After leaving Tickington with the End of Time defeated, Cetacea pipes up to tell you the game has one last trick up its sleeve.
Fortunately, you can go to this whenever you feel like, Cetacea doesn't railroad you there.
The Crimson Catsuit finished off Serena's cosmetic armour. We're still not actually done with the whole set yet, though.
Kinda feel like these Accolades should be separate, but...
Anyway, I went and finished off Serena's level by running into things with Baumren. I was close enough to her final level and this was more fun.
Right, the real superboss of this game pulls no punches: Now is the time for everyone to pull out some inventory items. Also should probably have used the Seeds, but whatever.
There's something I need to mention about this fight: I've never beat it before. I didn't really think it was something you could do with just level 99, so I decided to set it to one side and satisfy myself with beating this game on Calasmos, or occasionally the End of Time (booting the game back up just to go back to Tickington when I don't enjoy the 2D combat mechanics is a poor sell). My plan for the blog was to try to beat the guy once, to show him off.
He's up here.
Cetacea is saying a lot more words about this than anything in the worldbuilding is really providing.
So then... what could possibly serve as the superboss?
Another cosmic match in a strikingly familiar setpiece.
...Solid gold Mordragon.
Apparently Gyldygga was onto something.
If the End of Time was a fake, this guy is the real deal. Although I really don't think he has anything to do with anything other than being a final boss for the 3D players.
The ultimate evil of a world in which all has been damned to darkness. Loomed up from a place beyond space and time intent on erasing the light it so loathes.
??? family
20000 HP
∞ MP
The Timewyrm shows us crits, a "soul-shredding War Cry", Lightning Storm, Disruptive Wave, Oomphle, Kacrackle, Kazammle, Kaboomle, Buff, Acceleratle, Malicious Magic Burst as a Pep Power, a brand new attack in Ice Age (this one can freeze you as well as do ice damage), and an Orb Power we will learn to despise.
The ultimate evil of a world in which all has been damned to darkness. Its sole desire is to devour time itself, and erase every living entity from existence.
??? family
20000 HP
∞ MP
The Timewyrm's Tail matches the magical prowess of the head with the missing spells- Kasap, Kafrizzle, Kafuddle and Kasizzle- alongside smashing the floor with its fists, Hellfire, an Electric breath, a strange gleam in its eye, Sweet Breath, Disruptive Wave, and gobbling up your party members as Mordragon's Tail did.
Similarly to Mordragon, the Timewyrm will open up with this trick. It doesn't mean much, but...
...That feels like a little more damage than usual out of Scorch.
It throws a temper tantrum here, and this has a hilarious outcome:
Poor Jade can't Re-Vamp properly since she's taken enough damage to go into her damaged pose.
Erdward needs to get everyone powered up. Especially himself: he took an Attack debuff somewhere.
Serena will be spamming Omniheal.
We have all the faith in Ronnie.
Oi!
Enough of that.
Jade's doing pretty good... well, 700 out of 20000 HP. We're gonna be here a while.
Especially if this works.
Lightning Breath.
OK, to be fair to Erdward, he has no Atk up.
If you're going to attack us, at least have the dignity to do so in attacking distance.
The Tail can also do this really annoying thing where it drops our spell resistance and MaMend. This doesn't affect Omniheal, but Omniheal is still 64 MP.
Serena sees no issue with this stratagem.
BURN! BURN!
...20 more fireballs to go.
OK, why do you get that?
...What's going on here? I think she's doing damage in the 30s outside that crit.
I called no return fire!
I think this is the Supreme Sword of Light? Apparently all these debuffs don't count as statuses as far as this is concerned.
Whatever, Veronica's still Kafrizzling.
This only takes out our positive status changes, by the way. Although the game doesn't track buffs and debuffs separately- if we buffed our way out of our debuffs (say, by using Benevolessence to get some more spell resistance), the game wouldn't take away our buffs and leave us debuffed.
Ow, whatever that attack is hurts.
...OK, clearly that was a bad call. Did I just fat-finger Attack?
...Wait, are her Abilities Sealed?
You stop having- wait, you keep having fun.
Fullheal time.
SUPER FIREBALL!
And at long last, the Timewyrm finally changes. We're still in phase 1 of this deal, by the way.
And that would be the "Orb attack" of the Timewyrm. Double MP costs for a few turns. I think if I had known he could do this, Veronica might've hit the bench. Eh, she has Enchanting Echo...
Playing fast and loose with those averages.
20 MP on Multifeet, and here I am without the Belle's Bow.
That'll help, though.
Especially since I can use this to give Veronica an MP regen.
Sword Dance is still just fine.
As is this.
So much for the MP regen.
Omniheal is now 128 MP.
...What am I supposed to do about that?
OK, fireballs aren't good here.
At least I get two.
Serena goes for the extra MP while everyone is still sorta healthy.
Meep.
Thankfully, he seems just fine with Ice Age.
Whew.
Come on, come on, give Ronnie a turn...
OW!
Well, Ronnie took out the Pep.
She also gets the chance to do a cheap alternative to Kazing.
Especially since Omniheal mitigates the weakness of Zing Stick.
YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!
What buffs do I have?
At last, we get to the point Mordragon got to in only a handful of turns: The ability to fire on both. At least the Timewyrm doesn't know any revival magic.
HE'S DOING JUST FINE ON HIS OWN!
There goes Jade again...
Kaboomle seems... passable.
Erdward!
Yellow text Tail! I'm making progress! This is probably the point in the run I start to think I might have a chance of victory.
This helps.
This, less so.
I'm routed.
Time for the backup crew. These guys have no Catholicons and are probably going to die quickly.
Erik is certainly not getting the time he needs to be his super-duper self.
But goddammit, Sylv's gonna try.
I have no faith in Hendrik's survivability in this environment: He's fully healed the main party at the cost of his own life now, as opposed to dying before he gets the chance and killing me off. I probably would've not bothered with the Kerplunk if I didn't get the Timewyrm's Tail to yellow health first.
It helps this is a good chance to get this "out of the way".
Go Rab!
...I wanted to used Clear Your Mind and, since I haven't used Rab enough, I forgot which ability I was going for.
Don't guffaw with your mouth full.
And there's some more Pep. With this wide shot, you can also see something scary about the Timewyrm's Tail's chomp: It gets multiple party members.
And there's Clear Your Mind.
Spit take!
And we're starting to die.
Erik gets one more attack off.
But it's back to the main group. No more second chances. It's do or die.
Veronica being very close to dying on the spot.
I'm starting to notice I can't keep Omnihealing forever.
Right, the Timewyrm needs to be softened up a bit.
Stop that.
Now that is a Kaboomle.
And to think the Doleful Dirge apparently didn't work the first time! Either that or I'm applying to both.
Glad to see some attacks just miss.
Because this is back.
Doleful Dirge helps Erdward, too, since his attack is elemental.
Veronica has too little MP to cast Kaboomle thanks to the double MP.
Crit Kaboom will suffice.
That's an Elfin Elixir. An inventory item was used!
THE TAIL IS DOWN! THE TAIL IS DOWN!
And Jade's on fire!
Come on, I'm so close...
Hey!
Veronica keeps up the fire.
Ow! Ice Age hurts.
That is a lot of dying going on right now...
Erdward presses on. I'm not sure that was the call, but Serena's already used a Leaf on Veronica (hence her coming back at full HP).
Jade is barely back on her feet before she almost falls down again.
Never mind. Apparently Jade's job is to fall.
Oi!
More fireballs! No more Doleful Dirge...
Meep.
Yeah... we might be dead.
...Clearly, though, so was he.
The only point of HP that matters is the last.
...
I beat the Timewyrm for the first time. Without the trickery most people use (with Omniheal, Erdward has a four person Pep Power with three party members of his choice that grants invincibility for a few turns- most people buy as many Pep Pops as they can and spam this).
Both Timewyrms drop Seeds of Skill apiece. As if we needed them.
These are the proper rewards.
The Sands of Lost Time is a Timewyrm-specific item, and it tells us how "long" it took me to beat the Timewyrm. 24 turns, plus the extra turns I get for party members being dead in providing that figure.
More Cetacea dialogue. Yeah, I'll say.
The only other use of the Sands of Lost Time is to reopen the Timewyrm anomaly and rematch it. If you want to see if you can beat this guy faster.
Sooner the better.
I have earned this.
...I also earned this? I'm not actually sure what the numbers are for Whirlwind Wyrminator and Warp-Speed Wyrminator, nor do I care about going for them, but that attempt was fast?
The hare-raising suit is a costume armour for Jade, which means getting this Accolade is locked behind the superboss. Kinda takes the point out of all the other Jade armours if I could never get good enough to amass the full set, but the principle is what counts.
That is every costume armour in the game.
The hare-raising suit is the armour Booga stuck on her in the Side Story, and as you might recall, Jade had literal plot armour there: She instantly came back to life if she was killed. The hare-raising suit, however, was a costume armour only, not battle armour.
That changes now: Jade gets slammed with armour on par with the swimsuits, but in exchange, she gets to keep the auto-revive as many times as she needs.
Why the game insists on giving Jade super-demon-powers by sticking her in bunnysuits, though, I will never understand.
And with that, the world is at peace. Erdward can finally go home to Gemma. Well, unless anyone else has something to spring on him?
The point of this update was going to be as a little bonus, to show of the ultimate dangers Dragon Quest can make, and to say that sometimes you just gotta know your limits. Just because it's there doesn't mean you have to beat it. I never felt like I was leaving the game unfinished for not having beat the Timewyrm- hell, I feel like the hare-raising suit is terrible both as a matter of taste and in terms of how it plays mechanically (as if there was much in the way of use for it). Games can tell us things, and if we don't remain cognizant of that, we risk adopting bad messages uncritically, but above all, games are fun, and there is absolutely no shame in not tackling a challenge inappropriate for your skill level.
Now, how does the Timewyrm shake out mechanically? I'm not sure. I'm at my peak level- no seeds, admittedly- and it kicked my ass multiple times. The accepted strat is to cheese the hell out of it, and if you want to get stronger, you're finding Seeds through either grinding rare drops or exploiting a quirk of how the game handles the Benedictus Duplication and switching between 3D/2D to dupe Seeds over and over by playing through Act 2 multiple times. I, personally, am of the mind that no content should be inaccessible without grinding, and while the Timewyrm is technically accessible (and as I have proved, perfectly playable with patience, luck and courage), I'm not really feeling the balance- and this is without having "Stronger Monsters" on! This is just something RPGs have trouble with in general, though- the rigid options the player has means the only method the game has of balancing is through numbers. Superbosses work better in action games where the player's mechanical skill can make up the difference in power while a weaker player has the option to grind their numbers up for a more even fight.
...Speaking of, I have not forgotten the Wheel of Harma's Secret Trial. As cool as rounds 2 and 4 are, I think I am going to hard pass on that. I did try it, but round 1 posed enough of a problem and I'm not exactly showing you anything interesting if I'm failing that, am I? It's just Super Seeds for winning that.
No comments:
Post a Comment