Another sidequest today. I get the feeling it’s intended for players to do this one later, but I like to get characters as soon as they’re available.
Kott is just here to point us in the direction of the next recruit, and is so cryptic even he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Apparently they run on instincts and gut feelings.
Kott: “‘The sky boils, the sea burns, the soil begs forgiveness.’ You ever heard anything like that?”
He just says this out of nowhere and I don’t really know what’s up with it. I presume it’s referring either to the Drop or the apocalypse, but where does it come from? Why did he assume they’d be familiar with it? Was it part of their instructions? Although for once the incomprehensibility does work in the game’s favor, because it makes the creepiness stronger. The idea of the sky “boiling” is particularly freaky.
This is where the real quest is. The sailor gives us exposition on the Drop, which was briefly mentioned back in the third interlude and is infuriatingly just out of frame in all the map locations. It’s a weird spot of superheated ocean where the water boils, destroying most ships and thus making it intraversible. It’s simple yet effective weirdness, and the promise of finally investigating it is exciting when it’s been taunting players on the map the entire game. The sailor says he saw a big island in the middle of it, which is odd because there’s never been any land there before. Time to go spelunking.
Since having all recruits is a prerequisite for this, the game can have some fun with it. The group starts off small but more characters trickle in over time for dramatic effect, emphasizing how large and powerful the guild has become. It’s an effective way to show how the guild has grown, and it’s apropos since this is the final recruitment drive. The only problem is that Falitza is missing for some unfathomable reason, which robs the scene of the full effect. There’s even a conspicuous empty space where she could have fit! Did the developer just forget about her?
Qualstio: “Well, there’s no way I’m passin’ up a chance for rampant weirdness like this! Let’s go!”
And here we get a glimpse into what a better Qualstio would have looked like. Yes, good protagonists! Do things!
And for some reason this message uses both the blue narration box and the outlined dialogue box layered over each other. Could be for dramatic effect or just a glitch, I dunno.
The guild wants to investigate it because they have suddenly become good protagonists who investigate things.
Santes says the colored things must be roots for a weird tree, but our twenty-first century eyes can tell they are obviously wires (unless you are slow like me and did not realize this fact until you were told outright), implying this island is a mechanical construct of some sort. Intriguing. Fero says he hears something breathing, and they advance.
Qualstio: “What.”
Indeed.
Eventually they wake it up and glowy light balls fly out of the chasm. This angers the thing and it attacks.
So here’s the game’s optional superboss. It’s pretty disappointing, honestly. It has a boatload of health (400 in everything) and hits like a truck, but it doesn’t make very good use of the game’s mechanics.
The one clever thing it can do is this. Jarring Roar generates an outstanding amount of rush, almost always pushing you back one stage every time it’s used. Once you’re pushed back to the edge, Tatzylvurm can then pick you off with Ceiling Drop (which starts in the back and advances one column every time it’s used like the Cryomancer’s attack way back when) while you’re powerless to reach it with your own attacks. This defensive rush + ranged attack strategy is kind of an inversion of the normal rush situation where enemies close in and melee you to death, so it’s something different at least, but in practice it’s pretty tiring and annoying. If you don’t have a ton of fighters and/or don’t start rushing right away, you’ll be locked into an endless tug-of-war where neither side can really do anything to hurt the other. For all the fuss Kott raises about how you need to be super prepared like for serious, he doesn’t tell you anything about what you actually need to get anywhere in this fight. A little “bring lots of fighters” hint would’ve gone a long way here.
Granted, Tatzylvurm does have an actual attack when it can be bothered to use it, and it happens to be the one thing that’s actually threatening in this game, that being an area attack. It deals ludicrous amounts of body damage, killing Santes and Sirush here. Whoops.
Its regular attack is pretty fierce too, but I’ve got enough body healing going around to make it negligible.
You may have noticed that it deals body damage exclusively. Yes, the ultimate super-cool bonus boss battle for this complex, tactical game is nothing more than a standard jRPG slugfest. Body health is the only thing you need to worry about, so casters have to stay in back while fighters tank everything, just like in a regular jRPG. The mind and soul meters aren’t used at all except for skill fuel, so we may as well be playing with HP and MP instead of this special unique system the game is supposedly built around. To me, this is really disappointing. I’ve always felt that superbosses should be clever and unusual battles that reward intimate understanding of the mechanics. If their gimmick is just that they have bigger numbers then what’s the point? This one manages to go a step further by somehow being even less interesting than normal encounters, and that just makes me sad.
What should happen here is a battle that uses every single mechanic in some form – not just rush, but every damage type, maybe enchantments too to make Yfus worth using. Make it the true thesis of the battle system, where trying to play like a normal jRPG gets you squashed. Make it so that offense isn’t the best defense for once – maybe Tatzylvurm cycles between damage types and zeroes in on weakened party members, forcing you to rapidly juggle who you have on the front lines in order to keep everyone alive. Maybe it can swap its health values so that, for once, you can’t focus on just one lifebar. Have it screw with the Wait values to give it a number of turns on par with a full party. Heck, go full puzzle boss and give it nigh-impenetrable defense but high health costs for its skills, making the battle a matter of survival. There are so many things the game could have done with this, and it chose the most boring option.
Also… I can’t link to it, but I don’t like the music for this fight much at all. It starts off nice and menacing, but transitions into a more light and playful tune that doesn’t really fit with the idea of this being an epic battle.
Its other gimmick is that its element is “chaos”, effectively neutral to everything and making Mana Twist useless because the damage type is random. This just makes the battle take longer since there’s no weaknesses to exploit. That’s another thing that would have been neat, do a barrier change boss where it swaps its elemental weaknesses around. That’d be fitting for “chaos”, honestly.
My party gets murdered good so I restart with a different setup. Zargos is actually useful here, thanks to his body defenses and rush capability. As always, Fero is a good tank, in this case because he resists Corrosive Fumes.
I opt to embrace the jRPG slugfest and win this through body damage, which unfortunately means that Santes has to sit this one out. Zargos is a beast with Thunderous Axe – the energized square it generates makes him far and away the best attacker.
With Refreshment and two body healers, the battle is long but not terribly hard. For some reason it actually didn’t use Corrosive Fumes very often. I guess it only does that if it senses someone’s one space away? (And essence that’s neatly divisible by six for once, that’s nice to see.)
After the battle a bunch more glowy things fly out, one of which gravitates towards the party.
Gee, I wonder what our final party member will be.
The tatzylvurm explains that the lights are spirits who didn’t belong in the world, so he has to quarantine them for reasons even he doesn’t know because we are playing up the cryptic for all it’s worth. For some reason the characters don’t seem to react to the news that this place is a freaking soul prison because they’re back to being bad protagonists who don’t care about things.
Vurm: “Well, at least give me that big one back! I can’t let it leave!”
Qualstio: “Hmm, nah.”
For once Qualstio’s dickishness actually works, because it actually accomplishes something other than just being a dick. The vurm relents to this for… some reason. It’d be nice if he tried to take it back but they threatened to give him another thrashing or something. There’s just something funny about almighty supernatural entities actually backing down to mortals’ threats because they’re not as almighty as they like to think they are. He’s actually characterized as something of a childish buffoon here, somewhat similar to Kott. I do like the continuing theme of the mysterious architects of mystery being only human (or…you know what I mean).
Vurm: “Fine. Keep it. But when I grow up and get big and strong, I’m coming after you for it!”
I wonder, was this originally meant to be a thing in the sequel, or was it always intended as a fakeout?
Dehl: “Who is ‘they’? Who forced you into this place?”
BUY DOWNLOAD THE SEQUEL!
The spirit flips out and solidifies into a crystal thing. Okay.
Tehgonan: “Think it’s safe to pick up?”
Qualstio: “Why don’t you try it first, kid?”
Qualstio: still a dick.
They realize they can bring it to Rulian, the necromancer from Nal. I really like the way this is done, because by the time I got here I had totally forgotten about him, but he does indeed leave directions to find him again if they see something weird – an obvious loose end. The technique of introducing an obvious plot hook you forget after getting wrapped up in everything else that turns out to be a key feature in the true end is one I like. It rewards readers who obsessively remember every detail in case the story pulls something like this, while also being a pleasant surprise to people who have forgotten about it. And in this case, it ties an element from an earlier area into the greater plot arc, giving a sense of continuity and a larger world that the game really, desperately needs.