Last time we had a bit of an attenuated update in which we got jumped by a surprise boss in a kingdom that looked somewhere in between Laputa and a Hollywood History version of Ancient Greece. This update's about a week late, though I've attempted to compensate for its lateness by making it a bit longer than my last couple updates.
Now... Let's see where abruptly exorcising a queen in her throne room gets us... Whelp, we're supposed to head out of it... Talking to the guards reveals- Wait, THESE guys give quests TOO- Oh wait, no, we're getting an opportunity to cast Heart Peace... The particular guard we're talking to is a fair-skinned dude with the Hermes getup all of the other guards have. Not sure what the point of a metal loop on the connection between a spear tip and the shaft is supposed to be for, but it's definitely eye-catching... One cast of Heart Peace later and, wait, is the purple thing that looks like a Combine symbol new, or did we already have that? Anyhow, we have 6 colorful crystalized emotions in our sool jim "perfume bottle". The guard gives us a word of thanks, and then we're freed to leave. On the way out, there's a quest NPC in the hallway, talk to him if you feel like it and can somehow figure out what you're doing, I chose to ignore him in this playthrough, you'll pass another on the pathway out of the palace and back into Skyworld town.
Following the map arrows (and stopping by the local in to heal and make ourselves 500 G poorer en route) we head back out of town, and... Oh hey, it’s our "buddy" Hebby! What’s going on here? Hmm... Well I see the Kanji for 'down/below', so that's a good sign... And there's a 'yes' or 'no' menu... Yep, get us outta here.
And we transition scene to back in front of Hebby and company’s hideout... Namely that one part right in front of the cave mouth with the dragon's head in the background. He talks a bit, chuckles a little, then takes off-
... Oh, it's the perennially late knights of lateness. Except this time they're right on our tail back in Laputa the sky kingdom. The black one makes a remark, righty chimes in... And they set off with much ominousness towards the surface...
... Aww! We didn't score a purple dragon! ... Drat. Oh well, guess this means we're headed back to that jungle town...
Wait, weren't we getting ambushed by Imagines every two- Oh, there they are. Never noticed the purple Felyne one before...
... Okay, so there's nothing to see in the jungle village... Let's warp to Ding Dong Dell for cheap healing and see if we get any prompts to go anywhere at sea.
Wait... This is weird... The game's not giving me any guidance at all... Maybe we were meant to follow Hebby in? ... Well, we followed him back to that throne room... But that didn't accomplish anything... Uh... Let's check that guide...
... We’re looking for 3 rocks? But where's this 'A', 'B', 'C' that are supposed to mark them? Oh. It's talking about a map on the guide... Wait how on earth is anyone supposed to read that mess? Okay, so the locations are at an island temple... An arctic island... And a pirate headquarters? Didn't we just walk OUT of one? Anyhow, I can see the arctic island... Looks like we're screwing around on the western side of Ni no Kuni.
(Continue from here: 60:08)
Hrm... There's an island south of the casino... Let’s try looking there first... One long sea voyage and several Imagine battles later (you can run into those devil Imagines offshore the continent where the surfer town is, go figure)... And it's covered in an impregnable wall of fog, so scratch that... Uh... Let's keep looking around. (And if worst comes to worst, default to the arctic island.)
... Oh wow, we missed our target by quite a bit... Apparently if you just sail up to the pinkish coast right across the straight from the jungle, you'll launch into a cutscene... So we're getting close. The captain yacks a bit... And Gyro and drippy pipe up with something...
Okay... Boss music starts up... And what’s with the huge skeletons floating around in the water? There's a gold anchor- ... Make that a mechanical anglerfish with a nasty set of teeth. (Explains the skeletons.) Which promptly hops up on deck and lunges at us to try and turn us into chum...
Uh... So right now I've got Kree, Maru, and Oliver on the field... (I was trying to recruit a crocodile Imagine... Which kinda didn't pan out...) Uh... Yeah. Let's switch Maru for Taillow. Since Oliver's Ice attack is apparently Water-elemental (lol, like that's gonna do anything), we'll scout with Light Arrows from Oliver, Lava Plume (no, it's not called that, no, I don't care) from Kree, and have Taillow buff his attack before hammering away at this guy.
And the answer is... It takes neutral damage from fire and light... And hit Taillow for 47 HP using a simple biting attack. ._.
O... Kay... Uh... We'll have Kree try and draw this thing’s attention while we continue scouting for weaknesses (since he’s our best tank on the team).
Well, it appears Taillow’s wind moves might do the trick... Assuming that wasn't a lucky crit. He got rewarded with one step closer to a limit break. Thing also resisted Oliver's 6 MP spell, so we can rule that out as a weakness... Uh... We have Thunder somewhere in our arsenal, yes? Let’s try that while Kree continues being a distraction.
Okay, so it is weak to wind magic. And Oliver's Earthquake spell proved to not be a weakness either (though did around 100 HP damage), and we discovered that ugly here can do horizontal tail sweeps (which thankfully only hit Kree). At this point in time, we've managed to take off a scant 20% of the angler’s max health... Let's have Kree distract again while Oliver heals and Taillow continues throwing wind attacks around. In the next turn, we have Kree taunt some more while Oliver restores his MP with the drink of champions. This time, the boss' attack misses, so we get him closer to pulling off a limit break. And we have finally sent Taillow over the edge and primed him for his whirlwind of epicness. Let's limit break this bugger with Taillow, and try and find out what that 15 MP spell in Oliver's list does to enemies. We'll give Kree's MP a rest and have him attack normally- Wait, scratch that, I see pulsing. Let’s have Taillow and Kree defend while Oliver tries out that spell.
... Well that was a colossal dud. Apparently the attack hits in an "X" pattern, so Oliver was the only one to take damage! >_<
Fortunately, his 15 MP spell turned out to affect us rather than the boss, and wound up maxing out everyone's HP. Handy!
Okay, NOW let's limit break this stupid fish. And support with fire and melee from Oliver and Kree.
And in 1 turn, we just inflicted as much damage as in all of our prior turns. Limit break did 250+ damage after moving Taillow to the middle row (well worth the 60 HP hickey he received), while Oliver and Kree combined did around 100 HP damage. Alright, let’s heal Taillow and have Kree and Taillow continuing to chip away at this thing. (We’re at about 50% health.)
This time, Oliver gets bitten for 51 HP damage. But on the plus side, we got about 130 HP damage out. So we'll have Oliver heal himself this round, Taillow continuing to spam Gust or whatever you want to call his 4 MP wind spell, and Kree becoming a distraction again.
... Well... That wasn’t exactly what I intended to do... (Wound up boosting Taillow’s Attack stat.) But, at least Oliver healed. Alright, NOW let’s try that again with some all-out-attack- Scratch that, we’re getting that stupid 'X' attack again. Let's reshuffle, THEN all-out-attack.
And... We get in around 150 HP damage (because I was boneheaded and thought "hurr, what happens if I try the ice spell?", otherwise we'd have done more). Back to our corner of woe to try this "all-out attacking" thing again.
And we've got the steampunk Lanturn from hell on the ropes (25% health)! Taillow kinda ate 46 HP, but hey, he's ready to limit break again. So let's get reckless and dangerous in this turn. We'll have Taillow get up and personal, Oliver support in case Taillow doesn’t finish the thing off, and Kree to be a distraction again.
... Glad we did that... 470-ish HP and the thing just refused to die. Kree's the one who held our gambit together (taking a measly 16 HP damage), otherwise we could have been in trouble there.
Alright, back to our "corner" arrangement... We'll try and finish this thing from there with our bottom-of-the-barrel MP. (Oliver, Kree, and Taillow have 32, 16, and 29 MP respectively right now.)
One wind attack later... And then Kree proceeds to waltz up and cherry tap the Lanturn of Doom, which lists and breaks up into light.
For our ordeal, we got 4608 exp and 255 G. That allowed Phyco, Bruce, Taillow, and Swaine all to level up.
We then cut to our (surprisingly unfazed) group staring out to sea where the anglerfish of death once was. Okay, NOW we can land on the shore... But we’re kinda ultra-low on MP here, so let’s teleport out, heal and come back here afterwards.
After hitting the shore, we outrun some slow catbirds and... Are those flying SNAILS? Anyhow, we get to an abandoned and overgrown temple. And Swaine starts yacking... Looks like this is the place. A short scene in which there is yacking about the temple amongst the party occurs... Maru makes some sort of observation, possibly "So let's go in!", that spooks Swaine a bit. Which is quickly defused and results in everyone trekking on.
Heading into the temple we hit... A 4-way intersection... Hrm... Let's try exploring the branches in clockwise order, so left first. And promptly get jumped by... I'm not sure what that thing is supposed to be... It’s like a brown version of Dr. Eggman... With no arms and some rougher-looking cream and patched teal attire. Along with some teal and gold literal gearhead robots. Eggman appears to not take water magic well. I wasn't able to figure out the gearheads' weakness, but they're feeble enough to just swat into submission in a couple of rounds. The most damage that we ever took from any one of them was a 11 HP hit on Oliver from a gearhead, since Oliver is a master tank, didn't you know?
We then reach a bend. The lower branch dead-ends almost immediately without any points of interest, so we’ll focus on the upper one. Oh, there’s apparently clown purple and brown garbed pirate zombie Imagines with pink hair. Well, it's certainly different... Huh. The battle background has... I think those are supposed to be crying statues... Kinda concerning...
Following this path takes us to- Hey, why's everything suddenly getting so dim? Also, we just got ambushed by ghostly teleporting eels... They don't seem too tough... Though they have a rather sinister-looking attack in which shadowy hellfire bursts out of the ground around a targeted character. I'm not sure if it's supposed to just be for intimidation value or what, seeing as it never did more than 1 HP damage.
Anyhow, in this dim zone, your visibility drops dramatically (thank goodness you have a map!), so expect to bump into a hostile Imagine or six down here. Going around the first left bend in the dim area, you'll find some steps that head south down into an alcove with an MP crystal. There's a switch that removes some barricading walls to some steps... Okay... Heading up them and following the path takes you to a 3-way intersection with left and upper branches...
Going up takes you to... A door... Which we can't seem to open right now... Going left takes you down a path with another branch, continuing trucking south leads you to a red chest with a bowl of noodles in it. Oh, these stupid fish again? What are you going to do, sneeze on m-
... Okay, I had that one coming. Apparently that "hellfire" attack is more or less Mudo but with worse accuracy... Fantastic. Looks like we’re going to be backtracking a bit to heal Kree...
Huh. Fainted party members wake up with 1 HP after a battle? Interesting... But let's backtrack anyways. Looks like we're going to need a lot of healing items with those stupid eels loose.
One night's stay at Ding Dong Dell and 3000 G worth of bread loaves later, we return to the temple of doom. Alright, NOW after making it back down the stairs, there's another fork... Left and up. Let's try up first since one of those demon eels is busy blocking the right path. And... It's another door... Uh... Wait, would "Unlock" work here?
Let's consult that guide... Yep. Unlock. And we get lead into a room with 2 red chests and 1 purple chest... Let’s see if Sazara's gift is actually useful at all...
Nope. Still can't open them.
Alright, and the other path has... A key in a stone statue... Looks like we'll need that to go through that door...
Yep! Got us out of that dingy (and creepy) section of the ruins. Now... What lies here?
Following the linear (if somewhat windy) path takes us past another locked door (this one’s blue), which we'll skip due to not having the key for it right now...
FFFFFFF- Those eels are here too?! And we got Rucci KOed (switched him in for Kree)... Oh well, that's why we have the bread loaves... (He has a bit of a yelpy defeat sound clip.)
7 bread loaves later, and our blue trooper is back in top condition... Or at least 7 HP away from it. Alright, carrying on. There’s an alcove with a statue and an MP crystal... The switch opens up the door just south of it. Huh... Needs something on it to stay working... How do we-? Ah... The statue... What spell do I need here?
Something called 'Doll'... It looks kinda like a carat with an inverted tilde put through it.
Doing that pushes the statue onto the switch, and now we can move south... Wait, that's the right fork from the foyer! If you hit a switch, you can get rid of a wall in the way and allow yourself easy escape if you're low on HP (or you could use the HP crystal in the same room, your choice). Heading in the opposite direction from the foyer, that is, right, takes you to a statue... With a blue key. Looks like we can make it through that door now.
But first... Let's see what was on that middle route in the foyer... Hrm... A frog door... And it looks like there’s a bunch of stuff in here... Maybe we’ll go and heal and check out that blue door before we go here...
One pit stop at Ding Dong Dell later, we make our way back to- Huh, never noticed that branch before... Let's check it out...
Oh! There's a pair of red chests! Good for you klepto heroes, I guess, be mindful of the Mudo eels- ... And the blue Will-O-Wisps... They can apparently use that accursed move too.
... Wait... The blue door needs magic to open? Uh... Do we need to fuse the keys?
Yep. We need to use Merge. Spell #22, the one that looks like a 'D' and 'G'. It takes us down a long corridor with a bunch of cloaked statues... Which just scream trouble... So let’s skulk around the frog door first before we go through.
Hrm... Well, there's a switch he- Oh. It lifts that annoying fence we ran into earlier. So now we have a shortcut back to the statues. Neat, if a little late for a discovery. Also, I've noticed something weird, but Taillow seems to be skipping turns every now and then for some reason... Not sure if it's because of the enemies, or if he's been a bit broody or what. Hrm... I guess it couldn't hurt to fire up the socialization mode after we get to the statues...
Hrm... Bringing up "Social Link" mode says that he's feeling a bit down... Let's spoil him for a bit and see if that lightens his spirits. Buroshiku and Felis are in similar moods... Oh fine, we'll play for a little while here amongst the demon-eels...
Hrm... Messing around with the brushes doesn't seem to be doing anything... Let’s try feeding them...
Whelp, that gold tonic did the trick for Taillow... Now... Felis and Buroshiku... Eh, we'll worry about them after we find a save point. Now... What am I supposed to do with these statues?
Make them face south? Sounds doable...
And now we're through... And at a save point... Since I think I caught a mention or two about "sealing magic" if we screwed parts of this next bit up, let's call this an update here and carry on in our quest for the 3 shiny rocks next time.
Takeaway Points:
- The Quest for the Stones of Plot Importance:
- Can be tackled in any order. There's one in the obvious arctic island on the map, the one that we're chasing now is just across the mountains from that one desert town (you'll be able to tell thanks to a beach with pink water).
- I haven't figured out where the "pirate hideout" is supposed to be on this map yet, will get back on that one after getting the first two rocks.
- Defeating the Angler of Doom, TL/DR version: USE WIND SPELLS! It's this boss' glaring weakness. Be mindful that this guy hits hard, so be prepared to heal when you have to. There's 2 main multi-cell attacks to look out for. One sweeps horizontally across a row, the other is that X-shaped attack (the latter can be seen coming with some pulsing around the base of the fish you're fighting), both will easily deal over 50 HP damage to you in the back row if you can't resist / defend against it / have someone draw the attack as we did with Kree. Beyond that... There's not really all that much to this boss, the only real difficult part about it is that he's got a ton of HP and doesn't have a save point for you to heal at before getting jumped. Just tread carefully and spam wind magic, and the end will eventually come into sight.
- Handy tips for exploring the ruins:
- The eels are evil. If you have the misfortune to run into them (and you will), destroy them as fast as possible to reduce the odds of eating a successful 'Mudo'.
- The other Imagines, with the very painful exception of the zombies, aren't terribly tough. You can probably get through them just through spamming attacks.
- The stalker knights are still stalking... And getting closer. Wonder when we're finally gonna meet face to face...
Stats:
- Rucci: Level 30: 338 HP / 120 MP
- Oliver: Level 26: 142 HP / 96 MP
- Taillow: Level 29: 205 HP / 99 MP *
- G: 25426.
- Play Time: 62 hours, 40 minutes, 32 seconds.
Next time, we'll get our mitts around one rock of plot importance, and try and make progress on the second one.
