, I'm pretty sure I could have just fought every enemy and still wouldn't have gotten close. Of course, that would've been a drain on our items, which are also vital to The Secret Plan, so maybe dodging enemies is still a good thing. Anyway...



...we find this friendly fellow at the end here!

Who are YOU?
The name's Shahiro! I'm actually a merchant for all kinds of healing potions, but unfortunately, I got lost in the cave west from here. I wanted to get from Mirana to Erena, but now I somehow got myself into this goddamn forest!
Where are your horses?
Those damned creatures ran away after they saw the few monsters here. And now, it makes me look like a moron standing here...
You said you're selling potions?
Are you interested?
Yeah, show me what you've got.
Wow, I never would have thought I'd find a customer HERE...



And thus, we have our first shop. Honestly, the existence of this guy is a paradox. Just consider this: The only way to get money right now is to find it in chests or secrets. If you find money in chests or secrets, you're also finding items. So you don't really need to buy healing items. If you don't find money in chests or secrets, you also aren't finding items, which means that you'd need healing items, but you don't have money to buy them. So you don't need this guy either.



However, what we can do is drop our battle items on this guy for some sweet cash. We end up with about 6500 Filar after selling a lot of stuff and dropping a bit of cash on healing balsams, since I am burning through those quite a bit and I want to keep the more potent healing items for selling. Now, let's see if we can suck this guy's blood.



Huh. That's quite a bit of restraint there, Asgar.



♪ BGM: A Truth Revealed - WraithTouch.mid ♫

When we exit that place, we find ourselves on the world map again, but not with a lot of room to move around. That cave seems to be the only way to go, so let's head in.



♪ BGM: The Cave You Think It Is - horror46.mid ♫



We get a little entry area to bop around in before entering the cave proper.



In a secret passage, we find a "Status Rune". This is something that ties into a system we'll be explaining later.



There are some big cats to fight in this cave. They're a bit more of an issue than the enemies we've been fighting up to this point, and they have a bite attack that can cause Bleeding as well, which is a problem, but still, we can deal with them.



Moving on to the main part of the cave.



We run into some weird plants, which also really suck because they can inflict Sleep on our characters.



This just essentially gives the enemy a free shot at you, and when we have multiple characters, we can get into a situation where two characters are asleep and doing fuck all while the third one is getting beat up by the enemies. When they randomly don't attack the sleeping ones to wake them up, it sucks really hard.



can keep going, first!

Asgar won't let us exit the cave to the right, which means there's something we need to find here.



Another Status Rune in a secret passage. Finding these is a welcome thing. And while we can't head out to the right, we can circle down around the bottom and find another staircase, which leads to another level.



There are some rather useful things to be found here.





Stat boosting items for inventory slots where we don't have anything yet are never a bad thing. Unless they're, like, cursed, but I don't think this game does that.





This regenerates ten HP per round for at most twenty rounds, with a 5% chance to end every round. Well, let's head back to where we're actually supposed to go.





...you know what? Fuck this.





So here's how escaping works. When you escape from a battle, the enemy sprite gets knocked away from you and you get a chance to bail, just like it said in the tutorial. I can't actually see anything in the code that implements the "if the enemy gets you within two seconds, you can't escape again" thing, though. I'll have to try and test that out at some point and see if that actually works or if it's just something Marlex wrote in there that doesn't actually happen but sounds plausible enough you just wouldn't try and thus never notice. Anyway, with that done, we make our way to the place we need to get to...





How could it come to this? I didn't want this...
Or did I? What had gotten into me?
That cursed something that took control of me. Now it's inside Jayna... she has my castle, and I have NOTHING... not even... friends.
But do I even need any? Shouldn't I be fine completely on my own, too?
The good old times... the escape from Tradan... the destruction of Vincent Weynard. Well, I haven't forgotten all that. Ah yes, the three of us had a lot of fun back then.
Up until that one moment. When we found the book. It was THE opportunity to create something. A better world!
But what did I do? I have changed the world! But not to MY will! But according to the will of that cursed something!
A world that I DON'T like! I have to undo it. NOTHING AND NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO CONTROL ME! I will destroy it! But for that, I'll need help... just why am I so weak? Will they forgive me when I manage to free them from this spell? IF I can manage... I just don't know HOW! This can't be their end... this MUSTN'T be their end!



And with that, it's once again time for a grandpa segment, so we'll end it here for now.