Last time, we unlocked the last part of our bag menu, (theoretically) learned how to item craft, and befriended a genie after beating the crap out of him as part of a short tropical vacation.
Now...
ババナシア 王国.
- Visit the palace. The event occurred.
- Then, we use a Magic Gate back to the original.
ホットロイト の 町.
- Walk away from the scene and go to 町 工场 地区.
- Walking the red arrow to hunt with forests レイラ.
- Gate of the magic back to the parallel world.
ババナシア 王国.
- Walk along the red arrow. Casting will not spring for Cooking Magic 调理 魔法.
Sounds like we're going to see a few familiar places. Let's get going then.
A fast jog back to our desert town, and we launch straight into dialogue upon entering the gate. Oliver asks a question, presumably our own question of "Now what?" Drippy says some stuff... Something about a queen... Maru chimes in briefly, and then the game frees us up to move about as we see fit, let's do what any sane person who has no idea what they're doing and follow those pretty red arrows. Huh. Haven't seen this in a while... It's the eyecatch corridor that heads up to the shop where we first ran into Maru... Anyhow, continuing. And Maru's father has apparently abandoned his banana stand, so we keep right on trucking... Talking with the guard by the reflector pool reveals a chat sprite now... But the arrows tell us to go further, so let's do that. Oh? We're finally being allowed into this th- Oh? It's dialogue/cutscene time again...
Drippy makes a comment and we walk up the steps... Only to have a couple guards go 'Hey kid, get lost already!' A third guy, dressed in yellow and green unlike our blue and our orange annoyances comes from the palace and asks something, probably 'what on earth is going on here?' or something like that. The other guards are a bit startled, the orange guard runs his mouth off a bit... Drippy uses that 'Are you kidding me?' face we got acquainted with last time... Maru shrieks at politely tells him to put a sock in it, which startles Drippy a bit, and then calms down and continues a bit. The green guard says a few things that I unfortunately have no idea what they mean... And after a few happy words, things appear to have gone downhill, as Maru's breaking out the figurative megaphone again. Which give the green guard a good start. Oliver jumps in in opening up on this guy, who ultimately gives us a "sorry bub, but you can't come in here just yet" look.
... Or not. We just got admitted into the palace... Into some sort of hallway... The green guard goes off ahead... And... We see a portrait... Of a cow queen?
The blue guard tells us something, which freaks Oliver out. Drippy for some reason seems happy about whatever it was that we were just told... The green guy returns from the room up ahead and gives us a bit of a "sorry" look... There's some back and forth with Oliver... Drippy chimes in slightly annoyed... And gets floored by something that green tells us. Maru tries to prod a bit, but is similarly startled by something green had to say. Green eventually heads off and blue gives a short blurb, presumably "you heard him, now get lost". And lo and behold, we are thrown out of the palace.
The game now prompts us to head south from Miss Moo's blue horn-roofed pad. So let's take the hint. We hit the plaza right in front of the reflecting pool, and there's a bit of a cutscene... Drippy seems annoyed by what just happened... While Maru gets an idea... Which seems to have perked Oliver up a bit... I take it we're casting a gate spell soon? Whelp, "I no Kuni" was mentioned, so I'm guessing that's a 'yes'... Drippy talks a bit... Apparently this queen is tied to something... There's a quoted string of 7 hiragana... Maru has a bit of a perky exclamation... And then we're freed to move about... ... Uh?
- Then, we use a Magic Gate back to the original.
Right, we can do that.
One gate spell later, and suddenly Maru, Oliver, and Drippy are running around Motorville's square north of the park... The locals still as uncaring as ever about our garb. Can they even see it? There's a little bit of chatter between the three and then the game prompts us to head right... Taking us back to the part of the park with the circular paths. We run out... And into the district selection map for Motorville... Where do we go anyways?
- Walk away from the scene and go to 町 工场 地区.
According to this map, that would be the main street... Wonder what happened to it this time?
We hit Main Street... It hasn't changed much. Still has the same NPCs... And the same horribly parked cars... We get prompted to go to the gro- OH! That's who that cow queen is! She's the clerk who brought us pie!
When you near the shop, you'll automatically trigger a cutscene / chain of dialogue. Oliver runs up to the shop's door. Finds it shut, and proceeds to pound on it, which startles Drippy quite a bit... And it's at this time that we happen to run into Sherry... With Maru like 2 feet away from us... Uh... Appropriately, Oliver's expression can be summed up in roughly as many words.
... She didn't notice Maru...? That's... Different... Maru most certainly noticed her... Sherry goes up to the shop door, as Oliver, Maru, and Drippy yack a bit amongst themselves. Drippy winds up scolding Maru about something about people that live in Ni no Kuni... Maybe it's physically impossible for anyone to see our embarrassing mage's outfit? Oliver and Sherry yack a bit, the latter startling the former a couple times, presumably going 'who are you talking to, Oliver?' a few times. Oliver eventually gets flustered enough to take of running. With Drippy and Maru running after him. Sherry makes a few remarks on the steps of the shop after we leave. We apparently ran all the way back to the park. Guess this is where we say goodbye to Motorville for a while. We cast a Gate spell... And find ourselves back in the main square of the desert town.
There's some talking between Oliver and Maru... Drippy butts in, which apparently gives Maru an idea and makes Oliver look rather nervous... Just what did you get us into anyways? A couple lines later, and we get prompted to head northward again. On our way there, we happen to notice a couple NPCs in the eyecatch alley. The right woman's apparently a quest giver, whom we brushed off pretty fast. There's an old woman talking with some bearded dude on the right... They're talking for quite a bit... Oh great, more que-
Whelp, bearded guy's gone, and granny's glowing... Drippy has a talkie sprite seems more upset than I've ever seen it... What just happened? Oliver and the elderly lady talk for a bit... And then it's spell time... Uh... Heart Peace! Which nets us a lovely blue swirly thing for our perfume jar. The lady gives us a couple parting words, and then we're freed to carry on.
Continuing our tradition of 'mindlessly following red arrows,' we get led to that plaza before the reflecting pool... Which launches into a cutscene... Uh...
ババナシア 王国.
- Walk along the red arrow. Casting will not spring for Cooking Magic 调理 魔法.
- We have a giant cheese どでか チーズ to the imperial palace.
- When it came out. We must cast Heart Peace.
- Back to her again. Casting The Heart Cure.
- And then casting 迷宮 の 目 Eye Maze.
- Followed by Magic Treasure Search トレジャー サーチ.
- After that, go back to 港町 ビッキーニ.
Looks like we're going to be breaking out that wand a bit... Anyhow, back to that cutscene:
Maru and Oliver talk a bit... The former looking quite a bit more cheerful and all around not non-plussed than the latter. Drippy tells us something... And then Oliver is... Let up to the fountain? What's going on here? Hmm... Looks like it's time to cast a spell...
After playing around with some spells, we eventually get past our spell prompt with the 26th spell in-book (Looks like a G in a opened box)... The fountain's actually got water in it now... But what the heck did we just do? Drippy seems pretty pleased about whatever just happened... Oliver... Not so much. And... Food items come spewing out of the fountain... O_o Uh... Yay?
We apparently got some sort of cheese item. There's a little more talking between the three, and then you're freed to move. Unfortunately, you don't get to pick up any of the other goodies that came out, they vanish when you're freed up again. And we get prompted to head to the palace again. Hopefully we'll see Lady Bovina here this time...
We head in, and... Hey wait a minute! This fountain thing wasn't here last time! It's pretty, but there's not much to do here, and the left and right alcoves are dead ends, so let's press on. Okay, now things look familiar... And green's here too. Let's go talk to him. There's some talking, and we're admitted in... And treated to an animated cutscene of Oliver and company bringing a massive hunk of cheese in to a lazy cow queen who fawns over the thing. Unfortunately for us, she's far too lazy to get out of bed and take it for herself, so Oliver has to put it on her bed, lug the thing over her fat body and then push the cheese into her mouth before she eats it. If you were wondering what on earth was going on in that still floating on the net with the giant with its mouth agape, well, there's your answer.
Miss Moo continues on a bit... This exchange and the animated cutscene before it marking the return of the VAs. Everyone here has a VA, including green. Miss Moo sounds a touch whiny... And Green a bit exasperated. (Hey, if I had to feed this thing like that, I'd be frustrated too! Hopefully she's at least a bit more proactive when responding to the call of nature...) Drippy launches into some exposition... Namedrops a red phrase... 'Kaman' apparently... Drippy says something about the queen... Oliver about 'Kaman'... Maru pipes in...
And we leave the queen's chamber... And our VAs went on strike too. Oliver asks Maru a question about Kaman... Maru gives a short reply that I can't parse... And then green follows us out. And proceeds to presumably whine about his job for a while. Whatever's going on, it's enough to shock Oliver, Drippy, and Maru. He clearly has to put up with more than simple feedings... Maru lobs a question back... And a short exchange is enough to startle to poor guy... Then Oliver suddenly starts glowing green... Wait a minute, we're casting Heart Peace on ourselves? Green is understandably leery of some kid throwing magic around willy-nilly, but whatever, Heart Peace time.
We cast, and find that we have gotten some sort of light blue square spiral thing in our perfume jar...
After that, Green talks for a short bit, and we wind up being dragged before the cow queen again... Oliver runs up the stairway we just used to feed our royal narcoleptic... And now we should cast Heart Cure... We do so... Cause Bessie here to glow a bit, and a clear orb to be transferred over from her to Oliver. Which is enough to finally motivate her to drag herself out of bed. And probably make the lot of us wet ourselves as she totters on her underused legs a bit and almost crushes us all under her fat body. Green and the queen talk for a bit... And then she asks Oliver a few questions... Green whispers a few things into her ear from the top of that stairway.. There's some more talking... And Oliver thanks her? What did we just get? There's mention of something related to the sea... And green runs down to give us...
Oh! It's a map! Oliver says thanks again, there's a little bit of awkwardness after one of Queenie's questions, and Drippy hastily feeds us a question to ask... The topic of Jabo comes up, which startles both green and the queen... He's a boss apparently... But why's he important again? And... We just got laughed at... There's something about the world... Jabo... And four people... Looks like we need to find our extra team member soon? Oliver mentions 'Mother'... And Drippy groans out of annoyance... Lady Bovina drops some sort of red phrase... A 'Bogu Empire'? What the heck is that?
Green quickly leaves the chamber and returns... With... Something. Oliver and Drippy yack a bit... And now the VAs died out. Oliver appears to thank the queen... She makes some sort of comment... And Oliver gets majorly startled by the response. There's some more talking... The queen drops two red phrases... They're apparently the strings that represent the 'Eye Maze' and 'Treasure Search' spells that the guide mentions... There's another red phrase consisting of '見', 3 Hiragana, and 2 further Kanji... And we're apparently asked to show off our magic a bit.
Whipping out that stylus and Trope-Tan, we figure out that 'Eye Maze' is the 13th spell in the book. The one that looks like the shepherd's crook overlaid with the 'M'. The queen then asks us to show off the 'Treasure Search' spell. It looks similar, only with a half-circle instead of an 'M' overlaid, and the crook is drawn from bottom to top instead of top to bottom. After that, there's some more talking and- Oh hey, the VAs returned! ... For all of 3 lines... It is at this point that we get presented with an option to save. Let's take it.
And now, I believe we have a southern sea town to head to... What's going to be going on there?
南 の 港町 ビッキーニ.
- Walk to the red to the red ゼルガス after it. The events that we pursue. ジャイロ gyro.
- At the end of the chase. The devil is in the gyro will come out. And then we will have a shield against Giant Monster. The gyro is.
- Gyro gun sling is used to keep the green box. Do not forget to leave out the chest to hold it.
- After this, we can not travel by boat.
- Out of town to the red.
- On the way to the event occurred. We will change it to another.
- Change the path to the red of the A of vessels on the lot to the island リゾー 島.
- Up until I デル ยท モカール.
... Sounds like a fight... And a boat a few hoops after that... But eh, we need some excitement in this update. Let's go bag a gyro devil!
After a fast jaunt back to the seaside town, we notice that we get red arrows again... Let's see where they take us... Following them apparently leads us towards the docks... As we hit the passageway right before them, Drippy launches into some dialogue with Oliver... And Maru chimes in. Apparently going on about how they've got a piece of paper given by a queen, and how it's going to be so totally useful getting to that Bogus Bogu Empire. On our way up, we see a guy in a black afro, a green coat, and some shorts that look very familiar if you've been following this game's promotional materials at all notice us passing from a shop.
We head back to the ship... And promptly get laughed at by that jerk captain from last time. We show him our royal map, and he gets utterly shocked by the fact that we actually managed to get something useful from that narcoleptic. There's some more talking... Some more laughing... But this guy seems impressed... And proceeds to get aboard the boat... And the game prompts us to backtrack for some reason... Hmm... Oh well, let's just do it-
Eh? Oh! It's that guy from the stand! He comes running after us... ... How did he get up here without us noticing again? Oh, so that's 'Gyro'... ... He's possessed then? o_O He certainly seems a bit unsettled... And then he proceeds to run off as some tense music that we normally hear before bosses plays. Drippy appears to be rather visibly freaking out... Okay, maybe Gyro is possessed... Anyways, after him!
We attempt to follow Gyro, but the guy just keeps running! Let's save here just in case his not so friendly companion turns out to be a bit tougher than we expected. We reach the bridge on the passageway, which Drippy points out... Eh? We're supposed to take a detour? Well... I guess we could- Hey what the-?! Why do you point out places that you don't want me to go to, Drippy?! Anyways, onto that red arrow then... We head south, and then across that bridge... And then see that Gyro sees that he has managed to get himself cornered. All that's left to do now is to cut this sucker off. Gyro blows by, more or less runs over Drippy, and makes a beeline for the docks.
We get to him, corner him on a pier with some rather tired-looking eyes... There's a bit of yelling both ways... And then that nasty purple aura that we saw on Sherry's dad back in Motorville envelops Gyro. And he totters and collapses on the end of the pier as a freaky and buffer looking version of Gruntilda emerges from a violet void in a negative image realm. You know what this means...
For our first move, we have Rucci and Taillow both boost their attack stats and have Oliver play around with his 4 MP spell. As luck would have it, that particular spell appears to deal boosted damage and took off 130 HP, and Bufftilda's attack here on Taillow appeared to be ineffectual... Let's try a round of attack from Rucci and Taillow and repeat that spell from Oliver. In the second round, we rack up quite a bit of damage. Taillow did 42, Rucci did 116 in the front row, and Oliver did 128. Unfortunately, we also learned that Bufftilda is... Well... Buff. She kinda took off 36 HP from Rucci. Oh well, since we've eaten through like 40% of her health already, let's just keep going. The next round is pretty similar, dealing 42 HP, 110 HP, and 120 HP from Taillow, Rucci, and Oliver respectively, and putting Bufftilda into sub-30% health. On our end, Taillow ate a little over 20 HP from an attack. Anyways, let's end this...
And somehow another salvo isn't enough to down this thing, Bufftilda scraping by with like 5% health. Fortunately, her attack was that ineffectual skull thing that she tried on Taillow earlier, so nothing happened on our end. A cherry tap from Taillow later and-
O_O
THERE'S A SECOND FORM TO THIS THING?!
Superficially, we made quite a jump from 'Bufftilda'. Getting left with some sort of gray burly thing with black chicken legs, a spiked white and blue cap, and yellow sideburns and goatee of evil. Uh... I wonder if the same attacks will harm it in the same way? Since Rucci and Taillow's attack buff apparently wore off, let's restore that. Trying out our strategy from last time, it appears that Oliver's spell no longer does boosted damage... But on the other hand, it ate a larger chunk of chickenlegs' health bar. Also, chickenlegs happens to hit harder. Oliver ate a 34 HP bum rush... From the back row. In our next round, we get the boss' second form down to like 10% health. He apparently can't take nearly as much of a physical punch. Rucci's attack alone dealt 149 HP (though, for his part, he ate a 44 HP hit). And now we should be able to cherry tap our way to victory... Once again, Taillow delivers the final blow. Which nets us 1354 Exp and 212 G. Which causes 4 of the party's members to level up.
After getting exorcised, Gyro remains rather cranky despite the group's attempts to talk some sense into him... And we're kinda worn out... So let's hit the inn and call it an update here...
...
Actually, on second thought, I'm too cheap to go and blow 90 G on a seaside room. Let's just save and call it an update.
Takeaway Points:
- It remains unclear if anyone in Hotroit can see Maru or Drippy... But it appears that they can certainly see Oliver interacting with them. So we probably have made more than a couple people think that he's starting to go insane from grief.
- The VAs and animators FINALLY returned and put up a decent showing in this update. How much longer they'll be this way remains to be seen.
- Monarchs in Ni no Kuni are incompetent Petting-Zoo People who need prepubescent mages to come along and give their innermost beings a magical roundhouse punch to put them back into action. How this world hasn't been overrun by evil overlords at this point is beyond me.
- Defeating Gyro's
little frienddemon, TL/DR version: Unfortunately Gyro's demon didn't really display all that much attack diversity, so it remains unclear whether or not he would be capable of the same dick moves as "Gruntilda" was in update 9. One thing that is immediately clearer is that it hits a lot harder (as this update's HP stats can attest to), and has multiple forms. Expect to see 20+ HP attacks from the back row in the first phase of the battle, and 30+ HP attacks there in the second phase, which should be taken into account for party member placement. Other than that, it's merely a rinse, lather, repeat matter of preparing any status buffs, attacking, and restoring HP and MP as needed until Gyro's demon keels over. - Gyro is apparently our fourth story-based party member... Though how we're supposed to recruit him at this point after our less than stellar first encounter remains unclear.
- He also appears to have some rather nasty inner demons to boot.
- As for who on earth names their kid 'Gyro'? ... No clue.
- Unfortunately, pushing 'Mr. Annoying Laugh' off of the pier is not physically possible, so we will have to look for other ways to make him pay for his insult to our dignity in the last update.
Stats:
- Oliver: Level 19: 75(/105) HP / 53(/79) MP
- Rucci: Level 21: 71(/151) HP / 50(/82) MP
- Taillow: Level 19 100(/128) HP / 39(/63) MP*
- G: 6476
- Play Time: 36 hours, 24 minutes, 46 seconds.
In the next update, we will attempt to finally get aboard a boat in this game.
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