Part 49: Nightmare Castle C
Three Disasters down, three to go. Today, we'll finish them off and open the way to the final boss.Update 49: Technically all of this is optional
MUSIC: If you Reach your Dream...
Back in the central hub, there are these two switches. If Boone pushes one in manually and throws the Steady Doll at the other, a door will open.
Probably the second-worst section of this castle. This maze boils down to nothing more than trial and error, and memory.
Pick a door, any door. If you're lucky, you'll pick the right one and go on to the next room - the correct rooms have these "blooming flower" decorations in them. If wrong, you'll go back to the start.
The right path is W, N, E, S, W. Finding it is entirely down to luck and persistence.
I did meet the neatest enemy in the game here though. Boone was ambushed, and if you don't have a full party all Doppelganger will do is float about and not attack. But once Boone's friends show up to help...
Things get confusing.
Good thing the game won't let you attack allies accidentally, though it would make sense for them to be able to put one of your allies in the way of a shot, or just cast Confuse on everyone.
The Doppelgangers copy every aspect of their target, gaining the same stats - even HP - as their target. They can freely use any of the target's Arcana too, and I believe benefit from some of their PS. I don't think they can use Force Abilities or Summon though.
Some abilities work better for the Doppels too. Unlike bosses, our party doesn't have any resistance to Grav or debuffs.
They also do some incredibly stupid things too.
Great fun to fight. These guys should have been a boss.
Anyway, your reward for making it through the maze is...
Doing it again with 8 doors per room instead of 4.
(W, N, NE, W, W)
Another interesting enemy, which mostly attacks by casting Grav on the entire party. It's resistant to everything, so Dark Lucied does a TON of damage to it - over 7000 with Doc casting it.
The Gale Claw tears up all hope! I am the power that whirls away all!
But Disaster Wind ain't all that.
Back in the central hub... it can be hard to notice from the wrong angles, but there's a green gem mounted high up on the wall.
Shooting the Grappling Hook at it opens another door.
Some very tightly packed huge blocks. Doc will need the Mighty Gloves to shove them.
Start by pushing these two out of the way...
Then come around the left hand side and push the first one down and the second one right, into the spot you cleared earlier. The path is now clear.
Then there's another, slightly tougher puzzle.
Start by clearing some space and getting this one out of the way.
Then you can push these two down, and there's a path to the door.
The Terra Roar blusters! I am the power that pounds, and crushes all!
Don't care.
Interesting thing: the lights on the statues in the central hub go out as Disasters are defeated.
The final hidden door is found with these statues. Push this one out of position and it'll open.
Each of the four tablets have a message. Once put in the right order they read:
The primordial impulse, the Surge of Gaia. The Vassim blacksmiths, with flames in hand, are the first to embrace this primordial chaos.
As time goes by, the demons descend to benumb the humans and Elws with their cold power.
The demons used the dragons to devastate the planet, causing grief to many.
A man comes forth seeking change. Entrusted by the people, the becomes an advocate of the future.
There is a demon statue to the south. Using the Tindercrest, Freezer Doll, Boomerang and Changecrest on it opens the way.
... No, I don't know how a boomerang equates to dragons devastating the planet. Since you can Galecrest over to the demon statue I would have thought Bombs, but the devs disagree.
The final puzzle involves this lovely mural...
And these jumbled-up blocks. Lift and turn the blocks to recreate the mural. Much more difficult than it looks.
The important thing to realize is that all of the blocks are already in the correct positions. They just need to be rotated 180 degrees.
By getting blocks into a position where they can be grabbed from a perpendicular edge to the one you originally moved them with, you can rotate them 180 degrees and set them back where you got them. Stacking the block on top of other ones is also a useful way to do this.
This is very time consuming, and it's taken me a long time to figure out on previous attempts, but once you see that it's doable.
Ta-da...
Wait, it's not triggering.
Well, I was wrong about them ALL already being in the right place. If you look carefully you can see that two blocks - the bottom-middle and middle-right - were swapped. Once they're put right, the puzzle is solved.
Given the level of detail in that pattern (and the need to squint at it really hard) it's a shame this game's not in HD.
The Flash Hit pierces your body! I am the power that blares down light in an instant!
Sir, I have fought five other Disasters, and the only one that was a credible threat was Disaster Moon. You, Sir, are no Disaster Moon.
Well, that's that. Six disasters defeated. Only Disaster Luck and Tiamat remain.
With the other Disasters defeated, Tiamat is super-easy. He can still use the Unlucky Hand summon, but its damage is not enough to be a true threat. Defeating him is as easy as tackling any of the other Disasters.
VIDEO: But why make things easy?
With Tiamat defeated, the way to the final boss is clear. But we're not going to take that path yet - we'll make Beatrice wait. There are other things I want to do in Filgaia first.
Next Time:
A Day A Day
Today is April 9, the Sincerity Day. Is sincerity really a virtue? I don't think it is. Honesty is a much better trait to call a virtue. I say this, because hey, I'm not exactly a good person, but at least I'm honest enough not to hide anything. Today is April 10, Heart Day. My heart works hard everyday so I can move and work normally. My liver and kidneys also work hard each day too, but they don't have days named after them... I'd like to give my personal thanks to these unsung organs. Today is April 11, Leather Day. There was a man fascinated with the sweet smell of boiling leather for tanning. He would boil and boil leather all day long. One day, the man realized that boiling vegetables and clams created an even better smell. I guess he never cooked food before...