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Part XXVII: The Pride of a Princess

Last real update of the thread... Let's get to it.



First up, the dungeon we've been looking for, the Elaine Ruins, is to the south of the Malevolent Crucible, so it's easy to find. Upon approaching, you'll trigger another skit about everyone being on-edge because the culprit behind the malevolence is still at large, but hey. If they don't show themselves, we don't have to fight, right? Let's hope for that, eh? The nearby save point also has a skit, so pick that up on the way in, because I *think* it's the last save point skit of the game. Actually, here, I decided to see what the actual geographical limits of this DLC were. So with save point warping, well, that's easily discovered, and when we're done, we can warp straight back here.



So the excuse at the West Gate of Lastonbell is dangerous bandit groups are hiding out in the Meadow of Triumph and the soldiers won't allow Alisha to pass. Frankly I don't think that's anyone's call but her's but it is what it is. Not like we had any thread pointing us in that direction, so fair enough. Well, technically, it's Sergei asking her to keep away but even so.



The excuse at Griflet Bridge is...strange. But again, no reason to think there was anything in this direction and it's not like we're in a "Looking around the continent" mode like when Sorey was looking for elemental trial dungeons, so we have no need of the Ladylake region. But yeah, once you lock off those two directions, pretty thoroughly railroaded. The only hidden route we've found that bypasses anything in the overworld was the path in Lamorak Cave that connects Volgran Forest to the Bors Ruins, both normally accessible in this DLC, so that's no help.


I never saw what the appeal was with all this ruin business but those two would be nerds in paradise for sure.

For sure. Welcome to the Elaine Ruins, the final dungeon of this LP, and it's uh...it's a doozy. By far the longest dungeon in terms of travel time in this game, and *maybe* longer than anything in Berseria, too. One of the reasons for this? We've now exited out of Rohan's domain, and as far as I know, there's no hidden Lords of the Land like at Hexen Isle, so we'll have to do everything the hard way.

Also, the name. It's surely an Arthurian reference, but in good ol' classic mythology tradition, it's not quite clear *which* Elaine it might be referring to, since there are a few figures by that name in that whole tradition. There's at least 5 of them, one of them actually being a third sister to Arthur, but my personal guess is that it's referring to Elaine of Corbenic, who fell in love with Lancelot and enlisted the aid of Dame Brusen, a magician, to acquire a magic ring to make her look like Guinevere in order to sleep with him. The reason this whole thread is important because the child of that union (with her kinda becoming Lancelot's wife for a bit) was foretold to be the one to receive the Holy Grail (i.e. Galahad). Or, you may take the name as referring to all of them. That works for me, too.



So the thing with this place is it has no particular gimmick, like something you need to do frequently in order to progress or anything (so, not like any of the elemental trial dungeons, for instance), but I guess keys are the closest to that. This dungeon has...three of them, I think. Maybe a fourth, depending on how generously you define a "key".



The second key is located at the far end of this floor, in an antechamber across from the stairs leading to the next floor. Not exactly Riddler-quality stuff here. So far at least.



Also, the other gimmick with this dungeon is Technicians are *incredibly* annoying, being able to move just faster than you without the aid of a few levels of Windstepping active, and it's really hard to dodge around them sometimes. Luckily they stop showing up after a while but that doesn't make it much better. Soundtrack for this place is pretty nice, though. Reminds me of a Symphonia dungeon theme, quite honestly, which certainly isn't a bad thing.



I hate these guys. There's actually a very stupid reason in particular I found this first part of the dungeon very hard, and I have no one to blame but myself for it, but I'm still upset about it. Well, two stupid reasons. The second one is easily remedied, though: don't play as Alisha. Not being able to armatize is doing her no favors against very high-tier enemies. Also, Lailah is much better as Rose's primary armatization partner here, but the game for some reason really likes pairing her with Edna. This MAY be important later on, if you're the type who likes Fire!Form as much as I do.



I don't even think this floor is like, halfway through the dungeon. I'm *really* glossing over what I recorded, but if you can imagine basically running from point to point looking for treasures / getting to the end of a floor, that about entirely sums it up. And getting into way too many fights because of Technicians. Important part of the experience, too.



Purple doors? That's new. You actually get the key for this on the next floor, and wait till you see what treasure lay beyond. That star icon on the map, though? Actually our first of three boss fights in this dungeon, and arguably the hardest. They're all fairly difficult, though.




Your serpentine nemeses are Vritra (the serpent) and Kadru (the lamia), both figures from Indian mythology. Interestingly, they both are closely associated with Indra, but for completely opposite reasons. Vritra was an asura whose name means "obstacle", in reference to Vritra's serpent form holding back waters from the world before being slain by one of Indra's vajras. Kadru, on the other hand, is known as the mother of a half-human, half-serpent race known as the nagas (or nagi if female), but otherwise met no particularly violent end at the hand of a god. In fact, Indra aided her on one occasion.

These two hellions, though? Not a fan. They don't anything *overly* special, it's just they're both very strong and fast. Vritra is more of the up-in-your face type, while Kadru usually likes to fight at a distance, either throwing out short-range projectiles or Aqua Serpents that fly across the field for lots of damage. One strategy I would very strongly recommend exploiting is these two, at least early in the fight, tend to get Stunned quite a bit, so having a lot of BG coming or supplanted by Arcane Bottles / Elixirs to keep throwing out Divine Phoenix Blades is a really good way to eliminate them quickly. Keep in mind, though, that no matter how fast you do them or how fast the Stun lasts, that "Insta-cast Banish Blast" thing only works on a Stunned enemy twice. Don't know why, it just does.



That's enough of that, thought the me that recorded this. More than a few attempts to slay these two.



Oh hey, look who was hanging around, too. More confirmation, too, that Rose is the new Shepherd, because seraphim who aren't tied to one hanging around a lot of malevolence is never a good scene, but Zaveid's the same as always here. Edna also confirms in this skit that Mikleo is hanging around here as well, so I guess after reconstituting themselves after the final showdown with Heldalf, everyone immediately went through the same song and dance with Rose as they did with Sorey, and why not, really? Everyone in attendance knows she has this land's best interests at heart, in her own way. Or maybe just Lailah made a new pact with her, since everyone has received their purification powers through Lailah as the Prime Lord, so it's a package deal if she deems someone worthy of the title.



Also, since we have a bit of downtime at the immediate moment, let's check out something I've never mentioned till now. Well, I kinda did, but every Normin talent thing is represented by an actual Normin, meaning there are a lot more of them than the ones we collected in the main game. Eterniti here, though, is special. He actually is a recurring name. Remember that scene in Berseria when we went back to Velvet's house to get the last bit of Artorius' backstory from a normin? Yeah, it was this guy.

All of these stack normins are quite powerful, by the way. Athaena gives you an extra +40% healing 5 seconds after receiving the initial one, Oddin doubles the numbers of hits of everything for making combos easier than ever (doesn't improve damage, though, don't get too excited), Metalik means you don't stagger from anything if you have more than 70% health remaining, Mistiq lowers casting time by 40%, you get the point. Thing is, it's just really hard to get these normin on a vanilla playthrough because skills only count once, but much much easier on a NG+ with important Grade Shop buffs.



Turns out all the normin speak in Southernese. Who knew? Anyway, let's back to dungeon crawling after this short message.

Could you explain what you meant by the "seal"?
Huh? Oh, um, it's like a means of stopping a bunch of malevolence from spilling out. That's Mikleo's forte, so just leave it to him! I'm sure we'll rendezvous with him when the time is right.

As for the boss entries...

(Vritra) This snake hellion symbolizes hindrance on one's journey... But we can't let it hold us back!
It's supposed to have all kinds of paralysis attacks. Pretty rude of it to restrict your freedom like that, huh.
(Kadru) A snake lady, huh? Well, if that ain't trouble, I don't know what is!
Be careful, it can steal your vitality! Make sure you check for ailments afterwards if it hits with one of its attacks!



Huh. I wonder if everyone's snack-making lines change when they get highly-leveled enough / make certain items. I don't remember Zaveid saying this at all during the main game.



After way too much dumb running around, this has the purple key I mentioned. The "Purple Crystal Key" to be exact. So, not on the next floor. Look, this is a long dungeon; I blocked out large portions of it between when I recorded it versus when I'm writing this.

As for the treasures behind that purple door, there's an Hourglass, Ribbon of Chaos, and a Zero Impact Vest. Gotta get through this dungeon, gotta get through.



Onto the next floor. Also, save points here? Very nice, because a bad encounter in a tight space with powerful enemies on Chaos can easily lead to a wipe, and nobody wants to replay dungeons on the same playthrough.



The next two floors are fairly maze-like, with no obvious end point that we need to get to. I'll get to brass tacks and say we only really need one thing in the next couple floors, and there are lots of treasures, but I could not be bothered to care about equipment I'm never gonna use and open every chest, so if that matters to you, well, I don't know why it would, quite honestly. First up, go to that stairway in the south. I don't know if the route I took is the most efficient one, but that is also a point I am not overly concerned about if it is not.



Yay. Go to the northernmost stairs here. The ones below them will only lead to a dead-end with a Survivor's Garb in them, so nothing we need concern ourselves about.



I also noticed it just now, but we also have no map actions in this DLC. Though, none of them would help against these diamonds, which are purple. So, we need a new key. Said key is...



Up these stairs, on the lower floor. These stairs lead to a pretty nice treasure room of five chests, with the Purple Crystal Orb in one of them being the aforementioned only important thing in this maze.



Also, all the enemies from the lower floors, before Vritra / Kadru, will no longer appear, which is nice, because you can outrun all but the faeries, I think. You may be able to outrun those, too, but they're certainly faster than the others.



Up an optional set of stairs, past a pair of purple doors, in the large room in the preceding screenshot is this treasure room. There are lots of these types of rooms in these two floors, but again, you can entirely ignore them if you're fully stocked on the good consumables (Elixirs, Arcane Bottles, Panacea Bottles, Gels, Life Bottles) and are fully decked out in equipment of your preference, as I am right now.



After passing through another couple doors and stairs, we find ourselves back on 5F, where we entered this maze. The path to the left can be opened up with the orb thingy, so this area is not a dead end. Go through that passage, then you can head south and around to those ??? stairs if you want to plunder another big treasure room. Otherwise, go to the southeast stairs in this branch back to 6F.



I actually got into a fight with Changelings along the way, and yeah... They are not fun. I was barely able to escape from this fight as Edna, for the record. Only reason I did fight them was because they were invisible at the time and ran right into me. Hate those guys. If you must fight them, defensive seraphic arte spam in armatized form is a good counter. Remember you can only block spells while armatized, and Calamity Flare does a decent amount of damage and covers a wide area, so it would be my recommendation. Beyond just not fighting them in the first place, of course. If you want to fight them as Earth!Form, Earthshaker is quite good, since that'll hit the entire field and Changelings will stagger from it.



Almost done, almost done. With the maze, at least. The ??? stairs leads to another treasure room you can skip, whereas progression will involve going up to 7F via those stairs in the center of the floor, which will follow a winding path up to 8F, past some purple doors.



And we're out! The star indicates another boss fight, so let's just get this over with.



So this upcoming fight, against Roc / Valkyrie, I found incredibly hard again, and I was getting to a point of wondering *why* I was having so much trouble with bosses here. I mean, I'm on Chaos and Alisha is kinda dragging the team down, that was certainly part of it, but I grinded like crazy on the file I'm loading from. So what's been going on since the start of this update? Well...



Yeah... See, what happened was that while I was doing the Malevolent Crucible challenge from last update, I unequipped all of Lailah's generic equipment and put it on Alisha so Alisha could have some nice equipment for once during that challenge. Surely Lailah didn't need it for that particular purpose, right? Well, that is correct, but decent progress is kinda contingent on giving all that stuff back to her at the end of it so Lailah gets all her badass Skill Sheet stuff back. I failed to do that, and, well, this was the result.



So anyway, these two. Valkyries are the famous warmaidens from Norse mythology responsible for bringing worthy warriors to Valhalla in preparation for Ragnarok, while the Roc is a legendary giant bird probably most famous for appearing in a couple stories in One Thousand and One Nights.

So as for fighting them, well, first thing I'd recommend is switching to Rose-Lailah when you get the chance (or if you Game Over, as I did, many, many times here, switch their places in the party's ledger so it's default), and right as the fight starts, jump back and armatize. The Roc is extremely fast and will likely go after you first. It also attacks quickly, so it can easily knock you out of even a very fast-firing Banish Blast.



The one good thing about the Roc's standard feather projectile attack is it'll leave the guy in place for a decent amount of time, so if you can bait out that attack, then sidestep and punish it, that's probably your best at quickly laying on the damage.



So here was a weird thing that happened: after I Stunned Roc and Mystic Arte'd him, I immediately fired a second one. Like, instantly after the first animation ended. If you can combo Mystic Artes like that, well, I never once did that in the main game and didn't even know it was possible. Strange.

Anyway, those two back-to-back while stunned fried that guy's feathers, leaving just the Valkyrie. By comparison, she's much slower, but she is very powerful and casts Wind Lance and Hell Gate very quickly. She also gains Screw Driver and Jump when low on health, but as with Roc / Vritra / Kadru, Valkyrie is very prone to getting stunned at least twice, so exploit those giveaways to really lay on the damage.



So be fair, this umbrella's default name is Gungnir, so Alisha's not totally off-base.



So, uh, Mikleo? Anywhere around? Don't be shy.

...He's not coming, is he? Well, hopefully he's still somewhere around here. Even though the above fight doesn't end with a skit / scene, you can retry straight into this fight if you Game Over, unlike every other time when that's the case. And thank god, because I would have had to run back from the last save point like 20 times.

(Roc) If there was such a thing as a Talonfest, this bird would be in charge of it. Better do something about those claws or you're in for a real suckfest instead.
Even if we avoid its talons, we need to watch out for its quick attacks and keep damage to a minimum. If we can fend it off we might find a chance to counterattack!
(Valkyrie) A Valkyrie? Rumor has it they are adept users of wind celestial artes.
Using its wings, it can easily avoid close range attacks. Leave the fire seraphic artes to me!



Only one more boss to go. The rest of the ruins are more or less straightforward, but there is one kinda dickish thing on the following floor, right after a skit.




Well, at least Rose is willing to concede this point, and why she doesn't consider Alisha a "comrade" per se.



So, I'll just tell you, there's only one path there that leads to the second half of this floor. You can see on the map there's 5 potential routes, but in honesty, there's only one, at least that you can open from this side. Can YOU guess which one it is?



Yeah, it's this one. See, I initially didn't think so at first because you just think this little alcove with 20000 gald in it, and that's all there is, but no, there's the purple diamonds, right behind it. I hate this place.



After going up and around the perimeter of this floor, we finally reach the stairs to 10F. We good here, Elaine Ruins?



Just a little bit more, just a little bit. I think.



Jeez. These two floors really are completely unnoteworthy, and after having so much trouble with the bosses, the actual meat of this dungeon, I was not in much mood to explore. Plus, y'know, I'm getting to the end of this thread, just want to put it behind me at some point. The only fun I had was getting out of these floors was playing Pied Piper with anyone who was following. The large room in the upper-middle has a Writhing Spear in one of the chests, so if you really want to deck out Alisha, for...some reason, well, that's her joke equipment in the bag.



Pleased to tell you that this particular save point indeed marks the end of this dungeon. And not a moment too soon. I will say the final boss is pretty neat. Well...sorta, but it is pretty tough. I had fun with it, at least. Kinda. Look, it's better than running around almost-entirely identical floors, is the only point I'm making here. Their answers


*stops* Something's wrong.
Huh?
Why haven't we seen it yet?
What's wrong, Rose?
We're all the way through, but there's no sign of the hellion bringing the malevolence. Has it gotten into Camlann already?! *runs forward*
Rose! Calm yourself! *runs after her*
Yeah. Don't you notice anything about this malevolence?
Look up!


Hah! Big suckers we've run into.
Two of them!

What?
Huh. I was right, they do like a pretty face. She's aiming for the biggest dandy of them all.
After her! *runs after the retreating one*


Get outta my way!
Rose!



So Baphomet here will be our final challenge. One of them, anyway. We need to wrap this up quickly, because whatever that second one was up to, can't be good.

As for the name, well, it has a long, inglorious history in various occult traditions, but the classic depiction is actually supposed to be positive. Balancing man and woman (hence why these things have breasts), humans and animals, and good and evil. This creature was (very) allegedly worshiped by the Knights Templar and first came to prominence as an exhibit against the order during their persecution trials in the 14th century. Again, it was apparently originally meant to symbolize positive balance, but, well, look at it. Doesn't take a genius to find why most would probably recoil from it.

As far as offensive capability, this goat guy isn't good for much but swinging a club around, but he's very good at it and that thing does a lot of damage. As you get it lower on HP, Rose will start really freaking out about how it's not dying, and cutscenes resume.

Rose! This isn't working!
I promised I'd take you to where Sorey is! *rushes forward, armatizes with Edna* So shut up and just protect yourself, OK?!
Rose!

*knocked back* Ugh!
Rose!
You son of a--!
Stop it! *gets in front of Rose*
What are you doing?!
You're gonna kill yourself!
How can I die? You said I was so strong!

Gah! What was that for?!
Listen to me!
I don't have time for you!

Uwagh!

No! Not until you listen to me!
YOU listen to ME! We don't have time to waste on this sentimental crap!
But we just became friends!

Alisha...
*hugs her tighter*
Ow, ow!
*touches her shoulder* There is time. *walks off*
Huh?
Look carefully.
Oh!

*hugs her again*
Ow!
You settled down now?
This battle will just go on endlessly unless we can defeat both of them at once.
And since our resident psycho-killer beat the hell out of one of 'em, we've bought ourselves a bit of time.
We'll give you three minutes, OK? Find your dumb answer already and then start acting on it.
You can tell that Rose was only acting like that out of concern for Alisha.
Even so, she's usually good about not flipping out like that.
Imbecile indeed.
*begins casting seraphic arte* It's a side of her that only her truest friends know... Ah, the joys of being young!

Being dumb, more like.
*pats Alisha on the head* Come on, Alisha. It's OK now.
...
You still crying?
*looks up with tears in her eyes, then down* *lets go, backs up* N-No! I'm not!
So you...kinda picked up on what happened to Sorey, huh?
Yes...
Well, you should know one thing. He's not dead.
*looks up at her*
Ever since the big showdown with Heldalf, he's been purifying the deeply corrupted Maotelus. He knew it meant he would be abandoned in time... But he also knew it was necessary.
Abandoned...in time?
Purification on that scale could take centuries.
*gasps*
Until the day comes when someone new appears... Someone who has both the resonance and the will to truly purify this land... Sorey will sleep a dreamless sleep, with all his senses cut off from the world.

Yup. So even now, he's still working as hard as he can to build a future where humans and seraphim live in peace. Sorey can't laugh with his friends or climb around ruins anymore... But he's still there.
Then... The dream he spoke of...

*gasps again*
That was Sorey's answer.
Sorey's answer... And you were OK with that?
I'm just here to do the best within my power.
And so... You became a Shepherd?
I kinda got a policy against giving up. All right. I think we made some progress. Now back to our regularly scheduled beatdowns. *stands up* Let's go. You wanna see Sorey, dontcha? *grabs Alisha's hands, stands her up*
Wait! There's still something I need to say.
Hm?

Yeah, I know.
Huh?
I knew that.
What?!
C'mon! Let's go share it with Sorey! *runs to rejoin the fight*


So now we have to fight both of them at the same time. Now, when the game says to defeat them at the same time, I'm not entirely sure how much it *means* that, y'know, as in, killing both within the same attack, or if it's just like a plot thing or something with the way the battle is playing out. I suspect it's the latter.

So in addition to all the club attacks previously seen, these two will stop playing around and also add in fireball attacks that travel along the ground in a spread shot formation to do quite a bit of damage. They're plenty dangerous at range, so close the distance as fast as possible to nullify the danger of being chipped away at range. Best thing I've found for overall strategy is try to keep both right next to each other. Them being spread out means you can't do powerful AOE damage against both at the same time, and these two have quite a bit of HP between them. As always, Calamity Flare is a very good seraphic arte to end a combo with because of how long it locks down a target and the spread at which it does, so do make liberal use of that.



Yeah yeah, I'm working on it.



Now, here's why I think it's not necessary to kill both with the same attack. One of them is dead, and the other is very low on HP. I *think* what happens if you don't kill both at the same time, the other will revive after a certain amount of time passes. It's been a long time since I first played this fight, but I feel like something like that is the gimmick.



Thanks for the follow-up, man.


No! One last hit should do it! *rushes back in*
O-Ok! *rushes forward, but stumbles* Ooh!


Alisha! Noooo!


Now!
Mikleo!
Oh sure, hog the spotlight, show-off!
Go!
*stands up* Are you ready, Rose?






*collapses*


Seriously, you guys... What would you have done if I hadn't made it in time?
Thank you so much, Mikleo!
Long time no see, Alisha.

A little while later... The Skies Over the Journey's End


Then that malevolence I sensed must've been the same thing. On the way here, I sensed some kind of presence moving quickly away from the ruins.
So it just up and left?
How odd...
But we were able to protect this place. That's all that matters.
It doesn't bother you?
Mikleo's back, and that can only mean one thing. We're all good here, right?
Yeah. I've found a way to seal this area. Camlann will be safe from hellions from now on.
So little baby Weebo had to take all the heroic parts, huh?
I'll have you know that a great man is one who rises to the occasion.
You came back first. Why didn't YOU rise to the occasion?
Because he's not a great man, clearly!
Ggh!
^_^

All right, Alisha.
It's your turn to talk.


That's Sorey.
*turns to Rose, nods, steps forward* Sorey. The light that you brought to us is changing the world. Changing it for the better. The peace treaty will soon put an end to this war. These centuries of conflict between our two nations will finally be no more than a sad chapter of history. And I will continue to do all in my power to see this through. You have my word. But... I realized just now... What my true answer should be.

I want to live as ALL of these people. At first I thought I was just being selfish. That I lacked the maturity to discard these facts of myself that were inconvenient. But since then, I've had colorful disagreements with Rose... Given my proper farewell to Lady Maltran... And had a wonderful journey with dear friends. And that very journey is the reason I can stand before you now... With my true answer in hand! I've realized I don't need to throw away any part of myself! Sorey! Thank you!
The journey didn't give you the answer, Alisha. It gave you the strength to believe in the answer you already had.
*brief pause* That's not the only thing it gave me.

You good?
Yup. Let's go!



Hah-hah-hah-hah... I just want to eat them up! Ugh! This pain... I cannot wait until they get a chance to taste it! I wonder... Shall I tear them apart in front of the Shepherd brat? Or should I tear HIM apart and watch them shriek? Soon... Heh-heh-heh... When my strength is fully returned... It will be time to feast... And to suffer!


Well...considering he's gotten stomped every time he's run across Rose / Sorey, I don't see his wrath ending too well for him, but hey. Fourth time's the charm?



And that is THAT. All the content for this thread has been recorded, and we're a very short epilogue away from the end of this thread. After the credits, Alisha gets the title Pledged Heart if you choose to load Alisha's Story clear data, but stuff brought in from the main game can only be applied once, so all of that stuff is already carried over. Alisha's Story clear data can only be loaded from the submenu for the DLC, so nothing in it can affect the main game, I believe. The description for this special title is "No matter what happens, she will accept it, and overcome it. For her allies, and for her friends. Such is her secret pledge." Nothing special about the title buffs, but I didn't level it up to see what she gets from all of it. I'm not *that* dedicated to grinding this game, y'know.

Though...now that I think of it, this is also the last bit of commentary for this thread. I don't see the need to add anything to the final update, since it's literally just the main game's credits + the stinger, neither of which I have much to add to. To anyone who has followed this thread from the start, over these long couple years, you certainly have my thanks. It was...an experience reliving these two RPGS and squeezing just a bit more life from them. Maybe one day we'll have the entire Tales series here in LP form. Wouldn't that be a hell of a thing. As for me, I had my fun, that is for sure, and I hope you all did too.