Like the end of Grizzly Peak, this should be a rather short update.
As Geo is unaware of what just went down in Whazzap the game makes us trek all the way back to Echo Ridge's Sky Wave before a cutscene kicks in to elucidate him in the form of getting a call from Bud. He exclaims that a giant bird attacked them on the way to the airfield, but he's cut off before he can reveal any more. Well I could just hit R to return, but the game actually had a reason for making me come out all this way. By the teleporter leading to Loch Mess's Sky Wave is a Transport Hertz that gives us the Whazzap Key item for having high Link Power, and this key is used to open a security door right by the start of the Sky Wave that's guarding a shortcut to the Whazzap Sky Wave. That'll definitely cut down on some headaches during the upcoming scenarios, and there's also a Sky Hertz by the shortcut who's selling the Charge Wood ability for 5000z.
Once we get back to the village we see that the Shaman has brought our three hapless friends back to the village and tied them up. He proclaims to the villagers that they are to be punished for deceiving the people and making a mockery of Mu. Geo shows up as the Shaman declares that they will be offered up to Mu, brandishes his new Ancient Star Carrier, and Wave Changes into Terra Condor again. Despite the fact that he has no way to manipulate them, Terra Condor somehow picks up our captive friends and flies off to the village's temple (I haven't mentioned it but there's a temple beyond the Whazzap Lines that we haven't been able to access yet) leaving the villagers to deal with the “kid in blue.”
But surprisingly, the villagers do nothing of the sort. They've been able to recognize that the Shaman is off his rocker, and urge Geo to stop him. Easy enough, one short trek later and we're at our dungeon. The Whazzap Ruins consist of two wide-open areas that have wave roads branching out on the sides. To open the security doors we're tasked with finding and escorting Flame Hertzes to pedestals located in the center of the area. The catch is that each area has a green robot condor patrolling the skies (it can be seen on the top screen's sky display) that will every-so-often let out a screech and try to divebomb Geo. If he gets hit he takes some damage and the Flame Hertz will need to be retrieved from its original spot. Once the condor screeches you have about a second or two to duck down some stairs to an shelter that're scattered about to avoid the attack. The condors only seem to attack once you're relatively close to the shelters anyway.
Terra Condor's taken Luna, Zack, and Bud to the altar area at the back of the ruins. Zack thinks he intends to eat them, but the giant bird says that that won't be the case. He explains that in Whazzap, people give their thanks to Mu through laughter, a symbol of happiness, so he intends to tickle them forever, welcoming them to the “unbearable world of coochy-coochy-coo!”
… … … … …
Let's just start the boss battle.
Terra Condor
HP: 1400
Element: Wood
Attacks:
- Bird Missile – Three missiles are launched down the field for 60 Wood damage. Green ones can be destroyed or blocked, while black ones cannot.
- Wing Laser – Terra Condor faces Geo head on and fires lasers down each row from his mouth and wings for 70 Wood damage.
- Flying Impact – Terra Condor dives at Geo, clipping a two-column-wide section of the field twice for 100 Wood damage per hit.
- Missile Bird Barrage – After performing Flying Impact Terra Condor will sometimes randomly fire a whole barrage of missiles down the field for 60 Wood damage per hit.
Terra Condor is a pretty unique boss, actually. He's so large that instead of moving from panel to panel like all other enemies he instead does flybys, only stopping in one spot to fire off Wing Laser. According to the artbook he's based off the image of an ancient wooden flying machine, and as such his wings are actually destructible, making him the only boss in the entire network universe to have multiple targets, though only damage to his head counts against his HP total. Destroying his wings drastically reduces the threat of Wing Laser.
So, he's a pretty interesting customer. Though the rear two rows appear empty they're still there, only invisible, so attacks that need that ground to connect still work. A Fire attack with spread like the Taurus Fire cards do a very good job at dealing big damage and destroying his wings.
Terra Condor blows up and the Shaman, freed from Condor's crazy, laments that his dream to bring Whazzap prosperity is finished. After Geo frees his friends the Shaman explains that because Whazzap strives to preserve the old ways of living it's only slowly made advances, falling well behind the rest of the world (one of the NPCs earlier explained that the only reason they even have wave technology is thanks to the Shaman's efforts). Bud speaks up, saying that he thinks Whazzap is fine the way it is and that they should attract tourism by promoting their traditional culture and food. Zack and Geo speak their support of this idea, amazing the Shaman that people from a developed nation can feel that way. He thanks them and promises to focus on making the people of Whazzap happy.
Cut to a few days later and the Shaman is seen welcoming the first new wave of tourists to the village. One of them asks what the story behind the statue is, and they're not referring to the Budicus/Solo one. On the altar in front of it is a smaller one of Budicus surrounded by his beloved ginger beef bowls, and the Shaman says that he's a hero to all of Whazzap.
Virus Listing
- Bubba Dance
- Bubba Dance viruses serve two functions. The first is to provide support to other viruses in the form of an invincibility-granting dance, and the second is to attack with three-panel-long flamethrowers.
- McCleaver
- These small, hunched viruses dual-wield machetes and attack by relentlessly chopping at Geo. Much like their likely inspiration Jason Vorhees they don white hockey masks.
Soundtrack
- Malevolent Geoglyph
- "Geoglyph" is a word, Spell Check!
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