Last time, we wound up touring Motorville a bit... And carrying out an impromptu exorcism on a neighbor kid's father.
As astute readers may have gathered, some rather big meta changes have happened over the last couple weeks. One of the most immediate being that the website that hosted the guide that I was using appears to be deader than a dodo. Fortunately, I was able to record all of the TEXT from it thanks to the handy archived link that was left on the initial post, sadly, I'm kinda out those handy pictures for reference for those who are following. From here on out, pictures will be referred to by their index as given in this
video of the different spells in the game from here on out.
So... Obviously, we have a new team member to recruit... But how to go about it?
ババナシア 王国.
- Back to the room where we met with him and the magic マル Heart Cure.
- The magic light of the potential to Holy 聖なる 矢.
- The magic vibration shock 冲 撃 波.
Sounds like we'll be paying a certain shopkeeper a visit... And learning a new spell or two. After we run into Sherry's father's darker-complexioned lookalike, we notice a yellow exclamation mark over his head. Looks like it's time to yack a bit. The shopkeeper starts by initially blowing us off, Oliver mentions something about "heart" as the music that was playing in Sherry's house back in Motorville starts up, which catches our shopkeeper friend's attention. Drippy pipes up as well, and the shopkeeper gives a startled question as not-Sherry (she's apparently called Maru) pops out of the shop. And we get prompted by the game to cast that Heart Cure the guide refers to, and after a few attempts, pull off one Heart Cure, which causes Maru to briefly flash and a chime to play. In the process, Oliver nets another orb thing, but this time it's silver.
The shopkeeper's VA pops up, sounding rather taken aback. Maru's VA speaks for the first time in the game, and Oliver then brings up Jabo again... Maru asks something about something related to "heart"... The shopkeeper seems kinda startled at the lightshow that just went down and calls out Maru's name a couple times. Oh, so Maru's this guy's daughter... And we get to see a heartful embrace between the two. The shopkeeper talks a bit and winds up thanking us and continues on, dropping a long red phrase consisting of 7 Hiragana and 1 Kanji. Oliver asks a question about the term, and Drippy pipes up to add his two cents. The shopkeeper explains something about the world that we're in... Drippy mentions something about 3 people... Maru brings something up in an excited tone, her father makes some commentary, involves in us. Presumably telling her that it's TOTALLY a good idea for her to run off and put herself in harm's way tagging along with us.
Oliver says thanks, and the shopkeeper begins to talk about something as the town's music returns to normal. There's some more talking... Something about a mountain. Maru mentions something about Jabo while looking a bit teed off in her chat sprite... There's another red phrase, it's 2 kanji followed by Hiragana "no" followed by two further Kanji. One of them appears to be ”神“ Drippy pipes up again, and Oliver mentions something about this mountain... And we have lost our VAs now, with Maru returning to blipspea- OH! Maru's got an Imagine too! ... Unless that fat blue bird is supposed to be something entirely different... The shopkeeper talks a bit, then Drippy talks a bit, mentioning some 2 Kanji phrase in the Japanese equivalent of quotation marks... And then the game gives us a Maru and... What is that? Anywho, we have 2 new party members now!
The shopkeeper continues on a bit, presumably to give us some instruction and a "If my girl so much as chips a nail, you'll find my hands wringing your neck, white boy" speech. And then the game prompts us to break out that stylus to cast a spell again.
Uh... Okay... Which one IS this...?
A few dozen shots in the dark later, and we find that it is spell 44 (the one that looks like a quarter circle intersected by a strike) that this guide apparently was referring to... Whatever it was, it wasn't exactly "shocking"... The shopkeeper didn't seem terribly startled by whatever we just cast.
And now we're prompted to cast again?
- We have come to know the monster they are. The aim is to mount the car unlocked.
- Out of town to see the map below to see the color red. Walk across the bridge until the spell is cast.
Invisible Road 見え ざる 道.
... What? Er... Help me out here, Trope-Tan...
A few random attempts at spell casting, and we manage to mollify the game with an invocation of spell 42 (the one that looks like an intertwined V and W. Oliver continues talking, mentions something about "I no Kuni" that greatly surprises Maru... Which prompts a response from the shopkeeper... Who then bids us off to our deaths on some god-forsaken rock. We got an option to save from the game, let's do so...
And now we have some lovely red arrows prompting us to head southward. If you check your party from your bag, you'll see Maru and her duck-friend's stats. Maru is Level 12 right now and has a max HP of 71 HP, with a max MP stat of 30 points. Her duck-thing's also at Level 12, with HP and MP maxing out at 75 and 55 points respectively. Their Physical Attack / Physical Defense / Magic Attack / Magic Defense / Speed spreads are 31/24/31/23/37 and 28/32/52/45/29 respectively. If you follow the red arrows, you'll wind up leaving town.
Outside of town, we discover that there are a couple faces that we have not seen in battle before. The most immediate new face is some sort of yellow creature with purple clothes and a purple cap with the vague form of a limbed kokeshi. WOW, 334 EXP?! Apparently these battles around this desert town are VERY exp-rich if you need to do level grinding. Which balances out the fact that these guys are nowhere NEAR as easy to defeat as the guys around Ding Dong Dell and the fungal deathtrap. A few further battles reveal that the little purple blighter can apparently spit FIRE at you. Also, Maru's spells are apparently related to music, while her Imagine appears to be a Psycho Electro have a thing for shocking experiences. After a few rounds mugging hapless monsters, we head back to town to rest up and regroup while looking for where on earth we're supposed to be going. There's a purple fort south of town... But no straight shot between the two places.
... Okay so THAT'S not where we're supposed to go... Heading TOO far south will get the game through Maru's dad yelling at you and telling you to turn around... After making a full circle, we finally discover our location... Oh, so THOSE are the mountains we were supposed to be looking for... You could have said "Go West, young man" or something, you know! As we near the mountain, we wind up reaching a truly massive crevasse... Here Maru's dad talks with us a bit, and we get prompted to break out that stylus. A few more random tries, and we find out that spell 28 (looks like a U with a vertical line through it) happens to get around our crevasse. Err... Now what?
- Cross the bridge and then walk across the mountains, the car is unlocked.
デカロック 山.
- All the way back until I turn Shizuoka things to tell us that the 山頂 へ の 道. Or 試練 の 洞窟 cave experiment. We chose the cave. The other side will come. The brutal monster. I had to wade through it later.
... What? Oh well, let's cross this bridge here.
Doing so reveals that the location gets increasingly Mordor-esque as you near the mountain dungeon's entrance, with exposed lava flows and increasingly sparse vegetation. After entering the dungeon, Maru's dad will immediately take you off the path, and there's a cut to a scene at night between Oliver and Maru sitting by a campfire. Maru asks something about Jabo... Oh hey, there's VAs for this one too! Which Oliver responds with something related to his mother, and then explains how our beloved sandwich-maker mother is kinda busy pushing up daisies at the moment. He then talks a bit about Drippy while Maru mentions something about mom... Maru gets a bit perky around Oliver, which makes him uncomfortable and prompts her to hastily backpedal. Then the topic switches over to Jabo, apparently... There's some more talking, and the two get up from beside the fire and head off.
We then cut to the next day, with us returning to the path in the dungeon, and then set off northward, where the game gives us control again. The scenery here is MUCH more dangerous-looking than anywhere else we've been so far. There's sheer cliffs, exposed lava flows, and clusters of sharp-looking blue crystals jutting out of the ground. The enemies here are also different, and appear to be packing digging implements. Our first two foes are a green rabbit-goblin in a blue tunic and a yellow and brown raccoon with a face on its torso. Another battle has us up against what looks like an magenta spitting image scorpion-ish mockery of Hatsune Miku. Another battle puts us up against an angry looking bird-lizard thing with red and yellow shield things, a red body, a large brown beak, and white and blue head feathers, none of them are terribly threatening, at least not to Rucci, Oliver, or Taillow. Also, we learned that those crystals aren't crystals. They're blue plants with FIRE coming off of them. This first part of the dungeon is rather linear. The only real thing of note beyond the pretty scenery is a red chest lying on the south of a fork that goes back to meet the north passage later on.
A little further on, and we discover that a few of these enemies are not so harmless after all. There's a fire imp capable of dealing 30 or so HP to whoever you keep in the front row, and those rabbit goblins can whallop you upside the head for 10 HP... In the BACK row. There's an alcove with a red chest, which has a axe in it, as well as a nifty view of volcanic ejecta raining down in the background... HOW have we not died yet? A little further up, there's another alcove with a MP crystal tucked away. In another battle, we learned that the Miku-scorpions are apparently capable of confusing your allies. It works kinda like it does in Pokemon, your party members have a chance of hurting themselves with their own attacks while not touching your enemies.
After this initial leg of the dungeon, we come to a fork in the path... Maru's dad tells us briefly where each one leads to, though considering my fluency in Japanese, he might as well have said "the moon" and "downtown Cincinnati" and I would have believed him just the same... Yeah, let's backtrack and get that MP crystal... ... Or not, we apparently have to choose a way to head off to now... Er...
試練 の 洞窟.
- All the way from Shizuoka so I will notice something to the crowd attacked the birds, let us help.
- After winning her back. Follow the red arrow to see the birds. It is clear that to talk to us.
Four conditions before it can enter the middle door. (The bird is the first condition. The next one).
- Save first, then to the left.
- It was so. Shizuoka things will allow us to cast Heal.
- Then we'll see Eon Productions. Let us cast Float 浮游.
... Eon Productions? Uh... Let's pick the one that those characters match up with... (The top choice.) Doing so generates a red map arrow to the left path, BUT before then, let's go and get that MP crystal. A quick backtracking later, and we head down the left path, which has its color palette become more blue in tone. We reach an area that's a fork between a path and some sort of gate... Maru's dad talks a bit... Something about "one person before"... Maru gets upset about something that her father says, and Oliver's apparently not terribly happy about it either... Maru notices something happening up the left path, and we some sort of bird thing getting harassed by three red... I think those are bugs, right?
We quickly run up the path, go up to the red thing and...
... O_O
They're demons... Of the horns and pitchfork variety. Thankfully, they're pushovers, and you should be able to plow through them easily with a few higher-end spells.
After defeating the fiends, Maru talks a bit and that bird that was getting harassed apparently takes off to go and shiver in fear elsewhere. (The fact that it's of the same type that we were harassing a few updates ago probably helped.) And we get prompted by the game to head to that gate. There's a flaming bird statue and- ... Did that thing just SPEAK? Drippy is just as surprised as we are... The statue mentions something involving the kanji for "five", two hiragana, one a "no", and 2 further kanji... And then drops another phrase consisting of 2 Kanji... And yet another consisting of 2 Kanji, Hiragana "no" and 2 more Kanji... Whatever that "5" thing was, it kinda startled Maru... Oliver and the statue have a further tense exchange, which lightens up a bit after a while. And we get a jingle playing... But what happened? The statue continues on... And says something that freaks Oliver and Maru out... Something about the world... And after a few more lines, the gate glows and we get a blue orb... Yay?
After going through the gate, there's a palace with a lava moat... And some more of those bird statues. Convection Shmonvection is in full play here, as Oliver can take his sweet time without getting deep-fried by the ambient heat. There's a save point, since it's kind of an ungodly hour right now and this seems like it's going to be a bit of a long haul for a dungeon, let's stop here for now, and pick this up later...
Takeaway Points:
- The mountain dungeon that you need to look for is in the WEST. Ignore that purple fort in the south for the time being.
- The monsters around the desert town and
Mordorthe mountain dungeon are provide a rather hefty chunk of EXP. If you find yourself worried about falling behind for some reason, consider a few cycles of monster mugging followed by a night's stay at the local inn (you'll be guaranteed to be able to pay off a night with one fight anyways). - There are demons (or at least demon look-alikes) in Ni no Kuni. No, you cannot negotiate with them.
- Oliver seems to be getting really close to Maru... Is this a hint at something that will wind up happening with Sherry?
- At this rate, it appears that Oliver will be able to moonlight as a demon hunter at some point.
- Maru and her Imagine seem to be a bit below average as team members (though the Imagine has the advantage of being a magical tank). It remains to be seen whether or not this will be something temporary or more lasting. Or for that matter, if I'm even using them as intended.
Stats:
- Oliver: Level 15: 88 HP / 67 MP*
- Rucci: Level 17: 120 HP / 54 MP
- Taillow: Level 16: 101 HP / 38 MP
- G: 3105
- Play Time: 23 hours, 37 minutes, 55 seconds.
Next time, we will conclude our dungeon crawl and take on whatever boss calls this (admittedly pretty) hellscape home.
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