Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 24: Great Poison Swamp

<- Previous: Goddard

At the moment we’re chaining our way through various contacts as we look for ways to bypass the various defences of Grandgold.  Alma Elma got us through Gold Fort.  Nero gave us a device to switch fast travel back on and also pointed us on in the direction of the next link in the quest chain.  I have no idea who our surprise contact is this time, but we need them to get us past the golem army guarding the route through the marching hills, and they’re currently hiding out in the Great Poison Swamp.

The Great Poison Swamp is a big purple lake just north of Goddard.  The entrance to the location can be found here, on the south shore:

The swamp is big, but this is the only entrance

As with everywhere else they’ve been encountered, the purple tiles are poison swamp tiles and do damage every time they’re walked over.  This damage isn’t particularly high and can’t even kill a character as it stops once the character reaches 1 HP.  You might want to keep at least one eye on it as it would be slightly awkward to get ambushed in the middle of the swamp and then find out your whole team is starting the battle on 1 HP.

Also in keeping with the rest of MQ:P part 2, a new location means all brand new monster girls.  Three of them, to be exact.

The ghoul girls are another wolf-pack encounter, as they come as a trio and are recruited as a trio.

Lost ghoul gals - looking for a loving home

They seem to be upgraded versions of the zombie girls.  Personally, I’ve never seen the sex appeal in rotting zombie girls, but given some of the other things I write about, it would be rather lacking in self-awareness on my part to get all critical about it.  I’m sure there are plenty of necromantics out there who’d love to give these poor girls a loving home.

I’m less sure on the warmer.

Technically an undead girl, I think

She’s another, specialised, type of undead.  She was revealed as a new encounter way in advance of part 2 coming out, so anyone following the game’s development will remember her, as well as her rather unusual Bad End.

Probably best not to think too hard about what's happening here...

Um, yeah.  Apparently it does make Luka come a lot before he suffocates to death.

Rather amusingly, both undead recruits have additional lines of dialogue with Chrome back in the pocket castle.  Warmer disapproves of Chome’s rather poor hygiene while the ghoul girl squad responds to Chrome’s outpourings of admiration by trying to eat her.

The third new encounter is brom girl.

The slime girls are toxic...

She’s a type of slime girls that’s extremely poisonous.  Her Bad End is to dunk Luka in her gelatinous body and wrap his genitals up in poison slime.

Splodge, splodge, splodge...

Again I feel ‘poisonous’ might have a different meaning in MGQ-verse as the effect of smothering Luka’s sex organs in ‘poison’ slime is to cause him to fill her jelly body with tons of spunk.

(I’m not one to talk.  I wrote most H-space toxins to behave this way because... fun.)

But that’s enough poison jelly baths and heads inserted in places heads shouldn’t be inserted.  We should at least try and find our contact.

It’s Mephisto.  You can find her on a ridge of stone rising up out of the marsh somewhere to the north.

Why the fuck are you hiding out here, Mephisto?

This also raises some questions.  Such as: Why did you make us trudge all the way through this toxic swamp when you could have just as easily joined the party back in Grand Noah?  We could have avoided all this dicks-dipped-in-poison-slime and heads-inserted-in-places-heads-should-not-go unpleasantness altogether.

“I have a nice bath prepared for you at the castle where I’ll splodge all my lovely tingly venom into your cock.”

“Shh, now is not the time, brom girl.”

Mephisto might not be trustworthy in the slightest, but she tells us she can get us past the golem army blocking the way through the Marching Hills.

This, I guess, is also where we officially get to recruit her to the ‘harem’.  Talking to her in the pocket castle reveals an additional menu option.

Mephisto has two forms – mage with tentacles, or giant demon lamia.  Selecting the new option allows her to switch between forms.  Functionally, she seems to be two characters in one as she has a different trait and request moves depending on which form she’s in.

The giant lamia request move is similar to her Bad End.  I don’t think we need to see that one again.

Her mage request option features a brand new H-scene where Mephisto takes Luka to her school, binds him to a desk with magic, and then lets her pupils use him for... um... educational purposes.

Taking up Mephisto's offer of additional tuition might have been a mistake...

There is a fish girl (sahuagin), alraune and fairy.  All three are fully devoted to their ‘education.’

Yup, probably a mistake... (you don't want to know what she does with the other stem)

After a few extracurricular lessons, it’s time to continue on our journey and find out what Mephisto can do about those pesky golems blocking the way to Grangold (the city).

-> Next: Marching Hills

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 23: Goddard

<- Previous: Gold Fort

We are in Grangold territory, thanks to help from Alma Elma.

Unfortunately, we no longer have the queen succubus in the party as she went off to fight Astaroth and Morrigan in order to buy us time to escape.  We also appear to not be able to use Harpy Feathers, Warp spells or even summon the pocket castle while we’re here as the country is covered by some kind of anti-magic field.  No fast travel for us then.

The monster girls roaming these parts are a mix of old and new.  The basic scyllas and medusas from the original series make a return.  They were always in the category of okay, but forgettable on the ecchi scale if I remember right.

What would you like wound around your dick...

The new girl looks like some sort of butterfly girl and – on the surface – seems moderately less terrifying than the other insect girls we’ve come across so far.

Some sweet butterfly girls

Her Bad End is to grab Luka from behind, wrap her wings around him and then insert her proboscis down Luka’s urethra to get a good suck of his “nectar”.  Where this proboscis comes from I’m not entirely sure.  I think it might be her mouth.

Luka, the human milkshake.

It feels really good and Luka comes again and again until butterfly girl has sucked up the entire contents of his balls.  Beyond the End is a not so Bad End as she decides she likes the taste so much she’s going to keep Luka.  He doesn’t mind too much as he gets to experience ecstasy once a day when she syphons off his sperm.

Our target destination, where our next contact is waiting, is the nearby village of Goddard, which is fairly easy to find as it’s right next to the Gold Fort here:

The village of Goddard

There’s not much of interest in Goddard as it’s under the influence of the powerful ‘lust’ field smothering the whole country.  Everyone is horny and babbling on about how much they love the queen.  Everyone’s behaving like gender-flipped fans of [Goes to insert name of popular boy band, realises said boy band are about 20 years old and haven’t been a thing since the ‘90s.  Tries to think of modern equivalent.  Realises he can’t because all he listens to is Black and Death Metal.  Is Justin Bieber still a thing?  Feels horribly old and fuddy duddy.  Fuck it, let’s bail on this analogy right here and pretend we never made it.]  Everyone’s incomprehensibly stupid, so there isn’t much in the way of background info that can be gleaned.

There are two merchants that will sell stuff (in between babbling about how much they love the queen).  The blacksmith is too blissed out to do anything.  There is a battlefucker, but she’s locked herself in her house and won’t let anyone come in.  Rather interestingly, there are a couple of rafflesia flowers planted outside her house.  Is this what she’s using to counteract the malign lust cloud infecting everyone?

Even the battle fucker is scared to come out.

Something for later.  For know the only thing we can do is follow the main quest strand.  That involves going to the pub (always a good start).

We're not here for drinking...

Speaking to the barman and selecting the 2nd option (which I believe is ordering chicken dinner, which is obviously some sort of code as the place doesn’t serve food).

Or chicken dinner...

And then going upstairs to meet our contact.  Who is...

Or Nero... hey, wait.  What's he doing here?

...not Nero.

Nero is here, but he’s not actually supposed to be the contact.  The contact is currently over in the corner after Nero neutralised him with some kind of Taoist seal.  The contact was also under the spell of the lust cloud and wouldn’t have been any use anyway.

In game terms, Nero is technically our contact, as you need to speak to him in order to advance the storyline.  It’s also useful to talk to him as he gives us a useful device that negates the jamming field preventing fast travel (and pocket castle access) within Grangold.

He also gives us the information on where to go next.  The way to the capital is through the Marching Hills to the north.  Currently that way is blocked by a large force of golems.  We need to go to the Great Poison Swamp first and meet yet another contact, who’ll be able to get us past the golem army.

Seems straightforward enough.  Off to the Great Poison Swamp we go.

-> Next: Great Poison Swamp

Succubus Summoning Art - Nÿte by RaidouZERO

Some more lovely Succubus Summoning art by RaidouZERO.  This piece is of Nÿte.

I'm not sure if that's one of her prized skulls or a fresh victim about to be dropped onto her pile of "trash" skulls.  I like how her head wings seem natural and seem to fit in this picture.  I usually advise artists to leave them off, but they work with this style.

Here is RaidouZERO's original version on DeviantArt (where he also has links to some alternate versions with slightly different horns).  He's also done some lovely pictures of Nurse Honey and Verdé.

Thank you to Jude Duval/LudedWolf for commissioning the piece and RaidouZERO for creating it.

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 22: Gold Fort

<- Previous: The Ruins of Lima

We have the heavenly knight and succubus queen Alma Elma in the party.  As much as there’s a temptation to lock ourselves in a bedroom with her all day, we have a world to save.  The armies guarding the gate of Gold Fort have been lured away by a decoy attack, so this represents a perfect opportunity to sneak behind enemy lines and work out what the hell is going on in Grangold.

There is still a guard on the gate, but he’s a man and Alma Elma is a queen succubus.  The guard and Alma Elma vanish into the bushes over on the right and… well, you can guess what happens.

He never stood a chance...

She doesn’t kill him, though.  Alice checks on that when Alma Elma returns.  I have a party of killer, man(and monster girl)-eating blobs that have been devouring their way across the countryside, but Alice is concerned about a random guard.  It’s rather cute.

(Although it’s possible “devouring” works differently here.  Digestive juices count as pleasure damage and it is still possible to recruit a monster girl after “eating” her.  So who knows how things work in MGQ-verse.)

In the castle, Alma Elma departs from the main party as she takes care of the remaining garrison.  By “take care” we mean put everyone in a blissful post-orgasmic stupor in the blink of an eye.

They never stood a chance...

Everyone human, that is.  Alma Elma warns us when she gets back that there are a number of automata and ant girls roaming around that she was unable to affect.  Those form our random encounters for this location.  Two of them are the ant girls and automata girls we already fought in Lima.  They are joined by a brand new type of monster girl – Paizuri Doll.

Aw, adorable lickle titty dolls

Paizuri’s Doll speciality – unsurprisingly – is her large breasts.  Her temptation move is to bind Luka with her long blonde hair and drag him close enough to wedge his cock between her massive boobies.  She’s not very talkative, but her boobs are extremely expressive as she squeezes and rubs until we inevitably pop.

Titty Doll used Boobs.  It was super effective.

Her Bad End continues right from where she left off.  She keeps plumping those big soft boobs against our cock until copious amounts of white stuff are leaking out of her cleavage.  Eventually Luka loses consciousness from all his exertions.

Despite not being devoured or drained to a dried fish, it’s still an End for Luka.  The experience has left him so depraved, all he wants to do is go challenge titty dolls (and lose) over and over.

Gold Fort is a relatively small dungeon.  You can find Ilias imprisoned in a room on the righthand side.  She is still only accompanied by her loyal slimo and doggo.

You can recruit 4 party members you know, Ilias.  That might help prevent this from happening.

There is some good armour and a decent sword in the chests, but it’s no big deal if you miss it as any gear in this game is usually outclassed by whatever’s available in the next town or city.

The major lore/plot location is the general’s room on the second floor.  We find the general lying dead on the floor.

He definitely never had a chance!

At first Alice asks Alma Elma if she went too far, but it turns out the general has been dead for a couple of days.  You can find his diary at the back of the room.  From his entries it’s pretty clear he’d been brainwashed by the queen (and maybe daughter) back in the capital.  This brainwashing was wearing off with distance from Grangold, but before he could break free of it entirely, someone came along and offed him.

As for who offed him, a couple of likely candidates show up right as we leave Gold Fort through the North Gate.

They might - ulp! - stand a chance...

Morrigan and Astaroth.  I guess this means we’ll be losing Alma Elma here.

Sure enough, she detaches from the party to take on the two Lilith sisters and cover our escape.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

She’s done her job.  We’re through the Gold Fort and inside Grangold territory.  What delights await us here?

-> Next: Goddard.

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 21: The Ruins of Lima

<- Previous: Undine’s Spring

It’s time to invade Grangold.  Back in Grand Noah, Mephisto has cunning plan.

Wait, wasn’t Mephisto the double agent planted by Alice’s mother?  Who you uncovered to be secretly in league with the dastardly Lilith sisters.

Yes...  Well...  It’s complicated.

Mephisto’s plan is a decoy attack with everyone to draw most of the garrison away from Gold Fort.  While that’s going on, we’re supposed to go to the ruins of nearby Lima and meet with a contact who’ll then sneak us through the fort and behind enemy lines.  Once behind enemy lines, we’re supposed to find another secret agent in a village close to Grangold.  The overall objective is to get into Grangold and assassinate Queen Ant, who they think is manipulating the King behind the throne.

Sounds like a suicide mission to me.

Oh well.  I wonder who our contact is.  I’m guessing we’re going to run into another returning character in an unexpected role.

Lima can be found here:

Welcome to Lima.  Everyone's dead.

It’s a bit grim.  The inhabitants have been massacred.  Even children.  That’s Japanese games for you – all bright and colourful, then skeletons.

Lima is still hostile territory.  Random encounters trigger while walking around.  While Lima is a new location, the monster girl opponents are all returnees.  This time the Automata Girl and Ant Girls get to show up a little earlier than they did in the original series.

Ant girls

The ant girls are by Niku Drill, which means they don’t really have Bad End scenes as such.  They’re also tough little buggers with a multi-hit attack that hits like a truck.  I’d feed them to the blobs and not feel guilty about it in the slightest.

“ANTS NOT TASTY!”

Undine and the Slimies disagree.  Nom nom nom.

In contrast, I remember Automata Girl knew a mind-boggling array of sexual tricks in the original series, and even had CGIs for most of them.  Out in the field she’ll try to tempt Luka with an ecstasy-bubble infused handjob, but all her other scenes can be unlocked back in the pocket castle providing you recruit her and figure out what the fussy bugger likes to eat.

Automata Girl gives a bubbly bubbly handjob

The contact is...

The mystery contact, revealed

Alma Elma.  Now, what’s a succubus like you doing in a place like this?

Joining Le Resistance by the looks of things.  She’s our contact and will help us get through the fort.  She joins the party and the first thing she does is fly off to attempt to recruit Tamamo.  Tamamo is still unhappy and depressed, but she’s not unhappy and depressed enough to go full betrayal, like Alma Elma has.  So, we leave her there.

In the meantime, the coalition of everyone else is marching on Grangold.

The decoy assault

This draws away the forces guarding the gate of Gold Fort.  It’s time for us to…

Wait.  If Alma Elma has joined the party, does that mean she’s also hanging out back at the pocket castle?

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

And if she’s hanging out back at the pocket castle, does that also mean she has request moves?

She does have request moves available...

Well, well.  I suppose we should, to satisfy inquiring minds and all that...

Alma Elma’s first request scene is a repeat of her coliseum Bad End.

At the second one, things get interesting.

It feels better than it looks

This is Alma Elma’s classic tailvore scene, where she sucks Luka up and massages/drowns him in ecstasy, but with new artwork.  She also spits Luka out (after emptying his balls, obviously) at the end, which is a pleasant surprise.

The third request scene is advertised as full sex, but it also comes with a warning.  Alma Elma asks us if we’re really sure we’d like to proceed.  Yeah, of course we’re sure.  Let’s get to it!

Should probably have paid more attention at that last choice...

Mistakes were made.

Alma Elma is not being evil, it’s just the code of being the succubus queen.  If someone asks her for sex, she feels obligated to show them the very heights of sexual pleasure that only succubus energy drain sex can reach.  Which coincidentally also involves completely and utterly fucking our brains – and everything else – out in the most comprehensive way imaginable.

Needless to say, Luka does not survive the experience.

But as Alma Elma says afterwards, he didn’t appear to have any regrets, so neither should she.

Well, I mean, it’s not as if death is a setback here.  A quick hi to Death in Hades, a jump in the glowing pentagram thingy, and Luka is right back at the gates of the pocket castle.  Where we can... mmm... do it all over again.

No, bad Luka, we’re getting side-tracked from the main mission here.

Time to head to...

Wait.  The game doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to fast-track us to the next location, and we currently have a level 60 engine of sex and destruction chilling out back at the castle and also available to fill a party slot.  I wonder what can be done with a level 60 engine of sex and destruction...

Hi, Sphinx.  Bosh!

Hi, Leviathan.  Bash!

Hi, Yamata-no-Orochi.  Cra—  Never mind.  A case of mistaken identity.  Sorry to bother you, ma’am.  (ow ow ow ow).

Unfortunately, you don’t get anything but an achievement for beating Sphinx and Leviathan.  Leviathan is tempted to go back to her wilder days of adventure on the high seas, but ultimately decides she has too much responsibility as admiral of the navy.

Yamata-no-Orochi kicked our ass, even with Alma Elma.  I suspect with a better party configuration or a few more levels it might be possible, but it already feels like what we’re doing is a bit cheaty.

If you want to engage in a bit of power-levelling and drag some of your lesser-used characters up a few levels, now is the time.  Alma Elma is as powerful as you’d expect for a heavenly knight and ridiculously OP for this part of the game.  So much so, I’m surprised the game allows this rather than sticking us on rails right to Gold Fort (where she’ll likely be taken away from us).  Whether it was intentional or not, it’s certainly fun to control Alma Elma and have her snu-snu her way through two continents of unsuspecting monster girls.

But alas, the story needs to push on.  It’s time (finally!) to enter the Gold Fort.

-> Next: Gold Fort

Monmusu Quest: Paradox - When an artist goes too far?

Here's a bit of an ad-hoc bonus blog post inspired by an anon comment on the MQ:P playthrough post I made on Monday.

They suggested checking out the pictures folder in the game files as there's some interesting additional content for Gnosis's Bad End scene that was omitted from the main game.

Here's the sequence for the curious.

Gnosis is one of the MGQ-verse's many fucked up angels.  The Bad End scene starts innocuously enough with a blowjob.

It's a Xelvy, so things immediately go all John Carpenter's The Thing.

Xelvy and Delphinus might both get flak for being just as effective at destroying boners as erecting them, but the horror fan in me delights in not knowing what the hell they're going to hit you with next.  Xelvy in particular.  Some of his scenes are just crazy.

I mean, just as you've got used to the unusual mouth parts, off worms the spiky tongue to places we'd rather not have spiky tongues.

(ow ow ow)

This is pretty much where the scene ends in the game.  Gnosis keeps on sucking up Luka's semen and life, and eventually it's fade to black and off to visit Death in Hades for reanimation.

If you check out the pictures directory in your game files (be careful, thar be spoilers), you'll see the art actually takes it further.

I think that might be Luka's testicle Gnosis is sucking up through Luka's cock.

And then I'm not sure.  Is that Luka's inside-out love-sac she's pulled up there, or maybe some representation of his soul/energy.  Whatever it is, Gnosis sucks on it like yummy candy.

It's interesting this didn't make the final cut.  I wonder if TTR looked at pics of Luka's inside-out bollock being dragged up the inside of his cock and went, "Thanks for that, Xelvy, but I think we'll give those last pics a miss."

This is in keeping with the overall tone of the Monster Girl Quest series.  There are many horrible horrible ends implied for Luka, but the truly icky stuff is kept off screen.  You'll never see his skin and flesh slough off after he's been dunked in digestive acids, for example.  And he never gets visibly mutilated.  Which makes sense - these are sex games after all.

(Hmm, I would appear to lack this common sense.)

It did get my little black cells thinking.  I'd like to write a fantasy-esque romp in an MGQ-esque world at some point.  A interesting angle might be to throw in a group of unsuspecting nerdy types from our world into a MGQ-esque world.  Maybe even have them aware of what monster girls are.  Of course we'd have some nice sexy fun times to start with.  Then it might be interesting to show what really happens Beyond the End for some of those Bad Ends.

In full graphic detail.

For the lulz. ;)

It reminded me of a book I read in my teens that was a brutal deconstruction of the whole Earth kids transported to a Dungeons & Dragons magical fantasy world plot.  The kids had the powers of their RPG characters, but then the thief got gutted trying to pick the pocket of a noble and the female cleric (or sorceress) spent most of the first book in a catatonic state after being brutally raped by some random mooks.  Things got better, but they bloody well had to fight for it.  I think it might have been Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series, but it was a very long time ago when I read it.

I'm thinking that might be a fun deconstruction of the MGQ world.  After all, you never really get to see the icky bad stuff the monster girls do to Luka (and each other!).  Definite potential to explore that angle, I think, although I'd need to be careful to avoid making it too cynical or grimdark.

I think I could have "fun" with this.

I'm a bad bad person. ;) 

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 20: Undine's Spring

<- Previous: Esta

Esta’s Tartarus region is a no-go area at the moment.  So, there’s nothing for it but to head back to Grand Noah.

But before then, Alice mentions Undine’s Spring is not far from here and it would be a good idea to take a detour and go and contract Undine.  I think Toro Toro Resistance is a pretty good writer, but this is one section where the plot gets a little sloppy.

If you try to contract Undine before Esta, she isn’t there.  Her appearance only triggers after Alice tells you about her after the events in Esta.  Thing is, this is inconsistent with what’s happened previously.  In part 1 the Tartarus regions were big scary unknowns and the advice was to contract with the nearest elemental spirit before descending into the depths.  It would have made more sense for Alice to suggest contracting Undine before investigating Esta’s Tartarus region.

There is better rationale for it, should you go straight back to Grand Noah first.  The preparations for invading Grangold’s territory are not ready, which does give an excuse for a side trip to Undine’s Spring.

Overall, the sequencing feels a little clumsy here.

I suspect it’s also because I’m a little tetchy at Undine’s Spring turning out to be one of the most disappointing locations so far.

Sexy slimy fun times ahead (warning: risk of absorption and digestion)

Slime Girls are up there with succubi when it comes to my favourite monster girls, so I was looking forward to seeing what new gooey goodness awaited us at Undine’s Shrine and there’s... nothing.

No new content anyway.  We have various combinations of UN_DO’s slimies.

Sexy Slimies

And the blob and jelly girls.

Jelly and Blob.  Avoid Blob.

Nothing new on the Bad Ends or requests either.  Blob girl’s Bad End was never that sexy to begin with – Luka sort of gets sucked up in a weird little opening in her side.  It’s disappointing because Setouchi* has done a pretty sweet piece showing blob girl getting her sexy gloop on, but you’d have to go digging through Tokinokogiri’s Monmusu Delicious Nom-Noms series to find it.  Then again, it probably would have been a wee bit naughty to swipe the art from someone else’s release.

*It’s possible I’ve got the wrong artist here, although it does seem pretty close to Setouchi’s style.

A "better" Bad End with Blob Girl

Overall, the lack of originality shouldn’t be that surprising.  MQ:P part 2 has been fairly consistent so far – new locations get new gals, old ones get returnees from the original series.  It’s unfortunate that this particular segment of the game has been a long stretch of old content (Yamatai, Plansect Village and now Undine’s Spring*).

*I forgot Mephisto’s School of Magic.  And intend to go right back to forgetting about it. *shiver*

Anyway, enuff bitchin’ ‘n’ whinin’.  We got a world to save and a water spirit to get all wet and squelchy with.

Undine’s Spring is the first place where I felt the game was catching up to my over-levelled characters in terms of difficulty.  Up to now I’d been levelling up various characters and switching them out at level 40.  I might have to raise that cap.  My first excursion into the spring saw the whole party taken out by an exploding blob girl and Undine became the first story (rather than optional) boss to wipe me without any dirty temptation shenanigans.

Undine does not hold back.  Bring waterproofs.

The boss fight felt like a legit difficulty spike.  She even took me out a couple of times when I tried coming back with a moderate ‘serious-business’ party.  Those AOE splosh attacks of hers do a ton of damage and she also has an annoying habit of raising her magic-reflecting aqua shield right before the party mage tries to zap her with lightning.

The best way to deal with Undine is probably a bit of Luka-bait cheese.  Have him in the party.  At some point Undine will absorb him and start doing all kinds of naughty naughty.  Don’t select the struggle option for Luka.  Instead have him lie back and think of England while your party healer casts Mega Heal on him every turn.  Eventually Undine’s pleasure damage will outstrip your healer’s healing, but this will give 5 or 6 turns of complete freedom to hit Undine with the other two party members.  And time Undine spends doing various creative wet and squelchy things to Luka’s nether regions is time she’s not unloading that ridiculous AOE water attack on the rest of the party.

The worst of it is that it isn’t even the worst of it.

Uh oh.  We have to fight Erubetie as well?

The relief of finally overcoming Undine is short-lived as Erubetie arrives on the scene before we can properly contract with Undine.  There isn’t even an option to save before we’re thrown right into a second boss battle.

Erubetie is kind of like a more powerful and pissed off Undine.  She also has silly AOE water attacks.  Her dubious (don’t ask) Neverland Frontier attack also makes a return.  In game terms it’s a party-wide debuff that drives the whole party’s stats into the floor.  I’m not even sure there is a way to remove debuffs short of having the character die and be raised again.

So yep, this fight is going to suck.

Ah, but she’s a proper heavenly knight, like Alma Elma.  Which means she’s probably around level 60.  There’s no way they’d sic a heavenly knight on us, going all out, right after that difficult boss fight against Undine.  So yeah, it’s probably one of those unwinnable story fight things.  It won’t matter if we lose.

Luka found out too late that Erubetie wasn't kidding around

Um, Erebutie.  This was just a test, wasn’t it?  I mean you’re not really going to go all out on our pitiful level 40 party.  Um, what are you... GLOOP.

Yup, it’s a proper boss fight.  Lose and Luka will get absorbed and probably dissolved right down to his pearly-white bones.

Fair play.  It’s been fairly easy to coast through MG:P so far.  The double difficulty spike right to the cranium does change things up a little.  Erubetie is – as you’d expect – vulnerable to lightning, so it’s not completely hopeless.  That Neverland Frontier mass debuff is still a bitch though.

After we (finally!) beat Erubetie, Undine points out that her heart wasn’t in it and that meant she wasn’t fighting at full strength (Dissolved-to-mush Luka from half an hour ago might disagree here).  Erubetie isn’t happy with what Alice’s mother is doing either.  So, of the heavenly knights, Alma Elma’s doing her own thing, Tamamo is sulking in her hut and now Erubetie is having doubts.

Can we recruit her?  Can we recruit her?

Nope, sadly.  She’s off to think things through.

We do get Undine though, so that’s quest complete.  I’d also recommend recruiting some of the other slime girls as well.  By this point in the game I was finding the enemies get a little bullet-spongy.  They don’t really pose a threat to the party, but they have so much HP it can take a while to kill them, especially if you’re trying to level a character up through one of the squishier support classes.  Slimes get around this.  Level them up in Carnivorous Slime and they gain the ability Blob Boa at some point (think it might be level 3 or 4).  This is an instant KO on any enemy with the “Digested” state.  Most slimes also pick up the “Melty Shot” Throwing skill, which has a good chance of giving the “Digested” state to all enemies (Carnivorous Alraune also have an attack that does the same thing).  That combo will wipe out most mobs in one or two turns regardless of HP and make grinding for XP/items a lot less painful.

Anyway, that’s it for Undine’s Spring.  By now the preparations should be ready back at Grand Noah.  It’s time to join the war against Grangold!

-> Next: The Ruins of Lima