Update 15: A song of ice, fire, transvestites and not-muslims
Greetings gentlemen, it’s time to continue this LP, today we’ll cover 2 Needles, which means we’re moving closer to the end of this chapter and jump right into the endgame, this LP has been going for too long and you know that sadly the game must end sooner or later.
First thing to do is to return to Tazmily Village to check if there’s new stuff; another reason to do it is because I would like to try an idea I had with the Enemy Bufferizer. Nothing happened on the journey so we skip to the meaningful things. For example, the previously irate Mole is no longer irate.
Mole: “Some mole crickets have been digging some really deep holes in that area. Could they be any MORE inconsiderate?! We moles’ve been digging holes here for a long time now, so they should’ve at least gone through the proper channels first. *mumble* Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to dump all my complaints onto complete strangers.”
Don’t worry, Bioware perfected the art of making annoying characters that no-one that’s minimally sane and/or intelligent cares for and force down your throat sick romances and even worse dialog (now they pretend they have sex scenes that are poorly rendered and censored), and the worst thing of all: they frequently recycle the same characters again and again and the sheeple still praises them. About the hostility of the moles and the mole crickets, I would pay to see a gang war between these two, after all moles are trying to destroy this island for no real reason and if a war distracts them or even extinguishes them it’s a win/win situation. Anyways, we have a world to destr… I mean to save.
We deposit some stuff like the Mementos, the “single-use-but-ridiculously-useful instant resurrection items” for later use.
Dona: ”This is only a rumor, but I hear there’s a creepy building somewhere around there called the Etcetera Laboratory.”
That was before a really angry, unstoppable chimera destroyed everything and escaped; now it is now lurking somewhere seeking for prey to hunt, but luckily that’s none of our business.
Bob: ”but the chain-link shutters inside the tunnel are open now.”
Way ahead of you.
That’s the thing I was looking for, this thing is a REALLY rare enemy, it can be found on the forest since the beginning of Chapter 4, it gave you tons of xp to the point of overleveling Lucas but right now it’s not so much. However there’s a trick to increase its usefulness, give it an Enemy Bufferizer and your party will gain up to 3 levels.
If we repeat this two times more we will not need anymore to grind until the endgame, but since I had to constantly search the entire forest for 10 minutes before spotting the monster, I don’t have the patience to do it more than once (and that would be blatant powergaming), so for now we’ll return to the Chimera Lab, some things changed during our absence. For example, I forgot to take a screenshot but there’s a huge hole where the Ultimate Chimera escaped. Another change:
The lab has been filled with an aggressive squad of pigmen, I think we can assume the pigarmy blames Lucas for the mess, revoked his part-time pass and sent these soldiers that are out for his blood. There’s also a new monster:
This strange creature is immune to psi (except Lucas’ bropower), and has a strange way of attacking:
It doesn’t give too many xp, it’s just an easter-egg for the determined explorers. Now we must go where the Mole Cricket invited us to go:
Prepare yourself for one of the most strange and confusing places of the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iWAKn113Yo
The entire level is an inane maze that may or may not be reminiscent of these frustrating dungeons of old-school rpgs. For now most of the paths are closed except one.
Naturally there’s a hot spring there, even if this area has no enemies.
Mole Cricket: ”We’re exceptionally proud.”
”I’ve asked him to be the judge for our match today. If you try to run away or do anything cheap, neither of us’ll sit by quietly… Just so you know. Anyways, I’ve got special rules for our match. If, by some chance, an outcome isn’t reached after 10 minutes have passed, we’ll go to overtime, which’ll last five more minutes. And if a conclusion still isn’t reached after that, our elder’ll decide who the winner is. Elder. Is there anything you’d like to add?”
Elder
”Take my advice. Sometimes, the bravest thing to do is to run away… But you insist on it? In that case, I won’t stop you.”
It’s just a stupid mole cricket, of COURSE we’ll fight it.
”Alright! I guess you have no care for your own life! The bell has rung!”
So, this fight it’s a throwback to the beginning of the game… Literally, I dunno what this mole cricket has done for these years but he did not improve at all, it can only hurt you for 1 hp and has 10 hp, so the battle went like this:
*Raises eyebrow*
” AGHH!! YOU’RE TOO STRONG!! *faints*”
After defeating the pathetic bug:
Elder
”To think that such a mighty mole cricket warrior could be so easily defeated… Perhaps mole crickets aren’t so powerful after all… I’ll meditate on what else this means at a later time. But, for now, the match is over. I suppose the traditional thing to do now is be on good terms with you. So let’s be friends. Is there anything you need?”
”Do you know where the Needles sealing away the Dark Dragon are? We’re looking for them.”
”But, call it a hunch, I think there could be a clue to these mysterious objects on the mountain on the far end of this mole cricket hole. I figure that’s what the elder wants to say, too. He’s hard to read sometimes, though.”
Elder
”Go through this mole cricket hole and head up the mountain! I’m certain that’s what you must do!”
”We don’t have any other leads to follow up on, so let’s check it out. Oh, hey. You guys don’t know anything about the Dark Dragon itself, do you?”
”Even though he’s our elder, he’s still just a mole cricket, too. We have no real strength at all… It’s a pity. The very least we can do… is help you by eating the lotus roots blocking your way, and other things like that. Wow… A dragon… I bet it’s really incredible…”
Elder
”A dragon that sleeps underground, needles that seal it away, us being surprisingly weak… Living a long life is worth it. Do you suppose you could tell us mole crickets about even more things?”
Why not?
Elder
”so please raise us to be great. To start off, I’m thinking of starting a business in our own unique, mole cricket way. Please stop by if you ever happen to see us!”
He’s little, but hes’ a tough one. You can treat him just like any other item. Hey! Little bro! C’mere!”
The screenshots could not capture it (it went too fast), but a microscopic mole cricket jumped into Lucas’ pants (oh dear, that sounds horrible).
”just ask my little bro for help and he’ll bring you straight back here. Right, little bro? … C’mon, bro! Get your act together! The bad news is he’s kinda lame and hates the sunlight more than anything else in the world. So be careful. You can’t take him with you outside the mole cricket hole… Right, little bro?!”
That’s the “item” he mentions, as you've told now you can “use” any of the barriers and it will be quickly devoured by a swarm of mole crickets, clearing the previously blocked corridor.
”Everything over there is mysterious for some reason. I’m not brave at all, so I’m too scared to go.”
”Do that and you’ll eventually reach the other end of this mole cricket hole. Have faith in yourself and proceed NOT straight ahead! Time for another song!
”Do that, and you’ll never get lost!”
Okay, this shit is pure inane madness.
”You’re gonna get bored fast if you don’t do pointless chit-chat with us.”
A mole cricket trying to disguise itself as a save frog? Sorry but no.
”I guess that’s one way to think about it… It’s not much, but I feel a little rejected.”
”Like how to dig holes and how to win fights.”
This area includes a shop, don’t ask how it works.
”The Mole Cricket Hole’s famous Sincerity Dumplings! I make them every day and set them out so I can practice conducting business. I have some super-fresh ones today, too!”
Looks interesting but Boiled Eggs can be obtained for free so we’ll only buy a pair of these. About the maze… I cannot explain how tedious it is, just assume I turned all the time to the right until somehow I made it to the exit (quest compass and minimaps are for lesser beings), I don’t have many screenshoots but these will be enough (the fact that the game doesn’t have every corridor swarming with enemies like other jrpgs and some recent rpgs is a blessing).
Finally! We’re on Snowcap, time for the corresponding music, a staple of the series (and the best version of the 3 games), Snowman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH8JL_jGS_w
”I don’t have a name but remember me sometimes as being a pretty cool guy, okay?”
Of course, bro…
”I’m surprised anyone would come to such a cold place!”
Just like in Earthbound’s dream level, you can talk to the snowmen for some reason (blame the Magypsies’ magic).
One of the new enemies, it’s a bit tough but it’s vulnerable to PSI, so we easily kill it.
This one can use PSI Freeze Beta, but PSI Fire Alpha will be enough to melt it to nothingness (or just smack him repeatedly with the entire party, it works wonders) plus it drops good loot.
This level is pretty straightforward, you just have to climb up to the top dodging these kamikaze yetis (if you don’t touch them there’s a possibility they’ll fly out of the screen and crash somewhere else I believe, for my playthrough I did not bother to confirm it and instead destroyed everything that was standing in my way).
More loot.
”Some snowmen melt away without meeting anyone.”
A shame, I’m sure everyone would like to have a sentient snowman. Just when we were to reach the top someone intercepts the party:
”I’m studying you see! I have an undying sense of curiosity! IT’s like the Call of the Wild, and all that! For whatever reason, I picked up all sorts of stuff along the way! Please let me use them to conduct business!”
We buy some food items, update our gear and that’s all, from now on these mole crickets will be at certain places acting as vendors...
”I’m still new to this but I’m going to work as hard as I possibly can!”
Like this one (next to a Hot Spring, don’t mind the snow and the cold). After some more steps we encounter our objective:
The rabbits notice us first and they run away. Interestingly, all of the magypsies seems to have some sort of pet (perhaps to maintain their humanity and kindness)?
”..This is quite a surprise, you see. We haven’t had visitors in some time. You must be cold. Come inside and warm up.”
”IT looks like he went on a scouting mission and got separated from his friends.”
”They say you’re the one who can pull the Needles. Such a strong, sweet face… I am Lydia, the Magypsy of Snowcap Mountain. What you seek is behind this house. It’s surreal, realizing the time has finally come for my Needle to be pulled. I never thought this day would come to pass. When you pull the Needle, I’ll vanish. That is our fate as Magypsies, so that is what must happen. When ‘the time’ comes, I’ll welcome it with open arms. But, there IS one concern I have. Who will take care of my precious bunnies once I’m gone? No-one will be here to look after them…”
”We aren’t permitted to interfere, and it’s wrong of me to worry so much about it. I’m a mess, a horrible Magypsy. I never believed ‘the time’ would come! Lucas. Pull the Needle. Because it’s time.”
”I’ve unlocked the door for you.”
Time to pull the Needle, we…
“Wait a minute. Lucas, why are you doing this?”
”Eh?”
”I’m asking WHY are you pulling the Needles.”
”Well I must do it because if not the Pork Army could destroy the world…”
” But you DON’T need to do this, after all you could just strike the Pokr-Army’s headquarters, kill the leaders and call it a day, you would be able to do it considering their usual incompetence. But you’re pulling these Needles for no real reason. Why are you doing this? Are you doing this because you thought that’s what your mom and bro would want? Did you assume that perhaps you would be able to see them again?
” Actually… I don’t know, I just know I’m the only one that I can do it…”
””But THAT’S the problem, you don’t have a real reason to do that, screw destiny, fate and these fuckers, they do nothing to help you, if you’re strong enough you’ll succeed on whatever you want to do. Besides, pulling all of the Needles could trigger the end of the world too; hell, even the supposed guardians of the Needles don’t know what would really happen.”
” Why are you idling so much?”
"FUUCK!!! I retire what I said, if pulling the Needles is the only way of killing these horrible, immortal, gay, androgynous beings then destroying the world is a necessary evil."
Hey, you two, stop this pointless discussion, there’s a video for the following section, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZHuuJatsgg
Heh, so all of this effort was for nothing? I call it hax, the enemy has airplanes and enormous reserves and Lucas instead must travel walking with no more company than a princess with anger management issues, a sentient dog and a crippled thief.
”Pay me no mind.”
Look at that, the porkman woke up! And he even seems to be an actual human being (vaguely resembling Apple Kid of Earthbound)!
”Me and you are enemies. Don’t bother with me. Just go do what you need to do. I have no intention of helping you guys out. That Magypsy helped me out, though. Even though I’m a complete stranger. So I’m gonna stay here and look after his rabbits. Then we’ll be even. Get going already! Before another Needle gets pulled!”
Cool I guess, now we must return to Tazmily. The long, stupid, boring way is backtracking, the fun, short, awesome way is arriving to the top of the mountain and then:
Video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtliQ2wqCAM
There’s even less people in the Tazmily Village than before, assume that everyone that’s not shown being spoken to either doesn’t have anything new to tell or just moved to that Pork City they frequently mention.
”as long as you have hope, there’ll be always tomorrow. So try not to give up hope. And what’s also important is humor!”
Lucas already knows this, if he didn’t he would be totally insane and/or dead by now…
”Lucas, won’t your friends come with us?”
”It’s such a sad and lonely place now…”
Wess: ”Garret! So, you’ve finally remembered that you’re the Garret! Wa-hahahaha! I see! I see! That’s great. Lucas… Thank you for going out of your way to tell me about Garret. Princess… Thank you very much. Say, Garret… Be thankful to Lucas and his friends. Make sure you’re helpful to them. Anyways, let’s meet again sometime. We’ll kick up our feet and take it easy. Now get going already! This is embarrassing…”
Incredible, for once Wess has not insulted and mistreated Garret! A shame the rest of the villagers are less considerate.
Jonel: ”No, no. I know, I know. I can tell. You wanna ask about Tanetale Island, right? Don’t pretend you don’t! I know you wanna know about Tanetale Island. Okay, I’ll tell you about it. There’s an island straight across the sea from this beach. It’s known as Tanetale Island, or sometimes ‘Spooky Island’. Actually, I was the one who thought up the name ‘Spooky Island’. They say the only way to get there is to dive to the bottom of the ocean. Yeah right! As if that’s really possible! I think not! Anyways, that’s all I know. But I do know all kinds of other good stuff. I’d love to talk about them, and I know you’d love to hear about them. What? You DON’T want to hear about them?”
Wisdom: Hmm, I think that somehow this information will be later relevant. I also like how despite being a mute character Lucas “tells” some replies that most of us would say in his situation. Time to walk back to where the Mr Saturns were, looting some gifts I didn’t see the first time we were here…
Frigging Mr. Saturns and their horrible jokes…
”Can go.”
”Itty bitty wait before going up.”
Garret starts climbing, every Mr Saturn “complains” as Garret climbs up.
Great, we're forced to complete the dungeon before being able to come back, so much for helping stupid xenos…
Mole Cricket: ”And actually, we’ve started to branch out into the business world. With franchises opening up everywhere, we’re now at the forefront of business evolution. We have all sorts of wonderful goods that we found lying on the… I mean stocked up on. I could let you have some of them, if you’d like. Well? Would you like to take a look?”
We buy some food and that’s it, I ignored all of the healing items because I was confident that Lucas’ healing powers would be enough (a decision that would come back later to haunt my ass, sadly).
The magysy:
”Slalking? *mumble*”
”I assume I’ll be fast asleep when you arrive, so I’m leaving this letter here for you. I’m a little more serious and detail-oriented than the other Magypsies. Hello again Lucas.
Ionia told me you would be coming here. The Dark Dragon’s Needle you’re to pull is in a lake of lava up ahead. I don’t mind if you pull it while I’m asleep… It will mean ‘the time’ has come, and I’ll disappear in my sleep. There’s a boulder blocking the path to the volcano. You should give it some Encouraging Words. Well, good luck. Smoochie smooochie.”
Somehow that worked. But that’s not all, there’s another puzzle ahead:
The catch here is that these boulders move only in a certain direction, you must alternate between all of them until the path is clear, super-easy, only a braindead moron (or a casual gamer) would fail this one.
New zone, new music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw1s0r6NUAc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WjEF9H3LBA
And new enemies. The 1st one likes to spam Psi Fire Beta or Alpha so it must be killed as quickly as possible (PSI Freeze Beta is an insta-kill here). The 2nd one hits hard but the only Psi it has is Hypnosis Alfa. Nothing dangerous here except if you tried to go to this dungeon underleveled and only with Lucas and Ghostdog, the enemies would rape you and kill you before you could say “oh fuck!”. And these are the weaker ones.
”Apparently, he’s undergone a HUGE makeover to change his image.”
”Apparently, he’s made some pretty hardcore changes to himself sound-wise. Sounds like we better find that Needle fast before he starts yelling at us even louder than before. And this time, he’s got horns, no less.”
The two losers notice us and attempt to stop the bro-party, we trash them effortlessly. So Fassad is still alive? If I recall correctly, he slipped and fell when he was standing on the very top of a very tall tower (surely stopping the fall with his skull), then the Tower exploded and as a consequence some debris fell upon him (after being properly scorched by the explosion), he was being crushed for agonizing hours until he was rescued, and that’s assuming that he did not needed too many “replacements” for his wounds, remember how the Chimera Lab works and how painful would the entire process be, if he wasn’t a soulless bastard I would feel a bit of pity for him. However after all of this shit he’s still alive and kicking; for being a bad guy this not-sandnigger has a remarkable superhuman will to live. Surprising.
When we enter the next part of the cavern/dungeon, we encounter 3 new types of enemies:
The Pyrefly, one of the most powerful enemies of the “fly” family, has low hp but like the others tends to spam fire attacks that hit the entire party.
More animated mushrooms, nothing to worry about.
Some loot…
And there it is. This fellow is the most dangerous motherfucker of the dungeon, he uses Psi Fire Beta to hit the entire party (and he hits HARD), can summon Pyreflies at will, and has a moderate quantity of hp (and unlike other enemies it can suddenly jump from the lava ambushing you). If you did not have Asuka when you met one of these, you would die right now.
Anyways, time for the boss battle, it must be seen to be believed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoE2l6QM1z8
Lulz, I’m sure that’s what happens when you leave the medical bills to a
jew very greedy person like the leader of the Pork Army, he’ll use the dirtiest and cheapest tricks so that the medical facilities are as less expensive as possible, even if as a consequence all of their “patients” will end terminally insane thanks to the constant pain and/or resemble horrible, inhuman monsters. The rest of the dialogue:
”Unlike the other Magypsies, I’m very detail-oriented. I’ll tell you about the Needles and then disappear. One Needle is on Tanetane Island, south of Tazmily. I believe Mixolydia is protecting it. Another Needle is in Chupichupyoi Temple, deep in the Oriander Mountains. I believe Ionia is protecting it. I think you already know this, of course, but it’s said that the heart of whoever pulls the Needles is passed on the Dark Dragon…
Instill the power of power, the darkness of darkness, and the light of the light into your spirit. Let me peer into your eyes. Thank you… Lucas. I wrote down everything I just told you in this secret notebook. Take it with you. And another one… The Needle said to be sticking out of the Dark Dragon’s head… I can’t seem to locate it at all. Nor Locria, who’s supposed to protect that particular Needle… I’m so picky about the details yet I have no idea where they are… Having to disappear without finding out… It’s a little bit sad. Please, don’t forget me. Here, there is a memento of me: A razor and lipstick… Please take good care of them, okay? You can expect to see more of me in your dreams from now on. *gigle* Goodbye!”
The last line was disturbing. Oh, and the Magypsies’ worst fear is not death but being forgotten, aka Oblivion, not even the tranvestites like it, lol. We backtrack to the Mr Saturn village…
”Can fall.”
Now that there’s a proper ladder we can go up and down at will. More importantly, that ladder that goes nowhere could be another joke/reference to Mother 2, where in the Mr Saturn Village there was a small area of the village that seemed you could go there but was totally inaccessible (sometimes random enemies hanged here to give you further impressions that the place could be visited but it was not).
The pork army, obviously butthurt, decided to block our entry. What could we do now?
”Let’s ask the Mr. Saturns if there’s any other way to get outside.”
”broke tunnel and left.”
”Is there any other way to leave besides that tunnel?”
”For flying vehicle. But not enough birdies yet. Maybe one more.”
Done, I’m sure this will be totally safe and not useless at all…
”You wait in hot spring.”
For some reason, this looks familiar…
“Well, you said that what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, no? *drinks*”
“Wait Lucas! Not this time! Do not drink the coffee or you’ll literally be tripping balls!”
Too late, Lucas loses it. Video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7HWxi0HjBU
Don’t worry, we’ll find later the very butthurt Rope Snake, but for now that’s all, this is the end of the update. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait at least two weeks for more, I have some personal stuff to do. In the meantime I would like that you bumped this until new page. Stay sharp until then!