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Part 16: Frogs On Leave
When we last left the platoon, they'd reached the exit of the Undersea Volcano.
VIDEO: One Mois (More)
They emerge from nature's oven into daylight, probably smelling delicious.
Yay! We're finally outside!
Sweet sunlight at last... I don't think I can go on much longer...
We do need to resupply soon.
Already checked the map for ya. Looks like there's a town up north.
I have to walk even more? Uuugh, just kill me already...
Hold on a little while longer, Sarge! We'll get there!
A little while longer later...
Are we there yet? I don't wanna walk another step...
Me either. I'm beat...
You're giving up already?! This is what happens when you skip daily training! Instead you lazed around, and now you're useless!
I've had enough of your lectures... My ears are officially on vacation.
A completely unfamiliar person approaches.
Oh my. Is something the matter, Uncle?
And yet she feels the need to address the little green frogman with a familiar term.
Gero... yet another version of Miss Mois!
We've come a long way, and might not be able to make it to the next town.
In that case, would you like to stop by my tent for some dinner and a good night's rest? ...In other words, room and board?
Gero! You're a lifesaver! Don't mind if we do!
I travel this land with my fellow nomads. My name's Moanne.
Miss Moanne, is it? A pleasure to meet you!
One fadeout and an inn rest jingle later...
Good morning, Uncle. Did you have a nice rest?
Gero! Thanks to you, Miss Moanne, I feel a hundred times better!
We can make it to the next town, no problem!
From here, you can go north to Vacation City. It's a famous seaside resort spot. And further north from there, you'll find Royal City. Now, please take this as a token of our acquaintance.
Got the Knight Cosplay set!
A hero too lazy to act on his legendary destiny...
Keroro the Hero is the first of the set, based on the real-life KeroQuest card game. His armor increases his defense at the cost of some attack and speed. He performs his first Knight Cosplay Arte, Cross Edge, with a cool gold sword.
Lives for the excitement of fighting tough foes.
Fighter Tamama sacrifices a little attack and defense for speed. In KeroQuest, he was a rookie with armor and a mace, but the Fighter cosplay is more in line with his punch-it-to-death skills. Shadow Edge starts off his Knight Cosplay Arte list with a double-dropkick.
With thick armor and powerful weapons, he never backs down from a fight.
Gun Knight Giroro gets armor with built-in shoulder missiles. 
In KeroQuest, he had missiles on his helmet instead. This is one of the few Cosplay Codenames that affects HP, raising it along with defense while lowering attack and speed. He also gets Blaze Lance, yet another fire-type Arte.
Possesses the appearance of a wizard, and all the skill of a dilettante.
In spite of the unflattering description, Conjurer Kururu picks up some powerful spells later on. This is another Cosplay that affects HP, lowering it along with defense to gain some attack and speed. Picker Hat steals items from enemies, one of the only two Artes that can.
Strikes from the darkness to fight evil with deadly precision.
Dororo was already an assassin, but okay. v
v Contrary to what you might think, this Cosplay raises his defense and lowers attack. But Assassin Dororo gets some solid moves, starting with Dance of Deceit, a fantastic diagonal-slashing enemy-juggling move.
Mois's copies are all so kind and generous, aren't they?
I hope we'll meet again someday, Uncle. ...In other words, the adventure continues?
She may be the last Mois clone, but she isn't the last of Mois.
All right, let's take the home stretch up to the north!
The nomad camp consists of a free inn, a save circle, and an item shop. We can restock on healing items here, as well as get a whole lot of old and new ingredients. I'll mention the ingredients later as I find recipes calling for them.
So away we go!
Here's the campsite, tucked away in the woods.
And here's where we came out of the volcano. In case we wanted to go back in, for some reason.
Time for a new enemy type! These are Digger Kobolds, the first kind of kobold we meet. While they come in groups, they're not too hard to deal with.
Here's Keroro's new Cosplay Arte, Cross Edge. It's great for hitting enemies bunched up like so.
It's two slashes, quick to pull off.
We also get more pixies and boars. Or they could be any beast, as the name Danger Buffalo seems to imply. The Mini Pixie can use magic, so it's best to take it out first for less annoyance.
Here's Tamama using Shadow Edge. The first hit takes him off the ground...
...And ends in a flying kick. Good for reaching flying enemies.
Boars can still do this, by the way.
While Tamama takes a nap, Assassin Dororo shows off Dance of Deceit. It's definitely on the must-spam list, and combos nicely into lots of other midair-usable Artes.
Tamama learns his second Musha Arte, Vigor, which gives him a temporary attack boost. Useful if Kururu's not around to apply the buff himself, and since it's not magic, there's no cast time to worry about.
This is Vacation City. There's no plot here. We can ignore it completely and go straight to Royal City to continue the story.
But you don't just hear about a place called Vacation City and skip it.
VIDEO: Vacation City
So this is Vacation City!
It looks real lively!
Let's take a break and do some sightseeing.
Earth's in mortal peril from invading monsters? WHO CARES, SHOPPING TIME 
Most of the stalls are just regular NPCs that don't actually sell you anything, but this guy will give you a little somethin' for 30 Gold.
He won't say what the somethin' is, as that's part of the fun. But with the chunk of change we got from the Undersea Volcano, 30 Gold's nothing, even if we end up buying an empty paper bag.
We score a Better Herb out of the gamble, not bad at all for that price. The somethin' can also be a Best Herb, but either one is nice.
Vacation City offers the first grade shop of this new area, and it has loads of new stuff.
There are a ton of new AI commands, so I'll just list the notable ones. "Steal items" tells characters equipped with thieving Artes (a whopping two) to prioritize yoinking items from enemies. "Use BR" makes AI teammates activate Blazing Rise when it's full, instead of just letting it sit there, and "Dodge Attacks" tells them to use the backstep maneuver more often. It can be combined with the Block Attacks command, as well. We also get "Heal Status With Items" as a replacement for all the separate status-curing priority commands from before.
An odd command, Taunt the Enemy, is something we've been able to do ourselves since the beginning. Like the guard and backstep functions, taunting requires no CC, and besides making the given character fire off a one-liner, each taunt also raises the BR gauge a little.
Next, curry recipes. Beef Curry, Fruit Curry, Dry Curry, and Fish Curry are all upgrades to the previous recipes for raising attack, defense, and speed. Along with some new food ingredient requirements, they also make use of the Deluxe Curry Spice I've been collecting.
Fruit Curry uses Starfruit, one of the new buyable ingredients.
Starfruit is special in the Keroro series. Even though it's a fruit native to Earth, it's loaded with nutrients from Planet Keron, making it a superfood for Keronians.
It's also hella delicious.
Kururu finds 500 Gold in a crate. It's not a vacation unless you're robbing somebody blind.
Vacation City has two inns.
This one's a humble, cozy little deal, but even rich people stay here now and again for a change of pace.
The price is reasonable, too.
On the west side of town is the other inn.
It has stairs, so it's clearly superior, right?
It's booked by the common folk as well as the rich. This lady's over the moon about getting to stay here.
...And here's the husband, too scared to break it to his wife that he went to the wrong inn by mistake.
One night's stay is ten times as much as the east-side inn. There's never any reason to stay here instead.
This guy works here, and brought his parents over for a visit.
Said parents are embarrassing their son by gushing praise about him at anyone within reach.
But I'm not just here for NPC chatter. It's time for thievery!
It's a Leather Glove! ...Which can be bought for 100 Gold back in Whitesnow Village.
This rich guy can't help but spoil his daughter rotten. Why? Because she's cute.
"What gives you the right to barge into my room? Ugh, I despise poor people!"
Well guess what lady, I stole your Deluxe Curry Spice!
Then I made a bunch of Dry Curry to boost Kururu's defense. The proletariat strikes again!
This shop sells dumplings, but they don't carry the platoon's preferred variety, Surprise Dumplings.
Sweet potato and red bean paste filling inside a sticky rice cake, straight from Kumamoto, Japan. Many Sgt. Keroro anime episodes revolved around these things.
"The sea is so beautiful..."
"But your beauty eclipses that of the sea! I prefer to admire you over the ocean any day."
"Tee hee! Oh, you!"
This lady forgot to buy Miso for dinner, only realizing this while she's cooking. Since we've conveniently barged into her house, she asks us to run down to the market and buy some. We have like 13 already, so we spare her one. She thanks us... and finds out she had Miso all along.
We get a Fried Miso Pork recipe out of it, though. It heals HP 15% and BR 5%. In other words, a terrible substitute for Borscht.
We steal some Moisturizer from her dresser. It's an ingredient in a future recipe, actually.
This merchant tries to sell us a pot at the low, low price of 800,000 Gold. A price that fits within the six-digit limit for once, but it's still extravagantly high.
I'm pretty sure you can't buy it anyway. It's not like it's Colain's Pot or something. 
She asks where the platoon came from, then comments on how far they've traveled. I have no idea what they told her. Japan? Pekopon? Keron?
This guy's asleep on the job. Too bad you can only steal from monsters.
This particular merchant's wares haven't been selling well lately.
Because this kid just across from her gets all the customers. She wants us to go check it out and see what he's doing differently.
Even when we admit to just looking and not wanting to buy anything, the kid's cheerful, polite, and invites us to window-shop as long as we like.
When we tell the lady merchant the difference isn't in the kid's inventory, but his attitude, she rewards us with a slab of Pork and a Sweet Potato. Mission accomplished?
Hey bro, wanna buy some flowers?
Why would Rad Science Wizard wanna buy your stupid flowers? Hell, why would any of these battle-hardened elite soldiers want--
Hey bro, wanna buy some flowers? Guy like you must have a ladyfriend or two, am I right?
(Natsumi...)
So c'mon, buy her some!
Er... no... I'm in a hurry, so I'll pass.
I see... well, stop by anytime.
Giroro's the only one with a response to the flower seller.
Just behind his stall is a Farm Shovel, something for one of the Collection Maniacs.
This guy's on holiday from work, only to discover the arena's closed. What a bummer... wait.
There's an arena?
A staple of many Tales games, Keroro RPG also has an arena.
It's closed, however, as these chess-like knights will tell us.
Sleeping at his post. He should be demoted.
With the arena unavailable for the time being, the only thing left to do in Vacation City is find its Keparrow:
-Panacea
-Paralysis Heal
-Green Crystal (sells high in shops)
With that, our vacation in this city is over.
Artes/Skills learned this update:
Keroro
Cross Edge: Keroro's first Knight Cosplay Arte. Slashes twice in a cross-shaped maneuver.
Tamama
Shadow Edge: Tamama's first Knight Cosplay Arte. Kicks twice in a way that brings him diagonally up a bit, then back down. It's useful even if you're not right in the enemy's face, and works well on the ground and in the air.
Vigor: Tamama's second Musha Cosplay Arte. Raises his own attack for a short time.
Giroro
Blaze Lance: Giroro's first Knight Cosplay Arte. Quickly attacks and withdraws with a blazing spear.
Kururu
Picker Hat: Kururu's first Knight Cosplay Arte. Steals items from enemies.
Dororo
Dance of Deceit: Dororo's first Knight Cosplay Arte. He makes copies of himself to slash the enemy from both sides.
Next time, we visit a castle, and gain a new addiction!
Kid Keroro and his childhood pals are Brave Adventurers.