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  • Locked thread
Explosionface
May 30, 2011

We can dance if we want to,
we can leave Marle behind.
'Cause your fiends don't dance,
and if they don't dance,
they'll get a Robo Fist of mine.


corn in the bible posted:

im gonna do this one cause i've never successfully done it before. so it should be interesting!



You are a cool dude, just FYI.

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corn in the bible
Jun 5, 2004

Oh no oh god it's all true!

Mega64 posted:

Please post all his voice acting.

i will probably not do that, because i don't always have sound going when i record. but please enjoy this, which is what you hear when you select him on the main menu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcJC61FNmCM

it's like a warning

habituallyred
Feb 6, 2015
Becoming Da-Vinci to compensate for your crush rejecting you is not what I expected. Nor was an umpteen stage final boss rush.

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.

Ratoslov posted:

No woman in the history of anything has ever been impressed by a guy with an orinthopter.

Even Leonardo Da-Vinci had to be really good at painting to impress people. Also think up the screw helicopter.

FeyerbrandX
Oct 9, 2012

oh no I forgot there was another Riki.

Ubiquitous_
Nov 20, 2013

by Reene
Yesss! I can't wait to see how this one plays out.

Prism
Dec 22, 2007

yospos
That was not the voice I expected him to have.

FeyerbrandX
Oct 9, 2012

I'm Armic, would you like me to stick my head in a bucket of water? Hair Curl the size of a planet and no one listens to me.

marshmallow creep
Dec 10, 2008

I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

I swear I've heard that exact voice in a tv show somewhere.

Why does this chipmunk sound like such a sad nerd?

corn in the bible
Jun 5, 2004

Oh no oh god it's all true!

marshmallow creep posted:

I swear I've heard that exact voice in a tv show somewhere.

Why does this chipmunk sound like such a sad nerd?

Armic is played by Tiffany Grant, who has been in a shitton of anime dubs. She played Asuka in evangelion, for example. It's certainly possible she did the same voice for some nerd in some show and you heard it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffany_Grant

She also did the voice clips for Michelle in this game.

corn in the bible fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Jan 6, 2018

KataraniSword
Apr 22, 2008

but at least I don't have
a MLP or MSPA avatar.
I am my own man.

marshmallow creep posted:

I swear I've heard that exact voice in a tv show somewhere.

Why does this chipmunk sound like such a sad nerd?

He sounds exactly like you would expect Eeyore to sound, if Eeyore was a squirrel instead.

corn in the bible
Jun 5, 2004

Oh no oh god it's all true!
Unlimited Saga, Part 14: Armic's Adventure

The people have spoken... and they chose Ruby. But I am a tyrant, and I wanted to try and see if I could complete Armic's story, so that's what we're doing instead. Mythe is considered the hardest story in terms of combat, which I think everyone should now understand; Armic, on the other hand, is hard because of economic reasons.



Armic is a Chapa and he has a magnificently terrible voice. Also, he is incredibly stupid. Like so:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcJC61FNmCM

Sadly, this isn't Minstrel Song, so most of the dialog is not voiced. It's a real loss.

So, what is Armic's story about?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1amJ7JXQyvw



Long ago, the Chapa Village suffered a severe drought. There had been no rain for months.



Just when the villagers had given up all hope, a drifter came by, begging for food.



The villagers, in spite of their own suffering, warmly received the drifter.



As a token of his gratitude, the drifter began to perform a rainmaking ritual.



And rain it did, for three days and three nights! The village was saved.



The man left a stone tablet that explained the mysteries of rainmaking. Then he departed. On the tablet was carved the name of the man -- Iskandar.



We have chosen four brave Chapas to gather the items needed for the rite listed in Iskandar's instructions. Come back with the items we need for the ritual before our village dies from drought. May I present our four brave Chapas.






I wonder why they picked a blockhead like me. What was the village chief thinking? Aww, I'd better just stop thinking about it. Anyway, looks like I'm going on a trip.

That's the setup. Armic needs to find some stuff so they can save the village. If this gripping plot about some weird squirrel people who must find a series of macguffins to save their land from drought seems familiar, then I guess you played SaGa Frontier.

Also, I did record his voice acting in that bit too and here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFPOz6PQxiw

Anyway, after that we're dumped in Chapa with no real direction.



We can't look at the list of items yet, because it hasn't been translated. All we can do is go check the Inn and see if anyone there has something to say.



This lady says this even if you visit Chapa as somebody else. So I guess the Chapa like to write...? Or, perhaps, she is just an idiot. Who can say.



This is who we want to talk to. It's Norff, and he will be our first party member.

Oh, is it an alphabet?

Yeah, I'll need to show it to my teacher. I'm on my way to gather herbs now, but why don't we go see him later?

There are some really nice people in this world. I hope this means my job will finish soon.

Chapa's Inn has a shop, but it's one of those trade-only shops. Armic actually begins with some nice equipment, including a silver sword, so I don't want to trade the sword for a single piece of fur or something stupid like that so we won't be buying anything. Let's just go get some herbs or whatever.




This is actually a sidequest anybody can do if they go to Chapa, but for Armic it counts as a story quest and thus has no time limit. As Norff says, it is very easy to do, but you shouldn't just do it and leave because this place is full of treasure bags.



They're almost always trapped, yeah, but it seems to only ever be poison or needles, so you can just open it and take the hit. We need as much money as possible as soon as possible so we can get all of Armic's magical nonsense bought quickly. Usually characters come to Chapa pretty late, I think, so doing that as Ventus or whoever wouldn't be worth the small payout. However, it's still good to do because you get herbs, and herbs are very special. Look, here's an herb:



They come in different colors, with green being most common. You might as well explore and grab the other ones though, because they are better. And what do they do? Well, when used outside of combat, they recover a character's LP.

Yes. LP. They are the only thing that can do this, and you only find them here.

The quest is simple and not particularly exciting, so let's discuss our two protagonists. These are pretty much the only characters who actually have plot relevance for Armic, because they are the only mandatory ones.

Armic has mediocre stats, though he has good water and endurance. His strength is... average. He is pretty much just average. However, he is also tiny, which means he weighs very little and can be made to do light martial arts or simply relied on to go first in combat. Good for combos. Alternatively, you could load him up with really heavy stuff and he'd still weigh less than a regular person! I don't know if you'd necessarily use him over anybody else but, I mean, it is his story so we've gotta keep him around.

On the other hand, Norff is amazing. He's got maximum magic growth, and while his wood growth is average he starts with a high-level wood spell, and one of the few that actually deals damage.




Normally, a character with good wood growth is kind of pointless, since most wood spells are buffs and you don't need a high stat to use those. Only damage and healing scale from the actual element value, which is why fire and water are so good -- you can get basic damage and healing spells without even really trying. Norff doesn't have to try, because he already knows the best wood attack spell in the game. So, even if you never bothered to teach him another spell, he'd be good. But if you do want to do that, he even starts with magic tablets equipped and ready to learn. Sure, if you wanted to grind out the spells for someone with better stats they would do more damage, but I don't have to do anything for Norff at all so I love him. Dude's great.

Actually, pretty much every recruitable character in Armic's quest seems to be incredible, so that's cool.

When you get seven herbs the quest is over. Armic starts out with a bow skill, which is stupid. We're going full martial arts, baby! Eventually his damage output will suffer, and we'll switch him to a weapon, but I want to keep from having to repair things as much as possible. I'm sure you can understand why.




This is Yun Crimsonrain. He's a wizard. Also, an rear end in a top hat.

Such advanced magic inscription! Iskandar proves himself not just a hero, but the greatest wizard ever! Truly impressive. It is as complicated as Leith Torles's magic tome.

He's talking about all sorts of complicated things. I don't understand it much.

Master, would you help this Chapa?



This is... quite interesting. I'll be happy to help out. Examining this tablet may take some time.

That's okay. It's not something I can make good use of anyway. I'll leave it to your keeping. Please let me know if you find out anything.



Here's the list of the items I need to go collect. Let's start with this.



I see. Then I'll go with you! My master already gave his permission.

Both Yun and Norff are so kind to me! I hate to rush, but we need to get those items.

So, that's how Armic's story is structured. You have to collect the amount of each item listed, and after getting a certain amount of them done it'll unlock his next dungeon. Eventually, of course, we'll need to get them all, and then we'll go fight the final boss and Chaos. So next time we'll talk about strategies for getting this stuff, and get our first optional party member. Stay tuned!

corn in the bible fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Jan 6, 2018

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

I sure hope they didn't expect this story to be taken seriously because Armic's dumbass face already ruined that for me. As did his incredibly lackluster voice. And the other guy who looks like a loving smile emoji does not help at all.

FeyerbrandX
Oct 9, 2012

I can't wait for the amazing last minute twist where Norff just after the last piece of cloth is collected and the village saved, turns his back, a couple of marker squeaks are heard, and he turns back with angry eye brows and becomes the final boss.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
I like how Norff is wearing three hats. Also his name is silly.

corn in the bible
Jun 5, 2004

Oh no oh god it's all true!

Blaze Dragon posted:

I sure hope they didn't expect this story to be taken seriously because Armic's dumbass face already ruined that for me. As did his incredibly lackluster voice. And the other guy who looks like a loving smile emoji does not help at all.



I don't think you are supposed to take the idiot squirrel story seriously, no. But this story does have an incredible twist in its ending! Whoah!!



e:

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I like how Norff is wearing three hats. Also his name is silly.



This outfit is very normal.

Norff actually isn't exclusive to Armic's scenario, but this is the only one in which he actually does anything, so I think he's meant to be ridiculous -- just like Armic. because as much as Armic's story has, well... any story, it's pretty clearly meant to be silly. You'll see.

corn in the bible fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Jan 7, 2018

TheGreatEvilKing
Mar 28, 2016





Beltman returns!

KataraniSword
Apr 22, 2008

but at least I don't have
a MLP or MSPA avatar.
I am my own man.

FeyerbrandX posted:

I can't wait for the amazing last minute twist where Norff just after the last piece of cloth is collected and the village saved, turns his back, a couple of marker squeaks are heard, and he turns back with angry eye brows and becomes the final boss.

Let's see. Curious student shows up out of nowhere to befriend a lost, dimwitted animal-person, is secretly one of the best mages in the game, seems cheerful and enthusiastic all the time?

Yeah this is totally gonna be Mei-Ling 2.0.

FeyerbrandX
Oct 9, 2012

KataraniSword posted:

Let's see. Curious student shows up out of nowhere to befriend a lost, dimwitted animal-person, is secretly one of the best mages in the game, seems cheerful and enthusiastic all the time?

Yeah this is totally gonna be Mei-Ling 2.0.

Yeah, seriously that big dumb happy grin becomes really menacing with the right brow

corn in the bible
Jun 5, 2004

Oh no oh god it's all true!

FeyerbrandX posted:

Yeah, seriously that big dumb happy grin becomes really menacing with the right brow


Nonsense! That could never happen, not in a million years because



oh no oh god its all true

marshmallow creep
Dec 10, 2008

I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

KataraniSword posted:

Yeah this is totally gonna be Mei-Ling 2.0.

Who is Mei-Ling 1.0?

corn in the bible
Jun 5, 2004

Oh no oh god it's all true!

marshmallow creep posted:

Who is Mei-Ling 1.0?

In SaGa Frontier, one of the characters is a weird dog squirrel rabbit thing who must save his home from dying of drought by finding seven magical rings.



He is joined in his quest by Mei Ling, a magic student who suddenly shows up and forces herself into the party to help him find all the rings, then betrays him at the end. It's a real dick move because she's very powerful and joins early on, but then you get to the final boss and she's taken away from you because she is the final boss. But I don't see why anyone would think these stories are similar, that's just silly. Norff is definitely, 100% a good friend.

corn in the bible fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Jan 7, 2018

Digamma-F-Wau
Mar 22, 2016

It is curious and wants to accept all kinds of challenges

corn in the bible posted:

Nonsense! That could never happen, not in a million years because



oh no oh god its all true

The power of Mary Jane

Ubiquitous_
Nov 20, 2013

by Reene
Who knew Unlimited SaGa was subliminal messaging about reefer madness.

KirbyKhan
Mar 20, 2009



Soiled Meat

corn in the bible posted:

Norff is definitely, 100% a good friend.

Mei-Ling had foreshadowing in a Saga Frontier sense. Shes mad at her boyfriend for ghosting on her because he was eaten by a skywhale. Shes also described as greedy by some other character. :biotruths: but you have to extrapolate a lot from a little in SaGa.

Norff's first quest is going on a weedrun for his boss. His face is a smile emoji. He's great and will be the best.

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.

corn in the bible posted:

He is joined in his quest by Mei Ling, a magic student who suddenly shows up and forces herself into the party to help him find all the rings, then betrays him at the end. It's a real dick move because she's very powerful and joins early on, but then you get to the final boss and she's taken away from you because she is the final boss. But I don't see why anyone would think these stories are similar, that's just silly. Norff is definitely, 100% a good friend.

Bonus foreshadowing: she outright starts with one of the rings when you recruit her. Not just as Riki either IIRC.

So it's a point in Norff's favor that he doesn't have any of that giant list of things on him at the start :v:

KataraniSword
Apr 22, 2008

but at least I don't have
a MLP or MSPA avatar.
I am my own man.

EponymousMrYar posted:

Bonus foreshadowing: she outright starts with one of the rings when you recruit her. Not just as Riki either IIRC.

Nah, the rings don't show up outside of Riki's quest. It's true she starts with one in his quest, though.

FeyerbrandX
Oct 9, 2012

Also one of the first things out of her mouth is telling you not to trust anyone.

At least the game throws one single kibble of mercy on Riki's quest, of which there are many, many bricks of spiteful hate is that while everyone else either starts their story alone, or with maybe one or two people. Riki starts with almost a full party, so if you know what you're doing you can go immediately get a sixth recruit and kick her out.

sethimothy
Nov 1, 2006

Nyu for 1d4 points of damage
Hoping on the Norff bandwagon. So certain characters have certain canned lines for very specific situations. Should Armic fall in battle while Norff is active, you get to hear that smiley faces mage call out "Armic" in the most amazing way. The voice acting in this game is the gift that keeps on giving...

Veryslightlymad
Jun 3, 2007

I fight with
my brain
and with an
underlying
hatred of the
Erebonian
Noble Faction
I once dated a girl in college who dressed sort of like that, sans the mask.
As I recall, she also had a thing for herbs.

GeminiSun
Feb 16, 2011




So, stop me if I'm putting too much thought into a SaGa game's plot, but:

- A seriously non-trivial amount of poo poo is needed for the ritual.
- Iskandar was able to do this ritual apparently off the cuff.
- At the time, Iskandar was a drifter.

Conclusion: How the hell full of poo poo was Iskandar's backpack at the time? Dude was loaded!

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

GeminiSun posted:

So, stop me if I'm putting too much thought into a SaGa game's plot, but:

- A seriously non-trivial amount of poo poo is needed for the ritual.
- Iskandar was able to do this ritual apparently off the cuff.
- At the time, Iskandar was a drifter.

Conclusion: How the hell full of poo poo was Iskandar's backpack at the time? Dude was loaded!

Actually my first thought was that none of it is actually needed and it's just the Elder's way of getting Armic the gently caress away from the village for as long as possible so he doesn't gently caress up the ritual, or slightly darker, so he gets himself killed in a ravine somewhere. While the other three, actually competent, chapas, do the real ritual prep.

Meanwhile I imagine Armic accidentally walks into a dire conflict between GOOD AND EVIL and still has no idea what happened at the end after beating Chaos.

mycot
Oct 23, 2014

"It's okay. There are other Terminators! Just give us this one!"
Hell Gem
I like your new avatar corn in the bible.


PurpleXVI posted:

Actually my first thought was that none of it is actually needed and it's just the Elder's way of getting Armic the gently caress away from the village for as long as possible so he doesn't gently caress up the ritual, or slightly darker, so he gets himself killed in a ravine somewhere. While the other three, actually competent, chapas, do the real ritual prep.

Meanwhile I imagine Armic accidentally walks into a dire conflict between GOOD AND EVIL and still has no idea what happened at the end after beating Chaos.

But apparently the magical list is genuine and unique (but different from the regular shopping list? I'm still confused about that).

senrath
Nov 4, 2009

Look Professor, a destruct switch!


GeminiSun posted:

So, stop me if I'm putting too much thought into a SaGa game's plot, but:

- A seriously non-trivial amount of poo poo is needed for the ritual.
- Iskandar was able to do this ritual apparently off the cuff.
- At the time, Iskandar was a drifter.

Conclusion: How the hell full of poo poo was Iskandar's backpack at the time? Dude was loaded!

There's also the possibility that Iskandar was just so powerful he could do the ritual without all the bits and bobs, but anyone can do the ritual with all of the normal crap.

habituallyred
Feb 6, 2015
So if Armic was included just to get the search party to four people, why did they get the ancient tablet? There is only one tablet and he just gives it to this wizard? This is going to end in a bad case of Armic's Ark.

Ubiquitous_
Nov 20, 2013

by Reene
Im just excited to see how absolutely silly this story gets.

Commander Keene
Dec 21, 2016

Faster than the others



GeminiSun posted:

So, stop me if I'm putting too much thought into a SaGa game's plot, but:

- A seriously non-trivial amount of poo poo is needed for the ritual.
- Iskandar was able to do this ritual apparently off the cuff.
- At the time, Iskandar was a drifter.

Conclusion: How the hell full of poo poo was Iskandar's backpack at the time? Dude was loaded!
Iskandar is supposed to be some sort of legendary hero. You know how much crud they tend to acquire on their journeys.

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011
I don't know what you people are talking about; this dude has the perfect voice for a reluctant hero.

corn in the bible
Jun 5, 2004

Oh no oh god it's all true!
Unlimited Saga, Part 15: The Caves of the Undead

So let's address the big shopping list.



Even though it's sort of implied only Armic has it, because he had to go find Yun and have the stone translated, every other Chapa is also searching for these items. This actually has some gameplay implications later on, though nothing harmful.

You'll notice it's split into two columns. The ones on the left are common items, which will appear in stores more or less all the time. Getting these is simply a matter of buying them whenever you see them, and then never using them for repairs or whatever. Forging them into stuff is fine, though; a Copper Spear still counts as having copper. Some are a little rarer than others -- snake skin seems annoyingly uncommon in shops, for example, -- but basically, as long as you buy stuff regularly and trade with the Chapas, the left side will pose no problems. For example, I bought a few copper things from the shop in Loch Vaan, and thus:



Plus, everyone starts with cotton armor and bandanas, which you can remove as needed; once unequipped, they count too! So, while perhaps tedious, this part of the quest is simple enough. It's the right side is where things get tricky. These are all high-end, rare items, and it's possible to play through an entire game without seeing a few of them. I know this, because in all of Mythe's scenario I never did see a dragon scale for sale anywhere. Again, however, there are systems in place to make this easier. First of all, some of these things can be found in specific quests. You may remember the Abandoned Castle, which had some Obsidian Boots in the basement; those are always there, for every character, and so all we have to do for the obsidian on this list is go grab the boots and we're done! Similarly, Ash, Dragon Scale, and Meteorite can all be found in set, scripted locations.

Damascus and Faerie Silver (which means Platinum) can be crafted, as has been seen. Meteoric Iron is crafted from Meteorites, but those are actually not hard to find; they show up in shops fairly frequently after a while. Usually you wouldn't bother buying them, though, since they're expensive and neither they nor the iron you make from them is particularly amazing, but they will pose no real issues.

So, the real difficult items here are Glossed Silk, Hydra Skin, and Diamond. Those, you have no choice but to buy or trade for, and you have to get lucky enough, and boost the Market Rank enough, for that to even be an option in the first place!

That's why we wanted as much money as possible from the herb picking: we need to constantly be buying stuff so that the shops will increase in rank, and they'll start selling the things we need. Early on, it's not a bad idea to just buy everything possible and then sell back or forge what you don't need.

Since we're without any real direction, and only have two locations (Chapa and Loch Vaan) unlocked, let's visit the Inn for information.



That's amazing! I can't remember a thing.

For example, the Spirit Bow is said to be at the Caves of the Undead nearby.

Uh-huh...

You think I'm bluffing? Then why don't we go there?

With this, we have our third party member and our first lead. The Spirit Bow is made of Ash, which is one of the things we need for the rainmaking ritual!

Before we can head out to get it, though, we get a message from Yun:



Whenever you fulfill the requirements for the next dungeon, Yun says Eureka and you have to go visit him to see what's up. This time, however, it's not to give us a quest but rather to explain what the broader scope of Armic's adventure will be.

I've begun to understand its inscriptions. But oddly, the mystery keeps deepening...

I see...

The inscription says that four special items are needed, but in my opinion, there should be five.

So there are four special items. Ooooh, I wonder if I can gather them all.

What are these four... no, five special items? And where are they? I have yet to decipher that part.

Oh...



As we gather materials, Yun will work on translating the tablet to find out where the super special magic items are, and then send us to fetch them. We get to pick which elemental dungeon Armic will be sent to first, and I went with Metal because I looked up what the reward for that is. I am a filthy cheater!

Metal, please.

Very well, I shall start on it.

Thank you very much for your help.

When we get some amount of items -- I don't know exactly, but it's pretty small -- we'll be able to do the Metal dungeon, then pick another element. If you pick Water, he will say that it's much more complicated than the other elements. Then, after a while, he will give up and send you on a quest for a random element from those you've yet to do. Wonder what that's about.

There's two adventures in Loch Vaan which go to the Caves. We're going to do this one:




The Dancer can't wait to dance for his spirit, now that her dream of becoming a dancer finally came true. You should find the "Sparkling Waterfall" where the sparkling sand is pouring.

A tragic tale, but one we can't do anything about right now. This is because, even though this is the first place you're sent and these are quests the game tells you to do, we cannot possibly defeat the boss of this quest -- or, indeed, of any available quests right now. We are simply too weak.

Fortunately, the regular enemies don't pose much of a threat. Armic's silver sword is pretty strong for this stage of the game, and he can kill everything with ease. Norff has Thunderbringer and could do the same, but it's cheaper to repair the sword than Norff's armlet. Nuage is a physical attacker, too, and has quite good strength, so he can hold his own as well. He's got a spear, because he came with one and I spent all my money on rocks.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/MatureEnviousCavy-mobile.mp4

When you take Nuage into combat for the first time, he says

I followed the way of the Carrier, and now follow the way of the sword.

in a magnificently bad Scottish accent. He will never say anything in any cutscene; his relevance to the story is finished. He's just going to stab things, and I hope that's OK.

Here's something of note: Armic has a punch panel, thanks to Herb Adventure, and that combined with his low weight means his Punch is replaced with this:

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ComfortableBiodegradableHornet-mobile.mp4

That's how you know he has light martial arts, at least for punching. Having a panel makes your martial arts lighter, even if your character remains the same weight; thus, if you want someone to do heavy martial arts you should, paradoxically, never give them any martial arts panels.

Each level has different techniques to spark, so there's a reason you might prefer one over the other.



In the upper part of the cave, we find the Spirit Bow. It's made of Ash, and I think may have special abilities not normally available on an Ash bow (that's usually the case for these special items) but it will basically just be a way to have Ash in our inventory and nothing more. I can make better bows.

Note that we got this without fighting the quest's boss. That's important because if you finish the quest and leave without the bow, you... won't have the bow. If you finish all the quests in these caves without it, well, then I guess you need to find Ash somewhere else.

What is the boss of Sparkling Dancer? Well...




It's seven enemies, four of which have multiple LP and attacks that can KO a party member with status effects. It's bad news. A better idea is to just grab the bow and leave the quest entirely. We can come back and do it later.



Nice.

We also run into Qalesin, which introduces another Armic-specific mechanic: trading.




Every so often, we will run into the other three Chapas, and if they have extra items we can trade ours for them. This even applies to the rare items on the second column! I think how much they have depends on how much you have, which is why right now Qalesin has nothing extra to trade to us. Later, we'll make use of this, but for now it's not very helpful.

Armic, you hang in there too♪♪♪

Qalesin is popular even among people outside the Chapa tribe. I'm jealous.

At this point I had actually purchased everything in the shop, and it can't refill until we do a quest successfully. I decided to try this one:



This well used to be famous for its water. But a merchant set his eye on it, and pumped up all the water in the well. Now this well is dry and deserted. One wizard came here to research the water, but he never returned. Search for the clue in the well to figure out where he went...

This sounded perfect for Armic, since I remembered that the Bottom of the Well has treasure you can only reach by swimming, and Armic has a Level 3 Swimming panel by default.




However, while I found a magic tablet, the actual objective was behind a locked door I couldn't open. And Scared Knight, the other quest in Loch Vaan, requires a very heavy character to complete, which we don't have. Chapa has a quest, but it requires killing a boss I can't defeat. So in the end I decided the only hope was to somehow get past the undead in the Sparkling Dancer quest, and hope the fight was doable.




It very nearly wasn't. But we did it!

Light fills the area, and sparkling sand starts to pour from the ceiling. Later, you find that a young couple lost their lives in this cave years ago. Only one body was found, but the other had vanished.

Panels weren't very interesting, though I got a water tablet for Norff (probably should have given it to Armic, but oh well). The important thing, though, is that the shops refilled. By selling all the items I had that weren't on the list, buying a bunch of copper, and stripping everyone of their cotton clothes, I was able to meet the quota for Yun's translation. Hooray!



I deciphered the item for Metal! It's Venus's Mirror, and it's somewhere in the mines.

Oh, in the mines...

We tell Yun to work on Earth next, and then it's off to the mines.



Where we meet a very important character:




Rude. Rude as hell.

Where are the monsters?

Oh, a Chapa. What are you doing in a monster lair?

I, uh, came here to look for something important.

I'm Edel, the Outland Knight. Let me help you search. You wouldn't last long without a guard.

Thank you very much.

This is Edel, and he's great. How great? This great:



Edel's physical stat growth is the highest possible. He is the best physical attacker in the game. It is not possible for people to be better ones. He also has a shield panel, which is nice. Edel is very very good and apart from just inexplicably trying to make him be a wizard, he cannot be screwed up. It's very nice. Here's what Armic looks like when he gets hit by something:



Sadly, the presence of two really good characters makes Armic's acceptable physical output less impressive. Oh well.



This quest is set in the mines, as you perhaps already have guessed. We have to find bomber ore in order to blow the exit out and escape. There's several ways you can find it; the easiest is to head downstairs and find this giant monster's feet:




It'll kick you in retaliation, but the damage is minimal.

The other way to get ore is to find the head of another mining creature.



If you dig while it's asleep, and stop when it's waking up, then after a while dig too much so it wakes up, then bomber ore will fall down somehow and you'll get it. This is explained in a note you can find lying around, I think, but I remembered the solution from coming here as a sidequest so I didn't look for it. And that's basically it. Once you have the ore, you head east until Edel says there's an exit:



You use the bomb, follow the corridor, and when you get to the mine's storage a boss appears.




Nuage kills it with his laser spear and the mission is over. Good work!




And that's that. We have the Mirror of Venus, and Armic is well on his way to saving his people. So that's nice!

Next time, we go hunting for more items, and perhaps visit the Festival. Will something exciting occur? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Stay tuned!

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ultrafilter
Aug 23, 2007

It's okay if you have any questions.


corn in the bible posted:

Next time, we go hunting for more items, and perhaps visit the Festival. Will something exciting occur? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Stay tuned!

In any other game, I'd assume that yes, something will occur. Here I'm genuinely unsure.

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