I started off day 30 full of hope and promise. The dungeon was tough, but I was pressing on through it. I grabbed the Blizzaga spell from a chest and continued on my way. The enemies in the dungeon weren't pushovers, but I could handle them well enough. When I finally reached the crystal chamber, I was pretty confident I'd be able to take on the boss and win. Well...
Aria used the shard from earlier to start restoring the larger crystal and once she was done with her part, she asked the party to combine their light, which I would assume meant praying and such. In the next moment though, she was shoving Ektorp out of the way and taking a hit from an unknown source. Now, I'm still not sure why she, a girl wearing only a sundress, felt the need to push a fully armored knight out of the way... Regardless, I was certain that her slow motion sideways fall meant "all aboard the feels train!"
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| Sloooooowwww Moooooootiiiooonnn! |
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| Pink is the hottest color in minion fashion this season. |
Kraken revealed himself and told us who he works for and what he's doing. Hooray for bad buy tropes. He then attacked, leaving no time to tend to Aria. During the first 4-5 rounds of the battle, it was tough, but I felt like I had things under control. Knight Stab, White Mage Heal, Black Mage Light Staff, Monk Punch. But then he had to go and cast a group affecting Blizzaga and half my party went down just like that. Phoenix downs, stat! It worked for a while, but it was the turning point as he continued to chip away at everyone until I was out of Phoenix Downs. It wasn't long before my party was wiped.
Sooooo.... Another day, another boss that I can't beat on the first try. On my second attempt, I decided to do some minor grinding, and I thought the best way to go about that would be to go in, grab the Blizzaga spell, and then Teleport out and go straight through the second time, fleeing from all battles until I got to the boss. That ended poorly when I found fleeing more difficult than anticipated. My party was wiped out even before they reached the Blizzaga chest, and so I started over. Attempt three had me make it to Blizzaga, and then I teleported out to save. I also took the liberty of flying back to the floating continent to rest at an inn and stock up on a few things.
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| So red. I think he needs a hgher SPF... |
Back through, successfully fleeing through more enemies than before, I reached Kraken again. Aria got herself hit as usual, and took a nap while I went to battle with the Squidward on Steroids. Oh! I almost forgot: Obligatory 'Release the Kraken' comment. Anyway, I got to him and he promptly gave me a sound thumping, thus leading to my third game over within the span of an hour. I opted for more grinding, and returned to the floating continent to do so. After a while, I felt my frustration growing so I went the heck to bed, fully intending to continue in the morning when I'd had some sleep.
It was morning in the technical sense when I loaded the game up again. Two in the morning, but definitely 'morning.'
I'd learned a few things while grinding. First off, I undid my foolish noob maneuver of giving claw weapons to my Monk when he could clearly do more damage empty handed. I also discovered that the Temple where the water shard had laid was home to a pair of healing springs where I could revive and restore my HP/MP. That most certainly helped me with my subsequent training. Satisfied at my progress, I made yet another attempt, half expecting to be decimated once more. This time though, my work paid off, and the boss was dead within just a few rounds. Here's what I did differently in reference to my other attempts. Lack Sidetable no longer had claw weapons, and was focused on Item based healing when not punching. Po'Ang was just repeatedly casting Cure, and Ektorp was hitting it with the blood sword. Hemnes cast Blizzaga, on account of the fact it was my most powerful spell. The tactic worked and Kraken finally ceased to be.
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| Just give me five more minutes... |
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| Y u die tho. Stahp. |
Back to that cut scene with Aria now. Ektorp rushes to her side, asks her not to die, and she offers her thanks to the party for restoring the light of the crystal by making sure they're blessed by the water and receive the new jobs that come with it. Considering I only bothered to keep one of the last set, I was significantly less eager to play around with the new classes. I'm actually pretty happy with my Knight, Black and White Mages, and Monk. I'd rather not try to fix what isn't broken. Aria, by the way, promptly disobeys Ektorp's request and gives up the ghost. It's all very poignant and dramatic, and the vignette is topped off with an anguished cry from the hero.
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| Stella! |
Then the world starts to shake as the darkness that's shrouded the surface begins to roll back and time starts to flow again. (It had been paused.) Unfortunately for our heroes, that prompts a cave-in and everything goes black, and Ektorp dreams of a weird old guy that should now be sought. When they awaken days later, in a strange village of people who don't even know time was stopped, the world is full of life once more, if not a little hostile towards them. The Enterprise is chained up in the bay, and Goldor a wannabe King Midas, holds the golden key in the golden halls of his golden manor protected by golden monsters. Dude likes gold is what I'm saying. Also he has a crystal, so that's convenient.
Before we could get there though, (because the airship was currently impounded) we had to go through the sewers of the town to get some levigrass shoes. These will prevent the party from falling into an eternal pit of a bog that stands between them and the ridiculously decadent manor.
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| To the left, To the Left, To the Right, To the Right... |
Prior to setting out for the sewers, I had a few interesting experiences in town. The first was an encounter with four old guys claiming to be the warriors of legend. Obviously they were comically terrible at convincing anyone of this, but one got the distinct impression that the town humored them anyway. Second of the strange and silly things in town involved the piano in the tavern. Back in the first town, you could awkwardly attempt to play the piano, so I wondered if it might have improved when I reached another piano. Apparently, if you play it here, all of the occupants of the tavern leap from their seats and dance along to a jaunty tune. As stupid as it was to watch the scene unfold, I must say, it still made me laugh.
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| Warriors of the Light. Discount version. |
Afterwards, I progressed on to the sewers and they were nice and easy to get through. Definitely a welcome change from the cave of tides I'd spent so much time in. I made it to the boss battle where I found the four old guys from earlier and they were being threatened by a quartet of Gigantoads. Once we'd rescued them, they thanked us and promised to give up on their little hero charade. That didn't stop them from helping us get the Levigrass shoes we needed from the crazy old woman that was living down there.
Latest mode of travel now secured, I made my way to Goldor's Manor and went inside. I followed the walkthrough map which allowed me to skip over a lot of empty rooms and go straight for the treasure vault containing a metric crap-ton of golden swords. Then I teleported out, saved, and took the most direct route to Goldor himself. Blizzaga made short work of him too. The greedy so and so decided that if he couldn't have the crystal, then no one would and smashed it just before he shrugged off this mortal coil, leaving the party appalled and wondering what would happen now with one of the crystals broken. Lack Sidetable, ever the pragmatist, suggested we find the key we needed to unlock the airship.
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| I'm so Smart. S M R T... I mean S M A R T! |
Good idea and all, but I mean, we don't need to find it. It was right there on the floor the whole time, but ok, Lack. Good Job. Have a star. A gold one. Just because.
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| Chain Chain Chain... |
Finally after all that trouble I had my airship back. I explored a bit, visited a few towns, and did some shopping. Then at the advice of my trusty walk-through guide, I saved just outside the gigantic castle/city area in the northwest corner of the world map. Suffice to say that when my airship was shot down and destroyed, (this is the second time in this game that my transportation has exploded) I didn't feel like playing anymore. My last save remains just outside of Saronia. Tune in tomorrow for when I give in and move on with the story - I'll be sure to grab some photo ops this time of the airship being blown to smithereens, and mourn my airship a little longer.
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