Part 24: .hack Mutation - //Update 10 - Λ Bitter Fantasy Mirror World
//Update 10Greetings everyone. I know it's been a while since the last update. But like so many others before me, I don't let petty little things like "lack of continuous updates" or "stringing your thread along for five months with a few carefully timed posts and a poorly thought out April Fool's Day joke" bother me!
Today's gonna be a shortie. It was gonna be longer, but it turns out that I Am Bad At This Game. So instead of the update being between five and ten times the size of most other screenshot LP updates, it'll merely be three times the size. Yes, I know I shamelessly stole the joke from Quovak. Doesn't make it any less true.
Anyway, let's get started, as we usually do, by checking the news and looking at our e-mail.
I can't imagine a single apple costing thousands of dollars would have much of a market outside of eccentric billionaires. I'm reminded of the $16,000 elephant foot umbrella stand that the CEO of Adelphia bought simply because he could.
Plasma diamond coated coins. I got nothing.
The first third of the second book is either somewhere around getting ready to enter the Mines of Moria, or the Battle of Helm's Deep. Y'know, depending on which edition of Lord of the Rings you're reading.
...
What? The ones I always read were broken up into six books. Two in Fellowship, two in Two Towers, two in Return of the King.
Θ Bitter Fantasy Mirror World has been added to the Word List.
So that's our destination for today - the bonus dungeon, and consequently the bonus boss, of Mutation. As you may remember last time, we kinda messed up the servers when we data drained Magus.
That wasn't just cutscene damage.
That red stuff you can see in a few of the pictures is what used to be water.
Hell of a difference, eh? Anyway, this is gonna be a bit of a slog. So no gimmicks today. We're bringing our A Team (sadly not The A Team, though shooting up the dungeon with Mr. T would be pretty awesome!) because we need as much firepower as we can bring to bear. We also need supplies, because the boss and the dungeon enemies both do not fuck around in the least.
39 Healing Potions is pretty good, but we're gonna need more.
An even 50 should do us nicely. Also we top off on the usual suspects - antidotes, restores, fairy orbs, etc.
With Blackrose and Mistral summoned, our stocks replenished, and the best equipment we have equipped, we're finally ready to take on the bonus dungeon.
It's also worth pointing out that the damage we did wasn't just limited to the Λ server. You can see graphic corruption in Dun Loireag, as shown above. It'll also appear in Mac Anu. And despite them not yet being open, the damage will also appear in Fort Ouph and Lia Fail, the Σ and Ω server root towns respectively. Every field will also be similarly defaced. This shit's game-wide.
Interesting to note that Magus had the Virus Core U that we needed to break the lock on this place. Players typically aren't supposed to see the area we just gated in to.
As you can see, we're standing in an upside-down area, specifically on the bottom of some aqueducts. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Inverted Castle. It featured in a couple episodes of .hack//Sign. The Sign cast came here, hoping to find the Key of Twilight, a legendary item in The World that "is said to grant a player powers beyond the system."
All that the cast of Sign ever found here was an AI copy of Harald Hoerwick, the original programmer of The World. He was eventually deleted by the powers that be and the area was presumably forgotten until Kite stumbled across it.
It is an incredibly beautiful area, though. At least until we get inside and meet its inhabitants. This is a bonus dungeon, after all. And if there's one thing that dotHack bonus dungeons are good at, it's being a massive pain in the ass.
Exhibit A is the Brown Wyrm mob. I'm not ashamed to admit that I abused savestates to never fight these bastards. Why?
Oh, no reason. Also pictured, me being bitten in the ass by using Staccato. This becomes a theme throughout this dungeon.
Exhibit B, the House Golem. This thing is immune to physical attacks and is also immune to Knight's Bane, which removes said physical immunity.
Though you can get insanely lucky with a Data Drain and get a mythical Norse sword in the process.
It also makes Blackrose look fabulous.
Exhibit C, the King Worm. This thing is completely immune to magical damage. Despite losing our best damage dealer this isn't as bad as it might seem. Kite and Blackrose are also accomplished shitwreckers, and Mistral seems happy enough spamming Ola Repth. This enemy, while still dangerous, and despite taking forever to kill, is really the closest thing to a "breather" fight.
Starting on the second floor, you can meet the Wander Demons. These things are easily the most dangerous thing in here excepting, of course, the boss.
This shot was taken approximately a second after the one above. It decided that Mistral had to die.
Finally, one of the enemies can drop this sword when data drained. It's also here that I must inform you that in our actual save file, this is the sword that Blackrose has equipped. I replayed this section to get usable screenshots because the ones I recorded when I streamed the game, well...
Never underestimate an emulator's capacity to mess up in new and exciting ways. There are a few other minor changes, but nothing too important. Anyway, the boss fog is down on the third floor. Stepping through...
I am absolutely in love with the enemy design in this game. Especially this boss. Just looking at it, you can tell it's deadly as hell.
Video: Angolmore Boss Fight
It really only seems to have two attacks.
A three-hit combo, shown here. It does two quick strikes for approximately 200 each, waits a second, picks its legs up, and kicks for another 650 or so.
The second is it's own version of Staccato. Basically, if this boss attacks you, you better be healing constantly throughout its barrage of attacks. Mistral does great on healing, but you also need to supplement with liberal amounts of Healing Potions if you want whoever it's attacking to survive.
I got lucky here and he protect broke just under half health. Like with the Parasite Dragon before it, this is a good thing - it means the fight is over. Also pictured, my overall infection level is getting dangerously high for my tastes.
Also as with the Parasite Dragon from Infection, we got a unique weapon for Kite from the deal.
It's not that great, however. A 15 accuracy and 10 evade penalty isn't worth three extra damage. Especially going into Outbreak where we'll hopefully be replacing it quickly.
We also got a second prize from the fight. Another toy for Kite to play with!
You better believe I equipped those. A chance for No Damage as well as a bunch of stat gains! Also some resistance losses, but meh.
Anyway, that wraps it up for bonus content for Mutation. So that finally closes the book on the second game! Starting soon, we'll be tackling the third game, Outbreak. Stay tuned folks, we're only halfway through this insane mess.
I'll be taking my leave here, but below are where we stand with regards to game completion for the second game, via the Books of Ryu. Also some bonus art. Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the third game - .hack//Outbreak!
Completion Stats for .hack//Mutation
Bonus Artwork and Concept Sketches for .hack//Mutation
