Let's play Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light! (Done, yay!)

[Silellak]

Also, I wonder if any of those who posted on the first page still follow this LP, with all the derailments and emo shit going on here.

KalosKagathos, Silellak? Any comments/suggestions?

Edit. Forever alone.

Oh, uh, hi there. Just started getting back into this LP and reached this post. Keep up the (presumably) good work.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Silellak appears! Now that's a surprise.


And thanks for the bump, Neko-chan and Mi-kun!

 

[Crooked Bee]

Part 30: Asmodeus: Lust

In which we revisit Guera, meet Krinjh again, and meddle in royal affairs.

Having rid Arbor of the frightening Belphegor, we can be moving on, to other parts of the world, now. So we exit Arbor, summon our pet dragon, and fly...



(Notice the "book of light" symbol above Arbor on the map -- it means we've solved Arbor's problem and got ourselves the reward, the legendary Lux spell.)



... to Guera!



Prepare for a session of :blah: :blah: :blah:, readers!
Apparently, the Moon Folk -- and you do remember Krinjh was the last of the Moon Folk, right? -- sacrificed their lives in fighting a demon called Asmodeus:



The place of Asmodeus' banishment is "the castle of sand":



Yep, it's the Quicksand castle, folks.


Since we're in the past now, it looks like the Moonlight Tower has only been rediscovered:



It is, you know, the Moon Folk home place:



The locals don't really have anything interesting to say to cats, it seems:



"I have nothing to give you", bah. How 'bout some fish? And chips, maybe?








We're good, nya.
A pig sure knows much about being a party host:



Too much for a pig.
A kuroneko gives a useful tactical hint:



I guess that means that the more powerful the ability a character chooses to use, the later is this character to act in this particular turn.
Another pig is apparently an Elementalist's pig:



True, or not?
And if my watch is accurate, it's "a hint from your local kuroneko" time again:



This is a battle hint, obviously. To jump a bit ahead of ourselves, it means that the demon will be able to drain our AP -- which isn't good.
Let's have a look at what the local magic shop has to offer now:




Some pretty good earth magic here: a Quake, a Quakra, and a Quaga. But also Protect, Shell, Raise, Esuna, Curaga, Cura, and Cure. Not bad.



Who knows.
One thing is for sure, though -- the king has changed in some way:



The Fox provides some excessive hand-holding:



Yeah, I'm sure we'll get to it soon.
Meanwhile, some new items are being sold at the Guera weapon shop:




The Book of Sylph and Book of Titan are two elemental books a Scholar could use. The Hero Armor is, well, the armour for a Hero.
Codexer finds the desert totally cool, by the way:



In this, he's totally akin to the archdemon Asmodeus.
of Codexer.
Volly isn't so desert-loving, though:



Women. Women never change.



I have a nagging suspicion that it was this bastard who accidentally freed the demon.


Another magic shop has a good share of new spells:




Berserk looks like a pretty useful spell for a melee damage-dealer to have, and Magick, for a Black Mage or, even better, for someone -- say, a Scholar -- who's tasked with casting black magic while not being a Black Mage and thus not having the Magic Mojo or Spell Focus abilities. Confuse is a spell belonging to a new school of magic, Dark Magic, that specializes in inflicting debuffs and status ailments on enemies. We'll get a special class devoted to dark magic a bit later.
This shop has a pretty wide selection of dark magic spells. There's Sleep and Flash:



But also Silence, Break, and Poison:






Now that we've got a Magic Key from Master Chief, we can access some hitherto inaccessible areas:



Inside, we find two black cats, a pig, and a woman.
The woman informs us of the reason Guera wants a Great Tree seedling from Arbor:



That's what the king of Guera wants you to believe, you poor thing!
Black cats are for hints, apparently:



As are pigs:



These are four optional towers we won't be doing in this LP -- sorry, folks, but I don't feel like crawling through four 100-floor towers. I've got better things to do.



Which means we'll miss out on a few crowns, yeah.



Run awaaaaay!



Time to enter the castle now.



:/



The funny thing is, even though they say animals aren't allowed into the throne room, in fact no one stops us from going there in our animal form. So it's pure bullshit.
Anywayz. It looks like the Moon Folk founded this place:



But then were wiped out fighting Asmodeus:



Poor things. :/
We're once again reminded of the official reason Guera tries to obtain a seedling from the Great Tree:



Another NPC tells us about the white magic of legend:



He's behind the times though: we've already got the Lux spell for ourselves.



Shoo yourself!




This one has passed his perception check, it seems.



A war? Well, we're here to prevent just that, you know.



Duly noted.



Not even a hint as to its location!?
of helpful NPCs.
It looks like the king has been acting in an odd manner lately, and his subjects feel a bit uncomfortable about following his orders:



I wonder what the reason behind that may be.



Screw you.




I'm not a furry! I'm just an animal FFS!




Well, yeah ... in a way.



Like a ... serpent, you say? :twisted:



"Life energy"?
Well, anyway, it's time to pay the king a visit.



A throne room NPC tells us more about the Moon Folk:



Another one has his doubts regarding the king's plan:



Yet no one seems really surprised to see us, even in our animal form:



"More"?
Let's approach the king, shall we?



Yet before we even get a chance to answer, a messenger appears:



Lord Krinjh!
SMA is shocked:



As you may remember, she had some ... feelings toward Krinjh.
And our old pal Krinjh does indeed appear:



He approaches the throne and...



...shows something shiny to the king!
It is a Great Tree seedling, it seems:



Well done, you gullible bastard!




Ariadne?



Krinjh: A woman of Arbor, sire. The only one who believed in me, and trusted me with this great gift.

Another gullible one, she is.

Krinjh: It was she who gave me the seedling.

It's all because of love, folks, all because of love.



King Guera: You did well, Krinjh. You have the kingdom's gratitude.



What a naive feller. Also, it looks like the Moonlight Tower is our next destination.
With Krinjh gone, the king gets all scheming:



Something evil's brewing. :twisted:
And then he notices we're still around:



Yep, we'll go there right away! But first it's party banter time, of course.
BRO senses evil afoot:



Volly finds Krinjh lovable:



And it looks like SMA's all over Krinjh indeed:



Women, women never change.
Meanwhile, Codexer is as pensive as ever:



[Perception 2/2] Well, at least Krinjh is still alive, meaning there's still some hope left for the Moon Folk.
So let's get down to the world-saving and wrongs-righting business!


And let's continue experimenting with the crowns, okay? This time, we'll try out Black Cat's favourite class -- Scholar:





True BROs don't usually make good scholars, but whatever. Scholar's first-level ability is Quell:



But in order for BRO the Scholar to be really useful to our party, we need to upgrade his crown:



Subdue is a nice debuff.



Restrain may also come in handy.
Scholar's next ability is Tame, which looks pretty cool:



Too bad we haven't got enough gems for it right now. :/
We also need to change BRO's gear to something more, uhm, suitable for a Scholar, so we equip a Scholar Gown on him:



Since Asmodeus is said to be a desert demon vulnerable to water, we choose a water-element book for BRO, Book of Shiva:



We also equip everyone in our party with Rock Shields to provide defense against earth magic and give a couple of water/ice magic spells to BRO:



To make Codexer's overall defense better, we give him a Hero Armor instead of the Merchant Tunic:



Then we rest at the inn to replenish our HP and AP:



And now we're all set to go to the Moonlight Tower.



I decide to go there on foot.



We're almost there when a group of enemies attacks us:



A Wyorm and two back-row Buffohelms.
It's time to try BRO's debuffs out:



The only real problem with relying on Scholar's abilities -- compared to, say, Bard's -- is that they tend to frequently miss at least one of the targets, which imho substantially reduces the power and even general usefulness of this class.
Wyorm's attack are nasty not because of the damage they deal -- with Quell + Motet it is negligible -- but because of the paralyze effect they are accompanied by:



And even with Quell + Motet on, Buffohelm's Fira remains relatively harmful:



BRO tries using Subdue...



...but totally misses. :/
The Wyorm has a general debuff, Vitriol, at his disposal:



Buffohelm's Flame Blast is also nasty, especially after the Motet effect has ended:



Yet after a few more turns we emerge victorious and Volly levels up, going from level 23 to 24: HP +3, STR +1, SPT +2, INT +2.
And so we arrive to the Moonlight Tower:



This is a place already familiar to us, so I won't be describing the whole process of crawling through it to the top floor. I can re-post the map I posted in the update devoted to this place, though:



So yeah, we need to make it to 5F again, this time with stronger enemies around. Naturally, that ain't no problem to us at all:



On 5F, a bunch of monsters -- see those purple whirly thingies? -- have our dear Krinjh surrounded:



...says the king of Guera's voice. It looks like he sent all these monsters to get rid of Krinjh.



SMA gets all melodramatic:



Codexer: Hang on, we'll help you!

And the battle begins.



This isn't a boss battle, however -- it's just two Trollud Zombies and a Ghoul. BRO uses Quell:



Then SMA uses Motet, and Volly casts Magick to boost her magic attack. Codexer casts Lux:



The party's max HP are increased. Volly's Banishra deals with the Ghoul:



Lux also lets us recover some HP at the end of each turn:



And it doesn't take us long to be done with the Zombies.
A dialogue scene ensues:



Codexer: Don't worry about it. We do this kinda stuff all the time!



SMA: What about Ariadne? Isn't she with you?

Jealous, eh, SMA?



:/



Meaning we'll have to go there, too, of course.



Codexer: Listen, we'll go and find Ariadne for you. Right, guys?



Krinjh: No, you can't. Without the Merkmal you will never find the castle...

Codexer: No worries -- we've already got one!

And he shows the Merkmal to Krinjh:



Krinjh: I pray... you can do this thing... for me...



Okay, you bastard, we're on it!



A-helping we will go, yay!




As we descend the Moonlight Tower and fight enemies, SMA levels up. She's level 23 now: HP +4, SPT +1.



Outside the tower, we summon our trusty little dragon and fly to the Quicksand Castle:



We descend and enter what is probably the best-designed dungeon in this game so far:



Again, this is an already well-explored area, so I'll just post a map for you:



We meet two new types of enemy along the way -- two Bullkings and a Neko Natter:



Bullking is a stronger version of Cu Sith, a dog on wings, and Neko Chan Natter, of Cait Sith:



Bullking has a funny debuff called Marking:




The dog lifts up its leg to "mark" Volly, if you know what I mean.



Lawl.
And thus we finally make it to 5F:



We save our game and chat the fox up:



Which means, as we already know, that Asmodeus has a nasty AP-depleting ability.
Taking the nearby stairs, we ascend to 6F:



We find Ariadne and King Guera here. It looks like they're in the middle of a conversation:



King Guera: That Krinjh was just using you. He wanted the seedling of the Great Tree for himself.

You lying bastard!

SMA chimes in:



The king turns around:



Codexer: Krinjh sent us. We've come to rescue Ariadne from your clutches!





With this, King Guera attacks us:



Okay, it's time to kick some royal butt!



SMA uses Motet to boost our defense, and BRO, Subdue:



Codexer casts Lux:



With this many buffs, we shouldn't really have any problems now.



Meh, that's weak.
Thanks to Subdue, BRO can deal some pretty good damage to King Guera. Good for a Scholar, of course:



But it's nothing compared to Subdue + Lux + Spell Focus + Watera:




And so King Guera is defeated, yay!

...

Or is he?



Gahahaha! indeed. The fucker has already used the seedling's "boundless quantities of life energy" for his own purposes!

SUDDENLY



KRINJH APPEARS!



Awwww.



:twisted:



Which is what we do.

SMA: Here we go!



And...



...the moonlight...



King Guera: ...but your time is past. You should have stayed in the desert where you belonged.



...reveals him...



...for what he is:



A powerful demon -- Asmodeus!



Now the real boss battle begins!




Now let's see what I can figure out about the design of Asmodeus in this game.

Asmodeus, or Ashmedai, the counterpart of Lilith, appears for the first time in the Book of Tobit -- which shows some Zoroastrian influences leading some scholars to identify Ashmedai with Aeshma, one of the seven dews created by Ahreman -- with the Hebrew version of it calling him the "king of demons". There we read about Asmodeus killing the seven successive husbands of Sarah during the wedding nights. Asmodeus has been traditionally regarded as the demon ruling over and personifying lust and licentiousness – already in Aggadic texts but also, for instance, in the famous Malleus Maleficarum as well as Peter Binsfeld's classification mentioned earlier – as well as harbouring ill-intent against the newly wed. A Talmudic tale tells of the way in which Asmodeus, being put in chains by King Solomon, tricked him and temporarily took his place. In the Testament of Solomon, Asmodeus is said to be an offspring of fallen angels – born of an angel father and a human mother – with Raphael being his angelic opponent. "I increase men’s evil-doing throughout the world," he says there and admits to being afraid of water and birds for the simple fact that they remind him of God.

Almost all of that has found its way into this Final Fantasy game, as you can see from both the screenshot and this game’s plot in general. Asmodeus is depicted as a faceless crowned demon with wings and six snake heads, empty under the clothes he wears – just as lust and desire erase one’s face and make one empty on the inside, craving for nothingness that is desire. Like love, lust is winged, but its wings are of sinister and lowly nature. The link between snakes and lust goes of course through the snake that seduced Eve in the garden of Eden; apart from that, snakes serve as the general symbol of sin and devil’s power over man. The number 6 is the number of man, the symbol of snakes having power over the human kind. Snakes are usually associated with wilderness, and Asmodeus indeed shuns water, preferring desert and sand – and that’s why he can only be vulnerable to water, to boot. The crown on Asmodeus’s head refers both to him being the “king of demons” and to the way he took King Solomon's place – just as, by the way, he takes King Guera’s place in this game. And finally, Asmodeus’s hatred for the newly wed is shown in King Guera’s conflict with Krinjh and Ariadne.

That's it, folks. I wonder if Kuroneko-sensei has any additional info and/or corrections.



SMA uses Motet, and BRO uses Quell but misses:



Meh. Asmodeus casts Firaga:



Looks impressive, yay! :twisted:
Like many other bosses, Asmodeus has two attacks per turn, and so the first Firaga is followed by a second one:



SMA uses Ditty to buff up our attack, and BRO is more successful in using Quell this time:



Asmodeus casts Firaga, and then Fira at SMA:



Codexer casts Lux to boost all our attributes:



One of Asmodeus's special attacks is Sidewinder, an earth-element spell targeting all the party at once:



Thanks to Motet, Quell, and the Rock Shields we are equipped with, the Sidewinder doesn't really deal much damage. It does, however, inflict some status ailments on us: Codexer is poisoned now, and SMA is blinded as well as generally debuffed:



Another Sidewinder follows right after that:



And now BRO is poisoned as well.
Lux + Spell Focus + Watera does a great deal of damage to Asmodeus:



And one of its six snake heads is destroyed:





Five more to go!



Asmodeus uses Moonlight Curse, a group debuff:



BRO uses Subdue to make Asmodeus more vulnerable to our attacks:



Asmodeus first poisons SMA...



...and then casts Fira on her:



Uh-oh. But Codexer stands prepared for an occassion like that:



Phew. The Quell effect ends, so BRO tries using Quell again, but misses. Luckily, SMA manages to use Motet right before Asmodeus casts Firaga and then, Sidewinder:



Volly is cursed now -- meaning she can't use her class-specific abilities like Spell Focus. Also, Codexer is debuffed and SMA is silenced:



Good thing Volly already used Spell Focus last turn, so that now she can greatly damage Asmodeus with Watera:



And another snake head dies:





Four more to go!



Next few turns Asmodeus mainly uses Moonlight Curse to debuff us and prepare the way for a Sidewinder or a Firaga. The Sidewinder confuses Codexer and paralyzes SMA. Also, Volly is still cursed.


Even though Volly can't use Spell Focus now, another Watera -- strengthened by SMA's Ditty -- suffices to slay the third snake head:






It looks like only one snake head can die at a time, but we've actually dealt enough damage to Asmodeus for several of them to be dead -- that's why when next turn SMA attacks melee for merely 31 points of damage...



...the fourth snake head dies as well:



The demon should've cursed us earlier, it seems.
Only two heads left.



Next turn the Motet buff ends, and Asmodeus casts Firaga...



...followed by an Aeroga:



Still, thanks to Lux our HP is so high that we can easily afford taking 40-50 points of damage.


As a result of Asmodeus's Moonlight Curses, we're never psyched up now -- rather, we're, uhm, psyched down:




BRO uses Quell to reduce Asmodeus's attack power; SMA uses Motet.
Asmodeus casts Quakra but SMA's Rock Shield + Motet blocks most of the damage:



With all the debuffs and ailments Asmodeus has inflicted on us, Volly's Watera deals much less damage than before:




Just one more snake head to go!
A couple of turns later, Asmodeus puts Codexer to sleep:



And Volly's Watera kills the final snake head:





Now we can begin dealing with Asmodeus himself.
The demon attempts petrifying SMA...



...but luckily misses. This is followed by a Thundaga:



Good thing it fails to paralyze anyone.
It takes merely four more turns to finally destroy the boss:



Victory, yay!
We obtain 756 experience points -- and level up:



Volly -> level 25: HP +4, SPT +1, INT +1.
Codexer -> level 25: HP +4, INT +1.
SMA -> level 24: HP +3, STR +1, SPT +1, INT +2.
BRO -> level 24: HP +3, STR +1, SPT +2, INT +1.

Asmodeus is really butthurt:



The demon vanishes into thin air, and everything predictably goes next-gen:



The crystal -- of course! -- appears:



Crystal: You have fought boldly and defeated the mighty demon.



Crystal: There will be no war with the fairy folk of Arbor.



And we're presented with a new crown:



Crystal: Go forth with courage, Heroes of Light, go forth!





Ariadne: We shall take the seedling of the Great Tree to Queen Arbor and beg her forgiveness.



Krinjh: In the legends of the Moon Folk, this shield was wielded by the great hero, Rolan.

And we obtain the second piece of the legendary equipment the Witch of the Sky told us to find -- the Shield of Light:



Nice.




The Shield of Light not only provides a +3 boost to Defense and Magic Defense, as well as +10 to Evade and Magic Evade, but, most importantly, nullifies all ailments:



That's why we equip it on Codexer, our party healer.

Spell Fencer is the crown Krinjh was wearing when we first met him a long, long time ago:



Spell Fencer's basic ability, Magic Sword, allows enchanting a weapon with a spell for extra damage. Its second-tier class-specific ability is Mystic Sword:



We have enough gems and so upgrade BRO's crown. (Yeah, BRO's gonna be our guinea pig as far as new crowns go.) And then we upgrade it once more to learn the third-tier ability, Magic Thwart:



Looks mighty good in fact.

Let's also have a look at the next class-specific ability, Magic Infuse:



Looks good, but we won't be upgrading to it just yet.



Overall, Spell Fencer seems like a nice crown. Approved.
We change BRO back to Scholar for now, however, simply because he isn't yet properly equipped for being a Spell Fencer.







You're quite perceptive, Krinhj old boy.



Yep, I've already done just that, BRO.



We too, SMA, we too.









Volly's totally right -- so stay tuned!

 

[Jaedar]

A shame to see you won't be getting all the crowns

Spell fencer looks like a cool all out offense class, much approved.

 

[Crooked Bee]

A shame to see you won't be getting all the crowns

I'll think about it, but really, four towers, 100 floors each? Ugh. Maybe as bonus updates or something -- if I ever get to it, which I somehow doubt.

 

[Cenobyte]

for dealing with the second demon

 

[spekkio]

These are four optional towers we won't be doing in this LP -- sorry, folks, but I don't feel like crawling through four 100-floor towers. I've got better things to do.

But for taking another evil demon down!

 

[Black Cat]

Congratulations on defeating another sin demon king, Bee-(chan? kun?). Asmoday seemed kind of weaker than Belphegor, however.

I wonder if Kuroneko-sensei has any additional info and/or corrections.

No corrections, as again your research is pretty much spotless. Just a small bits about the Kabalistic background for Asmoday: He is sometimes, yes, seen as Lilith's mate or equal, but in other accounts Lilith's mate and counterpart is actually Samael. Some very old rabbinic texts and stuffies actually consider Lilith and Samael to be, uhm, god-beings of the outer darkness and not creations of YHVH, who, when together, become a dual entity known as Leviathan, the huge and angry fishie. Some of this has even survived into our modern times and beliefs, as many representations and accounts of Leviathan in the end of times state that it is YHVH who must face it in combat as Leviathan was considered to be an equal of YHVH, only, uhm, wilder and darker. In a way we are again into another manifestation of the same, uhm, mythical element than we talked before using as examples the conflict of Titans and Olimpians, or of the Amatsukami and the Kunitsukami.

Back to the point, in those accounts Asmoday is not Lilith's mate or equal but actually her son, as Asmoday himself is seen as a cambion, the son of a demon and a mortal. This comes from two different accounts: In some his mother, Agrat, is usually seen as a shard or aspect of Lilith herself, and the succubus queen of the eastern quarter while Lilith herself is the succubus queen of the northern one and Agrat's mother, Mahlat, the succubus queen of the southern quarter. In other accounts, however, Asmoday is the son of Lilith and Samael and, thus, he is either not a cambion but a true demon king or a cambion from back when Lilith was still a mortal woman and not a devil queen, but given that the original Lilith was never a mortal woman to begin with things start to muddle.

The story about him taking King Solomon's place is pretty cool given that cambions are actually seen as some of the most powerful mages and sorcerers to ever walk the earth and King Solomon was a pretty much Merlinesque figure in pre jewish myth, so you have to wonder... Amusingly, Merlin himself was also, in the middle ages, considered a cambion himself. This all relates to the myth of babel, too, but we will leave that for another day, as it isn't really related to Asmoday but to cambions.

In any case that's that. He's pretty well known and popular, and finds a way of getting a place of some importance in almost every single catalogue of demons ever written, which also means has more names than Codexia KingComrade has alts. In the Ars Goetia of the Lemegeton, for example, he is a king, and he is described as being the first among those loyal to Amaymon, one of the demonic lords of the four quarters (the eastern one, if i am not mistaken) and rules over seventy two legions, which is kind of totally out there even for those guys. He's also usually related to all things, uhm, hedonistic, from dancing and drama and carousels, in the original meaning of the word, to, uhm, french fashion.

On the tree of life and death he is one of the few demons to actually rule over aspects of two different sphere like thingies. By his astrological moment of power he is closely related to the diurnal side of Tiphereth on, uhm, Beriah, I believe it was. However, and by being such a powerful and well known demon, he is also considered to be the ruler of Golachab, Geburah's qliphoth. This either makes him a very complex entity with way too many aspects or a complete psychological mess, I guess. And if he actually began as a Cambion that's quite the upwards mobility, yay.

And... here! Have an Asmy-Chan to cuddle and hug and pet. :3

That aside you are pretty good at reading the minds of japanese character designers and understanding what they tried to convey with the design. I'm in awe.

These are four optional towers we won't be doing in this LP -- sorry, folks, but I don't feel like crawling through four 100-floor towers. I've got better things to do.

You there, less talk and rolling eyes and more climbing!



What manner of dungeon crawler are ye? Hop to it!

 

[Crooked Bee]

Thanks for your comments Kuroneko-chan! They're überkool.

Congratulations on defeating another sin demon king, Bee-(chan? kun?).

Chan, last time I checked.

Asmoday seemed kind of weaker than Belphegor, however.

Yep, not all demon bosses are equal in power -- and since we're in the open world mode and going around blindly, we fight them in an arbitrary order, not according to the, uhm, in-game hierarchy of their power.

... as many representations and accounts of Leviathan in the end of times state that it is YHVH who must face it in combat as Leviathan was considered to be an equal of YHVH, only, uhm, wilder and darker.

Yep, in fact I've been reading some things just about that lately. :sisfist:

You there, less talk and rolling eyes and more climbing!



What manner of dungeon crawler are ye? Hop to it!

These are four optional towers we won't be doing in this LP -- sorry, folks, but I don't feel like crawling through four 100-floor towers. I've got better things to do.

Okay, I've added a poll. Vote, you faggots lovable bastards.

 

[Azira]

Those 4 optional towers are a bitch. Each level gets bigger and bigger and the enemies level up with you, so you're better off taking them at a lower level than a higher one..

Simple tip: the third tier Elementalist skill (Mysterio) works wonders for keeping down elemental damage to your party..

 

[Crooked Bee]

Those 4 optional towers are a bitch. Each level gets bigger and bigger and the enemies level up with you, so you're better off taking them at a lower level than a higher one..

Simple tip: the third tier Elementalist skill (Mysterio) works wonders for keeping down elemental damage to your party..

Thanks for the tip! I planned on upgrading BRO's Elementalist crown; Mysterio + Bard's Motet should do wonders defense-wise, I guess. I'm going to be doing the optional towers, if at all -- I don't see many people voting at all, so not many care about that, it seems -- after the end of Act II, before the finale. I want to beat all the sins first. We'll see if it proves to be unfeasible.
Or maybe even after the finale, as several bonus updates -- I'll create a special savestate for that occassion.

Are you speaking about the towers from experience, Azira-kun, or have you googled that?

 

[Crooked Bee]

 

[Azira]

I've tackled all the sins and wanted to take a look at one of the towers, just to get a feel for it. You'll want to have all your armor upgraded to the maximum level before entering.. T'was a painful experience.

Haven't finished the game yet, waiting for the urge to play return.

 

[Kz3r0]

Voted NAH, there are better things to do, like completing Dar Heart of Uukrul's LP for example.

 

[lightbane]

I already voted, so now do another update, goddamit

Besides, that's why emulators are for: To abuse save-states and/or the turbo button so that these "bonus dungeons of doom" aren't so bad. And in the worst case scenario you can just break down and abandon the lp as so many people do here...

 

[Crooked Bee]

Okay, the voting will be open for a couple of weeks more, and then I'll decide which course of action to take.

I've tackled all the sins and wanted to take a look at one of the towers, just to get a feel for it. ... Haven't finished the game yet, waiting for the urge to play return.

Wow, you're fast. No wonder the game got you exhausted. I usually prefer playing games in smaller portions.

You'll want to have all your armor upgraded to the maximum level before entering.. T'was a painful experience.

Voted NAH, there are better things to do, like completing Dar Heart of Uukrul's LP for example.

This means ... you only care for the Uukrul LP now? :/

And in the worst case scenario you can just break down and abandon the lp as so many people do here...

 

[Mrowak]

Do it Bee. You know that you want that crowns. I know that I want to see go through all those pointless filler content :twisted:

 

[Crooked Bee]

Part 31: Mammon: Greed

In which people's hearts grow cold.

Previously on this LP, we royally kicked King Guera's butt, and now our dear Krinjh and Ariadne can long live and prosper. As a bonus, the Guera vs. Arbor war is prevented. All's right with the world! Or is it?

...

Well, not really. A lot of demons remain to be slain, and a lot of treasure to be found, so let's get down to business.
This time we head to Invidia, the land of the ice and snow -- and of Master Chief and Rekoteh, of course.



Rekoteh is right outside Master Chief's house, and she's really distressed over something:



Hey, you don't talk to beautiful nekos like that!



That's better, Rekoteh, you naughty girl. But No, we are not. We come from your local polar cats populace.



That's because white cats can easily blend with the snow.



You poor thing. Okay, it looks like a chat with Master Chief is in order. But first it's blah blah time!
An NPC tell us that, once upon a time, Spelvia and Invidia were one:



I guess that should explain the obsession of Master Chief's famility with the floating city.
Another NPC doesn't appreciate the beauty of cats:



No u.

Something's wrong with a nearby temple, it seems:



...but now it's too freakin' cold!



Awww.




But if it isn't just the weather... what is it, then? Or rather, who is it?



Ice Queen?
She's gonna be TEH BOSS, apparently:



We haven't got the Alchemist crown yet, but still, I'm sure we'll cope just fine.



We share your doubts, o NPC. After all, it's always up to the heroes of light to save the day.
Meanwhile, the local weapon shop has some new stuff for sale:



That Evil Lance looks powerful, yay.



Too bad the bosses, being demons, are usually resistant to the dark element.
And that's why I'm not sure the two new spells being offered at the item shop will be of any use to us:



SMA complains about the unnatural cold:



Volly's suffering, too:



Why not just transform into a cat, Volly?
BRO feels something evil brewing:



Yep, the gloom of doom.
And Codexer is concerned about Rekoteh:



Yeah, sis needs our help!
So we approach Master Chief:



Yes. This time we don't lie. No one lies to Master Chief and gets away with it.



We heard someone's butt needs saving.

Chief: What's that? You want to know about Rekoteh?

Yeah, our sis is depressed. What gives?

Chief: *sigh* She is weak, not like her brother Rolan. I told her not to come home until she found the Dragon's Mark.



An empire, you say? :twisted:

Chief: Until that blessed time comes, we must use magic to protect the town from winter's icy grip.



Hell yeah! Next stop: world domination.
As a certain pretty princess says, "Hee-Hee-Hee! The throne will be mine! After that... IT'S WORLD DOMINATION TIME!!!"


But anyway. I guess we should obtain the Dragon's Mark for our sis Rekoteh. I mean, we can't leave our sis crying outside in the cold, can we?
The Mark is sealed below:



But first we need to properly equip ourselves. We'll obviously need Ice Shields for our party. We also equip BRO the Spell Fencer with a Mythril Hammer, a suit of Spell Fencer Armor, and a Black Ring, as well as a Cure, Fira, and Leaf (neutral) spells:



And Codexer, with a Fire Axe:



SMA and Volly are equipped with non-elemental harp and staff, respectively. We use the Magic Key...



...and descend to Invidia Undeground:



The area is familiar to us already, so let's just make it to the downmost floor, shall we?
A new enemy, Nidhogg, awaits us here. It's basically an ice wyvern:



In Norse mythology, Nidhogg -- the "malice striker" -- is a dragon who gnaws at the roots of the World Tree, Yggdrasill, which are trapping the beast from the world. Nidhogg has appeared as an enemy in Final Fantasy X, as well as XI and XII.
A Fira...



...and then a Leafra bring the beastie down before it manages to cause any harm:



During the crawl I find out that Spell Fencer isn't as efficient as I thought that class to be, so I change BRO back to Fighter:



Perhaps we'll try using Spell Fencer again later, perhaps not.
Making it to B3, we find ourselves in the dragon puzzle room:



This time we also need to turn the four dragon statues around, but the rules of the puzzle and the objective have changed:




After some thinkity think...



...we discover the right combination: the SW dragon statue must be turned twice, the NW statue, once, and the SE statue, thrice:



With the puzzle solved, the ice barrier melts away and we can descend the stairs to B4:



The fox warns us of a danger ahead:



We save our game and proceed:



This is the area where we previously fought the ice dragon.
There's a suspiciously inviting treasure chest here which we approach:



SUDDENLY



A MONSTER APPEARS



Uh-oh.



Meh, it's the same Ice Dragon weakling we fought earlier.
SMA uses Motet, and BRO, Chakra:



Ice Dragon uses Ice Breath:



But thanks to the Ice Shields we have equipped + SMA's Motet, the damage is totally negligible:



Then the dragon attacks SMA in melee:



Meh.
Volly chooses to use Spell Focus, and Codexer casts Lux -- which makes BRO's max HP go really high:



Spell Focus + Fira:



Jugular:



Another Jugular:




Jugular again:



And then another Fira, strengthened by Spell Focus + SMA's Ditty:




465 experience points gained. That was easy.
We level up:



Volly -> level 26: HP +3, STR +1, INT +2.
Codexer -> level 26: HP +4, SPT +1, INT +1.
SMA -> level 25: HP +4.
BRO -> level 25: HP +6.

And we get what we've come here for:




Yay, now we can bring the Mark to Rekoteh! Perhaps then her cruel father will let her come back home.



Yeah, Master Chief is one hell of a father.



The latter, I guess.



Okay, let's help Rekoteh resolve her family issues:



She's clearly impressed:



Yup, we do.

Rekoteh: B-but how?

Well, we got it from your father in the future, you know.



Rekoteh: I have to tell Father!

And she runs away:



When we catch up with her, she's in the middle of an argument with her father:



Chief: Outsiders have recovered the Dragon's Mark!? Impossible. Only I possess the Magic Key.



We do.

Chief: And I thought there was only one in the world!

Chief: ...Still, that matters little now. All I ask is that you stay out of our affairs.



Emperor of the world, yay! :twisted:



And she runs away again, this time to her room.




But let's go after Rekoteh again:



Rekoteh: We used to have springs, too... before the Ice Queen arrived in the Sun Temple, that is.



Which means ... we're on it!




You're quite perceptive, BRO.



Yeah. :/



You speak wisdom, Codexer.




We save our game, exit Invidia...



...summon the dragon and fly to the south:



This must be the Sun Temple, so we land and enter it.



A barrier is ahead.



So that's what we need the Mark for!



Yep.
And the barrier is lowered:



The way is clear now. And it's gonna be a long way. The thing is, the Sun Temple consists of four levels, and the first two levels are just lengthy winding corridors -- this may be either a laziness on the part of the developers, or a deliberate decision having to do with the next boss we're gonna face, a decision which I'll explain a bit later, when the time comes.
We meet a new enemy here, a Shade Trollud, accompanied by two Trollud Zombies:



But it's just a pure melee enemy, and so we easily tune down the damage he causes with the help of Lux and Motet.
But anyway. We crawl and we crawl and we crawl...




...and then descend to B1...



...and then crawl and crawl and crawl again...



Two more new enemies, by the way -- Scylla and Lilith:



In this game, Lilith is just a more advanced modification of Succubus, which kinda doesn't do justice to the real Lilith, but meh, whatever. And Scylla is a stronger version of Lamia.
And so we finally descend to B2:



After slaying a group of Trollud Zombies, BRO levels up, going to level 26: HP +6, STR +2, SPT +1, INT +1.
Going east and then turning north...



...we stumble upon a trasure chest:



Oops.



It's a trap! A death trap.
Still, we destroy it with Jugular + Leafra before it can even act.



Meh, useless. Or even harmful, given that this game punishes you for grinding.
We go back to the stairs and then head to the northwest...




To the east and to the west are two treasure chests:



We equip the Fossil Ring on BRO for him to have a chance of petrifying the enemy when attacking bare-handed.
The fox has a warning ready:



I guess that means the upcoming battle will be loooong.
We save the game and descend the northern stairs:



A scantily dressed female is waiting for us here:



This must be the Snow Ice Queen.
Well, not only is she the Ice Queen, she's also Mammon herself. Yes, Mammon is female in this game.

I mean, you all know that Mammon – derived from the Aramaic word mamona meaning "wealth", or maybe from the analogous Hebrew word meaning "terms of payment" – has traditionally been the personification of money, wealth, and avarice. Mammon – traditionally a male, not female, demon – is the prince of Tempters and Ensnarers, the ninth demonic order. Thus, for example, Robert Burton says in his famous Anatomy of Melancholy: "Yet thus much I find, that our School-men and other Divines make nine kinds of bad spirits, as Dionysius hath done of Angels… The ninth are those tempters in several kinds, and their Prince is Mammon." Truth be told, I haven’t been able to find any sources for Mammon being female. Perhaps Black Cat can help me in this matter. I mean, I certainly approve of making Mammon into a succubus-like figure, but there must've been a reason for that, right? Right? This game has been rather, uhm, logical in its approach to the archdemons so far. The only possible reason I have been able to find is that in the Slavic languages, like Russian and Polish, Mammon is Mamona – i.e., female (?) – and, of course, a synonym for "money".

But anyway. In Milton’s Paradise Lost, Mammon is said to be always having his looks "bent downward", at the golden pavement of heaven rather than up at things divine: …for even in Heav’n his looks and thoughts / Were always downward bent, admiring more / The riches of Heav’n’s pavement, trodd’n gold, / Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed / In vision beatific. After Mammon is sent to hell, he is the one who finds the precious metal to build Pandaemonium, the demonic capital. Mammon’s "underground" spirit – his anal spirit, we could say – is in fact reflected in this game: I mean the long downward-going corridor we had to crawl through to reach Mammon’s lair. Being the demon of greed and selfishness, making people self-serving and uncaring, Mammon makes "people’s hearts grow cold", as is said in this game. Moreover, Rekoteh’s father – the Chief – thinks only of power and the Empire he wants to build, rebuking Rekoteh for not being strong like her brother Rolan is, which is also an influence of Mammon, the desire for an empire and the world domination being the ultimate manifestation of the desire for material gain.



O rly?



And so the boss battle begins.
Mammon appears -- surrounded by three hideous monster arms to support her in battle:



Ewww.



BRO uses Chakra, and SMA, Motet. Mammon attacks melee with her sceptre...



...but it looks like SMA's Ice Shield blocks the damage. Volly uses Spell Focus, and Codexer casts Lux.
Then Mammon uses one of her special attacks, Diamond Dust:




But our Ice Shields + Motet take care of the damage.
Then Mammon casts Protect to guard herself against our melee attacks:



SMA uses Ditty, but now that Mammon has the Protect buff, even BRO's Jugular doesn't deal a lot of damage:



Mammon looks funny when attacking with her, uhm, hindarm:



:D
It looks like the fox was right -- even magic doesn't really deal much damage to Mammon:




Mammon can cast Poison:



But the amount of HP Lux makes us regenerate at the end of each turn more than makes up for the poison -- which deals ca. 13 points of damage to BRO each turn:



Yeah, it's a strong poison, but I mean, just look at BRO's HP!
Mammon mostly continues using Diamond Dust but we resist it, easy as pie:



She can also boost her magic defense with Shell:



You know it's time to strike when...



So BRO uses Jugular but...



The fuck!?
Even Fira, to which Mammon is vulnerable, only deals measly 35 points of damage to her when she's in her Shell mode:



And that's with Volly's Spell Focus! Behold what happens when BRO tries casting Fira:




When Mammon's Shell wears out, Fira becomes more successful:



And one of the monster arms is destroyed:



Still, this battle is really turning into an exercise in tedium. :/ Mammon has no other special attack apart from Diamond Dust. What kind of an archdemon is that!?
of archdemons.
And so it goes for I dunno how many turns ... until all the arms are broken:




Mammon comes to the ground...



...and the second part of the battle begins. Things finally start to get more interesting. Now Mammon can cast Confuse...



...which, if successful, can make one of our characters attack another, which isn't good.
First SMA is confused, and then BRO:



Two characters are confused at the same time. BRO's confusion isn't really a problem, but SMA's is. I mean, we always need her Motet ability. Without the Motet, Mammon's new group attack, Blizzard Dance, can get a bit nasty:



With Motet on, however, it is quite harmless:



Mammon continues confusing us and striking with Blizzard Dance. Confusion makes this part of the battle more dynamic, yes, but still it remains boring -- there is no danger of us going down whatsoever.
And so, after -- I don't wanna count, ugh -- turns, Mammon is finally slain:



This boss battle was shit, that much I can tell you. Definitely the worst one in the whole game. What were the devs thinking, really?

I guess this battle would've been less tedious if we had some general debuffs and maybe status ailment spells on us. And also fire bombs! Yeah, a lot of fire bombs! Perhaps that's what the devs had in mind for it.

Still, we get 756 experience points and level up:



Volly -> level 27: HP +3, SPT +1.
Codexer -> level 27: HP +3, STR +1, SPT +2.
SMA -> level 26: HP +4, STR +1, SPT +2, INT +1.
BRO -> level 27: HP +4, STR +1, SPT +1, INT +1.

Mammon is butthurt:



But I am even more butthurt, you good-for-nothing!
She vanishes into thin air, everything goes next-gen, and the Crystal appears:



Crystal: You have defeated the demon and brought back the Light.

Yeah, but the fight could've been more interesting, you know!



And we're presented with a new crown:



Shaman, yay! It's the crown speciailizing in Dark Magic -- i.e., debuffs, status effects, and the like.

Crystal: Go forth with courage, Heroes of Light, go forth!



Yup, in due time.



Yeah, that wannabe "hero" bastard.









Anywayz. We teleport outside the Sun Temple, summon our dragon and make it back to Invidia:



We'll be sure to ask him, then! I mean, he's Master Chief. He's gotta know something about armour!



If it's freezing cold
in your neighbourhood
Who ya gonna call?








What!? Rolan!?




And all thanks to us, be sure to remember that!



Rekoteh: Oh, Father!







Chief: Of course they do. You know, my dear, I think it's high time we paid him a visit!



Chief: Absolutely!







This sis sure loves her bro.



Not sure about that.



And we receive...





Next time: we'll go a-fishing, yay!

 

[spekkio]

Nobody bumped?



Congrats on defeating the evil Ice Queen.



Thank god that SE released this game in US, because the amount of text would make a fan-translation difficult...
And AFAI can tell, writing is p. good (for a weaboo gaem).

 

[lightbane]

I'm still surprised that Enix-square did so much research for such a "minor" game for the DS. In any case,


Shaman, eh? I hope it's a badass class like Fire Emblem's one (I think there were "dark-eelement based" classes in previous FF, but can't remember the details).

 

[Crooked Bee]

Nobody bumped?

Congrats on defeating the evil Ice Queen.



Thank god that SE released this game in US, because the amount of text would make a fan-translation difficult...
And AFAI can tell, writing is p. good (for a weaboo gaem).

I'm still surprised that Enix-square did so much research for such a "minor" game for the DS. In any case,

Shaman, eh? I hope it's a badass class like Fire Emblem's one (I think there were "dark-eelement based" classes in previous FF, but can't remember the details).

It's pretty cool, yeah. See for yourself -- an update's incoming!

 

[Crooked Bee]

Part 32: Leviathan: Envy

In which we revisit Liberte and the Pirate Hideout, awaken the marvel whale Cetus and slay Leviathan, the beast of the sea -- but only after having been slain by it ourselves.

Вот въезжают на поляну
Прямо к морю-окияну;
Поперек его лежит
Чудо-юдо рыба-кит.
Все бока его изрыты,
Частоколы в ребра вбиты,
На хвосте сыр-бор шумит,
На спине село стоит;
Мужички на губе пашут,
Между глаз мальчишки пляшут,
А в дубраве, меж усов,
Ищут девушки грибов.

When they reached the glade, they flew
Straight towards the ocean blue;
There, across it, lay the whale-
Monster head and monster tail;
He was all one mass of holes,
From his ribs grew stakes and poles;
On his tail-a forest black;
And a village on his back;
Peasants on his lip drove ploughs,
Children danced between his brows;
Oak-trees on his huge jaws grew,
Maidens there sought mushrooms, too.

Pyotr Ershov, The Little Humpbacked Horse / Конёк-Горбунок (1834)

Previously on this LP, we defeated Mammon by slowly, uhm, hammering away at her, brought the spring back to Invidia and helped Rekoteh resolve her family issues. It's time to be moving on now, and our next destination is Liberte, the free town of art and culture -- simply because I feel like revisiting the place.
First, however, we have some loose ends to tie up. I didn't show you the newly-obtained Armor of Light in the last update, so here it is:



The Fox praises it to heaven:



Okay, if they say so. We equip the armour on Codexer since he's our healer.



Then we fly to Arbor to buy the Esuna spell:



And then to Urbeth, to obtain the Arise Tome...



... the Regen Tome...



...and a Curaga...



...as well as a set of Paladin Armor:



Last time we were in Guera, we forgot to visit it again after defeating Asmodeus, so why not do it now? Let's see how Krinjh and Ariadne are doing!



The local NPCs still can't believe we defeated the evil Asmodeus:



...as well as slew the evil King Guera:



You're naive as fuck, o NPC.
Still, some do thank us:



We buy all the dark magic spells at the local magic shop and then make our way to the Guera palace:



Sure we will!



Usurpers, eh? And that's why...



And yes, that's Krinjh and Ariadne standing by the throne! All ur base r belong to them now.



Good riddance.



Don't all kings do?










Having received our share of thankity thanks, we can be moving on to Liberte. Now let's have a look at the new crown we've got, Shaman:



AP cost for dark magic reduced by one! Yep, that means that Shaman is our, uhm, debuffer -- one who can silence enemies, poison them, turn them to stone, or inflict sudden death on them. Sounds nice, doesn't it?



Shaman's first-tier class-specific ability is Ritual -- a dark ritual, of course -- that allows the Shaman to attempt inflicting a status ailment on all the foes at once.
Let's enhance BRO's Shaman crown now since we're going to be using it a lot in this update.



The second-tier shamanic ability is Hex, which is simply a more powerful version of Ritual.



The third-tier ability is Spellbound -- an intriguing ability that allows the Shaman to be the only one capable of taking actions for a few turns.



And finally, Shaman's fourth-tier ability is Forbidden Art -- and yes, it is as cool as it sounds.


We deposit some shit at the Guera storage office, such as the Spell Fencer Armor, the Fossil Ring, the Cure Tome, the Fira Tome, the Leaf Tome, a Gold Needle, and withdraw an Alchemist Gown, a Break Tome, a Silence Tome, and a Sleep Tome, equipping them on BRO:



Break inflicts petrification, Silence, well, silences, and Sleep puts foes to sleep.
We equip the Alchemist Gown...



...as well as a Silence Cape on BRO.
Let's make SMA into a Hero now:



Hero's first-tier ability is Reckless, which buffs up the Hero's attacks but lowers the defense. The second-tier ability is Bladeblitz:



It's a pretty useful ability when facing a group of enemies.
And the third-tier ability is Wrath...



...which also sounds very nice. Too bad we haven't got enough Topazes for it right now. We'll be sure to upgrade to it later, though.
Now that SMA's no longer a Bard, we disequip her Great Tree Harp and equip the Mythril Hammer instead:



We also equip a Power Ring on SMA...



...as well as the Cure, Shell, Raise, and Berserk tomes:



Now that she's a melee warrior, the Berserk spell is sure to come in handy.

And now that Codexer's got the Shield of Light -- which nullifies all status ailments -- we can replace his Silence Cape with a Spirit Ring:



For BRO the Shaman, we choose a Stardust Bow for weapon:



We summon our pet dragon and fly to Liberte:




This is the free town of Liberte, center of art and culture.



Don't parrot me, you bastard!


Anyway, I'm sure (?) you remember (?) Liberte, folks -- the place where we met Apollo the kidnapped boy and his mother Muse, Cap'n Drake and his pirate crew, as well as the most good-for-nothing king I've ever seen. All in all, a really nice place.


SMA likes the place, too:



BRO, however, remembers the tribulations we had to go through when we last were here:



Yeah, doncha say, BRO. :/
Codexer, on his part, is too distracted by the ocean to harbour any sad thoughts:



What a child, this Codexer.
It looks like the Millenial local fair is about to start:



I LOVE fairs, yay!
And the local glasswork is totally beautiful:



We also learn that there's some kind of secret treasure hidden somewhere in Liberte:



Ooooh, it's probably shiny, yay!
Our old pal Cap'n Drake is acting strangely ... again:



What's wrong with him, you ask? Well, it looks like he's ...



...interested in art! For a pirate to be interested in art! Blasphemy!
It looks like fairies can be found in the woods to the west:



Yeah, we remember that place -- it's the Animal Burrow through which Volly the white cat, accompanied by the fat-legged fairy Lilibelle, travelled to Guera to team up with Codexer.
Volly's still sad about Lilibelle having to sacrifice her life, by the way:







A strange chest? :twisted:



Now you totally had to spoil everything, you silly pirate!

SMA the bunny makes an NPC exclaim:



Collapsed?



See it? Where?




A local grey birdie is clueless:




Some NPCs find our tranny bunny adorable:



You don't even know what you don't know.



Screw you.

Artists, artists never change.

It seems that Pione is still the most famous artist around, just as it was back when we visited this place in the future:



And it seems that the game desperately wants us to go see him.



Oh no oh oh no!







The sand, beautiful?




A kuroneko chan is on vacation here:



She's on vacation, yay. Just like our local RPGCodex kuroneko is with her LPs.
We've got the Magic Key, and so can access a new area:



Inside we find three treasure chests:



Yay!



This Soul of Thamasa accessory thingie looks really good!
According to the Final Fantasy Wiki,

The Soul of Thamasa (ソウルオブサマサ, Souru Obu Samasa) is a recurring accessory in the Final Fantasy series. It affects the character's ability to cast magic. It is named for the town of Thamasa in Final Fantasy VI, founded by disgraced mages and populated by their descendants, and one of the only places left in the world where magic is still practiced.

So we equip it on Volly, our Black Mage:



Her Intellect goes from 39 to 42. The Magic Attack stat is hidden, but it is supposed to go up as well.
In the other two chests, we find a Stunning Harp and a Remedy:



We have no need of the harp right now, and so we deposit it, as well as Volly's old accessory -- the Intellect Ring -- at the storage office.
An artist(ic) NPC is truly excited about the upcoming Fair:



Win, you say? We'll see.



:D
There're three new items for sale at the Liberte weapon shop -- the Holy Shield, as well as the Monk Robe and the Poet Tunic:




We've almost reached Pione's house:



But first we have to talk to as many NPCs as possible!
Apollo isn't even born yet, by the way:



Not sure about a "great artisan", but he'll be a nice enough chap, yeah.







What's so strange about a white cat?




:twisted:



Duly noted, yay.







Grrrrrr.







We'll be sure to ask him, then!



Duly noted.



We'll put an end to that.




Wait, I know you: you're that useless king I was talking about.



Okay, you're forgiven.
Now we can finally enter Pione's house:



Pione: Hello, travelers. Are you here for the Liberte Glassworks Fair?



Artists, artists never change.

Pione: I'm looking for something unique and beautiful to set it apart. If you see anything, do let me know!

Unique... and beautiful?



Okay, we're on it. But we've got no idea what we should be looking for, really.



Nope, that's not what Pione wants, readers.



Sure you have, BRO. He was that famous artist everyone was talking about when you were here with Volly.



Yeah, something's gotta go wrong, don't you think?



Let's find her, then!
The only place where we can find a fairy is, of course, the Animal Burrow:



So we save our game, summon the dragon and fly to the western forest:



We land, transform our party into animals, and enter the burrow:



Making it further inside, we stumble into a new type of enemy, Arp:



Something like a more advanced Imp, that is.
SMA the Hero's Bladeblitz sure does wonders in encounters like this:




And we reach the intersection where Volly "fought" the Ogre Bear. Ugh. :/ Luckily, the path is clear this time. But...



...it looks like something's caught into the spiderweb!



Sure thing, little one.

BRO: It's a fairy!

Volly: Lilibelle!? Is that you? How come BRO can see you now?

Lilibelle is surprised:



We met you earlier. In the future.



With this, Lilibelle flies away.
As we make it back to the exit, we are attacked by four Red Jellies:



We slay one of them, and the three others merge into a single large one. It's time to put BRO the Shaman's coolest ability, Forbidden Art, to good use:



Yay!

Luckily, Red Jelly misses...



...and we slay it in one hit:



(We've been healed a bit by Lux.)
SMA levels up, going to level 27: HP +5, SPT +1, INT +1.
The only downside to using Forbidden Art is that we need to heal up our party after that. But that isn't much of a problem.

And so we're back to Liberte:



Which is what we're about to do.



Well, perhaps.
Meanwhile, BRO has finally seen the light:



And Volly's really glad about having met Lilibelle:



Pione is still concerned:



Suddenly everything goes next-gen...



...and the fairy appears!



Pione's astonished:



But Lilibelle's as casual as ever:



Women, women never change.



Lilibelle likes the welcome:

Lilibelle: Ahhh, that's better. Thank you.





Volly: No way! I'm not going to let you stick poor Lilibelle into some glass vase.

Pione: But why not?



Lilibelle sure is pleased:



Pione: Of course not! Just until the fair ends tomorrow. Then you will be free to fly wherever you like.





Pione: Tonight I must put the finishing touches on my work. Come back tomorrow to see the result!

In an already familiar move, we have to rest at the inn to advance the plot.



In the morning we learn that something awful has happened. Such a shock!



But what exactly is wrong?



Abducted! Oh noes!




And the glasswork is abducted along with Pione:



That means Lilibelle is kidnapped, too!



Bah. We'll deal with it, no worries.



Sure thing! Yeah, it's the same Pirate Hideout we were to earlier.



That's the spirit, BRO!



Some pirate booty, yay!



Yeah, we're going to save the fat-legged fairy!



Meh, we're more than capable of handling those monsters. So off we go!




The pirate at the entrance still demands the password from us:



Luckily, it's still the same:




Again, we're already familiar with this dungeon's layout, so no need in describing it here.
We meet a stronger version of Lizardman, a Lizardhawk, along the way:



It's accompanied by two Vampire Bats. No problems here.



Okay, I had to look "cur" up in the dictionary.



Keeping quiet? What kind of a pirate are ye?




Good.
Now we've got enough Topazes to upgrade SMA's Hero crown, by the way:



Wrath is learned, yay!
Hero's fourth-tier ability is Finale:



But we'll upgrade to it later.



of SMA.
We approach Drake and Pione.



Lilibelle is here, too.



Bah. The heroes of light never back down.

Pione: Listen, you can keep my vase, I don't care about that. But please free Lilibelle first!

It looks like Drakey is struggling with something:



A MONSTER APPEARS



:twisted:



:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:



:/



And the battle begins!



It looks like the same bastard we fought right before Volly was tranformed into a cat.



Volly uses Spell Focus, and Codexer casts Lux. BRO uses Forbidden art:





And then SMA attacks with Wrath, even though a regular attack would've sufficed:



Haha, I like the way this battle went. :D
Codexer levels up -> level 28: HP +4, INT +2. We heal up our party and chat Lilibelle up:



You don't even know what you did for Volly in the future, o little one, so it's okay.



Good thing the heroes of light are here!



Treasure, yay!



Ooooh, a secret!

And so we enter the treasure room:



Wow, so many chesties!



"Fresh Meat", lol.



I don't think we'll be using the Monk class, so meh.



Death looks like an excellent spell for our BRO the Shaman to have.




And in the central chest, we find the Rusty Compass Drake was talking about:




Now we can gain access to Liberte's hidden treasure!
As we return to the surface, Volly levels up -> level 28: HP +4, SPT +1, INT +2.



Good for you.
And we are back in Liberte.



Yeah, we're good.







No, but I think it can give us access to it, yay!



:/



Yeah, yeah, as if it wasn't obvious.



A beautiful white Andyman? Does that mean we'll be riding around on a horse and killing things, the way they do in true RPGs?




We return to Pione:



Lilibelle is still grateful:



And Volly's overflowing with joy:




And Leviathan is mentioned for the first time:



Which means a boss battle is approaching!




Having received all the thanks and praise, we can now put our Rusty Compass to use!



Continued in the next post...

 

[Crooked Bee]

...Continued from the previous post.

The earth starts shaking and...



...we find ourselves in control of...



...a giant whale!



Yep, folks, it looks like half of Liberte was actually built on a whale. In this, the game references a Russian folktale, written by Pyotr Ershov and cited in the beginning of this update, The Little Humpbacked Horse (Konyok Gorbunok, 1834). Here's an illustration to it:



If you actually watched the developer diary videos I posted sometime earlier, you should already know that the Russian folk tales were one of the main inspirations for this game. Well, this is the only reference to them I have been able to find so far -- but not that I'm particularly knowledgeable about the Russian folk tales, really. But anyway, I think that's a great episode, and kudos to the devs for including it.


The whale is called Cetus, by the way -- which is "кит" ("whale") in Russian, or "рыба-кит" (whale fish), just like in Ershov's work.



Cetus' help will allow us to battle Leviathan, yay!
The other half of Liberte remained in its place, however:




Yep, the end time is nigh!







Oh, sorry.
We can actually enter Cetus, not only control it -- I mean, enter that part of Liberte that got carried away by the whale:



The NPCs here are really distressed:



Pione, meanwhile, is impressed:



Pione: You have shown me wonders I never dreamed I would see. Thank you, my friends, thank you!



Yeah, folks, Cetus was Liberte's hidden treasure. Good twist, Square Enix.


NPCs find that great, too:




Especially the local artists:



Codexer is pumped:



As is Volly:



BRO finds the situation surprising:



SMA is concerned:



An NPC explains the whale controls to us:



The silly king warns us of the dangerous times we're in:



A kuroneko gives us a hint about fighting Leviathan:



And it looks like the eastern sea is where the action is:



So we set sail there:



There's a dark spot in the middle of the sea, and when we approach it...



...the demon attacks!



Leviathan -- "twisted", "coiled", "sinuous" in Hebrew -- is the famous sea beast which must be slain by Yahweh in the end times. "In that day Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea" (Isa. 27:1). In that sense, Leviathan is God's equal -- and no one else's. In this game, however, Leviathan must be slain by us, 4 Heros of Light, since we are the power of light here -- no God is mentioned, apart, of course, from the mysterious Crystal. Isaiah's words about Leviathan are parallelled in an Ugaritic text: "Though thou didst smite Lotan the fleeing serpent, / Didst destroy the twisting serpent, / The accursed one of seven heads." This Ugaritic text thus speaks of Leviathan's seven heads, which serves as a background to the seven-headed dragon in the Apocalypse of John. The Hebrew Bible doesn't indicate the exact amount of Leviathan's heads, however, with the Psalms (74:13) speaking simply of multiple heads, and Job, moreover, of a single head. The Book of Enoch tells about "a female monster named Leviathan, appointed to dwell in the depths of the sea over the sources of the waters". Interestingly, the rabbis later asserted the existence of two Leviathans, a male and a female one: "All that the Holy One created in this world he created male and female. Likewise, Leviathan the fleeing serpent and Leviathan the twisting seprant he created male and female; and had they mated with one another they would have destroyed the whole world" -- which is why Yahweh, uhm, castrated the male Levithan and killed the female. Leviathan is also associated with Rahab, the angel of the sea, and is one of the angels of death in the rabbinic writings.
In Christian writings, Satan and Lucifer have been also traditionally associated with Leviathan:

Ho Moloch! loose the Easter Wind, let go,
Belial, the West, both shall together blow,
You, Asmoday, must rule the Southern Wind,
Ho Beelzebub! the stubborn North unbind,
Whilst I and Satan, like two mighty Whales,
Toss up the Ark, with our impetuous Tales.

Lucifer, in Edward Ecclestone, Noah's Flood (1679)

I also wonder if the appearance of two whales in this game, Cetus and Leviathan, has anything to do with the battle of Leviathan with Behemoth.
In Peter Binsfeld's classification, Leviathan corresponds to envy -- and what is more full of envy than a town full of artists, eh?

But back to the boss battle at hand.
The first phase of this boss battle is us fighting Leviathan's, uhm, heads, while the beast itself is under water. There are four heads, but in the beginning we're fighting only one of them:



Okay, let's get down to business.
Volly uses Spell Focus, and SMA, Berserk, in order to boost her physical attacks:



Codexer casts Lux, and BRO foolishly uses Forbidden Art:



He misses, however. But now we're left with 1 HP.

Leviathan kills BRO, then Lux patches us up a bit, and Codexer is attacked for 14 hp but survives:



Codexer casts Cure, and SMA, Raise:



SMA, being equipped with an Ice Shield, resists Leviathan's Water:



Codexer uses Healthgiver + Cure, and our HP is back to normal:



Phew.
Volly casts Fira:



Yup, Leviathan is vulnerable to fire.
The "Broken!" message appears, and Leviathan's second head emerges from under water:



BRO silences the beast. Nice.
SMA uses Wrath:



Codexer attacks melee with Fire Axe:



BRO tries petrifying the beast but misses:



SMA uses Wrath:



Whenever Leviathan is "broken" and a new head emerges, the demon recovers from silence. That's why we must silence him again:



Volly's Fira does 759 damage to Leviathan. The beast's regular attack deals 14 damage to BRO. In fact, Leviathan's regular attacks are the most dangerous because he can inflict instant death with them -- but not when he's silenced, luckily.



And the fourth head rises above the water. We silence it again:



Devoid of its magical attacks, the beast can do no harm to us at all.




And finally we get another "Broken!" message, and the combat enters into its second phase -- Leviathan rises high above the water:




Each of his heads attacks by itself, which means that Leviathan can attack several times per turn. Codexer uses Hide in order not to be targeted by the monster:



BRO silences Leviathan again:



Good. We continue spamming Fira and Wrath -- and then something awful happens:



Leviathan starts charging up -- he uses Charge five times in a row without even giving us a chance to attack, and then...



...he uses his special superability, Tidal Wave:




We're dead, folks.



Undead Phoenix is sure to like this, if he continues reading this LP.




Actually, this shouldn't have happened. Normally, Leviathan should give us a chance to attack him in-between his Charges. So it must've been a bug or something. Or maybe it had something to do with the beast being silenced before he started charging up, I dunno. Anyway, the fact remains: we're dead. I wonder if anyone's keeping track of our death count.

But anyway. We're back in battle, and enter the second combat phase again. Everything goes alright. This time I'm already afraid to silence Leviathan, so he can keep spamming his magic at us:




We still use Wrath and Fira, of course.
Then I get the foolish idea to attempt using BRO's Forbidden Art ability:



But BRO misses.

Leviathan immediately casts Waterga:



Ooops. We're dead again.


Okay. Third attempt.
Now, when Leviathan isn't silenced, we can witness his Instant Death effect in action:



The beast attacks normally, and SMA seems to take only 13 points of damage -- but you see the "Dead!" message, don't you?
Codexer casts Raise, and SMA is back to her feet. Leviathan casts Waterga:



BRO tries using the instant death trick on Leviathan himself, but misses:



I tried it several times, but BRO kept missing, so I'm not sure if there's some, if minimal, chance of success or not.
Leviathan starts charging again...



...but this time we're allowed to take action against him:



Once he's taken enough damage, Leviathan stops charging up. We're safe again.

Leviathan can also cast Thundaga:



Then he inflicts instant death on BRO:





By the way, Healthgiver works not only with Cure, but also with Raise -- which can be useful if several party members are dead at the same time.
After another Thundaga, Volly is paralyzed:



The Thundaga is followed by two Watergas in a row, and BRO's and SMA's HP get dangerously low:



Unfortunately Codexer doesn't have the Healthgiver effect on, so we have to heal BRO first and hope SMA survives. The beast starts charging up, but we break it with a Fira:



The next time Leviathan begins his charging spree, we take our chances and cast Silence again:



This time nothing awful happens. So I dunno what happened last time, really.
Finally, after several more turns, Volly's Fira destroys the archdemon:





We get 756 experience points, and SMA and BRO level up:



SMA -> level 28: HP +4.
BRO -> level 28: HP +4.
Victory, yay!

Everything goes next-gen -- and the Crystal appears:

Crystal: O, Heroes of Light!



Crystal: Yet throughout the world darkness still grips men's souls.



And we obtain a new crown, Dancer:



Jaedar is sure to like this crown.

Crystal: Go forth with courage, Heroes of Light, go forth!

We return to Liberte.





Let's have a look at the new crown we've got:



Why it is Dancer who specializes in using a shortsword, is beyond me.



SMA looks nice, yay!
Dancer's first-tier ability is, unsurprisingly, Dance -- it lets you recover more AP per turn. The second-tier ability is Perform, which does the same to the whole party. We won't be upgrading this crown just yet -- I don't think it's really useful. We're perfectly fine with our AP replenishment rate as it is.

That's all for now, dear readers.
Stay tuned!

(Also, I hope Kuroneko-sensei will offer additional comments on Mammon and Leviathan when and if she has the time.)

 

[spekkio]

I'm gonna read this tomorrow but I've noticed some tentacle action...

 

[Jaedar]

It is good to see that you resist the dance Bee

If I may make a request/challenge, I'd like to see you tackle one of the bosses without a white mage