Dreaming of Doppelgangers- Let's Play Nightmare of Rebellion - Ran! (Hiatus)

[Validon98]

Just posting quickly to say I want to move all further translation talk over to the new thread over here. I have about two or so updates worth of stuff to post, and I'll probably take a break later tonight from working on the "bare basics" patch to work on the update for the Pyramid, and possibly the one for the first half of the dungeon after the Pyramid. After that, all further updates will be made using the bare basics patch while I work on a full gameplay patch, including images and other stuff.

Still... I can't really believe that a translation is possible.

[Validon98]

So, this update and the next one were created before I started working on the English patch, but after that it'll be English all the way (except for story, area names, most messages, and some menu options, those are still in Japanese). Maybe that'll make the boss videos easier to understand what's up? Also holy damn is it easier to type up an update than translate a huge table of information.

Youkai of Toono Act: Part 2- Pyramid Power



Dungeon Theme: The Cat's Dream Pyramid (The Hall of Dreams' Great Mausoleum)

A Ten Desires theme was the last thing I expected for this place, but I think it works out.



What's a pyramid without Mummies? Weak to Fire and Light as you'd imagine for Undead, they can use stuff like Dark Hand and Drain Touch, so be careful. Up top is a Plasma, who is uh... very, VERY weak to Fire. More or less, I'm pretty sure even Fire Arrow could one-shot it.



Mind Flayer Elites up top are just more dangerous Mind Flayers. Smack them about with Stab attacks. Below is a Lesser Vampire, who can hit you with some pretty dangerous Dark attacks. Light works on it, despite it being a Transcendent (most Transcendents usually aren't weak to Light, but exceptions can be made I suppose).



Aaand we recruit her! Way easier to get than the Izanami in terms of a Dark sub doppel, she'll grab Abyss and Inferno eventually, the third tier Dark single and all-targeting spells. She also grants some Regen, so that's pretty nice.



Trying to open these treasure chests... ended up locking the door behind us and unleashing some enemies into the room. Zounds, a trapped floor?



Remember Saladins from Devil of Decline? Mamluks are kinda like them, possessing some of the more dangerous sword weapon skills. Not quite on the level of stuff like Acala Sword or Quick Break, but moreso stuff like Comet Assault Slash, etc. Weak to Dark and Gun, as would be expected.



I guess the Pyramid will have traps like this, huh? Least it's not as bad as Final Fantasy V's Pyramid. Although with a Bard you can kinda melt that place into paste.



In the back there is an Isis, because even the Egyptian gods need to get in our way. Weak to Dark and Gun as befits a Magician, she'll use some of the second-tier spells on you, so be wary of that as always.



Ohhhhh dear... there's a Sylph up top. So, she's the first of the three elemental tough enemies, and is possibly the hardest of the three (even Undine isn't as hard to kill). High EVA, so physicals don't do so hot, and fairly good MDEF, so even Disintegrate (which is Fire, so it hits her weakness) can't one-shot her. Getting a crit helps, but still... good luck. Oh, and she's recruitable, but with a 32 kill requirement and the difficulty of killing her... ahaha... good luck.



I went back and basically said to myself "yeah I need to fully deck out two rods in MATK Ups and pray".



Also, back to Guns for Saya. For now. She goes back to Crushers eventually.



It's hard to see with the mini map in the way, but that button I pushed opened a door. Magic!



All the new enemies. Beholders are fairly quick, can cancel your magic spells, and are a general pain in the ass. Stab gets rid of them just like with Mind Flayers. The Pyramid Messenger basically spams even more Electric attacks, including Breath attacks, but I believe Electrics with them just like with the Dragon King Palace Messengers.



Man, a Yin-Yang Orb already? This place is full of them.



This room traps you in, but defeating the enemies won't open the way back out.



You actually have to find a switch hidden in one of the sarchophagi. I'd say this was descerating the dead if this place wasn't just pulled out of someone's dreams, so I guess we aren't ACTUALLY invoking some pharoah's curse or something.



So these holes. You can fall down them to another floor below. No fall damage, since this is a JRPG and we can survive falls of infinite height.



I kinda forget what Dryades can do. I think they inflict status effects and the like, but are generally weak to Fire so they're not toooooo bad.



And we got a Dryades, something I didn't get first playthrough. They're actually supportive in nature, and have quite a few barriers that prevent damage and status effects, but only to single targets and so. Situationally useful, certainly, just mind the Power costs.



Oh hi there Alastor, you were a Gorgon Barrier enemy in GoS, no? Anyhow, he'll also throw all the Electric at you, and I don't remember if he has any weaknesses or not. I know he isn't weak to Fire, but given he's a Youkai, maybe Light?



Oh hey, a Ruby. These are the next tier of accessory boosting materials, so let's stock up on as much as we can.



There's another Dream Corridor here in the Pyramid too. We'll deal with it soon enough.



Falling through the floor on the right-hand side in that other room leads over here, which is a nice shortcut to the beginning and opens up the next part of the dungeon. Note that the Dream Corridor is not accessible from this shortcut, you can only get to it from the room you can fall out of.



Ah crap, an Ace Power. These guys, as you'd think, have some pretty hefty Light attacks, plus their spear attacks can basically murder you flat in no time. While Dark is effective, you'll want stuff like Abyss or Slayers to deal with it, and while I do have Demon Bane, I haven't gotten the Lesser Vampire high enough to learn Abyss, soooo this is a problem.



Like I said, a problem.



There were seriously two Sylphs on the field. I tried running. That uh... didn't work out too well.



The Stone Golem up front just tries to bash you as hard as it can, and it's weak to Electric. The fact it has a bird on it and it's all old and worn reminds me a bit of Bastion... if Bastion were a golem and not a robot.




WHY ARE THESE ENCOUNTERS A THING?



GOOD WE MADE IT OUT LET'S GO TO THAT DREAM CORRIDOR AAA.



So in this Dream Corridor are enemies that would have appeared in the Great Wall of China section on the west side of the Desert. The Barbarian below is the next upgrade to the Fighter, which only spells trouble. Weak to Dark and Gun, but beware the high power weapon skills they'll be bringing to the table. Up top is a King Raijuu, who is... not that much different than a regular Raijuu. His Electric attacks just hurt that much more. Weak to Fire like before.



DISINTEGRATE WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE USEFUL EARLIER AGAINST THE SYLPHS GAME.



...Why do I try.



Grey Oozes! Weak to Fire I think. And they still try to drain HP and use Strong Acid to melt your defenses.



The King Raijin in the back just means more Electric fun for the whole family. Weak to Fire as you'd expect, but the Electric attacks can't stop won't stop.



Last new enemies are the Great Tengu. Weak to Light like before, they're fast, will debuff you, and I think use Electric attacks?



Well I only have myself to blame there. Unless she used Cage Weave. In which case screw Cage Weave that skill hurts.



Our ultimate reward for this Dream Corridor? Another Power Extension. With that, we're done with the Pyramid for the time being. Next time, we'll head to the west of the Desert and see what lies beyond the Great Wall of China.

Summary:

New Doppels: Lesser Vampire (Spiritualist), Dryades (Medic/Synergist)

Doppel Levels: Lesser Demon (VIT +1; Abyss, STR +3), Lesser Vampire (Regen +30; Charm; Star Resistance to Charm; Temptation; Magic Heal), Suika (Critical Hit Chance +8), Power (Divine Gate, STR +3), Dryades (Darkness, RES +2, Snare; MDEF +2, Permanent Barrier; VIT +1; Invincible Barrier), Kogasa (ACC +3), Three Fairies of Light (Stun Chance on Normal Attack 14), Slime (DEX +4), Crazy Undine (STR +4), Nashorn (STR +2), Mind Flayer (Double Circle Paralysis Resistance, Destruction Nova), Hellhound (Disintegrate, AGI +3), Kanako (MDEF +5), Flandre (Lavaeteinn Power +10), Togakusha Kureha (Dark Zapper, DEX +4)

Major Equipment: Hellfire Ring, Masamune (Reimu), Lunatic Morian, Thunder God Shield (Yukari), Soul Cutter (Yukari), Wizard Rod (Mamizou), Raijin Ring, Shingeki Warhammer, Exhatio Guarder (Reimu), Schutzengewehr (Saya), Blizzard Ring, Rapture Waste, Quickfire (Yukari)

Synthesis Done: Strength Necklace +2 (Saya), Magic Ring +1, Aquascutum Trenchcoat (Saya)

Sparked Skills: Flying Bird Charge (single-target attack that inflicts Stun, Yukari), Rudel Cannon (penetrating attack that partily ignores defense, Saya), Emperor Slash (row-targeting attack that Slays Warriors and Magicians), Twin Lightning (single-target attack that hits twice), Mesocyclone (all-targeting attack that Slays enemies inflicted with Permanent Effects, Reimu), Comet Assault Slash (single-target attack that Slays Beasts and Insects, Reimu)

Update Death Count: 4
Total Death Count: 10

So I think I made up for the relative lack of death in the first three acts.

[Serela]

I got a boatload of gameovers before I even got the full party (At first I thought it was just because I was stubborn and wanted to give Saya and Yukari both stab-type training, but even after I give Saya a sword back for a little while, I still game overed constantly for a couple screens ;_;) so don't feel bad, at least yours are... more legitimate.

I can't help but read the LP but I'm probably going to pause sometime soon now that I'm actually playing the game myself. That being said, I'm a sponge who hungers for these sorts of things on games I like, so I'm -definitely- coming back and reading anything I don't once I pass those areas in the game myself.

Plus this is a nice list for, say, which monsters are recruitable doppels, and any boss help I may or may not end up giving up and needing to look for.

[Validon98]

On one hand, my deaths are somewhat more legitimate, but on the other hand, holy hell are some of the possible encounters stupidly overpowered. Getting stuff like two Ace Powers or multiple Sylphs is a nightmare waiting to happen.

Youkai of Toono Act: Part 3- Lullaby of Flooded Hell



So this time around we're at that Great Wall of China section on the west side of the Desert.



I have the Quickfire on Yukari, which gives a preemptive chance. For some reason in this game, surprise attacks, preemptive attacks, etc. don't happen naturally, and you need special items to allow for preemptives. The accessories that give Caution, as a result, are utterly useless. Don't waste the materials on them. Ever.




In the back we have a Unicorn. Weak to Fire, but forget trying to hurt it with magic, you'd be better off using elemental physical attacks. It'll meanwhile try healing itself and using some Stab attacks that hurt pretty hard.



Eh? What's this?





That was Fantasy Nature, our first Sparked Last Word! Past an element level of 20 in certain elements, your party can learn new Last Words altogether, with each character possessing a physical, magic, and supportive Last Word. While Fantasy Seal is Reimu's magic Last Word, Fantasy Nature is her physical one, being a high-power single-target attack that grants invincibility for her for the rest of the turn.



The Unicorn joins us! More or less, he's just another healing doppel, and I believe he's the only one to grant Complete Cure, the all-targeting (but very Power expensive) version of Clearance.



Once we get outside onto the Snowy Road again (goodbye Desert, we won't miss you), we run into an Ogre Lady. She'll basically try to murder you with high-powered Strike attacks, but since she's a Warrior, Dark and Gun will do her in just as well as before. Also recruitable.



Yet another Dream Corridor, there's no shortage of those around.




And here's our next dungeon, the Underground Lake. if you look carefully past the clouds beneath the entrance, there's another exit to the south, so it's going to be like the Cave in that it'll act as transition, but unlike the Cave, the Underground Lake is a full-on dungeon. Before that, though, Dream Corridor time.



Good god why are there so many Mind Flayer Elites. Also, in the back is a Wizard. Another Magician, she can actually hit with some pretty hard all-targeting magic (second tier specifically, which still does a number on us). Weak to Dark and Gun as always.



It's the return of Zenies as Frozen Hell Zenies. Weak to Electric like before... uh... they exist? And kinda hit hard with Incisor last time I checked?



GOOD GOD WHY. But uh... up top is an Undine, the Water equivalent of the Sylphs. Recruitable, but just as painful to kill, they'll use high power Water and spear attacks on you. Weak to Electric, but good luck. Also, I don't think the Undines here are as based off of their Puzzle and Dragons appearance as the Sylphs are, just quickly looking over at the PaD wiki (the Sylphs are closer to their second form, but the Undines don't really look like any form barring having a giant spear). I only say this because I remember reading off the Japanese wiki they're based off of them. How I didn't notice given I've played enough PaD to have fought them before, I dunno.



What did you think was going to happen, honestly?



Yukkuri Sisters! The next tier up of Yukkuris, they have not that much more HP, but they're still as hard to kill as ever, and try to spam first tier magic at you. Not too threatening, but good luck trying to kill them before they flee. One thing I've learned: Double-Edged Curse works wonders against Yukkuris in general, if you can get it to land. They'll kill themselves with their own attacks easily (since Double-Edged Curse ignores defenses and is based off of the power of the attack, which normally isn't a big deal on most enemies, but is ESPECIALLY big on Yukkuri).



And Wizard get! Basically, they're to the Sorcerer as the Magician was to the Fairy Maid, able to use the second-tier all-targeting FIR/ELE/WTR spells and eventually getting the third-tier versions. They also grant reflection for FIR/ELE/WTR attacks, so even on your front-liners she can be pretty useful.



Another POW Extension, but that's not the only thing here.



Crazy Primas are also a thing. Like the Crazy Undines before, they love to pepper you with spear attacks, but these ones hit even harder and will probably murder you. Dark and Gun as always will work on them.



The Iceberg down below is an upgrade to the Wall of Ice from earlier. Still is going to slam you with Water attacks, but since I have Mega Stroke, it's no big deal. Man, having third-tier magic is pretty good at this point in the game.



Moar recipes I can't do anything with.



I don't even remember how I screwed this up.



Dungeon Theme: A Drop of Water in the Unusual Cave (Loose Rain/Ruse Rain/[whatever it's actually called])[/url]

With the Dream Corridor out of the way, we're on to this place. It's hard to tell that the music is Loose Rain since it doesn't have as much of the melody there, but it definitely is Loose Rain.



Up top we have an Empuse (with no brass leg I notice, I thought that was a thing they had), an upgrade to the Succubus. Of course, this means Charm. And Temptation. All the time. Stab her or Light her up quick. Also in the back is the final variant of Volnehem, the Melty Volnehem. Weak to Electric, but it uses a lot of the physical Water moves. Be wary of that.



Backbeards return! Oddly, they don't reflect physicals like they used to be able to. Unless the chance is just really low. Otherwise it... doesn't do a whole lot. Just kill it with Water and move on.



The Water down below is just a weak Spirit that can possibly even die from just a casting of Plasma Ball. They're a threat how again?



Barrier Stone puzzles, oh how you appear everywhere (this is I believe the second-to-last dungeon that makes use out of Barrier Stones, I know for a fact the next dungeon doesn't use them).



Winter Wolves in the back are like the Hellhounds, but they now breathe Water attacks. Cold Breath is what they start out with, but they can also use Freezing Snowstorm, the second-tier Water breath attack. It hurts. A lot. Kill them with Electric and fast.



Basilisks are weak to Light, but they love attacks like Poison Breath (the poison from it can tick off 100+ HP per turn, ouch) and Death Breath (instant death procs much?). Get them dealt with as fast as you can.



Here's the way forward, on another raft (not over blood this time... speaking of, where DID Zhuli get all that blood in DoD for her Clock Tower?). But first, Barrier Stone finding time.



Seven-Caped People would be scary usually, but I have Disintegrate and Divine Gate by now. They're one shot before they're ever a threat, so I don't even remember what they do.



And here's our Barrier Stone.



Putting it on that earlier dais means we get on the raft, which has just as much a lack of animation as it did in DoD. Never change.



The rest of the dungeon is a combination of working with the various docks spread across the place and another Barrier Stone puzzle that isn't really a puzzle.



...Yes, yes you are looking at that right, there is a giant freaking truck on screen. The Hell Truck is a fun enemy that kinda serves as an upgrade to Creepers, actually. Weak to Water, they will usually use Sacrifice Bomb the turn after they are damaged, so you might want to kill it off in one shot.



For some odd reason, there's a Waypoint here that serves as the midpoint of the dungeon. Odd, but I'm not complaining, especially given the Dream Corridor we had to do earlier. With this, the update ends, and next time, we have our first update with the English patch as we finish off the Underground Lake and prepare for the bosses of the Pyramid and the Underground Lake.

Summary:

New Doppels: Unicorn (Medic/Synergist), Wizard (Ravager)

Doppel Levels: Dryades (RES +5), Nue (MDEF +15; Danmaku Chimera Cooldown -1; MDEF +20), Jason (DEX +1), Closed Railroad Crossing (ACC +7), Unicorn (Complete Cure; empty level; POT +2; Elixir, HP +5; Pitch Dark), Eirin (ACC +10), Kogasa (Single-target Skill Casting Speed +20), Wizard (Starlight Whip, AGI +1; Dark Lure, Fire Reflection +7; Electric Reflection +7; Water Reflection +7), Hell's Gatekeeper (Freezing Snowstorm, AGI +4), Hatate (PATK +3; EVA +3; Physical Skill Casting Speed +10), Sorcerer (Disintegrate, Zero Kelvin, Mega Stroke, Electric Power +3), Traveling Schoolgirl (Pain Bond), Power (Weapon Bless, VIT +3)

Major Equipment: Volcano Staff, Darkness Ring, Schnellfeuer, Thundercloud Staff, Raijin Sword, Magma Spot Axe, Minotaur's Axe (Saya), Angel Ring, Turkish Bow, Raiden

Synthesis Recipes: Nosferatu Mantle, Witchcraft Cape, Reproduction, Armored Lining Sailor Suit, Maximillian, Lightning Plate Armor

Synthesis Done: Keen Pendant +2 (Mamizou), Sniper Anklet +2 (Saya), Keep-Away Muffler +2 (Yukari)

Sparked Skills: Insight Arrow (single-target attack with slightly more power and casting speed than a regular attack, Yukari), Planet Break (single-target attack that reduces EVA, Saya), Unstable Shooting (all-targeting attack with low power and ACC, Yukari), Blind Walker (single-target attack that inflicts Blind, Saya), Psycho Slayer (single-target attack that Slays Transcendants, Yukari), Boring Buster (single-target attack that ignores some defense, Saya), Shockwave Bind (penetrating attack that inflicts Paralysis, Yukari), Bird Strike (single-target attack that Slays Beasts), Mind's Eye Bow (single-target attack with very high ACC, Yukari), Cage Weave (all-targeting attack that doesn't suck like Unstable Shooting, Yukari), Cyclone Bow (all-targeting attack that inflicts AGI Down, Yukari), Big Arrow (penetrating attack, Yukari), Zero Kelvin Slash (Water-elemental single-target attack, Reimu)

Update Death Count: 2
Total Death Count: 12

To be honest, Undines are easier to handle than Sylphs, especially since Undines don't have freaking Cage Weave. Seriously, screw that attack, it's probably half the reason for my game overs against them. That and failure to run.

[Serela]

Hmmm... when it comes to dual-wielding rods, it seems that the 25% magic damage boost stacks, but side effects (like the Water Boost on a Water Staff)... don't, I think? Hmm, or maybe they were both working, but they were at half effect? Damage results are slightly inconsistent because of changing doppels from deaths and gaining levels in general. z.z Dual Wielding, say, an IND-boost staff is obviously  working since it boosts your statistics, at least, and you definitely get -something- from dual staff; damage goes down for sure if I don't have two on.

Peeked at Last Word sparking stuff, it sure is goofy :V At least physical words (which no one starts with) are all consistent- with 20 weapon skill and under 25% HP, use a single target attack (or maybe it was just normal attack, I forget). Except Marisa's Blazing Star- under 50% HP, use an all-target attack. The magic-elemental and support ones are all weird, though. Use an all-target dark magic attack as Yukari with at least 12 skill???? Defend as Marisa???? And some of them say you need to have LW up during, like, use a single-target fir/wtr/ele as Mamizou with LW up. So goofy.

It's too bad the more in-depth wiki only seems to list the physical ones, as I'm sure it'd have more clear data than the general one about the others.

[Validon98]

IIRC, CJD2524 posted stuff about the Last Word sparking in the old pre-expansion NoR thread, right? I kinda want to try to spark some of the others that I haven't. In the update I'm working on now, I got Mamizou's Magical Transformation to proc somehow, the rest I still need to figure out. Mostly because it'd be nice to have some Last Word variety (only sparking two of ten possible sparks is pretty bad especially since everyone by now should at least be able to spark their physical one, even if some of them don't really need it right now).

Speaking of the next update, it probably won't go up until later because I'm fairly busy today and I still need to cut up and upload the two boss fights and all the associated cutscenes. Just as a little preview: the second boss fight kinda killed me twice and made me reset three times. Most attempts on a fight yet and I haven't even hit one of the hardest fights in the game yet.

[Validon98]

Man, I have quite a few things to fix for NoR and DoD right now but I'm getting pretty burnt out on the translation effort, so let's have an LP update instead. Probably will focus on it and clearing the air with some other games for a couple days (I still have another Four Job Fiesta run to do, eheh...).

Youkai of Toono Act: Part 4- Animal Planet

...When you think about it, most of the main antagonists are based off of some form of animal, with Arare being the only exception (even Mengniang is a baku, which is based off of tapirs).

Anyhow, we have some reason to celebrate, especially since...



First release of the English patch and all! So from now on, battles and the like will be mostly in English, barring the field effect names on the top right.



Also not this page because good god trying to edit those images would be a night, although the item drops are in English.



And treasure names (also yay another Ruby).



Doppel levels...



Oh hey there guy. Lieutenant Demons are the next step up for the demon-type Foreign Gods, which means lots of powerful Dark attacks. Shift that Land towards Light and smack him down with Light attacks and Slayers. Thankfully Divine Gate exists.



The only other new enemy here is the Flood Worm, who uh... does stuff. Once again, I typically deal with them before they have time to act, so I don't think they've really killed me or anything.



Nice, we got a Backbeard! It focuses a lot on debuffs and the like, whilst also granting things like Physical Reflection. Which is pretty good if it procs on your front-liners.



Oh yeah, element levels are a thing too.



This is the way out, but we need a Barrier Stone... somewhere.



...Remind that Winter Wolves suck when they use Freezing Snowstorm.



Hell Trucks are also recruitable, giving Strike resistance and a bunch of attacks. Including Sacrifice Bomb. Which is totally useless. Why would you ever attempt it? Ever?



Now this just looks ridiculous.



There's our Barrier Stone. We can just warp back to the Waypoint and put it there without having to backtrack too much.



As such!



Really? Again?



...Well, the animation didn't fully play out, but Mamizou sparked a Last Word, Magical Danmaku Transformation. More or less, a single-target magic attack of your choosing. I assume it sparks a Void and/or dummy version of the spell, since uh... this ended up doing no damage. Oops.



But enough of that, we have at last reached the end of the Underground Lake. Guess what that means? That's right, back to the Pyramid!

Cutscene: Guardian of the Pyramid

Naturally we ran into a Sphinx. And... Chen for some reason. Why is she here and why is she attacking us?



Well, no questioning it now, we need to go to work. Chen and the Sphinx (who has various forms) are not too bad if you know what you're doing, but frustrating otherwise. While the Sphinx is alive, Chen nullifies all damage against herself. The feet of the Sphinx are seperate targets, which are weak to Fire and aren't too bad, but you want them out of the way. The pharoah-looking head (I forget the names of all the forms off the top of my head) is sort of the "Priest" kind, who has high-powered Light attacks and such. I think it might be weak to Dark, but I forget. There's also a bull who has no weaknesses and focuses on status effects, a bird who is weak to Electric I believe and does physical attacks, and a woman who focuses on magic but is weak to the three basic elements. Chen herself has no weaknesses, and at worst could hit you with Hellclaw Assassination. In general, this fight really isn't that tough.

Boss Fight: Vs. Chen and the Sphinx

First boss fight in English, hopefully it's understandable enough? Noooot too harsh a fight.

Cutscene: Fall of the Sphinx

From the looks of it, Chen got somehow goaded into attacking us by some mysterious enemy she refuses to speak about, and it seems she's been doppel-ified as a result. Either she knows and can't tell us who the mastermind is, or she doesn't know and she got duped pretty hard. She also gives us a strange gear, that for right now serves no purpose. But on top of that, we get Chen as a doppel!

A Warrior that shores up the type 6 weaknesses, Chen is kind of a weird combination of Remilia and Satori, in that she gets a decent amount of EVA and PATK bonuses while also getting Meditation (passive MP regen), so if you want to spam skills without worrying about MP costs, Chen has you covered. Her skill, Soaring Bishamonten, is a high-speed single-target attack that raises AGI for three turns after use.

That said, let's move on to the boss of the Underground Lake.

Cutscene: Ambushed by a Familiar Foe

...Whelp, looks like Ino-Shika-Chou got the drop on us. Seems that even after defeating them, they don't want to give up the good fight. I suppose if the goal of the incident is to increase the power of youkai in the Outside World, they'd be all for that. Theoretically they could always enter Gensokyo, but they're too stubborn and would rather throw their lot in with Hakusen and Mengniang. So, no choice but to fight!



...Good god this fight is a pain in the ass. So, these three have all their old weaknesses and the like (Botan is weak to Electric and Slash, Hagino to Water and Stab, and Momiji to Fire, Water, and Strike), but also all their old tricks, plus some new ones. When you defeat any of them, they revive into a second form that's more powerful and will tend to spam either their original spell card or a new one. They're not all showed off in the final fight, but Botan's is basically the old "Water attack that can inflict Instant Death" type attack Strawberry Bose just LOVES in every game, Hagino's is like a more dangerous version of Reckless Rush, and... I don't think Momiji ever uses her other spell card. Which is weird, because she has one that isn't Phoenix Tree's Leaf.




My two deaths to this fight. I also reset three times, meaning we have our first resets of the game. Yaaaaaay... booooooo...

Boss Fight: Vs. Toono's Ino-Shika-Chou

This boss fight is just a nightmare. There's a few ways to do it, but I tend to stick to focusing them down one at a time. Getting rid of Hagino or Momiji first is a good idea (Hagino can theoretically just be shut down with Windshield, so you don't HAVE to get rid of her, plus the longer Momiji stays in the fight, the more she's willing to spam Phoenix Tree's Leaf, and you can't overwrite that field forever). Botan is a constant danger with her spell cards, but a good shot of Counter Magic SHOULD deal with it and allow for you to take her on last. Keyword "should". As for resistances, prioritize Water resistance, Electric resistance second, and don't even worry about Fire resistance, Hagino shouldn't even be able to touch you with a good EVA buff.
Also, the ending of this fight with Reimu essentially going all "Eleventh Hour Superpower" and grabbing the almighty Quick Break was pretty damned badass. I'm glad I get to keep that move, and Heat Tomahawk on Saya as well (having the Magma Spot Axe helps spark that, obviously).

Cutscene: Ino-Shika-Chou's Last Stand

And... looks like we beat them back for good this time. No worries, we won't be fighting them again, we've taken care of them. Now, originally I was just going to stop the update here, buuut I figure since I went out of my way to do it, might as well append some additional things I tried out, since they were mentioned (thank you Serela). For this, we head back to the Cave.





Last Word sparking time, starting with Marisa. Miracle Hakkero is a field effect sparked by defending while Marisa has her Last Word Chance active, and it causes all MP costs to fall to 0 for the duration. This is a REALLY good spell, and if Marisa isn't using Master Spark or her physical Last Word (which I will not be sparking this playthrough unless I end up getting some stupid luck and/or somehow manage to get her Strike level to 20), it's probably a better choice for Last Word.




Sukima Strash, like everyone else's physical Last Words, is sparked by using a single target skill while under 25% HP (I had Mamizou smack Yukari with Detonate while Yukari had some Fire resistance on so it didn't one shot her). You only have one chance per battle to spark a physical Last Word from what I understand, so if you fail to do it first turn, run away and retry the fight. Anyhow, Sukima Strash is a high-powered Penetrating attack. Pretty damn useful, and if you have a good, high powered weapon on Yukari, it can pretty much murder encounters.





Lastly, I manage to spark Kurahinata God Palms, meaning I've now sparked a new Last Word for every character (I can still spark others, but I'm fine with just the ones I did now). This is a high-powered single target attack with a chance to inflict Instant Death. For Saya, who is my physical powerhouse, this attack is REALLY good.

But that's it for Last Word sparking for now. Next time, we cross the Underground Lake and head to the final dungeon for the act (yes, already, it's amazing).

Summary:

New Doppels: Backbeard, Hell Truck

Doppel Levels: Koishi (Critical Hit Rate +6, ○ Instant Death), Nitori (FIR/ELE/WTR Element Power +10; FIR/ELE/WTR Power +20), Wizard (AGI +2), Hell Truck (POT +2, Drill; VIT +2, Strong Attack; DEX +2, Mute; POT +4, Alignment Shield Wall), Schwarze Katze (DEX +2), Rumia (FIR/ELE/WTR/LGT/DRK/MYS Element Power +40), Three Fairies of Light (Fairy Overdrive Power +5), Patchouli (FIR/ELE/WTR Casting Speed +10), Sanae (Support Casting Speed +10), Alice (MDEF +10), Murei (empty level)

Major Equipment: Annwn, Fainting Bow, Arondight, Ochain (Saya), Passion, Muddy Stream Bow

Synthesis Recipes:

Synthesis Done: Brilliant Mantle, a bunch of other armors from earlier in the game I forgot to note down, Gale Boots +2 (Mamizou), Barrier Earrings +2 (Reimu)

Sparked Skills: Armor-Piercing Shot (Penetrating attack that reduces SLA/STA/STK resistance, Saya), Surprise Gunfire (high speed attack, Yukari), High Velocity (penetrating attack, Yukari), Sturmovik (all-targeting attack, Yukari), Zero Fighter (high ACC attack, Yukari), Heat Tomahawk (fire elemental attack, Saya), Quick Break (attack that partially ignores Slash resistance, Reimu)

Update Death Count: 4
Update Reset Count: 3
Total Death Count: 16
Total Reset Count: 3

New counters, yaaaaaaay.

[Validon98]

Youkai of Toono Act: Part 5- Castle Crashers

Yet another game I have not played that I probably should. Eventually.



After taking the boat that appeared after beating Ino-Shika-Chou, we end up here, near another Waypoint.



Looks to be some sort of castle? It also appears to be the next-to-last area, there's only one more covered by clouds.

Cutscene: The Castle of Bygone Days

Looks like we ran into another castle...



And it appears to be Japanese too. From what little I can understand, I believe Saya says this is an old castle, specifically "Toono Castle". I'm guessing it used to be a big part of the town, but otherwise was lost to the ages, only brought back via this whole incident. I include the next cutscene right after, where we make use of that Gear that Chen had to open the drawbridge to the castle. If you somehow had not beaten Chen before now, you wouldn't be able to get through into...



Dungeon Theme: The Famed Castle of Bygone Days

...Toono Castle, the next-to-last dungeon of the game. No, really, I'm not joking, we're getting pretty close to the end now.



The first area of the castle is basically charging the front gates, and with it comes enemies. The Iron Futtachi up front will be throwing some Strike skills at you, ones that can and will basically one-shot anyone without some decent PDEF or EVA. Fire works on them, but not so much on the, well, Fires in the back. Weak to Water as you'd expect, they... don't do a whole lot.



Oh hey, it's a palette swap of one of the very first enemies of the game! The Ka-no-Kijinjou can use Colosseo and Magic Drain (which bar HP and MP recovery respectively) to screw you over, but it's not a major deal unless you're fighting some other enemies that are extremely dangerous.



Oh hey it's a Manuscript. As usual, they can hit you with Incisor or Branding Iron to try Blinding or Silencing you, and are notorious for being nearly immune to magic (even Disintegrate can only deal about 1000 damage to it, and Detonate can't do a thing). Weak to Fire and Slash, so your physical damage dealers with type seven skills (which I have one of the three basic elements for all three of my front-liners by now, yaaaay) can do some good damage. CJD2524 wasn't kidding when he said they were really good skills. Plus now I have a use for Nitori when I never really used her before!



In the back there is a Goby, who can breath Fire and whatnot at you, but otherwise isn't too dangerous. Electric will be good for this.



Those are some pretty imposing statues. They aren't tanuki I imagine, but I don't recognize what they are supposed to be. Or maybe they are tanuki.



There's a Yin-Yang Orb already? Well, if you insist. I keep it around for later, instead of immediately using it. Tip to people playing this game: save your Yin-Yang Orbs. If you end up game overing after using a Yin-Yang Orb in the dungeon, you can always use one from another dungeon to prevent enemies from respawning while you make it back.



Up top there be a Fire Crow, which I assume is supposed to be a Yatagarasu or something. It can hit hard with all the Fire attacks in the world, including the tier two Fire breath attack. Naturally, Water and Stab will take it down.



The En-no-Ozuno there, for the most part, isn't too dangerous, mostly using the all-targeting versions of debuffs like Acid Storm, Haze Mist, etc., but they can also use Cosmic Liner. Which can basically one-shot anyone. Dark and/or Gun, as you'd expect.



There's a locked door here, so we'll need a key or something, which I completely forgot to screenshot getting. It's down below.



COCKATRICESSSSSSSSSSS.
The Elite Cockatrice, of course, can use Petro Gas and otherwise completely screw up your party if you don't kill it fast enough. Electric and Stab, as fast as you can.



And we got the Manuscript! Grants a good amount of physical skills and FINALLY gives us Magic Barrier, the all-targeting MDEF Up spell. That spell is going to see some good use in the future.



We got a Black Key below, which breaks upon opening the door. The item description says it was pretty fragile looking, but geez, really?



The Salamander up top is the final of the three high-powered elemental Spirits we've been running into, obviously being the Fire version. His attacks are fairly dangerous, but if you can bring him down fast enough (and bring Fire resistance), he's actually easier than even the Undine to take down. It helps I have third-tier spells by now.



The Hipporit up there is kind of what happens if you combined a Zebra Volnehem with a Cockatrice, boasting Petro Gas and various breath attacks. Kill it with Light as fast as you possibly can.



Number of hits level yet again! All 4s to 5s this time, nice nice nice.



The En-no-Ozuno is the first doppel to grant us all of the basic row-targeting debuffs (previous ones only granted some of them, he grants more or less all of them). He'll see some use in the future (especially since I've more or less failed to use debuffs this whole game... which is kind of a mistake, in fact I'm fairly certain I only won the Ino-Shika-Chou fight due to debuffs, not to mention they do line up in a row, as if screaming "USE YOUR DEBUFFS YOU DUMB PLAYER").



He kinda gets cutoff at the top by the screen, but that's a Miage Nyuudou, which is a pretty tough monster to deal with. Weak to Slash and Light, he can use some very dangerous Strike attacks, so expect to lose a person or two before taking him down.



The Shisa in the back is weak to Fire, but he has the rather dangerous Moonlight Mirror, which can reflect magic back and has some fairly high priority. It's dangerous to use magic while they're around.



Oh hey, this look familiar? We're going to be doing something similar to that endless corridor in Genius of Sappheiros, but a little less confusing.



That there is a Virtue, who of course is the next tier of angel-type Foreign God. Weak to Dark, but pretty resistant to physical attacks (plus he has a shield), he can be fairly hard to take down, not to mention he can basically blast you with things like Silent Judge and other high powered Light attacks.



...I somehow, on a 1/32 chance, got the Virtue on the first try. I have NEVER gotten this doppel before. Well uh... that's that, I suppose? He grants a few buffs as well as Silent Judge. He'll later get Sanctuary, the all-targeting third tier Light spell (which I have never gotten on any prior playthrough... good god I screwed myself so hard on the expansion since I lacked good Light and Dark spells).



The way this works is that you move through the doors and try to find the right ones. If you find the right one, there's a ding and the door stays open, otherwise it closed behind you. Even if you get a door wrong, all the correct doors will stay open, the the room loops back on itself infinitely. Once you get all the right doors opened on each row of three, you get teleported out.



And get another Black Key. No idea why it's in Japanese here when I translated all the items. Must be another case of a Global.srb string.



Oh nice, a Shisa! I... forget what kinds of things it gives you. I know Perfect Resist is one of them, among other buffs and shields.



Finally made it to the next Waypoint. Time for a boss fight.

Cutscene: A Yakumo Family Brawl

So... Ran's also here, Ran is also under orders to have us killed. Now, Chen never mentioned who it was that gave that order, but Ran is a tiny bit more loose-lipped, saying it was... Yukari who ordered the hit. Wait a minute, Yukari's with us, why would she want us stopped? We ask if she means the Yukari that would normally be in Gensokyo right now (AKA the Yukari of 1912, since we're in the past), but Ran confirms it isn't. So... hang on, if the Yukari of 2012 (our Yukari) doesn't want us dead, and the Yukari of 1912 isn't involved, then... how does this make sense?



Confusing explanations aside, Ran here can be a fairly tough boss fight if you don't prepare according, but nowhere nearly as bad as the rematch with Ino-Shika-Chou. She uses both Royal Flash and Silent Judge, which means Blind and Silence galore, plus she can hit with arrow normal attacks, which... don't do much. Her most dangerous attack is Fox-Tanuki Youkai Laser, a row-targeting Light attack that inflicts Dispel. If you have Light resistance going into this fight, it won't be too harsh, but debuffing her and keeping up your defenses is a must.

Boss Fight: Vs. Ran Yakumo, Shikigami of the Gap Youkai

Yeah, this went fairly well, I'd say.

Cutscene: The Yakumo Family Reunited

Ran's been defeated, and now it appears as if she's also hit doppel form. Despite her prior mission, she decided to ally herself with her true master instead, reuniting with Chen and Yukari. And with that, we have the final main doppel we'll get for the rest of the game (barring the expansion content, of course).

Ran is our final Ranger, who shores up the type 4 learning weakness. Much like Tenshi, she's what I consider a "selfish" doppel, that focuses mainly on buffing her own skill, while also providing some very sizable PATK bonuses. Her skill, speaking of, is Descent of Izuna Gongen, which is a Penetrating attack that boosts PATK for three turns after. It's a pretty nice skill for anyone using a ranged weapon, and she's possibly one of the stronger Rangers you'll ever get.

But with that said and done, we're done for now. Next time, we charge headlong into the second half of Toono Castle, and attempt to find the ones who've barred themselves within in the finale of this act. Also yay, I managed six updates with this act as well.

Summary:

New Doppels: Manuscript, En-no-Ozuno, Virtue, Shisa

Doppel Levels: Sakuya (Slayer Power +17), Nitori (Chaser Power +10), Lesser Demon (Dark Breath, VIT +3), Remilia (Evasion Chances +1), Chen (EVA +5, Physical Skill Casting Speed +4; PATK +2; EVA +10; Physical Skill Casting Speed +6), Youmu (ACC +10), Lesser Vampire (Regen +40), Yuugi (PATK +5), Sunflower Fairy (VIT +2), Manuscript (Energy Hand, INT +2; Blood Suck, STR +2; Fang Crush, DEX +2; Rune Chase, MDEF +30), En-no-Ozuno (Variety Casting Speed +3, Gutless; Melt, IND +2, Acid, Mist; RES +2, Darkness, Snare; Variety Casting Speed +5), Dragon Maid (STR +2), Virtue (LGT Casting Speed +5, Starlight Shower; AGI +2, Earth Wall; POT +3; Sanctuary, LGT Casting Speed +10), Magician (FIR Reflection +10), Shisa (VIT +2; ○ Petrify, Perfect Resist; POT +4), Suika (PATK +6), Byakuren (○ Silence; IND +13)

Major Equipment: Saint George, Alien Slaughter, Magnet Gun, Blade Cusinart (Reimu), Midwinter Staff, Potato Masher (Marisa)

Synthesis Done: Magical Capper (Marisa), Reproduction (Reimu), Launch Goggles +2 (Yukari)

Sparked Skills: Large White Cudgel (single-target attack that inflicts RES Down, Saya), Falling Leaves (single-target attack that inflicts Blind, Reimu), Flint Trap (row attack that inflicts EVA Down, Yukari), Plasma Trident (ranged Electric elemental attack that inflicts ACC Down for one turn, Yukari), Berserk Maiden (single target attack that Slays enemies with Permanents, Slays Giants, and inflicts Berserk, Reimu), Nightmare Stab (single-target attack that inflicts Sleep, Yukari)

Update Death Count: 0
Update Reset Count: 0
Total Death Count: 16
Total Reset Count: 3

A deathless run of the first half of Toono Castle isn't that bad.

[Maple]

On that "endless corridor"-like room, the player can open the doors from one side but not from the other (the dungeon uses that gimmick in general). It seems that you are allowed to open all three doors, and if you didn't hear the "ding" sound effect, you can simply turn back and try another door, i tried that in my playthrough.

[Serela]

My Mamizou sparked her physical last word at 17 proficiency during a boss fight when I tried to use Eirin's Omoikane Device. huh.

Also I was looking at the wiki... apparently number of hits for support/impair directly affects how powerful the status is, but how it affects the time was weird and didn't make any sense, so I don't know how that goes. Also apparently if you dispel a bosses Concentration they don't use their super move?! rofl. It said something about using Last Strike from Kedama lv10... I guess that'd be important if it was a fast move. What a nifty move, if it isn't just resisted by most enemies like it was in GoS (Aya, why can't you be useful for anything other than sometimes-evasion, breath reflection, and your 3-bomb commander skill?!)

I'm currently trying to stop killing yukkuris in the train station. I got hooked whilst hunting for Power (the doppel) took way too long and I ran into like ten yukkuris. I kept saying I'd stop when I got the minotaur, but it turned into "I'll stop when I also get the Lesser Demon". Minotaur has provocation, neat. Alignment Element Wall would've been nice for that dumb needle attack... (The real problem with that boss was her evasion. Even Accurate Weapon wasn't quite enough. She seemed resistant to debuffs, though.)

Kaguya's land manipulation is crazy holy crap. You cast her special skill and it just wipes the field almost 100% towards that element if she's at least lv4. Turn 2 full light with no effort. Ichirin doesn't hurt either, I was surprised to find her getting a big land manip boost on lv3 as well. I've been swapping on chaser doppels for just a moment at a time whenever I want their special all-chasers and then toss them off, the results are pretty nice. (Plus I'm using sword god marisa and sparking elemental attacks is hard. :T I try to use Koishi more than Nitori though, her melee hits are just fine.)

...spears true value is in their evasion, I've learned. Yukari with spears faceplants waaaay less than my sword Marisa in the front with her. Granted, I capitalized on it via her armor and accessory.

[Validon98]

That's... huh. Maybe Mamizou's is weird like Marisa's?

I figured number of hits for Support/Impair worked like that, I just wasn't sure on that.

I am extremely jealous you got the Minotaur, but then again I just spent a bunch of time in the final dungeon grinding for Backfires so I guess it's all a matter of patience.



Fun fact, they require 64 kills and don't easily spawn. Also, this is like... three or so updates ahead of what I'm going to actually post tomorrow, but I got so excited after finishing Toono Castle that I just had to jump into the final dungeon.

Also I gave up on spears. I had them on Yukari for most the game, but now I think I've permanently swapped her over the Guns. I can never get them to stick, even if the EVA is really good.

And yeah, Kaguya is nuts, her Land Influence is so stupid good that bosses that rely on one element can be entirely screwed over. Tomorrow's boss fight video demonstrates that very well (especially since I was of the opinion before that it was one of the hardest fights in the game... and now I think it's easier than the Ino-Shika-Chou rematch).

[Serela]

Also I gave up on spears. I had them on Yukari for most the game, but now I think I've permanently swapped her over the Guns. I can never get them to stick, even if the EVA is really good.

Is it the damage? I suspect they're like DoD and, from what I've seen of NoR, the bows- you have to spark the protagonist-only skills (so in this case, type 8 rather than DoD's 1. Mach Pierce was pretty good in DoD even postgame despite sucky spears.) to deal real damage. If I want high numbers out of the bow I gotta use Random Shot, but it's pretty dang solid. I feel like if I didn't have Saya using bows as with her type-8-ness I'd be a little underwhelmed.

But I haven't gotten Chaotic Thrusting to spark yet. Hmm. The fire elemental attack is holding me through for now... for now. With Mami and Saya using their multihit type 8 skills and Marisa/Suika using Sakuya/Youmu skills I can slay yukkuris super easily, at least- Reimu can wipe the rest with some magician skill before the multihits go off. I'm totally overleveled and getting tier 3 magic attacks :V Why does it seem like the lesser demons went extinct after I killed 13?! (I really got in a grinding mood whilst praying against odds a yukkuri might join, I'd never have done this just for a lesser demon that's gonna get outclassed. At least Powers drop a lot of amethysts.)

edit:I just ran from a yukkuri fuck
edit again:Lesser Demon #15 sparked Chaotic Thrusting and holy crap the damage is SO REAL. And it only costs 10 power so I can SPAM it in random fights yessssss
edit more:I read the wrong number. I've only killed 10/16 lesser demons. </3 Also I'm preeeetty sure I died on the boss attempt where Mamizou learned her physical last word, but she still has it. Huh. I guess you get to keep those.

[Validon98]

...I'm fairly certain I missed out hard on Chaotic Thrusting, but ah well.

On another note, I just realized I made a stupid translation blunder (like I haven't already, but this is a really stupid one). So Akyuu's skill, Gensokyo Origins as it's called now, and the item Kurahinata Origins... they should be Gensokyo Chronicles and Kurahinata Chronicles. Which is incredibly dumb on my end since I should have known that 幻想郷縁起 is the original Japanese name for the Gensokyo Chronicles, it's mostly that since other people have translated 縁起 as either "origins" or "omen" in regards to GoS (which means that Touhou Soujinengi should be "Eastern Blue God Chronicles", not "Eastern Blue God Omen"), I got mixed up.

Well I'll add that to the list of "things I have to fix".

EDIT: I went back and did try to spark Chaotic Thrusting on Yukari.

I may or may not have been a little quick to judge, especially if Yukari has Sakuya on to boost multi-hit attack rate. I'll give it a go... again... goddamnit just when I thought I had escaped.

[Serela]

demon get
I can move on now!!

the suffering will continue as you realize you've got the upgraded version of chaotic thrusting to get now, and it only has 1% spark rate. (At least Chaotic Thrusting is amazing to spam in randoms anyway, in terms of trying to learn it. Meanwhile I've outfitted Marisa to speed her the hell up so she moves first and gets more chances to learn -her- type 8s from youmu. And later, those dang elemental swords. At least I got the fire one ultra fast earlygame.) I wonder if Blood Lance is any good. Sounds like it's a drain move, which could be nifty... the bow's World Is Mine is sorta weak to try to get much draining off. It's too bad it's all-target instead of just being a one-target with good power. Too expensive to spam in randoms and not strong enough to want to either. But it's got such a hype name!

[Validon98]

More or less something like that with Yukari. Mach Stab's not until later at level 40 (read: final act of the game/final dungeon, since the only level 40 enemies are there), so... yeaah... and I have to make up for the Stab element levels I didn't get. Fuuuun.

Also, I just uh... beat the first third of the final dungeon, and now have roughly material for three+ updates and the beginning of the fourth. I might have gone overboard. Help.

[Serela]

The end-game hype is powerful, Validon.

Ooo. Lesser Demon has phys+mag barrier passives. I wonder how high they go. (Don't tell me off the wiki or something this is half of my hype in playing the game. Thankfully the exp curves are super steep so it's totally fine that I'm leveling a lot of the doppels. KOISHI TELL ME YOUR FINAL PASSIVE ALREADY) But yeah, Tenshi was sort of... pathetic? It might be because I got myself some sweet evasion but she just... never really did much. I guess she did get really close to killing Yukari once with a single target move, but her big always-stun keystone move did like no damage and she mostly either used that or, uh, spammed shelter and land control, whoops maybe I got really lucky :V I just let her keep it up since I did plenty of damage.

Thank goodness Tenshi is good at magic too, non-magicians that can do so are exceedlingly rare, it's like... her and Orin, but Orin is more suited for melee users than ranged and they can't swap to her or keep their heavy armors. (Granted, I'm mostly using light armor at this point because Yukari's evasion...) So it'll be nice to have a sub-mage when I need it. Like when sylphs come around. >.> Hmm, Flame Lance skill, two magic users, Marisa can swap to Nitori and use monster cucumber when one shows up (I might need to put an actual fire chaser on her I guess), that leaves Mamizou for element shield wall if that's necessary... yeah, I think I'll be okay.

edit:although tenshi's INT is ass despite having good magic hits. I really am just gonna have to quickswap a ranger to Orin each time I want to fling spells, huh? Well, that works, I guess. (Tenshi is probably fine when I don't need every drop of damage, at least.)

[Validon98]

So I have like... a bunch of stuff to do updates with. Like... I have two full updates worked on for the next act, and I started on the third part of the next act. Someone please tranquilize me or something.

Youkai of Toono Act: Finale- Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

I've come to talk with you again...
...Yeah I'm going to hell for this one. Oh well~.



So... right after the midpoint, immediate Yin-Yang Orb... because yes, you totally don't just have a Fantasy Hiemata Monument outside.



So this is going end well. Most of the rooms in the second half of Toono Castle are darkened out like this.



These lit-up enemies are non-hostile, and just roam about. If you follow them...



...They'll reveal some hidden passages. Phantasmal Summoners had something like this with Eientei, but you could reveal the passages yourself. Here you have to let the enemies open them up. In this first hallway, if you wait a little after it enters this room, he'll exit and go back, opening another passage to a treasure you can only get by having this happen.



...I hate Petrify.



Niiice, a Hipporit. He's basically the upgrade to the Zebra Volnehem, getting the second-tier versions of the Light and Dark breath skills. I think it also gets Neutral Breath, but I forget.



In the back there is a Hatamoto, which are pretty damn dangerous. They can throw basically all sorts of high powered Slash attacks at you, which you'll want to shut down ASAP. Dark and Gun as always will work.



Oh god a Locomo Dragon. As always, these guys are fairly powerful, can thwack you upside the head with powerful attacks like Tail Chop, and some high powered Breath attacks. No weaknesses, so just murder his face.



I think this enemy is trying to learn magic from Spekkio. Or something.



That Lich in the back... or top, rather, is another tough to kill enemy with no real weaknesses, not to mention he's fairly resistant to magic. I think his most dangerous attack is Power Suction, which is still a very dangerous spell like it was back in DoD.



Two Salamanders, this totally will end well.



...Apparently it did because I didn't die, and we just get another free POW Extension right here.



And some material recipes. We can FINALLY craft Adamantite and Orichalcum now, but we don't get shards until the next dungeon.



But yeah, boss is ahead. I went back to do a bit of grinding before this fight (because this is the point in the game where having good levels kinda really helps make the tougher fights not mind-meltingly silly).



And during that I run into a Behemoth. Kill them as FAST as you can, else they'll use Meteor, a high-powered Void attack that can basically wipe your party without any form of magic defense. Otherwise he has some fairly powerful physical attacks. Weak to Fire, as usual for most Beasts.

With that, we head into the boss room.

Cutscene: Keepers of Toono Castle

Hello there you two, it's been awhile since we last met. I suppose if Ino-Shika-Chou was able to come back and challenge us one last time, so can Hakusen and Arare, and this time they're double-teaming us. I suppose half of it has to do with them having their orders to shut us down and prevent our finding the true mastermind, the other half because Hakusen still has her rivalry with Mamizou and Arare still wants to get even with the Child of Misaki. Also, Arare notices something incredibly strange from Saya. With Akyuu's prescence, it's as if there are two Children of Misaki. Their souls are otherwise completely identical, as if Akyuu were a later reincarnation of Saya. Which... makes no sense, right? Akyuu is the Child of Miare, not the Child of Misaki, so they shouldn't have the exact same soul, right...?



So... this fight. This fight is kinda one of the harder ones if you decide to ignore mechanics like, say, debuffs, or the Land meter. The first time I played this, also, I didn't have Divine Gate, or other kinds of high powered elementals (well, I had Mega Stroke, but killing Arare is only half the fight). But otherwise, this is sort of the "Eirin/Kaguya" fight of this game, but a little easier than those respective fights in GoS and DoD. You need to kill them at roughly the same time, else one will revive the other with Elixir. So be a little careful of that. Otherwise, Hakusen will attempt to debuff you and thwack you with Dark attacks, while Arare will hit you with Water attacks, cover her Electric weakness with Element Shelter, and the two will get really spell-card spammy as the fight goes on. As long as you can shunt the Land towards Electric and Light, you should have this handled.

Boss Fight: Vs. The Embodiment of Blizzard and the Tomboyish Tanuki

I can't believe I got this done on the first shot. And without casualties. I had to reset once at the beginning since I accidentally left combat effects off (I turn them off when grinding), but I'm not counting that in the reset counter since it was just for putting the combat effects back on. I end up doing the same with the next boss (in like a couple updates, so I won't count the reset I did there either).

Cutscene: The Two Incarnations of Are

We finally beat them for good this time, and Hakusen just sorta disappears. I suppose meanwhile, Arare has gained some sort of respect for us (she's totally being tsundere about it though), and decides to open the way to the mastermind's lair, back where the snowstorm was behind Enjo School. At last, we finally can get through there. On top of that, the truth behind the connection between Saya and Akyuu is revealed. So, this following explanation is a bit of a mix of the actual canon stuff related to the Hiedas and the Child of Miare combined with this game's concept of the Child of Misaki.

Basically, we all know the Child of Miare is a constant reincarnation of Hieda no Are, who, from generation to generation, continously updates the Gensokyo Chronicles, but lives for only about 30ish years or so before death. Inbetween incarnations, the soul of the Child of Miare does work for the Yamas in exchange for being constantly reincarnated with his/her memories intact. This is canon within Touhou. As for how the Child of Misaki plays in, essentially he/she is the other half of the Child of Miare, a human incarnation that doesn't have access to the memories of his/her existence as the Child of Miare but, as part of his/her service to the Yamas, does work as a human, typically as a shrine maiden in order to gain virtue, sorta similar to how reincarnation in Buddhism works where constant cycles of life are needed to prepare one's soul for Nirvana. In other words, Saya is merely a past incarnation of Akyuu, and a possessor of the soul of Hieda no Are, just without the memories or powers of the Hieda line. So, as the Hiedas work on the Gensokyo Chronicles and serve as Gensokyo's recordkeeper, the Kurahinatas serve to do the same, keeping the Kurahinata Chronicles and serving as peacekeepers in the Outside World as service to the Yamas, even if they don't know or remember it. This is also why Akyuu and Saya working together grants Saya additional power, since it's two versions of one soul working in tandem.

With that out of the way... we finally have access to the final dungeon of the game. Next time, we begin the final act of the game: Nightmare of Rebellion Act.

Summary:

New Doppels: Hipporit

Doppel Levels: Backbeard (IND +1, Release Barrier; POT +1, Melt, Mist; IND +2; POT +2), Utsuho (LGT/DRK/MYS Power +20), Hipporit (Holy Breath, Dark Breath, RES +3; ◎ Petrify; Neutral Breath, STR +2; Star Hand, VIT +2, Dark Hand); IND +5, Energy Hand, Crazy Undine (AGI +4), Manuscript (INT +4; MDEF +35), En-no-Ozuno (IND +4, Moonlight), Virtue (Sunlight, AGI +4), Hellhound (STR +3), Nashorn (HP +10), Togakushi Kureha (VIT +4), Kaguya (RES +6), Sanae (Yasaka's Divine Wind Cooldown -1), Meiling (Physical Counter +8), Lesser Vampire (Abyss), Shivers (◎ Water; WTR Element Power +10), Nazrin (ACC +10 and other things I think), Shisa (Counter Magic and other things I think)

Major Equipment: BD-ROM

Synthesis Done: Ninja Costume (Reimu)

Sparked Skills: Soul Release (all-targeting attack that inflicts MATK Down, Saya)

Update Death Count: 1
Total Death Count: 17
Update Reset Count: 0 (technically 1 but it doesn't count)
Total Reset Count: 3

Toono Castle is usually a fairly tough stumbling block for me, but I guess this time I was a bit more prepared. Experience helps!

EDIT: Since it's been a subject of conversation before, I THINK I know how to make dual rods work. They work on the same principle as all other dual-wielding weapons. When you dual-wield, the game defaults to your main hand weapon for all skills, etc. This includes rods for magic. However, you can swap the offhand weapon to your active weapon by selecting it to do a skill, then canceling (you don't actually have to attack with it, just select it to attack, cancel, and there you go). With this, you should be able to swap between elemental rods based off of which one you need to do certain attacks (I currently have Marisa with a Light and Dark elemental staff, so I can boost both elements at once). Also on that note, your two weapons have separate cooldowns, even for the same skills. So if you have, say, two swords, you can swap between one and the other to use Quick Break without worrying about the cooldown (I assume that when you use differing weapons, which one is active is the one that determines your ACC and EVA, since EVA differs based on weapon type).

[Validon98]

Not really a new update, but I just need to highlight a thing that just happened while working on another update.



*SCREAMING INTENSIFIES*

[Serela]

holy shit congrats. For those unaware, yukkuris, apart from being pretty rare and not easy to kill due to escaping and metal slimery, they also only have 1/256 recruit rate. (I killed 17 of the basic one in my farm session >.>)

I beat Arare's face in, meanwhile, because I'm overleveled and max land mega stroke is lulz. When she doesn't have element shelter up (which can be dispelled...) I could do almost half her hp in one turn, so, uh... don't have to worry about her spellcard when I only need a single Marionette Parrar. Mo Megniang or w/e her name is, should be less trivial, because she actually doesn't have a weakness to murder with. (I wonder if I can induce one? Probably not, but...)

[Validon98]

All Yukkuris except for Stray Yukkuris have a 1/256 chance to drop, and instant drop after 256 kills. Stray Yukkuris instead are a 1/1000 drop, and thus require 1000 kills. You know, because that'll ever happen.

Mengniang is a nightmare, at least the first time you fight her, because yeah, no weaknesses, your magic actually is pretty awful against her (she resists all magic elements, sooo), so it's a fight of attrition no matter how you slice it, especially since other than Yuugi, you don't have any of the really stupidly powerful attacks like Deplorable Hit, Acala Sword, Quick Break, etc (especially since those are all really only sparkable from the elite enemies of Toono Castle and/or any of the Tower of Babel's enemies). I suppose if you get something like Release Barrier to stick, you'll be able to hit harder with magic (Release Barrier nulls resistances or otherwise reduces them majorly IIRC, so it's the only way to make certain enemies even remotely damagable with certain abilities).

Speaking of, I should be getting an update up. I've been really busy rushing to the final boss (I just spent a lot of time grinding around the area right before the final boss so that I'm prepared, plus grabbing some earlier doppels to get a Fast Strike/Damage Net combo to make Yukkuri King killing doable, etc.). Sooo yeah.

[Validon98]

The fact I'm right before the final boss and there's like... three or so more updates to write up after this is kinda scary. I spent way too much time yesterday blowing through the final dungeon.

Nightmare of Rebellion Act: Part 1- Where it All Began



We are indeed going back to where it all began, over at Enjo School. The pathway to the final dungeon lays there.



And here we are, at that pathway right at the beginning blocked off by the storm.



New area, new enemies, as always. High Fairy Soldiers are the next step up for this particular type of enemy, possessing some of the weapon skills from the "requires level 30 enemies" tier that we've been learning from ourselves. Deal with them quick or lose a party member... or more. Dark and Gun as always is the solution.



High Fairy Maids provide that same worry, still possessing tier two magic, but they have enough power behind them to be instantly fatal. Deal with them even quicker than the Soldiers.



Atoms... great. Upgrades to the Pus, they'll just throw Bug in your face over and over, and can use Toreno Levin (or is it Torrental Levin? I dunno), which hits a row. Electric deals with them as well as always, and having Blue Starter at this point would be nice. Buuuut I forgot to level my Wizard, so I don't have any of the tier three multi-targets, just the single-targets. Oops.



Given all the anime references in this game with enemy designs, it's no surprise there's also a Magical Girl. Weak to Dark and Gun as per usual, they're just a tiny bit more dangerous than the High Fairy Maids, and are recruitable, buuuut they only appear on the pathway to the final dungeon. Pick them up here or nowhere, it's up to you.



From that path, there was a path here to this left area, but it's just a dead end. Remember this for later... well, you don't have to, it's not really too important now.



The real pathway leads over into another cave.



Which has another Dream Corridor. I'll deal with this one shortly.



Cutscene: The Tower that Challenges Heaven

So uh... that's quite the imposing tower there, and of such ridiculous height. According to Mamizou, it's the Tower of Babel, that same tower built to reach Heaven, and it sure does look like it has. I suppose if Mengniang was able to pull pyramids, the Great Wall of China, skyscrapers, and all sorts of other nonsense into Toono, even the legendary Tower of Babel is no problem for her. It still looks a bit unfinished up near the top, but I guess it makes for an imposing base of operations. No one would dare climb it to the top... except for us.




But yeah, this is the final dungeon, the Tower of Babel. We're not entering it this update, that'll be for next time. We'll deal with the Dream Corridor back in that cave and then call it.



Not a lot of new enemies here. The Silver Turtle is a better turtle than prior ones. But it isn't that impressive. Just Water it away and move on.



Yet another POW Extension. We're getting close to getting every POW Extension pre-expansion.



King Mummies are just stronger Mummies, just fry them with Fire or Light and move on. Damn, this Dream Corridor's unimpressive.



Bloodworms. Like Flood Worms... they do things. Breath attacks mostly. Water I think is their weakness this time around.



Oh hey, we're getting another tier of the Point items. And a rare accessory to boot. Niiiice.



HELP.



And the last thing we get here that's actually super important is this set of synthesis recipes. That's more or less all the interesting stuff here. Next time, we'll enter the Tower of Babel proper, and begin the endgame for real. Yes this was a short update. The next one is not.

Summary:

Doppel Levels: Ran (PATK +3; SLA/STA/STK Power +12; PATK +6; SLA/STA/STK Power +14), Hell Truck (HP +20), Hell's Gatekeeper (INT +3), Shisa (empty level), Virtue (Wind Shield, POT +4), Slime (POT +4)

Major Equipment: Benefit Axe, Sagittarius Bow, Brunhild, Slaughterer, Element Guard, Heat Blaster (Yukari), Regeneration Ring

Synthesis Recipes: Sage Robe, Vengeance Robe, Victory Mantle, Variant Mantle, Scarlet Apparel, Schneller Pant, Nature Reserve, Academic Dress, Duelmaster, Gothic Armor, Blazing Hell Ring, Permafrost Ring, Roaring Thunderclap Ring, Absolute Sanctuary Ring, Evil Spirit Ring, Great Magic Spirit World Ring, Dragon Mail

Synthesis Done: Schneller Pant (Yukari), Academic Dress (Saya), Sage Robe (Marisa)

Sparked Skills: Dead Men Tell No Tales (attack that inflicts Silence, Reimu), Violent Earthquake (all-targeting attack that inflicts PATK Down, Saya), Rudel Cannon (Penetrating attack that ignores some defense, Yukari)

Update Death Count: 0
Total Death Count: 17
Update Reset Count: 0
Total Reset Count: 3

EDIT: I know I posted this up like awhile ago, but uh... so, I finished the game, all the updates are screenshotted/recorded... holy crap I feel exhausted now. But hey, I'll have the rest of the game's updates up over the next couple days. Maybe I'll start the expansion too right after, I might take a break to work on updates and fixing things for the English patch. But yeah, look forward to the end of the main game!

[Serela]

especially since other than Yuugi, you don't have any of the really stupidly powerful attacks like Deplorable Hit, Acala Sword, Quick Break, etc (especially since those are all really only sparkable from the elite enemies of Toono Castle and/or any of the Tower of Babel's enemies)

OH YES?

(I got izanami after winning this fight, pretty great timing. taking a break now but gonna beat some tapir face later/tomorrow morning/idk, it's busy because holidays ;_;)

[Validon98]

...Okay, I was wrong. I guess the Lesser Demon is just above that level requirement required for the tier Quick Break is on.

On another note, slightly updated patch is over in the translation thread now. I was going to add some more image translations, but settled for just fixing some stuff that's been mentioned. I need to fix a few things with the Global.srb too, but I'm saving on that because trawling through that file is a nightmare.

...Also, despite saying "hey self take a break you finished the game just work on writing up the updates don't worry about the expansion", I've already starting doing expansion stuff. Calm down self, your backlog for updates is already big. X_X;

[Your Everyday NEET]

That was kinda rather quick. I guess this game is shorter than GoS? I want to ask a question: what is your current play time right now?

[Serela]

It's moreso that GoS is incredibly long of a game. NoR is still longer than DoD, from what I can tell so far. (Of course, grinding for optional junk changes these numbers drastically, but they both take a fraction of the time GoS takes.)

[Validon98]

When I beat NoR, I was roughly at 69 hours of playtime, give or take like five for leaving the game running by accident while multitasking or something. So probably more around 60ish. My expansion file, at endgame was roughly around 130ish. So it's shorter than GoS, but not by that much, but it's also longer than DoD.

EDIT: Oh, and if you want to add the expansion stuff onto that, I'll just give a very brief summary of how long that is. It's five dungeons, divided into two halves each (with a boss at the end of each half), for ten bosses. There's also two Dream Corridors in the final area that serve as the equivalent of the bonus dungeons in GoS (the one at the end of the Depths of Resentment) and DoD (the sealed off areas in the Clock Towers of the End and the fourth stratum's part of the Demon Castle of Chaos).

[Serela]

Jeez, Mo Megniang even seems resistant to Void; Rumia did a whopping 27 damage. Although she's pretty vulnerable to all forms of debuffs (including resist debuffs if you INSIST on casting magic- mega stroke hit for 600. not worth the hassle) if you've got decent IND. With one person on full debuff duty and one on full buff/heal duty, the rest of my party was more or less safe; her physicals almost always missed as long as buffs didn't go down and her magic wasn't too terrifying... usually. Of course, with her special attacks, the fight did get scary towards the end and I only won because of Saya getting Child of Misaki to cast when only her and the debuffer were alive >.>

Quick Break and Critical Thrusting sparked off the lesser demon helped cut the fight time down a lot more than it would have been, but it was definitely still quite drawn out. This was the first fight I didn't aggressively swap doppels. Helps that the most easily aggressive-swapper is usually my magician using lots of main doppel nukes (and magic does not work here...) and that my physical attacks had such good weapon skills I mostly was fine with waiting on main-dop cooldown.

I'm starting to see why Satori can be a good doppel >.> Before I was swapping mains enough that I wasn't worried about mp. But with increasing average skill mp cost and longer fights... yeah.

[Validon98]

Hey, at least you're past Mengniang, that's sorta the big hurdle to the second half, the other I'd say being the Ino-Shika-Chou rematch. Most other boss fights pre-Tower of Babel aren't too bad with proper preparation, but to make up for it, random encounter difficulty spikes hard.

Today's update is going to take some time, I forgot to write it up last night and today's Fourth of July, so I've been doing all kinds of cleaning and cooking in the meanwhile. Not to mention pretty much every update for the rest of the main game is fairly long (nearly 50 images on each one barring the finale, which is only shorter since it's mostly the final boss and cutscenes, and even then I think I'll split the finale in two, one for the boss fight and immediate cutscenes, and another for the epilogue cutscenes/credits which would conveniently make it six parts again.

[Validon98]

Happy 4th of July, it's clearly a good time for some final dungeon-ing.

Nightmare of Rebellion Act: Part 2- Peace in Gensokyo is Like Babel Upon Sand

Although I suppose the Tower of Babel is right now upon snow... eh, the line works maybe.



Dungeon Theme: The Tower that Challenges Heaven 1 (Child of Are)

Not quite sure how this is supposed to be Child of Are, but at last, the final dungeon of Nightmare of Rebellion. Let's climb the Tower of Babel and find the true culprit!

You might also notice those weird faces with the jewels. Those are the gimmick of this part of the Tower.



Babel Raiders are yet another tier of the Fighter-type enemies, and have some fairly dangerous attacks of their respective weapon types to match. Expect much death and sorrow. The Taisai in the back isn't too bad until it throws stuff like One Million Volts at you. Because losing like 95% of your max HP is fun. Babel Raiders are weak to Dark and Gun as usual, Taisai are weak to Fire and Light.



Hey there Ashinaga-tenaga (or Long Arms Long Legs, as earlier translations used, I decided to go with the original Japanese on this one). While he's partially cut off by the top, he's otherwise a fairly dangerous Giant who can crush anyone with powerful Strike attacks. Light and Slash ought to cut him down to size. Thank you Marisa for having Divine Gate by now. I remember my original playthrough where I only had one mage (Marisa) and no Light attacks more powerful than Starlight Whip. I was bad.



This is one of those jewels for those faces.



Each face needs three jewels of the same color to open. You can pass through the door freely after this, and if you pass through it from the back, you are given back all the jewels that were in the face, but it closes again. In theory, if we put the red jewel in this face, then came back through, we could put those jewels in the other face and go the other way. That's more or less the gimmick, and you'll have to find the jewels spread across the Lower Stratum to make your way up to the Waypoint.



Another jewel tier, the last for the main game too.



Voids are, like prior games, incredibly weak to physical attacks, but immune to magic. They'll keep casting the Void elemental spell Void Cutter on you, which more or less can do consistent damage and sorta murders squishy people, or at least people without any MDEF. Plus, you know, Void elemental, so it cannot be resisted.



Doing Sukima Strash with a gun looks silly.



All the enemies. Meretsegers are those snakes, they can Poison you, I believe. Not too dangerous, Water kills them dead. The Backfires are another question, having some pretty dangerous Fire attacks that you probably won't survive without either Fire resistance or MDEF. They're weak to Dark, Gun, and Water. And also one of the first 1/64 chance doppels we've run across. Yeah have fun recruiting one.



That large glowing blue orb thing is a Tonner Meister (likely the same as Donner Meisters from DoD, but with a letter change for... some reason, especially since Tonner Glossmeisters, like in DoD, show up later). They have stupid powerful Electric attacks, but will pretty much fall easily to Fire.



Looks like there's blue jewels as well to take into consideration.



...And yellow ones.



First instances of Adamantite Shards and Orichalcum Shards show up here.



Also a Yin-Yang Orb. This dungeon is one that kinda requires you make the most of Yin-Yang Orbs scattered around the world map. There's so many encounters that respawning them is risky. Besides, since we beat the entire rest of the game, it's easy to just quickly grab some of the easier to get ones. Recommended locations are the one near the entrance of Toono Castle, the one after the room with the fight against Ran, the one near the beginning of the Volcano Road, the one in the building near the Hakurei Shrine, the one near the beginning of the Station, and the one inside Enjo School.



Hraesvelgrs are a bit of a problem. Weak to Stab and Dark, but otherwise fairly evasive, they can both swoop down with regular physicals or throw Light attacks at you. Be just a tad wary.



This, I know, is the next-to-last Dream Corridor in the main game. We'll handle it after we reach the Waypoint.



Unicorn Legends, like Unicorns, are pretty much immune to magic, but are otherwise weak to Fire and attempt to use a lot of Electric attacks on you, especially the rather dangerous Lightning Stab. Your poor back row members might get hit hard.



Wolf Heddins in the back are just better Lycanthropes, possessing Hellclaw Assassination as always and the ability to inflict Berserk on your party. Weak to Electric as would be the norm for them.



Oh hey, a Patriot Beholder (not the American kind, though, despite it being Fourth of July when I'm posting this). Resistant to magic yet weak to Stab as always, they''ll more or less try to drag down your magic casters through interupts and can use some of the most powerful spear attacks.



The Luminescence is somewhat the Light equivalent of the Sylphs/Undines/Salamanders, being a high-powered Spirit. Weak to Dark, but its Light and physical attacks will leave you hurting. Take it down like you would with those other Spirits.



Technically, I was supposed to have gotten a picture of the Shining earlier, but I forgot to do it. Ah well, they're just the low-powered Light Spirit, barely a threat. The Dominion up top is another story, and they can pretty much wreck your face with powerful Light attacks. Weak to Dark, and recruitable.



That Elephant below almost looks like it's carrying a chunk of the Demon Castle of Chaos' town on it, but it probably isn't. Weak to Fire as fits a Beast, it can use such attacks like Nose Fencing, and charge up to presumably use Face Smash (not quite sure, I never let one live long enough for that to happen).



The dragon that's being half hidden is a Shen, which can pretty much pepper you with insanely powerful Breath attacks, including the very dangerous Neutral Breath, which might as well be a party wipe if he uses it. No weaknesses as far as I know, so just blast it with what you've got, although Light and Dark will work much better than the other elements.



...Yeah I think I got Neutral Breath-ed.



Yaay, +3 accessories to spend Sapphires on.



And Trapezohedrons. Alongside Adamantite, Orichalcum, and Dream Shards, this is one of the four endgame rare materials needed for some of the best gear.



That Officer Demon is a tough customer, being the demon-equivalent to the Dominion in terms of general power. Weak to Light, but boasting some dangerous Dark attacks, don't take it lightly, as per usual with mid-to-late game Foreign Gods.



Speaking of those rare materials, this is what you spent them on.



Oh hi there Yukkuri Medal, you're a rare sight.



The hell did I even screw up here?



Hraesvelgr here is pretty much another healing-based doppel, being I think one of the only ones with Repulsion Heal, and it later gets Refresh and Raise Dead (aka "Resurrection but not shit"). Of the healing-focused doppels, it's the last we get before expansion.



Finally made it to the boss room. Let's not do that now.



Over in the Dream Corridor, we've got a Vampire Girl and a Death Bible. Vampire Girls are even more dangerous version of the Lesser Vampires from before, but are just as weak to Light as always. Death Bibles meanwhile are INCREDIBLY more dangerous than their Manuscript counterparts, as they possess Molecular Breakdown, which is a percentage damage spell that is set to 100% HP, and since it's a percentage damage attack and NOT Instant Death, you can't stop it with Instant Death resistance, only either Quick resistance or specifically Percentage Damage resistance, which is extremely rare. Otherwise, weak to Fire, but practically immune to magic.



Elitebeards are... nothing special. I kill them faster with Fire or Water than they can do anything other than stare at me with that blank eye.



Yet another POW Extension. Three left to go.



Yukkuris why



Heeey, Taisai. He's a weird doppel with an assortment of Impair and Support skills, mostly barriers and the like. Not too great, to be honest.



Since I was done with the Dream Corridor, I spent a lot of time grinding and the like for some of the rarer doppels. Here we ran into a Stray Yukkuri, who uh... pretty much will run nearly instantly. The only real way to kill one is to use Damage Net and pray. Sadly, the only way we can get Damage Net is from the Magical Girl doppel... which we didn't get. Guess who gets to grind for those in two updates from now?



Oh shit, an Illyankas. These are basically like the Hydras from GoS, and possess the incredibly dangerous Tsunami, which inflicts Water weakness. I don't think they're necessarily weak to Electric either, soooo... have fun.



Yeeeeep.



Oh hi there number of hits level. you're a sight for sore eyes. 6 -> 7 (7 -> 8 for Hereafter Are), 3 -> 4 (4 -> 5 for Hereafter Are), and Evasions 4 -> Evasions 5. A very much needed level for the upcoming fight.



And we get the Dominion, the best of the Light elemental doppels pre-expansion. Possessing Divine Gate, Sanctuary, and Holy Breath, they're what you want if you want to blow people up with holy power.



That should be Tonner Meister (it's fixed in the most recent patch), but this is the best Electric elemental doppel pre-expansion, possessing Mega Stroke, Blue Starter, Lightning Stab, and... Refresh, for some reason.



Since Backfires are the last doppels I want from here, I believed they might be back here, and I ended up against a Midnight. These guys usually appear in the Middle Stratum of the Tower of Babel, but I guess they can show up here. More or less, the Dark version of the Luminscences. But possibly more dangerous.



Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah.



And there we go, we got the Backfire, who is the best Fire elemental doppel pre-expansion. Gotta have that Disintegrate and Explosion!

But that's it for now. We'll deal with the boss next time, actually, mostly because of how long this update was.

Summary:

New Doppels: Hraesvelgr, Taisai, Dominion, Donner Meister, Backfire

Doppel Levels: Hipporit (RES +5; STR +4; VIT +4), Sorcerer (WTR Power +3; POT +3), Tenshi (ACC +9; Kaname Funnel Power +15; ACC +12), Ichirin (LGT/DRK/MYS Element Power +10; Land Influence +25; LGT/DRK/MYS Power +20; PATK +3), Hell Truck (POT +6; VIT +4; DEX +4), Chen (PATK +4), Shisa (Starlight Barrier, VIT +4; Power Suction; EVA +5), Closed Railroad Crossing (RES +8; ◎ Sleep/Paralysis/Petrify), Lesser Demon (Dark Land Regen (20); ? LGT), Rumia (Weakening Success Rate +25), Manuscript (Magic Heal, STR +4; INT +6), Ran (PATK +10; SLA/STA/STK Power +16), Nitori (FIR/ELE/WTR Element Power +20), Kanako (Row/All Physical Skill Power +16; HP +10; Row/All Physical Skill Power +20), Komachi (PATK +4), Virtue (LGT Casting Speed +15), Youmu (Certain Hit +15), Lesser Vampire (Inferno), Patchouli (FIR/ELE/WTR Element Power +20), Nue (HP +15), Utsuho (Mega Flare Power +20), Suika (HP +20), Crazy Undine (Physical Deflection +20), Sakuya (Multi-Hit Rate Up +1), Togakushi Kureha (◎ SLA), Nashorn (ELE Casting Speed +15), Dominion (VIT +2; Sanctuary, STR +2; LGT Power +7; Holy Breath, VIT +4; LGT Power +10; STR +4), Hellhound (FIR Casting Speed +15), Tonner Meister (STR +2; Blue Starter, INT +2; ELE Element Power +15; Lightning Stab, DEX +2; ELE Element Power +20; INT +4), Kogasa (Equipment Weight -3), Hell's Gatekeeper (WTR Casting Speed +15), Slime (Double Circle STK), Backfire (FIR Element Power +10; Explosion, INT +4; FIR Element Power +15; Heat Weapon, INT +6)

Major Equipment: Devil Staff (Marisa), Daedalus Axe, Diffusion Maser Gun, Dark Shield (Reimu), Blizzard Sword, Body Bunker, Mesocyclone Axe, Garter Belt (Saya), Merlin Staff, Nature Tremble, Dispel Rod, Boreas Amulet, Agni Amulet, Angel Staff, Sanctuary Bow, African Throwing Knife, Nitocris, Yukari Medal, Thor Amulet, Heat Pistol, Sharp Penetrator, Great Worm Rifle, Ils Cacant, Xiuhcoatl, Princess Fascination, Hauteclaire, Linnunrata

Synthesis Recipes: Strength Necklace +3, Keen Pendant +3, Protection Anklet +3, Barrier Earrings +3, Sniper Anklet +3, Keep-Away Muffler +3, Launch Goggles +3, Perseverance Rosary +3, Gale Boots +3, Muscle Belt +3, Magic Ring +3, Reflect Mantle, Head Priest Robe, Barrier Mantle, Manitou Manliness, Hiliger Alba, Anti-Releaser, Mystic Cloak, Latent Amplifier, Cantrip Guardian, Gravity Executor, Mental Promotion, Prince of Evil, A. Muscle Suit, Master Armor, Saint Garb, Sky Stone Shield, Automata Machina, Aegis Shield

Synthesis Done: Strength Necklace +3 (Saya), Keen Pendant +3 (Mamizou), Head Priest Robe (Mamizou), Adamantite, Orichalcum, A. Muscle Suit (Saya), Master Armor (Reimu)

Sparked Skills: Starburst (Light elemental attack, Reimu), Chain Slash (hits 2-4 times, Reimu), Sweeping Shot (row attack, Yukari), Sea Hurricane (high power single target attack, Yukari), Bermuda Attack (inflicts ACC Down, Saya), Ion Tail (all-targeting attack that increases chances of weapon effects landing, Reimu), Heartbreak Shot (inflicts Binding Curse, Saya), Schrage Musik (low ACC high power attack, Yukari), Twin Lightning (hits twice, Yukari), Baryon Bond (ACC boosted against Permanent effect enemies, inflicts Paralysis, Reimu), Triumph Dragon (slays Dragons, Reimu), Sweep Gunfire (row targeting attack, Yukari), Zerstorer (high power attack, Slayer damage is boosted, Yukari), Super Heavy Shell (attack that partially ignores Strike resistance, Yukari), Heartfelt Blow (high power single target attack, Saya), Wiles Hit (hits 1-6 times, Yukari), Chaotic Thrusting (hits 1-6 times, Yukari), Iai Slash (Penetrating attack that Slays Giants and Transcendants, Reimu), Crest Edge (row attack with a high crit chance, and further boost's a weapon's innate crit rate, Reimu)

Update Death Count: 4
Total Death Count: 21
Update Reset Count: 0 (1 technically, I ran into the boss room forgetting that the boss triggers at the threshold of the door and not the stairs up, but this doesn't count)
Total Reset Count: 3

Yay I suck.

[Your Everyday NEET]

Today's update is going to take some time, I forgot to write it up last night and today's Fourth of July, so I've been doing all kinds of cleaning and cooking in the meanwhile. Not to mention pretty much every update for the rest of the main game is fairly long (nearly 50 images on each one barring the finale, which is only shorter since it's mostly the final boss and cutscenes, and even then I think I'll split the finale in two, one for the boss fight and immediate cutscenes, and another for the epilogue cutscenes/credits which would conveniently make it six parts again.

At least it's just 50 images. Mine can reach around 300+ images per update, and 2/3 of it were dominated by the pre and post boss battle dialogue. Plus I have to type every single one of the dialogue. Of course I've only used 1/3 of it.

I don't remember Long Arms and Long Legs being THAT huge!!! I guess when the game list the enemy as giant species, they really mean it.