Note: Suggestion was keep what I had but give the next Djinn to Isaac regardless.
Okay readers, this time we're going to be going through the Kolima region.
Now before I begin, there is a little bit of Sequence Breaking we can do here. Instead of going east through the barricade we went through at the end of the last post, we could have gone north, to the Imil region. This leads us to getting our fourth party member early, but ends in a boss much harder than the one we're going up against hopefully by the end of this update.
Also, just to clarify, I may change my Djinn setup before bosses. I don't want my strategies to be stuffed up by bad class choices and some combinations may not make full use of my Djinn. (Giving everyone the same element, for example, is a bad idea.)
On the way to Kolima we go on a small detour to find a pair of Turtle Boots. It gives us a small Defence boost in exchange for halving Agility. I'm not gonna use them right now, but I may have a use for them later.
As we enter Kolima, it seems that everyone's been turned into trees. As we try to puzzle out why, we notice sparkly stuff everywhere. And then something attacks us and paralyses us. A wave of the sparkly stuff approaches us. Realising that this must have been what happened to everyone else, we come to the conclusion that we are utterly screwed.
Wait, WHAT?
These giant blue bubbles, appear around us and shield us from the sparkly stuff. Ivan thinks it was our Psynergy acting subconsciously. Garet then likens it to critical hits.
Garet: I think it's like when we strike critical hits in battle. We can't control it, but it's there when we need it.
Then explain the one Isaac got before you two learnt Psynergy. And they're not there when you need them, they're (pseudo-)random.
Because the thing that attacked us is a giant arse, it attacks us with the sparkly stuff again. It's that sacred tree, Tret, doing it because people have been logging the forest. And he's dying. And when he and the other sacred tree, Laurel die, they're taking all the humans turned tree with them. Laurel asks us to reawaken Tret's good personality so he can undo this stupid revenge plot.
So let's head to Kolima Forest, but not before grabbing some stuff. First we get an Apple, an Attack booster. It goes to Ivan.
Then, we go into the basement of a house here to recruit another Djinn. Granite is a Venus Djinn that gives 9 HP, 2 Defence, 2 Agility and 1 Luck. In battle, it halves the damage the party takes for the whole turn. (It has priority so it always goes first)
We also get access to the Ramses Summon. For 2 Venus Djinn, it attacks with 60 Venus power plus 6% of the opponents HP, and raises the users Venus power by 30. And it's a pyramid that punches the target in the face. That's gotta count for something.
On Endark's advice, Granite is going to Isaac for now, but I will probably change the setup later, especially as we get one more Djinn before the boss and having two of the same element on a character gets a better class than what we have available now.
The Kolima Forest is full of annoying log rolling puzzles, but still fairly linear.
Garet learns Weaken at level 9. Unlike status ailment spells, statistic changing spells can be very useful. Especially Weaken, as it lowers Resistance.
A nice thing about dungeons is that in rooms with complex puzzles, the encounter rate is low or zero. It makes it easier to keep track of things.
Now this next puzzle is interesting. The logs are floating in an artificial lake. We can trip a floodgate switch to empty the lake and move the logs, then refill the lake. We move the logs around to get a Fur Coat, clothes which up Mercury Resist by 20. We give it to Ivan.
Some more log rolling later, and we're at Tret and Laurel. Laurel tells us we are too late, and trying to talk to Tret results in his bad half taking over. So we have to go inside him to beat the crap out of his bad half.
This dungeon, which is called Tret Tree, is filled with spider webs with leaves on them. Jumping on a leaf breaks the leaf, and jumping on a broken leaf breaks the web, and drops us down a few floors. There are also outdoor segments where we have to search under the leaves for a vine to take us up a floor.
We find our first Ring, the Healing Ring. Rings give us an ability that we would usually have to spend PP for, but can break if overused. The Healing Ring restores 70 HP.
We encounter Trolls here, one of the few enemies I consider notable as they regenerate 10 HP a turn.
Near the top of Tret, we take a small detour to find a Jupiter Djinn. This one decides to fight us. However, it's weak to Venus, and both Isaac and Ivan have Growth. Too easy.
The Jupiter Djinni Breeze joined Garet.
Breeze gives 12 HP, 5 PP, 2 Defence and 1 Luck. When used, he ups the party's Resistance by 40 in all elements.
We also gain access to the Atlanta Summon. She costs 2 Jupiter Djinn, and attacks at 60 Jupiter Power, plus 6% of the targets HP and increases the users Jupiter Power by 30. Graphically, she just floats in the air and shoots tons of arrows at the target.
Now that we have all the Djinn before the boss and are nearly at him, it's time to set up. Both Jupiter Djinn go to Isaac, making him an Illusionist (Venus). Garet gets Forge, making him a Guard again (I know I hate the class, but it's useful here), and Ivan gets both Venus Djinn, making him a Diviner (Jupiter).
On the top floor, I have to break a large spider web right in the middle. This drops us on the bottom floor, right in front of Tret's face. He's angry to say the least.
Tret: You! You hoped to find my kindly self? Fools! You should never have come here, and now, you shall never leave! Your powers protected you in the forest, but now you are in the heart of my power! Here, you will all become trees, and you'll wither with the rest of us!
Unfortunately, Isaac has no voice to Shut Up, Hannibal! with, so we resort to attacking him. Tret can use a lot of Venus attacks, and can put s to sleep. He is weak to Mars, so Garet pulls a lot of damage here. Isaac and Ivan use their strongest attacks, and Ivan heals when we need it. 6 rounds to put him out of his misery.
Smashing his evil self causes the good Tret to wake up. He decides that he should just die now, but we ask him to fix Kolima. However, his power no longer reaches Kolima, so we need to heal him before he dies.
We Mind Read Laurel and find out we could heal Tret with the water from Mercury Lighthouse, but it's dried up. So that's our next task. See you then.
Stats:
Isaac: Lv 10 Illusionist (Venus) HP:153 PP:71 Attack:111 Defence:68 Agility:65 Luck:3
Garet: Lv 9 Guard HP:126 PP:35 Attack:86 Defense:66 Agility:32 Luck:4
Ivan: Lv 9 Diviner (Jupiter) HP:127 PP:84 Attack:75 Defence:56 Agility:58 Luck:5
Djinn: 2 Venus, 1 Mars, 2 Jupiter
Garet's stats are low compared to the other two because not only does the Guard class series suck, the others have 2 Djinn, putting them in a class a tier higher than him.
