Welcome, dear readers (or, possibly, reader) to the final dungeon of Riviera: The Promised Land. It's been quite a journey, but we finally stand ready to face our ultimate foe. So, with that said, let us enter area 7-1: Clemonia Stratum.
For maximum effect, I recommend reading this update while listening to the music that plays here
. It is truly amazing.
The first half of this chapter takes place in a corrupted version of Heaven's Gate. This, of course, means that the backgrounds are taken from the original Heaven's Gate, except they're dyed purple.
The very first screen has a sword stuck in the ground. As you might have already guessed, it's the best of the ODRGN weapons, the Dragon Slayer. I'm not picking it up, though, because I don't need it.
(Also, the Sword Hilt in my inventory says it's from the Dragon Killer, except I got it off the Dragon Eraser. Editing, ladies and gentlemen!)
Moving forward causes Serene to hear the ground moving, and Ein can either state that he also felt it or ask for confirmation. This is literally the only remaining affection choice in the entire game that actually matters, and it's too late for it to matter. Cierra's Ein's girl, and nothing can change that now.
At any rate, the next screen contains, to absolutely nobody's surprise, a dragon. If you have the Dragon Slayer, you'd want to use it here, but I don't. As such, I just fight normally.
On the third screen, Rose suggests that Ledah shed a tear as he died, which doesn't make sense because it implies that Ein would suddenly grow a new pair of wings on his deathbed. However, there's no time to think about that, because there is loot to be had here. Every single random chest in this area can contain the same stuff: Diana's Bow, a Southern Cross, or Ein and Serene's as-yet-unseen ultimate weapons. For this one, I get an Infinite Arc, the best scythe in the game (which immediately takes the Phoenix Wand's place in my inventory). With that, it's time to do some mastering:
Ein:
- Infinite Arc: Rainbow Flash: Level 1, 1-hit physical non-elemental attack, power of 489, low accuracy, unblockable
Lina:
- Infinite Arc: Misty Arc: Level 1, 1-hit magic ice-elemental attack, power of 361, low accuracy, unavoidable
Serene:
- Fallen Fan: Black Tornado: Level 1, 1-hit magic non-elemental attack for exactly 99 damage, can turn targets to stone
- Infinite Arc: Serene Illusion: Level 3, 8-hit physical ice-elemental attack, power of 163, last 2 attacks hit all
Cierra:
- Fallen Fan: Dark Heal: Level 1, heals 30% of each party member's HP, removes status buffs from all targets
I also drop the Manalith Dagger in order to get some Slumber Ivy. The point of this will become apparent shortly, as I head to area 7-2: Ethereal Way.
This place is made up of the floating chained-together rocks you probably don't remember. The party notes that the rocks could give way if too much stress is applied. There's nothing of note on the first screen, though, so I move on.
The second screen contains a rather interesting encounter. One of the enemies is a type that's unique to this area. It's a variant on the hammer-wielding halflings from we've been fighting, but instead of a hammer he has an ADOK BOMB! (Yes, I have been waiting this whole LP to make that reference. No, I don't know what I was thinking either.) His Break Out, Atomic Bomb, does exactly 70% of all your characters' HP in damage, but more importantly, it will destroy the ground. This will prevent me from getting something very important, which also requires what he'll drop from an S-rank.
The solution to this problem is to bring the Slumber Ivy. Cierra can, as mentioned way back when, whip every enemy with it, and this enemy is fatally vulnerable to sleep effects. So, having Cierra use the Slumber Ivy every single turn removes any and all danger present in this fight. I also bring Serene, who can annihilate everything in this area with a single Illusion.
My S-rank gets me a Bomb, which halves the HP of every enemy in battle when detonated, but I need it later so I won't use that. I do, however, drop the Fallen Fan. I don't really need it, and the Bomb leads to something better.
Each successful victory without letting the bombers perform their Atomic Bomb nets me 15000 points, which are useless but it's nice to have them. I move forward after the fight, and immediately encounter some more bombers. They fall to the same strategy as the last one, netting me another 1500 points. I move forward afterwards.
The next screen contains a random treasure chest that I gladly take the contents of. It has a new Diana's Bow for Lina, so I get rid of the Spiral Arch and promptly head to area 7-3: The Isle of Goriate.
The party recaps the reason we're here just in case you forgot, and we're off. The first screen's totally empty, but the second one contains some mooks for me to kill. I break the wrapping on that new bow in order to break them, though one survived only to face a Disaresta.
After the fight, I look around. This screen contains a cracked wall, which happens to be the one and only thing in the entire game that I have to use a battle item to open up. Specifically, that Bomb from before opens it. Incidentally, the game pretends that the party doesn't know how to use it, even though they can use it just fine in battle. Even stranger, Cierra mentions that she knows how to work it because she saw the enemy using it, even though that would lead to this cracked wall becoming inaccessible.
Anyway, blowing the wall up gets me 10000 points and a secret passage into area 7-9: Granada Fortress.
This place uses the same backgrounds as the last part of Heaven's Gate. It contains four areas, the second and third of which contain unremarkable encounters with unremarkable enemies. The only thing of note is that one of them contains undead and nothing else, giving me a perfect chance to bring the pain with the Book of Kylier. The second encounter, meanwhile, allowed me to get a new Power Wrist to replace my old one.
The real treasure of this area is contained on the very last screen. In a chest, at the end of this area I needed a very specific strategy to get to, is the one and only Rosier in the game that has more than 10 uses. I replace a Rosier I'd found on one of the skeletons earlier, and rejoice at having this great treasure.
Back outside, I move forward. Ein gets the feeling that someone's watching him, but I'm not worried about it. He does think it's a Grim Angel, though, which naturally means it's Malice. Before I can worry about her, though, there's a random chest to open. I get a Southern Cross out of it, and replace the one I already had.
With that done, I head forward out of this area. Next time, we'll meet up with an old friend.
