It’s been suggested that I go look for sidequests, but to be honest I don’t want to do that. At this point I really just want to finish the liveblog. So…sorry. No more sidequests.
As I said last time, there’s a single battle between me and my destination, at a place called the Kursegrad Tundra. I head in. Shouldn’t be too difficult. I bring in my lowest-leveled characters. That would be Claire, Theo, Leon, Nicolai, Saki, Kai, and Vanessa. Everyone else (except Pollon, of course) is level 45 or 46. The ones I’m bringing in range from 42 to 44.
The battlefield here has a lot of different elevations (naturally, I start at the bottom), so that’ll make things more difficult. I also realize that I failed to bring in a healer. If need be, I could head back to the lab and buy items after the battle, but that means I might have to do the same battle over. Still, I’ll need items, so it’s OK.
Saki moves first, followed by Vivi. Saki moves towards the monsters, while Vivi speed-buffs Kai and Claire. Vanessa buffs herself and Claire for resistance, and levels to 45. A monster uses a paralyzing spell on Theo and Saki. It gets infuriatingly lucky and paralyzes BOTH of them. I don’t seem to have any items for healing this, so I guess I’ll have to wait it out. Hopefully they’ll live through it.
Actually, about the healing thing, Claire has a healing spell. She can’t revive, though, so I’ll have to be really careful about that. Kai levels to 45 and learns a new flash drive after attacking a monster. Vivi levels to 44 for the same reason, learning her last flash drive.
Saki is killed by a Minotaur (balrog, WHATEVER). I’m not sure if I should bring her back, since my feathers are limited. Two of the monsters are dead now (both Griffins). Theo is unparalyzed, but then he dies. Grrr. On a different note, have I mentioned yet that Kai’s flash drives are ranged and cover an area? I love it.
OK, that Minotaur is finally dead. One of the Cerberuses quickly follows. There are two ice golems in this fight, by the way. Both of them like to snipe at me with magic that covers a huge area. Thankfully, one of them is almost dead. Vanessa levels to 46 and learns a new flash drive. The ice golem I was working on heals itself, but it still doesn’t have a chance. It dies a few turns later. Leon levels to 45 for killing it. Nicolai levels to 45 after buffing himself and Claire for resistance. Kai levels to 46 after attacking the remaining Minotaur. Leon finishes it with his third flash drive. That one went down quickly. Good thing, too, because they can be really dangerous.
There are only two monsters left right now. Vivi levels to 45 after attacking one of them (the remaining ice golem). Unfortunately, it bites back, attacking four of my guys at once. Later, though, Vanessa uses a flash drive and manages to charm it. That’s good, but I should still finish it.
Claire gets killed by the other monster, a Cerberus. The friendly charmed ice golem starts by healing the damage that it caused a few turns ago. Isn’t that nice? Unfortunately, it still has to die. Leon does the job, leveling to 46 in the process. Nicolai is managing to survive against the single monster remaining. Still, he won’t make it much longer, so the others are on their way to help him out. Vanessa has just enough range to use her flash drive on it. And what do you know, it’s charmed too. Too bad there’s nothing for it to attack. She gets another turn soon after, and finishes the battle. Doing so levels her to 47. Guess I won’t be using her again for a while.
Anyway, battle’s over. I get 6400 Rico and four Vitae. You know, I kind of miss getting actual items for winning battles. All I ever get is Vitae now.
I intermission with Saki. She asks what Alph thinks of Cecille. Kind of an odd question. My options are “Why Cecille?” “I love Cecille,” and “She’s a good friend.” What an odd middle option. The game puts Alph with Lucia regardless of what happens, so it’s a little odd to see that. I choose the third option. Saki says that she’s glad to hear that. She and Cecille have been best friends for a while now. But she’s surprised Alph doesn’t feel anything else. Maybe he’s not into women yet. LOLNO. What about Lucia? Saki really hasn't noticed?
That was odd. Nonetheless, I have a chapter to finish. I save, and move on to the next area. I do have a decent sum of money, though. Maybe after this I’ll buy something. The name of the chapter appears, and a scene begins. Claire tells us once again that this is the ancient battlefield where the Witches fought Zehaal. Mel can feel the energy in the place, and Claire reminds us that Priel will try and awaken God with that energy. Lucia says if we don’t do something soon, the cocoon will hatch. Kingston must be down there, so let’s go.
The menu comes up. I pick “action.” I can talk to Kai, Pollon, or Claire. I chose Kai first. Alph asks him if Kingston really wanted to become a god. The party agrees that since he was already the most powerful man in the world, he didn’t have any next step. Leon reminds us that even if you have power, you’ll still die eventually. We have to stop him, because he can’t stop himself. Heath says the entire planet hinges on this battle.
Talking to Pollon, who explains that Zehaal is making the cocoon because he has to put his power into a new body. He’ll use the energy around here to hatch, and then he’ll consume the planet. Again, I’m told that we can’t let that happen.
Claire says that this place is so desolate because Zehaal’s power killed everything here, and his power is still here. Um, might also be because it’s covered with ice. Don’t forget that. I know things live in places like this, but not many of them. Alph says that’s a frightful sort of power, and that’s all for that.
I stop by the world map, save, and come right back. Buuut, I accidently choose to advance the story. Oops. Ah, well. I saved right beforehand, so it doesn’t matter too much.
Kingston is sucking up to God, begging him to bring down retribution onto the Witches. The party arrives in the middle of it, and he continues. Priel thinks what he’s doing is funny. She tells him that humans are just food for “Master God,” and that it doesn’t matter what Kingston says to him. He says he needs the power to defeat the Witches. Priel finds the Water Lapistier, and pushes it into him, telling him that there’s the power he needs. The party is horrified. Priel figures that’s not enough, and gives him more of her own power. Lovely. With that, the battle begins.
As usual, I have to bring in Alph. Along with him, I bring Cecille, Theo, Saki, Mavi, Claire, Nicolai, and Vivi. Finally, I get the chance to take this guy out. This’ll be fun.
Before I do anything, I save. This might be difficult, so I want to make sure that I have something to fall back on. The map is a long stretch, wider at the end the enemies are at. My opponents are three Ice Golems (aw, crap), two green Behemoths, two purple Griffons, and Kingston.
Vivi goes first, lowering an Ice Golem’s speed. They’re not too fast to begin with, so I might be able to taket that one out before it does much of anything. Mavi buffs Alph, Theo, Cecille, and Claire for defense, and begins moving forward. Alph attacks the same Ice Golem, as the rest of the group moves closer to the enemy. Theo levels to 44 after an attack.
Kingston gets his first move. He has this hilariously over-the-top voice right now. (“I WILL HAVE RRREVENGE!”) He heals a bunch of monsters with his second flash drive. One of the ice golems attacks pretty much my whole group. Claire comes in and helps heal the damage. Nicolai buffs some of my guys for resistance. Unfortunately, another ice golem attacks. No one dies, but everyone is weakened. Saki comes up to attack, but is killed by a behemoth. Another one kills Mavi and hurts Alph. Cecille needs to get to work reviving, I guess.
Alph levels to 46 after an attack on the ice golem. Cecille brings Saki back, and levels to 46 as well. Kingson buffs two ice golems for magic attack. Greeeeaaat. The one that wasn’t buffed goes and attacks most of my guys again. Theo dies. Claire starts healing, leveling to 44 and learning a new spell. Nicolai brings Theo back. Hopefully he’ll stay alive. Nicolai levels to 46 for that, and learns a new spell.
Saki attacks two monsters and levels to 45, learning a new skill. One of the behemoths kills Alph, but Cecille brings him back.
Saki dies, then Vivi follows. This is really, really not going well. Cecille dies. Maybe I should just restart…yeah, I think I’ll do that. I’ll try to get off to a better start this time.
I try again. Things start out pretty well, involving a lot of buffing on my part. No one’s dies for a while, until Mavi gets killed by a behemoth.
Oh, CRAP. The ice golems have an area healing attack along with their killer ice attack. Saki dies pretty soon, too. Cecille brings Mavi back. Vivi goes down next. I still haven’t managed to kill a single monster. It’s honestly pretty infuriating. Mavi dies again, followed soon by Claire. Kingston goes and heals the monsters I’d been trying to damage. There’s no way I’ll make it through this, but I might as well see it to the end. I try to bring back Alph, but then Theo dies. Alph follows. Cecille levels after an attack, so I might be able to…nope. She’s attacked several times, and then dies. Dangit, there goes the battle.
I’ll give this one more try, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll take a break. I really don’t remember this battle being so difficult. Maybe I’m forgetting, or maybe I got lucky. I’m really not sure.
This time, I just start with attacking. If I don’t actually kill anything, then there’s no point. I won’t describe what’s going on yet – it’s too early. I will say that Kingston uses his flash drive and heals the ice golem I was attacking. Then another ice golem heals it too. There goes my progress. Then my guys get attacked twice in a row with the crazy strong ice spell. No one dies, but a lot of them are almost dead.
Later things get ugly though. Long story short, I turn the game off because things are going so badly. Man, this is difficult. Four of my opponents can heal for 200+ damage, and three of those can do powerful attacks that hit a large area. And then there’s the green Behemoths, who are really strong and can attack two spaces. They also have a ton of health. I’ll give this another try later. For now, I’m stopping.
