Part 37: Chapter EX-2: Loose Ends

Chapter EX-2: Loose Ends

Is... is this thing working?



All right, looks like we're back!

So, after grinding a few will o' wisps and Maelifics, one can find an interesting way to level up in both the Dimension World and the Abyss.



Remember the Metal Slimes? Well, once you can start rushing them for about 140 damage, they die in one turn. For the largest mob size...



...You get almost as much EXP as when you fight Bu'Shin! Sadly, you have to grind the old-fashioned way until about level 35, but once you hit that point you can skyrocket the levels with practically no effort.

You may have noticed we have a small substitution for the final update, as well. I felt kind of bad for not being able to fit Warren more smoothly into the daily grind of the story, so I thought it'd be fun to replace Michele and chuck him into the Abyss.













Not bad, eh? You'll notice that almost everyone maxed out their dominant stats already. Also notice that even though Rui has less total EXP than Sara, she's still the highest level. This is because thieves actually level up faster than every other class. Ninjas and Samurai are two of the slowest levelers, so... yeah. Even so, the wide spread of levels in our party doesn't seem to have affected strength all that much. About the only catch is that Warren still lowers the party's Trust average to second highest. Still, who would want to see me Warp Attack through all the tough monsters?

Incidentally, I thought about changing Warren to a Knight with an orb, equipping him with some knight only equipment, and then changing him back to Bishop. But, it turns out that even orb-changing can affect spell slots even if you change back to the original maxed-out class... still not entirely sure why. Also, even with the awesome equipment, Warren's Bishop-defense only went up about ten. Since he shouldn't be getting smacked around anyway, I decided to leave it be. Everyone else has armor that I'd rather keep for its miscellaneous effects, such as elemental resistance and stat boosts.



Oh, I finally found the Abyss inn. It's 3000 GP, ten times what you pay in town, and you don't level up when you sleep here. Still, it's good for recharging your spells and all.





Fortunately, it's joking. If you say yes, it calls you a pervert.

Let's meet a few more enemies, shall we?



Spiral Beetles are a long-awaited upgrade to Borer Beetles. If you can wipe them all out in one turn, more power to you. Otherwise, their physical attack has been beefed up significantly, so be careful.





Deathbringers are slightly tougher than Raver Lords, and can apparently insta-kill with critical hits. If you let them live that long, that is. Arch Bishops are the strongest bishop, but still can't hold their own in a straight fight.



Other than Spell Demons, these were the hardest for me to find. Fuma Ninjas are the toughest ninja, but oddly enough they are more likely to cast spells than the others. Since they still suck at this, it's sort of a relief when they decide to chuck a Creta at you instead of slicing your party to ribbons.

Not pictured: Spell Demons. Basically Lesser Demons that are much better at casting spells.

Enough generic palette swaps. I'm sure you guys want to meet the big bads of the Abyss, right?



As far as enemies go, the Elder Demon is probably the one I hate more than any other. It has better attack strength than the Greater Demon, equal magic to the Maelific, and drains levels with regular attacks. Naturally, Warp Attack still owns him, but you need to get at least a Zaiba or Daiba out if you expect to do more than 50 damage per hit. Without Warp Attack, you have to choose between either hoping he'll attack you physically and Restrict Shot him, or hedge your bets with Spell Cancel and count on your evasion to save your levels. Neither prospect is particularly appealing.



Brass Dragons are probably the weakest of the new dragons in the Abyss. Even so, they aren't pushovers. They're good at spells, use electric breath weapons, and hit pretty hard physically. Ostensibly you can still use Stun Attack to temporarily knock them out, but sadly they almost always seem to come in the company of another horrible monster, as the screenshot indicates. They also have a lot of HP, so killing them takes a while unless you get lucky with a critical hit insta-kill.



Gold Dragons are, bar none, the strongest dragons in the game. They can easily do 80-100 damage per strike, and hit three times. They also have a ridiculously strong fire breath attack. If that weren't bad enough, they have more HP than any other monster in the game, including Bu'Shin. Luck is a pretty big factor in fighting them; if they don't use their breath weapon, you can probably keep them under control long enough to take them out.

I'd also like to point out that fighting all of these annoying monsters is basically a waste of time, since you don't even get decent EXP for killing them; an Elder Demon and a Brass Dragon together yield just shy of 8000 EXP, for example.

I've included videos of fighting all of these monsters, as well as an extra surprise: Nine Tail!





As the video will demonstrate, there's no easy way of fighting Nine Tail. Its breath weapon is by far its deadliest attack, so Deploy should always be used. Its spells hurt, and it hits pretty hard too. About the best you can do is buff your party early, use a couple healers to keep up with damage, and keep hacking away at it. Although the experience is pretty good at 40k, there's better ways to gain it, and by the time you're high enough level to take on Nine Tail you probably won't need to level up anymore anyway. So, about the best reward for victory is just saying you killed Nine Tail.

I killed Nine Tail!

Well, everyone, that's about all for the LP. I just want to point out a couple extra points about the game that didn't make it for various reasons. If you play the game in the future, keep a look out for these interesting tidbits:

1. If you humor Annmarie, Oscar, and Rune on B3 with their race to the stairs, you get an extra scene with them on B9 after defeating the Reaper. This time you have to disarm a bunch of traps set up by Oscar. After that, you have to fight Fire Dragons. And after THAT, you have to find Annmarie and watch her revive Oscar and Rune who were apparently killed by said fire dragons. This nets you the Surprise Quartz, which can be used on the crystals on B8 for random events to happen. I haven't actually seen this personally, so I can't tell you if it's worth the effort... I've heard it can have any effect from giving you EXP, to draining MP, to instantly killing a party member.

2. On B9, during a red moon, you can supposedly encounter an entity named Gimrey. If you sacrifice a party member to him, you can gain an item; the more trust, the better the item. Or, you can refuse and fight two fire dragons, which rewards you with a small bonus to max HP for the party. I tried for an hour to find Gimrey with no luck, but perhaps you'll have better fortune.

3. In the Abyss, it's rumored that you can encounter bosses as regular encounters. That means the Incubus and Golem are potential encounters, though I never ran into them. Not sure if you can find the Reaper down there, although I don't think it's too likely. Conversely, you can find practically any treasure in the game in chests, including extra Queen's Guard Swords.

Well everyone, that'll do it for this LP. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to throw them in. I'll respond as best I can. I hope you enjoyed the LP. Until next time, farewell!

Videos:

Elder Demon and Brass Dragon - http://blip.tv/michael-h/let-s-play...-dragon-5473269

Gold Dragon - http://blip.tv/michael-h/let-s-play...-dragon-5473436

Nine Tail - http://blip.tv/michael-h/let-s-play...ne-tail-5473501