Saturday, January 18, 2014

Romancing SaGa III #4 - Stage Dive

::Harid walks towards the camera in slow-mo::

Previously on Romancing SaGa III... Harid had sex. He boned EVERYBODY.


Oh yeah, this is what we need. Rat poison. With this, Harid can take out the army of rats lurking nearby.

"It's hard not to," says Harid, "when you're so damn hot."

Bow down to El Nool! HAWR!

Harid: "I've been in all of your secret rooms already."

OHHHHHH!

 Now freshly sexed and ready for battle, our hero heads back to the Rat Lair. Time for a rematch for the ages!

 The Rat Poison... doesn't put them to sleep, or wipe them out, or anything you might expect. It hits all of them every turn, but it can't kill any of them. What you do is... and this took a bit to figure out... look at the crowd when this happens and see which rat takes 0 damage... and attack that one next turn, for that rat is Algernon, the Genius Rat.

I don't know what the hell is going on, but just roll with it.

 After a TOUGH battle, our heroes stand victorious. Focus is one of the best skills around at this point. It's learned randomly from barehanded fighting, I believe. So a monk skill, more or less.

It's a big self-heal, 100 HP or so. Now that it's mastered, anyone can equip it. That means 100 HP heals at NO COST any time I need them.

No real reward for ending the rat menace, but I sure got a lot of stat-ups from the whole ordeal. Here's that damn pink-haired girl again.

Her name is Candy, and she basically forces her way into the party. Our heroes oblige, because at least it'll get her off the streets where she's rolling around in the dirt like a cat.

 Unfortunately, she's really, really weak, and now I have to invest in a spatula to get her off the ground after every battle.

Harid visits a town that's under control of the church as I look for more quests to undertake. The church disciples wear strange, druid-like robes that make them look more than a little similar to the Cult of Kefka revelers in FFVI.

The weapon shop here has a storied history.

 Conversation ensues, and the blacksmith's daughter joins us. Her name is Nora, and she's... one of the best characters in the game, if not THE best. She's damn good with a variety of weapons and useful right up to the final boss.

The church consists of end-timers, for the most part. What are the odds that this organization turns out to be evil?

 Their leader is Maximus, and I'm guessing he'll figure into the story more later on. They have absolutely no separation of church and state here.

 This boatman will take me anywhere, for a nominal fee. Too bad I have NO MONEY left since that damn rat quest gave me nothing. Of course, the town I've been needing to go to all this time, Lance, isn't on the list. It's nowhere to be found.

 Wow, Harid just stumbled into Detroit.

 Our heroes follow Thomas to a sick, blue-haired woman named Muse. She's another one of the best characters in the game later on, but starts with all stats at 1 (i.e., the worst character in the game until she is properly built-up).

It'll take some work to get her. Gotta cure her and whatnot. Thomas joins for this, as does Sharl, who is Muse's supposed lover. Least until Harid steals her. Oh, he will. No woman can escape Harid's bed. It's like a tractor beam for women. It's like a big piece of cheese for mice, if mice were women. It's like a flower sucking on a bee.

 We have to rescue Muse's little brother who went out for the antidote and disappeared in the slums. Why'd they send a little kid to the pharmacy in a place like this to begin with? He's probably dead or in prison by now! Or both... Julio in D-Block has NO MERCY.


 This place is particularly awesome-looking, the old palace of the last Devil King.

I like the way this game utilizes beams of light. Chrono Trigger is also particularly good that way.

 At this point I finally notice that I have an Event Log that keeps track of quests. Whoa, that's useful. This one says "Find Gon in Devil Palace".

That's right, Muse's brother's name is Gon. And he's gone. Coincidence?

 Inside, we must contend with lots of stairs while an imp-monkey looks on creepily.

 Here's Gon. He's an odd little bastard. Now let's get out of here!

 Here's the boss of the area... a seedy ogre and his pet plant, "Cindy".

 Rough fight, but victory gets me a tank sword of some sort.

Cause it's Gon daddy Gon! Love is Gon!

 With that, Muse downs an entire bottle of cough syrup and falls into a deep sleep. She must battle a Dream Devil for her soul, and Harid has to somehow get in there to save her. What the hell?

But first, Harid takes a moment to go get drunk at the bar with his party party people.

TO BE CONTINUED.

4 comments:

  1. Man, these posts are piping hot. Fun read.
    How'd you get rid of Candy so quickly?
    Odd mechanics for the rat poison boss. Seems like the game designers thought of a number of interesting mechanics and quests, but the writers didn't properly explain them all the time.
    Awesome that you meet two of your final-party characters so early on.
    I'm doing double-takes several times at all the NPCs who look like they're from FF6. It's great to see another good game using such a similar look.
    This church environment is great. Reminds me of the one in Cowboy Bebop.

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    Replies
    1. I don't think Candy's gone just yet. Not only is she the worst overall character in the game, she's very hard to get rid of.

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  2. Thank you for doing these. Harid's very stylish and it's sad that this game didn't get an American release. More people should know the name Harid.

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  3. How on earth are you going to finish the game in one more post? Seems like you're only a third of the way through if that. Or is the rest of the game... Gon?

    ReplyDelete