Part 19: Fortune Gear

Last time, everyone decided that we had two possible leads to follow - a gemstone cave to the northwest, and a Guardian Shrine to the south. You guys suggested going to see the Luck Guardian first, so lets do that.

Update 19: The plot-dictated superiority of Janus Cascade

Well, we need to head for the shrine. Anyone know how we get there?

Those who wished to be <<blessed with luck>> head to a shrine west of the station towards Dune Canyon.
<<blessed with luck>>
This blessing is said to remove obstacles by the power of luck. However, this power can only be gained by walking there. That's what the legend says...

Bit of a mistranslation here. The station is to the west. After arriving at Dune Canyon you go east.

I don't know if it was something I ate, but I had a terrible <<dream>> last night. It could be such a letdown when you realize it's only a dream.
<<dream>>
I dreamt that Filgaia was filled with water, and everybody was much better off than they are now. Under the clear blue sky, I was farming the land with my family by my side helping me out... But then I woke up... It was terrible.

Even if the sun should shine today, tomorrow may be a world engulfed in darkness. Only in such a twilight world can our hearts continue to shine a ray of hope...

You can't have hope if the sun's shining? What?

I think there were fewer monsters in this world, back when we visited the shrine of the Luck Guardian. I used to be able to walk from Dune Canyon over to the shrine. I hope this world will be much safer by the time Kaitlyn grows up.

Anyway, we've got a train to catch. If we head over to East Highlands station, we can catch a train to Dune Canyon.

Thanks for riding with us! Are you heading to Dune Canyon? I hear the gargantuans have been sighted out there, causing quite a ruckus. The station attendant there probably knows all about it. Well, take care!

Gargantuan, eh? Sounds like fun, whatever it is.



Dune Canyon is a complete hole, a station that literally only exists to serve a shrine nobody visits anymore because MONSTERS EVERYWHERE!

Say, are you Drifters? There's something I'd like you to be aware of. A monster named Diobarg attacks people around here, and he's a very dangerous beast. He somehow responds to fast-moving things, and he's ruined so many of our trains. So, please watch out. You're just asking for trouble if you go out horseback riding here.

We'll follow his advice, and not use our horses near here. It's a short run to the shrine anyway.

Diobarg has some nasty habits. One of them is to run alongside passing trains and gobble them down. If this keeps up, nobody will want to come see the <<Luck Guardian's shrine>>. I'm so worried...
<<Luck Guardian's shrine>>
That's right. The shrine of the Luck Guardian is far east of here, under the mountain across the tracks. But now it's become a monsters' nest, so be very careful not to get too close.

That is one unfortunate luck guardian.



Fortune Gear, the shrine of the Luck Guardian, is a little to the east. Inside...

MUSIC: This Chest, and Echoes of the World's Heartbeat



Yo...
Yes, I sense it, too... The last time Catherine and I were here, we did not feel this evil presence.

We had left the mother in law at home, you see.

It feels as though monsters might jump us at any moment.
I can't sense the guardian's life force in this vile atmosphere... We need to go in and check.



We hit a junction pretty quickly, though the stairs are mostly a dead end. Behind a sealed door up there lies two treasure chests. Once has a Growth Egg, while the other is a mysterious black chest.


Welp, looks like we have a lot of ransacking to do.



Most of the puzzles in this shrine work on the same theme - matching pairs of colours. If you've played memory/concentration/Mario 3 then you know this.

The bottom right tablet reads...

*Chamber of Fortune*
Find the light that guides you by matching the colours of the crystals.

The other one just reads 12, the number of tries you have before the room resets and you need to start over.



Very decent of them to suspend random battles in here.



A nice side room gets us 5000 gil, Adventure 2 and three Lucky Cards. I also had to backtrack a bit, because I walked right past an explodable wall with a Gimel Coin, two Gella Cards and a Migrant Seal in a locked chest. Very worth it.



There's no limit to how many goes you get at this room, but do do have to watch out for the



FUCK
... pitfalls. Just sneak everywhere and it's really easy.



Up ahead we find a big black blob of... something.

Is this what's sucking out all the energy from the shrine!?
I don't think it is satisfied with just the guardian life force. We appear to be its next meal.
Gimme a break...Well, if the glutton is hungry, let's make it eat bullets!

BOSS BATTLE: OLIVIER

MUSIC: Blood, Tears, and the Dried-Up Wasteland

VIDEO: Olivier Battle



Just... eww. Can't tell in a screenshot but he is rubbing his stomach with anticipation. This can be a tricky boss, because he makes the good move of combining two dangerous statuses.

He absorbs ALL kinds of elemental damage, so we don't have much choice - we've gotta use physicals.



"Prohibited Play" is gross. No wonder it inflicts poison. He'll use this both as a regular action and a counterattack.



"Bwaaargh!" is about as bad. It deals damage to everyone, and also inflicts the Disease status.
I said this a while back but Disease isn't that bad. All it does is stop any attempts to heal the victim, and in regular battles that's not too terrible.
But combined with poison, and especially in a boss battle, it can be pretty terrible and I ended this battle on low health.



Grav has a 50% chance to work on him, so if Boone didn't have anything better to do I had him use it, but I still think it's not worth the time. Especially towards the end of the battle.



In the end, Doc inflicted the killing bow with a Lock On. Even for a lock on, that's an excessive amount of damage. How come it did so much?

The answer lies with a wonderful arcana called Valiant.

Valiant boosts the user's attack by the difference between their MAX HP and current HP. In other words, every point of lost HP becomes a point of ATT.
Given that Doc's current attack is 159, and his MaxHP is over 1000 now, this can lead to some completely ludicrous damage, provided you don't mind the risk of keeping him at low health.
... personally, I don't completely care for that. A dead drifter does zero damage and can be hard to revive without him being immediately smacked down again, which leads to a lot of wasted turns while the enemies beat the others down as they try to rez him. But even at say, half health, the boosts provided by Valiant are hard to dismiss.

But that was the end of Olivier, and among our rewards was a Hazel Sprig: a gear that prevents disease.

EDIT: Einander had something interesting to say!


VIDEO: It's true! I never knew!



Ugh...!
That wasn't it... There's something else eating away at the guardian's life force.
We have sensed this evil before... The Dark Spear that devours all life-forms is nearby!
Janus... How dare you desecrate life!

Great, it's that guy again. I look forward to being killed in a cutscene.



This next puzzle initially looks confusing but is really very simple.



Stepping on any of the pressure plates will make a laser shoot between the pillars in a clockwise direction. It always stops and makes a fire on the next pillar around, and the flame quickly goes out. The goal is to catch the fire.



The answer is to freeze three of the pillars, and activate the fourth. The laser refuses to stop on a frozen pillar, and is forced to stop at your one. This opens the door.



Running into this button gets us into a room where we can snag a Gimel Coin, two duplicators and three call whistles.



The last variation on this puzzle. You get as many tries at these lights as you need, but they automatically turn off after a second or two. Not enough time to get a pair of anything.



But Boone's Steady Doll is fast enough.



Passing through the chamber with the Chock in it. As good a time to save as any, I feel...

MUSIC: Eyes of the Guardian



You're nothing but a lapdog! You seem to be pretty comfortable fetching the prophets' slippers. The Janus I knew, if I recall correctly, used to have wings of his own. Even if they were smeared black!

Janus turns around, clapping sarcastically.

Well said, Princess. But your attempts to provoke me are still uninspired. You think that if I lose my temper, I will stop gathering the guardian's life force and attack you? Is that your intention? That's pretty clever, but my orders are to gather the life force from this sucker, that's it. And if I forfeit my mission and fight you, who knows what they'll do to me.



Damn prophets... Why do those blokes want with all this <<energy>>, anyway?
<<energy>>
To transform Filgaia? What nonsense... What would be the outcome? Do they not know that the guardian's life force is being stored within my body?



Even with the ancient wisdom, those blokes have absolutely no idea how to utilize this energy efficiently. That's why I've decided to use it for them! In order to live freely and rid yourself of all restraint, you need power.



This is exhilarating... With this power, I can overcome all restraints...
Don't tell me you're up to what you do best - double-crossing.
Double-crossing? No, I wouldn't call it that. I just want to be true to myself and live freely.
Live freely...!? Is that what it means to live freely!?
Precisely.
Argh...!
The one with the most <<power>>, and can push everyone aside is the one who lives most freely!
<<power>>
No, you're wrong! That's not what it means to have power or freedom!
Are you at it again, Princess? You should know by now. Without power, you're unable to do whatever you want. You just become a pawn of someone who has power. But right now, the great power lies within me. I am free...! No one can get in my way!
Janus Cascade... You cold-blooded monster...
That's right, Princess. I've been liberated from my human form into this cold-blooded monster!



BOSS BATTLE: JANUS (take n++)

MUSIC: Crossfire Sequence

VIDEO: Janus Battle

I'm burning up... I'm about to explode... It's as if something's trying to break out of my insides... Could this be the guardian's power?



So Janus again. He's not got any new moves, but he frequently uses Proton Beam and Negative Rainbow now, with no limitations on how often.



He also starts the battle with Reflect status, which caught me out on the first turn when Billy tried to lower his defence.



In fact, if you check his status you can see that he's loaded with buffs. All his stats are buffed, and he's reflective and immune to status effects.



Or he was, until Boone cast Eraser on him.



A rare look at Valiant at its best. Note Billy's HP, and bear in mind that's not a crit!

Valiant-boosted damage makes short work of Janus, though unfortunately I wasn't as hot on my healing as I should have been and Pearl ended the battle KOd. No XP for her...
I like to imagine that the next scene happened because Pearl was knocked out but... we all know the score about major boss battles by now.

Heh heheh heh... The power that sustains the world... Amazing...! No matter how much damage I take, I will not perish! This is the power I have been after! This is mind-blowing...! Absolutely, mind-blowing! Heh heheh heh... AH HAH HAH HAH HA!!

This is the sixth time in 29 boss battles that the script has turned a win into a complete loss.



MUSIC: Soaked Through With Fear

Say your prayers, Princess. I'll make this quick and painless!

Pearl flops to her knees. But the attack never comes.

...
Psyche! Surprised? It will be a waste for me to use my powers when you're already half-dead. Don't worry, Princess. I'll let you blokes live a little longer.

What? If he's not going to kill us, why did you LET HIM WIN?



Stop! Where do you think you're going!?



Wham

Sorry, Princess, but I have places to go and things to do. I'm a busy man.

A little later, once Pearl's popped her arm back in...



We get the Lucky Hand Medium.

We're too late again... I can feel the anger, chagrin and frustration of the guardian, robbed of its life force...

Not to mention the frustration of the players, robbed of their victory...

Is it because of the Ark Scepter? Probably not, huh? It's because the guardian and I are both trying to survive desperately in Filgaia... We share the same sentiment...
What is it that I'm seeking? The freedom he talked about? If I had the power, I could have denied him of his freedom! I...Argh...!



(Why do I have to be bound by fate!? I know... It's up to me whether I want to fight or not... Then I'll just...)



What he talks about isn't freedom! It's just a cop-out! I can't do something so lame!
Sorry, everyone. I'm slow to catch fire, but it looks like I'm ready to burn.
For the sake of the guardians who were violated?
You can say that... But moreover, because I want to find my own freedom... By denying him his.
Boone...
Let's go back to Humphrey's Peak and wash away this gloomy mood! We can't march forward with our heads hung low, right leader? Let's march on!

That's the end of Fortune Gear, but there's a couple of things to settle before the end of this update.

First of all, lets look at the medium we got - Lucky Hand.

Arcana
Hox Pox - Boosts the Luck of an ally, which has all sorts of uses that are naturally hard to quantify. I found it most useful when I was trying to use...
Pickpocket - Lets us steal an item from an enemy. Most enemies have a common and a rare steal, but you can't get both off the same enemy.
Randomizer - Casts a random Arcana which the character has equipped. The upside is you don't need any FP to cast Randomiser, the downside is with up to 12 Arcana equipped the chance of getting the one you need are slim. Rubbish, really. If you have 0 FP, chances are your best option is to attack and start getting more.
Familiar - A non-elemental damage arcana. For some reason I've never found this all that useful. Its 64FP cost might be part of that.

Personal Skills
EXP Boost - Four ranks, each one increases EXP gained by 10%. I won't be using this unless someone falls far behind the rest.
Luck Boost - Four ranks, each one raises the luck stat by one level. Much more useful.
Gella Boost - One rank. Gives a 25% chance of getting twice as much gella after a battle.

Billy got this guy. Luck Boost will do a nice job of boosting the frequency of his crits.

As for his Summon, Lucky Shot...



Chapapanga swoops down from the heavens!



*heroic fanfare*



He charges up, and unleashes a devastating wave of energy...



...that decimates - wait, what?
44 damage? That's pathetic! And that's not with a weak caster or no FP. That's with Boone at nearly 80FP.
OK, so the damage he does is nearly inconsequential, but if it DOES kill anything, there is a vastly boosted chance that they will drop their Rare treasure. Which is nice, but highly specialised.

The next thing to go for is Diobarg, the gargantuan serpent the railway workers were so worried about. We walked to Fortune Gear to avoid him, but if we grab a horse and ride around for a bit...



we'll be ambushed!

VIDEO: Diobarg Battle



A serpentine form moves to intercept the party and their mounts! It is none other than Diobarg, the beast that seeks to devour all that treads noisily.

Unfortunately, he's not all that impressive. He only has two abilities.



Ramming us and...



trying to paralyse us. Unfortunately not only does Boone have the Paralysis Ward on him, someone forgot to tell the creature designer that party members on horseback are always immune to paralysis, making this one ineptly designed encounter.



He never really stood a chance.

The menacing gargantuan was vanquished, thanks to the bravery of Pearl and her comrades. The dragon fossils that slept in the belly of the beast had broken into glimmering shards, and now rest at their feet.

The reward for our freelance monster-hunting is a pile of fifteen Dragon Fossils, items that we still don't have a use for. No doubt they'll turn out to be useful later.

Back at Dune Canyon, the ticket seller has something else on his mind now that Diobarg is gone.

This station is going downhill. Nobody ever comes, and I have nothing to do. So, whenever I'm on duty, I work on making and solving puzzles. I've been chipping away at this for one or two years, and now it's finally taking <<shape>>. If you ever come across a puzzle I made, do me a favor and give it a try, okay?
<<shape>>
You see, I have a sponsor who constructs puzzles I design all over Filgaia. I'm not entirely sure who he is, or why he's doing it... But I try not to pry. After all, people who like puzzles are good people.

Lets go find one. The first puzzle is a little northeast of Dune Canyon station.



Millennium Puzzle: 1/20
Difficulty Level: *....
These puzzles will test your wits. Touch the white crystal when you're ready to take the challenge. Solve the puzzle to receive an item!

Didn't think the game had enough block-pushing puzzles already? Have I got a sidequest for you!



*Blocks of four colors, mysteriously placed on a mysterious platform. Welcome to the Millennium Puzzle, the ultimate challenge of mind over matter. Let me explain...
Eliminate blocks of the same colour by placing them next to each other. Move blocks by pushing and pulling them. Unfortunately all of your precious tools are useless here.
You have two choices: Complete the puzzles, or jump off the platform to exit.
each time you complete a puzzle, you'll receive a prize appropriate to the puzzle's difficulty. Good luck, puzzle solver!

As the first puzzle, this is pretty simple. The only thing it's important to keep in mind is that Blue and Red have an odd number of blocks on the board, so in order to match all of them you must match 3 at a time once for each colour.

Not going to do this through screenshots. If you want to see it, here's a video.

VIDEO: Millennium Puzzle 1



Once you match the final block, you're returned to the entrance and a treasure chest appears. In this case we get the Cait's Boots, which teach a Personal Skill that raises your Reflex at low health. Not great, but I guess it can be nice on someone like Boone whose RFX is a little less than the enemy's.


Next Time: we go spelunking in the gemstone cave.

Tuxedo Ted posted:

I won't be satisfied until you do that glitch where you can counter-attack with melee on horseback.

Oops, I completely forgot about this, and since I hate sleeping at a reasonable time I went ahead and tried to get this done.
Conclusion: a huge goddam pain to get set up



Here's Boone all set up to counterattack, no bullets in his ARM. Note the distance between him and the lead Crab Bubbler.



Here he is, getting revenge. He's moved to melee range, but it looks like he's just using his normal attack animation.

I tried doing this with Pearl, but her evasion is too good and I think counterattacking needs the enemy to actually hit. It never worked for me anyway.
I tried doing it with Doc, but by the time he had emptied his ARM the enemies were dead. I need stronger enemies.
If there's still demand, I'll try sending him to an ARMsmith to reset his BLT stat or something, but... later.