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Beyond the Beyond: Update 43: The Curious Case of the Non-Boss Bosses (return to Zalagoon)
When last we saw the party they had taken upon themselves the opportunity to rest in Simone. The next day they head up to the now-vacant shrine above Simone. With the rock that was blocking the way removed by Master Zeon they can leave via the opened path.
Everybody ready?
Prrar! As ready as ever, Finn!
*shrugs* Eh, whatever.
Once the team steps away from the old shrine it is clear they are on top of the plateau by the village. The shrine has seen better days.
You know it just occurred to me. Why doesn't anyone live up here? There's such a beautiful forest.
Are you sure there's no one around?
This might be territory for nomadic mountain people.
A cave? Where does this go?
Why are you looking at me? How should I know?
Uh, Annie? Edward?
I don't know.
North I'd guess.
North of here is Zalagoon, right?
Yes.
Good enough for me then.
3rd floor
As expected inside the cave are tunnels hewn from the rock.
Who goes around setting up torches in these places anyway?
Mountain people of course!
Seriously?
These are magical lights, Finn. I'd guess someone from Simone put them here.
Oh. Ok that makes sense.
As long as they're just lights, right?
Exactly.
Despite what it looks like in the screenshot above the tunnel is twisty and turny but not much of a maze. It's too small for that.
The enemies are nothing to write home about. Harpies haven't been threatening in a long time. On the plus side that means we should have an easy trip and after all that business with Arawn's Tower I'm perfectly fine with that.
As a consolation prize the first encounter yields an Illusion Powder to sell for our war chest when we reach Zalagoon.
Prrar, Finn, this is a dead end. Did you get confused again?
No I'm just looking for secret passages.
There's nothing here.
That's not entirely true. There's that guy looking for a fight.
Hey that reminds me. Tont there's something I've been meaning to ask you.
Yeah?
Isn't Simone supposed to be the magic capital of the world?
I don't know if I'd call it that.
We've run into an awful lot of non-Simone summoners over the past few weeks...
And other magic users!
Yeah, uh, them too. Anyway I was wondering where they all came from.
I... have no idea. Not exactly any magic schools on our route thus far.
The mountain people did it!
Wha...?
I bet they taught Master Zeon all he knows!
While Summoners can still put the hurt on with their magic their speed and VP are too low to make them anything more than target practice. We've outgrown them.
Inside a chest tucked away in a corner is a Healing Herb. It almost feels like a waste of time to bother picking it up.
Why couldn't it be good treasure?
I thought your motto was 'Treasure is treasure!'.
I'd still like to find something useful.
You could make Steiner eat it. That would be useful.
Too crunchy.
...Somehow I'm not at all surprised you'd say that.
Stairs down.
Down is good, right?
I suppose so, Finn.
2nd floor
Once again the tunnel presents a series of twisty passages but there's no actual challenge to them.
A few minutes later an Ork Lord drops a Healing Herb, because the game just had to make the one treasure chest in this "dungeon" redundant within five minutes.
Is this one crunchy too, Steiner?
*wrinkles up nose* Ewww! That stinks! The mountain people need to take better care of their herbs!
You know this place is actually kind of cozy. If it weren't for the bird ladies trying to tear my head off I could get used to a place like this.
But what would you do all day?
Build an evil lair. Every great mage needs an ominous lair.
But Master Zeon doesn't have a lair, ominous or otherwise.
Prrr. And for that matter who will staff this evil lair of yours, Tont? A lair that's empty isn't much of anything.
Mountain people.
*throws up hands* Of course.
1st floor
We'll be out of here in no time, sis.
Thank Arawn.
Prrr! Wait, Finn. I hear something ahead of us.
What is it?
Shh!
*look at each other*
Humans talking. I can just barely smell them.
Are you all ready then?
Yes.
Hey maybe it's just mountain people?
We don't exactly have a great track record of meeting friendly faces outside of town.
There's a little snarl the team will have to deal with just up ahead. I have a specific plan in mind but to put it into action Edward will need to borrow the Tempest Ring from Tont.
Rounding the corner the team finds their route is blocked.
Bandore soldiers...
So that's what they look like.
What are they doing here?
Nothing good, I'd bet.
In a bout of either stupidity or bravery (probably a bit of both) the team strolls up to the soldiers.
(both) Hey, you! Where did you come from?! I thought this dungeon didn't lead anywhere.
Eh, it still doesn't.
(1) Anyway, no one is allowed to pass us! Unless you wish to fight, turn around and go back to wherever you came from. Do you still wish to pass?
Not if this road doesn't lead anywhere interesting.
(1) HA! You yellow-bellied chicken! Go home! Go home! Bok! Bok! Bok!
Yellow-bellied? I'll have you know yellow is the entirely natural color of my skin!
What ya got against chickens anyway?
(2) We don't have time to play games with a bunch of stupid kids. Go back the way you came.
Where does this cave lead anyway?
(2) Scram!
We must be on the Zalagoon side of the mountains.
Then we don't really have much of a choice in this do we? We need to get to Zalagoon as soon as possible.
(1) You got rocks between your ears or something? No one is allowed through here.
(2) You're only getting through over our dead bodies.
*snarls* That can be arranged!
You fool! I guess you have a death wish. No one takes on the Bandore army and lives!
I'm mostly including a screenshot of this particular bit of dialogue because when they say no one takes on their army and lives they actually mean it.
Welcome to our first battle against real members of the Bandore army. We're about to get a crash course in why the soldiers fought at the beginning of the game were neonates.
My first move is to put the team on manual control. There's no way we want to go into this on automatic.
Sir Samson are you sure about this?
We have to get to Zalagoon as soon as possible. If that means I have to go through these clowns then so be it.
We knew this was coming eventually, right?
A little sooner than I wanted.
I also want to get this fight over with quickly so I take stock of ALL of the damage options the team has. We're technically not on a time limit but time is mana, as it were, and mana is very limited. I've also kept complaining about not using the items clogging up Annie's inventory for a while now and this is as good a time as any to rectify that.
Finn and Samson are just going to attack. No one's hurt yet so Annie doesn't have anything more constructive to do then toss out a Blizzard Card right now. Tont's on Attack (as in the spell) duty right now and Edward has other plans.
Tont queues up Attack for Samson.
How hard can this be? They're only human after all!
Famous last words?
Nonsense! My famous last words will be stupider.
The first thing that happens is that Edward casts Confuse 1 on the enemy.
Did you mean to cast that, Edward?
Yes.
Don't you give me that cutesy look Steiner. I know you've been eyeing this stuff for weeks.
Mwa? Never!
As the name implies the Blizzard Card creates a mini-blizzard doing some decent damage to the two soldiers although soldier B manages to partially resist.
Less goofing off more helping me, Steiner!
Prrar, what, Finn?
By comparison Finn's attack doesn't do much. The soldiers have a decent amount of defense.
(A) For the glory of the emperor!
AAH!
They also have a respectable amount of attack power as Annie finds out a second later. 16 damage from Finn and 16 damage from the soldier. Sounds even but in truth isn't!
(B) Death to our enemies!
Sis!
The second soldier sends Annie straight to groggied status. What a way to start, eh?
Samson then gets the first boosted attack in. Even without the Tempest Ring Tont is just barely fast enough to go before him. Thus ended the first round of combat. Annie's unconscious and despite having suffered 83 and 51 damage respectively both soldiers are still standing.
Beyond the Beyond throws a nasty curve ball at the player with this fight. Technically it is optional but avoiding it means leaving Simone, going through the cave to the west, and making the long trip around the mountains and through the desert. This fight doesn't quite meet the definition of Beef Gate because the soldiers aren't blocking access to Simone by being too strong for the player to defeat. I made sure to talk to them earlier in the game to show that. It isn't until after the cleansing ritual is complete that event flags will allow for this battle. Thus there's no battle standing in the way of sequence breaking and no Beef Gate.
The reason why they aren't fightable until now is to prevent them from being killed early since that would allow the player to reach the shrine above Simone far earlier than they are supposed to. This part of the game might have had a different sequence of events planned early in development: go to Simone, get quest, run around that part of the continent searching for plot coupons, return to Simone to turn said coupons in, break curse. Now there are those rocks blocking access to the shrine and no way off of the plateau except through the shrine. Why this path ended up double locked is anyone's guess.
(Update 40 touches on why getting the cleansing ritual early would be a problem.)
When the next round begins Edward casts a Fire 2 spell then the confusion he caused in the last round kicks in. Soldier A attacks soldier B.
(A) I'm tired of your stupid jokes!
Soldier B counterattacks.
(B) My jokes are not stupid!
Then soldier B shoots at their injured comrade.
(B) You're just jealous because you've always known I'm better than you!
After that the confusion on soldier B wears off.
(B) Ugh, my head...
That was more effective than I thought it would be.
Thanks. I've had to some time to plan this.
You mean you expected these two to be in our way?
Well not these men exactly. I just figured I'd have to fight Bandore soldiers anyway and should be prepared.
That's why he's the brains of this outfit. Finn, take notes!
But I don't have the kind of magic Edward does.
Take notes anyway!
AARGH!
Annie recovers from groggy status.
Which one of these assholes hit me?
They both did!
Figures.
Annie won't do much damage by attacking and I'd like to minimize counter attacks so she fishes a Flame Card out of her pack.
Since confusion wore off for one soldier Edward takes a turn to reapply it. Targets that are already confused can be confused again resetting the timer for the effect. There's still that pesky dice roll to get the spell to land though.
The Flame Card causes a shower of fire balls to fall from above. It doesn't do as much damage as the Blizzard Card but I'm not complaining.
Magic for dummies!
Very funny, Steiner.
What? It is! You think whoever made it intended to use it instead of their own magic?
Ok... you've got a point there. I'll concede that.
With his attack power boosted Finn's attacks become a bit more helpful. The difference in damage, 19 points, is less than what a single Firedrake spell would do to one target but if Finn gets in some critical hits or double attacks that more than makes up the difference. Firedrake would still be a reasonable choice for Tont to spam.
(A) Better than him he says! Well I'll show you! I'll show everyone who the better soldier is!
Amusingly enough when arrows are blocked they make the same clonk noise as other attacks and the arrow itself is sent spinning off into the distance.
Soldier B does not share their comrade's enthusiasm for infighting at the moment. Yes, even though they were hit with Confusion status earlier in the round.
(B) Can't you focus on the real enemy here for one minute? By Arawn you're useless!
At this point you're probably assuming that confusion makes characters do things at random but in Beyond the Beyond it is a bit more complicated. This isn't confusion where a target is chosen randomly from everyone on the battlefield. Here it always makes a character attack a target on their own side. From what I've seen this is usually a physical attack but I have seen late game enemies use special abilities that inflict status effects. On the round it is cast it usually (but not always!) has no appreciable effect. There's some weirdness with targeting going on. When used on enemies that get two actions per round this targeting swap persists if the condition breaks following the first action (that is while actions for that round are being resolved).
This is a problem because, as I pointed out way back in part 12, the timers used for these effects are based on actions, not rounds. The first round of confusion counts against the timer since the confused enemy will get an action. Counter attacks and presumably double attacks also tick down the timer. It is entirely possible for confusion to be cast, land, then break in the same round before it actually does anything. To reduce the number of counter attacks the enemy soldiers get is another reason that Annie, Tont, and Edward aren't making any physical attacks. I really need them to direct as many attacks at each other as the status will afford.
There are other timing issues such as using it with a fast caster and it has a hard time landing on late game enemies. It's one of those things that is useful in particular situations if you know what you're doing but otherwise tends to suck up a lot of mana for little or no gain.
On a second note those short bows are ranged weapons and as such they clearly ignore the row modifier. This is a problem because these two soldiers have 500 hit points, each. (Soldier B will die having suffered 516 damage. I added it up and they were still alive at the 505 mark.) By comparison the Water Demon has 600~ish hit points. Thankfully the soldiers have no spells and no status immunities.
Tont invokes the Titan spell he learned awhile back.
Come on do something cool!
I was picturing that going better.
A golem rises in the background causing chunks of rock to fly up into the air and then crash back down upon all enemies. At 10 MP per cast the damage is lackluster. It's really not strong enough to justify the increased cost unless you're fighting something resistant to fire. By the time Tont learned this spell most enemies could already survive it from full health.
Krrar. Did your master teach you that spell, Edward?
The basics of it, yes. Why do you ask?
I was just kind of wondering if it was one of Myrrdin's favorites.
Not that I know of.
Those poor soldiers can't catch a break can they? Of course they can't. Like I'd given them an inch!
Annie uses the other Flame Card.
How much punishment can these guys take?
They could always run and save themselves.
I think Edward's got other ideas.
We actually luck out a bit. Soldier A started the round unconfused but Edward's next confusion spell landed before the soldier got their turn and t actually managed to kick in immediately. Like in previous Camelot games confusion can trigger an action from a list of dummy time-wasting things that exist just to be funny. Troll level 4 isn't an actual spell in the game. It's just a text printout that wastes the character's turn.
(B) What the hell is with that giggling? Are you laughing at me behind my back again?
(A) What if I am? You deserve it!
(B) That's it! I'm sick of your crap. You're going home in a box if it's the last thing I do!
Should we be worried about how easily they turn on each other?
It feels... kinda evil, actually. Did you plan on this reaction, Edward?
Well, no. I just thought I should do something about their ability to shoot us.
This is an intriguing discussion and all but can it wait until after the battle?
Edward's magic is kind of indispensable right now so keeping him conscious warrants a Heal 2 from Annie.
Does anyone else worry about Sir Samson's mental state?
Not any more than Finn's.
Hey!
I didn't say you were crazy.
Prar! She's just worried you'll end up wandering around destroying people.
More that he's going to run off a cliff chasing something shiny.
A set of attacks from Samson deals a rather nice 80 total damage. That is definitely worth 6 MP.
Maybe Finn will run off a cliff trying to destroy someone holding a shiny.
Come on now I'm not THAT dense.
When did you get a vase? For that matter how did you make it fit in there?
I don't remember when we picked this up. As for your second question the answer is 'very carefully.'
Opting to hold onto the Firedrake Vase for the time being Annie instead uses the Dragon Card. It causes a gout of flame to sweep over the enemy which soldier B partially resists.
(B) I don't even know why I agreed to this post in the first place. Boring and pointless.
The soldiers continue shooting at each other when a roar from Samson shakes the cavern. He bolts across the gap with one hell of a critical hit to finish off soldier A - 87 damage. Somebody found the God Mode toggle!
After all the careful management of his level ups, the stat boosters, and the working around his curse, this is a pretty damn satisfying payoff. (Good thing we got rid of that curse because the backlash damage on a crit like that would take a hefty chunk out of Samson's hide.)
Thus there is but one Bandore soldier standing in the team's way.
He's just standing there with a kind of glazed expression on his face. Are we really gonna kill him?
If we don't he'll alert the main army.
So you're fine with this?
Sometimes you have to do things that you don't like. He would kill you without hesitation.
He already tried once.
True.
The next confusion is resisted but the battle has already been decided.
Tont, meanwhile, tries out Summon level 3 and rolls up a Poltergeist.
Surely a strong spirit like this one can do something helpful for us.
Said Poltergeist then does a rush attack for a measly 13 damage.
Why do I even bother?
You like watching them fail?
Aargh!
Don't worry. I'm sure there's a useful monster somewhere out there. After all it's a big, monster-filled world.
I'll be old and grey by then!
Bandore Soldier B is in serious trouble beyond having lost their only ally. Because they are confused with no allies to attack the game it seems the game gets confused (maybe a bug from having no valid target since characters can't attack themselves?) and doesn't give the soldier turns. Since they don't get turns they can't perform actions and thus the timer on confusion status refuses to move. This doesn't really come across in screenshots but it makes this battle more manageable.
In other words confusion manages to be rather useless and stupidly overpowered at the same time. That's no easy feat!
Let's just put him out of his misery already. This is depressing enough as it is.
Annie deals the fatal blow. Despite the title of this update these two don't quite meet the definition of Boss in Mook Clothing. They have lots of hit points and pretty high attack power but aren't quite boss material by this game's standard. They're more like a mini-boss squad that has no personality. That said with the ability to groggy a character per turn and so much health this fight has to be taken seriously. I made it seem trivial because I've been planning ahead for this encounter for half the game.
For that battle we receive a mere 700 experience (so 350 per soldier) and 400 gold. It isn't encouraging to meet enemies whose health is greater than their experience award.
Oh yeah and Samson levels up because what he needs is more destructive power. Actually I should have been keeping closer track of how close he was to level 19 because if it had been a poor level up I would have had to redo that entire fight. It turned out okay though.
I guess that settles the matter.
Yes it does. If you would be so kind as to take the lead again, Finn.
Aww, what? Oh, yeah. Ok.
With the soldiers dispatched an exit is visible.
Here's hoping there are no more soldiers in our way.
I'm kind of surprised those two said they thought this didn't lead anywhere.
But they had been posted as guards. Kinda weird to guard a tunnel that goes nowhere.
Hey I'm just glad they didn't realize how close they were to my village!
There is quite a lot of latent magic in these tunnels. I had assumed it was for the lights but this way might have been sealed until recently.
I wouldn't put it past one of those old mages to think up something like that.
I doubt they want many visitors from Zalagoon.
Thus the team emerges from the tunnel south of Zalagoon that they first found back in update 15. Progress towards Zalagoon can be achieved! Of course the rock and the soldiers are gone now so in theory anyone could just walk into Simone. Hopefully that won't bite us in the ass later.
Samson gained a point of speed with his level up so Tont needs the Tempest Ring back if the turn order is going to stay the same. It did a good job.
Tell me again why we're going to check the bridge, Finn?
To get an idea about what Bandore's been up to.
Inside they find the Zalagoon side is still empty and unguarded.
Oooh! So that's what a river looks like.
Trust me, you don't want to go for a swim in those waters.
Fast current?
You bet.
It's still quite beautiful.
Eep! More soldiers!
In the name of the Emperor of Bandore and Lord Shutat, no one is allowed to cross.
We're going, we're going. No need to get testy.
Fortunately the soldiers guarding the Marion side don't recognize the party. It would get rather awkward if they did. The path barred and no desire to fight means the team returns to Zalagoon's side of the river. Why is there no Zalagoon garrison? Well I bet there's one guy in Zalagoon who knows the answer to that. He's probably not going to be forthcoming about it.
This feels so weird.
I know what you mean. There's been a squad of Bandore goons over there since the invasion.
Things haven't changed.
That's good... right?
As long as it means things haven't gotten for Marion.
After several days of hiking over the plains with nary a thing in sight the team approaches a familiar landmark.
Next time on Beyond the Beyond - Zalagoon? Zalagoon!
