|
Part 2: Fetch-Questing "Go west, young(?) frog," said Dark Lord Agon, so west they went.  On the way we had another battle, which got Keroro, Tamama, and Kururu to level 2. Tamama learned Storm Claw, an Arte that takes him diagonally upward, good for flying enemies, and Kururu learned his first spell, Heal. Yes, the contrary tech guy is your first and best healer in the game. We also get a victory skit I've probably seen/skipped like a million times, it comes up so much. VIDEO: Kero-Kuru Victory Skit 1  West past the Hinata house is the Mountain Pass.   Our bottom-screen map changes to this when we enter any dungeon-type area. Exits to other sections are marked with arrows, and exits to the map are marked with flags. It also shows any treasures found.  This dude at the entrance tells us about reordering our fighting party, stuff I've already gone over in the first update.  The pass isn't too complicated. You can just run left and--     A pincer attack... however...!At the outset of a pincer attack, you're not only surrounded by enemies, you're stunned and can't move for a few seconds. You can avoid the stun part if you have equipment that prevents it, though.   A clean sweep.Even on Hard, pincer attacks at this early point are just a slight annoyance. Scrub Snakes and Swaying Scorpions are still no problem. Pincer attack frequency relies mainly on the RNG, which means it's affected by the luck stat. Bad luck also means less crits and item drops.  The pass branches off to the north and south. South has a chest with an Herb in it.  The north branch has some Gold, and...  ...Some nature for Keroro to appreciate.  What a lovely pine tree...Dororo oughta be proud.  The "Dororo gets ignored" gag makes its way into several victory skits. VIDEO: Dororo Gets Ignored  Back into the overworld!  I switched out my party, and decided to use Giroro. I'd actually never taken control of him before in my previous playthroughs, because face-stabbing monsters at close range is so satisfying. Despite most of their weapons being stuck in a dimensional rift, Giroro has infinite grenades for his Flare Impact Arte and Up+A attack.   You've got a long way to go before you can deal with the likes of me. Ku ku ku... Kururu, you're as merciless as ever.Since I set Kururu's AI to attack enemies with lower HP, he finishes a lot of battles by himself. This will only happen more often as he becomes the designated nuker.  Beyond the Mountain Pass is a checkpoint.     Here we find our first shop with a whole three items!  I blow all my hard-earned Gold on Herbs. The other two items are Magnifying Glasses and Antidotes. One identifies enemy stats, but unlike Dororo's Eye of Judgement, it doesn't reveal all the information at once. The other cures poison, which I'm not sure any enemy can do just yet. Only 15 of each healing item can be held at once, so 13 Herbs is actually plenty.  And he's fresh out of ingredients.   We need to get through, but unfortunately, the guards are actually doing their job. VIDEO: The First Fetch Quest   If you wanna get through, I'll have to see your pass. Gero? A pass? It's a permit for going through checkpoints like this one. I don't have anything like that. In that case, you can pay a toll to get through instead. Well why didn't you say so! Corporal Giroro, pay the toll, would you?  Why do I have to pay it!? That's what the invasion budget's for! Things have been tight this month... That's because you won't stop buying those drat Gundam models!Don't forget video games.  If you need money, I've got some.  Gero... Private Tamama, where'd you get all that...? It's my allowance from Momocchi. Seriously...? Boy, do you ever have it good... What's this paper supposed to be? All this isn't enough? You're not tryin' to rip us off, are you? We use Gold in these parts. Sheesh, what's with the game currency tropes? So how much of this Gold do you want? Well, the toll's 1,000,000 Gold, but...  DUDE! That goes over the six-digit limit! I'm just following orders from higher up. Complaining to me won't change anything. But if you find the Buried Treasure in the Mountain Pass, you'll probably have enough. Gero? Searching for buried treasure... sounds like an RPG fetch quest to me. Sergeant! You're not supposed to talk about it like that! We've no other choice. To return to our world, we must find that Buried Treasure in the pass. Looks like it. A treasure hunt sounds like fun! All right, platoon! To the Mountain Pass! Hey, at least all the guards want is a ridiculous amount of money. They don't even care about the oversized bipedal frogs running around. So where the hell do we find buried treasure in that pass? It's not like it has anything remotely interesting in it.  Except this lovely pine tree. Found the Buried Treasure!  So this is the buried treasure! It's full of glittering gold! Gero? This is supposed to be worth a whole lot in this world... so if I sold it, I'd be filthy stinking rich! Hold on, Sergeant! Don't get blinded by your own greed! If you don't take care of the monsters attacking Earth, it's bath-cleaning duty for all eternity! Gerooo! That's not good! Keroro Platoon, let's take this treasure back to the checkpoint right away! We mosey on back, with some battles in between.  Here's a victory skit that's in a few Tales games, most notably Tales of the Abyss. VIDEO: The Choro-Ama Skit  Back to the gate with our effortless stack of gold. Oh hey, it's you again. Find any buried treasure? Hahaha! Like they'd find it that easily... You mean THIS buried treasure!? Bashed the guards with the treasure! Th... this bright, glittering gold! It's the Buried Treasure! Man, I really underestimated you! I had no idea you'd actually find it.That's what you get for being  . You get a pile of gold crammed in your face. Please, go right on through! Oh yeah! Here, I'll give you guys somethin' good.Got a Keparrow Map! That map shows treasure locations when you put in passwords. But apparently you can't find any of the passwords in this world. If you hear about any, don't be afraid to try 'em out. By the way, I heard a rumor that the important little booklet you guys have has one of the passwords. You know, one you should always read before playing.Sucks when things like this happen and the game's bought used, and you're lucky to even get a box.  I hear the condition of used games is a lot different in Japan, though. You could buy this 10 years down the road, and still have the original box AND instruction book! Imagine that. Why don't you read it and give that password a try? Gero... are you talking about reading the manual...?Keroro is notoriously bad about not reading the user's manual for anything.  Looks like you could get some loot out of it, so why the hell not? Well, have a safe journey!  Wait a minute... VIDEO: More Mois Gero? That was Miss Mois... HNNNGH! WHAT'S THAT HUSSY DOING HERE?! Miss Mois should still be back at the base... But I'm sure that was her I saw just now... She must be plotting to steal my Sargey! LET'S KEEP GOING! I'm sure this can't mean anything at all!   Then we hear a scream.  Ah! That's-!  Someone help! ...In other words, a desperate situation? It IS Miss Mois! We'll save you! The platoon runs in to save Mois? from the generic monster sprites.   Using Eye of Judgement will fully reveal an enemy's HP and weaknesses on the first try. It's like a Magnifying Glass with a 100% success rate. We can see this Flutterbird's weakness to Wind and resistance to Earth.  Rather than just jumping back a little, Dororo ninja-vanishes to dodge.  Level-ups for these three, who resonate in victory, in case you forgot they were frogs and also spooooky aliens. Keroro learns Mach Spike, which hits 5 times rapidly. Dororo learns Heaven and Earth, an Arte that teleports him to the target to attack, and is useful the entire game. It didn't show it because he's sitting in reserve, but Kururu also gained a level and learned his first Earth-based magical Arte, Dug Blast.    Thank you all so much for saving me! Are you all right, Miss Mois? Oh my, have we met before, Uncle? I work as a peddler around here. My name is Moano. Moano? So you're not Miss Mois. But even so... SHE LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE THAT drat WOMAN! It's said there are three copies for each person. Hey, Uncle? My house is just ahead. I'd like to reward you for saving me, so could you please stop on by? Come on now, don't be shy! ...In other words, I'll share what I have?  But before we advance, let's check out that Keparrow Map the guard gave us.  On top, it shows how many treasures we've marked/discovered, and on bottom is where it'll show the location of a selected treasure.  Hitting X takes us to the password screen. Each treasure is a combination of five symbols, selectable with the buttons or by touch screen. Like the guard said, there's no way to find passwords within the game itself.  But that's what the official site is for!  A while after the game came out, all the passwords were made available. Some were only available with certain Keroro toys or in the strategy guide at the time of the game's release. Each password put in records a treasure's location, so we can always check where it is.  The downside is that there are three hundred and one of these things, and every time you put in a code, the symbol squares shuffle randomly into new positions. Very tedious.  So I only filled in about fifty or so, which covers much of this first area of the game. Many require keys we can't get until much later. For now, I leave you with official art of the late Captain Jack Keparrow. Next time, treasure hunting and frog fashion!  Yeah, it's a Pirates of the Caribbean reference. How Ingratiating! fucked around with this message at 09:40 on Aug 19, 2013 |
| ← # ? Jan 5, 2013 02:58 |
|
