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Let's play Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light! (Done, yay!)
- Thread starter Crooked Bee
- Start date
lightbane said:
Hmmmm, no, I don't think so. But I'll check that.
Jaedar said:
Obviously.
Kz3r0 said:Nice, seems that my party choice was sub-par.
Nah, it was really fine -- you couldn't have known Beelzebub would be resistant to melee, after all. Don't be upset, have a hug
Mrowak said:
Mrowak said:
Cenobyte said:
Cenobyte said:
A pot luck indeed
Yeah, it's funny ability. Totally useless. But funny.
Except I do have a life.
Errr, I mean:
Errr, I mean:
^
I see Bee-chan's gonna be the one always left behind, first by spekkio and then by KalosK.
I see Bee-chan's gonna be the one always left behind, first by spekkio and then by KalosK.
Well, she is a terrible whiner, she even admits to it herself. 
Cenobyte said:
Tah'morrow, I think.
Also, I am disappoint, again: Kuroneko-sensei hasn't said anything neither about Beelzebub the scary demon thingie nor about his portrayal in this game. :/ Whaddya think of Beelzebub the Obese Octopus, Neko-chan?
Mrowak
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2008
- Messages
- 3,947
Crooked Bee said:Cenobyte said:
Tah'morrow, I think.
Also, I am disappoint, again: Kuroneko-sensei hasn't said anything neither about Beelzebub the scary demon thingie nor about his portrayal in this game. :/ Whaddya think of Beelzebub the Obese Octopus, Neko-chan?
Can't wait, can't wait
In the mean time visit Kodex Kommunikation Konverter
Sorry Bee for this blatant attention whorism. It feels oddly bad to advertise your own stuff... Still...
Mrowak said:
That's okay, I sure can understand a fellow attention whore.
I'll give that a read, I promise. It's just that I rarely visit the Public Library subforum and so must have missed your thread, sorry.
Part 34: Lucifer: Pride
In which we enter Rolan's soul and get involved into a what-can-change-the-nature-of-a-mandebate battle ... again. And in which Kz3r0 learns that mages aren't at all underpowered in this game.
Previously on this LP, we climbed atop the Tower to the Sky, defeated the evil demon Beelzebub and helped Urbeth remain the city of faith, not commerce. Five archdemons -- Belphegor, Asmodeus, Mammon, Leviathan, and Beelzebub -- have now been dealt with, and there are only two places left to go: Horne, our hometown, and Spelvia, the floating city of Rolan the Failed Hero. Horne should obviously be the last for us to visit, so Spelvia it is.
A floating city made to subdue the whole world...
...what could be a better example of pride? Meaning you can already guess which archdemon we are going to meet and confront there.
What, you say I've already mentioned Lucifer in the update title?
First let's change our party set-up to the one spekkio-kun suggested. spekkio obviously decided to make my life harder by not including a healer, but that's nothing this bee can't handle. Also, I've taken the liberty of switching Spell Fencer for Hero, just for diversity's sake -- Spell Fencer featured in two of the previous update's set-ups. Volly will be our Black Mage, Codexer our Ranger, SMA our Hero, and BRO our Shaman.
His crown upgraded, Codexer the Ranger has a bunch of new sniping abilities:
Apart from Snipe, the two class-specific abilities are Covering Fire -- "Inflict heavy damage on all the foes at the beginning of the next turn" -- and Smashing Blow, which lets the Ranger "deliver a single, mighty blow against the enemy". Whenever the Ranger chooses to use Covering Fire, he skips the current turn but can instead attack twice during the next turn, i.e., choose another attack to follow the covering fire. As for Codexer's weapon, it's Ranger Bow +2:
Since we lack a dedicated healer now, we replace Codexer's Raise Tome with an Arise Tome -- just in case things get too rough:
We turn BRO into a Shaman...
...but I don't think we'll need the too-risky Forbidden Art ability...
...so we equip Sleep instead:
We deposit BRO's Raise Tome, Fira Tome, Berserk Tome, and Shell Tome at the Urbeth storage office, and equip the Magic Staff +3 and the Intellect Ring on him:
SMA's a Hero:
Fine. Now let's head to Spelvia.
We exit Urbeth...
...summon our little pet dragon beastie and fly to our pal Rolan's dwelling place:
BRO can't help wondering:
It's ... magic!
Codexer warns us of a very strong wind up here:
It'd be cool if you could actually be blown off, but meh.
SMA is pensive:
Yeah, he's been pathetic so far.
But...
...where is he?
Perhaps the nearby goat can tell us more?
Oh. Loneliness. :/
Let's try to find Rolan in the palace. But first it's check-the-local-shops time!
The magic shop has some new light-element spells for sale:
It's Thunder, Thundara and Thundaga as well as Invisible, which doubles your evasion, and Aura, which boosts your attributes. We don't really need any of them: light-element spells has proven to be quite worthless against bosses.
At the weapon shop there's nothing but light-element gear again:
The two most interesting things for sale here are Holy Knife and Holy Shield, but do we really need them? I doubt that.
The Fox informs us of Rolan's whereabouts:
So he's not here at the moment. Oh well, let's explore the palace nevertheless -- nothing like chatting with the local goats.
Yeah, he still needs to be looked after.
Lucifer, yay!
Yeah yeah we know already.
So Spelvia Dungeons it is.
Another totally familiar area. It is through here that SMA and Volly first reached Spelvia.
The new enemy here is Kaiser Penguin:
What a silly name.
Kaiser Penguin attacks us with Lightning Bolt:
Codexer provides Covering Fire:
And SMA uses Bladeblitz:
The penguin still lives, but is destroyed next turn:
The enemies drop an item, Curse Ring:
Not that we need that, though.
Volly the Black Mage's Magic Might ability is still as badass as ever:
BRO levels up to lvl 30: HP +5, STR +1, SPT +2, INT +1.
Finally we reach the end of the dungeon. Rolan is here:
He sure is surprised.
Rolan: Ah, you came at Father's behest, didn't you? You have come a long way just to check on my welfare.
Nope, Master Chief didn't send us.
Rolan: But you're wasting your time.
:/
So emo.
But anyway, nothing more for us to do here, so we head back to the surface.
Now this is totally kawaii.
SMA levels up -> lvl 30: HP +6, STR +1, SPT +1, INT +2.
Yeah, talk about great expectations.
It looks like this game argues for teamwork and against being a lonely hero.
So let's get down to our demon purging business!
We enter the Fountain of Hope and found ourselves back inside...
...Rolan's Soul, yay!
Sure thing, Fox-kun!
Yep.
And up we go. Rolan is standing there engulfed in darkness:
Rolan: I... I never wanted to be a hero.
Poor thing.
There's nothing to be done until he's freed from the dark, so we move further up.
There are three doors here, as you may remember -- the ones behind which we had to chase after the fragments of Rolan's soul earlier. Let's enter the left door.
As soon as we enter, two Doppelgangers appear!
That's dark SMA and dark Volly.
BRO the Shaman's break spell still inflicts sudden death:
The SMA Doppelganger attacks BRO melee and curses him:
But SMA's Wrath finishes the false SMA off:
Good.
Exploring this, uhm, "room" further we stumble into a monster of some kind:
Easy, just take a dive into a fountain.
And the monster attacks!
A generic Arch Demon, yay!
Coolity cool.
Codexer the Ranger uses Smashing Blow:
"A single blow cannot stop this foe", eh?
I like the above screenshot. It looks ... eerie.
of Final Fantasy.
Yay.
You simply can't go wrong with a Magic Might.
Having slain the demon, we exit the first "chamber". A cutscene ensues -- Rolan's short monologue:
Furry lover!
:/
The power of the hero? What power?
After the monologue ends we regain control of our party. Let's enter the next door:
Another monster here:
They call us "heroes"!
The Arch Demon's melee attack -- enhanced by the dark element -- doesn't deal much damage to us, by the way:
Codexer uses Smashing Blow again, and again we get the "A single blow cannot stop this foe" message. SMA uses Wrath:
What, not dead yet?
Poor BRO. :/
We exit the room and get another piece of Rolan's monologue:
He means us, the heroes of light, of course.
He goes full emo.
Well, not with this attitude, that's for sure.
The third door awaits us!
And the third monster:
:twisted:
Poor poor BRO. :/
It's time for SMA to finally cast Lux:
The demon casts World of Dark:
Man, I freakin' love this demon's design.
Still, both Volly and SMA are cursed. No more Magic Might, then. :/
Volly casts Leafaga:
Good.
And then another Leafaga slays the demon. There isn't any more monologues when we exit the last room, but now the dark whirlwind that was surrounding Rolan has subsided. We approach him...
...but he runs away without saying a word. Let's follow him, then.
Yikes! It's here that I create a Desmume save state in order to be able to test different party set-ups against the next boss.
We use a Hi-Ether to replenish Volly's AP and approach the scary figure. Rolan is there too, and he addresses us:
No.
Aww you pathetic bastard, okay.
Yes!
BRO: Besides, we like to see things through to the end.
Volly: I want you to be reunited with your sister and your father, the chief of Invidia...
"My brave comrades"?
Are we friends already?
Yup, it's none other than Lucifer himself! And he attacks!
Oh, by the way. Should I really introduce Lucifer to you? I mean, everyone knows who Lucifer is. Lucifer the Bringer of Light – from lux, “lightâ€, and fero, “to bring†– was once the highest of angels who, however, full of pride and envious of God’s love for humanity, rebelled against God – placed his own will above God’s – fell from Heaven, and many other angels followed him. In Isaiah 14.12 Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon who attempted to “place his throne on highâ€, “above the stars of Godâ€, is called Helel ben-sahar, “son of dawn†(“son of the morningâ€) or “shining one†– and his fate there, of course, is to be cast down to hell. It may be that the Isaiah passage was an echo of an Ugarithic myth about a certain rebellion against Baal. In the later pseudepigrapha as well as Christian theological writings that passage was understood to be speaking about Lucifer as we know him. The Helel ben-sahar of which the Isaiah book speaks, and thus Lucifer, was also thought to be a reference to the planet Venus, the “morning starâ€. Hence the Sphere of Venus being marked the “Sphere of Lucifer†in some medieval manuscripts. In the occult tradition(s) – Black Cat may be able to tell more about this (hopefully!) – Lucifer is regarded as a being of Air (a winged being, obviously), Light (again, obviously) and Fire (which probably has to do with him being fallen down to hell). Air and Light have made it into the figure of Lucifer in this game, as the spells he casts are of those elements. Traditionally Lucifer has two aspects – a “higher†and a “lower†one: he is wise and just, and yet fearful and, well, demonic. That is in fact also reflected in this game: as we will shortly see, Lucifer hides a fearful beast’s head on his chest under his large wings. At one point the snake that tempted Adam and Eve in Paradise got identified with Lucifer, and Lucifer’s gift is therefore thought to be that of wisdom and intellectual discernment: “be as godsâ€. In itself the gift isn’t evil, but taken to the extreme it certainly is. Lucifer is the beauty of wisdom gone to far, to the point of evil. Lucifer is thought to encourage illusions, self-intoxication, pride – and formlessness. Given all that, it comes as no surprise that the hero Rolan in this game is possessed precisely by Lucifer. – Also, as an interesting aside, the Greek hybris, the driving force behind the tragic fate of a hero in the Greek tragedy, may also be viewed as a Luciferian force. – In some writings the only true route is for Lucifer to be integrate with God in order for a certain balance to be created; Lucifer is thus God’s counterpart, and not simply a lesser evil adversary. Sometimes Lucifer’s Fall is seen as an Incarnation preceding and in a certain distorted way prefiguring the Incarnation of Christ. I wonder if the cross at the top of Lucifer’s helm in this game may be a reference to Lucifer being Christ’s predecessor – or is that too obscure for a game like this. In any case, the cross may be seen as simply a symbol of Lucifer’s lost holiness.
So, uhm, yeah, let the battle begin!
Party 1: Black Mage, Ranger, Hero, Shaman
He looks kinda cool.
The first thing Lucifer does is cast Aeroga...
...followed by a Thundara:
All in all -- jumping a bit ahead of ourselves -- Lucifer is really quick and often gets to act first during the turn.
BRO tries silencing Lucifer...
...but misses.
Volly uses Magic Might:
Nice!
Codexer uses Smashing Bow but misses:
It looks like only melee attacks trigger the "A single blow cannot stop this foe". Even those attacks that miss.
SMA casts Lux, which lets us recover our health a bit at the end of the turn---
-- which is essential given that spekkio-kun hasn't been kind enough to provide our party with a healer. Next turn Lucifer casts Aeroga again...
...Codexer casts Cure to restore BRO's HP, and then Lucifer attacks melee:
But Codexer's so well-equipped -- he's got the full set of Armour of Light, after all -- that he takes only 11 points of damage. Good.
BRO finally manages to silence Lucifer:
It's pretty cool that you can actually silence bosses in this game. I prefer it when bosses aren't immune to debuffs and status ailments; don't remember what other FF titles were like in that regard.
BRO uses a fire bomb, Bomb Fragment:
But it doesn't deal much damage, meh.
And then...
So much for spekkio's party setup. It has turned out to be p. efficient -- Shaman's Stone and Silence + Black Mage's Magic Might = TRUE POWAH. Codexer's Ranger abilities have also been a plus.
Party 2: Elementalist, White Mage, Scholar, Alchemist
This is lightbane's choice -- except for the Alchemist. But we've overused Shaman already, so I figured having an Alchemist would bring something new to the battle. I have one HUGE complaint, though: lightbane-kun, didn't I say I needed at least one damage-dealer?
But okay, let's see if we are going to make it with a party full of buffers/debuffers. Our only attack unit is the Alchemist, but I doubt he's going to be very powerful. We'll see.
But anyway. We turn Codexer into a White Mage...
...Volly into an Elementalist...
...SMA into a Scholar...
...and BRO into an Alchemist:
Alchemist's basic ability is Experiment -- looks ... experimental indeed. Forge allows the Alchemist to "create a random attack item and add it to his belongings", which sounds nice -- and means that an Alchemist will never run out of bombs -- and Smelt lets him "combine items for a variety of different effects". Hmmm.
The only change in equipment we need to make is equipping SMA with the Intellect Ring and the Book of Dryad +1...
Oh-kay, let's get back into action!
Yes!
SMA uses Quell but misses.
Lucifer attacks melee. First he targets Volly...
...but she resists the attack, being an Elementalist. And then Lucifer targets SMA...
Uh-oh. 63 points of damage.
Codexer casts Lux, and BRO uses Forge...
I forgot BRO's inventory was already full, sorry.
The wonders of limited inventory capacity.
Next turn we try out BRO's Smelt ability:
The only thing we can combine now is two bombs we are carrying -- the Bomb Fragment and the Great Tree Log:
Let's see what comes out of it.
Lucifer casts Aeroga...
Poor SMA. :/
SMA successfully uses Quell:
Lucifer's attack power is reduced, yay!
Another Aeroga follows, weakened by Quell:
And now it's finally time for BRO to use Smelt:
Combining two bombs we get a Strange Liquid...
...which deals 246 damage to Lucifer. Well, not much. :/
Volly uses Mysterio, and now Lucifer's attacks are totally harmless:
SMA tries using Subdue but misses. Lucifer responds by attacking SMA for 13 points of damage:
Now that he's got some place in his inventory BRO can use Forge:
A bomb, Gaia Drum, is created.
Lucifer rises into the air, exposing a black roaring beast head on his chest:
This doesn't bode well.
And indeed...
Lucifer's Judgment Bolt ability saps us of all our AP. :/ This isn't just bad, this is VERY bad -- without AP we can't even attack regularly, nor use any items. The Judgment Bolt is followed by a Thundaga:
And this continues to happen. For a few turns we are completely devoid of any chance to act. This doesn't kill us, fortunately, but it makes this battle HIGHLY tedious. The problem is, thanks to lightbane's choice none of our attacks deal any significant damage to Lucifer, AND we have to waste several turns whenever he enters his flying phase. Luckily, that phase has its end, and Lucifer comes down on the ground. That's when we have to first waste a couple of turns on boosting and then attack him with all we've got -- which isn't much. Volly can cast Leafra, Codexer can attack melee for ca. 50 points of damage, and BRO has to use two turns on Forge before he can use Smelt. I won't cover all this in detail -- it's just tedium and nothing more, no variety at all -- but this battle lasted a ridiculous amount of turns.
Finally, however, Volly's Leafaga slays the archdemon:
Yay!
Congrats, lightbane! You've made this battle no less tedious than the battle against Mammon was.
Party 3: Black Mage, White Mage, Scholar, Black Mage
This is Kuroneko-sensei's suggested set-up; she told me to choose the fourth magic-using class myself, so I decide to go with a second Black Mage -- just to let you witness the insane power, or even overpoweredness, of that class in this game.
We change Volly back into a Black Mage...
...and do the same to BRO:
Then we use a Hi-Ether to replenish Volly's AP so she could use Magic Might at the beginning of the upcoming battle and approach Lucifer.
Yes!
Yay!
SMA uses Subdue but misses. Lucifer attacks melee:
And then casts Aeroga:
Ouch, SMA's got merely 20 hp left! Let's finish this shit asap.
First Volly uses Magic Might...
...Codexer casts Lux, and then BRO strikes in with another Magic Might:
That's it, folks. Lucifer is destroyed in one turn.
We get 765 exp...
...and Volly, Codexer and BRO level up:
Volly -> level 31: HP +4, STR +1, SPT +2, INT +2.
Codexer -> level 31: HP +5.
BRO -> level 31: HP +4.
Lucifer is butthurt:
No u. For "though shalt be brought down to hell".
And the Crystal appears:
Oh my it finally has something different to say!
Who might that Dark Lord be, I wonder?
And we obtain a new crown, Paladin:
Crystal: O, Heroes of Light!
But why would we be joining with that bastard Rolan? We're perfectly fine by ourselves.
The Witch of the Sky is impressed:
Why do I get this feeling that we were supposed to go through this whole sequence before we traveled anywhere else?
SMA bets on teamwork:
To BRO, Lucifer is a truly cowardly fellow:
Volly and Codexer wonder how Rolan is doing:
And the goat commends us for what we've done:
In the Spelvia castle, we rest at the inn since we're really low on both HP and AP:
Let's pay a visit to Rolan now.
The robots are now totally friendly, by the way:
Heroes, yay!
Nope, you silly goat, that's that we are for.
Again I get this feeling the game assumes we haven't defeated any of the other archdemons yet.
So it's "protect", not "subdue", now, eh?
"Entered my dreams". Sure he means Volly, the totally pretty princess.
You think so?
But isn't you dragon, like, dead? Or do you mean a new one?
Rolan: Then, at the end of my journey, I shall return to Father and Rekoteh.
I was *extremely* tempted to choose "No" just to get rid of this annoying emo boy, but well, I'm too soft-hearted. :/
"Yes".
Rolan: It was once wielded by a great hero, but I have no more need of it now.
And we are presented with...
Great, another piece of powerful equipment.
Farewell ... for good, I hope. That's enough babysitting for one game.
The Sword of Light looks pretty good though:
"Sword that sealed the Dark Lord"? Hmmm.
Together with Rolan!? No way.
Whatever you say, sis. But yeah, that was one crybaby of a hero.
Hmmm.
Finally words of wisdom have been spoken! You're a true bro, BRO.
Next time: more dark thingies coming our way!
In which we enter Rolan's soul and get involved into a what-can-change-the-nature-of-a-man
Previously on this LP, we climbed atop the Tower to the Sky, defeated the evil demon Beelzebub and helped Urbeth remain the city of faith, not commerce. Five archdemons -- Belphegor, Asmodeus, Mammon, Leviathan, and Beelzebub -- have now been dealt with, and there are only two places left to go: Horne, our hometown, and Spelvia, the floating city of Rolan the Failed Hero. Horne should obviously be the last for us to visit, so Spelvia it is.
A floating city made to subdue the whole world...
...what could be a better example of pride? Meaning you can already guess which archdemon we are going to meet and confront there.
What, you say I've already mentioned Lucifer in the update title?
First let's change our party set-up to the one spekkio-kun suggested. spekkio obviously decided to make my life harder by not including a healer, but that's nothing this bee can't handle.
Also, I've taken the liberty of switching Spell Fencer for Hero, just for diversity's sake -- Spell Fencer featured in two of the previous update's set-ups. Volly will be our Black Mage, Codexer our Ranger, SMA our Hero, and BRO our Shaman.His crown upgraded, Codexer the Ranger has a bunch of new sniping abilities:
Apart from Snipe, the two class-specific abilities are Covering Fire -- "Inflict heavy damage on all the foes at the beginning of the next turn" -- and Smashing Blow, which lets the Ranger "deliver a single, mighty blow against the enemy". Whenever the Ranger chooses to use Covering Fire, he skips the current turn but can instead attack twice during the next turn, i.e., choose another attack to follow the covering fire. As for Codexer's weapon, it's Ranger Bow +2:
Since we lack a dedicated healer now, we replace Codexer's Raise Tome with an Arise Tome -- just in case things get too rough:
We turn BRO into a Shaman...
...but I don't think we'll need the too-risky Forbidden Art ability...
...so we equip Sleep instead:
We deposit BRO's Raise Tome, Fira Tome, Berserk Tome, and Shell Tome at the Urbeth storage office, and equip the Magic Staff +3 and the Intellect Ring on him:
SMA's a Hero:
Fine. Now let's head to Spelvia.
We exit Urbeth...
...summon our little pet dragon beastie and fly to our pal Rolan's dwelling place:
BRO can't help wondering:
It's ... magic!
Codexer warns us of a very strong wind up here:
It'd be cool if you could actually be blown off, but meh.
SMA is pensive:
Yeah, he's been pathetic so far.
But...
...where is he?
Perhaps the nearby goat can tell us more?
Oh. Loneliness. :/
Let's try to find Rolan in the palace. But first it's check-the-local-shops time!
The magic shop has some new light-element spells for sale:
It's Thunder, Thundara and Thundaga as well as Invisible, which doubles your evasion, and Aura, which boosts your attributes. We don't really need any of them: light-element spells has proven to be quite worthless against bosses.
At the weapon shop there's nothing but light-element gear again:
The two most interesting things for sale here are Holy Knife and Holy Shield, but do we really need them?
I doubt that.The Fox informs us of Rolan's whereabouts:
So he's not here at the moment. Oh well, let's explore the palace nevertheless -- nothing like chatting with the local goats.
Yeah, he still needs to be looked after.
Lucifer, yay!
Yeah yeah we know already.
So Spelvia Dungeons it is.
Another totally familiar area. It is through here that SMA and Volly first reached Spelvia.
The new enemy here is Kaiser Penguin:
What a silly name.
Kaiser Penguin attacks us with Lightning Bolt:
Codexer provides Covering Fire:
And SMA uses Bladeblitz:
The penguin still lives, but is destroyed next turn:
The enemies drop an item, Curse Ring:
Not that we need that, though.
Volly the Black Mage's Magic Might ability is still as badass as ever:
BRO levels up to lvl 30: HP +5, STR +1, SPT +2, INT +1.
Finally we reach the end of the dungeon. Rolan is here:
He sure is surprised.
Rolan: Ah, you came at Father's behest, didn't you? You have come a long way just to check on my welfare.
Nope, Master Chief didn't send us.
Rolan: But you're wasting your time.
:/
So emo.
But anyway, nothing more for us to do here, so we head back to the surface.
Now this is totally kawaii.
SMA levels up -> lvl 30: HP +6, STR +1, SPT +1, INT +2.
Yeah, talk about great expectations.
It looks like this game argues for teamwork and against being a lonely hero.
So let's get down to our demon purging business!
We enter the Fountain of Hope and found ourselves back inside...
...Rolan's Soul, yay!
Sure thing, Fox-kun!
Yep.
And up we go. Rolan is standing there engulfed in darkness:
Rolan: I... I never wanted to be a hero.
Poor thing.
There's nothing to be done until he's freed from the dark, so we move further up.
There are three doors here, as you may remember -- the ones behind which we had to chase after the fragments of Rolan's soul earlier. Let's enter the left door.
As soon as we enter, two Doppelgangers appear!
That's dark SMA and dark Volly.
BRO the Shaman's break spell still inflicts sudden death:
The SMA Doppelganger attacks BRO melee and curses him:
But SMA's Wrath finishes the false SMA off:
Good.
Exploring this, uhm, "room" further we stumble into a monster of some kind:
Easy, just take a dive into a fountain.
And the monster attacks!
A generic Arch Demon, yay!
Coolity cool.
Codexer the Ranger uses Smashing Blow:
"A single blow cannot stop this foe", eh?
I like the above screenshot. It looks ... eerie.
of Final Fantasy.
Yay.
You simply can't go wrong with a Magic Might.
Having slain the demon, we exit the first "chamber". A cutscene ensues -- Rolan's short monologue:
Furry lover!
:/
The power of the hero? What power?
After the monologue ends we regain control of our party. Let's enter the next door:
Another monster here:
They call us "heroes"!
The Arch Demon's melee attack -- enhanced by the dark element -- doesn't deal much damage to us, by the way:
Codexer uses Smashing Blow again, and again we get the "A single blow cannot stop this foe" message. SMA uses Wrath:
What, not dead yet?
Poor BRO. :/
We exit the room and get another piece of Rolan's monologue:
He means us, the heroes of light, of course.
He goes full emo.
Well, not with this attitude, that's for sure.
The third door awaits us!
And the third monster:
:twisted:
Poor poor BRO. :/
It's time for SMA to finally cast Lux:
The demon casts World of Dark:
Man, I freakin' love this demon's design.
Still, both Volly and SMA are cursed. No more Magic Might, then. :/
Volly casts Leafaga:
Good.
And then another Leafaga slays the demon. There isn't any more monologues when we exit the last room, but now the dark whirlwind that was surrounding Rolan has subsided. We approach him...
...but he runs away without saying a word. Let's follow him, then.
Yikes! It's here that I create a Desmume save state in order to be able to test different party set-ups against the next boss.
We use a Hi-Ether to replenish Volly's AP and approach the scary figure. Rolan is there too, and he addresses us:
No.
Aww you pathetic bastard, okay.
Yes!
BRO: Besides, we like to see things through to the end.
Volly: I want you to be reunited with your sister and your father, the chief of Invidia...
"My brave comrades"?
Are we friends already?
Yup, it's none other than Lucifer himself! And he attacks!
Oh, by the way. Should I really introduce Lucifer to you? I mean, everyone knows who Lucifer is. Lucifer the Bringer of Light – from lux, “lightâ€, and fero, “to bring†– was once the highest of angels who, however, full of pride and envious of God’s love for humanity, rebelled against God – placed his own will above God’s – fell from Heaven, and many other angels followed him. In Isaiah 14.12 Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon who attempted to “place his throne on highâ€, “above the stars of Godâ€, is called Helel ben-sahar, “son of dawn†(“son of the morningâ€) or “shining one†– and his fate there, of course, is to be cast down to hell. It may be that the Isaiah passage was an echo of an Ugarithic myth about a certain rebellion against Baal. In the later pseudepigrapha as well as Christian theological writings that passage was understood to be speaking about Lucifer as we know him. The Helel ben-sahar of which the Isaiah book speaks, and thus Lucifer, was also thought to be a reference to the planet Venus, the “morning starâ€. Hence the Sphere of Venus being marked the “Sphere of Lucifer†in some medieval manuscripts. In the occult tradition(s) – Black Cat may be able to tell more about this (hopefully!) – Lucifer is regarded as a being of Air (a winged being, obviously), Light (again, obviously) and Fire (which probably has to do with him being fallen down to hell). Air and Light have made it into the figure of Lucifer in this game, as the spells he casts are of those elements. Traditionally Lucifer has two aspects – a “higher†and a “lower†one: he is wise and just, and yet fearful and, well, demonic. That is in fact also reflected in this game: as we will shortly see, Lucifer hides a fearful beast’s head on his chest under his large wings. At one point the snake that tempted Adam and Eve in Paradise got identified with Lucifer, and Lucifer’s gift is therefore thought to be that of wisdom and intellectual discernment: “be as godsâ€. In itself the gift isn’t evil, but taken to the extreme it certainly is. Lucifer is the beauty of wisdom gone to far, to the point of evil. Lucifer is thought to encourage illusions, self-intoxication, pride – and formlessness. Given all that, it comes as no surprise that the hero Rolan in this game is possessed precisely by Lucifer. – Also, as an interesting aside, the Greek hybris, the driving force behind the tragic fate of a hero in the Greek tragedy, may also be viewed as a Luciferian force. – In some writings the only true route is for Lucifer to be integrate with God in order for a certain balance to be created; Lucifer is thus God’s counterpart, and not simply a lesser evil adversary. Sometimes Lucifer’s Fall is seen as an Incarnation preceding and in a certain distorted way prefiguring the Incarnation of Christ. I wonder if the cross at the top of Lucifer’s helm in this game may be a reference to Lucifer being Christ’s predecessor – or is that too obscure for a game like this. In any case, the cross may be seen as simply a symbol of Lucifer’s lost holiness.
So, uhm, yeah, let the battle begin!
Party 1: Black Mage, Ranger, Hero, Shaman
He looks kinda cool.
The first thing Lucifer does is cast Aeroga...
...followed by a Thundara:
All in all -- jumping a bit ahead of ourselves -- Lucifer is really quick and often gets to act first during the turn.
BRO tries silencing Lucifer...
...but misses.
Volly uses Magic Might:
Nice!
Codexer uses Smashing Bow but misses:
It looks like only melee attacks trigger the "A single blow cannot stop this foe". Even those attacks that miss.
SMA casts Lux, which lets us recover our health a bit at the end of the turn---
-- which is essential given that spekkio-kun hasn't been kind enough to provide our party with a healer. Next turn Lucifer casts Aeroga again...
...Codexer casts Cure to restore BRO's HP, and then Lucifer attacks melee:
But Codexer's so well-equipped -- he's got the full set of Armour of Light, after all -- that he takes only 11 points of damage. Good.
BRO finally manages to silence Lucifer:
It's pretty cool that you can actually silence bosses in this game. I prefer it when bosses aren't immune to debuffs and status ailments; don't remember what other FF titles were like in that regard.
BRO uses a fire bomb, Bomb Fragment:
But it doesn't deal much damage, meh.
And then...
So much for spekkio's party setup. It has turned out to be p. efficient -- Shaman's Stone and Silence + Black Mage's Magic Might = TRUE POWAH. Codexer's Ranger abilities have also been a plus.
Party 2: Elementalist, White Mage, Scholar, Alchemist
This is lightbane's choice -- except for the Alchemist. But we've overused Shaman already, so I figured having an Alchemist would bring something new to the battle. I have one HUGE complaint, though: lightbane-kun, didn't I say I needed at least one damage-dealer?
But okay, let's see if we are going to make it with a party full of buffers/debuffers. Our only attack unit is the Alchemist, but I doubt he's going to be very powerful. We'll see.
But anyway. We turn Codexer into a White Mage...
...Volly into an Elementalist...
...SMA into a Scholar...
...and BRO into an Alchemist:
Alchemist's basic ability is Experiment -- looks ... experimental indeed. Forge allows the Alchemist to "create a random attack item and add it to his belongings", which sounds nice -- and means that an Alchemist will never run out of bombs -- and Smelt lets him "combine items for a variety of different effects". Hmmm.
The only change in equipment we need to make is equipping SMA with the Intellect Ring and the Book of Dryad +1...
Oh-kay, let's get back into action!
Yes!
SMA uses Quell but misses.
Lucifer attacks melee. First he targets Volly...
...but she resists the attack, being an Elementalist. And then Lucifer targets SMA...
Uh-oh. 63 points of damage.
Codexer casts Lux, and BRO uses Forge...
I forgot BRO's inventory was already full, sorry.
The wonders of limited inventory capacity.Next turn we try out BRO's Smelt ability:
The only thing we can combine now is two bombs we are carrying -- the Bomb Fragment and the Great Tree Log:
Let's see what comes out of it.
Lucifer casts Aeroga...
Poor SMA. :/
SMA successfully uses Quell:
Lucifer's attack power is reduced, yay!
Another Aeroga follows, weakened by Quell:
And now it's finally time for BRO to use Smelt:
Combining two bombs we get a Strange Liquid...
...which deals 246 damage to Lucifer. Well, not much. :/
Volly uses Mysterio, and now Lucifer's attacks are totally harmless:
SMA tries using Subdue but misses. Lucifer responds by attacking SMA for 13 points of damage:
Now that he's got some place in his inventory BRO can use Forge:
A bomb, Gaia Drum, is created.
Lucifer rises into the air, exposing a black roaring beast head on his chest:
This doesn't bode well.
And indeed...
Lucifer's Judgment Bolt ability saps us of all our AP. :/ This isn't just bad, this is VERY bad -- without AP we can't even attack regularly, nor use any items. The Judgment Bolt is followed by a Thundaga:
And this continues to happen. For a few turns we are completely devoid of any chance to act. This doesn't kill us, fortunately, but it makes this battle HIGHLY tedious. The problem is, thanks to lightbane's choice none of our attacks deal any significant damage to Lucifer, AND we have to waste several turns whenever he enters his flying phase. Luckily, that phase has its end, and Lucifer comes down on the ground. That's when we have to first waste a couple of turns on boosting and then attack him with all we've got -- which isn't much. Volly can cast Leafra, Codexer can attack melee for ca. 50 points of damage, and BRO has to use two turns on Forge before he can use Smelt. I won't cover all this in detail -- it's just tedium and nothing more, no variety at all -- but this battle lasted a ridiculous amount of turns.
Finally, however, Volly's Leafaga slays the archdemon:
Yay!
Congrats, lightbane! You've made this battle no less tedious than the battle against Mammon was.
Party 3: Black Mage, White Mage, Scholar, Black Mage
This is Kuroneko-sensei's suggested set-up; she told me to choose the fourth magic-using class myself, so I decide to go with a second Black Mage -- just to let you witness the insane power, or even overpoweredness, of that class in this game.
We change Volly back into a Black Mage...
...and do the same to BRO:
Then we use a Hi-Ether to replenish Volly's AP so she could use Magic Might at the beginning of the upcoming battle and approach Lucifer.
Yes!
Yay!
SMA uses Subdue but misses. Lucifer attacks melee:
And then casts Aeroga:
Ouch, SMA's got merely 20 hp left! Let's finish this shit asap.
First Volly uses Magic Might...
...Codexer casts Lux, and then BRO strikes in with another Magic Might:
That's it, folks. Lucifer is destroyed in one turn.
We get 765 exp...
...and Volly, Codexer and BRO level up:
Volly -> level 31: HP +4, STR +1, SPT +2, INT +2.
Codexer -> level 31: HP +5.
BRO -> level 31: HP +4.
Lucifer is butthurt:
No u. For "though shalt be brought down to hell".
And the Crystal appears:
Oh my it finally has something different to say!
Who might that Dark Lord be, I wonder?
And we obtain a new crown, Paladin:
Crystal: O, Heroes of Light!
But why would we be joining with that bastard Rolan? We're perfectly fine by ourselves.
The Witch of the Sky is impressed:
Why do I get this feeling that we were supposed to go through this whole sequence before we traveled anywhere else?
SMA bets on teamwork:
To BRO, Lucifer is a truly cowardly fellow:
Volly and Codexer wonder how Rolan is doing:
And the goat commends us for what we've done:
In the Spelvia castle, we rest at the inn since we're really low on both HP and AP:
Let's pay a visit to Rolan now.
The robots are now totally friendly, by the way:
Heroes, yay!
Nope, you silly goat, that's that we are for.
Again I get this feeling the game assumes we haven't defeated any of the other archdemons yet.
So it's "protect", not "subdue", now, eh?
"Entered my dreams".
Sure he means Volly, the totally pretty princess.
You think so?
But isn't you dragon, like, dead?
Or do you mean a new one?Rolan: Then, at the end of my journey, I shall return to Father and Rekoteh.
I was *extremely* tempted to choose "No" just to get rid of this annoying emo boy, but well, I'm too soft-hearted. :/
"Yes".
Rolan: It was once wielded by a great hero, but I have no more need of it now.
And we are presented with...
Great, another piece of powerful equipment.
Farewell ... for good, I hope. That's enough babysitting for one game.
The Sword of Light looks pretty good though:
"Sword that sealed the Dark Lord"? Hmmm.
Together with Rolan!? No way.
Whatever you say, sis. But yeah, that was one crybaby of a hero.
Hmmm.
Finally words of wisdom have been spoken! You're a true bro, BRO.
Next time: more dark thingies coming our way!
lightbane
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2008
- Messages
- 10,216
Wops, sorry, it seems not everyone can be as cool as the crew from Magical Starsign. Still, I like this game's message telling that being a lonely emo angsty person won't do you any good. Too bad it's too late and nowadays FF's characters are insufferable emotards with more belts and zippers than neurons in their heads.
Just poppin' in to say I love all of you who follow this LP. It is thanks to you that the threshold of 60 views per post has been reached and crossed today, yay!
spekkio
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2009
- Messages
- 8,296
My oh my, how could I forget about such an important thing...CB said:
CB said:
Funny thing is I stopped downloading games with "Final Fantasy" in the title after FF12 (all these GCN, WII, PSP and NDS games suck ass AFAIK).
If not for our dear Bee-chan, I would've skipped this game completely.
spekkio said:
Yeah, funny how *blindly* choosing this gamey for an LP turned out quite well, yay.
Jaedar said:
spekkio said:
Cenobyte said:
And this thread surely needs more
:/
Part 35: Doppelgänger, or, Back in Horne
In whichLord British King Horne is revealed to be the one who started all this mess and we solve a candle-lighting puzzle to obtain the Lamp of Truth. Oh, and we die. Twice.
Previously on this LP, we were babysitting the emo hero Rolan, entered his soul again and had to engage in several boss battles, including one against the mighty Lucifer, in order to free Rolan's soul from darkness and, in an already familiar fashion, change the nature of a man. Grateful, Rolan handed us the Sword of Light. And Spelvia is now back to being what it had been meant to be before all this shit started -- a heavenly fortress made to protect the world, not subdue it:
This done,
Yeah! And Horne is the only place left for us to visit, so guess where we're heading now?
But first things first. Let's tweak our party set-up a little -- by making SMA into a Bard:
At the Spelvia storage office, we deposit the Mythril Hammer +1, the Book of Dryad +1, the Great Tree Log, the Sleep Tome and the Power Ring. The Sword of Light has a p. cool Magic Attack stat, so it makes perfect sense equipping it on our Black Mage, I guess:
Now Volly the pretty princess looks both cute and intimidating at the same time:
A girl with a pointy sword, yay!
Volly's Great Tree Staff +2 now goes to BRO who remains a Black Mage, for sheer firepower alone:
We also deposit the Intellect Ring and the Curse Ring and withdraw a Great Tree Harp and a Turtle Shell ring (Defense +10%) for SMA the Bard:
It's time to be heading to our dear hometown now.
Horne, here we come!
As we fly, however, we notice a strange temple-like building beneath us:
We are intrigued and fly down to enter it:
What could this place be? And who's the man standing over there?
Turns out his name is ... Namingway. And he can change the names of the spells we wield for us:
Replying "Yes", we get to choose which spell to rename:
And then the game takes us to the renaming screen:
This is just a gimmick, yeah. Being able to ~fully~ customize the names of all the spells is a nice and potentially lulzy touch, however. Had I been even more inane than I am I would have made Volly cast "R00fles!", and Codexer "Butthurt", and SMA "Trannylove", and the like. But that would make this LP way ~too~ daft, so I think I'll pass.
And if forever then forever fare thee well.
And so we finally fly over to Horne:
The action taking place in the past now, it is only predictable that no one recognizes us.
Well, dear BRO, we are here to find just that out.
The local NPC populace is as chatty as ever. We get informed about the Witch of the North, our old foe:
As well as of the fact that witches keep cats us familiars:
Or maybe crows?
[Perception] So you think the witch is evil, right?
Shoo yourself.
Not surprising, really.
We get to meet Codexer's dear mother -- the one who woke Codexer up at the very beginning of this game -- again:
I wonder why.
X-TREME!
Our palAndhaira Ankhel the parrot is indeed insistent:
Duly noted.
A ... magical laboratory? That doesn't bode well at all.
You think so?
Cats go where they please.
Nope, I am already at home, you silly sis.
Oh yes we are.
O RLY? We'll have to ask Rolan about that.
Sounds ... useful.
You dare make fun of us!? Screw you.
The local shop has two new items to offer:
The Shaman Robe looks p. nice, so we buy it and equip it on BRO:
We sacrifice a bit of our Intellect points to get a bonus in Defense and Magic Defense.
That's because you're totally *not* kawaii.
Yeah, sucks to be you.
I wish I had one, too.
Yeah, witches are totally into gems.
This cat belongs to no one!
Huh?
[Perception] So these are all hints, probably pertaining to some puzzle we'll come across later on?
You don't say!
It looks like Horne is going through a period of trouble:
I wonder if that is the reason why King Horne ... ah, ahem, nevermind.
You really think that's a good idea?
Me ain't no furry, me a white cat!!
We're also told that King Horne has been acting in a weird manner lately:
So what's wrong with his wife? Is she ill or something?
She probably isn't.
Oh. :/
So the queen died soon after giving birth to our dear Volly, eh? Does that surprise you?
You know what, folks? It's ... homeworld-saving time!
So let's head to the castle, shall we?
We arrive to a familiar spot along the way -- a windmill with sheep around:
In fact, you may remember the sign this NPC is speaking of the second update of this LP. It cost me a lot of rage that time.
Oh, and we can indeed talk with the sheep!
O RLY?
I'm on it!
Oh-kay. We better take notes since this is indeed a hint for a future puzzle -- which we'll be solving in the next update -- and I can imagine the rage and butthurt it caused among the console kiddies. I mean, taking notes, WTF?
Now that we've got the Magic Key from Master Chief, we can unlock the windmill. A strange man is waiting for us inside:
Sure!
What!?
Must be a bug or something. Or maybe I have indeed been playing this game for 2142 hours already.
Meh, who cares about things like that?
Nope.
Okay. Two treasure chests are in here as well:
Good. Movin' on.
Horne Castle, hell yeah!
And we enter the castle.
Let's explore it now.
You better not be telling us what to do.
Yeah, cats have a whole lotta lives.
You poor fools, you.
We enter the throne room.
But where's the king, yo?
Undeground? That means ... to the magical laboratory, right?
Leave? No way.
Maybe.
Oh. :/
So ... pretty princess-ey, yay!
That's Volly's sister, Carino.
Baby Volly, yay!
Yeah, why would one be secretive about a magic research laboratory given that magic is officially prohibited in Horne?
Where we soon will follow!
I wonder why.
In the central room behind the throne hall...
...is a treasure chest we can finally loot:
Another Soul of Thamasa, huh? Volly's already carrying one, so let's equip it on BRO, okay?
Nice.
Entering the northern door, we find ourselves inside...
...the Magic Laboratory dungeon!
We descend to B1 and then head north:
There's the Adventurer and his Faithful Fox here:
Well, in fact he's in ... the next room, you silly fox!
Looks ... menacing. :twisted:
...demands the king of ... the huge magic ball?
The minister is scared:
King Horne answers him in a truly x-treme way:
:twisted:
Then they notice us:
So out we go.
Okay. We'll be exploring the rest of the Magic Laboratory -- and it has a lot more levels as well as a sheep puzzle -- in the next update. Now it's time to pay a visit to Louhi, the Witch of the North.
Along the way, SMA levels up:
She goes to level 31: HP +4, SPT +2.
of Lord British indeed.
Yeah, they are truly x-treme!
We summon the dragon and fly to the Witch's mansion:
This was the first dungeon we explored in this LP. First we take the upper right door...
...and find ourselves in a room with a cleft and a candle on the other side of it. As you may remember, we must light the candle in order to open the central door in the main room. But first we have to get to it.
Meanwhile, Volly and BRO are destroying everything that comes our way with their Magic Might:
We make it through the side scroller-ish corridor...
...then take the stairs to the upper floor...
...and crawl through the U-shaped corridor...
...to finally make it to the candle:
We light the candle...
...and the door opens. Now we need to make it all the way back to the first room.
....
So here we are.
The door to the north is locked with a golden lock, and we haven't got the key to it yet. So we ascend the nearby stairs.
Oh, and Volly and Codexer level up.
Volly -> level 32: HP +4, INT +1.
Codexer -> level 32: HP +4, SPT +2, INT +1.
Ascending another set of stairs, we find ourselves on 3F. There's the Adventurer with the Fox here, so we save our game...
...and enter the presence of the Witch:
Just like Kuroneko-sensei doesn't speak with me anymore.
Oh my gosh.
We already fought Greaps as our first boss -- and it hasn't grown any significantly stronger, so this battle is a cakewalk. One Magic Might suffices to slay the foe:
We get 83 experience points and some nice gems.
SUDDENLY
DRAGON APPEARS
TOGETHER WITH ROLAN
(Oh no not this emo boy again!)
Rolan approaches the Witch.
Great, lawl.
Take your time.
Remember an NPC told us the Witch is a vassal of Spelvia?
Oh-kay, Rolan has ~finally~ been useful.
Yeah!
The Lamp of Truth, eh?
That means we are able to open each and every door we meet now!
Yup, I'm afraid so.
Oh. :/
The heroes of light never turn back!
So it's time to return to that locked door:
Yep.
And we enter the door.
We find ourselves in a room with three ... portraits. Talking portraits.
You bet.
Good.
A puzzle, yay!
The two other portraits have some useful hints for us.
Hmmm. This puzzle isn't too hard, but it's a bit tricky. You totally need to make sure the candles are lit and the doors are sealed in the correct order.
To start the puzzle, we must descend to the basement:
The puzzle area is rather big -- it's a large square-shaped corridor with four candles in its four corners, and a chamber with four more candles in the south. Each section is separated from another with a door. Your progress with this puzzle is constantly interrupted by random encounters, so things may get annoying if you're running around too frantically and lighting the wrong candles and sealing the wrong doors. This puzzle must be approached carefully.
During all this running to-and-fro, BRO levels up -> level 32: HP +4, STR +1, SPT +1, INT +2.
This is the southern room with four candles:
To the north is the locked door leading to the Lamp of Light.
The solution to this puzzle is simple yet elegant. From the hints that the portraits give you, it follows that you must close light the candles counter-clockwise, starting from the SE one:
Whenever you light a candle, the door behind you closes...
...sealing you away from the previous section. Which means you have no way left to go but forward. No turning back, yay! We light the remaining three candles and...
Puzzle solved.
We go through the northern door.
A treasure chest, yay!
Uh-oh.
It's four Doppelgänger -- a dark replica of our party.
These fuckers are totally tough. First, they are quicker than we are. Second, *each* of them gets to act twice per turn. And thirdly, their attacks deal some ridiculous amount of damage even with buffs on. See for yourself.
SMA uses Motet:
We should be fine now, shouldn't we?
52 damage in one hit.
60 more.
Goodbye SMA.
Oh fuckity fuck.
Codexer casts Lux:
But will this help us?
Oh lordy lord.
Codexer's Armor of Light is the only one resistant enough.
Die Doppelgänger can also cast Flash:
Whenever they cast Flash instead of attacking in melee, consider yourself lucky.
In just one turn, our HP gets extremely low and one of our party members is killed. Lux lets us recover a bit at the end of this turn:
But the amount of HP we regain is totally insignificant compared to the damage Doppelgänger's attacks deal.
The next turn our troubles continue.
Uh-oh.
Another Doppelgänger attacks Codexer for 13 hp. And then...
BRO dies.
Codexer's HP gets really low, too.
Another Darkaga follows:
Volly is dead. Everything happens so quickly that we barely have any chance to act. :/
And then...
Yup, no chance to act at all. Everyone is dead, and all in what, two turns?
We respawn and get back to the treasure chest. Oh, and going back to Horne to get ourselves Darksteel shields would be too "cheap" a solution; we have to prevail without that.
Second try
SMA uses Motet again. A Doppelgänger casts Sleep:
Just as she was about to cast Magic Might, Volly falls asleep.
Poor SMA. :/ She is again the first to fall.
Codexer casts Lux. Four (!) Doppelgänger in a row attack our Codexer: for 29, 17, 15 and 13 points of damage.
We recover some HP at the end of the turn:
Next turn three (!) Doppelgänger attack the Codexer, for 14, 21 and 17 hp:
Another Doppelgänger casts Berserk:
Uh-oh.
This battle is pure rage.
Pure rage indeed. :/
Indeed.
Everyone is dead.
Third try
Oh-kay, we totally need to change something in our party set-up. We make BRO into an Elementalist. Hopefully his Mysterio ability + Bard's Motet will allow us to make it through.
You bastards! This time we'll kill you all!
The real problem is for Volly not to fall asleep. Let's just hope the Doppelgänger won't cast Sleep the first turn. Then Volly will be able to use Magic Might -- which should greatly weaken the foes or maybe even slay them outright.
SMA uses Motet. The Doppelgänger, being quick, start attacking:
Poor SMA. :/ She's almost dead again.
FINALLY, yay! Two of the enemies are dead.
We get 100 exp for each.
Codexer casts Lux, and a Doppelgänger casts Berserk -- and then attacks:
The turn ends, and we recover some hp:
BRO finally has enough AP to use Mysterio:
Let's see if we get more resistant now.
A Doppelgänger heals herself up.
Poor princess.
Codexer uses Healthgiver:
The plan is to use Healthgiver + Arise next turn, to revive the fallen and recover some HP.
Hah, that's nice. Elementalist was a good choice, it seems.
A Doppelgänger tries to put Codexer asleep:
But the Shield of Light blocks all status ailments.
Thanks to BRO's Mysterio and the Armor of Light, Codexer only takes 1 point of damage from the attack.
It's time to cast Arise:
Good!
Now we have to wait until Volly wakes up to cast another Magic Might. :/
BRO the Elementalist chooses to use Elemental, the ability that attacks the foes with random elements:
...
But unfortunately that isn't enough to slay even one of them.
And so it goes for several turns -- until Volly finally wakes up:
Haha!
BRO is cursed, unfortunately, meaning he can't use Mysterio now -- so we better finish this battle quickly!
Finally!
SMA levels up -> level 32: HP +4, STR +1, INT +1.
Next time: we'll be taking care of sheep, yay!
In which
Previously on this LP, we were babysitting the emo hero Rolan, entered his soul again and had to engage in several boss battles, including one against the mighty Lucifer, in order to free Rolan's soul from darkness and, in an already familiar fashion, change the nature of a man. Grateful, Rolan handed us the Sword of Light. And Spelvia is now back to being what it had been meant to be before all this shit started -- a heavenly fortress made to protect the world, not subdue it:
This done,
Yeah! And Horne is the only place left for us to visit, so guess where we're heading now?
But first things first. Let's tweak our party set-up a little -- by making SMA into a Bard:
At the Spelvia storage office, we deposit the Mythril Hammer +1, the Book of Dryad +1, the Great Tree Log, the Sleep Tome and the Power Ring. The Sword of Light has a p. cool Magic Attack stat, so it makes perfect sense equipping it on our Black Mage, I guess:
Now Volly the pretty princess looks both cute and intimidating at the same time:
A girl with a pointy sword, yay!
Volly's Great Tree Staff +2 now goes to BRO who remains a Black Mage, for sheer firepower alone:
We also deposit the Intellect Ring and the Curse Ring and withdraw a Great Tree Harp and a Turtle Shell ring (Defense +10%) for SMA the Bard:
It's time to be heading to our dear hometown now.
Horne, here we come!
As we fly, however, we notice a strange temple-like building beneath us:
We are intrigued and fly down to enter it:
What could this place be? And who's the man standing over there?
Turns out his name is ... Namingway.
And he can change the names of the spells we wield for us:
Replying "Yes", we get to choose which spell to rename:
And then the game takes us to the renaming screen:
This is just a gimmick, yeah. Being able to ~fully~ customize the names of all the spells is a nice and potentially lulzy touch, however. Had I been even more inane than I am I would have made Volly cast "R00fles!", and Codexer "Butthurt", and SMA "Trannylove", and the like.
But that would make this LP way ~too~ daft, so I think I'll pass.
And if forever then forever fare thee well.
And so we finally fly over to Horne:
The action taking place in the past now, it is only predictable that no one recognizes us.
Well, dear BRO, we are here to find just that out.
The local NPC populace is as chatty as ever. We get informed about the Witch of the North, our old foe:
As well as of the fact that witches keep cats us familiars:
Or maybe crows?
[Perception] So you think the witch is evil, right?
Shoo yourself.
Not surprising, really.
We get to meet Codexer's dear mother -- the one who woke Codexer up at the very beginning of this game -- again:
I wonder why.
X-TREME!
Our pal
Duly noted.
A ... magical laboratory? That doesn't bode well at all.
You think so?
Cats go where they please.
Nope, I am already at home, you silly sis.
Oh yes we are.
O RLY?
We'll have to ask Rolan about that.
Sounds ... useful.
You dare make fun of us!? Screw you.
The local shop has two new items to offer:
The Shaman Robe looks p. nice, so we buy it and equip it on BRO:
We sacrifice a bit of our Intellect points to get a bonus in Defense and Magic Defense.
That's because you're totally *not* kawaii.
Yeah, sucks to be you.
I wish I had one, too.
Yeah, witches are totally into gems.
This cat belongs to no one!
Huh?
[Perception] So these are all hints, probably pertaining to some puzzle we'll come across later on?
You don't say!
It looks like Horne is going through a period of trouble:
I wonder if that is the reason why King Horne ... ah, ahem, nevermind.
You really think that's a good idea?
Me ain't no furry, me a white cat!!
We're also told that King Horne has been acting in a weird manner lately:
So what's wrong with his wife? Is she ill or something?
She probably isn't.
Oh. :/
So the queen died soon after giving birth to our dear Volly, eh? Does that surprise you?
You know what, folks? It's ... homeworld-saving time!
So let's head to the castle, shall we?
We arrive to a familiar spot along the way -- a windmill with sheep around:
In fact, you may remember the sign this NPC is speaking of the second update of this LP. It cost me a lot of rage that time.
Oh, and we can indeed talk with the sheep!
O RLY?
I'm on it!
Oh-kay. We better take notes since this is indeed a hint for a future puzzle -- which we'll be solving in the next update -- and I can imagine the rage and butthurt it caused among the console kiddies. I mean, taking notes, WTF?
Now that we've got the Magic Key from Master Chief, we can unlock the windmill. A strange man is waiting for us inside:
Sure!
What!?
Must be a bug or something. Or maybe I have indeed been playing this game for 2142 hours already.
Meh, who cares about things like that?
Nope.
Okay. Two treasure chests are in here as well:
Good. Movin' on.
Horne Castle, hell yeah!
And we enter the castle.
Let's explore it now.
You better not be telling us what to do.
Yeah, cats have a whole lotta lives.
You poor fools, you.
We enter the throne room.
But where's the king, yo?
Undeground? That means ... to the magical laboratory, right?
Leave? No way.
Maybe.
Oh. :/
So ... pretty princess-ey, yay!
That's Volly's sister, Carino.
Baby Volly, yay!
Yeah, why would one be secretive about a magic research laboratory given that magic is officially prohibited in Horne?
Where we soon will follow!
I wonder why.
In the central room behind the throne hall...
...is a treasure chest we can finally loot:
Another Soul of Thamasa, huh? Volly's already carrying one, so let's equip it on BRO, okay?
Nice.
Entering the northern door, we find ourselves inside...
...the Magic Laboratory dungeon!
We descend to B1 and then head north:
There's the Adventurer and his Faithful Fox here:
Well, in fact he's in ... the next room, you silly fox!
Looks ... menacing. :twisted:
...demands the king of ... the huge magic ball?
The minister is scared:
King Horne answers him in a truly x-treme way:
:twisted:
Then they notice us:
So out we go.
Okay. We'll be exploring the rest of the Magic Laboratory -- and it has a lot more levels as well as a sheep puzzle -- in the next update. Now it's time to pay a visit to Louhi, the Witch of the North.
Along the way, SMA levels up:
She goes to level 31: HP +4, SPT +2.
of Lord British indeed.
Yeah, they are truly x-treme!
We summon the dragon and fly to the Witch's mansion:
This was the first dungeon we explored in this LP. First we take the upper right door...
...and find ourselves in a room with a cleft and a candle on the other side of it. As you may remember, we must light the candle in order to open the central door in the main room. But first we have to get to it.
Meanwhile, Volly and BRO are destroying everything that comes our way with their Magic Might:
We make it through the side scroller-ish corridor...
...then take the stairs to the upper floor...
...and crawl through the U-shaped corridor...
...to finally make it to the candle:
We light the candle...
...and the door opens. Now we need to make it all the way back to the first room.
....
So here we are.
The door to the north is locked with a golden lock, and we haven't got the key to it yet. So we ascend the nearby stairs.
Oh, and Volly and Codexer level up.
Volly -> level 32: HP +4, INT +1.
Codexer -> level 32: HP +4, SPT +2, INT +1.
Ascending another set of stairs, we find ourselves on 3F. There's the Adventurer with the Fox here, so we save our game...
...and enter the presence of the Witch:
Just like Kuroneko-sensei doesn't speak with me anymore.
Oh my gosh.
We already fought Greaps as our first boss -- and it hasn't grown any significantly stronger, so this battle is a cakewalk. One Magic Might suffices to slay the foe:
We get 83 experience points and some nice gems.
SUDDENLY
DRAGON APPEARS
TOGETHER WITH ROLAN
(Oh no not this emo boy again!
)
Rolan approaches the Witch.
Great, lawl.
Take your time.
Remember an NPC told us the Witch is a vassal of Spelvia?
Oh-kay, Rolan has ~finally~ been useful.
Yeah!
The Lamp of Truth, eh?
That means we are able to open each and every door we meet now!
Yup, I'm afraid so.
Oh. :/
The heroes of light never turn back!
So it's time to return to that locked door:
Yep.
And we enter the door.
We find ourselves in a room with three ... portraits.
Talking portraits.
You bet.
Good.
A puzzle, yay!
The two other portraits have some useful hints for us.
Hmmm. This puzzle isn't too hard, but it's a bit tricky. You totally need to make sure the candles are lit and the doors are sealed in the correct order.
To start the puzzle, we must descend to the basement:
The puzzle area is rather big -- it's a large square-shaped corridor with four candles in its four corners, and a chamber with four more candles in the south. Each section is separated from another with a door. Your progress with this puzzle is constantly interrupted by random encounters, so things may get annoying if you're running around too frantically and lighting the wrong candles and sealing the wrong doors. This puzzle must be approached carefully.
During all this running to-and-fro, BRO levels up -> level 32: HP +4, STR +1, SPT +1, INT +2.
This is the southern room with four candles:
To the north is the locked door leading to the Lamp of Light.
The solution to this puzzle is simple yet elegant. From the hints that the portraits give you, it follows that you must close light the candles counter-clockwise, starting from the SE one:
Whenever you light a candle, the door behind you closes...
...sealing you away from the previous section. Which means you have no way left to go but forward. No turning back, yay! We light the remaining three candles and...
Puzzle solved.
We go through the northern door.
A treasure chest, yay!
Uh-oh.
It's four Doppelgänger -- a dark replica of our party.
These fuckers are totally tough. First, they are quicker than we are. Second, *each* of them gets to act twice per turn. And thirdly, their attacks deal some ridiculous amount of damage even with buffs on. See for yourself.
SMA uses Motet:
We should be fine now, shouldn't we?
52 damage in one hit.
60 more.
Goodbye SMA.
Oh fuckity fuck.
Codexer casts Lux:
But will this help us?
Oh lordy lord.
Codexer's Armor of Light is the only one resistant enough.
Die Doppelgänger can also cast Flash:
Whenever they cast Flash instead of attacking in melee, consider yourself lucky.
In just one turn, our HP gets extremely low and one of our party members is killed.
Lux lets us recover a bit at the end of this turn:
But the amount of HP we regain is totally insignificant compared to the damage Doppelgänger's attacks deal.
The next turn our troubles continue.
Uh-oh.
Another Doppelgänger attacks Codexer for 13 hp. And then...
BRO dies.
Codexer's HP gets really low, too.
Another Darkaga follows:
Volly is dead. Everything happens so quickly that we barely have any chance to act. :/
And then...
Yup, no chance to act at all. Everyone is dead, and all in what, two turns?
We respawn and get back to the treasure chest. Oh, and going back to Horne to get ourselves Darksteel shields would be too "cheap" a solution; we have to prevail without that.
Second try
SMA uses Motet again. A Doppelgänger casts Sleep:
Just as she was about to cast Magic Might, Volly falls asleep.
Poor SMA. :/ She is again the first to fall.
Codexer casts Lux. Four (!) Doppelgänger in a row attack our Codexer: for 29, 17, 15 and 13 points of damage.
We recover some HP at the end of the turn:
Next turn three (!) Doppelgänger attack the Codexer, for 14, 21 and 17 hp:
Another Doppelgänger casts Berserk:
Uh-oh.
This battle is pure rage.
Pure rage indeed. :/
Indeed.
Everyone is dead.
Third try
Oh-kay, we totally need to change something in our party set-up. We make BRO into an Elementalist. Hopefully his Mysterio ability + Bard's Motet will allow us to make it through.
You bastards! This time we'll kill you all!
The real problem is for Volly not to fall asleep. Let's just hope the Doppelgänger won't cast Sleep the first turn. Then Volly will be able to use Magic Might -- which should greatly weaken the foes or maybe even slay them outright.
SMA uses Motet. The Doppelgänger, being quick, start attacking:
Poor SMA. :/ She's almost dead again.
FINALLY, yay! Two of the enemies are dead.
We get 100 exp for each.
Codexer casts Lux, and a Doppelgänger casts Berserk -- and then attacks:
The turn ends, and we recover some hp:
BRO finally has enough AP to use Mysterio:
Let's see if we get more resistant now.
A Doppelgänger heals herself up.
Poor princess.
Codexer uses Healthgiver:
The plan is to use Healthgiver + Arise next turn, to revive the fallen and recover some HP.
Hah, that's nice. Elementalist was a good choice, it seems.
A Doppelgänger tries to put Codexer asleep:
But the Shield of Light blocks all status ailments.
Thanks to BRO's Mysterio and the Armor of Light, Codexer only takes 1 point of damage from the attack.
It's time to cast Arise:
Good!
Now we have to wait until Volly wakes up to cast another Magic Might. :/
BRO the Elementalist chooses to use Elemental, the ability that attacks the foes with random elements:
...
But unfortunately that isn't enough to slay even one of them.
And so it goes for several turns -- until Volly finally wakes up:
Haha!
BRO is cursed, unfortunately, meaning he can't use Mysterio now -- so we better finish this battle quickly!
Finally!
SMA levels up -> level 32: HP +4, STR +1, INT +1.
Next time: we'll be taking care of sheep, yay!
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