Part 68: Update LI - Second Sudden Spurt Of Progress
Update LI - Second Sudden Spurt Of Progress
♪ BGM: A Truth Revealed - WraithTouch.mid ♫
Alright, fuck it, let's keep this train rolling. Three updates in one week, let's go motherfuckers~!
So to start things off, we have some grinding. Not for levels this time, but for souls. For that, we return to the beach where we murdered that one big crab for its meat.
The reason we're doing that is because we have three enemy groups here, one with three, one with four and one with five enemies, which is a pretty high amount, since we get one soul per enemy. You'll note we've got the werewolf with us now. He's basically just a strong melee attacker that does exactly nothing else. He hits shit. Anyway, soul grinding begins now.
♪ BGM: Asgar's Castle - blood009.mid ♫
With the souls we collect, we get more loot from the thieves...
...more attack power...
...stronger troops for the castle attacks...
...better blood sucking...
...and better lying. We've now run out of learning points, but that basically just means that we'll have to grind more souls to get more learning points, then grind more souls to get more skills.
With that grinding done, it's time to pursue another objective. We're currently level 54, so we might as well take a stab at this third key. We'll be taking Scrooge along for the ride for his Black Ritual spell.
♪ BGM: A Truth Revealed - WraithTouch.mid ♫
Our destination is this spot.
♪ BGM: Icy Caves #2 - frozen.mid ♫
So, much like the first key area, this is just a big area for us to traverse and find the key in. Unlike the first area, we don't have any keyhunting shit to do, we could just head towards the key. The issue there being that we need to find several hidden passages in order to get to the key. Not necessarily an issue for me, what with the magical RPG Maker-vision and all, but a general issue.
Scrooge's explosion spell is also very handy for dispatching the enemies here, since they're vulnerable to fire spells. Scrooge is credit to team.
Anyway, we trek through this cave, fighting enemies and scoring unremarkable loot, until we make it to a large area in the top left, which has a chest!
Well, I guess this was pretty easy, we didn't even have to fight a boss or anyth-
Surprise!
♪ BGM: Stronger Enemies - VD2Kampf3.mid ♫
Time for another boss fight!
Monster Chest:
Recommended level: 55
HP: 7000
BP: 0
Attack: 500
Defense: 500
Intelligence: 60
Agility: 230
Behavior List:
- Attack
- Hand of Death (inflicts Rigor with a base 20% success rate, targets a single party member)
- Shake (attributeless skill with base 300 damage, targets a single party member)
- Ice Breath (Ice spell with base 200 damage, targets all party members, can inflict Weakened)
- Cold Sleep (Ice spell with base 130 damage, targets all party members, can inflict Sleeping)
- Attack
- Attack
The first thing this motherfucker does is use Hand of Death and straight up kill Valnar. Good start. We still use the same strategy, though - hit enemy with Silence to stop the spells from being used, use Black Ritual on the three main characters, deal massive damage and the mage heals when necessary.
While we actually do need to use some healing items for once, that mimic can't stand to our concentrated attack, and a crit from Alaine puts it to bed permanently.
♪ BGM: Icy Caves #2 - frozen.mid ♫
I hope that it's worth it, at least...
✝ Blue Key obtained!
Ah, yes, there it is! And once again, we got ourselves a new key!
Then let's get the stone fragments.Alright, neat. Only one more key to go!
♪ BGM: Asgar's Castle - blood009.mid ♫
Back on the homefront, with us hitting level 55, Cyphren has this neat new ring in stock which gives us a pretty solid Defense boost. We grab four for the entire party immediately.
♪ BGM: Syrahs - field4.mid ♫
We also stop by Syrahs and get some new gear again. We are burning a lot of cash by constantly upgrading our gear, but we don't really need to spend it on mercenaries that much anymore, since attacks are becoming more and more infrequent, albeit stronger. Plus, our income is getting better with the level two skills for tax income and thief income.
♪ BGM: A Truth Revealed - WraithTouch.mid ♫
Since we now hit level 55, we're going to next take a look at this sidequest here.
Also, just for the hell of it, here's our current stats. Remember - the time we played is without time spent in battle.
Anyway, the outpost we're supposed to look for is pretty close to the town itself.
♪ BGM: Shrine of Fire - rotten.mid ♫
Reused music is fun.
And hey, we find another werewolf to recruit to our army!
Looks bad.
Who cares about these damn soldiers? This one won't be living for much longer anyway.
Please... avenge us... 1) We'll take care of the monsters! - 2) Forget it, buddy!Sure, why not.
You really do every bit of dirty work, don't you? You'll never understand me, Asgar. I can believe that.
Alright, so our job is to roam the area and beat up a whole bunch of these fucking monsters.
These guys fucking suck. Why do they suck? Well, their behavior list is as follows:
- Attack
- Blood Bite
- Attack
The issue here is Blood Bite. It is an attack that has a base damage of 80. It has a base success rate of 100%. It absorbs, so the enemy is healed by it. It absorbs both HP and BP. It also inflicts Bleeding.
So basically, every single fight with these fuckers will very quickly turn into this:
Remember - base damage of 80, but that means that it can be a good bit higher, as shown with Alaine losing 115 HP and BP in one clean shot. We have about 300~400 BP at maximum, as you can see in the previous image. So basically, many fights will end like this:
This was one fight, and it completely drained our entire BP reserves for every single character. Holy. Fuck. And we need to go through ten of these fights in order to clear out the area and complete the quest.
So, to work we go. I figure we're just going to be running out of BP constantly, so I just leave the main three at 0 BP and only fill up the mage so he can cast Black Ritual on them for faster murdering. I mean, they're already raging and at 0 BP, so casting Black Ritual on them is a no-brainer.
Of course, we still end up wtih 0 BP on the mage most of the time. This shit is really making me burn through my healing items like crazy. Memo to self, head back to that Christmas town and make some more vampires so I can get a female vampire mage - she gets healing spells.
Anyway, we eventually clear out all the monsters.
*pant* Thank you...
I think he wants us to take his weapon... Pfff, even if he didn't, I still would take it. Verrados obtained! 44352 Experience Points gained!Alright, so what did we get?
Nyeeeeh. I mean, Paralyzed is a really good status effect, but for one, it's a mace, so it's exclusive to the Lord/Lady, and I've really gotten used to either having the mage around for boss fights and dungeons, or the werewolf for grinding. Also, it'll become more and more redundant as its attack power becomes weaker compared to what we can buy. Eh, whatever.
Anyway, who's ready for some stone tablet pieces?
♪ BGM: Castle Ardos - Ardos.mid ♫
Our next stop is Castle Ardos.
♪ BGM: The Armored Carriage - enemy.mid ♫
More reused music fun. Now, time for some maps!
This dungeon can kinda go eat a dick. It doesn't have any bullshit puzzles or anything, it just involves a whole bunch of going up and down stairs, and I hate that. Just a personal thing - I always completely forget where I've been when I'm constantly changing floors. At least we don't need to find any secret passages this time around.
Anyway, it's going to take an eternity for me to get through this dungeon, because the added bonus of having to constantly change the floor is that every time you change a floor, all enemies respawn. So on top of getting lost, I also have to constantly re-fight the same enemies.
So I'll take this opportunity to talk about the length of this game. This game is too fucking long. Like, I think we've already established this several times over. There is way too much stuff in this game. There are so many different systems, a whole bunch of different dungeons, a ton of towns to explore, and I'm not even getting into everything. There are still tons of locations we're never going to explore - they're assorted fields, caves, beaches etc. which don't really hold anything interesting, and their level recommendations are completely all over the place too. So now I'm going to talk about a game that does this far, far better.
That game is Unterwegs in Düsterburg. I beg you, if you're still reading this LP and don't hate yourself for it yet, check out my Unterwegs in Düsterburg LP on the LP Archive. The following will directly spoil that game, so if you are not aware of it, look at my LP first, you won't regret it.
Anyway, here's the issue with VD2. It's incredibly open and incredibly limited at the same time. It attempts to make a natural progression, but there's factors that just turn it into a clusterfuck instead. The natural progression is something along the lines of "conquer castle, explore town, do quests from town, get stone tablet piece, repeat", I would presume. However, at least on hard difficulty, there's an issue with that. To progress in the game, you need resources. How do you get resources? Taxes. How do you get taxes? Conquering castles. Therefore, you need to conquer the entire world quickly. That requires you to wait for tax income, which means you get bored and start exploring, which means you get sidequests and end up in the state I was in - every sidequest ever already in your questlog and you're now waiting forever to actually do them, and so on, and so on. So while you can quickly end up with a ton of options, you're basically stuck taking them in a specific order anyway because of the hard gating that the level requirement does.
Contrast that with Unterwegs in Düsterburg, which is significantly more linear, and flows much better as a result. Everything flows into each other, from first talking to Dankwart and getting your first bit of story all the way to the climactic confrontation with Wahnfried in Königsberg, the only major optional thing is the castle of Rabenstein, which is signposted a fair amount, and the main benefit you get from it is additional story, not any sort of loot or stuff like that, so it doesn't leave you at a disadvantage if you don't do it. As a result, it's very hard to be underleveled for an area. All of this makes UiD a much more pleasant experience to play through.
...basically, what I'm getting at is "if you make an RPG Maker game, please don't fall into the trap of making a large open world one, and just make it fairly linear instead".
...anyway. A lot of dungeon crawling and decent, but unremarkable loot happens.
We make it all the way to the stone tablet piece chamber, and then Valnar has his episode again. Flashback time!
♪ BGM: Silence ♫
Let... me...
Do you have any idea who I am, kid? Vin... cent... And you think that I, Vincent Weynard, would let a vampire live? ...
So pathetic. What I have created is also what I will destroy. You are nothing more than my toys. Created to die... I granted you life, and without your knowledge, you have all served me. HARHAR, so clueless. And now I am ready to reap the harvest. And you are next. H... elp...
Help? Preposterous. Nothing and no one is going to help you now... you were destined to die by my blade the day you were created. I... help... What? You want to help ME? Hmmm...
♪ BGM: The Armored Carriage - enemy.mid ♫
I... don't know... The closer we get to those stone fragments, the weirder your thoughts get. Let's get the stone fragment! Why so forceful, Valnar? Very suspicious, pal! I want it to stop! And those stone fragments are going to help me with that!
Oh, yeah? And how do you know that?
That's a justified question, Valnar! I feel it in my guts, okay? I FEEL it!Alas, Valnar is still quite dumb, and therefore something as simple as "this started after the world shifting, the stone tablet will let us reverse the world shifting, therefore this will stop after we get the stone tablet" didn't spring to mind.
This is not going to end well, Alaine... Oh, Valnar. What are we going to do with you? Let's get the stone fragment!
Alright, so that's another one off the list. You know what? Let's go for a double.
♪ BGM: Dungeons of Zharas - blood001.mid ♫
The dungeons of Zharas are something we've already seen before, and they're the least interesting dungeon of them all.
We've already gone through this dungeon as Nyria, and it hasn't gained any new tricks in the meantime. It's not a maze, it doesn't have any puzzles. You just walk around and mostly avoid monsters since the hallways are so wide that you can just walk around them, and that's it.
I mean, sometimes we have to fight these weird dudes, but that's like par for the course.
And of course Valnar has another episode.
♪ BGM: Throwing Knives - warlord.mid ♫
Yes, we've brought enough of it from the mines, and it was already magically handled by us. So that means we can start processing the stone tablet.
Splendid! This will mean the end of the war. And the beginning of our unrestricted reign over this world!
Ghadar! We got him! Who? We have Ustra trapped! His pyramid has been found! He's hiding in there! ...what a glorious day! We don't even need this stone tablet. We simply destroy Ustra directly in his pyramid! We will crush that worm! Mobilize the mages! This will be our last fight! This will be our victory!So the names brought up here are Ghadar, Gorgoth (who was the other one speaking in the first part), and Morlon. Morlon seems new.
♪ BGM: Dungeons of Zharas - blood001.mid ♫
Everything okay, Valnar?
I'm going to go crazy! Why ME? What's the meaning of this? I don't understand it! Those stone fragments must have a very peculiar influence on you... Whatever it is, we're going to find a cure for it! I hope so...
And that's another stone tablet piece!
...
♪ BGM: Castle Ronom - Ronom.mid ♫
Let's go for a triple!
♪ BGM: Ronom Dungeon - RonomDungeon.mid ♫
Ronom is a kinda strange dungeon.
We have some mazelike design in the first few levels, then some strange symmetrical design on the fourth floor, and finally, we have a level where the room holding the tablet piece is not accessible by the direct way, which is blocked by a door that cannot be opened, but a secret passage only. But you can see the secret passage with the first level of the skill to see secret passages, so I guess that's OK. Anyway, let's check some stuff out.
The title is "Pride". "Earlier, a happy lad. Then, a soldier at hand. They send him to war. He fights for victory galore. They gift him a castle. With a horse on a hill. He lives happily for one year. Then a fool draws near. Tells him of the horror. Which his lands soon will explore. At first he is laughing. Then comes the terrifying. Bravely he fights in his lands dire. But his foe was a vampire. He begs for mercy a lot. But for the vampire, he is only a maggot. One strike and he sees red. And then realizes, he is dead."Alrighty then.
We also fight some of these multi-colored giant dudes. Anyway, nothing much happening here. But before we get to the tablet, we have one more thing to do...
...Valnar has to have his episode again!
♪ BGM: Elras Mines - CRUCIBR.mid ♫
more powerful than it already is! The Clan is already done for. Far more important is the victory over that damn Pharaoh Ustra! The stone tablet will help us achieve victory in one fell swoop! The Kaldrium will amplify the magical effect of the spell a thousandfold! Victory will be ours!
♪ BGM: Ronom Dungeon - RonomDungeon.mid ♫
Let's just kill him now! Maybe it's YOUR fault! In truth, you are still possessed by a Shadow Wraith, and you're now projecting these damn thoughts into my brain! Ludicrous... Whatever this is, we have to end it! Just what I'm saying! Head off! Certainly not, Asgar! There definitely has to be another way! Maybe it will stop when we finally kill YOU, Asgar! Your aggressive potential is very striking, Valnar! No one is getting killed here! But I'd better keep an eye out for both of you! Don't avert yourself from me, Alaine! I'm sure it will stop soon! Hardly, Valnar. You would do well to stay away from him, Alaine... That's certainly something I can decide for myself, Asgar! Don't say I didn't warn you!
Shut up, pal! Quiet now, we have other things to worry about than being at each other's throats!
... ...You can cut the tension with a knife.
Anyway, we take the secret passage on the left side of the room and find our next stone fragment! Not many left to go now - we've already got six of nine!
That'll be it for this update, because I just entirely ran out of footage and have to record new footage now. Next time, we'll probably end up exploring Ustra's pyramid, since we're now level 60 and all.