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Part 2
Welcome to the magical land of wherever we are. To the north is desert, to the south is desert and to the the south-west there is a tower. This is where we have to go to continue the story. But first a tour of the island.
This is the town of Gryvan, a place with a name that actually sounds like it's from a fantasy novel. Gus told us that this place offers much better paying work so I'm going to hit it up.
This is a flower shop. It sells pots. Not pot but pots. It's also run by a nun because why not. Pots cost 50 bucks a pop so fuck that noise.
So it's the capital then? Because I do not see anything that doesn't make this a useless town in the middle of the desert. Also this place is just as remote as Serene Town. In fact, it might be further away than anything because at least DIABLO harbor is on the same screen as it. Gryvan has mountains and dead trees.
I guess the girl that we just talked to is his sister. Let's take it.
Well then, the unrefined medical drink is an all status restoration item. A remedy or a full heal in other words. Not sure why the kid would have this.
Pubs are good places to find work.
This happens annoyingly often. I'm serious when I say that this is an uncomfortable amount of people hitting on the main character. Why was it necessary? Also "How about you doing yourself a favor and taking it off?"
Ah fuck it, let's look at the note.
Mail courier work and a job at the old docks. Anything that will get me away from lardass over there.
Presented without comment. We'll probably be seeing this guy another time.
Geezer McGeezerton here is under police custody.
While he's not looking, Imma take his shit.
Admittedly, I'm pretty terrible at stealth.
Wait a minute! I just remembered! Yes, without a doubt!
I forgot to deliver the mail today!
Yeah, that's another problem with Victim of Xen. It's trying way to hard to be funny. Let's just get the fuck out of here.
Old man, what did I ever do to you?
Oh. This is bad.
Oh god, things have gotten even worse!
Like I said, trying way too hard.
This weapon shop just further compounds problems that I have with the early game.
It sells end game weapons. So it's an even bigger fuck you if you don't know that the Serene Town weapons shop stops selling weapons after you get turned into a girl since it's the only other place that you can get a weapon on the entire island. It's a serious beginners trap.
Let's get some more work while we're here. One of the houses on the other side of this elevated area has a job that we can take.
His name is Her. Of course. Also it's Johns twin brother.
No, it doesn't matter. Here, as long as it gets to where it needs to go.
*mail received*
I'm sure Felix will really appreciate this. Tell Mickey to warn me next time, if there's somebody new on the job.
He should know by now that I don't hesitate to kill strangers in my house. You're lucky that I was expecting company.
Sure you do buddy. And I'm sure that you're actually a badass marine sniper who will ruin my shit if you ever met me.
Before we continue the story, we're going to head slightly further east to Old Docks. Not sure if it's the old docks of a town or if they named the town old docks.
First of all, finish our job because we're good people.
Second of all, make fun of them for not direction locking this event so that it doesn't transform from a mug to a goblet.
Third of all, presented without comment. What happened is that they copy pasted the store map and put in an event which explains the nun selling seeds. However they copy-pasted the event and forgot to keep the name consistent so her name changes between dialogue boxes.
Finally, we can hit up the warehouse.
So it's pretty simple. Interact with a piece of wood and then go and interact with the bench that the guy isn't using. You'll get five gold each time you do that. You just have to do it sixty times to be able to afford the military sword, shield and helmet. This is just another gigantic fuck you because this is the only repeatable job that can earn you money at this point in time. The only enemy that you can grind money on at this point are thieves. Thieves give up two gold per kill. Thieves hit for about 35 damage and can come in parties of three and have enough health to survive two rounds of double-striking.
Now that we have toured the island, I have put this off for long enough. Let's hunt down the witch. TO DIABLO HARBOR!
Oh, that was easy.
That Witch!
I've had enough of these delays. Load up the last of the crates. WE ARE DEPARTING!
Okay, let's try the stealth approach again.
Only this time I'll use a box. It's not cardboard sadly but it'll do. Now I'm cutting out a little bit but imagine two dudes doing the heavy box shtick and you'll get what I had to put up with. It's not even particularly funny or cringeworthy, it just kinda feels like filler.
We are in the cargo hold of the HMS Who Cares. Time to sneak around and find Xen and break her curse. But first.
If it's out in the open then it belongs to me.
The best laid schemes of mice and men. So now what do we do?
Nothing because the ship is under attack! We hear cannons being fired the ship is rocked with impact.
Okay, if that happened to a ship it would be capsizing right now. The Cargo hold has been essentially destroyed and that is generally going to be at the base of the ship.
Check the Cargo!
Oh god, that dude is just standing on the water, floating away.
I'm just inspecting the plumbing sir, no need to worry.
We've got our first fight with an Oppress Soldier. He hits for about 40 damage and we generally hit him for about 80 damage. He has about 300 hp so we can take him down without any real problems thanks to double hit. We received 15 xp and 25 gold for it as well as some food.
We regain control now. We can either go to the left to where the ship is shot to pieces or to the right down the hallway.
Surprise, the hallway leads to a repeatable battle. You're fighting more generic Oppress goons that can drop either food or drink or both in the case of the fight that I did here. It's a good source of money although it would have been nicer to have one prior to the only shop with affordable weapons. I'm still not going to let up about that because that's super shitty.
So we out.
We're also floating away while standing on the water because that is a thing people do. I'd say that the creator doesn't know what the unconscious animation is but I'll be proven wrong momentarily.
It seems that we've floated into a fortress or something.
We've reached land at last, but it's out of frying pan and into the fire.
More goons out to get us! We're flung into a fight with two Unitem soldiers. They're not very strong but they have a ton of health.
Also it's an unwinnable battle. If it lasts too long then you'll just get bopped on the head and are knocked out. I'm going to keep coming back to this but Unwinnable battles are honestly really insulting. If you want the player to probably lose then pit them against a powerful opponent that will probably beat them. But don't just let them duke it out for about ten turns and then decide that they lost.
Look at the Suikoden III fights with the Bishop, Sarah & Yuber. They're really difficult but they are winnable and you get a different outcome whether you win or lose.
But shit like this always happens in bad RPGs. And do you want to know why it happens?
Because fuck you, that's why.
Also we finally got an unconscious sprite so clearly they know that it exists.