The Mori Tower, fifty-four floors and two hundred and thirty-eight meters tall, was to be the site of our next battle. Pieces of rubble floating in the air gave form to the Imperial Dragon's twisted irrigation network—a floating waterfall of the dazzling, sparkling poison that would soon destroy the city.
Please be careful! That acid is strong enough to dissolve bone if you let it!
Everyone ready?!
As I'll ever beeeeee!!!!
RUN!
Shit! Damn it, damn it!
We're almost there! We're almost—!
EVERYONE IN!
You think?!
The distance to the building is long enough that I took six or seven pelts of the acid rain. ...The gang is at 1 HP.
There's literally zero way to avoid that. Entering the Acidfall from the front is going to always tank everyone to 1 HP, and you're gonna just have to deal with it.
President Emille's orders were to investigate and halt the rainfall, but... Shizuka's right, I can't call that a strategy! If you encounter even the slightest risk, use your best judgment and then retreat!
Hah... oh god that hurts...
We're inside now, at least.
The whole building's been ruined...
Playing host to an engine of acid rain will do that, I suppose.
Welcome to the Roppongi Acidfall, everyone! This dungeon is not playing games. This session of dungeon crawling is going to be real rough. 2020-2 is more into the idea that what you spend your Dz on should be a big deal, and since I go for content first, that means I'm currently not able to access the next tier of gear. This is going to be a Problem.
See my Keima joke from the previous update.
...Giant Pincers aren't much to write home about, though. They have a spell that can lower your speed in Bubble Breath, and can double their defenses with Fortify, but they're pretty standard dudes.
The acid rain's in a pool over there!
Whaddya say we avoid that?
I concur.
Anywhere you see standing water, it's the acid, and will damage you for the same 15% if you step in it.
You thought that by being in a different series from Etrian Odyssey that you could avoid damage tiles, didn'tcha? Nope!
Whoa?!
Damn it! The dragon's going to jump in if we're not quick!
Sumie!
You got it, boss!
Air Assault is just Dancing Bullets from the first game but it's got a new name and a snazzy new animation. Speaking of from the first game, Flying Sharks were enemies from Daiba there, but here they're earlygame guys. They're frail to physicals, so Sumie is great for killing them, but can do some serious damage if you let them, especially with Drill Attack.
Aerial weakness tho lol
Let's get this dog!
By virtue of being less predictable, Little Dragons have gotten buffed, but they're not actually really different.
Mio! Do you mind assisting me with something I've been meaning to try out?
Always!
Alright, and...
Okay, Firebrand set up!
Hey, we finally got around to Richter's new skill from the first tier of skills! Firebrand is an interesting new toy. Basically, it applies a buff to the whole party that turns their normal attacks Fire-elemental. This is fairly situational, but a lot of enemies here are weak to Fire-element, so it'll do pretty alright with Rush Groove, especially in concert with what Richter's going to do next turn.
It also instantly cures Freeze on the whole party. You know. If you ever... like, need to do that, it does that for some reason.
Mio! Now!
Here's another new toy for Richter, his TROY skills. These are weird ones. Basically, they're guaranteed-application statuses like Satsuki's Mine Toss (and have the same effect of guaranteed Hack Weakness,) and while they're on, any time the enemy is hit by a Fire-elemental attack, they take an extra attack that deals fixed damage dependent on its level, and has a chance to apply Burn. It's a small chance, but the Burn TROY: Fire applies is absurdly good—even at its weakest, it slices the enemy's damage dealt by 25%. If it's applied, the enemy's damage dealt gets neutered into the dirt for a while.
As a damage-dealing tool, the fixed-damage nature of it makes it a bit hard to use, but it's basically designed to synergize fantastically with Idol's Rush Groove—most of Hacker's new skills, as a matter of fact, feel tailor-made to synergize with Idol, to justify the whole 'running both of the support classes' thing. Anyway,
The TROY skills have a bizarre thing where their damage gets better as you rank it up, but the burn ailment's damage reduction gets worse. It scales from 45% at rank 1 to 25% at rank 5.
Owwww
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Alright! It works!
The Trojan in action. Here, it adds 93 damage flat to each Rush Groove Mio casts, so in total this one does about 280 damage with it added. Little Dragons have 848 HP in this game, so that's not bad at all!
Try not dying, you guys.
Think we've got it!
Alright, we don't have time to linger. We've got to hurry, everyone!
There's another one! Are we ready?
Argh, I hate how fast they are!
Got it!
Let's waste it!
The mine went into the little dragon with such force it knocked out one of its teeth.
...but they are just Little Dragons, y'know?
Can't deal much damage if you die early.
Well, we got these at a good time, at least?
Satsuki's low on MP, so I head back and take a break since we're so early on. That's gonna be the last break I have for quite some time.
Man, I miss escalators. Escalators were fun.
I know! I loved them, they meant I had to spend less effort walking.
Mosquito Pitch is still pretty cash for clearing out encounters that look like this tbh
Oh! The elevator's working!
How is the elevator working?
You're complaining?
No, it just doesn't make much sense.
Let me tell you—riding in an elevator in the middle of enemy territory is a surprisingly harrowing experience for how still it is. Even inside the elevator, I could faintly hear the sound of the rain go pitter-patter against the walls, and the waterfall crashing below.
Mori Tower 8F is occupied by part of the offices of Japanese internet company GREE, Inc.
Okay! We've got a body of loot! Yeah, baby!
GOLD
Suncrabs are rarer variations of Giant Pincers with significantly more health. Their spell, Bubblegum Breath, is all-target, and they also have Golden Lasso, which can inflict Stop.
Seems we don't have a choice this time! Everyone, brace yourselves!
OW
Thank you for the healing save point right after forcibly demonstrating your gimmick, game. It's appreciated.
That's a big mouth.
Oh yeah.
Megamouth Dragons are big fat boyos. With 1870 HP and no weaknesses, they're pretty serious slugfests.
They're also pretty freaky-looking.
These versions, at least.
I'll keep us safe for the moment!
Sumie, a mine, if you would!
Pow!
Why?!
Toxic Sludge inflicts Poison. It's 23-damage, so it's not toooooooo bad, but it's not nice.
Ow! Stop that!
Bite And Chew... does damage.
Slay this wretch, minions!
I think protection is important as well, ma'am.
Order Action with a Hacker has a nice little courtesy where it'll target buffs you haven't used and not roll ones you have! Meaning...
Defense Booster and Trash Pickup on the same turn, baby. Unfortunately, the Poison from Toxic Sludge lasts long enough that a level 1 Trash Pickup doesn't immediately end it.
As mentioned earlier, there's quite a lot of thought that went into making sure that hackers and idols not only play nice with each other, but synergize in both obvious and subtle ways. Running a party with both classes is extremely rough for everything up to and including Tiamat, but gets a lot better after that.
Ah, thank you!
But Soothing Song's ailment cure procs and that cures it! Whapow! Anyway, some standard healing and plinking happens, and the bomb explodes for only a little damage. The damage output these guys have is no joke.
Alright, we'll need to go on the offensive.
The standard Gather Power buff here, it's a 25% here.
Everyone, brace yourselves! It's about to unleash something!
Ow ow ow ow ow
Snap is a random-target three-hitter, and boy am I glad I put Defense Beat up.
Alright, you're good.
Good ones! Keep going!
Fell ma'jycks, to me!
With the Exhaust and the Trojan, this Rush Groove deals a whopping 405 damage!
Alright! I'm in!
So am I!
Knee Break is a new gun move. It has turn priority, meaning it's guaranteed to go first like buffs or hacking skills, and it can inflict Stun, yeeting the enemy's action to the bottom of the turn order. It's also just a solid damage option—the damage is roughly on the same scale as the first 6 levels of Aimed Shot.
Engaging!
We're almost there! One more push, everyone!
Richter! You good?
Urgh. I'm alright.
Get outta here!
Yeesh. Big boy.
We just have to hope we're stronger by the next time we run into one of those.
I played that one kinda silly, but Megamouth Dragons are no joke. thank you for the healing save point game
We'll need to jump. Is everyone ready!
If you're unsure, I can assist you.
Three... two... one... go!
There's a split in the jumpable path here. I head this way first.
BEEBEEBEEP
Dragon incoming! It's aggressive!
As in the first game, guys that turn red like this are gonna chungle on over at you.
Anyway he gets bonked to death
True Collector: Y-you guys help me, too! Hey, look, this cardboard box! It's... f-f-f-f-full of parts, ahaha, ahahaha...!
Is it even safe to send them back to the Diet?
Safer than here, at least.
The elevator here leads up to the next area, so we'll leave it for now.
Nothing... this path is ruined beyond passage.
What the hell are these things in the wall?
Faucets, maybe?
Wannabe Hero: Why? Why did it all turn out like this?
Kid...
Sorry, buddy, but you've gotta get back.
No other way over there... Here we go!
This path is long enough that it blows off like, five ticks.
...but there's no other way over here. And you only recover field skills in bed, if you'll recall.
This guy's another aggressive one, so there's no getting a pre-emptive here.
The Stun rider on Knee Break is great for fast enemies like these guys.
Anyway then it kills itself to death.
Hey, this'll be a nice new frame for Saingreed! Sumie, can you massacre it for the parts real quick?
OM NOM NOM
It's +17 Attack and +10 Magic Attack over Mio's previous weapon. That's a good pile of number.
NOW we can head to the next area.
Mori Tower's 18th floor is home to the corporate offices of the Pokemon Company.
Let's attempt to avoid that path if we can.
Ma'am! We're here to help you!
Resigned Woman: It's a waste, though. No point in going back, or even trying. Just let me die here.
And before we had time to react,
the woman was walking into the acid of her own accord.
Shit! Wait!
Resigned Woman: Hahahahaha... I know what I'm doing. I want to take it slow... but you won't let me.
Wait! Please! No—!
But, no. There was no saving it. A woman melted to death in the acid in front of us, utterly bereft of hope.
Rrrghhh... Damn it!
Richter slammed his fist into the wall, once we were out of the acid.
How could this be happening?! If we hadn't been wasting our time with the hunt for this damned weapon, we could've found this sooner, prevented all this! This is completely absurd!
The loss of hope in the common person?! To be waylaid by bureaucrats, prevented from doing real good?! Is that what I'm fighting for?! What am I DOING?!
Tears were beginning to well up in Richter's eyes as he stared down at his own shaking hands, but he reached up and wiped them before they could fall onto his face.
We need to keep going.
Richter...
...It's fucked up, is what it is. It's fucked up. This goddamn Fomalhaut...
...
Mio was shivering. So was Sumie. We could all still hear the sound of the corpse melting just behind us.
The longer we stand here, the more people may lose hope. We have to keep going.
This guy gets bonked to death in three turns.
...Man, these games, am I right?
For how out there the basic pitch of "alien dragons invade Earth" is, it never ceases to impress me how I can look at the events of both 2020 games and go "yeah I'd 100% believe that." There'd absolutely be a good amount of regular people who'd turn to suicide after the first apocalypse was averted, only for a second one to happen a year later. And this one has fucking acid rain that threatens to reduce the vast majority of Tokyo to mush. Christ...
It's a briefcase. ...Do you think she left it here?
Maybe.
Anyway, this dungeon crawl is going on pretty long, so we'll pick it up next time.
