Last time, we basically screwed around with the various party members' spells... And recruited a couple Imagines into the manhole extended party to boot.
...
...
Right... The plot... Let's get back to that.
One dash onto the warp ring later... And... We're headed back for that house. There's a concerning dearth of music right now thou- Wait a minute, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOUSE?! All that's left of the thing is some crumbling walls. After watching Oliver rush off with a similar reaction, Drippy makes some comments that are probably about 'tch, saw this coming', which does little to assuage our concerns given Gyro's freaked-out expression. Maru points out a tombstone along the cliff's edge... It's labeled... 'Yuriso'.
... Uh... But we just- And- Then who on earth were we TALKING to earlier?! As Oliver sinks a bit into despair, a Will-O-Wisp begins to move around the grave. Before it dissipates. Why are you so cheery, Maru? You too, Rucci. I mean, it's kinda a really depressing moment right here and all. The background music nature of the situation gets to Oliver, who proceeds to dissolve in front of Yuriso's grave. Gyro beckons us to leave, and Oliver fights to regain some semblance of composure.
And we cut to us leaving the Valley of the Dead. That guard's apparently still there and there's a short back-and-forth between the party members... Guess we're meant to head back out onto the overworld? But... To where- Ah. Our friendly map appears to be telling us to go back to New Pork City the Bogu capital. Wait... Who WAS Yuriso, then? On our way back, we recruit one of those purple steel-jawed Imagines. Being the font of creativity that we are, we use the "Don't Care" option for a name and get "Boso". Boso joins at Level 17 with 95 HP, 42 MP and a spread of 66/54/40/29/47. Back in town, we see that our effects on local fashion haven't completely worn off yet. All those people... Proudly inhaling toxic machinery emissions thanks to the power of tackling insecurity!
Following the game's lead, we wind up heading towards the palace, where we get stopped by an unmasked guard, who proceeds to begin to escort us back into the place. A short scene change later, and- ... Huh. Forgot just how lanky Buhiideso really was. We explain just what we've been up to, and Buhiideso brings up a red phrase... Something... "King"... "Heburuchi"...?
Whatever that was, it caught Gyro off-guard, who once pressed about the matter by Maru, seems to be a bit crabby about the subject. Apparently whatever this thing is, it's on a "Kubinaga Island"... Looks like we're in for a long-overdue change of scenery here. Oliver thanks Buhiideso for the heads-up and begins to head off... With Buhiideso calling us back for another word... He mentions something about a "jiyasogoru"... The local monster of the week to whale on? Oh hey, we got a book! A "Bogu Pasu-" Oh wait, it's a passport.
There's some more talking, and Buhiideso also brings up a "terep-" Oh. Wait, they HAVE dedicated teleporters in this world? So those magical warping circles weren't arbitrary and random? Wait... Magic prompt- OH! He's asking US to use Teleport... Uh...
After consulting some images of Trope-Tan, we find out that it's the 9th spell. Make a right-slanted N, then strike through it to pull it off...
... And we're still in this room. Hopefully teleport can do more than that out in the field. Buhiideso gives us some parting words, and then we cut to the point where we're outside the palace again. Alright, let's blow this ash heap and find that island we've been hearing so much about. Hmm... Looks like Teleport will take us to any town or dungeon we've seen so far in-game. So let's go back to Ding Dong Dell for some cheap healing and get our boat back.
... Oh hey, it's that creeper rabbit again. No, I don't want anything, let me back to my quest to resurrect my mother. We try teleporting to that sea town, maybe the boat will be- ... Oh. The boat doesn't follow you around like in DQ 9... Shame. Oh well, back to the Bogu Empire, then. Oh, apparently that island Buhiideso was going on and on about is the one that we passed en route to the Bogu Empire way back when. There's a landing site in the north that's kinda barren, though if you take the time to stop by it, you'll get a crystal of some sort in a red chest for your trouble. A couple fights with the local Imagines reveal that this is a kinda jungly environment (even it the distinctly temparate-looking trees on the overworld would have you fooled). The Imagines here are a mix of fresh faces and some familiar, but not identical-looking ones. There's pink and magenta versions of those spear rabbit things that we saw back in golden forest lurking around, some sort of brown lizard... I think. With a huge head crest and a gait kinda similar to those sheep that made me think they were raptors. Oh, it's apparently a BIRD... Weird-looking bird there... And purple and green bats. We wind up picking up one of each of the last two. The bird-thing is "Kokuriso" thanks to the "Don't Care" option. Unfortunately "Batto-San" doesn't fit into 4 character spaces, so Mr. Batty here was named "Bruce" (lit. ブルース). Kokuriso is Level 17 with 116 HP and 53 MP, and a spread of 71/69/71/65/92. Bruce is Level 19, with 141 HP, 76 MP, and a spread of 81/79/71/71/71.
We stumble across a jungle village... But seeing as our health and MP is kinda low, and we've had unavoidable fights upon stepping right into a town before, let's teleport out to heal before heading back. Oh, the best part of this? Like Zoom in Dragon Quest, Teleport is a FREE spell. So exploit your newfound mobility as you see fit!
So about that jungle village... Well... It's in a jungle... And there's trees... And huts... Which are in the trees... And there's a half-dressed guy in some shorts that look like they may or may not be made of leaves in white tribal paint. It looks kinda like the Ewok village from Star Wars... Only minus the annoying Ewoks. Heading in, we get promptly accosted by one of the locals... Who Gyro seems kinda jumpy about running into. Oh? Looks like we walked in on a conversation... There's a local woman in a dress just standing there. A younger-looking guy in orange shorts runs in at this point and yells about something... Something about a woman? The woman (who's got a strapless dress, a necklace, and a pair of large disc earrings finally speaks up. There's a little more talking between the three when the woman runs off. Guess she didn't like the topic of that conversation... And the older guy runs off too, in the opposite direction, leaving the young guy in orange hanging before running after the woman.
A couple words from the party later, the game frees us up to move... BOTH left and right? Uh... Well, since there were more people going there, let's try "right". Which takes us past the local bookshop. If you bust the barrel there, you'll get some sort of black orb with clouds for your trouble. This bird is a little less blue and a little more green than the others we've seen so far... Hmm... Then what's on the other path? Oh, it's the inn. Smashing up the pots and barrels to the left of it will get you what appears to be a voodoo doll. Let's drop off our Imagines on the bench slots off here before checking this place out a bit more. The inn here seems a bit lower-rent than what we've seen before, and it looks like the local cat agrees. She's charging 360 G a night, a full 140 G less than what we were paying back in the Bogu Empire. Outside the inn, the path splits into 2. The lower fork leads to some sort of pla- Oh?
Some local kid (oh hey, he actually has a shirt!) runs up to us yapping about something. And after some excited banter, we apparently get drug into something... There's a path to the left that he highlighted before running off. But before then... Let's see where all these paths go...
Okay, the bottom-most and leftmost paths go to the inn... The rightmost path goes to the bookstore... The topmost, the one that that local kid ducked down, goes to... Hrm... Drippy's not letting us go there... Oh fine, we'll check out the path that leads to something that's actually plot important... (It's in between the top and rightmost paths.) It's a cluster of three huts... The bottom-most is just for show. Upper left is the shop, it's a rough-looking hut staffed by a burly guy with a reddish headband and shorts, and upper right is where the game wants us to go... Hmm... How are we doing provisions-wise? ... 6 sandwiches... Yeah... Let's buy some more before heading off to the hut of plot importance- WHOA. They're selling burgers that heal 200 HP a pop here! (How are they making them look so presentable anyways?) They're kinda expensive though... So let's just get two (for 1000 G).
The hut of plot importance has 2 guys at the door... And some sort of mask design over the doorway... What's this for? And we walk into a... Throne room? Oh! This must be the king Buhiideso was talking about! Launching into a conversation with him... Uh... Maru? You're not supposed to yell at the octagenerian that runs this place- Wait a minute... What's this about "one person"? There's some sort of woman beside King Beardy here. Much younger with jewelry incorporating both gold and some teal... Is that supposed to be jewels...? Or glass...? Or...? There's some more talking, and then we are freed to leave... What did we just consent to?
We make our way back to the main square... Wonder what that top path leads to...?
Whelp, that's not very inviting music... Looks like we've got a boss fight inbound... Drippy, stop pretending like everything's alright. Gyro has the right idea by panicking here! A group of 3 local men show up behind us. ... And seem to be shouting a bit... What's got them so riled up? And why is Gyro so panicked at the moment anyways? The foreboding music cuts out after the king shows up... And the BGM reverts to normal as that one kid from earlier also comes along. (Gyro, what did you do here?!) There's a name that keeps coming up... "Abiira"? Oh, apparently that's this kid's name... There's some more talking between the king and him... (What is he, a prince?) After a bit more conversation amongst the various people here, the king brings up a red phrase... 3 katakana followed by 1 Kanji character. And then another red phrase consisting of 2 more Kanji stuffed in front of the prior red phrase. Whatever it was, it seems to have taken Maru and Gyro aback... Guess it's not a fluffy kitty...
There's some more exposition that goes over my head... And then the king brings up something about a Dragon's something or other... Wait, is it that purple thing that shows up in the PS 3 promos from time to time? The game gives us a chance to save here... Let's take it.
And now... It looks like we're supposed to head due north... It leads to a path that puts you back on the actual ground. There's an NPC here that will give a quest to you if you feel up to it, though I have chosen to ignore him for now. There's a stream with a guy gawking at it and some jungle plants growing around it here... Heading up leads to...
Eh? Why are we back at that gloomy dead to- Oh! It's that lady with the parasol again! She yacks a bit with the guard stationed there before we cut back to Oliver and company...
Who are now on the overworld! Huh... That's got to be a first for town design in this game. Usually, it's one entrance, one exit... Anyhow, now we're on some sort of plateau... The Imagines here seem to be of the same stock as the ones we were running into back in the jungle (though we note our first encounter with a yellow version of that bag-frog that we passed up on for Felis back in the smurfs' palace). Whelp, I can believe that there's a dragon here... (Even without the dragon's head-shaped dungeon icon on the map.) There's a decently-sized swath of land leading up to the dungeon entrance that is kinda vegetation-challenged and has massive bones scattered around everywhere. At the dungeon entrance, you'll see a massive stone dragon's head with agape maw off in the distance... Which makes you kinda forget about how utterly uninviting this place looks when it seems so alive and soothing. There's vegetation everywhere, a nice lake off to the left... Yeah... If it weren't for the fact that there's a death lizard stomping around here, why it might even be a decent place to visit!
The first thing you run into while heading in is a stream that cuts across the path you need to take in some shallow falls. The next area is- Wait a minute, that's not natural! That's a bridge! More specifically, one with the design of a serpentine body and reptillian legs cut into it. Heading along the bridge... Is that a monastery or something? It's a blue-roofed coiling building with spikes coming out of parts of the roof... Interesting... The next area seems to be the other end of the bridge. You can see the forelegs here... As well as what looks to be another bridge above us. (If there's one thing that Studio Ghibli didn't do well in this game, it certainly wasn't the background! Both screens along this entire bridge have been nothing short of stunning to look at.)
Oh wait, no. The bridge continues on... Now it's taking us closer to that monestary-thing... There's a red chest conveniently located here. Take the time to stop and raid it!
Okay, now the bridge ends. And heading up the path it spills onto takes you towards that monastery we saw... And there's a save point here... Oh dear... So much for my hopes that this was going to be a town or something... Hrm... Perhaps this is a good place to break things off for this update. It's a good white flag to life maintainer of tension.
Takeaway Points:
- So the dead do linger on if they have unfinished business in Ni no Kuni.
- That said, I wasn't expecting them to linger so... Thoroughly...
- Your Handy-Dandy Map of the Jungle Village:
| Exit to Plateau | ||
| Path to Shrine Thing | Shop + King's Hut | |
| From Inn -> | Central Square / Forum Thing | <- From Bookstore |
| ↑ + -> | ↑ From Inn | ↕ |
| Inn | <- Fork In Path -> | Bookstore |
| Gate | ||
- The local culture is really kinda interesting... It's like a halfway point between Hollywoodized Africa / Melanesia and the Schitzo Tech universe that Ni no Kuni operates in.
- Gyro appears to have some sort of history with this town, and it doesn't seem to be a happy one.
- There's an awful lot of jewelry lying around for a jungle town. 20 G says that it had something to do with that.
- Which probably explains how we're getting dragged off to a dragon's den
- This entire chunk of the world in general seems to have been a conscious response on the part of Studio Ghibli. It's like they knew that you were going to get tired of looking at somber, wrecked scenery all the time and did a compete 180 to try and make everything seem as filled with natural life and wildness as possible.
- That dungeon we just wandered into seems to be doing its darn best to send off mixed messages
- On the one hand, it's a dungeon, and didn't let me save anywhere other than the save point
- On the other hand, it's removed the enemies from the first stretch, presumably to let you stop and gawk at the scenery porn
- Also, that temple/monastery thing seems really well-maintained
- Teleportation abilities are hands-down the best thing that you can be allowed to learn in a RPG, and Level-5 and Studio Ghibli apparently took that insight to heart. Subverting Adam Smith Hates Your Guts never gets old.
- That stalker with the parasol continues to remain one step behind us... What's her angle? And I wonder if she has anything to do with those knights...?
Stats:
- Oliver: Level 22: 123 HP / 82 MP
- Rucci: Level 26: 195 HP / 100 MP
- Bruce: Level 19: 141 HP / 76 MP *
- G: 8400.
- Play Time: 54 hours, 14 minutes, 41 seconds.
