In the last update, we plowed our way through a fungal deathtrap and braved undead swordsmen, unicobras, and psychadelic living spiky flaming things to make it to some god-forsaken hole middle eastern town with what seems to be a cow motif in the middle of a desert. We also learned of some naming changes that Namco Bandai intends to use for the US release of this game's home console counterpart: Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, which will be influencing our choice of location and character names Unfortunately, due to life considerations, this update will in all likelihood be trending on the shorter side of things and focus more on story progression and puzzle solving than combat.
Now... Where did we leave off last time?
ババナシア 王国.
- Walking the red until the Event, we will have a hole マル (which later would become of us).
- Then, use the Gate spell to return to the original.
Ah yes... That would be a good place to start.
We follow our beloved red arrows and... Find a crossroads? Well... No reason why not to see what's here in this town, let's take a detour. We take a detour at the crossroads heading left, and proceed to talk to every NPC that we can find... And smash up every pot and barrel down this inverted L shaped alley. There's not much here, we found an arrow in one of the barrels, but the NPC- Oh. There's a guy with a yellow speech bubble... Let's listen to him.
Our most immediate observation beyond the fact of "What on earth are you saying anyways?" is that this particular NPC has chat sprites. He's a brown-haired guy in a blue cloak and turban... And apparently quite a mouth to match that moustache. He talks for quite a bit, with Oliver and Drippy(/Shizuku) occasionally piping up. Didn't Oliver's mom ever tell him not to talk to panhandlers strangers? He's apparently talking a bit about the local history... A reference to some sort of event 10 years ago pops up with a quotebox containing 6 hiragana following a couple dialogue boxes later.
Oh, it's a mission... Er... Yeah, let's politely decline Mr. Blue Turban here and move on our way. Continuing down the alley takes us to another back alley. Beyond some NPCs to harass, there's not much here beyond scenery. Continuing further down will take you to a bookshop... Hey wait a minute... That looks almost like the shop in Ding Dong Dell, albeit positioned differently... I wonder... And we step through the door, find a clone of our questgiver from up the street by the door that we talk to on the way in and... Is EVERY shopkeeper in this game a ninja clone or something? The proprietor looks EXACTLY like the guy back in Kittyland! At least he had the courtesy to switch up the interior decorations though.
If you head south, you'll wind up in the same main plaza that we came in through last time. Looks like there's a rightward path to check out as well... Hmm... The map in the next area shows an icon for a weapons shop and an item shop... Let's take a gander at both. As with the bookshop, both the shops look superficially similar on the outside (like a corvid and an owl respectively), and are staffed by evil clones shopkeepers that look identical to their counterparts in Ding Dong Dell. The interiors of the shops look quite different if you're the touristy type though. Speaking of which, this area has the first cat-person NPC that we've seen around since before the fungal dungeon of death. Looks like we're not the only tourists around these parts.
Continuing up takes us to a corridor with a few NPCs to talk to- Oh. What's this? There's a pair of women with chat sprites... Sadly the limitations of language impair what ought to have been an informative scene... For all I know, Oliver's in danger of being snatched off the street for subversive dress. We happen to run into another blue-turbaned questgiver in the next area in front of a tent with paintings... Whose story apparently gives Oliver and Drippy quite a good start. After a little talking, a guy in a white turban and purple cloak comes over to add his 2 cents. The two talk for a bit... Presumably moaning about how much life sucks for them, Drippy interrupts with a question and there's a little more talking before the game asks us if we want to take on quest number 045... Nope! At least, not today. We have a red arrow to find and chase!
As it would so happen, the next area to the left of this point is that intersection from earlier, so let's get back to our task... The area directly north of the intersection is like the castle entrance back at Ding Dong Dell. There's no map on the top screen, instread you get a lovely double-screened serving of gush-worthy scenery. Alright, let's press on. The next area has some barrels and pots to smash up. I got a jug of milk from one of them. There's also some sort of house with palm trees on the map, which also happens to have an NPC with a yellow exclamation mark over his head, so let's look at that. Loitering in front of the shop, we find- Hey! I know you! You're from the game manual! ... And you're not talky right now either, so let's ignore you for now.
The guy at the shop is a prototypical basketball player rather dark complexioned compared to most of the other NPCs we've seen in this to- Oh hey, the VAs returned! Oliver and our shopkeeper have VAs this time around. After a few lines including a couple mentions to Jabo, the music dies out... Must be something big about to happen... We get our attention turned to Miss "Hey, I'm gonna be your party member, deal with with it," who gets a few lines from her VA... And a chat sprite that makes her look like she's about to be hit by a truck. Drippy is apparently freaked out about something related to this blonde chick... The shopkeeper pipes up again, drops a few more mentions to Jabo... ... Oliver apparently recognizes this girl? Now that you mention it... She DOES look a bit like that one girl from the cutscene with Mark's deathtrap... Oliver says a few things to the shopkeeper, raises his eyebrows on one occasion... And proceeds to piss him off.
We get moved up to the top of the street by the game. Drippy and Oliver banter a bit. Drippy looks kinda frustrated, Oliver winds up apparently yelling at him... And Drippy drops a red term consisting of 1 kanji (which appears to be "heart"), hiragana no, and 2 further kanji... Er... Okay? Drippy talks some more... Drops the term "world" a couple times... "One person"... And then we get freed to move on by the game. The area to the immediate north is a plaza with a fountain... There's some barrels and pots to smash up, one of them gave me some sort of blue jar... And a pair of NPCs to the east that have chat sprites, along with a local guard by a reflecting pool in the north who's got one. Going further along the reflecting pool will take you to the entrance of some sort of bullhorned palace. There's a couple guards in front of the palace who will more or less tell you "Who the hell are you?" if you talk to them, and proceed to yell at you and presumably threaten to make you into a human shish kabob if you try and run past them (of course, they don't even have chat sprites, so)...
... Wait, we were supposed to use Gate somewhere along the line, weren't we?
- Walking the red until the Event, we will have a hole マル (which later would become of us).
- Then, use the Gate spell to return to the original.
... Right, let's do that now and see what happens.
One Gate transport scene later... And we walk through that magic gate back to Motorville(/Hotroit) and... WHY ARE YOU STILL IN TIGHTS, OLIVER?! Oliver and Drippy have an unvoiced exchange, and then we get an arrow prompting us to head eastward. Oh, so we're here again... It's that one park with the horse statue and concentric circular paths... We get another arrow prompting us to head southwest, so let's do that.
Er... What ARE we doing here anyways?
ホットロイト の 町.
- Walk away from the scene and go to 町 工场 地区.
- Walk down to the other side will come home to Unlock the magic inside with cherry シェリー.
- Moved from the scene and go to 南 工业 区.
- Went into the garage. We will see the event. We then noticed a dark man possessed. It is the devil out.
- I had to get rid of the cast Heart Peace.
- Talk to us while casting Heart Cure.
- Back to 町 工场 地区 to Cherry Heart Peace シェリー then cast again.
- Casting Gate to return to the Integrated Church Banana Shea ババナシア 王国.
... Integrated Church Banana Shea? What the-? Er... Let's just follow those arro- OH! WE CAN GO TO OTHER PLACES IN TOWN NOW! Namely some sort of hotel on the west side... And a trainyard to the south. According to the guide we should be heading back to Main Street first though... Eh forget that. EXPLORATION!
A quick scan of the train station reveals that while it LOOKS pretty, there's not much to do at the moment here beyond talk with NPCs and smash up some boxes that serve the same purpose as the pots and barrels we've been busting back in our magical parallel world. The hotel appears to be more accurately a motel... One that's apparently called "Billi's"... It's got a car on the roof, the restaurant apparently serves Burgers and Burritos... And there's a truck and two motorcycles parked up front. Hmm... Let's take a quick peek.
Shop's a little crammed. There's a guy in front of a pinball machine by the door, and another guy in front of a jukebox. There's some guy with an Elvis-esque hairdo behind the counter, but it looks like this "King" won't be helping us out much... There's also a locked door that keeps you from going up to the second floor right now. Eh, let's blow this place. So we head back to Oliver's house and- Hey! There's nothing to unlock here! Uh... Let's try the grocery store? ... Nope... Oh! That's new... There's a part of main street on the south side that we've never seen before! ... Stupid inconspicuous alleys and their warehouses. As we head down it, the game kindly highlights a house for us to break into. We head up to the house... Ring the doorbell... And... No one answers. And the door's locked. It's at this point that a woman that you may have remembered seeing back in the very first update on the sidewalk walks up... There's a bit of an exchange before she continues on her way... Oliver and Drippy yack a bit, and then the game frees you to move... There's an exclamation mark over the door... We're using magic to bust mundane locks that could probably be picked with a paperclip?
... Apparently, yes. We open the front door, run into the house, and get transported into the room of that girl who was spying on us back when Mark was showing off that deathtrap of his. Who as noted, bears more than a passing resemblance to Miss Quiet back in the desert town. As you talk to her, some rather sad sounding music begins to play in the background... What's this girl's story? She says something that freaks both Oliver and Drippy out... Either she doesn't see Drippy, or she apparently doesn't care. Our... Friend... Er... What is her name? Help me out here, Google Translate... ... Sherry. Eventually stops to turn and sulk out the window some more. Drippy then beckons us to come closer and begins to talk with Oliver, presumably giving ideas for how to make Sherry a little less chronically goth depressed. Sherry notices us mumbling to ourselves, which prompts Oliver to make a hasty attempt to cover his tracks. Sherry mentions something about her father... And returns to sulking.
We leave the house, and get prompted to follow an arrow northwards. The arrows lead us to exit back to the overworld for Motorville and... Oh, so " 南 工业 区" is apparently a factory district across the river. Let's go there. Upon entering this district, we get an arrow prompting us into a garage with some rusted out car bodies up front... Uh... You know, this really isn't that inviting, game... Oh well, let's see what's going on here...
We walk in... On a guy who looks like that shopkeeper back in the desert town except with lighter complexion... In front of a orange and black jalopy. Drippy proceeds to freak out once our guy turns around... Wait, why is he emanating a creepy purple mist?
- Went into the garage. We will see the event. We then noticed a dark man possessed. It is the devil out.
... Oookay... This will be... Different. Some blonde woman walks in with a package... Looks like a snack. That she attempts to offer the man... Only to have it smacked out of her hands and on the floor. She turns and leaves, and the dark purple... Thing from our car buff gets much more noticeable. Drippy drops a 5-katakana red phrase... And... Our car buff collapses onto the floor as a freaky cutscene has a purple aura swallow up the room, a violet vortex form a portal on the floor... And a demonic... Thing emerges from it. Looks kinda like an anorexic Gruntilda.
... Oh crap, we've got to FIGHT this thing! Uh... Let's try and run with our standard buff, bait, and switch. We bring Drippy out onto the field and assume an "all in a row stance" with Rucci playing meatshield. And the first attack off the bat is something that affects a T-shaped region occupying the first row and the middle cell... Which does something to Rucci... Uh... Well, at least we got 70 HP of damage out... Turn 2 reveals what Rucci's status effect is... He apparently has the accuracy of a drunken seal right now. Which causes turn 2 to result in only Oliver dealing any damage. Fortunately, Gruntilda here is more or less dealing scratch damage. Let's punt Drippy off the field and take Taillow out. And we promptly lose Taillow to an accuracy debuff... Uh... New strategy, hug the back row. We get two turns off for that... Dealing about 60 HP damage a turn. On round 2 this hag to uses her T-shaped trick again, which hits EVERYONE (which thankfully doesn't connect). Uh... Okay, let's pick a DIFFERENT strategy... Everyone in a different row and column. One more salvo of attacks puts the hag out 80 or so HP, and finally gives her trouble standing upright. Let's put this witch down for the count! After defeating Gruntilda, she screams a bit, wavers, and has her body explode in a purple burst. Mission accomplished?
When the game resumes, we find our car buff slumped over against his ride as the blonde from earlier runs in to check up on him. Oliver and Drippy yack a bit, and a quoted term gets dropped. Running up to talk with the woman prompts us to cast a spell.. Uh... Right, Heart Peace.... Doing so gives us a nice blue emblem for that perfume bottle of ours. And now Heart Cure for our guy on the ground.
Doing so nets Oliver some Benevolessence sort of glowy golden orb from the man, which gets absorbed into him. At this point, the game tells us to blow this dump, presumably to try and make Sherry a little less dour. Going back to Sherry's house, we make the belated discovery that you can use the stylus to move around on the overworld, and we see- IS THAT DOOR SERIOUSLY LOCKED AGAIN?! We cast an Unlock and break into the house... Again. It is at this point that Sherry mentions something about dad, Oliver tries to drag her outside, and... Oh so THAT'S why that guy from the factory district was important! He's Sherry's DAD. He enters into a long bit... Presumably begging her to forgive him for being so enraptured with his man-toys... And treating her and her mother so curtly. It is at this point that Sherry starts to break down and cry... (Though Level 5 was a little cheap with the sprites, you can only tell that she's crying from her VA and her overworld model. A short cut to the outside later, and we see Sherry take her first steps that we've seen in-game outside... And proceed to glomp Oliver. She tells us thanks, presumably for finally making her family happy again. It is after this point that the VAs go on strike, but Oliver and Sherry talk for a little more. And we get prompted to use Heart Peace. Which nets us a green icon for our perfume jar... Hey! What happened to our BLUE one?
At this point, all that's really left for us to do is to return to Ni no Kuni... Let's head back to that desert town and save by that merchant's shop again.
Takeaway Points:
- The Layout of the Second Town:
| Palace | ||
| Left Path | Non-Traversable Reflector Pool | Right Path |
| Plaza | ||
| Shop With Future Party Member / Sherry Lookalike | ||
| Even More Scenic Alley | ||
| Alley With Questgiver | 4-Way Crossroads | Alley With Questgiver |
| Scenic Alley | ↕ Between Plaza and Crossroads | Scenic Alley |
| Bookstore | Plaza with Inn | Weapons and Item Shops |
| Gate | ||
- If you don't feel like using the D-Pad, or for you 3DS users, the Circle Pad, one can move about on the overworld by dragging your stylus along the screen to form a directional pointer. For those who have played it, a handy comparable device would be TWEWY's blue pointer on the touchscreen, except you can see a ray between the pointer and Oliver.
- Places we can go to in Motorville now:
- Main Street
- Our house
- Sherry's house
- A grocery store.
- A park
- The local train station
- An industrial district
- A motel and diner staffed by an Elvis impersonator
- Main Street
- Sherry's dad is the worst demon summoner ever. Remember folks, if you for some reason want have a demon lying around for your own personal use without being possessed, use a computer, or Tarot Cards, or a DS, or if you're feeling really controversial, use a device that TOTALLY does not make you look like you're miming suicide with a handgun. Also, knowing that you have a demon around you is probably a plus.
- As an aside to the above note, it remains to be seen whether there will be red bird and brown bear Imagines with which to vanquish further witch-like demons.
- Strategy for defeating the evil spirit possessing Sherry's father, TL/DR version: There's not much to this fight, just split up your team so that everyone is in a different row and make sure that no one is immediately diagonal to each other. That right there will stop this boss' annoying accuracy affecting attack from hitting more than two of your party members at any one time. Beyond that this boss appears to be pathetically easy, with her attacks dealing single HP damage even without Drippy's defense buffs. Really, if you somehow get your head handed to you here, you're probably doing something dreadfully wrong.
- No one in Motorville apparently cares that you're strutting around in a red cape and tights.
- The world of Ni No Kuni is apparently overrun by shopkeeper clones. What their obviously nefarious designs are remain to be seen.
- We will apparently be recruiting an alternate world equivalent to Sherry in the imminent future. It remains to be seen as to what she will bring to the table.
Stats:
- Oliver: Level 11: 69 HP / 44(/46) MP
- Rucci: Level 13: 100 HP / 40 MP
- Taillow: Level 12: 77 HP / 32 MP
- G: 1399.
- Play Time: 20 hours, 34 minutes, 50 seconds.
Next time, we will (hopefully) obtain a new party member, and mug some more monsters.
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