Part 36: .hack Outbreak - //Update 12 - Λ Pulsating Sea of Cloud Whale

//Update 12

Welcome back everyone! Today we're gonna tackle the bonus content in Outbreak.

That is to say we're gonna go to Ryoko's dungeon and then the optional bonus dungeon and then completely forget about the Liminality fields altogether. Sounds good, right? If you want a preview of what those fields look like, just imagine the enemies from Ryoko's dungeon, but five more times.






Apples that taste like potatoes sound like the most awful thing.




"DNA analysis shows that the footprints belong to this creature" I don't think that's how that works. Like at all.




I thought the Panthers were a Carolina team. A 15-game winning streak is still pretty damn good, though.




StarChild being wholly incompatible with ALTIMIT means that it's gonna have an extremely slow adoption rate. Who wants to make the change to a completely new operating system when absolutely none of your old programs and games will work for it?








Λ Pulsating Sea of Cloud Whale is added to the Word List.

You know, despite Outbreak introducing Σ Server, there were an awful lot of Λ Server fields we were told to investigate. I mean, Carmina Gadelica is much better laid out than Fort Ouph, but you would think that the developers would want the higher level players in Σ instead.

Anyway, a save-and-reload later and we have some end-of-volume e-mails from our buddies!









Rachel had an oddly aggressive tone in that e-mail, and Wiseman seems to think we were begging him for cheap items.

At least Moonstone appears to have our backs.



These dungeons aren't gonna run themselves, so let's grab Wiseman and Ryoko and go adventuring!



This should be really easy!



This was the first portal in the field. Ryoko's dungeon is full of data bugs. If I had to hazard a guess as to why, the developers wanted to get you accustomed to Quarantine's dungeons. Any other guesses involve the developers being complete assholes and I want to hold on to that slight bit of innocent hope otherwise for as long as possible.





Iron giant style data bugs are always a pain to fight because of how much damage they deal.





The destination room is just to the north of this round room.

Video:





: An enemy! Let's get him!

: No, wait! Don't rush in so recklessly!







Swing and a miss!





Strike two!







It can be a little hard to tell what's going on, thanks to the awkward way the enemy bends its arm. But it's raised its blade arm up and intends to bring it down on Ryoko.





But Kite's a little too fast for it!









GEE I WONDER IF RYOKO HAS DEVELOPED A CRUSH ON KITE I HONESTLY CAN'T TELL. (No I didn't edit that image. The game seriously zooms in on her face and adds a soft pink glow.)





Kite, ever the gentleman, drops her on the ground before he gets punted across the room.













If you watch the video, you can hear Kite yell out something. The monster shudders and then the light on its face dies.





Not gonna lie, if the games had a system where you could deal backstab damage, the combat would be vastly improved.



: Are you all right?

: I'm sorry. I was out of line and I... I... I attacked carelessly. I'm completely... useless. I mess things up every single time, without fail. Even in a game, I cause trouble for other people. I can't apologize enough. Please forgive me.

It's just some slight damage, Ryoko. Potions are cheap, and Kite knows a healing spell. It's fine. Really!

: Hmm, if that's truly how you feel, then all you have to do is change. I'm sure you can do it. Everybody, including me, likes you a lot.

: Thank you so very much!



If you watch the video, Ryoko's wings are really expressive. When she's apologizing to Kite and belittling herself, they droop. But when Kite tells her it's fine, they straighten back up. Also back when the camera did the zoom in on her face earlier, as the screen turned pink, her wings were doing this fluttering thing.

There's a dungeon very late in Quarantine where you can see the magical expressive wings in action again.



For our troubles, we get +30 HP, which is a pretty good reward, all things considered.

Back in town, we get an e-mail notification, so jumping ahead...















Ryoko's dad, as we'll come to find out, is completely insane. I'm also trying to figure out just how loaded Ryoko's family is. Look at those field trips. After seeing the aurora borealis, they go to Hawaii to warm up. That school has to educate the children of the top 1% of the top 1%.



Now that Ryoko's been dealt with, let's round up the usual gang. It's time to take on the real bonus dungeon!





Nope. Never gets old.



It wasn't something I ever saw while playing Outbreak, and never had recording software running when I encountered it in Quarantine's post-game, but occasionally while in Σ Server fields, you can look up in the sky and see several eyes staring back down at you.

Presumably we're up on top of the body those eyes belong to right now. Take a good look around when you come up here. This dungeon exterior is completely unique in all of the games!



Inside we have the most dungeon type. Oh boy another stomach dungeon. They stopped being gross and creepy a long time ago and now are just kinda blasé.







The dungeon itself is also tiny as hell. I went out of my way to get the "All Dungeon Portals Cleared" bonus and it involved clearing maybe two extra monster portals all-told.





I tried repeatedly. I must have recorded three separate attempts, and there were at least two more that I didn't record. For all that I tried, I could not get this bonus boss to protect break. He has 9999 HP, and according to some forum posts I saw on the matter, you had to deal over 8000 magical damage to it. This boss is magic tolerant, and breaking that tolerance took multiple Beasts Banes each time the break wore off.

So yeah, I eventually gave up on getting the rare weapon the boss dropped. It wasn't worth the time, effort, or resources it would have taken to get a weapon I wasn't going to use anyway.

As far as a strategy for fighting the Black Death is concerned, put Wiseman on healing duty, have Blackrose stand in front of the boss, and put yourself on its hind quarters. If the boss starts to turn around for any reason, run as far away as you can until it turns back to Blackrose. She can take its hits, Kite can't.



: I've killed the root of the infection, so it should be fine now.












We've been getting lots of desktop wallpapers recently. I'll show them all off at the end of Quarantine when we have a complete set.







Looking at Blackrose's equipment, it occurs to me that she's still wearing that Ceramic Helm that we got that way back in one of the Infection bonus dungeons. Whoops.

That's the end of .hack//Outbreak, though. I hope you guys enjoyed it.

NEXT TIME: Liminality vol 3: In the Case of Kyoko Tohno