Stage 4-4: The Exciting King

A small group of level 15-16 foes populate the first area. They may be tough, but at least the crew isn't underwater this time. The team quickly moves to eliminate the mechanic, for fear that he might use his bomb to blow them up, or summon another monster to make their lives miserable. They shoo the attackers away, but a group of professors in Gear Metal LE Xs appears to the east, ready to attack. They look quite powerful, so Zetta orders the team to retreat, since their mission has already been completed.

Stage 4-5: The Lovely King

This one is quite tricky. The team has landed on the edge of a pier. Their sole target is a level 21 Shambler to the northwest, but it is guarded by an extremely powerful (level 200+) Great Samurai. Casualties will be unavoidable in this battle, but Zetta has reserves.

"I'll lure her this way," says Miyako. "An honorable duel is the only way to go!"

"Are you crazy?" says Steve. "You'll get yourself killed!"

The samurai takes the bait and skewers Miyako with a devastating spear technique. Satan and Graz use this opportunity to try to sneak past her unharmed.

"Cowards!" says the rogue samurai. "Do you think this little feint of yours will work? I'll destroy you all!"

And that's exactly what she does, destroying the houses that Zetta summoned to battle. Graz and Satan gang up on the Shambler, who only has a flower to defend itself, and is dispatched before the samurai can make her way back.

Next time: the gang finally catches up to Raiden!

New Map Effects

Flexible Body Wanted!: Summons Professor units riding Gear Metal LE Xs.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Stage 4-6: The High King (Boss Battle!)

Zetta and his crew have successfully cornered Raiden. Before they can start fighting, Alex pops in and gloats, asking him "Why won't you die?" Zetta figures out that Alex was the one who had sent Raiden to kill him. He guesses wrong about Alex attempting to kill him himself by rewriting the Sacred Tome, though. Alex claims to not even know what the Sacred Tome, and orders Raiden to attack.

First area: three Death Sabers to the north, armed with nunchucks. Ryu, Miyako, Morrigan and Woody kill them, but aren't able to find a path to the next area until Meredith finds a map underneath a tree. A small group of foes is waiting for them just up the road. They try to destroy the hut, what with it being the strongest building on the field, but "Malfus" comes to the rescue and eliminates the would-be saboteur from afar. This opens the road to the area where Raiden is stationed.

"Come and get me, if you dare," he bellows.

"Oh, we dare, all right," says Steve.

Steve looks around and sees four bomberheads, two armed with bazooka and two more with gatling guns, perched on the mountain surrounding Raiden. There's also a factory in the back, but they don't know what's stored inside.

"...just, uh...give us a few minutes, okay?"

They find out soon enough, as another bomberhead emerges from the factory piloting an RX-66 Helldam.

"Whoa!" says Miyako. "That thing looks like death on two legs! I'm out."

She scurries back into the hut, allowing Astral the walking magical nuke to take her place.

"What was that all about?" asks Meredith. "She was ready to take on that samurai that we couldn't beat..."

A few of the bomberheads advance forward, launching token offense (with the bomberhead riding the fake Gundam gunning down Ryuunosuke) before being chewed up and torn apart by the team.

"ENOUGH!" bellows Raiden, his thunder drum crackling and rending the heavens themselves as he lumbers forward. "It's time for me to finish what I should have done in the Forbidden Library. You and your filth must be judged, Zetta!"

"He's coming this way!" Kashiwa screams. She takes refuge in the hut, and Graz joins the team on the battlefield from the shop. Everyone else spreads out and falls back until he gets within range. Astral, Malfus and Woody launch the first salvo of offense, dealing a good bit of damage to him. Raiden retaliates with his thunder drum, which is strong enough to incapacitate Morrigan and grievously injure Meredith (before Malfus patches her up again, anyway). Graz, Meredith, Woody, and Steve use their most powerful techniques on Raiden to bring him down.

"Hahahahahaha..." Raiden's voice echoes.

"What's he laughing about?" asks Meredith. "We just defeated him."

"Just defeated? Your minions are a presumptuous lot, Lord Zetta. Rest assured, I will return...and you will die!"

With Raiden "temporarily" defeated, Zetta ponders who else it might have rewritten the Sacred Tome to include that message (Alex says he didn't do it, and Zetta notes that he isn't the type to resort to trickery).

Back high above the clouds, Pram catches Trenia watching the action on a television set (what's it plugged into, anyway?), and demands answers. Trenia, seemingly intent on raising Pram's hackles, says that she knows everything, but isn't saying what. Pram is ready to kill her, but can't because Zetta has declared her off-limits.

END EPISODE 4

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Did you get access to the RX-66 Helldam after defeating it?

"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax

No. This wasn't on the bonus list. In the Chapter 3 boss battle, the Gear Metal LEX was the "0" point prize, meaning that I'd get it even if I didn't clear the level with the required number of points.

There should be more (and more diverse) vehicles to pop up in the prize list further down the line.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Gotcha. So far you've usually gotten access to a unit type after beating it, so I was curious.

"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax

There are also several hidden monster classes, which I probably won't get to see in this playthrough, and that usually involves leveling up other classes in order to do it. For instance, Archers (the ones with the ridiculously curly hair) can be added to the playable roster once a Healer (Kashiwa), a female Wizard (Morrigan) and a merchant (Nabiki) all reach level 20, which should be soon. I tend to like to play humanoid characters in Nippon Ichi games, even though the monster types usually (this game being the exception) have unique attacks/abilities.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Episode 5: Salome the Traitor

A familiar-sounding voice calls out for Zetta. Everybody panics, when they realize that it's Salome. It's been a long time since she disappeared, so Zetta wonders if she's there to laugh at his predicament, but she says she didn't.

Seedle has taken a special interest in her, and he says he knew she'd show up if Zetta ever got into any trouble. He then says he knows about Salome's..."illness", where her mana power is slowly draining away. King Drake says that Salome could have at one point become ever more powerful than Lord Zetta, if not for her mana sickness. Babylon notes that she is still somewhat human inside, and Seedle threatens to tell Zetta exactly how bad Salome is suffering. Salome is unhappy, and to demonstrate, fires off a warning shot at Micky's Netherworld.

(Trenia walks by with an unnamed cat kid as they're all arguing.)

Pram warns her not to abuse what little Mana power she has left, and Salome fires back by telling Pram not to get stuck up just because she hasn't been defeated. Zetta tells them all to shut up, and Seedle vows to continue his fight with Salome when there aren't any interruptions.

Decision time again! Salome's netherworld is ripe for the taking (hers contains "Intelligent" enemies). Let's not forget that we haven't done Seedle's or Micky's yet. Your choices are from one of those three.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Seems like you've been getting chewed up a little in these fights (or maybe my impression is just from normal levels of violence in this game). Maybe head back a little and take on Seedle's netherworld before we move on to the newly opened one?

"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax

The plan to invade Salome's Netherworld is temporarily being put on hold, as Zetta aims for Seedle's netherworld instead. Steve worries that this may not have been the best course of action just yet.

Before they head off into battle, a few more of the crew members are eligible for promotions. Malfus joins his comrades Ryan and Vanessa to be reborn, now under the assumed name of "Leonard". Meredith makes her promotion to Warrior; Satan is no longer an Errant Pumpkin...just a Pumpkin; and Morrigan upgrades to Occultess, becoming a White-Haired Pretty Girl in the process. As a side bonus to becoming a leader, Steve absorbs all of the mana residue left over from the unused huts appearing and disappearing every time his new comrades make wishes in order to fuel their ascension.

Stage 5-1: Jet Black Seedle

This is a semi-random stage, starting out in the middle of a mountainous area, with a Red Doll riding a Driller-G to the north, three Bomber Heads stationed in a hut to the west, and three Shadows in the Fortress to the east. Meredith enters the battlefield, but with most of her strength sapped after her ascension, she chooses to hang back while the others handle the enemy. (but the enemy finds her anyway and kills her). The normally passive enemies make a charge at Zetta's troop, believing that they actually have a chance to win. The team fights off the defenders, and then destroys the houses from which the enemy came, after getting a tip-off that the fortress itself IS the key.

Zetta's forces head to the south and run into a wasteland with more enemies and dead trees. They defeat them, but discover that there are a few driving around in vehicles, including an advances type of monster known as a Gourmet Ogre (the game mistranslates it as "Gourmet Olga", though). The team targets the Bomberhead riding the Dark Runner Z2, which seems to be coming out ahead of all of them. Lucca uses herself as a decoy so that the crew can disable the vehicles. After taking heavy casualties, the crew heads home before the gluttonous Gourmet Ogre can launch an attack.

Salome finds Zetta on the battlefield and confronts him directly. She says it's been so long since the two of them were together. Zetta reminds her that she was the one who left, but Salome said she disappeared because he was too busy lusting for power. "I don't see what the problem was", he adds, even making light of Salome's mana sickness. She then pulls the "Don't you love me?" card, and Zetta calls her weak for it.

Back at the base, Kashiwa rushes to the hospital and attempts to patch the wounds of those who fell during the last battle.

"I had no idea Seedle's monsters would be this aggressive," she says as she applies a Mega Heal spell on Astral.

"Next time, read the level description before jumping in like that, commander," Astral says, giving Steve a cold stare.

"Miss Kashiwa," says the medic now known as Leonard, "I brought the water just as you requested. What should I do with it?"

"You can stand here and watch me drink it." She takes the glass of water and drinks it, and then slams it angrily on the space beside one of the makeshift beds holding her growing house of invalids. She turns to Steve, eyes still mostly closed but visibly angry at him, and beckons. "Well, Steve, it seems your plan did not work as well as the last one. How do you expect to prevent these casualties from happening in the future?"

"Don't worry," says Steve. "I've already got it covered. A new dungeon just opened up!  ^*

We'll simply train every to get back up to speed, and then we can taken on the baddest of whatever Seedle can throw at us. Plus, we might even get some new vehicles out of the deal. I'm sure Satan's gotta be lonely riding that LEX on the battlefield by himself."

Kashiwa and Leonard ignore the explosion and high-pitched laughter just outside of the hospital, as they continue to work on restoring their comrades to fighting form.

New Map Effects

• Aim at the building?! - Summons enemies in vehicles.

edited 14th Jun '10 10:22:11 AM by WillyFourEyes

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Whoops. *cringe*

"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax

It's not your fault. Seedle's a bastard like that.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

I just didn't think we were ready for the new one, and I hate Micky.

"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax

If there's a new overlord, I'll usually use their world. (Does that mean asking Salome will get me a Bad End?)

No, because if you let her survive her battle with Alexander in 8-6, the final episode takes place on her netherworld again, as she attempts to fuse her and Zetta's Netherworlds by crashing them into each other. She's the final boss of the game.

Initially, both she and Alex are far too powerful for your forces to handle, so the best course of action is to sit back and try to keep Salome alive (her health bar is yellow, while Alex's is red, indicating that he's the one who has to be killed in order for you to proceed).

edited 14th Jun '10 10:08:56 AM by WillyFourEyes

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Let's check in with the Zetta Steve army again, shall we?

The new free dungeon Steve has created is 16 floors deep, with the average enemy level also at 16. (In Phantom Brave, the stats for the dungeons created by a Dungeon Monk were given at random, while Makai Kingdom's free dungeons have both the average level and number of floors scaled to the level of the person who makes the wish at the time.) A majority of the rooms Steve's team lands in are single-room affairs, with only a handful of enemies to defeat for a big payday.

On the third floor, Leonard spots a syringe that he thinks would be useful as a weapon. Since syringes aren't sold in stores (like Astral's magic box and Musashi's Makai Cannon), he wastes no time in bringing it back to base.

Lucca forces Bob to earn his stripes as a mechanic by sending him out into battle and killing a few mooks. He's one of the few team members who has yet to make a transmigration, so he racks up some mana, and in the process, learns a technique that allows him to repair vehicles on the fly.

On the 7th floor, everyone but the leaders are locked out, leaving Steve, Meredith, and Kashiwa to fight their way through a small group of enemies. After discovering the key, they are surprised to find an enemy lab spawn right next to Zetta. While they fear that they won't be able to reach it before the engineer in the lab tries to bust it up, they take the Tome with them and move on.

The ninth floor places the team in a very precarious spot, with enemies at a higher elevation than them, little room to move around up there any no one who can jump up to fight. Zetta spawns buildings on top of the icy blocks and tries to get rid of as many foes as he can before moving on. The team sees an Imperial Seal that appears to be the key to the next area, but rather than destroy it, they steal it and move on to the next area.

Floor ten, like in the last dungeon, is a boss area. Most of the enemies the crew meets aren't worth a lot of points, and it looks like there isn't going to be much to this dungeon, as there are only three rooms. However, luck is on the group's side, as "One Last Wish" activates, crippling the area boss (a level 33 Corn as Folk). Woody is able to knock him out in one hit and jump up two or three levels.

The next three areas consist of a single room, which the team breezes through. At the 14th, Steve decides that everyone's had enough, and orders a return to base.

Astral has more than enough Mana to make the transition to Warlock, and Meredith has regained most of the levels that she lost from her previous transition.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Following promotions for Astral (Sorcerer to Warlock) and Goldie (Surprise Box to Mimic), the team upgrades its equipment and is ready to move on.

Stage 5-2: Seedle's Grave

"Seedle's Grave?" says Ryuunosuke. "He doesn't look that dead to me. There isn't a single headstone to be found in this wasteland."

Instead, the team find a few similarly-dressed, but probably-not-from-the-same-lab professors, and a mechanic of unknown origin. They aren't particularly well-armed, and Zetta's forces are able to beat them down without much resistance. Lucca uses this as the perfect opportunity to test out Ark Fire, a weapon system Bob had secretly installed into Gear Metal LEX after their last battle  ^*

.

"If there weren't any graves before," says Meredith, "Seedle's gonna need to dig some fresh ones after this."

Steve and Kashiwa try their hardest not to chuckle.

Meanwhile, Trenia is all alone, gioggling playfully as she tends to a garden of corn (IN...SPAAAAACE?) Foreshadowing, or Big-Lipped Alligator Moment in the making? You be the judge!

Stage 5-3: Seedle the Ghoulish

The team arrives on site at a lone factory precariously perched on top of a tall stone pillar, with seemingly no way to get up or down from it. The factory is guarded by a lone Gourmet Ogre, who appears to be slobbering all over his morningstar.

"Gross!" says Steve. "I hope this is the only thing we have to do here. That guy's really freaking me out."

He rushes toward the creature's front, while Meredith sneaks up on it from behind and they both attack in turn.

"You said it. Now, let's get on out of here," says Meredith. "I'm starving!"

From behind the pillar, the group hears one loud SLAM! after another, and three vehicles come barreling into view...a Driller-G, another Gear Metal LEX, and an experimental Sound Blaster. The three Gourmet Ogres driving them grin menacingly as they get within range.

"FEEDING TIME!" they all shout. A drill attack, followed by a missile salvo and a blast of sound leave the group shaken.

"Where the hell did that come from?" asks Meredith. "How in the world were they able to get down from all the way up there without exploding?"

"Let's not worry about the small details," says Kashiwa as she injects Meredith with a healing serum from the syringe the group had found earlier. "It appears that these vehicles are our targets. Once we destroy them, the enemy will be defenseless."

Zetta brings in backup, dropping the hut on a corner of the map as far away from the vehicles as possible. Woody and Morrigan join Steve and the others in attacking the enemy's Driller-G, and then eliminating the driver of the vehicle itself.

"What an eyesore!" says Morrigan. "It doesn't even look as cool as our—"

She is unable to finish her sentence as she is gunned down by the enemy's Ark Fire. Zetta sends the Warehouse in to take care of this menace.

"Oh, boy! More targets!" says Lucca. She rolls her Gear Metal LEX into rage, as the enemy's LEX and Sound Blaster are clustered together to allow her and Steve to smash them to pieces with coordinated group attacks. The ogres don't seem fazed by having just seen their vehicles destroyed, as they brandish weapons and charge toward the group.

"'Destroy the vehicles and the enemy will be defenseless', huh?" says Meredith. "This is why we don't let you call the shots."

"They are demoralized, though," Kashiwa responds, "and that is all that matters. In the end, my tactics were successful."

She picks up her syringe and runs as quickly as she can toward the portal back to Zetta's castle. "Let's get out of here!"

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Stage 5-4: Seedle's Degradation

After the encounter with the Gourmet Ogres, the next battle is a Breather Level in comparison. There are 14 level 1 Wood Dolls, all armed with hammers, waiting to ambush the party. The bad news? The low level of the enemy means that there won't be a lot of mana or experience gained on this journey. The good news? The low experience output coupled with this being a mid-tier level guarantees some great rewards. The crew takes great joy in participating in some easy deforestation.

Stage 5-5: Starving Seedle

The crew spots a group of Engineers roaming around an unknown bridge. Considering the possibility that they might be planning to sell secrets to Zetta's enemies, the team moves quickly to eliminate them. THe next group of soldiers and samurai, while small, is much more powerful than expected (level 26-27 compared to the level 19-20 Engineers). Lucca softens them up with some Ark Fire before Astral wipes them out with a Giga Fire spell.

A group of Wood Dolls appears from the west, and another of Soldiers from the south. The group is more worried about the soldier group due to the disparity in levels between the two (and because one of the soldiers is carrying a bazooka.

Suddenly, the crew becomes Depraved and loses all motivation to fight, even though their only remaining opponents are a handful of week Samurai and Healers wielding cakes. The crew takes this as a sign that they don't have much more to do, and leave.

Post-Battle

After the battle, Steve takes a look at his book of wishes, and notices that there is a new creatable among the roster...a Scrap Metal (Metal Titan). This unit boasts some of the highest DEF and RES out of all monster types, but has very low INT and TEC. It can wield morningstars, spears, axes, and the elusive beam sword.

edited 28th Jun '10 10:20:02 AM by WillyFourEyes

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Oooh, lightsabers.

"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax

Unfortunately, they're very hard to find (they only appear in random dungeons, and even then, probably not at my level).

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

And now, back to our irregularly scheduled programme...  ^*

---

Peeking ahead at Seedle's lost city, the team fears that they may be somewhat overmatched, with the lowest enemy level being about 24, and the average party level only at around 17 (Steve, being the leader, is the strongest at level 23), so Steve does the whole "I wish for a random dungeon thingy", and the crew gets right to work with training for the upcoming boss battle.

During their journey, Kashiwa gets a little too needle-happy, and starts innoculating Steve randomly, even though he is at full health.

"Hey! Cut that out!" he yelps. "Why do you have to use that on me so much?"

"Well, I'm sorry," she says. "When you get a new toy, it's only natural that you'll want to play with it a lot, isn't it?"

Steve shows off his arm to Kashiwa, who pretends not to see. "Yeah, but all of these syringe marks don't really make me look badass"

"Aw...is our dear leader afraid of a tiny little needle?" Kashiwa says mockingly, trying to hide the gigantic syringe from view.

The crew runs into some powerful enemies on floor 7 (with a minimum level of 30, way higher than the 23 they expected when entering this area). They don't give away a whole lot in the way of reward points, so Steve is more than ready to hit the Gency Tonic escape route if necessary. After finding out that the terrain in the later levels doesn't favor them advancing very far, Steve uses the Gency Tonic to return to the castle.

"So much for taking it easy," says Steve.

At the end of the journey, Steve learns Fire Slash, and Ryan picks up Bloody Rain, a technique that allows him to spread his fire over an even bigger area (if such a thing were possible).

On average, the party's average level rose by 1.5. Not exactly what they were looking for, but they feel confident enough to proceed.

The enemies here don't notice the party's presence, as they're too busy admiring the wildlife. There are four Energy Balls (eye demons) all holding balloons. Perhaps the ultimate of joke weapons in the Netherworld, the user only gets one attack, after which he/she/it floats off-screen, unable to be summoned again for the duration of the battle. In the hands of an enemy, however, this can be dangerous, as any enemy that is knocked "out of bounds" causes the levels of the other enemies in the area to increase based on that person's level. Grumpy old man Astral spoils whatever party the demons may be planning by killing them all at once with a Giga Fire spell. The two shadow demons on the north side are wielding slightly less-jokey magnets (honestly, I don't care how they work), but are disposed of by Io, Nabiki and Graz. In a bold move by our dear leader, Steve surprise-attacks a small group of soldiers up ahead, revealing the enemy's base camp.

The main enemies in this group are a pair of Watchers (more eye demons) piloting floating vehicles called CX-1 Hellphas. Out in front along with them is a vampire who is capable of using powerful Fire, Mega Fire and Giga Fire magic. The most potentially dangerous foe, however, is a Steel Titan holed up inside the nearby academy. Units that emerge from an academy gain a level at the beginning of every turn.

"Crap! They're charging at us?" asks Ryan.

"This is Seedle's netherworld, after all," says Meredith. "You saw what those other monsters were capable of doing earlier."

The Hellphas use special technology that allows them to instantly heal damage with every attack, a feature that they are all too happy to use on Steve's team with the Cyclone attack. Steve and friends decide to concentrate all of their attacks on destroying the Hellphas first. The vampire is aggravated that his magic has little effect, but is even less surprised when he is vaporized by a spell from Morrigan's book.

The titan lumbers forward with beam sword in hand, come to avenge the death of his vampiric master, while having gained three levels with little effort at all. Io laughs, reminds him that HP don't replenish with level and, to make things even more insulting, snatches the beam sword from his hand, rendering him effectively powerless.

"Ooh...a beam sword!" says Nabiki. "They used these a lot in those sci-fi movies. I especially like the one with the guy, and the other guy, and the princess and the hairy dude! Yeah...those were cool."

"It is pretty cool-looking," says Steve. "But...who do we have on our team that can effectively use it?"

No one comes forward and raises their hands.

"Oh, well...I'll just hold onto it until someone comes along that can."

Zetta isn't quite as happy about his recent victory as he is with his past conquests, as he is still focused on Zetta's sudden appearance. Badass freakin' overlords shouldn't need to worry about such things, after all.

Trenia, meanwhile, is still tending to her corn garden. What exactly is she planning? Is she planning anything?

New Map Effects

Thanksgiving - Summons Corn and Pumpkin units.

New Units

Thanks to Kashiwa, Meredith, and Nabiki taking several levels in badass, the group can now create Archer units. Hilariously, there are no bow-and-arrow type weapons in Makai Kingdom (the Archer class in Phantom Brave at least got a Beam Arrow default skill), but she can use Rifles, which are a step up, I guess. Drills, fans and syringes are her other weapons of choice, as they take advantage of her high TEC rating.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

And there's your lightsabre. Just have to make a Metal Titan now.

"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax

And what luck! It just so happens that I can create one of those for my team!

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

I'm kinda regretting abandoning and selling this game so quickly when it first came out; I just didn't have the patience for the kind of play it requires at the time... it's not just completing levels, it's HOW you complete levels.

Then again, I don't even have time for my Temple Of Elemental Evil blog these days.

"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax

No new selectable gods show up for the next chapter, so I'm left with Micky and Salome as choices to be the next level's master.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Don't look at me. The team got their ass handed to them when I decided.

"The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - E. Gary Gygax