All right, it's time to fight the fourth Accursed at last. There's nothing else to do in the cathedral now, so let's get right to it.
On the fourth screen of the area, we encounter a large, unique room (I'm sure I don't have to explain what that means by now). Fia suggests that the people tried to talk to the gods from this room, but that's not important now. What is important is the next Accursed, who shows up fairly quickly.
Our next opponent is an angelic woman "wearing" strategically-placed feathers and carrying a rather large staff (who, it should be noted, is depicted on a statue in this room). She talks for a bit about how she was banished from Asgard, though with only a single sentence of backstory it's hard to actually care.
I should note that this particular opponent was given a backstory in later Dept. Heaven games, but I don't particularly care about it because I find them to be rather poorly-designed.
(Okay, so Knights in the Nightmare was okay. Whatever. Still doesn't erase Yggdra Union and its horrible item system from my memory.)
Anyway, she tries to play the sympathy card to get Ein to join her, but that obviously doesn't work. She then claims that she will "eradicate" us, and for once, we're fighting a boss that just might...
''Fia: "Don't let your guard down!"
Boss Battle: Archangel
- HP: 4000
- Strength: 28
- Magic: 76
- Agiliyt: 15
- Vitality: 32
- Resists all elements
- Weak to non-elemental attacks
Archangel is one of the few bosses to actually pose a significant threat. She has massively powerful attacks, and they're based off her Magic instead of her Strength, so only Fia and Cierra can withstand them effectively. Because the engine prevents her from using holy attacks she instead uses lightning, so Serene's out, and she resists magic to such a degree that Cierra's out too. Furthermore, she's especially resistant to holy and lightning attacks, which are basically what we've been given for the vast majority of this chapter (also, no Disaresta).
She also has the most threatening non-Devastator Break Out in the game, Angelic Thunder. It does heavy lightning damage to the whole party (to the point of taking off two-thirds of Serene's HP) and inflicts the Purify status effect (which supposedly lowers attack power, but as far as I can tell all it does is display the message "<CHARNAME> is affected by PURIFY!")
I'm using a very specific strategy here, which requires that I have Fia in the front alone, with Ein and Lina backing her up. I bring the Mithril Sword, the Zantetsu, the Estoc, and most importantly, Iria's Bow. Since Fia's taking the most damage, the Zantetsu is heavily powered up, and Fia can shrug off Archangel's normal magic like it's nothing.
Now, to actually kill her, there's a rather basic strategy I can use. You see, Archangel is considered a flying opponent. If you've been reading the skill lists, you'll remember that Gatling Shot is extra effective against flying opponents. Furthermore, it's non-elemental, and it hits against Archangel's almost-nonexistent Strength score.
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that Lina just got another kill, by way of Pokemon logic.
Results:
- Time to victory: 65
- Final attack level: 3
- Score for victory: 14600
My S-rank is rewarded with Ancardia, the single most useful boss weapon in the game. While Fia can use it to heal everyone for 99% of their HP and cure status effects, Cierra gets the actually good attack. With Ancardia, Cierra can perform a holy magic attack called Ragna Paltina that hits the back row once with a power of 747(!). I drop a Salamander Rod (I've got a spare from the mage in the last update) to make room for it.
After the fight, Cierra wonders if we've redeemed the people of Tetyth, which seems to come completely out of nowhere. That's it, really. I'm promptly dumped onto the score screen right then and there.
- Turns taken: 112 (rank A)
- Items left: 15 (rank A)
- Pleased: 4 (rank S)
- Score: 613100
- Starting TP next chapter: 7
Note that it is literally impossible to get an S-rank for items remaining now. Anyway, back to Elendia.
'''Ein and party sealed the Accursed and escaped the sinking Tetyth.'''
There was no remnant of the once glorious city, but only a mirror of the lost past...
While heading back to Elendia, Ein runs into Ledah...
That's right, the game remembered that it has a plot. Anyway, Ledah talks about how Ein's oath to Ursula is "foolish" and how Ein shouldn't side with "the enemy". He then repeats the same lines about how the Retribution has to happen, talking about how Ursula's getting in the way. Ein, of course, doesn't return to Hector's side, so Ledah heads off on his own, mumbling something about Yggdrasil.
Anyway, with that done, we return.
A fateful reunion with Ledah only reminds Ein of his duty as a Grim Angel. But things have changesince their time in Asgard.
As his mind races back and forth, Ein begins the long journey back to Elendia.
Anyway, you know what that was? A filler arc. Yes, the entirety of the last dungeon could've been completely removed from the game without impacting the story in the slightest. Sure, it would've removed a character who's important to expanded universe material, but I'm not convinced that this game was even supposed to have any sequels or prequels.
Of course, if someone can show me actual hard evidence that the folks at Sting were thinking "Oh, five years from now let's make a prequel with a completely different tone, genre, and setting, replace the character designer with someone who can't draw an adult make to save her life, and completely ignore all turn-based strategy genre conventions while we're at it" then I'd honestly be interested in seeing that.
Still, this was one of the best darn filler arcs ever, and I'm glad to have gone through it.
I hope, at least, that this has made my views on potentially LPing any other Dept. Heaven games perfectly clear, because otherwise I wasted too much time ranting.
Anyway, see you next time, with the next trip through Elendia. I hope to see you then, and that I haven't made too many enemies with that Yggdra Union rant.
