Note to self: you’re not going to be clearing a backlog quickly when said backlog includes two Dragon Quest games…
Ahem, anyway where we? Oh right, we had just wrapped up our business in Angara for the time being and were about to cross the Karagol Sea in order to reach the city of Tolbi on the other side. Now normally, one could simply continue to follow the Silk Road from Kalay and travel along the northern coast to reach the other side of the continent, but when we enter the Kalay Docks directly west of the city we can see that a landslide has blocked that route off - another bit of Saturos and company’s work. Plus there’s a Venus Djinni just chillin’ on the other side! The party doesn’t see this though, Garet instead briefly pops out of Isaac to marvel at seeing the ocean for the first time, though a young man hanging around helpfully educates him that the Karagol is actually an inland sea. Don’t worry Garet, you’ll eventually be able to see the real deal one day.
After buying our ticket (yes, we do actually have to purchase one) and boarding the docked sailing vessel we are greeted by one of the best pieces of music in the game and can see that we will be traveling with that Colosso tour group we briefly saw in Kalay. Only two of them have unique designs and mugshots: Ouranos, bearing the namesake of the Greek sky god, progenitor of the Titans and his pal…Sean. Both of them are martial artists seeking to enter Colosso (if you haven’t figured it out by this point, it’s this game’s token JRPG Inevitable Tournament story arc), both of them have gone to the same hairstylist as Benimaru, and you can tell them apart thanks to Ouranos having red hair and a beard while Sean’s clean-shaven with blue locks. There’s already some drama going down that needs to be cleared up before the ship can shove off, namely that the captain has lost a lucky anchor trinket that he believes will protect the ship from sea monster attacks, and he refuses to sail the ship even a foot from the dock without it, to the exasperation of all present. After fishing it out of the crow’s nest (it was actually stolen by a sailor who wasn’t too keen on sailing into monster-infested waters) the captain makes arrangements with Sean and Ouranos to help protect the ship from any attacks, and Isaac and co. get drafted into defending the oarsmen in the galley below just in case any foul beasties slip through. With that, the ship finally shoves off and sets a course west for Tolbi.
So the way this sequence works is that yes, the boat will inevitably come under attack by monsters, and yes, we will have to fight off those that Sean and Ouranos missed up on deck. There are three waves to fight through, and they’re honestly no more difficult than any other current random encounter, consisting of stronger versions of Mercury Lighthouse critters. In between each wave however, we have to find a replacement oarsman given that one will always be injured before we can engage the creatures (Isaac isn’t very good at his job, okay?), and the only pool of replacements happens to be…the ship’s passengers. Yeah that’s right, we’ll be forcing the passengers to row their own ship and I’ve always enjoyed this segment because it’s always fun when games allow you to torment NPCs. All of them are completely aghast at this prospect, and those who are spared Isaac’s gaze essentially point and laugh at whoever the (un)lucky sap was if you talk to them.
So to that end, I’m going to pick the swordsman-looking guy from the tour group since he seems to think such heavy labor is beneath him, the kinda buff-looking man as I’m sure he can handle it despite his protests, and the chef since hey, it’s not like he’s doing anything else useful at the moment? Once the third sub is chosen and we’re under way again…the ship suddenly grounds to a halt and begins to tremble. Heading up onto the deck we see that Ouranos is down for the count and Sean quickly joins him, having been hurled from the direction of the stern. Heading up there ourselves, we can see that the Karagol has taken off the kiddie gloves and has thrown us a true monster of the deep.
Kraken
HP
- 2400
- Weak to Fire; Resists Water
- Dark Breath - Deals Earth damage and attempts to delude two/three enemies.
- Poison Beat - Deals Water damage and attempts to poison one enemy.
- Spinning Beat - Deals moderate Water damage to one enemy; may ignore Defense.
- Drench - Deals Water damage to two/three enemies.
- Froth Sphere - Deals moderate Water damage to all enemies.
- Water Breath - Deals Water damage to two/three enemies.
- Ply - Restores 100 HP.
The Kraken is the toughest boss since Saturos. Twenty-four-hundred is a healthy amount of HP to cut through, all while getting blasted by AOE Psynergy, and it can make you waste actions curing your guys from ailments. What’s more, like the Manticore from Lamakan Desert, the Kraken can attack twice per turn, without the numerous gimmies that that boss had. All this spells trouble since our own HP is still kinda low-ish.
Unlike the Hydros Statue battle, this time I decided to leave Mia’s Mercury Djinn equipped, so that her appropriate elemental affinity was as high as possible to maximize Ply Well and Wish’s healing potency. Instead, Isaac and Garet were the ones who had their Djinn swapped, transforming both of them into Savages and giving them access to Planet Diver, another single-target Attack-based Psynergy spell in the same vein as Ragnarok and Heat Wave. Ivan could buff them with Impact and I could also unleash Forge to do the same, resulting in them doing about 400 damage combined per turn. Being aggressive and making calamari out of this guy is the way to go. Also, here’s a dumb lesson I learned: just because one of your characters is the designated healer, don’t throw almost all your healing gear on her, ‘cause if she happens to go down from an unlucky hit uh, you’re kinda boned for revival. I actually had to make a second attempt because of that. Don’t be me. Spread your inventory out kids.
Winning earns us 711 EXP, 5200 coins, and a Water of Life.
Despite our victory, a fourth oarsman has gone down even though the kraken never got anywhere near belowdecks (maybe he bumped his head during all the rocking?). Thus we need to find one more replacement, and I’m going to pressgang the tour group’s token old man into service because I am living up to the group’s view of me as a sadistic slave driving bastard. With fully half the ship’s original complement of oarsmen replaced, we get underway again, and eventually the lookout up in the crow’s nest belts out a “Land ho!” But…!
But surprise, we haven’t reached Tolbi! In fact, the captain and the rest of the crew have no idea where the heck we are! The passengers are about to go completely stir-crazy, and since Sean and Ouranos decide to stay aboard in case of more monster attacks, it’s up to Isaac and friends to go ashore on this mystery island to scout things out and see if it’s safe while the captain and his first mate ascertain our location. Onto the world map we jump, and upon approaching a mountain in the island’s center we find ourselves at the base of some cliffs that we must scale in order to access the interior.
Welcome to Crossbone Isle, the secret dungeon of the game. There are two methods to reach this place, and the one I just chose was the earlier and more difficult one. The hapless passengers you can force into the galley? If you choose an “unbalanced” selection like I did (two strong-looking guys and two weak ones) in the right order, the ship will be diverted here instead of sailing on to Tolbi as normal. Now why would we want to come here? Well the cave consists of ten floors in total, each one containing a puzzle room filled with chests and treasure whose entrances are guarded by (not too threatening) monsters. The loot gets better as you delve deeper into the island, though I wouldn’t say anything we can snag is a true Infinity+1 Sword. The first chamber consists of a stepping stone puzzle with some Movable posts thrown in, and a Hard Nut is the best treasure chest item within, though there’s also a Mimic guarding a Potion. The second chamber reprises Kolima’s log-rolling puzzle, only with broken stone pillars instead. The best item here is the Mystery Blade, a light blade with the Life Nourish unleash that allows the user to absorb the amount of damage dealt. Definitely giving that to Ivan for the time being. The third room has more stepping stones, only now we have to use Catch to snag keys to open doors that block off the treasure chests as well The Fairy Ring is the main piece of loot here, and it’s the Restore counterpart to the Unicorn Ring’s Cure Poison. Thus, I’m selling it off as soon as I can.
And that’s actually as far as we can progress at the moment, since the fourth puzzle room requires some utility Psynergy that we haven’t obtained yet. So back to the ship, where apparently the oarsmen imbalance problem is solved simply by having the two pairs of passengers swap places. Sure… Regardless, the ship’s able to arrive at the Tolbi Docks (a mirror of the Kalay ones) at last, and the tour group wearily stumbles onto dry land, thankful that their nightmare voyage and manual labor is finally at an end. I suppose you could say that we’re on Disc 2 now.
Soundtrack
- Set Sail Through the Karagol Sea!
- It's a shame that this song only plays during a short segment that lasts for only maybe fifteen minutes at most since when it come to providing a sense of adventure, it's exemplary.
- Crossbone Isle
- This isn't the only place this track plays, but it is the first if you come here early.
