Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Lufia: The Legend Returns #2 - Running Up That Hill

Previously on Lufia III... I got crushed by Gades. After much Hi-Bomb farming, now I go back and try to win. Will I succeed, and will Seena be something resembling tolerable?


And get him to swap our places!

Gades...I can beat you.

Well, he's asking for it. UNLEASH THE HI-BOMBS!

Hi-Bomb to the face!

Nope, I've got something else here...

::STOMP::

::STOMP::

::hops forward::

SWEET! CHIN! MUSIC!

1! 2! 3!!!

Cool. Now I don't have to retire. Thuganomics professor Seena got owned, though.

This thing is insanely overpowered, as it should be considering it's a purely optional get. It triples my attack and defense, and it's actually a shield.

One of the best shields in the game, acquired this early. Between that and my higher-than-normal levels, it'll be smooth sailing for a while.

Winning doesn't change much, as Gades cheapshots our heroes and acts like he won, and things move on normally. In other words, winning this fight had about as much effect on the story as all of your choices in Catherine.

Luckily, Gades is a moron and lets our heroes go, as Sinistrals tend to do. Seena now states the obvious, that we need to find more allies. I'll say this for Seena, at least she's smart enough to have a plan... which puts her a step above some of FFXIII's protagonists.

 "HI!!! MY BRAIN ARE BEEF."

I don't know if you know this, Mr.... Guard, but I just defeated Gades. I'm kind of a big deal around here.

I go shopping and discover that the Wake Ring I've been lugging around sells for TONS OF MONEY. It blocks sleep, but that spell is rarely seen.

And if he has to pay for healthcare for the townspeople who work for him, well, he'll just pack up his company and go overseas! Think of the lost jobs, Chairman Mao-bama!

Job creators! Ayn Rand! Would You Kindly!

Putting politics aside, there's a thief on the loose. But more importantly than that, Fugo is almost as manly a name as Rudo.

Apparently, the thief is a Robin Hood type who gives to the poor.

I continue collecting Hi Bombs (which are increasingly common if you check everything) for the rematch with Gades. That's right... there is a SECOND optional battle with him in this game, and it's even rougher than the first.

Here we see every cave in the game.

Yep, every cave looks like this. I especially don't enjoy these little tunnels with nothing in them that serve to connect the randomly-generated rooms.

Our heroes find the thief. Commence awful dialogue!

Seena is like the least-likeable character in this entire series. Or to phrase it another way...

Shut the fuck up, Seena. When all of your future boyfriends commit suicide, I hope they don't leave anything to your abusive low-IQ ass.

Next thing we know, a monster attacks the town, and the thief...leaps to the rescue? Rudo has no choice but to lend him a hand. I think that deep down, Rudo is just overjoyed that someone else with a penis is nearby. He can't deal with the nightmare that is Seena alone.

BOSS FIGHT! The thief in question is Dei, our third character. He's a tough hombre. This is the first official boss of the game, but it's about one-tenth as strong as Gades. Since I got buffed for that, I completely roll over this fight.

Fugo shows up, angry that we defeated his pet. Even though it was menacing the people. It's enough that he doesn't pay for health care for his workers, but letting his pets eat them is a bit much.

Now Dei gets thrown into prison, and Rudo has to bust him out. If there's any justice in this game, this scenario will end with Fugo locked up while Seena screeches at him all day and night.

You can tell that I'm making progress, because the overworld encounters are now slightly-powerful blue slimes. ...yep.

The next dungeon is a prison. At least this LOOKS different, even if it's the same randomly-generated dungeon hell.

Second boss... is basically a redux of the first boss. Still looks like a Pokemon and doesn't really do anything different. As a boss-thusiast, this game is kicking me in the pants right now.

ProTip: If planning to defeat Gades 2.0, you better have everything you need for it before this fight. After this you can't leave the dungeon without encountering Gades.

Dei is saved, and he officially joins the group for real. He's fairly weak compared to Rudo, but he's a better fighter than Seena at this point. He also seems like a cool character.

We go to leave, and...

...Gades is here.

"And if I only could! Make a deal with-"

::record-scratching sound::

Fugo mouths off to Gades, who proceeds to blow up his mansion.

HAW HAW!

The rematch is on. Gades believes my previous win was a fluke, now it's time to find out.

This time, I assail him with Hi Bombs and Head Crushes. This fight is much tougher than the first one, if such a thing is possible. Even with three characters, it's a close fight. I actually run out of bombs as the fight goes on.

Since it does a fixed 12%-of-current-HP damage to enemies, Rudo's Head Crush out-damages Hi Bombs for the first two turns. After that, it's best to stick to bombs.

I luck out at the end as one of his attacks doesn't quite finish Rudo, but DOES fill up his IP meter enough for him to dish out one last Bolt Attack for the win.

Man, that was a hell of a fight, and proves that the first win wasn't a fluke. Easily the high point of the game... and it's all downhill from here.

This fight was also much more strategic than the first, since you couldn't just spam bombs to win this time. A lot of planning ahead was required.

Another SWEET prize. This is one of the strongest swords in the game, and combining it with the shield makes Rudo into SuperRudo.

He now does about 10x the damage that Seena and Dei can inflict in a turn. Those attack/defense stats - at level 13 no less - are insane. With that, Rudo has gone from 100% Pure Rudo to 110% Pure Rudo.

He now hits harder with regular attacks than Hi Bombs do. By comparison, Seena's best spells do about 60 and Dei's attacks do about 30.

Course, it doesn't matter much since the game continues to throw one-shottable red slimes at me no matter how much I progress...

Now he's starting to worry. However, the real fight with him, the one the player is actually supposed to win, is still to come.

...I hope Amon doesn't have any optional-win super-boss fight too.

"I GOT THE LOOK! THAT DRIVES THE GIRLS WILD!" says Rudo when reached for comment. More on this later.





5 comments:

  1. I LOLed at the FFXIII picture.

    Seena is a horrible character. Horrible.

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  2. Judging by the amount of HP Seena had at the end of the Gades fight, he really didn't see her.

    "Course, it doesn't matter much since the game continues to throw one-shottable red slimes at me no matter how much I progress..." Man, stuff like this is what killed my Wild Arms 2 replay.

    I've always liked the classic Final Fantasy blue menus, but the blue menus in this game... not a fan.

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    Replies
    1. I hate when games keep throwing the same level 1 enemies at you well into the game. A lot of RPGs do. Even CT and FFVI do, to an extent, since you need to backtrack through old areas like that mountain at the top of 600 AD, and the same old enemies are still there.

      It's much worse when you're going forward and continually running into the same enemies, though. Means they didn't change up the enemy sets as often as they should have. The fact that I was still running into red slimes ten hours into Lufia III is awful.

      It's similar to how extreme over-leveling can kill the fun of a game. If nothing has a chance against you (ala level 1 through at least 80 in WoW), it gets very boring.

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  3. The rich guy who cares more about his pets than other people is too real.

    I'm proud of you for taking down Gades twice. I think that challenge made this game multiple times more fun for you, and for us!

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  4. I want you to thank for your time of this wonderful read!!! I definately enjoy every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff of your blog a must read blog! dicebag

    ReplyDelete