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| I'm enjoying all the vehicles; this one's a hover bike |
I know I ended my last post with a bit of doom and gloom. I was fully expecting to face insurmountable odds that would drive me to grinding; however, I managed to eke by with a meager collection of Elixirs and X-Potions until I found my way to the next town. With the direction of So-Cho, I took his bike and followed the sewers to the library first.
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| Sounds like fun! |
I started my search on the bottom row, and discovered nothing. I wasn't sure if I was looking in the right place since there wasn't a message when I pressed the button, so I checked how many rows there were before continuing my search at the back. At the end of that row there was a square that started a sequence of searching where I lost control of my party; they went on their own searching the bookshelves. Upstairs revealed the location of Akiba.
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| City blocks? I think those have all been destroyed |
I could only guess the directions where from the library. Akiba was truly a hidden city. I picked up some treasure and a ROM from Akiba, which was completely deserted and filled with monsters.
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| Why don't we full over and ask that nice fire bird for directions? |
Ameyoko was to the furthest northeast portion of the map. When I arrived, I wasn't even sure it was the town I was looking for since none of the inhabitants would speak to me.
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| Yoohoo~! Over here; I'm a girl~! Talk to me |
The weapon shop was as expensive as ever, but there were two item shops. One had a the Rod, which seems to work the same way as the Cure spell (I learned this from the manual). When used by one of my mutants it heals for about 300 HP and has 30 uses. Also here was the HP200 I complained had disappeared. I spent 10 minutes buying and using them 1-by-1. While I could have easily gotten to max HP, I didn't feel to it was a good use of time.
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| Anyone ever actually have enough money to purchase this item? |
I still wasn't sure this was Ameyoko, where I was supposed to find the Board. I decided it was, only after searching the remainder of the map. It still took me a few minutes to locate the shop which sold the Board. It was on the other side of a gap in the north wall.
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| Story of my life here |
With Board and ROM in hand I returned to So-Cho. He told me the next item was plutonium from the atomic plant. The plan was to attack it the next day, but my party thought it was best to go it alone.
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| Not anymore! |
They were outnumbered on the way out, so they allowed So-Cho to the lead the way until we arrived at the base of the plant. The place was locked out anyway until he taught us to jump over a gap with the bike. The battles inside weren't much of an issue except for one; Jaso was turned to stone.
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| Uh... you first |
Even with one party member down I easily blew through the rest of the tower. At the top So-Cho ran through a force field to disarm it. He died in the process, and passed on a piece of armor before passing out. Beyond the door I found plutonium, added it to the parts I already had, and assembled the Erase99 program.
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| Did someone order a boss fight? |
A machine responded to the automated alarm. The machine, which looked strangely like a WarMech from Final Fantasy, went down without too much trouble. We ignored the radioactive water we must be drenched in and moved on.
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| Blind and stone we still took down the machine |
With the device completed, I found myself instantly outside the first town. Inside, nearly all the people were dead. Luckily the inn keeper survived to give me a night's rest, but the shops were inaccessible. Looks like I'm going to lug around this stone statue of Jaso for a bit longer, as I was directed towards the skyscraper.
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| Oh! You're Zoku... |
The enemies inside the skyscraper were the deadliest I had faced. It's at about this time I considered grinding, but I pressed on. After a very close call, I realized that an elixir, which I already knew to bring HP and abilities to max, may be able to cure stone and blindness. Fortune smiled upon Jaso as his stone body reverted to flesh (or whatever mutant skin is called).
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| This is the seconds close call.. I fought this one out and made it through with only the loss of Tara |
I arrived with two revives and needed to use one on Tara already. Seriously considered again stocking up on... something. Without normal levels there wasn't really anything to grind. I could purchase more HP and strength for Jare, but Jaso and Tara were randomly improving.
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| ...and there goes Jaso |
Nearing the top I used my last revive. The only thing that saved my attempt at the tower was the book of death spells Tara had acquired. I 'd marked the sorcerer, and a couple more deadly enemies as instant targets. The skyscraper was a maze of passages, some hidden and some completely dark. Many doors just lead to wide open rooms, which are little more than dead ends.
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| Yeah... this is something |
At the top was a commuter train where I found Su-Zaku holding Sayaka hostage for unknown reasons. I used the Erase99 program and dispelled Su-Zaku's shield. What can I really say about the battle; like all others, he was push-over.
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| You did less damage than the sorcerers, a random enemy |
My monster has finally started to come into his own. At some point I managed to turn him into a Minotaur, which did a large amount of damage. Prior to fighting Su-Zaku, I ended up eating some Evil Eye meat, which turned my monster into an Electric Eel. Su-Zaku's meat then turned him into a Fireman, which so far seems really powerful.
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| What's the deal with these spheres? |
Sayaka praised my success and rewarded me with the sphere after thoughtfully burying her brother. With the last sphere in hand, I prepared for the final ascent. I bought another revive, a couple elixirs, rods, and weapons that should put me through to the end game. I even picked up some shoes called Geta for everyone.
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| The final assent of the tower? |
I actually don't remember much beyond this point. I believe there's a boss rush where I fight the four fiends again, and then I only recall the very final battle. I had a save there at one point that I would play through once in a while to watch the ending. The game only has one save slot, so that's long gone by now. Wish me luck and we'll see if I can't finish this up next time.
Session Time: 1
h46
m (
Total Time: 7
h52
m)
"Assent" is also a word, but you mean "ascent". Thanks for playing these games and writing these articles. I've always wanted to play this game, but never got the time.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I got the right word in the title at least. Glad you enjoy reading them despite the road bumps.
DeleteI thought I'd remember more from this game, but apparently a lot has left my memory banks... that is, until "the machine" screenshot above. Wow, absolutely remember being terrified by that thing (albeit in black and white). Thanks again for playing these games!
ReplyDeleteAlways glad to see someone new. Thanks for stopping by. Yeah, I thought I'd remember more of the game as well, but I barely remembered anything except for the bosses and basic outline of the story. I also remembered humans were expensive, so I only went with 1 this time. I think I had 2 the first time I played and it took a very long time to go up the tower.
DeleteYou did exactly what I did in the Library, it's really an odd system. What makes it worse is that on the upper floor, there is at least one item to be found, but the auto-search meant I didn't bother looking properly.
ReplyDeleteHow have your mutant(s) levelled up in comparison to your humans? What do you think would make the best party balance at this stage? I've often wondered if having a four mutant party would make for the easiest ascent.
The most difficult parts of the game (for me) were always the tower parts. When you don't have access to a shop or an inn, it can be difficult not to lose one or two people as you make the climb from floor to floor. The randomness of the battles can mean that luck plays just as important a part as good planning. Certain monsters are much worse than others.
That's interesting about the library. I didn't bother searching once I found the location for Akiba. I've finished the game now, so it doesn't much matter anymore. I'll have to read up a walkthrough to see what I missed. I have a feeling there was probably a treasure or two in the skyscraper as well.
DeleteThe mutants strength and agility are lower, but they have a Mana stat that allows them to cast spells, use magic items, and the P-weapons seem tied to that stat. At 99 Mana (Tara got this early) the death spell always killed groups of monsters unless they were immune. Their HP was always higher. Even though they start lower, they quickly jump into the 100 - 200 by the end of the first world if they can survive long enough.
The tower climbs with the leap in monster level were the most stressful. Once enemies could do enough damage to kill off one member, or instantly kill with some attacks, I always had to carry at least 2 revives. Luck definitely plays a big role in the game. I really lucked out with the final battle.
Unless the cash window expands automatically, it looks like it's impossible to get the 3.2 million Gs to buy a Hyper (which, incidentally, is "Wave Cannon" in the original version, which makes me imagine the party all carrying replicas of Yamato's bow).
ReplyDeleteSee, that's what I thought at first glance. The Hyper has 3 uses, and costs only 100K G. It seems to wipe out all random battles. The best use is to only use it twice, and have another item called Arcane to recharge it. I sold it off at that point though to get some money back to afford some armor upgrades before the final ascent.
DeleteHuh, the game mechanics of this seem really weird, and rather poorly done; very arbitrary and penalizing, unless you have a FAQ saying what monster meat to eat, and even then, the mutants are random.
ReplyDeleteA meat FAQ would make monsters much more enjoyable and less penalizing. The majority of monster deaths was from eating meat that turned them into a puny monster followed by them being one-shotted. I actually liked the randomness of mutant stats, but the abilities was aggravating. I wasn't about to succumb to save scumming to keep the good ones.
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