Part 65: Episode LXII: Billy Lee Black – Kicking Ass For the Lord
Episode LXII: Billy Lee Black – Kicking Ass For the Lord
"Can it be...? The transport ship's being attacked by Reapers..."
”Pretty pretty pretty sure that’s been established at this point... Or they’re all just drunk and passed out. That seems to be kind of a thing out on the seas.” "Can anyone help us?"
Time to form a party for the next dungeon. Fei is still out of commission, so he’s not an option. And our new recruit, Billy, is the party leader so he’s not allowed to go anywhere. Welp, we’ve not really used Elly on-foot in uhh...let’s see...about 55 updates. Citan I do not trust to refrain from bailing on the inevitable boss battle (and he’s pretty much up to date on Deathblow grinding), so he can take a seat. Rico is Rico, so he’s getting benched. Well, we haven’t used Bart on-foot since forever too, so he can come along for the ride. So Billy, Elly, and Bart. Sounds good.
Billy comes equipped with some quite nice equipment. The Holy Habit is the best armor available at this point, though it’s exclusive to Billy. The Holy Pendant is a very nice accessory that doubles support abilities’ length (read: buffs and the like.) Not that useful at the moment, but a feature much later in the game makes them an essential item.
But enough about parties and equipment, let’s get this party started...
As the mission begins, we are unceremoniously dumped on a ladder leading up to the back end of the stranded Ethos ship. The only sound to go along with us is waves and the creaking of the metal vessel for the duration of the dungeon. Terrific.
The party enters the first ship...
"What's that nasty smell?" "This unusual smell is that of the Wels. It sure looks like they attacked... One more thing. On the room's middle wall is a red switch. Push the switch to turn on the lights."
"Scared?" "...No... Just a little." ”Well you got a gun at least. All I’ve got are a pair of whips. I mean, that works on vampires just fine but I dunno about zombies. Oh yeah, that reminds me. Hey Elly, Fei told me you almost shot him the first time you met. But all I have seen you fight with is that rod...sword...baton thingie. What happened to your gun?” *shrug* “Right...great talk... Let’s find the lousy light switch...”
It seems the lights are tied into the locks. A bit of an unusual feature. Anyhow, it seems we’re in the cargo storage container of the ship. Now that we can see a bit better, let’s take a look at what’s skittering around this derelict vessel.
Music: Stage of Death
Meet the standard issue Wels. They look more like hunchback mummies than zombies to me. But, it seems Wels is just a catch-all term for humanoid mutants/undead/monster mobs. With Reapers being ones that actually have some manner of intelligence. Maybe...? I dunno. That explanation sounds good enough for me.
The Wels have several attacks under their belt. They have a generic swipe attack for minimal damage. They also have a rather silly attack method of tearing off their own arm to lob at one of the gang’s heads. This somehow counts as an Ether attack.
They can also make their ribs strike out like spikes. Maybe they’re the precursor to the Necromorphs? I’ve always wondered how various undead creatures would get along with each other. Like would Ganado get along with T-Virus zombies? What would their take be on the Genma from Onimusha? Something to think about.
There are two types of Wels infesting the Ethos ship interior. The second variety are the very silly looking Abandons, which look like some sort of tubby fish men in oversized perfume bottles.
Abandons attack by stuffing their heads and arms into their little industrial sized condiment containers and lobbing themselves at foes...
...And they can also produce 20 foot tall magic saw blades to lob at attackers. Sure...sure, why not? We’ve had random mobs toss giant wrenches and now giant saw blades. I do hope at entire magic tool shed is used as weapons during the course of this adventure.
On the exterior parts of the ship we can encounter the somewhat freaky looking Shellbelles.
Shellbelles are a bit of a nuisance as they begin every battle by knocking out the entire party with a sleep spell and then individually attacking them with a “Wake up kiss”. Not that any of this is particularly dangerous. It is just the gimmick, combined with having a rather large chunk of HP, means a random battle taking for longer than it ought to. Good for Deathblow experience building at least.
Anyway, let’s check out our newest recruit: Billy Lee Black. Billy is a bit different from other characters as far as standard attacks go. Instead of being a Weak, Medium, and Fierce attack corresponding to button presses, each attack type corresponds with a different weapon in Billy’s arsenal.
Triangle/Weak attacks are Billy’s dual revolvers (hand guns.) The revolvers are the only guns that can be upgraded with better versions from stores and the like. Hand guns also use ammo. But, there isn’t much worry in running out any time soon.
Ammo comes in boxes of 100 bullets a pop and we can re-fill between battles. Though, using a box of bullets burns through all the remaining rounds from the previous batch. So if you’ve got 38 bullets in the previous reserve and equip a new batch, that last 38 bullets is pissed down your leg. As such, it’s best not to use any reserves unless it seems Billy will become tapped out soon (like a boss battle.)
Square/Medium attacks are a bit different. Those correspond with “Ether Guns”, which are a pair of short rifles hidden up each of Billy’s sleeves. So yeah, Billy has redeemed himself from that previous E/N update as I can forgive a lot in a character that has magic rifles strapped to his arms. Ether Guns do NOT use ammo. They use elemental bullets (Wind and Fire respectively) and cannot be swapped out for anything. But, as they are magic bullets, they never run out. Spiffy.
X/Fierce attacks make Father Black pull out a giant fuck-off shotgun for some proper zombie slaying. The shotgun is the same deal as the hand guns in having limited ammo, but it’s even more of a non-issue seeing as we can only bust out two shotgun blasts given our current max of 6 action points at this juncture.
On top of being armed to the teeth, Billy is also pretty much a White Mage magic wise. Purity Light dispels any status effects. Healing Light restores 350+ HP to a single character. Holy Light does the same thing to the entire party. Goddess Call gives a character a speed boost for a single round (two with Holy Pendant equipped.) And Goddess Eyes is a Defense buff. Not bad. Not bad at all. Especially that full party heal spell. I think Billy is already 95% better than Rico in every way possible.
Anyway, let’s get done with this filler dungeon. Many of the doors are shut tight in the ship, forcing the party to clamber up to the roof and hop to the next cargo container over. This is less of an individual ship and more of a large connected convoy deal. Like a train. Of the sea. Filled with monsters! Pretend the camera angle shifted for each part of those last three sentences.
This isn’t a particularly interesting dungeon. This is getting to be a trend in this game... The Wels are very tidy for having murdered an entire ship worth of humans. There’s not even a single mutilated corpse or token blood pool in the whole place. Just meat lockers...
...hallways with the worst camera angles ever. Those discolorations on the sides are doors. Yes, this is the best way I could rotate the camera to make them remotely visible. Don’t believe me?
This is the second best camera angle... Not cool, Square... Not cool at all.
There’s not even anything interesting in any of the obscured side-rooms. Unless you count the shower full of blood that Billy can bathe in fully clothed... Wait, what...?
“No wait, this is...water with rust in it. Let’s hurry on ahead.” ”I miss Fei...”
Several dull corridors and bridges later and we reach the lead vessel, which just so conveniently has an open hatch with a Save Point right next to it. If we’d brought Citan, he’d probably be deciding to go check on Fei’s condition right about now.
The party hops into the hatch...
And they’re immediately ambushed by a rogue palette swap enemy. That fiend!
Music: Knight of Fire
Meet Bloody. Look familiar? That’s because it’s a recolored Redrum from the Kislev Sewer. I don’t even think they buffed it up or anything. Just swapped some colors and called it a day.
It still has that bullshit Murder one-hit kill/healing self attack. But, other than that it’s a total putz that goes down in no time. Doubly so with Bart using Wild Smile to negate its physical attacks and Billy pulling healing duty if anyone gets one-shotted.
Moving right along...
Before dying, the defeated Bloody Wels calls on
I have no idea what Billy is talking about here. But this next part is pretty fucking ridiculous. So just watch...
Meanwhile, back at the orphanage...
Music: The Blue Traveler
“Billy's signal...!!”The kid rings the bell...
“Hey everyone!! It's shift G!!”
“Roger!! Engage auto pilot! Catapult, ready!!
“Look out!”
The kids proceed to see-saw the HELL out of that playground equipment and...
The orphanage playground has a hanger with a super hero cape sporting giant robot in it. ...Yeah okay. Billy is officially pretty awesome.
“Ready?”
The kid on the belltower proceeds to jump off the roof and land on the catapult switch down on the yard. The child labor powered catapult. This whole thing is breaking SO many child safety regulations it is ridiculous. But on the other hand...I doubt any of the orphans complain. They just launched a friggin' giant robot into the sky.
“Today's launch was so-so.”
”We’ve gotta get better people on the see-saw generators next time. Timmy has stub legs. He’s holding us back.” “Yeah probably...” “Wanna go play hide-and-seek?” “Mmm’kay!”
Orphan Powered Catapult
Renmazuo Render – Not so sure I’d go with a lime-green cape... And that giant pointing conehead definitely needs some kind of hat.