...Oh hey, it's that place Rab went to. Guess we found our way after him.
Of all things, you wouldn't really expect the gateway between life and death to just be a copy of Angri La's Field of Discipline.
And we immediately bump into Grand Master Pang pretending to be the arbiter of souls or something.
Not that we're supposed to know this is Pang.
Did you have to call us an idiot?
They really lay the arrogance of Pang down thick. There's a line between "confidence" and "rudeness", and I think Pang has crossed the line on the other side of rudeness. Especially since, as far as she has chosen to believe, we're some random dead kid.
I wouldn't say nothingness. The Field of Discipline, though tacky, is certainly something interesting to do.
Ah great, Mordegon broke hell loose so badly even the afterlife felt it.
...What if I put the Tree back? Will all the souls get back on track, or are they gone for good?
Erdrea is a world about reincarnation. With this in mind, it's possible that by shutting off the tap on the afterlife, Mordegon has created a world with no births.
...Which isn't that bad compared to everything else, who in this godforsaken Erdrea is making new babies?
You are very fatalistic for a woman who teaches that man is the world, that to bring goodness to the world is to protect it, and so forth. Either that or this is a test.
I feel like you mention it's a test before this point.
...And suddenly she's gone.
This inscription is still here, and it's kinda describing what we've been up to thus far. We did banish the eternal night, although our brand didn't have much to do with that.
And over in here, Rab's been hard at work training.
Rab did the same thing the High Lama did, but to himself. He came to the "spiritual cul-de-sac" because Pang was here, and Pang can still teach him from inside the death plane.
Remember that Pang "moved on" after Yggdrasil fell. This woman is supposed to be old enough that Rab studied under her when he was a child. Either she's got one hell of a skincare routine or something about Angri La lets their leaders age slower.
Only from a bird's eye view, Pang.
Rab has been training to perform a powerful magical technique to help us on our quest.
Fortunately, he's not using his old body, is he?
...Poor guy, can't even escape his heart problems.
The symbol swearing is acting as a substitute for actual syllables Pang says, but I have no idea how to transcribe, describe or translate them into an actual cuss. Probably better this way.
Looks like he's figured it out.
Considering how I've been using him as a party member in Act 1, that might be truer than you think.
Rab runs right over and brags about his accomplishment like he's some kind of schoolboy.
You don't get enough attention, boy.
Pang points out he has managed to go five minutes without noticing he's got company.
Hi, grandpa.
...Rab, you're not dead.
Pang disabuses him of the notion that we are dead, and also assures us that she's well and truly aware we're alive.
Wow, if only we had waited a little longer, Rab would've woken up entirely on his own. Don't I feel a mite sheepish.
...Good question. How do we get out of here?
Now, if you'll just allow us to quickly go fetch the Heart of Yggdrasil-
...Pang?
...If you want me to undergo your six year training course, I hard don't consent.
We have a quick interlude, although all we can really do is chat with granddad.
Ah, so the Field of Discipline was by design. Suspected as much.
...+$%@&.
This is an actual technique we'll see him performing often later. No special requirements, it's just added to his Ability list. (Note, it's an Ability, not a Spell.) When it comes to "party members that are just Erdwin's reborn", Rab is the match for Morcant.
Grand Master Pang has decided that, since the Luminary is here, she is going to teach him the brother technique, the one Erdwin developed to work in tandem.
I dunno, I could do with Serenica and Drustan's skills, too.
(They don't explicitly exist, but I suspect there are skills that fit that description later on.)
...So how do you know how to teach it?
...I'm not sure why you think I'm going to say no. Or what I would do if I did.
Maybe it's another test. Seems like something Pang would do.
...That doesn't seem so hard. Although this is literally the first time Erdward has ever so much as thought about the idea this might be possible.
...
...It will?
As far as the vanilla game is concerned, the battle that Pang had with Rab didn't happen, which makes this conversation that much funnier.
Considering Rab won that fight, I suppose he would be the trickier opponent.
Between this and Pang starting life as a bunnygirl, I'm starting to wonder if Rab's perversions were his own doing.
Another interlude to have a talk to Rab before proceeding.
I trust this is necessary, because I don't understand why.
...Hey, uh, do you think you could let Rab keep this after we leave?
He'll be throwing that at us, something to watch out for.
This is a firm reminder that we're doing this to train Quadraslash. That is the only purpose of this fight.
With the tough love and tutelage of his old teacher Grand Master Pang, he's been able to master the greatest of Angri-La's arts, and isn't shy about using them- even on his grandson!
??? family
500 HP
999 MP
Rab can unironically be a pretty scary fight, particularly as a solo battle, and one that cannot be sped up through offensive boosters whatsoever. With that said, however, all I'm catching from this is that Rab's only moves are a normal attack and his secret art. Which... probably might explain why he's so scary, actually? Less options means he's going to use the scary one more often.
This battle ends when Erdward performs Quadraslash five times. No other attack will damage Rab, and five Quadraslashes will finish up Rab's 500 HP just fine.
This attack is a telegraph- when he does this, his next action will be his secret art. He must perform this action first.
Because he gets two actions a turn, though, it wasn't much of a telegraph- we just get slammed right in the face. Pearly Gates is a recurring Skill, appearing in DQs 6, 7, 8 and 10. It is a mastery skill for Paladins (DQs 6 and 7) or Angelo's Charisma (DQ8) and in all appearances, it deals bonus damage to the Undead.
In this fight, I don't believe it uses the same properties as it does when Rab uses it on our side, instead scaling based on Erdward's max HP.
Quadraslash has been added to our Abilities list, although it costs 0MP and is single target. Both of these traits will disappear when we get the real technique.
Quadraslash deals 16 damage now, but it increases the more we use it.
Rab's shadows are the real killer in this fight. While they can't throw Pearly Gates at you, they know the spells Zam, Anathematise and Kasap, and all of those are spells I'd rather not be dealing with right now. They have around 100 HP and while some sources say you should kill them with Gigaslash or something, I say you're better off just focusing on getting out of the fight as quick as possible.
Then again, I do have a Skull Ring, so Zam isn't the most terrifying thing in the world.
The regular attack doesn't mean much to this Erdward. We might be singing a different tune with Kasap up.
Moreheal. Rab must've prepared Pearly Gates.
Getting 170 damage two times in a row is a pretty good indicator this is a percentile attack.
22 damage on Zam with one level of Anathematise, not bad. Skull Ring putting in some work.
Ooh, risky.
Hah, I think he tried to call for more help, but because I didn't kill off the helpers, he can't actually pull off the trick.
Oh, come off it...
You too.
At least Rab's capable of assessing the situation. That's a huge relief.
Oh you.
...Excuse me? Let me have my turn please-
...Where is Crackle on the spell lists I've been getting? I'm fairly sure I knew Crackle was there, but damn, clearly there's gaps in my information. I hate when that happens.
Thank goodness, I get my turn now.
Oh hey, that was also my last Quadraslash, too.
That usually ends pretty close.
That's not as much of a compliment to yourself as you think.
Quadraslash is nowhere near as prevalent in DQ history: Its only prior appearance was in DQ9 as a "Co-op de Grâce" (the DQ9 equivalent of Pep Powers). In that game, it was apparently single target, although it became an All-targeting attack for this game.
It's definitely the part that'll matter after Mordegon is dust.
...As opposed to sooner?
I hope the Last Secret of Angri La helps us more.
Pang continues to consider this high praise.
...Excuse me, this is the afterlife. Butt out.
This place is already as much of a hellhole as possible by your hand, why do you think you have to do anything more?
Oh, he's just after us. Carry on, then.
Although I can only imagine this is going to be bad news for Angri-La if Pang goes down.
I don't think we're invited to believe there's any reason Mordegon should know about and be able to access the afterlife other than "he's the villain, he can do anything that inconveniences us", but there's a part of me that suspects there's an answer.
...More?
As if any training by Grand Master Pang is done the other way.
The true final secret of Angri La is neither Pearly Gates nor Quadraslash-
It is the combination attack between the two.
...Pang is inhabiting the afterlife, but we never do get the indication of whether she entered it of her own free will, like Rab did, or she was sent here and just failed to leave because it was post Yggdrasil-fall, like everyone else did. Apparently, she's going to enter the latter camp anyway soon.
Fortunately, this is all cutscene. We also both Pepped up at the end of that battle anyway, so it works mechanically, too.
Quadraslash sent through Pearly Gates...
Solar Flair also first appeared in DQ9, also appearing in 10. Through context clues, it appears it was originally envisioned as a replacement to Pearly Gates (which was undergoing some issues due to religious imagery), since Pearly Gates skipped 9 and Solar Flair was learned around when one might expect Pearly Gates to be learned instead. Making Solar Flair an extension of Pearly Gates seems to be a natural way to reference the fact, although it makes it confusing to think of its appearance in 9 after the fact.
That seems to have pushed back Mordegon quite a bit.
And for once, Pang doesn't have any insults to throw our way.
Hey Hendrik, I went to the afterlife and trained under Pang!
And then the High Lama completely and utterly ignores the concept of personal space. Pardon me, don't put your hands there!
Sounds good.
...Mildly creepy, but I'm not sure whether that's creepy from Pang to Erdward or Erdward to Pang. Depends on who put the image there, I guess.
Hendrik's making sure we're up. He's doing a pretty good job of being our party while everyone else is off being missing.
Trust Hendrik to fear for physical injuries. Both in the "fear" and the "physical" sense.
Good to hear he's back, too.
Hendrik: It is good to see you awake and alert once more. When your spirit returned to your body atop Mount Pang Lai, you were so weak. I feared that you would never fully recover. I hear that Lord Robert rose a short while ago, and has stepped out to speak with the High Lama. We should go to him. In his attenuated state, he will no doubt require our assistance.
...He's very fortunate for that, too. Honey, they didn't mean those cheeks...
Hi, Rab. Nice to see you again. Say, I've been meaning to ask you... where are your legs?
Rab catches us staring.
Hendrik brings up a good point: How did Rab suddenly get rotund right out of being literal skin and bone?
...
...
...Rab, see a doctor.
Well, whatever Rab's metabolism, we came out of this venture with Pearly Gates and Quadraslash. And also Solar Flair, I guess.
Rab also has some words of gratitude for Hendrik. He's not the only one to acknowledge the elephant in the room with him being a party member, although it should be noted that not all of them do.
Rab knows more people than just him were fooled by Mordegon, and trusts that his loyalty is as unshakeable to us as it was to Mordegon.
With that said, we hoped for something a little more... getting us to Mordegon.
Fortunately, Rab can help us out with that too. Ish.
Sounds like a plan.
I think I'd rather focus on that one first, though.
Rab suggests heading to Arboria to learn more about the flying contraption. Interestingly, it is impossible to get to Arboria without finding all of our party members first. To an extent. There's a few exceptions.
Starting right away with Rab himself! Rab doesn't actually supply us with any mechanical reason to have him in the party. Sure, he's a healer, and that is going to come in immensely handy when it comes to actually completing the battles we have to do, but he doesn't bring us any items or abilities that open up traversal of the world map, nor is Angri La in the way. It is possible to complete the next Town Story without having acquired Rab. With that said, I'm not sure how much further than that the game lets you go before deciding to force you to pick him up.
Also, yes, the game isn't kidding, he's got new Skills to learn. I'll go over them when we see them.
The game also helpfully informs us that Pearly Gates and Solar Flair have been added to our list of options.
- Pearly Gates, specifically, is a wind attack, scaling off Rab's Strength, and in addition to damaging all enemies with a bonus to the Undead, has a 20% chance of lowering an enemy's resistance to Zap spells.
- Quadraslash deals damage to all enemies, scaling off Strength. It's a fixed 130-360 damage, like a spell, but with no element.
- Solar Flair deals massive light damage to everything, with a chance to lower an enemy's resistance to Zap spells, and also having a damage bonus on Undead. Basically, Pearly Gates, but stronger.
This isn't specially for us, but it is open for our participation and I'll be sure to get right on that.
Not sure what this "Disciple worthy of the name" business is, but sure, that's us.
Hendrik: The High Lama says he had prepared a special training program for us. I would be interested to visit the Field of Discipline to learn more. The rigorous training that takes place on Mount Pang Lai is legendary. I am certain that we would benefit from taking part.
Rab: If we're going to finally face the Lord of Shadows, it sounds like we may well need that flying contraption Erdwin once used. And if we're trying to follow in the great man's footsteps, another visit to Arboria might not be a bad idea... But before we head up there, there's a sneaky wee path through the mountains west of the Costa Valor that leads to the Champs Sauvage. Might as well have a nose around while we're in the area, eh?
...You should be recruiting monks more from people like him and less like the children of a royal family.
Oh yeah, need to turn this in.
This is a powerful reward. Ish. It doesn't feel that powerful, honestly, and I mostly use it for sidequests.
...Goddammit, Rab.
Only by attempting a trial can one learn the lessons it is trying to teach.
The Mystic gives 1% Pep Up Rate, 2% at a +3 Forge. When trying to get those Sidequesty Pep Powers, this doesn't feel as helpful as it probably is.
All right, so a bunch of new panels have opened up to fill the gaps between each of his trees. What new Skills has Rab added to his repertoire?
Heavy Wands:
- Maximum MP with Wands +30 (1 panel) - 60 total
- Magical Might with Wands +30 (1 panel) - 60 total
- Magical Mending with Wands +30 (1 panel) - 60 total
- Moderate MP Recovery After Battle - I think this stacks with the Minor MP Recovery?
Claws:
- Attack +15 (1 panel) - 30 total
- MP Absorption + 4% (1 panel) - 6% total
- Rake 'n' Break: Deals 2.4-2.6x damage, and removes any buffs the enemy has. Pack this.
- Wild Animaul: Deals five hits to a single enemy, with an estimated 4.5x damage total. There's a lowered critical hit chance, which makes it a surprising contest compared to Hardclaw.
- Hand of God: Deals 150-420 light damage to a single enemy, scaling on Strength. Might be good in a pinch, but I think you'd rather be using a Zam spell in most situations this would be relevant.
Enlightenment:
- Maximum MP +60 (2 panels) - 100 total
- Agility +40 (2 panels) - 60 total
- Pep Chance +5%
- Pep-Up Power-Up
- Clear Your Mind: This is an attack exclusively dedicated to removing buffs from an enemy. Considering you need to learn this to get Kacrackle, this will be incredibly helpful for Rab eventually, but it's also a huge SP investment to get this far in.
- Infinite Wisdom: Applies a buff to Rab that increases his MaMight and MaMend by 50% for 4-6 turns. This is basically a 2 stage version of Caster Sugar, complete with double MP cost.
- Kacrackle: Deals 360-720 ice damage to all enemies. The tier 4 spells come on the Skill Trees rather than by level up, but unless you're gunning right for them, you're probably going to get the Tier 3 by level up first. Kacrackle costs a whopping 60 MP, too, so it's not our go to "delete everything" button- thankfully, when we get Kacrack at level 44, that does hit everything too.
- Kazammle: Deals 333-555 dark damage to a single enemy. This is Rab's boss-killer in the lategame, when his lower Strength makes Claws fail him. On the other hand, you need massive investment to get the two tier 4 spells because of how Rab's tree is set up, so lategame this will be purely for availability.
My first objective is to respec Rab to pick up this Agility bonus up here.
It's his Surprise Panel. Aside from Erik and Sylvando, everyone gets their Surprise panel in the expansion kit.
This is what I settled on for Skill allocation for Rab. Rake 'n' Break and Harclaw are the big ticket picks, as well as amping up Rab's crit rate. A little MP Absorption will also make sure he doesn't fall too far behind on his MP costs. Moreheal should be just fine without the Heavy Wands shoring up his MaMend.
It is the end of an era. It is time for Erdward to respec out of Swords and return to using Greatswords. Besides, the real ultimate skill for Erdward is now available to us.
Sword Dance is a Skill that harkens back to DQ7. In that game, it was a "hybrid skill", learned when a rank 5 Warrior or Dancer switched to the other and became rank 5 immediately following. In that game, it was one of the better attacks in the game, dealing blows to 4 random targets at a moderate decrease in power. Returning at last to this game (it also appeared in 10), it somehow got even better, since individual hits can crit and it's changed from an All-targeting attack to a Group-targeting one. Not the least since both games allow all four blows to strike when a single enemy is the target- this is the boss-killer for Erdward.
As a trivia point, a "sword dance" was one of the actions Rex and Terry could perform when doing a Lucky Dip in DQ6, before becoming a formal skill in 7. Most Lucky Dip actions were actual abilities in DQ6- and the sword dance was technically a different skill called Multislice- but it is a trivia point nonetheless.
This costume is new to the Definitive Edition, and I'm going to be honest, I'm not sure where the design is coming from. It's cool, no question about that, but the patterns don't seem to have any connection to anything, Angri-Lan or DQ historical. Probably means it's referencing something I'm unfamiliar with.
The Garb cannot be reforged for extra stats, but it supplies a bonus to Rab's Attack and Crit rate, which makes it an excellent choice to supplement his desire to break out the claws.
And I also got one of these!
All right, we have to... Erdward, do you mind?
We have to talk to the High Lama in the Field of Discipline to be introduced to their new bonus sequence.
The Wheel of Harma. This is a bonus challenge with special rules that demands a specific set of builds and focuses on unrelenting power.
This "first" suggestion is a little weird, but some battles in the Wheel really are won or lost based on who participates in which match. Some enemies hard counter certain strategies, but are helpless against others.
We want to beat our foe in as few actions as possible. Earlier DQ games that counted how "long" you took counted your turns, but in this game, where turns are a little more malleable, they use actions instead.
The Wheel of Harma has three Trials available. The first is reasonable for the player.
While I'm considering my plan, I also remember that Rab needs some Seeds of Skill. Rab needs 5 Seeds, and he's one of the ones I hand out sooner rather than later. He's going to need all the help he can get...
Probably some form of maintaining his stance and rhythm, unless the dance itself is worth something.
...Trick question.
Which explains why you are doing handstood pushups.
...RPGs always like to come up with excuses for you to focus on your quest and not stop for months of training. Just in case that didn't sound unappealing enough for players anyway.
To complete the Wheel of Harma, you must place your party members in positions such that you use different party members in each battle. This is where a great deal of the challenge comes from. One key thing that is going to make your life difficult no matter which Trial you are attempting: Hendrik has no All-Targeting attacks. Finding the right place to put Hendrik such that this isn't an issue is a huge ask.
Fortunately, this battle almost seems designed such that this setup will get you a decent score.
The first battle is against a green dragon. I have no idea what its stats are, but they're heavily inflated. Experimenting on the best way to take it down depends on experience.
And also just Parallax it with Hendrik's best axe. Dragon Slash is good too, if you've got him specced for Swords.
3 actions, that's excellent, I can take a little longer with Erdward and Rab...
The four horrors of Heliodor are Slime, Bunicorn, Stark Raven and Toady. Interestingly, these four enemies are the only four enemies in the Act 1 Heliodor region that appeared in DQ3, which probably influenced how they were chosen. On a related note, Wheel of Harma battles use the battle theme from DQ3 as their backing track.
I'm not sure whether Kabuff applies to Quadraslash and Pearly Gates, but it's not like we could do anything about it.
Ow. Imagine if you were running around Heliodor when Erdward first arrived.
Blast away!
This is going to get interesting.
Also, Pep does carry in and out of the Wheel- you can gain Pep here to use elsewhere, and Pep you've gained from outside can be consumed within it. If you fail an attempt at the Wheel, the Pep is still used.
Ah great, attack buff. Not that I have much control over it.
Agility, too? Eh, it's Agility.
The Slime tries to cast Kaboom, but it doesn't have the MP to succeed.
Oh, cluck you.
Well hello there, Rab. Perfect timing.
SOLAR FLAIR!
...Toady?
That was irritating.
For completing the Wheel of Harma at all, no matter how conservatively you might've done it, you can always get the first prize.
The Kaiser Axe is a minor improvement on the King Axe, worth 7 Atk and 2 MP with both at +3.
The Staff of Divine Wrath is a classical DQ staff that's pretty good for this point in the game, and also able to deal Wind damage to a Group if used as an item, but it's not an impressive pick.
Saint's Ashes are just an alchemy ingredient. A rare one we'll want plenty of, I'm sure, but still...
...No Sage's Robe? Damn Toady. It's good for -15% elemental resistance for Rab or one of the Arborian twins, but we can make it up with the King/Queen Robes.
Even if we were strong enough to attempt the Second Trial, we require additional party members to even consider it.
An improvement is an improvement, might as well. We got it from the Wheel, after all.
I'm sure these two appreciate the presents. Although Rab will stick with Claws unless the extra magic will be necessary- not likely, without Skill Panels to back it up.
And so Erdward and Rab completed their training under Grand Master Pang, learning ultimate spells the likes of which we had never seen before... and ultimately not really getting much in the way of a story goal other than "go to Arboria", which is probably something we would've drifted towards anyway just looking for party members. Still, this is where Rab wound up, and finding the first of our lost friends is still finding a friend.
I was never really overly fond of Angri-La before, but looking more closely at their setup? Yeesh, monastery monks just aren't my type. Cobblestonian Erdward is perhaps not as powerful as he might've been trained here as Drasilian, but he's without question better adjusted. I get the feeling the nature of the training isn't something the writers were particularly attached to one way or the other- this is a thoughtless echoing of "harsh training methods" repeated without understanding the reason these techniques aren't more widespread. Combine that with a weird sense of tribalism, and this is not a place I'd leave... any kids.
Overall, considering this is a town that has to be introduced as well, this is a somewhat odd Town Story- there's a general sense of cramped plot points and jumping about trying to fit in the Act 1 "welcome to the Town" and the Act 2 "look how Yggdrasil's Fall has changed it" all together, not to say the least about also adding some exposition about the nature of the Luminary and also talking a little about Morcant in Act 2. It's necessary to establish him sometime early on, but it definitely felt kinda cramped in here.
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