Croacus's time to... you know, appear is coming.
But of course, we're in the company of our dashing hero, so we have vital cubist ramblings to listen to first.
We start our brave journey through Floro Caverns some more with...
...Er... nothing. Cragley's gone and jumped the gun.
This would be the perfect moment to cut to Cragley being kidnapped by a Floro Sapien.
Well, maybe normally, but not this time.
We get two mountain levels and two mountain cave levels. This may be the most same-y chapter, even more than Lineland and Merlee's Mansion.
At least we started on a good note.
Just look at how much stuff I've got.
...
Huh, must've missed that shot. Floro Sapiens can sometimes be caught dropping Sap Soup, the only source of a critical recipe ingredient. The other stuff, we don't need to keep out of this chapter, but that Sap Soup must come with.
The cavern aesthetic is broken up by some... highly scientific rooms for a society of plants.
We enter, and we see a cutscene of a Floro Cragnien entering a grey box.
The box scans him, and he's allowed to enter that big, presumably boss, door.
No such like if we try the same trick.
And it looks like it goes the whole way across the hall. We'll have to figure out how to shut that off.
Further down we go.
...Hello, cutscene showing a Floro Cragnien coming out from here.
Ah. This must be where the Cragnons get their brainstems. We may not want to spend too much time in here.
Besides, it's locked. The Floro Sapiens aren't that stupid.
I mean, they have two brains.
(That pipe up there will infinitely spawn Floro Sapiens, and if you want to grind Sap Soups or points, having Bowser stand on that Pal Pill block and breathe fire is not a bad way of doing so.)
More conventional lock on this one.
The only way forward, as is always the case, is down.
...This is the part when I regret picking up those Pal Pills. They do more harm than good here.
OK, intellectually, the points you get from picking up Pal Pills are worth more than you lose even if every single Pill kills a Floro Cragnien, but still.
You need to push down this button, although Mario alone isn't enough.
...OK, the Pal Pills are getting in the way now.
We need to borrow one of these guys to use their extra weight to open the way. I'm sure he won't mind.
Right... this maze.
It's a Reversya Cursya. It is a spiteful monster that curses everything it touches. Max HP is 1 and Attack is 1. It can make you move entirely in opposites... If you get cursed, it's best to relax. You will learn to adjust until the effect wears off...
That's a new Cursya type, Reversya. When you get hit, left means right and up means down, along with vice versa. This curse doesn't mess with your physics, although it will make life difficult at the beginning and the ending of the curse.
Especially if you're not sure whether this game uses up/down reverse. It does.
Spike Tops at the ending of this room. And also a cave painting with some prescient art.
Because that's what they're talking about.
Also, a POW Block behind the pipe here.
Take that, Blomeba horde!
There are letters written on the wall here... "Behind the Skull" That's what it says...
Incidentally, this writing is actually text, and it's a gameplay clue for Tippi.
That's a Heavy Cursya. It is a spiteful monster that curses everything it touches. Max HP is 1 and Attack is 1. It makes you heavy and hinders your jumping... A life without jumping... It's too terrible to contemplate... Unless you're a butterfly...
The other underground new Cursya, Heavy will make all your jumps lower. This can make life irritating, especially since you can't jump over Cursyas with this.
...Say, does that Skull over there seem suspicious?
Fleep, let's see what's behind that skull.
You've gotta admit, this isn't an awful hiding spot for a key. How many people can turn over cave paintings to find the reverse?
This cave, overall, is a 3x2 arrangement, with passage possible to all adjacent squares. You start in top left, the skull is in bottom-left, the text is in bottom right, and the Cursyas are in the middle two spaces. I think.
This is certainly how we get up.
So long, Cragniens. I promise this is for your own good.
So what do we do in this room?
That's a Cragnon... It looks like there's no sprout on top of his head...
Oh, that's another Pixl... Let's go see if we can get closer...
We, uh... see a Cragnon and a Pixl. That's a pairing I wasn't expecting to see.
Right, we have enough height to jump in there. Doesn't look like the reverse is happening, though.
Gabbro here was able to get in through other means, and those means are how we're getting out. With that said, now that the door is unlocked, other things our size can get in. Whether they can jump is another matter.
Philosophy only helps so much, Pixl. You're talking about his body control!
I think you might be the worst victim of your isolation, and you weren't even isolated. Well, we don't know what you were in before meeting Gabbro.
Please do not do this when the Floro Sapiens come, because they will seed your brain.
Gabbro does his meditation in the course of one text box. It's not a particularly long one, but it did help him come to an idea. Coming to ideas isn't the problem. It's doing it fast.
Give himself up for the Pixl's continuance. I'm not sure the Floro Sapiens could do much to Pixls, although I'm sure I don't want to push them.
Peach tilts her head back in confusion.
How nice of the Pixl to lend a hand to someone other than the hero.
Hm. This line definitely implies that Gabbro opened whatever seal the Pixl was under, and his aim here is to prevent her from being put back by any means. He probably doesn't know that the Floro Sapiens probably didn't do this.
The Pixl knew what was really going on before Gabbro did.
...Uh...
Tippi: Well, I guess... This is interesting... Just like Flint Cragley, you've avoided falling under the control of the Floro Sapiens...
Bowser: Wasn't on the schedule, pal! But I guess we just did. So you're not one of those Floro zombie things, either? Neither was Flint Cragley!
Tippi and Peach say they're here to help, because they are- after a fashion. Bowser is more honest that us rescuing him is incidental to the whole process- and honestly, so are all the Cragnons.
Glad someone's a fan of him.
...Hey, where is he, anyway?
The Pixl sees the bright side in the situation, and spots a welcome opportunity to slip away from Gabbro's side to accomplish the purpose she knows she has.
To Gabbro's shock.
Another line that I think meshes together with Pixl lore brought in later, if tangentially. Pixls can be a bit.... dangerous, in the wrong hands.
It'll hurt now, but from the sounds of things, it'll hurt even more later. It would be nice to tell Gabbro that the hero she seeks is the one standing right there, and the Pixl is leaving accomplished.
The Pixl uses its ability on Gabbro one final time, to make sure he gets to safety in... safety. Although her suggestion to go to the village to find Cragley is a bit misguided- Cragley will be found where there is the most danger.
So that's our new ability? Hm... I wonder...
Yep. All those tiny doors now have a way in.
A tearful parting, to these two characters we haven't seen before. I like the idea, actually- we're the hero, but we're not the main character in every story.
The Pixl is still troubled by the plights of every other of the kidnapped Cragnons, and is hopeing we can put a stop to it.
And joins us to make sure that happens. Dottie is the final of the game's mandatory Pixls, and one we're going to get very acquainted with.
Dottie's abilities are twofold: While tiny, we can enter these tiny doors and passages we've been noticing, of course, but while tiny, enemies will not act as if they are aware of us. This is most useful for enemies like Jawbus, in particular, who change their state while actively aware of your presence.
You can also run on the surface of water, like the Mini Mushroom from the platformers, but Carrie already did that.
...One question... how exactly is Gabbro returning to normal? We need Dottie to return to normal, and Dottie is explicit about showing this even if we try to switch to another Pixl while tiny (the game doesn't want you doing this). Better hope he gets big when he's not stuck in a passage.
OK, if you try un-Dottie-ing in a small passage, you're allowed to walk out.
That's Dottie. This Pixl can shrink its user to the size of a flea... Dottie slept in the Floro Caverns until King Croacus started making trouble... She's sad that the power of the Ancients is being used to destroy the worlds...
As are most people.
Right, let's take a look at this really tiny text on the sign.
...Um, OK... turns out those aren't actually signs. Wonder what they are, then.
So anyway, now that we have Dottie, there must be something we can do with her.
Other than make this Floro Sapien very confused and very dead in short order. The natural outcome for a race without eyes.
Oh. That's what Dottie is for. Presumably, some Floro Sapien dropped it and it slid through the cracks to rest in here.
...Might as well take a peek in here.
Oh. Oh no. A free Super Shroom in a foyer room.
The next room has a ladder leading down, and I figured now would be a good time to show what happens if Bowser makes an effort, seeing as how this ladder doesn't require much acrobatics to get to. He'll actually try for a bit, but he doesn't have an animation for holding the ladder like Mario and Peach do.
Now that's a big button.
Pushing it releases the Floro Cragniens, who will mill around the room like aimless sheep because that's their attack.
There's even a few of them in 3D, which... actually, this isn't a half-bad way to circumvent them entirely.
Max HP: 10, Attack: 1. This poor Cragnon has been zombified by King Croacus. Don't beat on it, or you'll lose some serious points.
It's only 100, don't feel that bad over it. Although yes, now we do double damage and now kill them in one hit. We had leniency before.
Also a random Slow Cursya in the group. I'm not sure what he's doing there, but it is funny seeing him in line.
As someone writing this while living with a toddler, late-sleeping? What toddlers have you been caretaking, and can we swap?
Team Bleck has more to throw at us this time- both O'Chunks and Dimentio were fine to fight us once and let us be in Chapters 1 and 3, respectively, but it seems they've got a second idea this time around.
Uh... I plead the fifth.
(O'Chunks doesn't have anything to say for the moment, and fittingly, the music is Dimentio, Charming Musician.)
Dimentio tries, in vain, to try and appeal to the Heroes being roped into this adventure largely without their consent to save people they've never met- probably one of the better ideas Team Bleck has for stopping us.
Tippi: We are NOT interested!
Peach: No, thank you very much. We won't sit idly by and watch this world or any other die.
Tippi, of course, has a pretty terrible response because this is her world, and she knows and cares about all these people. Peach's general benevolence and her love of making sure everybody is treated well is reflected in her response that she could never abandon someone in peril. Bowser manages to neatly sidestep the fact that he probably agrees with Dimentio's reasons by instead realising the offer is a cheap attempt to get out of fighting us directly and calls out his cowardice.
Nobody seems to acknowledge the fact that the Mushroom Kingdom is probably in just as much peril as any of the worlds visited here in SPM. Like... Dimentio can send us there, Bleck wins, and we still die anyway.
Dimentio doesn't seem too heartbroken that plan failed. Long shot, but hey, the idea occurred to him.
Dimentio's plan involves Dimension D again, a plan that hasn't seemed to work all that well for him the last two times he used it, something that Tippi openly acknowledges. With that said, however, I am starting to realise exactly what Dimentio's plan is here, and the fact that we've already fought O'Chunks in Dimension D is actually a key component and not just padding.
Dimentio acknowledges that this looks like the same plan will end in failure, and adds an essential ingredient of variety to the process.
...A Floro Sprout on O'Chunks' head.
Dimentio is rather charmed by the Floro Sprouts. Surely an evil schemer has use for brainwashing brainstems.
Tippi: Wha-What?!
Peach: What is that?!
Bowser presumably means this literally- and he expresses a similar distaste for incorporating vegetables into his life in Bowser's Inside Story- but the bodies a Floro Sprout inhabits are certainly candidates for the word "vegetable" as it describes people with severe, nigh-irreperable mental damage.
The person he was going to meet between the 5-2 and 5-4 encounters was able to provide him with "a few sprouts", although we can only see one on O'Chunks.
...
Oh gods Dimentio is the last person seen with multiple unaccounted for brainwashing devices.
The newly dubbed "O'Cabbage" has vegetables on the brain, literally and figuratively.
Dimentio leaves us with the insane chest-pounding creature he has created and a comically out-of-place moral lesson for the kiddies. Much like his offer to take us home, I think he's only doing this to be funny rather than thinking there is any geniune reasoning.
...I was about to give Bowser a matching war cry based on a kind of meat, but I'm not actually sure what species of Mushroom Kingdom critter the cartoonish drumsticks Bowser eats in Inside Story comes from.
(As funny as it would be, the boss theme is still Ready, Go and not It's Showtime.)
That's O'Chunks. Dimentio has veggified him. He has no will of his own... Max HP is 60 and Attack is 3. He seems faster and stronger than before... But he will get dizzy after being thrown. That's your only chance... Don't let his quick movements confuse you. Just keep a steady head...
O'Cabbage is apparently faster, and certainly he's increased his power linearly since the last fight to give him that little extra edge. We've only got 1 point in Atk since then, see? However, O'Cabbage hasn't learned that many extra tricks O'Chunks did not already know- the fight is not as different as Dimentio advertises.
We're looking at 9 bonks with Mario/Peach, incidentally.
Right, second verse, same as the first, and I don't think O'Chunks will be too torn up if we trivialise this fight.
If you've got the Volt Shroom or similar in your inventory ahead of time, what does paralysis do to a boss whose only attacks involve grabbing you and charging at you?
Smashy smashy.
Cruel, unusual and effective. You can break this game pretty effectively if you don't care enough about the boss fights.
That got him good.
We return to the main world, and...
The Floro Sprout has lost its power, dropping from his head.
We're going with ambient music, rather than O'Chunks, Warrior. It does dovetail into the Floro Caverns theme later, but this is not O'Chunks's day.
O'Chunks seems to have no memory of O'Cabbage, or indeed, anything at all about the last five minutes. Or in my case, two minutes.
In these close quarters? I think he might actually have an edge compared to the wider spaces available to him in Yold Desert and Dimension D.
While he doesn't remember O'Cabbage, his body still exerted the energy that he used while in that state, and his belly allows him to leave a fight he probably isn't capable of winning.
O'Chunks leaves believing himself to have more dignity than he does: any.
It's kinda hard to be taken seriously when you attempt to leave a secret underground facility by fartillery rocket. He doesn't drop back down, which makes me believe he's just stuck in the ceiling somewhere until Nastasia or Mimi takes pity on him and gets him back to headquarters.
The natural assumption is that our battle with O'Chunks was so fearsome that this little sprout couldn't bear it and wilted.
...Excuse me, what, game?
That is a BRAINWASHING. DEVICE. I don't care if it's not working anymore, you do not just say to put it on my head and hope for the best.
Just like Ghost T.'s diary, an "instantly lose game" button in my inventory. How quaint.
Rolls eyes.
Dimentio pops back in to have some more mysterious words.
We are indeed to believe that O'Cabbage was an improvement over O'Chunks narratively, even if there was only so much polishing they could do to O'Chunks. Maybe they needed to not give O'Chunks so many new moves in the 5-2 fight.
He needs to go off and prepare for his dramatic betrayal. There are no textual clues about the nature of the Floro Sprout he used on O'Chunks, but I do have a theory: Remember how Dimension D makes everything in it 256 times more powerful? That makes it hard to overpower somebody else, but perhaps that Floro Sprout wasn't healthy before getting into Dimension D and getting that power boost. It didn't appear outside it and dropped off as soon as we left...
Anyway, on the way back up, there's a little baby pipe here for Dottie to go down.
Treasure! Treasure! Money money money Super Shroom!
Once again, an army of Pal Pills doesn't even make it past the first jump.
We get to the scanner room, and the moment of listening to the game is upon us. We must put on the damn sprout and hope it doesn't come back to life while it's on our head.
Had we put it on when prompted:
You... didn't turn into cabbage. That's nice, I guess... This could come in handy...
The sprout might be dead, but the scanner only cares about the existence of a sprout on our head. I feel like I should be questioning these.
Huh, the Pal Pills made it with me after all.
...Valuable knick-knacks? Portraits on the wall? Ludicrous chandeliers? Clearly we are in a room for royals.
The portraits all have labels.
The first king of the Flora Kingdom, Croacus I is known as the greatest of kings. He united the Floro Sapiens under a single cause, creating the Flora Kingdom. He made a capital here and established a calendar, begun at the kingdom's birth. Heavily armored, he bore deadly thorns and came to be called the "Iron Rose." The kingdom's infrastructure and early roads were built by Croacus I's design. But when his successor, the prince, wilted unexpectedly, so did Croacus I's spirit. The Flora year 444 marked the start of his reign of fear, "The Darkening." Eventually Croacus I and his foul regime were overthrown in a sappy coup d'etat. The king was struck down, marking the official end of The Darkening. His wilting words were said to be "The Iron Rose shan't wither!" But wither he did.
Now if that isn't a conflicted legacy to leave behind. The greatest King was also the most terrible. This is the prime reason you want your government to have a built-in means of removing an unfit ruler without the sappy coup. Those are awful for your government, which is why you need to solve the problem they are fit to solve before they are necessary.
That's a fancy picture of a Floro Sapien... Their king, perhaps? He looks so strong... It's a really old painting... The floor under the painting is cracked as well...
I'll be honest, he doesn't look that tough to me, but in comparison to the others, maybe.
Croacus II was the daughter of the great ruler, King Croacus I. Croacus II was imprisoned for being critical of the former king's policies, but... When he was overthrown by the people, Croacus II was freed and given the throne. Her efforts to reduce taxes and study diseases made Croacus II very popular... Eventually, her influence helped erase the scars The Darkening had left. She also compiled a Floro Sapiens prehistory called "The Flictionarion." The book was to be her legacy, a historic mark of her benevolent influence. Croacus II feared the fight for the throne that might ensue if she bore many heirs. She had but one heir, late in her life. This earned her the name "The White Maiden."
Croacus II was the longest-reigning of the four monarchs, tasked with the difficult job of rebuilding the broken Flora Kingdom in the wake of her father bringing it to ruin, and she managed to do it while also making it better than it was in the Iron Rose's reign, and she wrote a book on a non-political subject of great importance to her sphere. Her title is about how she chose not to have babies because she wants to try and not deal with this whole "coup" thing a second time in her life. Even flowers have sexism.
Alternative theory why Croacus II didn't sire any heirs until the last year of her reign: She didn't want to be thrust off the throne for a male son and become a dowager.
That's a Floro Sapien girl... By Floro Sapien standards, she's lovely...
Again, you're the one visually trying to distinguish them.
Croacus III was just one when his mother wilted. He became the youngest king ever. The young king had a great predilection and talent for poetry and art... His talent was evident in works like "Ice Rose," a book of poems from his 37th year. But he was also afflicted by a terrible disease from the time he was born... Without ever impacting the affairs of his kingdom, he wilted at age 88. The cause of his wilting was never made public. Many suspected a conspiracy... This was never confirmed.
A Floro Sapien his mother would be proud of. And the kingdom? Not so much.
This Floro Sapien is younger than the others... More delicate... Maybe even weak...
In physical stature, maybe.
Formerly a regent for King Croacus III, he ruled in place of the frail child king. After Croacus III's wilting, his service was recognized, and he was made king. His stabilizing influence and political savvy made him popular and well known. His recent achievements include:
In Flora year 1625, he invented a method for mind-controlling Cragnons.
In Flora year 1626, he spearheaded an initiative to enslave Cragnons en masse.
So yeah, the regent King for Croacus III took power formally after his shady death and used his newfound power to bring misery and slavery to the Cragnons. At least he's good to the Floros.
It is highly likely that the Great King Croacus I was reigning "1500 years ago", due to the dates listed for his enslaving plan. He would need to have been trying for 370 years for the division of the Pure Hearts to occur within Queen Croacus II's reign, and it is unlikely that the Flora Kingdom would be trusted with the Pure Heart until the Darkening is a bit more distant a memory. The most reasonable suggestion for how any monarch other than Croacus I would be the one to receive the Pure Heart would be that Flora Kingdom years do not count the same as the ones the Ancients use.
What a strong Floro Sapien... Powerful... Threatening... And very passionate... This picture is newer than the others...
Of course it is, the monarch is currently reigning.
Well, that was very fun, but I don't see what the point of that was. There's nothing in this room we worked so hard to get to...
Oh.
Damn those Pal Pills, there are Floro Cragniens down here...
Huh. Ultra Shroom in this one.
This switch changes color when you hit it. From blue to red to black to white... Maybe you should match its color with something nearby...
The point of the portraits of the Flora Kingdom monarchs is to be a colour-matching puzzle. There is no reason to read the description tags, and they don't even change the way you look at King Croacus IV. It's purely for lore junkies.
Despite no cracks, all four Flora portraits have a chute under them. I think one of them doesn't have a Floro Cragnient down there, and the Pal Pills can't escape once they're dumped in one.
There is a Save Block under, I believe, Croacus III.
Once all four coloured blocks are correctly lined into place, a TTYD-esque curtain covers the screen, and places another big door in the middle of the room, between Croacus II and Croacus III's portraits.
And behind it...
Croacus IV. Without his flower, admittedly. Is he supposed to be nude or just in casual gear?
His field theme may or may not be as loopy as he sounds. At least we're only hearing it this once.
Croacus IV loves those shiny valuables.
Of which Bowser is not. He will not call Mario or Peach attractive, or even anything different.
Tippi: Um... Are you King Croacus?
Peach: Uh... Are you King Croacus?
Technically different, girls! Bowser's going above and beyond having different dialogue.
Huh, we have a reputation? Floro Sapiens have been keeping tabs on us... that, or Dimentio gets his Floro Sprouts straight from the source.
I don't even entirely know how he is making that sound with his mouth. That is, if he even has a mouth.
Bowser warns you: He breathes fire.
Tippi: King Croacus! You must release the Cragnons you've enslaved...
Peach: King Croacus! Be merciful! Release the Cragnons you've enslaved!
Peach tries appealing to him royal-to-royal, while Bowser just gloats about his strength. They all suggest he let the Cragnons go, without offering any reason other than "we'll beat you up if you don't." Which, I mean, it's not an awful reason, but...
This is also not a good reason to keep them enslaved. He has a better one, and if he suggested it, we might be able to continue negotiations without resorting to fisticuffs. It might be fisticuffs anyway, though.
But still, Tippi could have something better to give? Anything?
He calls the Cragnons trash. Presumably for racism or classism reasons, but he is going somewhere with it we're not asking about.
This is what the Pure Heart has been turned to. Another trophy for a vain tyrant.
For once, Tippi has actually forgotten a plot point we already know about: We already knew Croacus possessed the Pure Heart, the Floro Sapiens blabbed about it earlier, back in 5-1.
Knowing that we really want that Pure Heart gives Croacus a weapon...
That he uses to try and call us a hypocrite. Sir, we need that Pure Heart for reasons unrelated to its attractiveness. I honestly think the Pure Hearts don't even look good.
Tippi swallows the bait. I wish Peach and Bowser got the chance to respond more intelligently.
How dare you say that about Peach! Mario and Bowser probably stink like cheese, though. Not that Bowser thinks there's anything wrong with that.
Unsure if this line makes it more or less likely that Croacus IV assassinated Croacus III. Or if it can even be used as evidence. I suspect, if Croacus IV did organise Croacus III's death, he did not do the deed directly.
Croacus sets up his battle form, a rose with three heads to fling around.
And then taunts us through the rose petals. This second part makes Croacus a candidate for the goofiest boss in the game, and possibly the entire franchise.
His official artwork manages to make him look a lot cooler.
That's King Croacus. He leads the Floro Sapiens, and loves beautiful things... Max HP is 50. Attack is 2. He attacks with his head, like other Floro Sapiens... I don't think you can damage him when his face is closed off like that... Using Thoreau to grab stuff, then jumping into him works pretty well, though...
King Croacus the Fourth mostly just swirls around the top of the arena there, occasionally blooming. The three little heads will occasionally slam down into the ground, and we can either grab them with Thoreau to throw back at Croacus, or stand on them, ride up, and jump on Croacus from there. You can also only attack Croacus while his flower is in bloom, exposing his face. He is probably the most irritating boss battle, because the way all the stems get in your visual way makes it feel less like a cool boss fight and more of a chaotic mess where victory is determined more by luck than skill. A later boss will use a similar gimmick but in a more polished way.
I'm fairly sure the secondary stems don't hurt you except in certain attacks where they grow spikes. Croacus's stem, of course, will hurt you.
Like his appearance theme, Croacus's battle theme is... something else. I'd call it a TTYD boss theme, but it almost feels too weird for TTYD.
Damn heads getting in the way of Thoreau.
You can also carry around Croacus himself, if you want to throw him somewhere more useful
There's that thorn attack. They wander around like snake blocks, and will stop if they bump into you or a wall. It's generally cramped quarters.
Please come out of your bloom please come out of your bloom...
At half health, Croacus sheds the flower and starts flying around the room.
Whenever he blooms in this state, he lets loose one of these blades of petals that bounce around the room as more projectiles to avoid.
Or throw at Croacus. I prefer that second one.
Bowser won't often eat salad, but if he's doing it in front of a sentient flower, he can make an exception.
Gotcha!
All the petals wilt off Croacus, he shoots into the air, and lands in the middle of the room, so the event that follows can use a bit more scripted moving parts.
For now, this event is silent.
"Wilt", of course, being Flora Kingdom for "die"- the act of wilting happened a little bit sooner than this.
...I'm not even 100% sure if "wilt" is applicable to flowers without stems.
Some Floro Sapiens come in to tend to their fallen King.
...You know, how does one go about choosing a Croacus V? I don't think Croacus IV has an heir yet (and they got on Croacus II's case about that! You've been reigning for ~250 years, IV, I'm sure Croacus I had his first heir by now).
Tippi: We have defeated your king. Get over it...
Peach: We have defeated your king. Now! Release the Cragnons!
Tippi continuing her surprisingly dismissive streak with that "get over it", while Peach tries to use this opportunity to leverage some bargaining. Bowser, of course, just gloats in an unsportsmanlike manner. Honestly, this may be his first (and only) real opportunity to gloat to somebody after a boss kill.
The game makes it clear it expects you to take the Floro Sapiens' side by timing Soft Light to start now.
Croacus IV was a good king. Whether or not he murdered Croacus III, it seems he did not do so because he was hungry for power, being sure to use his new power for good as well as ill for the Cragnons.
Tippi, of course, doesn't recognise the nuances involved in political power, and assumes that being evil to the Cragnons would've made Croacus IV unpopular with the Floro Sapiens. Despite, you know, the Floro Sapiens clearly being willing to fight to the death for Croacus IV's ambitions.
And, at long last, the environmental message hinted at in a single optional dialogue back in the village has paid off: The Cragnons "returning their trash to nature" has not been kind to the Floro Sapiens, and they are hardly much kinder to the Cragnons in kind.
In fairness to Croacus IV, him being quite as evil as he is was less a question of his own morality, and more of a product of impaired judgement due to the Cragnon's actions. Not, like, "oh, they made me so angry I had a gamer moment" impaired, actually made so sick that his judgement got impaired.
One thing that doesn't seem to have a clear answer that I'd be interested in learning is when exactly the Cragnons dumping trash in the river started having a noticeable effect on the stability of the Flora Kingdom. I think the game-favoured implication is that it hasn't been that long, but I would be interested to know if Croacus III's illness and Croacus IV's coup were under the shadow of dirty water, too.
Tippi: "...Fuck, these guys were the ones we should've been listening to."
...You what
With all of Cragley's shady practices, moderate rudeness and general buffoonery, you wouldn't quite expect him to be ready to drop everything he was doing and lend the Floro Sapiens a hand with their crisis, did you?
Flint acts like he was a voice of reason in a society that didn't heed his warnings, but it's difficult for me to feel like he's not talking out of his ass here. Hindsight is 20/20, after all. He may also be trying not to get killed/brainwashed by the Floros behind him.
This line, where they suggest the existence of a grassroots "stop dumping in the river" portion of the community, is more helpful in suggesting that the Cragnons did have pre-existing reasons to doubt their way of life. This whole thing is just kinda vague because they didn't exactly pay much attention to it in our time at the village- admittedly, in large part to conceal the reveal until it came.
Flint may be many things, but he is not unaware of the power his words have over the Cragnons. As a popular celebrity with an authoritative voice, Flint vouching for the Floro Sapiens' story will be a reliable means of ensuring that the Cragnons take appropriate action.
The Floro Sapiens agree to leave the Cragnons alone- and free the ones already captured- if the Cragnons take effort to stop polluting them. With all that said about how Croacus IV's policies were popular with the Floro Sapiens, they're clearly happy with not using the Cragnons for slave labour going forward.
One might question how much of a deal this if it's made without the contribution of Croacus IV (were it not for the fact he's kinda dead right now), but the Cragnons don't exactly have Marbald either. This entire deal is on the honour system, and it's up to both sides to make sure they hold up their ends of the bargain.
Well, maybe if we tried talking to Croacus IV... no, he was still insane.
...So how did these guys get out of that?
...What did we do for the Floro Sapiens, other than kill them en-masse and their King? We are still the Heroes and the rightful recipient of the Pure Heart, but the Floro Sapiens don't seem to have much personal reason to hand it over.
Considering the circumstances, it's good they're turning it over, but it does make this line feel unfounded.
"Earliest kings" Definitely Croacus I. The line suggests there were Kings before Croacus I, but considering Croacus IV was active during the 1600s, we know Croacus I was reigning 1500 years ago.
I certainly hope so.
That is quite the lineup of Pixls doing the Pixl Dance now. With every mandatory Pixl in hand, the full size of four Pixls either side has been achieved.
Not that we see any more than three in the zoom-in. Bowser, take a Pure Heart for yourself.
"Men of true grit witness live what others can only see through crag-vision. That is what moves me to travel into the belly of the beast week after week. Thanks again for watching, and until the next time... CRAAAAAAAAAGLEY HO!" Having wrapped their latest shoot, Flint and crew went back to Downtown of Crag. Mario and friends clutched the sixth Pure Heart as they walked back toward Flipside. Our heroes had taken a new step toward overturning the prophecy of destruction...
Flint Cragley finish his taping with a moving speech highlighting why he was so glad to help out the Floro Sapiens, but overall, there's like nothing in that narration.
Next time: Cooking.
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