[Hiatus] Touhou Soujinengi ~ Shuumatsu: The Genius of Sappheiros ~ Weekend!

[Serela]

Breaths are kind of terrible apart from using to activate chasers and get MP drain with a staff (for mp efficiency as opposed to real multitarget magic)

Mass Heal is okay before you can get Area Heal though but it's probably not worth the effort to learn if you aren't a big Satori learning fan, charm-required spells in general are bluh.

[Validon98]

That and Mass Heal SUCKS. Seriously, it's way too pricey for a healing spell, and it has way too long of a cooldown. Area Heal is better by far, though I can't go after that until later.
Also, Muenzuka. Yes. Doing it. My laptop crashed while making the update yet again, so yet again I had to throw my treasure and skill list together from memory. That, plus the wiki is down... *sigh* Like I honestly need this sort of stuff going on. The good news is that if I go quickly enough, I might have another update tonight. That's a big "if," though.

EDIT: I finished screenshotting, but I'm a bit tired of making updates for today. I'll do it in the morning or something. Besides, the last one was sort of large, and I kind of want the wiki back before doing anything else.

[Validon98]

More LP time, brought to you by Nemo, this huge storm that's starting to get close to where I live!

Second Volume- Part 1: Death's Junkyard

So, we have Youmu. Because we got Mokou and Byakuren earlier, we have all of the characters we can get pre-expansion.

Much like her boss fight, Youmu can set up one of three (later on four) stances, being Asura, Devaloka, and Manussya (later on Conjoined is added). Asura boosts physical attack and generally hits areas of enemies, Devaloka boosts physical defense and evasion (probably the worst of the three, in my opinion), and Manussya boosts ACC and CRT (probably the best of the three, in my opinion). Once in a stance, Youmu can then use skills associated with that stance. She's great for bosses and, if you know what you're doing, you can make her good against random encounters as well. The only problem with stances are that they count as a Variety effect, so they can be dispelled and they count towards the five Variety limit.
Growth Trees: Manussya (boosts Manussya skills and related stats), Devaloka (boosts Devaloka skills and related stats), Asura (boosts Asura skills and related stats), Half-Ghost (Boosts HP and MP among other things)
Unique Weapon: Katanas (Slash weapon with good ACC and CRT boosts)
Last Word: Konpaku Flash (Instant Death against all enemies)
Commander Bonus: Increased critical hit rate on physical attacks, 1 Bomb: Half-Phantom Attack (halves enemy RES), 3 Bomb: Six Realms Sword (highly boosts critical hit rate for this turn)
Starting Skills: Manussya Stance, Slash of the Present (Medium+ power Manussya attack that reduces PDEF, costs 1 bomb), Devaloka Stance, 200 Yojana in 1 Slash (Medium power penetrating Devaloka attack that decreases MATK and MDEF, costs 1 bomb), Asura Stance, Ten Kings' Retribution on the Gaki (Medium- power large AoE Asura attack that decreases PATK, costs 1 bomb), Slash of Spring Wind in Saigyouji (High+ power penetrating  attack that requires any stance, costs 2 bombs)

Okay, with that out of the way, let's focus on going places. Like Muenzuka.



It's right over here, in the northwest.



Oh fun, a Higan Retour remix for this place.



Technically we're in it, but whatever.



Yeah, there's a bunch of unmarked graves here.



Yeah, fun times.



Oh, joyous! So, basically, this place has a bunch of stuff from the outside world in it. That'll be fun.



Yeah, outside world technology is still better than Gensokyo's with the exception of the nuclear fusion reactor. Nitori also notes that a lot of these items are now artifact spirits. Swell.



Err, we really don't know that, do we?



Better than the "let's murder our way to who we think the culprit is" you've had for the last couple of dungeons.



And our enemy icons are karakasas. Wonderful.



Alright, Praetors here are the next tier of the Fairy-type enemies. Weak to Dark, they use skills related to their weapons. Alright then.



In the back is an Amaryllis. They can inflict Sleep on you and can also inflict Instant Death. They are weak to Fire, so note that.



This is what happens if you don't kill the Amaryllises quickly enough.



Crap, a Golden Scarab. They can use Hyper Bomb, which hurts. However, Water murders their face, so take note.



Armed Scarabs are weaker than Golden Scarabs. They can only use Bomb, and they are also weak to Water. So yeah.



That's a lot of guys. Good thing I have Silent Selene!



The Wyvern here is resistant to the four base elements, weak to absolutely nothing, and does stuff that hurts. I forget exactly what.



Ittan-Momens are strange. They are weak to Slash and Electric and have an ability that raises the EVA of the entire enemy party. And they also know Constrict (apparently it wasn't Coil like I thought it was in DoD).



You know, this place is supposed to be a graveyard, not a dump.



The Black Pudding in the back knows Digest, which is a draining attack, and its weak to Fire. That's about it.



Oh crap, Atoms. They are upgraded versions of Pus, Bug and everything.



A picture of my computer not actually crashing but the Atoms trying to bug the game through Paralysis. Gee, thanks!



A shortcut back to the beginning. Whee.



The Flowing Lantern is weak to the base four elements, strangely enough, and does something I forget. The Momentus up top is weak to Electric and can use HDD Crash, which inflicts Removal.



The Principality up front knows some Light spells that hurt, and is weak to Dark. The One-eyed Boys in the back can inflict Sleep, I think. They're weak to Fire.



Whoa, Seven Caped People. Weak to Fire and Light, and can inflict Zombie on anyone who's been killed.



Panther Vs are really annoying, because they use Main Cannon, which is the same attack used by the tanks back in DoD. They are weak to Fire, so take them down that way.



Finally, a Lesser Demon instead of an Infant Demon! Weak to Light, but now they know Demon Blast, which is a column Dark attack that Satori can learn.



Last new enemy is a Laughing Tire. Weak to Slash and Earth, I think, but they can use Hit-and-Run, which is a quick attack that can inflict Daze.



We're here. Place your party into Free Fight or some other column formation (preferably Free Fight), make sure Alice has a lot of points in her Manipulation, and make sure you've got Light attacks to spare.



Nope. We're screwed information wise.



Well, it's the last place in Gensokyo related to death, but after this, we're out of leads. Unless the culprits decide to reveal themselves soon, we'll have no destination and thus the incident will remain unresolved. That would be bad.



Oh, hi Komachi. You're asleep.



Trying to impersonate Eiki? Is that like impersonating a doctor, wherein you get in some sort of trouble if you're caught?



Nah, it's just us.



Marisa, I know that's your nickname for her, but she doesn't take kindly to it.
We also ask her about what she's doing.



Hmm. Okay. She notes how she was just taking a small break.



You could say that again. Reimu is pretty lazy.
Satori starts looking at her funny.



Eh, I doubt it.



Komachi, Youmu's half-human! She can't ride to Higan!



Might as well give it straight.



Yeah, okay. Reimu buys it. Huh? I'd figure you'd start accusing her then beating the crap out of her.



Everyone gives their own reason for why they believe Komachi is innocent, which amounts mainly to how she doesn't have that power nor is she competent enough to do so.



Whoa, whoa! Reimu, that's going too far! Besides a women's age, you shouldn't say anything about her breast size in front of her either.



And Reimu deserves it!



Komachi is pretty resistant to physical attacks, but Sakuya has a sword on with Slayer against Foreign Gods, which Komachi is. However, she'll counter physicals with Shinigami Scythe, which is learnable for Satori but I don't care enough. Also, she uses all physical attacks and occasionally buffs herself.




This attack sucks. Basically, I reset and put Free Fight on, because seriously, that attack hurts a lot. It's Dark elemental, if you care enough to equip something that resists it.



Sometime later after resetting whenever Money form Yesterday murdered most of my party, I do it. Byakuren's Starfire is nice for lowering MDEF and for debuffing, if you have high IND.



I'm sorry Reimu called you that. That was unwarranted on many levels.



Because Strawberry Bose Reimu can and will destroy you, physically and emotionally.
Then we lecture her about being lazy.



Yeah, ouch.



Yeah, we've got nothing.



Well, it might be.



Alright, so it's not. I figured not anyways. Eiki wouldn't tolerate that sort of thing.



Hmm? Well, it has to do with death, right?



What do you mean by that?



So, if it's not death, what is it?



Makai!? You mean it could be demons?



That would be bad if it was. We can't get there without some sort of portal.



So the culprit is in Gensokyo. Well, we know that, because the culprit is following us. Although, who was that person reporting to? It could very well have been a person from Makai.



Byakuren. But then Patchy recommends we go to...



Yuka? She's not from Makai.



Err, no, it's Mugenkan. That's a completely different place. She would know nothing about Makai. She's been there, but she doesn't live there.



I guess so...



Yeah, we kind of drag everyone we meet into this nonsense. Not that we're doing something bad. We're just cutting bloody swaths through everything to find things out.



You are asleep again...
So, uh, yeah. Garden of the Sun. That's our next destination. Will we be able to get through the annoying puzzle that awaits us there? Does Yuka know anything? How much grinding will I have to do? All of that is next time.

Summary:

Treasure: Ghost Shield (Reimu), Wisdom Ring I (drop, Patchoulli), Ancient Sword (drop), Steel (x3 drop, x2 treasure), Iron, Bamboo, Elemental Sphere, Hakurouken, Pocket Watch (drop), Spare Parts, Eyeball, Donation Box, Hinotori Feather, Magic Medal, Cumula Amulet (drop), Armor Lining, Dakimakura (drop), Slaughterer (drop, Sanae), Golden Mattock (drop, Alice), Netherworld Robe (drop, Satori), Pretty Mirror (drop), Viking Shield, Gold, Cushion, Thunderking Armor (Reimu)

Skills: Ofuda of Healing (Low power healing spell, Reimu), Bondage Art (inflicts Paralysis), Art of Chaos (inflicts Greater Confusion), Quagmire (lowers EVA), Poison Art (inflicts Poison, All Satori), Mad Blizzard (Medium- power large AoE Water spell, costs one bomb, Marisa), Passion Blaze (Medium power large AoE Fire spell, costs one bomb, Marisa), Collapse Art (reduces PATK, Satori), Fantasy Amulet (Low- power all-targeting Light spell that ignores Magic Barrier and Reflect, Reimu), Perfect Square (Stops enemy movement, costs two bombs, Sakuya), Poison Beak (physical attack that inflicts Poison, Aya)

Satori Skills: None

Recipes: Zangantou, Kashasetsu, Midwinter Buckler, Spirit Shield, Gladiator Shield, Improved Optical Camo, Sturdy Doll, Fencer's Clothes, Atman Coin I, Acute Soul

TPKs: 1 this update, 3 overall
Frustration: Resetting so much is kind of annoying. I'd like to just be done with the bosses. Also, the next dungeon, oh man...

[Validon98]

Second Volume- Part 2: Salerno Garden

The Garden of the Sun's next, huh? Well, let's pay Yuka a visit. I'm sure she won't mind.



It's right down here, for those who don't know.



Okay, so the theme is apparently a mix of the Forest Maze theme from Super Mario RPG and Yuka's theme from whichever one of the Seihou games she was in. Sounds cheerful. Also, I'm going to have to play Super Mario RPG some time in my life.



Gee, you think? It's called the Garden of the Sun for a reason.



Oh yeah, Yuka's a real pain to deal with, as anyone who's read Do the Right Thing would know. Among other things, but that fanfiction stands out among them.



Fun! I hope she doesn't punch me across Gensokyo in the process.



Err, not that I know of. Besides, she's not from Makai. How many times must I repeat that?



And we'll never find out any of them. Well, not until Devil of Decline, that is.



So, the dungeon itself. Anyone remember Salerno Academy from Valkyrie Profile? Yep, the puzzles here work the same way, except the things you knock down via scent regrow after you leave the room, not after a few room transitions. However, the scent you have on (either red or blue) stays for only a few rooms, so be careful.



So yeah, you be covered with the scent you walk through.



Sunflowers here are weak to Slash and Fire, and know Sunburst, which hurts. A lot.



Venoms aren't that bad. Weak to Electric.



For those not familiar with the concept...



Yeah, scents knock down flowers. I was confused by this puzzle the first time I came here, even though I solved the Salerno Academy puzzle both times for Valkyrie Profile without resorting to a guide. It involved mapmaking and some trial and error. The Clockwork Mansion, on the other hand... yeah, whenever I play through again, I'm still using a guide for that.
Enough of the Valkyrie Profile memories. It's a great game, don't get me wrong, but I'm playing this right now.



Another Fairy tier that quickly? Sunflower Fairies are weak to Dark (obviously) and know some interesting skills, including Mass Heal, a good healing spell for them, but absolutely terrible when Satori has it.



And a Red Tongue. They can cancel your magic and are weak to Light. Okay then.



Two new enemies here, the Elephant and Hanging Gourds. The Hanging Gourds are weak to Fire and Slash and lower your PDEF. The Elephant is weak to Fire, but don't let it live for too long, or it will charge up and use Face Smash. And that HURTS.



Goddamn Cockatrices! HCBailly would go absolutely nuts...
Anyways, they're weak to Light and Electric. They have Petro Breath, which Satori can learn. Thankfully Wind of Protection can prevent an unwanted Petrification.



Breath attacks are physical. Patchy can deflect physical attacks.



This is the same battle, and she deflects AGAIN. The third Petro Breath kills her, sadly, but that was kind of cool.



Those are Toubyous. Weak to Water, and can use Constrict. Okay then.



That's a Dorotabo. It's actually undead, so it's weak to Light and Fire. I sort of used Fantasy Heaven here, which sort of killed everything but the Hanging Gourd in one shot.



Crap, a Basilisk. It can inflict Instant Death with its physical attacks and can use Poison Breath, which inflicts some pretty bad poison.



Ugh, an Earth. When paired up with these Venoms, the Venoms will use Control Land to shift the land to Earth. Then the Earth will kill you. Run.



Flipping a switch part way through the dungeon takes away this steam thing, which would have prevented us from bringing scents into this portion of the dungeon. We need a certain scent to get to the next part of the dungeon, though, so this is good.



Succubi here can inflict Charm and are weak to Light. Okay then.



Beware the Killer Mantis! Not really, though. They can attack twice per turn and they just sort of hit you. Water murders them.



After some exploration, I stumble upon the last area. No guide was used. I did not refer to ChefMKT's LP. Nothing. I feel a little proud of myself.
As for the boss, well, I wanted to remember stuff, and I sort of did. Alice needs to have on Spectrum Mystery and Sanae needs five points in her Snakes tree to get a special field effect that prevents Poison. Patchy (or Marisa, if you're using her) needs all the Electric stuff, plus Active Elemental. That should be everything.



Before I went in, however, I ran into this. It seems threatening, but I essentially spammed everyone's most powerful stuff. It fell easily.



Hello, Yuka. Enjoying your garden?



Yep. Summer does that. You wouldn't want to be where I am, though...
She notes the mist and how its making everything sort of bad. Yeah, you must be feeling some sort of pain, at the very least.



Oh?



Medicine! I figured you'd be at the Youkai Mountain, fighting off tengu while the only human you ever trusted is battered and bruised over in Mayohiga... oh wait, that's Do the Right Thing.



What? The mist? It hurts, though.



Errm.



Yeah, according to Phantasmagoria of Flower View.
Yuka notes to herself that it makes Medi cute. Okay, then.



Gee, that's a bit violent.



Whoops, we're here now.
Yuka greets us as Reimu and her companions.



Well, do you want to call our whole group by our names one at a time? Just go with the most prominent person and then stick in "and friends" or something and you're good.



Well, uh, good to know? I don't know if Alice really has been losing dolls... great, more Do the Right Thing memories. That scene where we first met Medicine was a bit disturbing.
Reimu yells at them to stop. Yeah, we have questions to ask.



Uh, well...



That should do it.



Alright, thank you, have a nice day, Yuka.
We mention the Makai connection. Again, not. From. Makai.



I think so.



Wow, you forgot your own backstory, haven't you? It's called MUGENKAN!!! You know, the Mansion of Dreams? The Dream World? Underneath the Lake of Blood in the mountains near the Hakurei Shrine? I bet you haven't been back there to see Elly and the others in a while.



She's talking about the mist. It's not the miasma from Makai. So, once again the trail's gone cold. Huh. Well, I guess that's it. Might as well leave.
And then they ask Satori to read her mind.



Uh, Satori...



I think you pissed her off.
Meanwhile, we cross Medicine off the list of suspects. Why?



Yeah. It's not poison, but it definitely weakens people.
So, we're leaving, right?



Damn it.



Okay, sure. I have a skill to negate poison, anyways.
The others ask Alice to stop Medicine. That's not going to work...



Yeah, artifact spirits are sort of not dolls. No matter what Alice does, Medicine can't be controlled by her.
Reimu is fine with it, though.



Good old belligerent Strawberry Bose Reimu.



Couldn't we just, you know, run?



Crap.



Welcome to the first boss in while that's easy to an extent. Yuka has a dangerous physical attack known as Parasol Charge, but that's what Hourai Doll is for. Spectrum Mystery can be used for blocking the large amount of Earth attacks they both have. Yuka is weak to Electric, and Medicine has no weakness. Just bash away with those, make sure Sanae puts up the poison-blocking field, and heal when you get hurt, and you should be fine.



For a very powerful youkai, you were a bit of a pushover, Yuka. You too, Medicine.



What, did you think youkai enjoy being exterminated?



I understand. Reimu, on the other hand, is not too willing to believe.



Life? If it's life, then how could it be used to weaken people? Wouldn't it be used to heal people, or something?



Ohhhhhhhh. So, life is being sapped from the youkai. Couldn't it also affect humans, though? If this culprit can manipulate life, then why just the youkai?



Okay, that's a strange way to put it, but I guess it's true.



Youkai are immortal to an extent, but true immortality means one thing and one thing only...



Exactly! The Hourai Elixir! So, that means...



Possibly. Now, this seems on the mark!



Yep, we've got to go to Eientei to deal with them.



I guess so. Huh, that was fast.



Oh, she wants to let Eirin know she can have as much suzaran poison as she wants. Okay then.



Yeah, we were just leaving. So, that's it for the Garden of the Sun! Next time, we go into one of the most annoying dungeons in the game in order to deal with Eirin and Kaguya. Are they the culprits? Is the power of Hourai really capable of this catastrophe? We'll find out in the next couple of updates, because guess what? Eientei is another two stage dungeon, so it'll take a couple of updates to deal with it.

Summary:

Treasure: Sunflower Seed (treasure x2, dop x1), Water Shard, Blank Scroll, Minotaur Axe (Alice), DVD-ROM, Rock (x1 drop, x1 treasure), Electric Shard, Iron, Magic Medal, Raising Heart (Patchoulli), Pretty Mirror, Beast Mail (Alice), Fire Shard, Sun Tzu's Art of War, Tinbe (Reimu), Dragon Slayer, Crow Feather, Insect Killer, Blessed Armor (drop, Reimu), Earth Shard, Steel (drop)

Skills: White Thaumaturgy (increases MDEF of whole party, costs one bomb, Sanae), Manipulate Puppet (like Marionette Parrar, except for the entire party, costs one bomb, Alice), Void Spirit (shifts all Land towards neutral, Patchoulli), Fire Crest (High power Fire spell, Patchoulli), Fantasy Seal -Concentrate- (Medium power Large AoE Light spell, Reimu), Soul Sculpture (Medium power attack that heals Sakuya 100% of the damage dealt, costs one bomb, Sakuya)

Recipes: Inferno Blade, Steropes, Aquamarine Hammer, Devil Destroying Gohei, Sorceress Broom, Python, Suzaku Fan, Arondight, Guinness Book of Records, Carbine, Hourai Greaves, Nyuudou Eye, Muramasa, Stormheart Shield, Spangled Kindergarten Uniform, Inferno Plate, Frozen Plate, Gaea Plate, Thunderclap Plate

Synthesis Done: Deva Scroll (Byakuren), Muramasa (Youmu)

Formations: Sunshine Lunch (this one is REALLY good)

TPKs: 0 this update, 3 overall
Frustration: Well, that was easier than I expected, although at one point there was a mad dash to the healing circle. The next dungeon is going to be annoying for real this time.

[Serela]

Mokou with her silencing fist (And her atk speed boost POW tree) or a Satori with proper gear to act quickly with her natural permanents both remove most of the danger of the next dungeon. Very much worth it.

And then Nitori's weapon helps on the boss a lot...

[Ikari]

Argh damn it, now I'm going to get all the spoilers ;~;

Nyeh, it's worth it~ I love how Satori was brought along to help and ends up making everyone pissed off. Strawberry Bose pretty much threw every character that could cause a reason to fight in the game and put them in our party. *Cough*Nitori*Cough*

[Nihilanth]

Agh Eientei . . . that dungeon was a real pain to me.

. . . Not even done with this game and it's one of the few in a long time to get me cursing out loud again. 

[Validon98]

Oh yeah, it's a pain. I've started working on it, and trust me, I'm not exactly in the best of moods. I've only just gotten to the midpoint of Stage 9 with both teams. Now for the other half!
Also, if power gets knocked out here (which it might), expect nothing for the next couple of days. Gotta love living up north.

[AnonymousPondScum]

Oh Touhous, you so crazy.

The god of the Hakurei Shrine wouldn't be Khorne by any chance, would it? :V

Also, Y U SO PUSHOVER YUUKA. I think Strawberry Bose just couldn't remember all the lore and forgot that Mugenkan is nearby but not *in* Makai.

Also also, I love how aside from the beginning of the game Byakuren has no dialogue. I think while the rest of the party is perpetually bickering she's standing off to the side staring at random pretty objects and is utterly oblivious to anything else going on around her unless she's directly attacked/fighting. :V

[Validon98]

Also also, I love how aside from the beginning of the game Byakuren has no dialogue. I think while the rest of the party is perpetually bickering she's standing off to the side staring at random pretty objects and is utterly oblivious to anything else going on around her unless she's directly attacked/fighting. :V

Well, technically Byakuren's not supposed to be IN the party right now. The same with Mokou. We have them gameplay-wise, but story-wise, well, we'll get them, just not now.
Although your explanation is funny in and of itself. While the party is being slain by random encounters, she'll just be staring at the sunflowers or something, going :D

[Ikari]

I think while the rest of the party is perpetually bickering she's standing off to the side staring at random pretty objects and is utterly oblivious to anything else going on around her unless she's directly attacked/fighting. :V

I like that idea~

While the party is being slain by random encounters, she'll just be staring at the sunflowers or something, going

Aaaand now I can't un-see Byakuren being the amazingly cute airhead.

[Error]

I know I'm an update or 3 late, but I think Boss Youmu's stances can be dispelled.

[Hanzo K.]

Oh, you might want to dive back into the garden to fight the Succubus repeatedly. They drop a useful item for Byakuren, the Sexy Undergarments. You might already know this though.
I've found it's quite useful for getting Satori some of her better moves, such as Mind Blast and the like.

[Validon98]

Yeah, sure. I'm not worried about it, though.
What I AM worried about is the fact that having to fight two different bosses in a row without a break sucks. I'll have the update up after I deal with that. At least the power hasn't gone out here.

[achicken]

You intend to pick up Petro Breath, or is Satori not good enough for that yet?

[Validon98]

Honestly, I don't care about Satori (gameplay-wise, not story-wise!). While the concept of Blue Magic is great, it doesn't really work well in this game. There's only a few skills worth getting, and the breath attacks aren't them. As Serela has mentioned before, they're only good for getting off chasers.
On another note, I FINALLY BEAT THE BOSSES! I never want to go through that section of the game ever again. And yet, there's still more of Eientei ahead of this. *sigh*
I hate this game sometimes. I really do.

[Hanzo K.]

I've actually found that Satori is pretty damn good once she has Poison Breath and Poison Arts. I made damn sure to get the latter of the two before going against Yuuka and Medi.
You wouldn't believe how useful it was really. At this point in the game, which is where we both are right now, Poison Arts will do about 750 each tick on Yuuka, provided you land Toxic and not usual Poison. And that's not counting the smashing she'll be getting from everyone else.
I don't exaggerate that once Satori gets either of those two skills, and Mind Blast, her usefulness dramatically shoots up. Boss fights get pretty easy once she gets those.
Of course, I've liked Satori to begin with, but I'm putting that aside with all this, and I'm working off my own personal experiences.

[Validon98]

So, in addition to working on this, thanks to raocow I've started playing a game known as Copy Kitty. Blowing stuff up can be cute when you do it right!

Second Volume- Part 3: The Rage of the Ages Burns for Eternity

I need to play Flames of Eternity. I heard it was good.



Eientei is here in the south. This couldn't go wrong.



And we have an Extend Ash~Hourai Victim (or is it the other way around?) remix. Not too bad.



Yep. Eight stages of hell later, and we're pretty close on the tail of the culprit. At least that's what we think.
You might also notice Mokou shows up down there. If you didn't get her before, she'll join you automatically upon entering Eientei, so now she'll join in on cutscenes.



Hopefully we'll find that out today.
Sanae is confused, though. Why?



What? So, I guess that means she's innocent? Unless she was doing this just to sell more medicine...



I thought those Dream and Nightmare Pills were enough.



Really Reimu? Shouldn't we just punish them either way, regardless of motive?
We enter.



What's the matter?



Okay then. It's called an illusion.



That's oddly specific, Youmu.



That seems to be true. And if one's a trap, the other will make it.



Yep, the gimmick of this dungeon is to split your party in two. Honestly, this is one of the worst gimmicks in the game, I absolutely hate it, and it's just so stupid. You have to hope all of your characters are up to snuff, otherwise you're screwed.
Magicians should go over on the right, and physical attacks on the left. That's pretty much what's necessary.



Oh, hey Kaguya.



You're not talking about Mokou, are you? Honestly, whether or not that's true is up to debate.



Oh, hey Eirin. Yeah, this is quite a boring place.
Eirin asks Kaguya why she has a copy of the Bunbunmaru Newspaper, because they don't have a subscription.



Apparently Aya just dumps it wherever. Wouldn't that be bad for sales?



What do you mean by that?



Yep. We need to have a word with you.



Oh boy.



Uh, I wouldn't call it "invade," but we're here.



Crap.



Hmm? Wait a minute, then why...?



After pissing off Reisen and Eirin, she gets this order. Apparently also Reisen is going to be punished for Tewi's disobedience. Really? That's cruel...



I don't like the sound of that. What script?



She's talking about Sanae. Well, she is from the outside world. And she sort of liked anime and such...



Here is me before making the correct decision in terms of party setup. Poor past me is going to get a big surprise.



Okay, we've got a Blood Slime, a Bamboo Monster, and a Lunar Virus. They're all weak to Fire. The Blood Slime can drain HP with Digest, the Lunar Virus inflicts statdowns, I think, and the Bamboo Monster can raise its stats with the Grow ability.



Again, this was before I set my parties up right.



Now that we have our set-up right, we can proceed. The Inaba in the back is another Fairy upgrade, coming in the usual varieties, although the first team deals with the mages while the second team deals with physical ones. Weak to Dark, as usual.



Chasers are really useful in this area, especially when so many things have a weakness.



This, of course, is an attack being used directly after Marisa used Passion Blaze.



Oh, Nitori's Last Word!



It causes an explosion that deals megatons of damage. Or it would if Nitori had a better weapon. It also causes her to take out every single one of her inventions at once. Alright then.



So, an Iron Mouse. They tend to drop Iron. And they are weak to Electric. Simple.



Behold, the almighty Broom Gods!
...That doesn't exactly sound almighty. Nevertheless, they are immune to Light and Dark and are weak to Slash. Not a problem for Nitori.



There is a door up here. It leads to treasure. Get it.



And midpoint for the first team! Onto the second team!



Okay, we have a Vorpal Bunny and a Zeni. The Vorpal Bunny can inflict Instant Death with its attacks, and the Zeni does something. Also, I highly doubt being whacked with a giant carrot would hurt.



Nevertheless, TPKs exist. And that means I have to restart with both groups. Joyous.



Gapuuins here have crazy EVA as well as Perfect Dodge and Magic Barrier. If you hit them, however, they simply fall over and die. They're weak to Electric.



Oh boy, a Mai Kubi. It's weak to Light, but it can use Scream, which cancels magic just like those Hell's Gatekeepers could do before. I really hate that.



And a Mokumokuren. I don't know what it's weak to or what it does, really.



That there is a secret passage, recognizable by the strange folding wall there.



And a Crocodile. It hurts. Plus it is weak to Water, I think. Okay then.



Finally, midpoints! Now we can return to here without having to go through that first half again.



Well, better late than never.



That's an Oboroguruma. It reflects physical attacks and knows Hit-and-Run.



Pound the mochi, pound the mochi~!
I forget what exactly the rabbits said in Silent Sinner in Blue.



Finally, the spot before the boss. Time to get there with the other party!



That is a Nightblade God. I don't remember what it does, because I didn't stick around too long to find out.



The same can be said of the Raksha. I know it has physical attacks, but that's it.



Alright. Well, time for round one of Eientei's annoying boss fights.



They're bunnies. I don't know if they dance or not.



Not really.



That is true. Also, this was not the party I ended up using.



It looked more like you were playing with your rabbit friends.



Well, your luck's about to run out.



Again, wrong set up, but I'll tell you the basic strategy. Tewi has some very damaging attacks, but they have low accuracy. Debuff her accuracy with Byakuren and Satori and the rest is merely chopping her health to bits.



Of course, she can heal herself, which is bad.



Me on a later try (resets, they are a thing) encountering the almighty power of Ancient Duper...



...Which has really bad accuracy. If it does hit, it's pretty much a one-shot.



Hurray?



Yeah, this is what happens when it does hit.



Well, we got her.



Any last words?



You look awful smug there, Byakuren. Then again, the dialogue is the exact same regardless of who is in your leader position.



Meanwhile, we've got Reisen.



NO.



Apparently the other path was the wrong one. This is the correct path.



Err...



They're bullets.



We're going to reach her anyways.



For boss time!
Okay, again, I screwed up. I had to do another group with this. But again, the basic strategy is to have Sanae in your group, which I didn't in this run. Have her use Wind of Protection, because Reisen spams status effects like it was no thing. She'll also use "Lunatic Red Eyes," which inflicts Berserk. Don't let your character become Berserked.



Note that this is the second time I was TPKed by Reisen. I didn't capture the first one.



Well, that was awfully close, but we did it.



And graphical glitches made Alice invisible. Great.



Well, then do we have to beat Tewi as well?



Huh?
Patchy notes that a hole was made in it when we beat Reisen. So, we can get in now/



Why are you showing up now?
Well, we had to fight Tewi because I decided to fight Reisen first on this run. And then I had to reset. And then I had to fight both of them again. I made it after that, thankfully.



The cutscene doesn't change regardless of which boss we kill first. Also, new music, this time a Cinderella Cage~Kagome, Kagome remix. It's pretty weird sounding.



So, this was what my final setups were. Those who fought Tewi are on the right, and those who fought Reisen were on the left. Sakuya was great with Private Square.



Yeah, that was not fun.



Since when were they not serious about us coming into here?



They very well might.



Whatever the case, we now have a warp back to the entrance. But can we brave the horrors of the Heart of Eientei in order to reach Kaguya? Are they the culprits? Is there any other possibility at this point? All of that will be revealed next time!

Summary:

Treasure: Rusty Blade x2, Bamboo (x2 treasure, x4 drop), Sunflower Dress (Patchouli), Magic Mushroom x2, Sewing Needle x2, Magic Shard, Magnum Trident (Sanae), Bracelet of Insight II (Patchouli), Spear Mastery (drop), Eyeball, Iron (x1 treasure, x5 drop), Snakeskin, Magic Medal, Headshot Goggles II, Donation Box, Untouchable Goggles II, Squall Hairpin II, Gold, Marmot Eater (drop), Indefatigable Earrings II, Steel (treasure x1, drop x1), Silver Tray, Spare Parts, Launch Earrings II, Protective Choker II, Pretty Mirror

I kid you not with the amount of Iron and Bamboo drops. I'm not going to run out of those for a long time.

Skills: Tengu Support (makes the target go first, Aya), Fire Chaser (chases Fire attacks, Nitori), Stardust Reverie (Medium+ power penetrating Electric spell, costs one bomb, Marisa), Blind Beak (inflicts Blind, Aya), Ice Falchion (High power Water attack, Patchouli), Magic Napalm (Medium power small AoE Mystic spell, Marisa), Wind God Tree Leaves Camouflage (grants large amounts of Perfect Dodge to the party on the turn used, costs one bomb, Aya), Puppet Shield-French Dolls (decreases all damage to self by 75%, Alice), Heavenly Halo Slash (Low power Devaloka penetrating attack that decreases MATK and MDEF, Youmu), Enlightened Sword (Low- power Asura small AoE attack that decreases PATK, Youmu), Yukkuri Slash (hurts Yukkuris better than normal attacks... I think..., Youmu), Hyper Trigger (raises IND, Byakuren), Zero Kelvin Buster (Medium+ attack with added Water damage, Nitori), Elemental Shield (raises either Fire, Water, Earth, or Electric resistance of a single person by two levels, Byakuren), Duplex Barrier (makes one character immune to either physical or magical attacks, Reimu)

Satori Skills: Shadow Boom (single-target Dark spell), Star Blaze (single-target Light spell)

Recipes: Ruby Shield, Dartfrog Clothes, Lama Robe, Lucky Shoes

Synthesis Done: Ruby Shield (Alice), Carbine (Nitori)

Formations: Red Pupil

TPKs: 4 this update, 7 overall
Frustration: High. And It's about to get to its boiling point...

Also, does anyone actually like this dungeon? Or do you hate the gimmick as much as I do?

[qno2]

Those drops, I hereby petition that the Weekend-patch should be known as "Godsend-Patch". In the normal version you'd break out in tears of happiness for every single one...  :V  And then probably lose the fight and cry even more.

I like the idea in itself: finding a strategy (or the cheap trick: Tewi,

Spoiler:

Suwako & Kanako

) for the boss-fight and deciding which characters are necessary to pull off both (or later:

Spoiler:

all three

) fights can be quite interesting.
Didn't like it for the dungeon though: considering how much this game hates the player it's a major pain to redo all of it because the RNG decided that everyone is paralyzed now, despite equipment that was supposed to prevent that.  And I especially didn't like how this gimmick was implemented: redoing the teams each time you get a TKO, having to reassign the formation every single time, accidentally putting the wrong person in a team and doing it all over again. But I don't know whether the engine is even capable of saving both team-setups.

Eientei as a dungeon however... bad memories. Way too many enemies. And it only gets worse from here on. Ohhh so much worse.


Gotta thank you for reigniting my spirits. After leaving this game for a few months I'm finally doing all kinds of stuff (filling up the bestiary with Aya for no reason whatsoever, grabbing spells for Satori, grinding up my underleveled characters... and, as I just found out, finding the two chests that I've apparently missed, oh joy :V ) I wanted to do before the final fight of the main game.

[Error]

Heh, imagine trying to go through Eientei pre-weekend, while trying to get all of the treasure...

Spoiler:

The grouping mechanic also comes back with a venegance in Stage 18. Hope you like splitting into three groups!

[Validon98]

@qno2: Yeah, the drop rate went from woefully bad to hilariously great, mainly for unique items, but also for common things like materials. Also, you're welcome for reigniting that interest. I hopefully didn't trigger bad memories. I'm trying only to do that for myself. Thankfully, the last time I played this, I was on Lingering Summer Heat. So the game is actually a bit easier this time around. That and I know what I'm doing.
@Error: Oh yeah. That's always fun. And by fun I mean why the hell did the developers think it was a good idea? This isn't Final Fantasy VI, you know.

In terms of how I'm doing, I sort of blazed through the Heart of Eientei, sans boss fight. I'll be doing that pretty soon. I have terrible memories of that fight. Very terrible memories.

[Hinacle]

Heh, imagine trying to go through Eientei pre-weekend, while trying to get all of the treasure...

Spoiler:

The grouping mechanic also comes back with a venegance in Stage 18. Hope you like splitting into three groups!

And again in

Spoiler:

EX Final Stage but, it's not as bad since you have enough allies to be able to split them up.

[Serela]

Oh whoops, forgot about party-split. My advice was meant for -this- upcoming stage :V

While the concept of Blue Magic is great, it doesn't really work well in this game.

It actually really does, I think; I found Satori extremely effective for the entire game and used her almost all the time, and very happily so. Poison Art spam is highly effective until around Heaven, she's usable for that+disabling the Lunar Wraiths in Eientei, and then she's extremely useful afterwords in A.Anywhere a chaser party is effect, and B.Anywhere you want to use MAD THUNDER which is just the best. (And then for many boss situations with her supports+offense) Demon Collider is also nice for randoms since a lot of stuff is weak to only dark. But Mad Thunder is the best. Get it from Iku. It's very useful on several bosses even if you don't really use Satori in randoms.

edit:And late in the game (e.g. expansion) she's fabulous for status effect spam to hell and back. 21 farm is a lot easier with Medoroa spam, etc

[Ikari]

I'm horribly lazy and I lack the patience to get hit by the spells I want, but I'm still going to make sure Satori has all the spells ever. For only one reason.

Goddamnit I love Satori as a character.

[Nihilanth]

For me . . . I wasn't fazed TOO much by the party split since I grind to keep all my party members on the same levels, but what really annoyed me was traversing the entire stage + figuring out the teleportation mechanics. (Combined with getting confused, having to run in and out then fix all the party members again.) I think this was the stage I started using the wiki to guide me.  :V

Spoiler:

I'm now at stage 18, and I'm really not sure what level all my characters should be around to tackle that stage.

[Validon98]

Second Volume- Finale: Hourai Victim

This is it. The second and final area of Eientei. Let's try not to die.



Those enemy icons are weird. Aren't they those ghosts without faces or something?



Low Ninjas here are weak to Dark and can inflict Poison and Blind. Not too bad.



This Virtue is weak to Dark and likes spamming Shining Stars and Holy Zapper.



Three enemies in one! The Moon Race at the bottom can weaken you with Enervation and can stop you with Time Stop. The Lycanthrope knows Hellclaw Assassination, which hurts, and the Scorpio knows HDD Crash. Fun times.



Stop Time, being a bitch.



Love Eggplants. They just love to paralyze you. Let their love burn by setting them on Fire.
After going through a certain door...



Back here again, huh?



Yes, and we smashed right through them.



She's doing... something.



It's apparently a video game.



Yup, your defense failed.



Kaguya, if you guys are the culprits, this isn't really helping...



I swear, this is a reference to something, I just don't know what.



Oh, uh, yeah. We're powerful, all right.



Other group? Do you mean... you're not the culprits?



Hmm, so even Eirin is stumped as to the identity of the real culprits. This is surprising.



Any reason for doing so?



Dragon Maids. They're weak to Dark and can hurt you with breath attacks and Sweeping, which has a dispelling effect. Also, I found out what the Nightblade God does. It reflects magic. Yeah, I found that out the hard way.



It's really fricking dark.



This switch fixes that little detail.



See?



Wow, I can't believe I'm meeting these here. Well, these are Yukkuris. They act pretty much like they do in Devil of Decline. Both of these ones run. Bastards...



Whoa, that was a short dungeon. Anyways, you want to prepare carefully for this fight. Here is my party for the fight with each of their roles:

Alice: Marionette Parrar and nothing else, really.
Nitori: Her gun has Slayer against Warriors and Magicians. Add in Spitfire and you have a very dangerous physical attacker.
Marisa: LASERS!!! Her Laser tree has an effect that adds some Slayers to her Lasers, especially Warriors and Magicians.
Byakuren: Makai Temptation and some stat downs. There's a very good reason why I want that.
Sanae: Buffing and healing, as usual. Plus now she can revive people now. That might help.
Youmu: As a commander, she can reduce resistance. That is also very useful.

Alright, let's go!



Yep. We're here to fight you.



There's no real escape! We've got you now!



No. Shit.



Yeah, Sanae's still confused by that.



And Nitori still thinks that.



Yeah, that's a little bit crazy.



Huh? Why lie about it? It's obvious from previous discussion this has nothing to do with you, so why claim it?



Hmm?



Oh boy, time to punch things.



...Were you really just playing that game.



Err, you two know each other. Why say it that way?
She mentions the whole night sparrow thing from the newspaper.



Aya...



*head desk* WHYYYYYYYYYY!?



You might as well. She isn't doing much.



Don't mention that also...



What, you can't like anime?



Hey hey, we worked well enough getting here. All that statement's going to do is make us fight back.



Please, don't go on with this any longer.



Hmm?
She asks for the reason why they did this.



That is true...



Fine! Let's do this!
Then Reimu tells Satori to do her usual method of forcing.



What? They blocked it too!?
Marisa thinks its because it might not work on powerful youkai, although she also notes that we're mostly powerful youkai, and Satori had no problem with reading us.



Yeah, she must have anticipated that and blocked her own thoughts back then.



Ahh...



Hey hey hey, don't shoot Satori!



Hmm? Well, then.




Yeah, Eirin doesn't like making herself appear more powerful than Kaguya, despite the fact that her real power is miles above that of Kaguya.



Yeah, this has gone on long enough.



End it all now!



Let's do this!



So, we have another boss theme, this time being Kid's Festival~Innocent Treasures. If this doesn't sound serious enough to you, I would like to know your definition of "serious."
As for Eirin and Kaguya, the goal is essentially to inflict Control on Kaguya, because she is weak to mind-altering effects like that. While that is active, she can support your party, plus she won't be supporting Eirin or attacking you. Then just go all out with Nitori and Marisa, with Sanae and Alice providing support as needed. Kill Eirin first. If you kill Kaguya first, Eirin will revive her. Don't let that happen. As for weaknesses, they have none.



Here we have Kaguya's skills. She has a party wide buff for damage dealing and defense, so apply both to your party. She can heal you as well if need be.



Oh boy, I don't like this.



OWW.



Actually, never mind.



This is Byakuren's Last Word. Not that it sticks, because I reset a LOT for this fight.



This might hurt.



This might hurt.
It ended up not hurting.




This doesn't hurt either.



Guess what this does? It heals Kaguya back to full. I have this happen as she's about to die about three or four times. Resets were abound.



However, I FINALLY did it. Not a really great fight. I guess you could have Sakuya use Colosseo World as Kaguya's health gets low, but its not really necessary if your rush.



We did it! About damn time...



Uh, Reimu...



Yeah. They were lying.



They did. It's called a "lie."



Apparently Eirin's mind can be read, but not Kaguya's. That's because Eirin hasn't dropped whatever barrier there is on Kaguya.
So, uh, why were you doing this whole set up?



What does that mean?



Please do.



Yeah, the Hourai Elixir manipulates life in order to extend it infinitely. Mokou understands that too.



Okay, but apparently someone has a similar power.




A Lunarian!? But, they don't give two shits about Gensokyo! Why poison the life here? To purify it?



Oh, right. If this is a Lunarian, then Eirin and Kaguya can't do shit. No wonder they're trying to be careful about the whole thing.



True.



So, it was all a test of character? Then, I'm pretty sure we passed with flying colors.



You can say that again.



Huh? Another objective?



You don't mean...



What are you...!?



It's the person from before! The person gets away, though. Chase her down!



Yep, that was them. So, we meet for the first time? Or not, because they just ran. So yeah, it's obvious those people are following us. Of course, with every place we go to, we come one step closer to finding them out...



Hmm? I believe that she tells Reimu to go after the culprits. Of course! We're already doing that.



Thank you.



Does she really care? No.



I guess so. You've got the Hourai Elixir in you as well, Mokou.



Yup. We've got squat left. All we know is that the mist comes from the power to manipulate life.



Hmm?



I guess so. We've gone to most areas in Gensokyo, and there aren't many left.
Nitori suggests the Youkai Mountain. True, we haven't been there yet.



Maybe not...



Yeah, that's all that's left! So, the culprit is either at Youkai Mountain or Bhava-agra. If we visit those places, we should find some clue, at the very least.
Sanae still doesn't believe it.



Yeah, Kanako's a lying bitch. Suwako is to an extent, but not as much as Kanako.



Yep!



So, there are two of them. I highly doubt those are great disguises, and I still don't get how we didn't recognize their faces. Or not recognize. Either way.



No, really? Apparently you aren't aware of our own power. We're on to you!



I really don't like the sound of that.



You want to reveal yourselves?



This could be very bad.
But now that the Eientei crew have been proven innocent, what will happen? Will we find the culprits at the Youkai Mountain or Bhava-agra? Find out as we begin the Third Volume of Genius of Sappheiros! We are not done yet. Not by a long shot.

Treasure: Hinotori Feather, Elemental Sphere, Sword Mastery (drop), Earth Shard (drop), Sun Tzu's Art of War, Sunflower Seed, Blank Scroll

Skills: Omijuki Miracle (revives one person, costs one bomb, Sanae), Diamond Cutter (High power Earth spell, Patchouli), Purgatory Impale (Medium power large piercing attack with added Fire damage, costs one bomb, Nitori), Dolls' War (field effect that doubles Shield EVA and increases Shield DEF by 25%, Alice), Weapon Bless (raises PATK on one person, Byakuren), Sacred Barrier (raises entire party's Light and Dark resistance by one level each, costs one bomb, Byakuren), Earthlight Ray (Medium power large AoE Mystic attack that ignores Magic Barrier and partially ignores defense, costs one bomb, Marisa), Giga Crush (Medium- power large AoE attack with added Electric damage, costs one bomb, Nitori)

Formations: Apollo Break

TPKs: 0 this update, 7 overall
Frustration: That was annoying as all hell. Thankfully we get a bit of a break in the next dungeon.

[Validon98]

Third Volume- Part 1: Ahh, Mountain Climbing is Such a Pain~!

So, we're heading for the Youkai Mountain in search of clues. It's the only place in Gensokyo that had an icon that has been grayed out so far. Does that mean it's the location of the culprits?



Here it is. Right at the north of Gensokyo. I wonder if the choice to place it up north is either a reference to actual location in Japan or to Death Mountain from Legend of Zelda (which is always in the north).



Yet another new theme, this time being an Autumnal Fall~Fall of Fall remix.



Yep, it's pretty large. Also, If you haven't gotten Byakuren, well, you have her now.
Nitori mentions something about the river and going downstream.



Yeah, she's just a human, Nitori.



Yup. We don't know if the culprit is here or not. Well, we're about to find out.



Okay, starting the dungeon off we have a chest we can't open till later.



The enemy icons here look like glowing fuzzballs. Okay then.



And starting off this battle we have a brand new battle theme to celebrate our getting to the Third Volume! It's an original song that I have translated as Song of War, as opposed to the name of the first battle theme, which was called Danmaku Match. It's a pretty badass theme, if you ask me.
As for the enemies, these are Nurikabes, which are pretty physically resistant but are weak to Water. Sic 'em, Patchy.



These Great Vipers are weak to Water and can Paralyze you. Hope they don't get Patchy or whoever you're using as a mage.



...That's kind of disgusting. These abominations of nature are Penanggalans, and they're weak to Electric, strangely enough. They can put you to sleep if you're not careful.



Youkai Mountain Crows in the back are weak to Electric and Pierce, but love to stun your party members with Swoop. Be careful of that.



And in the back we have a Hariti, which is weak to Electric and generally tries healing the enemy. If you can charm it, you can get the almighty Area Heal for Satori. I might try to get it. Later. When I can actually bother to have enough IND to charm it.



And these are Rafflesias. You might recognize them from Devil of Decline. They work the same way, except I don't think they can inflict Instant Death with their attacks anymore. They're weak to Fire and Slash, if I recall correctly.



Oh boy, midpoint time of this stage. The Youkai Mountain is divided up very strangely. There is a midboss of Stage 11 (right after this healing circle), then a boss, and then Stage 11 continues after that until a certain cutscene plays, and then you're in Stage 12, and then that goes until another boss. I'm going to go until the boss. I'll do the rest of Stage 11 and then Stage 12 in the next update, because there is only the one boss at the end of that.
But let's deal with the midboss first, shall we?



What the hell happened here?



Apparently so. It couldn't have been an oni's power, could it?



Hmm, we don't know that, but those culprits did say they were going to display their power, so maybe this is how they're doing it?



Yeah, we know there's at least two culprits involved, though we don't know much beyond the whole life manipulation thing.



They had suggested Suika before. Well, there's other oni besides Suika. She isn't the only one who could do something like this.



Who's there?



Ah, Momiji! Here on patrol, I assume?



Err, we're just passing through. Don't mind us. And certainly don't mind those youkai we sort of kicked the crap out of on the way up.



Because investigation?



That's actually a Defiant of Shrine Maiden reference. At the beginning of Counterattack of God Human Being (or whatever the second of the three games was called), Aya flips over a shogi game Momiji was playing with Nitori, I think. I forget exactly who. But yeah.



We already said no.



Patchy, I don't know if that is true. We still don't know that.



Momiji, are you sure the tengu and kappa have nothing to do with it? Well, I would assume so. They aren't ones to be bothering others.



With the mist? If said person was a youkai, then it would be hurting them and that would be a bad thing for them.



Looks like she wants to stop us from going further. Okay then.




Good old Strawberry Bose Reimu. Never change.



Screw that, it's boss time, damn it!



Momiji is really simple. Throw Earth attacks at her, keep your party full up on HP, and you'll be fine.



One word: Pushover.



I'm sure we'll be fine.



Aya, you know, crow tengu are already above white wolf tengu on the social ladder. This shouldn't make you feel any better.



Nope, we're not worried. We'll be fine, I'm sure.



And now we're on the portion that's equivalent of Stage 3 from Mountain of Faith, the previous area being the area from Stage 2. Although we didn't see Hina or the Aki sisters. Weird.



Yet another Fairy tier known as the Helmet Fairies. They bring some pretty powerful stuff to the table, so be careful. As usual, they're weak to Dark.



Orangutans here can boost their PATK and PDEF with Sake, but Fire knocks 'em dead.



And finally Elite Tanuki. They can put you to sleep. And they're weak to Fire. Use that.



Here we go, the actual boss fight. Make sure that Reimu is in your party. That might be a very good idea. Plus make sure you have some Fire and Earth attacks.



Also, there's a shortcut back to the beginning here. Make use of it if necessary so you can access Kourindou, Akyu, and the shrine, as well as that treasure from earlier.



Who's there?



Cirno? What're you doing here?



Because the youkai are weakened? Isn't that a bad thing?
She notes she also wants to freeze some frogs. Of course.



No kidding. Suwako would be pissed.



That's a bold statement if I ever saw one, Reimu.
They wonder why Cirno's up here. Yeah, isn't this place dangerous?



Of course you are.



Err, no. We're just passing through.



*sigh* Of course...



You're not much better, Reimu.



Yeah, incident or no incident they don't care. That's why we've been steamrolling them throughout this whole game.



Oh crap.



Put your hands where I can see them, Cirno. You are under arrest for planning frog freezing, which is a violation of Moriya City law. I will say it again, you are under arrest!



We haven't done anything wrong! Those holes weren't us! We're trying to resolve a goodamn incident here!



Oh screw you, Momiji! She shouldn't be here either!



I don't like the sound of that.



Seriously, what the hell, Momiji? Why do you have to be such a dick right now?



Apparently, if she helps...



She won't be punished for any wrongdoing. I am not happy with you, Momiji.
Cirno agrees.



Yep.



Aya, why did you have to insult her?



Never mind that, we've got to blow through you and question the goddesses of the mountain. You're just in my way!



Bring it!



This is a simple boss fight. Have Reimu use Evil Sealing Circle set to Quick (or just Omnidirectional Demon Binding Circle, which nulls all status effects, which you get once you have enough points into the Barriers tree). This is mainly because Cirno will start off with Perfect Freeze, which freezes you. And then Momiji will use...



Expelle's Canaan, which has very low accuracy but hits like a truck, and when you're frozen, you can't dodge, so... yeah. Avoid getting frozen.
Besides that, Cirno is weak to Fire and Momiji is weak to Earth. And that's about it.



You think that damage is good? She uses Atomic Kappa and deals almost 5000 damage to Cirno. That's the power of Hot Spot Vulcan, high Fire land, and Element Bullet set to Fire.



Again, pushovers.



I don't know if Tenma's going to be that pissed. If our intentions are pure, he should overlook it. Hopefully.



Not a good day for you, huh Cirno?



Yep. An idiot gets her just reward.



And we're onto the second portion of Stage 11. But do Kanako and Suwako know anything? How much of a pushover can we make the next boss fight? Will we ever find the culprit? That will be answered within the next couple of updates, hopefully.

Summary:

Treasure: Rusty Blade, Skill Ring II (drop), Pretty Mirror (drop), Iron (drop), Orge Killer (Alice), Youkai Shield (Nitori)

Skills: Air Torpedo (single-target attack that adds Mystic damage, Nitori), Little Legion (covers all allies, costs one bomb, about one of the most useful skills ever, Alice), Power Direction (High power attack that inflicts Instant Death, Sakuya), Rainbow Serpent (Medium power large piercing Electric attack, Sanae), Thunderbolt (High power Electric spell, Patchouli), Tengu's Fall Wind (largely increases chance to hit enemies for all allies this turn, costs one bomb, Aya)

Recipes: Divine Spirit Gohei, Diamond Broom, Aerocobra, Demon Lord's Fan, Naglerling, Tablets of Fate, Assault Rifle, Rainbow Greaves, One Hundred Eyes, Shichitei Nenbutsu, Ogrehand, Vidhya Scroll, Thunderhead Buckler, Open-Armpit Shrine Maiden Clothes, Elegant Maid Uniform, Master Fencer's Clothes, Atman Coin II

Formations: Momiji Splash, Circle Nine Form

TPKs: 0 this update, 7 overall
Frustration: Surprisingly low. It won't pick up until later.

Also, sorry this is late. I planned to have it up earlier. I have homework to blame for that.

[Hinacle]

How much a pushover? Lawl Suwako and Kanako fight and using the correct status effects~

E: I forgot how to english >_>

[Validon98]

Third Volume- Part 2: Puny Goddesses

The last time we left off, we beat the crap out of Cirno and Momiji. Now we must push onward in order to question the goddesses of the Moriya Shrine. How bad could this possibly be?



These are Clear Waterfall Avatars. They are Dragons, so they're weak to Dark and resistant to the base four elements. However, they carry insanely powerful column attacks like Dark Zapper and Death Zapper. Great if you're trying to learn them for Satori, not so much if you want to live.



There's a Basan in the back. It's weak to the usual stuff birds are weak to plus Water. Instead of Petro Breath, they know Fire Breath. Okay then.



That is a Weak Tengu up there. Of course. It's weak to Electric and can use Tornado, which can Daze you. Which is bad if you want to actually do anything that turn.



A Veteran Power. Weak to Dark, uses Light, not actually that bad.



This would have been an easy kill.



Then I realized I was out of bombs. Not good. Thankfully Alice is a goddamn tank.



The Long Arms Long Legs does stuff. I think it hits it. I don't know much else because I ran and didn't encounter more.



There's a Wanyudo. Weak to Water, uses Hit-and-Run, and maybe something else. I forget.



And last but not least Ancient Battlefield Fires. Weak to Water, and I think they use some sort of cursing attack.



This path feeds into that same shortcut from earlier, allowing us a quick route of escape to a healing circle and the entrance.



See?
After healing, I head up further.



Now we're technically on Stage 12. Also, more holes.



You're telling me.



You can say that again.



She runs off. Why?



Yeah, we can't lose valuable party members.



Chen! She got hurt pretty bad, I assume.



Yeah. That culprit... I'll tear her limb from limb!



So, Yukari is investigating, eh? Well, Chen's here, so where's Ran?



That's sort of obvious. Or it could be another person than the one spreading the mist. There were two culprits running away back at Eientei, so one might be spreading the mist and the other could be causing the devastation.



I don't think so.



Aha, not Suika! I didn't think the oni had it in her to hurt people like this anyways.



She's fainted... can't we try to heal her and get the story from her?



Apparently not.
Satori says she couldn't read a thing because of Chen's condition. Damn, and we were so close to finding out the culprit...



That much we know, at least.



And it isn't Yuugi. So, we're really running out of suspects, huh?



Nothing to do but that.



Help her? Maybe she'll let us know something.



Reimu, that's cruel.



I reach the end without too much trouble. Make sure Alice has Little Legion, Byakuren has as many IND boosters as possible along with her Petrify spell, and make sure that Sakuya has Killer World and her Instant Death causing attacks. You'll see why in a moment.



Yep, the Moriya Shrine. It's been a while since you were last there, huh Sanae?



Yeah, those people must be keeping their distance or otherwise causing havoc elsewhere.



So it's not the tengu.



Yeah, that might be a reason why they, for the most part, left us alone.



Yeah, there's only here and Bhava-agra, and that's it.



I doubt the culprit knows about Hourai. Granted, the powers are similar, but the effects and usage differs.



The only suspects left. Well, let's give it a go, shall we?



Hello Kanako. I still hate you, you know.



Suwako, I wouldn't piss her off...
They start fighting for a bit...



Yeah, this isn't the Suwa War anymore. Get used to each other.



What is it?
She mentions that we're here. Of course.



Understand what?



You bitch. I bet you know who it is, don't you?



You superbitch. So, we can cross them off the list.



Err, they're not causing trouble. They're about to send us further and further on a wild goose chase, though...



Yeah, it's been a LONG day, hasn't it?



I should be approaching evening soon, huh?



Oh yeah, the cucumbers. I heard they were a little bad...



Whoops, said it too early.



You better. People don't like bad cucumbers.



Err, no.



Everyone has been uncooperative and giving us grief. First Yuyuko withheld information, then Eirin tricked us into thinking she had something to do with it, and now you're about to pull a Yuyuko on us, aren't you?



Nope.



At least you tell us that much.



Everyone agrees almost at once that they aren't them. Why would they hurt youkai if they gather faith from them?



Hmm?



We kind of know some stuff. Just not everything.



They should.
They say they don't know.



Of course. Give us information, damn it!



I was already suspicious.



Oh, don't resort to insults...



Not if they're fighting like this...



Satori fails to read them, of course.



Of course they did.



Because they're bored and want to mess with us badly. I hate you two. So. Much.



I doubt that's going to work...



Another test of character? Really?



Hell yeah!



Kanako, Suwako commands the curse gods, not you...



This fight is hard. If you do it the normal way. There is a very easy way to do this. Set Little Legion on Alice on the first turn to have her absorb (or get killed by, I guess) Kanako's opener. Then have Byakuren buff her own IND and Sakuya cast Killer World. Do whatever with anyone else. Then, on turn two, use one of Sakuya's Instant Death attacks to take out Kanako (she's weak to Instant Death) and use Byakuren's Petrify spell to debilitate Suwako. Use Youmu to reduce their resistance as well. This is really simple, although the RNG can and will screw you up if it wants to.



Like so.



Instant Death, check. I already got Petrify, plus I don't need Alice or Patchy for the rest of the fight. Suwako is weak to physical attacks.



Like that. Sakuya also gets a 6000 damage hit on her. The Great Maid's Slayer on Foreign Gods plus a critical plus the weakness equals "Suwako, just fall over. You're DEAD!"



PUSHOVERRRRRRRRR!



It's okay, they deserve it.



Please do.



Yeah, they say they aren't the ones who caused the incident, and Satori confirms this.



Yeah, they're still hiding something.



Yeah.



Yep, only one suspect left...



Alright Tenshi, we're coming for you!



Err, will do. I'm still not happy about you hiding the truth, though...



NO.



Hmm? She wants Sanae to grow too, huh. Well, I guess so. But that still means that if Tenshi isn't the one who caused this, we will be suspectless. You could have, you know, given us the answer straight.



The truth is out there. Hopefully.



That was a bad call on your part.



Well, yeah. She needs a bit more time to learn stuff, I guess.



Still, I think you could have given us a hint. Where to look, at the very least?



And with that, Bhava-agra appears. Is Tenshi the culprit? Are we missing anything? Will the next dungeon drive me insane? That will be next time, where we do like we did in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and go to Bhava-agra!

Summary:

Treasure: Wisdom Ring II (drop, Patchouli), Venom Rune Clothes (Patchouli), Rune Staff (Patchouli), Donation Box, Fairy Spear, Magic Shard, Youkai Mt. Rock x2, Rock (x1 treasure, x1 drop), Spare Parts, Continental Shield, Youkai Mail (Alice), Maneater (Sanae), Hinotori Feather, Magic Ring II, Undine Ring, Atmospheric Shield

Skills: Spell Enhance (increases MATK, Byakuren), Maiden's Bunraku (Marionette Parrar on a single target, costs one bomb, useless, Alice), Haste (increases SPD, Byakuren), Optical Camouflage (makes Nitori immune to th next two attacks against her, costs a bomb(?), Nitori), Elemental Weapon (imbues a character's weapon with either Fire, Water, Earth, or Electric, Byakuren), Suwa War (Medium power Large AoE Earth attack, costs a bomb, Sanae), Agni Radiance (High power all-targeting Fire spell, costs one bomb, Patchouli), Jack the Ripper (Medium power attack that hits 1-3 times, Sakuya), Half-Spirit Defense (deflects the next attack aimed at Youmu, Manussya only, Youmu)

TPKs: 1 this update, 8 overall
Frustration: Low now, high later. I HATE the next dungeon.

[Serela]

If you actually lose to midboss momiji, the defeat text is "She bit me!"

Bwhaha <3