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Update 44: Ghostbusters
Continuing off from where we stopped last time, here’s the northern room of this dungeon, complete with a detailed map of the place.
And the dragon movement patterns as well.
You’ll want to head to this little segment of the room first to unlock a very handy shortcut.
It leads right next to the healing spring and lets us skip the eastern room entirely! Always nice to save on backtracking, especially with a dungeon gimmick like this where the ice sliding puzzles can waste so much time.
A very timely level up for Nila, which let me max out Shock again. Fire as your sole element is absolutely not a situation you want your Mage to be stuck in for this dungeon, trust me.
Awww, what a crying shame!
Again? Really?
Could be worse. It could have had poisonous gases in it, for one!
Let’s get the northeastern section out of the way first.
Head up to the island of snow off the bat.
Then slide west from the northernmost part of it.
Do a bit of a clockwise loop here.
Then move west and then north to reach this island with the treasure chest on it.
It contains our second orb.
Just two more to go.
I hope we don’t have too much more of this trial to go through. I’m getting sick of sliding all over the place.
I don’t know, I’d say it’s kind of fun! Also fun shoving those dragons out of the way while we’re at it! Heh heh heh.
Now as for the other chest, just head down to this stalagmite.
Then head south, then east, then north to reach the chest. Simple as that.
Not that it contains that much of interest.
Oh, there’s quite a few people in here. More than I was expecting really.
Maybe they’re all in the middle of the trial as well.
...Something seems off about them.
The western side of this room has all these patches of land with swordsmen on them. Let’s greet them.
Hey hey hey! We’re not the ones running this trial!
Aha! Looks like we have a bad case of possession going on here! Time to perform a little exorcism!
Lost Samurai
Level: 49
LIFE: 430
ATK: 140
DEF: 68
INT: 51
SPD: 55
Attack Type: Blunt
Attributes: N/A
Exp: 603
Gold: 30
Item Drops:
-Normal: Shattered Katana - 30% Drop Rate. 6 needed to unlock the Durandal. (Sword. +100 ATK, +10 POW.)
--Katana of a Lost Samurai.
-Rare: N/A
Damage Multipliers:
Slash: 100% Blunt: 100% Thrust: 100%
Fire: 100% Ice: 100% Lightning: 100%
Skills:
Zanbato Arts: Switch Skill, cannot be dispelled. Applies a 120% multiplier to the user’s ATK for the duration of the battle, or until overwritten by another Switch skill. Has a speed factor of 80.
Iai Arts: Switch Skill, cannot be dispelled. Applies a 130% multiplier to the user's SPD during evasion calculations for the duration of the battle, or until overwritten by another Switch skill. Has a speed factor of 80.
Downstroke: Deals 120% melee ATK-based Slash damage to one party member. Has a speed factor of 85.
Fubuki: Deals 130% melee ATK-based Ice damage to one party member. Has a speed factor of 90.
Lost Samurai are pretty interesting enemies. By 7th Dragon standards anyways. These guys are basically minibosses for this segment, and are the last new enemy we’ll be encountering in the Hyuro Ice Cave.
As you can see, they’re basically the Samurai class in enemy form. They too can set up stances like the player version of the Samurai, and while they don’t have a Switch skill active, they’ll have a 70% chance each turn of going into 1 of their 2 stances. If they activate Zanbato Arts, they’ll immediately use Downstroke next turn. If they activate Iai Arts, they’ll use Fubuki next turn instead. After that they tend to use basic attacks most of the time, though they have a small chance of wasting their turn and recasting their stance skill. Or they have a small chance of swapping stances, and using their stance skill and repeating this whole behavior cycle from there.
I should note that Iai Arts is rather interesting, as it’s the only evasion buff in the entire game. But the way evasion buffs work in this game is really weird. It's a multiplier applied to the target's SPD stat only during accuracy calculations, they only affect accuracy and no other aspect of SPD, which means they're completely obsoleted by SPD buffs.
Not only that, the other issue with evasion buffs is that due how the accuracy formula works, the effects of any evasion boosts are heavily nerfed as they only affect this portion of the accuracy formula and not the final accuracy given.
To illustrate this issue, the only evasion buff in the game is a 130% multiplier. Assuming the attacker and defender were on even footing with matching stats (Said enemy is level 49 with 55 SPD), instead of being a 30% evasion increase, it would be lowered down to... less than 4% in quite a few cases. Or just above 3% evasion in the case of Mage spells.
Considering how there's only 1 evasion buff in the game, my guess is that most likely they realized how useless evasion buffs were in the final formula they decided on, and just converted them all to SPD buffs so they would actually do something. But they missed a spot here.
Hmm, quite the interesting development. Lava makes for an excellent exorcism tool! Eat your heart out, holy water!
Unfortunately as interesting as these enemies are, they still have the fundamental problem of being normal enemies in a 7th Dragon game. As a result they die very fast before they can really do much.
To think I’ve had to turn my blade upon my fellow swordsmen like this...
Oh don’t worry, Haru. They’re not dead. We just got rid of the spirits possessing them. See?
A-ah! I see.
Hey there, are you alright?
I can't keep calm. You better take this.
As thanks for bringing this swordsman to his senses, we get the 3rd orb.
I really recommend calling it quits. Who knows if you’ll have an episode like that again.
Some things really aren’t worth endangering yourself or others for.
Talking to any of these swordsmen will initiate a battle with 2 Lost Samurai. Incidentally, these enemies are actually available to fight as random encounters only in this room of the cave. You can’t encounter them in any other room. You have a 92 out of 256 chance (bit less than a 36% chance) of encountering them through random battles here. Which is pretty handy for stocking up on their drops for the weapon said drops unlock.
None of the other swordsman will reward you for helping them.
It seems all of the people here are possessed as well.
We really shouldn’t leave them like this.
Then let’s not! Let’s get to some extreme ghost busting!
You were saying?
Here, let this nice hot lava bath cheer you up.
I think you overdid it.
Eh, he’ll live.
Yeesh, you know the scary part is that this could happen to us...
I won’t let that happen. We’ll succeed, I’m sure of it.
Besides, we have already made it further than these swordsmen have. I’m sure our chances of making it through are much higher than theirs.
And if the worst is about to happen, I’ll just drag us out of here with a bit of magic! You haven’t forgotten about that, have you? Wouldn’t want to make poor little Stella sad over losing your mind now, would we?
Oh right, heh. Thanks. And yeah, that’d. That’d be pretty bad, yeah.
As for where this exit takes us...
It takes us back to the western room, creating a loop. The islands here should be easy enough to reach without too much hassle.
ACK! You just had to jinx us earlier, Buront!
My apologies! Pbbbt!
Some of the chests in this area are booby trapped, so watch out.
Eugh! Who’s leaving all these trapped chests here anyways!?
Ahem! Mmphaaack! Perhaps it’s an elaborate lesson about the dangers of greed?
And with that, we’ve gotten the final orb.
Finally! We can get this exhausting trial over with!
Another job well done!
Certainly a sight for sore eyes.
There’s not much of this dungeon left, but what little remains should be less of a hassle to complete.
That’s a bit disappointing.
I don’t think we really have the right to complain about this since we acquired quite a few valuables here. That, and this one had the courtesy to not spray us with poisonous gas.
NRGH! My apologies for my loose lips!
How’d they stuff all this gas into in these chests anyways!?
Maybe they left something in there to rot over the years? Blech!
And that’s the last of the chests. We’re almost done with this dungeon. All that’s left is to finish up. Let’s head back to the entrance of the cave to do just that.
However, before we can finish up, there’s one last little puzzle we have to deal with first.
Wait, how do we know which orbs to place where? I don’t think just plopping them on these pedestals randomly will work.
Hmm, aha! You know if you look at the map of this place, this room looks awfully like a dragon.
Ah, so we should match the orbs up with the “body parts.”
There’s no drop down list, so just cycle through the orbs by saying no constantly until the pop up with the orb you want to place on the pedestal comes up. If you placed the wrong orb, you can take the orb back or swap it out with another one if you need to.
Seems that about did it.
I’d say it’s time at long last to finish up Zesu’s challenge.
A quick checkup on the guild before we have to tackle the final portion of this trial. We’re a bit overleveled, but the boss here can still wreck you if you aren’t careful.
STRONGER STRONGER STRONGER, STRONGER THAN THE STRONGEST! I'LL CRUSH YOU ALL... AND BECOME MORE POWERFUL STILL!!!!
Video: Ordeal Sword
Oh geez, that’s a big one!
Something tells me your hot lava baths won’t work as an exorcism method here.
I’ll adjust. I won’t let something like that stop me from eliminating vengeful spirits!
So this is our final challenge. Let’s go, Odyssey!
Ordeal Sword
Level: 49
LIFE: 6000
ATK: 185
DEF: 100
INT: 65
SPD: 57
Attack Type: Slash
Attributes: Boss, Disables Escape, Large, Death Resistant
Exp: 23400
Gold: 370
Item Drops:
-Normal: Witchblade Hilt - 100% Drop Rate.
--Hilt of the Ordeal Sword.
-Rare: N/A
Damage Multipliers:
Slash: 75% Blunt: 100% Thrust: 100%
Fire: 0% Ice: 100% Lightning: 125%
Ailment Susceptibility:
Death: 0% Masked Pain: 100% Skill Seal: 5%
Fear: 10% Curse: 50% Bleed: 25%
Poison: 25% Sleep: 10% Confuse: 10%
Paralysis: 50% Blind: 25% Stun: 100%
Skills:
Pandemonium: Deals 125% melee ATK-based Slash damage to one party member. Has a 35% chance to inflict Fear. Has a speed factor of 90.
Elegant Slash: Deals melee 120% ATK-Based Thrust damage to one party member. Party members that are hit have a 70% multiplier applied to their DEF for 5 turns. Has a speed factor of 90.
Mow Down: Randomly attacks the party with Slash damage 3 times, dealing 90% melee ATK-based damage per hit. Has a speed factor of 80.
Downstroke: Deals 120% melee ATK-based Slash damage to one party member. Has a speed factor of 85.
Honking: Applies a 130% multiplier to the entire party’s physical damage multipliers for 5 turns. Has a speed modifier of 80%. Has a speed factor of 80.
Call for Help: Summons 1 Lost Samurai. Has a speed factor of 100.
Ring of Fire: Deals ranged INT-Based Fire damage to all party members. Has a base damage of 100. Has a speed factor of 80.
The Ordeal Sword has quite the moveset, and quite the set of stats. 185 ATK lets it hit pretty hard, so even with our overleveled stats we’ll have to watch out. Fortunately most of its kit is single target, so it can be slow to cause a party wipe. Mow Down is one of its few multi-target attacks, but the Ordeal Sword will never use it for 2 turns in a row, and will always follow up with Downstroke or Pandemonium. Once it reaches half of its LIFE, it’ll add in Ring of Fire to the mix, an AOE Fire attack. Though like with Mow Down, it also avoids spamming this, as it will immediately follow up with Downstroke or Pandemonium instead.
Once it reaches half health, it can start summoning Lost Samurai to assist it in battle. Though the Lost Samurai don’t exactly do much, and the Ordeal Sword can’t summon more than 1 of them so it’s just an additional annoyance really. Honking is a physical resistance debuff, though in the first half of the fight it only gets used if you’re using resistance buffs, as either a way to dispel any physical resistance buffs, or to punish you for using elemental resistance buffs. Which you shouldn’t be using anyways as Ring of Fire only starts being used in the 2nd half of the fight. However once it has lost half of its LIFE, it’ll start using it more often, regardless of your buff status. (And yes it’s really called Honking. I’m not sure what’s up with the name, I’m almost certain it’s a mistranslation, though I couldn’t tell you what in the world the Japanese name is supposed to be.)
Just setting up at the moment. I’m not too worried about taking damage, as its offense is primarily single target. It does have a small chance of using Mow Down, but I can recover from that easily.
I’m not sure if that did much...
The calm before the storm...
Focus...
I told you it hits pretty hard. Though single target attacks pretty much limit the amount of harm it can do.
Um, I certainly hope you two can pick up the slack!
I didn’t expect Edward and Buront to deal that little damage, so I’m going to have to hope Haru and Nila can make up for it.
We’ll succeed where the others failed!
A Zanbato Arts Samurai is a great party member to have along for this fight, as they can tear through it pretty fast. Sure it resists Slash attacks, but it’s weak to Lightning attacks, which means Thunder is perfect for this fight.
I hope this works!
Maybe Edward will have more luck with damage with Earthbreaker.
Storm warning!
This is the reason why I wanted Nila to relearn Shock, as being limited to Fire attacks would make her absolutely useless here.
I’ll just try a different approach!
I’m going to set up Ultima Guard to hopefully lessen the Ordeal Sword’s damage output.
...Maybe I’ll just stick to the medical field for now.
At this point I decided I was better off saving his EX for Miracle Cure. 5% of its LIFE certainly is far from bad, but I knew Haru and Nila could hit harder, and that I would need a safety net on hand in case anything bad happened.
You’re no match for us!
That should give us more room for error.
Our blades clash!
Oooh, lightning also makes for a good exorcism tool! Some great scientific discoveries happening today!
Great damage from those 2, though Haru is definitely outdamaging Nila since she needs to set up every other turn to deal great damage. And that softcap is starting to hold her back. Mages are still great at late-game, but that softcap makes it much easier for the other classes to catch up and even surpass Mages when it comes to damage output.
I... I won’t falter!
Oh that Fear could probably be annoying.
Fortunately this kind of situation was what I was saving Miracle Cure for.
Now is when I’ll have Buront focus more on defenses since the Ordeal Sword has chipped us down a bit.
Don’t back down now!
Ah, many thanks for keeping my mind steady, Edward.
Thankfully with all my defenses, it can’t really do much other than trying to inflict Fear to incapacitate my party.
Downstroke is easily the least threatening attack it has because it’s the weakest and slowest attack it has, with no additional effect, so it’s not as scary as Pandemonium nor Elegant Slash.
Eventually...
This trial, is over!
My oh my! Way to go, Haru! Or should I say, Blademaster Haru?
Shall we give Zesu the good news?
Oh thank the gods it’s finally over.
Yes, let’s head off.
Overall not too bad of a boss, its focus on single target attacks makes it pretty manageable even if it can hit pretty hard.
Uhhh, let me just throw away one of the fruits first.
I must say this is a nice display of swords.
I wonder if those belonged to the previous blademasters.
Nothing much in this room, so let’s head back to the Hairein Grounds.
Selling all the materials I got during that trip unlocked these two weapons. We got the Durandal earlier from salvaging, and now we can buy it whenever we want.
The Conquerer Axe is another upgrade for Axe Fighters, and is the 3rd strongest Axe in the game, but the fan translation made an error in the description here. It actually has 130 ATK, not 120.
For whatever reason these 2 NPCs don’t update their dialogue at the same time as everyone else, and only does so once you beat the Ordeal Sword. No one else in the village updates their dialogue upon clearing Zesu’s trial.
Defeating the Ordeal Sword was required to progress this sub-event. So let’s tell Zesu about our success.
...Only his true choice could have such skill. I must recognize you.
If you don’t mind me asking, what happened between you and Doris?
And why exactly does our guild being personally chosen by him matter to you that much?
...Come to think of it, I have not explained. Doris Agouto and I acknowledged one another as rivals in the art. Many a time we drank, many a time we dueled. And after that last duel, I stayed here, and he founded Kazan. I have not seen him since, but his legend has spread even to places like this.
We didn’t get to interact with him much, but from the few times we did, we could tell he was a great man.
But the last we saw of him was when we had to evacuate Kazan...
It seems, though, that he truly did perish in the events three years past.
...
We never found him again after that time, but... we know that he really is gone.
We were star-crossed to compete from the very start, I suppose.
I... I’m very sorry to hear that.
I have been searching for a successor since. The first to pass the trial, and Agouto's select few... Is it fate?
Life can work in many strange ways. Perhaps it’s fate, but it may not be. Either way, this is what we’ve accomplished. And we’ll be sure to live up to the title that you’ve bestowed us.
I leave it to you. You've shown you are Agouto's true choice. ...I, too, will support your cause as long as I'm still breathing. Come and visit me whenever you like.
We thank you for your support and hospitality.
This isn’t required for the sub-event, but if we stay the night, we can visit Zesu the next day to talk with him more.
Hmm, I wouldn’t mind knowing some of your tales from your past.
Ooh, so what else do you know about Doris? Like I said before, we didn’t know him too well back then.
People said back then he was the strongest warrior in the world.
But this time I got a shock. I thought this guy was so rude... I was a snotty kid, hadn't grown up yet. I was so angry, I drew my sword in a furious haze... But it ended up a draw. Anyway, that's how I met Agouto.
I lost my left eye then. It seems that will be our final fight. ...Now that he is dead, I can never beat him. Quitting while he's ahead... very crafty. Very crafty indeed...
From what we heard, he was a pretty clever man, heh heh.
Thank you for your time, and for sharing this tale with us.
That’s all we can do for this sub-event for now. Next time we’ll finish up some various minor side stuff before finally heading into Tokyon.