New areas mean new enemies. Healers we've met before, but they're especially nasty when paired with fast, tough, powerful companions like Rogue Knights. Rogue Knights will beat you up, or summon
even more Healers for backup.
Armor scorpions! In the Bazaar region these were loners, but around Endor they like to attack in packs, as shown here. They have great defenses, so we're in for a long fight.
Or, you know, not.
They give good xp, too.
Unlike in some iterations of the series, DW4's Agility stat
only controls your position in the initiative order each turn - defense power is unrelated. Thus, SpeedUp sucks; in the rare battles where you might want to cast it Cristo will have his hands full keeping everyone alive.
As always in NES-era Dragon Warrior titles, Skeletons are badasses. Great hp, good defense, terrifying attack power.
The castle town of Endor, but more importantly: the first bridge of the game! It's broken, of course. I've given the people of this world a lot of shit for their laughably overcomplicated solutions to the "I need to be on the other side of that there water" problem, but in fairness I have to note that apparently holes in the fabric of space-time are the more reliable technology.
Strangely enough, I played DW4 before I saw any Star Wars movies, so whenever I see Return of the Jedi it always reminds me of fighting tournaments, SPOILER, casinos, and SPOILER.
Though, if there are Ewoks around here someplace, that'd at least explain what happened to the bridge...
Anyway, did I say casinos?
I sure did! Another series first, I think - though I guess DW3 had monster battles you could bet on.
It works pretty simply: each game requires you to bet casino tokens ("coins"), and if you win, you get more coins than you started with. There's just one catch: unlike a normal casino, you can't cash out. Instead, you can trade those coins for fabulous prizes. The prizes really are fabulous - we'll see them in depth, along with the various casino games, next chapter.
This
ispretty nice, at least if you have access to save states. Guaranteed wins + exponential growth = easy game breakage, if you're into that sort of thing. I'm not, so the goodies at the prize counter will remain out of reach for now.
This
is good advice...
...but not everyone can follow it. With that sobering example in front of them, Team Alena left the casino, vowing never to return.
Instead, the party goes shopping, hoping for some new kit for Alena. But she can't equip anything here, and all the tournament fights are 1v1, so there's not a lot this shop can do for us. I might have bought Cristo some half plate, just on general principles, but it's not going to matter.
Alena's Feather Hat offers more defense, but the Wooden Hat is still the best head protection you can actually
buy. Just because they're too embarrassed to sell it at the armor shop doesn't make it any less true.
My weapon shop image got corrupted somehow, but no big deal; there's nothing we haven't seen before, except for that last item. What kind of weirdo would fight with an abacus?
But enough of that. We're done with the "crass materialism" portion of the program; it's time for the extreme violence.
The tournament is all anyone can talk about - Alena included, probably. With, ok, one exception:
: I'm old and plan to retire after selling it...
: Meh. My dream is to kick unprecedented quantities of ass, not to help
other people do that. Hope it works out for you, though.
During the pre-tournament looting spree, the party happens upon a door that the Thief's Key can open. What treasure lurks within?
Oh those utter jerks.
Though, using our magic x-ray vision, we see that this building has two up staircases, even though the level above only has
one down staircase. I honestly forget what the deal is with that, but I'm sure it will sort itself out when we come back here with the magic key in chapter 5.
Santeem is west of Endor. Coincidence?
We'll check up on them after the tournament.
Like any good visiting dignitary, the Princess first makes a courtesy call on her father's counterpart.
: If the winner is a woman, I won't be required to marry.
: Please enter and win the tournament.
: Princess Alena, I envy you for being so free.
Boss. I
love it when people beg me to do stuff I was planning to do anyway.
Also: women can't marry other women in Endor? How backwards is this place?
: I admire that you're concerned over this doomed world and are embarking on a journey to prove your strength!
In case you've lost track of the plot, I guess. Though, what's with this fatalistic "doomed world" crap?
Late regret is better than none, I suppose, and it's not like we weren't planning to do this anyway.
Alena tries to pay the King's treasure room a visit, just to be sociable, but is thwarted. I guess they know about the Thief's Key here.
Ok, enough preliminaries, it's tournament time. It seems that there've been a lot of fights already, and there's a clear favorite:
: He is immensely strong and utterly merciless.
We've never heard of him before, but he definitely made an impression on the spectators:
: "Necrosaro, Necrosaro, Necrosaro!" Hmph.
Seriously though, DW4, we get it. Terrifying enemy, major fight incoming, make your preparations now. I know I said it was Tournament Time, but I'm thinking first it might be Leveling Time.
To give her monster-hunting a little purpose and context, Alena goes exploring.
To the north, she finds...another broken bridge. Maybe bridge construction is tougher than I've been giving it credit for?
We haven't heard any of the teachings espoused by the
churches Houses of Healing; maybe the abolition of bridges is one of the central tenets of their doctrine? Like, they worship Neptune and are required to destroy anything that might girdle His mighty power?
Bridge-related conspiracies aside, Alena's wandering is eventually rewarded:
The Metal Slime! Mainstay of the series all the way back to Dragon Warrior 1. Metal Slimes take almost no damage from attacks, are fast, and like to run away, but if you can manage to kill one before it gets bored...
...you get enough XP to level everyone on the spot.
Just another ordinary level for Alena, nothing to see here.
Cristo picks up Increase, which raises the defense power of the whole team.
I have no screen shot for Brey, I guess he didn't learn anything interesting.
With that, Alena feels ready to tackle this Necrosaro creep. Back to the castle!
Inside, we find a guy who's willing to talk about something other than Necro-fucking-saro. I'm not so sure about his logic, though: even if you have a bunch of strong guys around, there's no guarantee that they'll want to help avert whatever disaster is coming down the pike. Then again the King is already backing away from his own plan, so the fact that this guy's theory makes no sense might just be evidence that he's right.
For real this time, no more distractions. It's fighting time.
On the way: more Magic Key doors. Once we have the Magic Key, the looting spree is going to be
epic.
Technically we've already been here, interviewing the spectators about Necrosarjerk.
Inside the fighters' waiting area, we find this polite fellow.
Did I say we were done with the crass materialism? Not quite. The Iron Claw is an excellent weapon that only Alena can use. With it, she kicks more ass than even Ragnar can aspire to (though she's not quite as good at taking a punch). This will be her primary weapon for the remainder of the chapter and much of chapter 5.
Also, we have medical herbs. Handy, since Cristo won't be joining us for any of the fights.
Probably overkill, but hey. If Necrosucko turns out to be a pansy, we can always sell them back later.
Ok then. Alena's got almost 100 hp, she can punch people and stab them at the same time, she's got all the herbs she can carry, and her hat has a feather on it.
Let's hit it.
(You see what I did there?)
(You see, Alena is a martial artist; her fighting style relies heavily on hitting her opponents)
(I'm so clever)
All Hun can do is punch you, and Alena is better at it. Before long...
Between fights, you're allowed to use herbs on yourself, so you're fresh for the next match.
The game doesn't try to figure out whether it makes any sense to offer it, but hey, NES.
Roric! His battle sprite gives off a very heroic vibe to me, for some reason - like this is what the male main character would use for a battle sprite, if PCs got battle sprites. Battle sprite battle sprite battle sprite.
This is Roric's thing: instead of just hitting you, he throws his boomerang for level-appropriate damage. We could have done this too; this same thing happens when you use the Boomerang item in battle (except the message is "So-and-so throws
away the Boomerang"). But doing that deals less damage than a regular attack without any compensatory advantages, so...yeah.
Despite the different messaging Roric isn't any tougher than Hun, and soon...
This is why it pays to use your herbs aggressively between fights: you're allowed to scavenge fresh ones from your opponent's unconscious body.
Our third opponent is Vivan. She likes to hit us with Icebolt, but has no defenses or healing magic.
So pretty soon, this happens.
Hey, it's the guy with the pre-battle nerves! Hey, guy!
Sampson is our first serious opponent in this tournament. He hits harder than the other three and has far more hp. In this screenshot, I'm being forced to use a medical herb
during battle. Astonishing!
Even with that boost, Alena isn't in great shape at the end of the fight. Better shape than Sampson, but still.
If that guy was 4th, presumably the 5th is even tougher, I wonder
Oh.
Oh.
I'd forgotten all about this fucker.
Give him this much, the Linguar isn't cheating; there's really only one of him in the battle. The other three are illusions. Each turn, you have to pick one to attack...
...and if you guess wrong, he makes fun of you and punches you in the face.
He's only tough enough to take 2 or 3 hits from the Iron Claw, but good luck landing them.
You see, each turn he makes a fresh set of illusions...
...and picks a new spot in the lineup.
As far as I know, there's no clever strategy for figuring out which Linguar is real - you just have to keep rolling the dice until you come up lucky. It's equal parts interesting and infuriating.
But even the Linguar can't hold Alena back forever.
Final match. We're low on herbs, but if -
Yeah, that's right: legendary badass Necrosaro blew off the tournament. What did he have to do that was more important than getting to marry a princess?
It's a bit of an anticlimax, but a win is a win, I guess.
: Perhaps you should return home and let him know you're alive and well.
We've run out of places to explore here in Endor, so sure, why not?
We'll just walk out of the castle so Brey can cast Return, and -
- and get approached by a soldier of Santeem, who delivers his message and then falls over dead.
Oh boy.
Time to roll on home and save the kingdom.
Back in Santeem, the guards are missing. Already killed, one presumes. It's sad, but not unexpected, and they did their duty.
But the gossipy man is missing too, along with the maids...
...and the old man out back, even.
The royal treasures of Santeem are untouched.
But the priest who's supposed to preside over the House of Healing is nowhere to be found.
Just like everywhere else, there are no corpses, no blood, and no signs of a struggle. He's just...gone.
It was predictable, by now, but knowing makes it worse. To see that empty throne, to
know...
At least the cat survived.
No maids, no guards, no father. No people anywhere.
Alena makes the jump from her room to the back garden, just once more...
...then leaves Santeem forever.
"And what befell the people of Santeem?"
Well.
That ended on a bit of a down note.
If you're familiar with the genre you can probably deduce the whole sequence of events from the clues we have, but the official reveals will have to wait for Chapter 5.
Next time on Let's Play Dragon Warrior 4: my favorite of the prequel chapters. I can't promise high drama, but we
will find out what keeps happening to the bridges of Endor.
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