This is like reading self-censored online posts that are trying not to run afoul of some view-stifling algorithm. So instead of "shot" they say "sh*t" and it makes it look ten times worse.
Today on DQ2: I reclaim the Sigils and all of their buffs, as this super-good game rolls on. Now that I've finished the game in real-time, I'm booking it towards the end on posts.
That one was pretty well-hidden. This is where having a list really helps, because I knew this was here beforehand and it saved me from having to repeat this dungeon again to get it later.
This next area has a bunch of faeries buzzing about while Hargon's goons try to menace them. They're able to raise shields and keep the bad guys at bay, but it looks like their shields can only hold for so long. This miniboss here is basically like "drop your shields, or I'm going to do way worse when they finally do fall" which is menacing. Kevin Bacon tries to reason with them from behind the shields, to no avail. It's basically the storyline of The Purge. Why do I bring up The Purge so often?
Our heroes show up just in time to save the faeries from being torn limb from limb and eaten like buffalo wings.
This miniboss is new to this version (as are the next several fights). He looks menacing enough, but I'm pretty overleveled at the moment due to grinding on the high seas as vigorously as women grind on your thigh at The Club (this is why, in an emergency grind sesh, tight jeans are better club attire than a dress or long skirt, but usually the modesty level of the wearer makes the opposite more likely to be the case, but I digress)
What are we talking about? Oh yeah. The next miniboss is a pair of rhino-men, tormenting another set of faeries while they hide behind their shield bubble.
These guys are much more of a threat than the previous fight. They hit hard and can sometimes double up on one character to mess them up. Still, nothing much to write home about. I'm glad this model got used for an actual miniboss fight, because the rhino-guard model was woefully underutilized in the past.
The faeries have big mouths, and one of them blabbered about the Sigils to Hargon's goons. That's why they're here to begin with, they're looking for the Sigils and think the faeries know where they are. (They're right)
A sad moment, as Cannock gets an upgrade to Erdrick's Rusty Ol' Thang. It fought well.
The boss of this dungeon is yet another new fight, a real beast of a foe.
"All I care about are my freaks and my peaks!" he says.
This is the real boss of the zone, and much tougher than the minibosses. DQII really steps up its boss game from here on out, since the game is so open as of Sigilquest and everything needs to be tougher to match your ability to travel and get better equipment (not to mention do things out of order)
It seems those guys were sent by Belial, one of the Four Generals of Hargon.
Wait...four? I know Atlas, Pazuzu, and Belial (which were all named that in the NES version, I just didn't remember earlier). But who is this mysterious new fourth addition? It makes sense because bad guys always have to have either two or four henchmen. In DQ3, Zoma has Baramos (in all his forms) and King Hydra.
Moonbrooke wants nothing more than to travel the land, playing with her flute.
The end result of all this? The Sun Sigil, the first one. It's pretty awesome how DQI HD2D added the creation of the Sigils, now DQII just sends you to track them down out in the world. In the past I liked the (assumed?) lore of thinking Rubiss made the Sigils and that they're otherworldly and mystical, so discovering how the sausage was made (by Erdrick scrounging up debris off various forest floors and the faeries putting it all in a blender) detracts from that a little bit. But it's still cool that you can make them and use them in DQI.
As for the Sun Sigil, it was a good one to go after first, because it increases the critical hit chance of attacks and abilities across the board.
The next Sigil I go after is gonna be a tough one: Dirkandor Castle and the arena fights within. We have to show Erdrick's Sword just to have enough credibility to get in the front gates. This kingdom doesn't let just anybody in! They're like the bouncers of a downtown dance club, and our heroes are like [anything that isn't an attractive young woman]. If we do get into Dirkandor, remember to wear tight jeans, ladies.
The rusty, beat-up, discolored sword is still proof enough for these guys! Come on in!
Man, Erdrick might as well be a deity in this land for how popular he is. He's like 1995 Lawrence Taylor in the New York area.
Turns out that a Fake Moonbrooke is afoot. I assumed that the "fake princess" was just Princess Cannock going around by herself earlier and people not believing her. But nope, the fake princess is specifically masquerading as Moonbrooke. Now this is curious. Who is it really?
King Dirkandor has the next sigil. Before he can give it up, Moonbrooke and Sasha are gonna have to do something for him.
No...you don't mean...
"That's right, a double BJ" says the bunny girl. "Hop to it!"
No, it's actually a series of difficult (relatively speaking) fights with no reprieve. Things don't get too serious until...
...these ape twins, who might as well be Ornstein and Smough* because they roflstomp all over my party with Wild Side and double-turn'd potent physical attacks.
Indeed, their Wild Side spam is too much to deal with, and our heroes get ROCKED, resulting in...
...my first loss all game. Well, I had to lose eventually to get the platinum.
On the rematch I'm actually prepared for this seemingly-innocuous fight to turn into a DEATH MAULING, and raise shields as is Starfleet protocol. It was no problem this time.
You go right on quoting regulations, Sasha.
That's right. The gorillas went straight for our codpieces. They were like Mr. Bucket all over again.
Those were just minibosses. The REAL boss here is this...pink cat? Is this a Pink Panther reference?
::the jazzy Pink Panther theme plays as it violently rips into our heroes with its saber teeth and thrashes them about::
This thing ALSO has Wild Side, which makes it another very tough fight. At least right now the bosses have to use Wild Side, where later they'll just have two turns by default. Right now it's like a Kaio-Ken Attack that I just have to wait out.
In this case, I'm handed another loss. Two losses in the span of ten minutes, this run is going south fast...
For a while I've been mulling over what a good use for Kaclang (always casts first, party is invulnerable for a few turns, can't do anything during that time) would be. Maybe seeing a boss' moves and attack patterns before you start the fight for real?
Then it hit me. It's perfect for weathering a boss' Wild Side onslaught, or any other buff that makes the fight a pain for a few turns.
In the rematch, I do just that, countering the cat's Wild Side with Kaclang and then watching it waste its double-rounded blitzkrieg clawing at inanimate statues. Being a cat, it doesn't know any better. It would get completely confused by a shower-curtain after climbing into a bathtub. "A one-way wall? How do I get back out?"
Second Sigil. The Sun Sigil increased critical rate for attacks and abilities, while the Moon Sigil grants criticals to begin with on spells, and that includes heals. So occasionally a heal will have double effectiveness and it's often a huge help when that happens at the right time.
The next Sigil is in this tower, that looks awesome on the overworld. Probably the most impressive-looking place in the game, and it looks a lot like how it looks on-foot too.
Inside the tower is this old guy who explains that he is the keeper of the Sigil and we must be tested before we can claim it. Old guy with official-sounding name? Say no more! I'll do whatever he says!
Our heroes then climb the tower, battling all manner of foes.
Some nice views that have me again wishing this were a 3D game in the DQXI engine. Then again...I'm happy with how they redid this Erdrick Trilogy and it's perfectly good the way it is. If they aren't redoing the entire series in the DQXI engine, which I thought for a while was the plan, then HD2D versions of DQ4/5/6 should be their next goal. Unless they're going to use this new DQ7 engine for them, which would make me a lot more keen on them making that game. As it is, a little fussed that they're doing DQ7 instead of the games before it. They could have done DQ4 and DQ5 twice over in the same amount of time.
Why do old people in this game call our heroes "little ones" and stuff? Like that woman earlier was like "oh how adorable, you're playing hero with a toy sword" or whatever. Our heroes are all like 16-19 years old, they're grown-ass late-teenagers. They're probably already doin' it. Prince Cannock definitely is.
The old guy keeps appearing ahead of our heroes as they climb the tower. Yeah, this sort of thing happens a lot in video games and nobody ever points it out...until now.
Well, maybe he just knows alternate routes, or he's shimmying up the sides of the tower like a squirrel. In any case, the tower is high enough now that our heroes can actually see Rhone Plateau, or as it is now called, Rendarak.
It's basically Mordor, if Mordor were also at high elevations. An unconquerable kingdom that can only fall from within. Which is why our heroes are going to sneak on in.
"We should trust the science, and also I am the science" says the old man. Well, say no more!
Our heroes see through his charade: He's a Hargon goon and he needs our heroes to break the seal around this Sigil for him so he can beat them up and steal it. Rubiss, in Her wisdom, made sure only Erdrick descendants could get this Sigil.
The Nekomancer (lawl) is another tough boss fight, largely because of his goon squad.
He also rocks the most unsportsmanlike spell in the game, Thwack. Which was also in DQI, despite you having one party member... luckily, it seems to almost never actually work. Until it does and kills half your party. Seems like a relic from a bygone era, this spell does. Like it doesn't have much of a place in this series at this point.
"But I was the sciiiiiiience" hisses Nekomancer as he tumbles off the tower. As a cat, he was a master of deception, always manipulating people into feeding him.
Sasha tips her nonexistent? hat to Cannock for being the first to see through the old man.
The Star Sigil makes your characters recover MP when they defend, which is very useful for recovering mid-dungeon or right before a boss. Conserves MP-restoring items, which I've basically been hoarding all game, but yeah. Very useful upgrade here.
Next, these rude faeries task our heroes with going and playing a trumpet.
They don't expect much from lazy humans. We just show up and give up at the first sign of resistance. Or even worse, sometimes we just keep fruitlessly throwing ourselves at the Tree Sentinel even though we're clearly not intended to fight it yet, we keep trying for like two hours, and then quit the game and go online to complain about how hard the game is because we can't even get past the first enemy. Or even worse than that, keep going and struggle with the game and complain about how much it sucks, only for people to later find out that we're not even using summons or spells or anything that might make the game easier because we want a "pure build" or something weird like that so we're just ignoring all the tools and complaining about the game anyway...
::snaps out of haze:: Wait what? DQII? Oh right, back to this game. Melinda, the sexy mermaid, helps us out yet again.
However, she wants this to be the beginning of a "favour chain". Which means she does us a favor, we do her mermaid friend a favor, her mermaid friend does her a favor... this sounds like it could get pretty hot
Alright I apologize for how sexy today has been. It's time to get serious. The Faerie Queen is under attack!
Raise shields!
The leader of the attack? Belial. So, we meet at last. Probably the most interesting of Hargon's minions; Atlas is a big oaf and a physical powerhouse, while Pazuzu is a spellcasting prodigy and a general weird sociopath. Belial on the other hand is well-spoken, articulate, has uncertain motivations and allegiances, and is a master of both physical and magical. He might deserve better than being an underboss; I think this guy has Leading Villain potential.
So Princess Moonbrooke escaped from this guy and his invasion force by turning into a dog? Was wondering how that came about. Then she got stuck in that form, presumably.
Another interesting thing about these goons is that they all seem to despise each other. While the bad guys are generally working together in most RPGs, this lot are all ready to one-up their peers in an effort to gain more power / favor with Hargon. Some of them, like Belial here, might even be interested in deposing Hargon himself and replacing him as the new overlord of Rendarak.
Big boss fight. This is a real decisive one, and puts pretty much everything to this point to shame. It's probably about equivalent to the Baramos fight in DQIII, both in power level and placement.
He's got all sorts of spells, and can significantly heal himself. Which is great, because him wasting turns negating damage means less damage for the good guys and more of a chance for them to heal.
Omniheal makes its debut here, as Cannock reaches the full power of the Hero class. He's no longer a puny "one third of the DQ1 hero" type of character, now he's a leading man candidate himself.
Come to think of it, not sure why Cannock isn't the leader of this party once you get him. He has all of the moves that go with the main hero of a DQ game. Midenhall is more of a one-dimensional Fighter type character. Would be interesting to have Cannock be the "main character" and have Midenhall be a party member, with actual dialogue. (While also letting MC Cannock keep his dialogue, TY)
After defeating Belial, he takes off. Well, "defeating", because the party members note that Belial was clearly holding back and could have kept fighting them if he wanted to, and very likely won.
Maybe he sees a way to use them to get Hargon out of his own way? Then Belial will sit in the Captain's chair, and Dream-Whisperer here will be a Captain's Woman.
In any case, today's episode is a wrap, as our heroes find out that in order to get the next Sigil, our heroes are going to have to make out with mermaids. This is the kind of new content I can really get behind.
* - I never actually found Ornstein and Smough to be that bad. They get all the press coverage for "tough Dark Souls fights" but I always kinda rolled over that fight. Their HP is pretty low so if you're even a little bit overleveled, and with a decent weapon you can chunk their health. Plus if you look around outside their room for his sign, you can summon Solaire to help with the fight - and he's good at keeping one occupied while you 1v1 the other one. If anything, I always found Four Kings to be the really tough multi-foe boss fight in that game. Seems like nobody ever talks about Four Kings, but it was to me what Ornstein and Smough seem to be to the mainstream consensus.
Proximo Episodio: Lots and lots of ocean.
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