Keep Wishing You Were Me, and I'll Keep Making You Have To. Let's Play Cassette Beasts!

[nosimpleway]

Wherever I Am Now:

Main quests:
Land of Confusion: Locate Archangels to complete Morgante's song, then follow the clues it contains to find your way home. Collected 0/8 song parts.
Take Me On: Train with each of the ranger captains to become a ranger. Trained with 1/12 captains.
Acting On Your Best Behavior: Meet Eugene in the Outskirts.
I Ran So Far Away: Bring Kayleigh to Mourningtown.

Side Quests:
On the Hunt: Record a crow with a hood and mask, often spotted in the Deadlands, to show to Hoylake.

Rumors:
Eugene: "I saw Eugene hanging out near a strange building outside of town. What is he doing out there?"
New Wirral Park: "I heard a rumor that the ground under New Wirral Park sometimes trembles" okay look we already know it's Glowcester Station and there's an Archangel inside, right?
Meredith: "Do you know Meredith? She repairs the town's electronics. If she's not at her shop on the docks, she'll be in the park. Pay her a visit if you need anything electronic!"
Captain Zedd: "Last I heard, Captain Zedd was heading out to see what's up with Mourningtown in the East. I bet he feel asleep on the way..."
Strange Magnetic Powers: "The word around town is that recording the strange sparking monster will grant you magnetic powers. Neat, huh?"
Swimming: "I've been told that there's a monster wearing diving gear that grants you the ability to swim in any waters if you record it!"
Captain Lodestein: "Have you been to Ham before? YOu know, that little valley west of Eastham Woods where Captain Lodestein hangs out?"

Type Interactions Thus Far:
Air: Uproots grass (AP Drain), Extinguishes fire (Melee/Ranged attack down), Energizes astral (AP Boost)
Astral: Drains fire, water, earth, air (AP Drain), Energizes astral (AP Boost)
Earth: Energizes astral (AP Boost)
Fire: Updrafts air (free wall), Energizes astral (AP Boost), Melts ice (Water coating)
Ice: Chills air (Accuracy down), Conducts lightning (Multitarget)
Lightning: Electrifies ice and water (Conductive, extra lightning damage whenever a lightning move is used), Insulates plastic (electric-type contact damage)
Metal: Disturbs astral (Berserk)
Plant: Seeds earth (Leeched)
Plastic: Distracts astral (AP Drain), Insulates lightning (Unitarget)
Poison: Disturbs astral (Berserk)
Water: Conducts lightning (Multitarget)

[beatbandito]

I read the updates over a long enough period that I forget most of my comments. But I want to make sure you're aware you can fast travel from the map.

[nosimpleway]

Part 4: Just Call My Name 'Cause I'll Hear You Scream


Music: Wherever We Are Now
Let's check out what's happening in West Harbourtown. Maybe some of the folks here are more talkative than this.

Rando: I bet you never expected to see someone as famous as me here, did you? Wait, you don't recognize me?

I ran into Possibly Actual Charles Darwin a couple days ago if that makes you feel better.

Well-adjusted: A lot of newcomers go through... a difficult period. If I had any advice for you, it would be to embrace your new life here. That doesn't mean you should forget about the life you used to have, though. You're as much your past as you are your future, y'know?

Sycophant: Ianthe is my hero. Did you know she was the first person on the island to record a monster with a cassette player?

Nostalgic: Life in Harbourtown is peaceful, but I miss city life... Commuting on hot trains, buying expensive lunch from a supermarket, losing most of my wages to rent... Those truly were the days.


Ah, some of the empty houses around town belong to people, they're just not home. Eugene is still watching some nondescript building in the Outskirts because I haven't talked to him there.

Anxious Ranger: Pardon me, but are you involved with the rangers? OK! Wonderful! I'm a fellow ranger - well, a trainee at least. Perhaps you could lend me a hand? I've got some plant saplings grown by the Pipers over on their farm. They're for prettying up the town. However, I'm... not great a decision making. Which plants would look best? It's too much! Would you help a fellow ranger out and put some saplings in the planters I've left around town?


This starts the quest "Planting the Seed". Since the quest is in its entirety "find and interact with fourteen spots in Harbourtown" I could finish it right now but end up getting distracted and wandering off to do other things instead.


Person nearby: Don't worry about the Traffikrab, that's just my son. He loves playing with his bootleg tape. Yeah. Have you seen a monster in your travels that isn't its normal colour? That's a bootleg. But don't confuse it with a coating! Bootleg monsters permanently have different colors, different elemental types, and different moves from usual.
And when you record them, they keep those attributes. Recorded bootlegs have a higher rate of producing uncommon and rare moves, so they can be very useful.
Here, why don't you take this and see for yourself? Captain Codey gives me his spares, so I have plenty already.

She hands over a free bootleg. It's always a base species, to my knowledge, never a remaster. It won't ever be a starter or any partner's signature mon, so I can't get Bansheep, Candevil, or Sirenade. And its elemental type is random. What do I get?


A glittery Pawndead.

#092 Pawndead, the "big-headed skeleton with no arms"
"Pawndeads spend much of their time in a dormant state, transmuting their bodies into durable granite. These Pawndead 'statues' can alarm unwitting travellers passing by, who find themselves unexpectedly in the company of expressionless, skull-faced monsters."
It's true, later on I'll find myself in a graveyard area with a bunch of statues all over the place, and sometimes the statues start moving and reveal themselves as Pawndeads. They don't have a signature move, but they're the first I've seen to get "Damage Roll", which rolls a d20 and hits with a power nine times whatever the roll was. On a 20 it hits with power 180 and causes a random status to the target, on a 1 it damages the user instead.
The inspiration: Chess motifs show up in fiction all the time, and skellingtons have been a go-to monster since at least the Classical era. They don't usually show up at the same time, though.
The remaster: That Skelevangelist I fought before, that looked like a floating chess bishop? Yeah.

Talkin' Mechanics: Bootlegs
Pawndead is usually earth-type, but since I got a bootleg, it's glitter-type. Pawndeads normally start with Smack and the passive move "Fossil", which restores their HP if they get petrified in combat. Mine has "Prismatic", which transforms it into a different type at the end of every turn. All the other moves it gets as it stars up are the same, but as promised by the person who gave me the tape, they're more likely to be Uncommon moves.

Talkin' Mechanics: Glitter Type
On the type chart, a red interaction is a negative status, like hitting grass with air and dropping its AP regeneration. A green interaction is a positive status, like hitting air with fire and giving it a free wall. A yellow square is a type change, a free Coating, like hitting ice with fire and turning it into water for three turns.
See the row for offensive type interactions for glitter, down at the bottom? All yellow. Any monster hit with a glitter move turns into a glitter type. This in turn makes all of its typeless moves into glitter, so any Smacks or Spits or whatever from the monster will also spread glitter to its target. Which in turn makes that monster's moves into glitter, so that it continues to spread, back and forth. Glitter gets everywhere and never goes away.
Well, not never. You can see on the chart that the column for defensive type interactions is also all yellow squares. A glitter-type monster struck with a move of any type will transform into that type.
There are no monsters in the game that are naturally glitter-type. There's only one glitter-type offensive move in the game, in Glitter Bomb. Normally battles with any glitter-type are rare, chaotic affairs. I can bring that kind of mess into any fight I want, now.


West Harbourtown has a history museum to check.

Guy inside: My great-grandfather was one of the sailors who was shipwrecked on New Wirral over a hundred years ago! I'm sure he'd be proud to see what we've made of this place.
Year 001: The British naval vessel HMS Birkenhead sinks in a storm in the Earth year 1845. Much of the crew and wreckage wash ashore on an unknown island, later christened New Wirral.
Year 002: New arrivals appear for the first time. Harbourtown is officially founded. The first recorded encounter with an unknown native creature, or "monster", occurs.
Year 006: The first child is born on New Wirral. The first attempt to leave New Wirral ends in disaster - a vessel built on the island is sunk by storms a mile from the coast.
Year 048: Following the arrival of multiple engineers, the first electrical grid is built in Harbourtown.
Year 050: Upon the 48th anniversary of its formation, Harbourtown dissolves its previously established mayoral position and becomes managed by a committee.
Year 062: An attempt to form a second town, named "New London", begin(sic) on New Wirral.
Year 089: After a terrible disaster, New London is destroyed. Only one resident survived, and was able to return to Harbourtown.
Year 091: "Falldown Mall" is discovered, bringing a large supply of Earth goods to New Wirral. The phenomenon of "monster recording" is discovered for the first time.

So apparently Leader Ianthe just happened to pick up a Walkman at the mall and was carrying it with her when a monster attacked, and... decided to try to record the thing? I guess? There's probably a story there.


The vendors in the stalls in East Harbourtown sell combat moves, support moves, and passive skills. West Harbourtown has two more vendors. One sells camouflages, coatings, and walls of the various elements. Coatings are an active move that change the target's elemental type to whatever the coating is. Camouflages are coatings that automatically apply themselves to the monster with the sticker equipped at the start of combat. Walls I've described already: they protect the user from damage, go up with durability 3, lose one durability at the end of each turn and when taking a hit, are destroyed immediately when hit with a type-advantaged move.


The other sells type-neutral moves of all sorts. Very nearly all of them are various flavors of "melee move, hits a target", "melee move, hits a target more than once", "melee move, hits all targets", and culminates in The Old 1-2, which hits all targets twice with power 60. Ranged moves for sale aren't as varied, and don't get much better than Energy Wave, which simply hits all targets once.

[nosimpleway]

Having reached and explored West Harbourtown, there's... uh, nowhere else to go from here. Not until I can swim, anyway. It might look like there's a bridge to the west from here, but it's a retractable bridge and it's stuck in the up position. Fixing a bridge like that is how I got here in the first place!


I head east from Harbourtown back onto the newbie beach, and accidentally brush against a Springheel hiding behind a tree. Wooltergeist procs Slice with Random Starter, and KOs both the Springheel and Traffikrab before anyone has a chance to move. There's an achievement for that.


I saw this drainage pipe during the tutorial. Might as well check out what's inside...


I don't know what I expected.


The fight doesn't have any surprises or anything new to explain. I just beat up Carniheel until it splits, KO the Carniviper and Springheel inside, done deal.


More screen-capture weirdness. None of this happened playing in fullscreen! The next... nearly 200 screenshots I took are of my entire PC desktop, rather than the Cassette Beasts window. Annoying, but ultimately it's just more stuff to crop out.
Anyway! Here's one of those crows in a mask Hoylake wanted.


In a fight with a plastic-type and a poison-type I swap Wooltergeist out for Terracooka, revealing a new type interaction: earth-type moves reduce the speed and evasion of plastic-type monsters.


#047 Nevermort, the "crow with a hood and mask"
"It must be noted that the Nevermort does not have a beak - rather, it is wearing what appears to be a porcelain plague doctor mask. What face lies beneath the mask is something best left undiscovered."
There are only five poison-type lines in the game. One of them remasters from Candevil, so those virtually never appear anywhere. One is a scripted encounter added in the DLC. So you're pretty much looking at Carniviper and its remasters, Nevermort and its remaster, and the last one I haven't seen yet, common on the westernmost side of the map. Carniviper and Nevermort are both "really really fast, but not much by way of attack or defense" sorts of monsters. Just something I noticed.
The inspiration: "Plague doctor crow" is easily one of the more uninspired monster designs in the game, but I appreciate the name crossing Poe's "The Raven" with the Latin word for "death".


Rando: Do you think it's Comic Sans or Times New Roman?
Trainers -- I think of them as "trainers" because of Pokemon and because I don't have any better name for other people who are hanging out in the wilderness waiting to fight me -- drop worldbuilding or punchlines when I beat them. One talks about the out-of-body experience he had before coming to New Wirral. Someone else talks about the Human-Elf peace deal brokered by the United Nations in 1948. People come from some worlds very different from ours, huh?


It's not a one-hit KO with Slice like it was against a level 6 Springheel and Traffikrab but if I get lucky with Random Starter I can still get a fight most of the way over before it even starts.


Huh. What are the odds that the very first time I use Damage Roll I get a crit? (5%, I guess.)
This adds Ranged Attack Down to the Stardigrade and Ranged Defense Up to Pawndead. So it's not just a debuff, it's a matched debuff to the target and buff to the user.

[nosimpleway]

A valley in the deadlands has another brobdingnagian fight to fight. This is gonna suck, isn't it


Music: Like Chimeras
A regular Djinn Entonic, and a Djinn Entonic/Carniviper fusion. Yes I would like to fight two extremely strong astral types including an astral/poison combination! Sounds great!


Both enemies open with Moonshine, an astral attack that adds confusion whenever it lands. Confusion does what confusion always does in a video game, and it's pretty darn annoying in what would have already been a difficult fight without it.


I picked Wingloom because it's one of the few monsters I have that's neutral to astral and poison, but Djinn Entonic has surprise to counter that, too. It can chuck bottles for a glass-type attack, and you'll never guess what the glass-type's one attack interaction is! That's right, it Insulates lightning-types.
My party is Wooltergeist, Decibelle, and Terracooka -- all at a sharp disadvantage against astral-types. I've got Blossomaw, who would get wrecked by poison. And Wingloom is weak to Bottle Throw.


My least bad option is my new Pawndead! I don't end up glitterizing either of the enemies, but it does Prismatic itself into a beast-type, which can strike for neutral damage without buffing either enemy.


Of course it has Revenge Strike. Of course it has a free astral/poison counterattack.


Wingloom is on the ropes, so I swap it out for Blossomaw. This ends predictably. Not every poison-type move can add the poison status, unless the target is a plant-type. Plant types always get poison status from any poison move that targets them.


Finally took out the assisting Djinn Entonic. Things are looking pretty grim nonetheless.


Blossomaw manages to land a Snooze Spore, which gets me three turns as a breather while Djinnviper naps.


Pawndead's moveset is as polymorphic as it is, with Smack and Wallop switching types every turn along with the Pawndead itself. Damage Roll doesn't change type, but it's always astral, so it would always buff Djinnviper. So I find myself relying on Bone Cannon, which is not particularly strong but is always a neutral beast-type hit.


Once Pawndead Prismatics back into glitter-type the battle gets much easier, because I have three turns to no longer have to worry about supercharging Djinnviper with my air, earth, or astral moves.


Glitter's defensive type interactions immediately leads to another shift, but it's fine. Earth is still easier to deal with than astral. (I still have to worry about poison and glass, since Toxic Stab and Bottle Throw are always those types.)


Whew. I'm still on my heels here but knocking out a Carniviper isn't too difficult.


And after all that's happened I'm not leaving this fight empty-handed.


#112 Djinn Entonic, the "cosmic waiter"
"A mysterious cosmic waiter with impeccable table service. It isn't entirely clear what kind of drinks they serve, only that they are 'family friendly' and 'not affecting the age rating of the game'."
Djinn Entonic doesn't remaster, so its base stats are pretty good as it is. Moonshine made that fight pretty darn difficult, but it could have been worse. Moonshine is power 30 plus confusion, but Entonic's signature move "Djinntoxicate" is power 90 plus confusion. I probably wouldn't have won if the Djinnviper knew that one.
The inspiration: "It is a curious fact, and one to which no-one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85 percent of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called the jynnan tonyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or jinond-to-nicks, or any one of a thousand variations on this phonic theme. The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian 'chinanto/mnigs' which is ordinary water served just above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan 'tzjin-anthony-ks' which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the only one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that their names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds." - Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Djinn Entonic was designed around the pun; the name came first, rather than someone looking at a classy server made of stardust and going "I have the perfect name for that."

[nosimpleway]

Music: Into the Caves
I work my way back up to the north side of the Autumn Hills peninsula and head back to the cave hidden behind the edge.


Dashing into the rock launches me off the ramp that was underneath, hurling me onto a cross-shaped platform with another ramp to the left.


nyoom


The random encounters over here star up Pawndead once more... or would if it weren't at five stars already. A five-star monster that fills its EXP bar just generates a random sticker from the moves it normally knows.


The switch on this side of the cave rotates the cross-shaped platform ninety degrees, so that the ramp formerly facing down now faces left, and the ramp that faced left is now facing up.


It's just one more ramp-assisted leap to the chest, containing a sticker for Gear Shear. Gear Shear is a metal-type move with power 50 that hits 3-5 times, but has low priority -- regardless of the user's speed, they'll probably go last in a turn. This particular Gear Shear is Uncommon, granting a critical hit on any target it would normally have a type advantage against, and also heals the user 8% of their HP when used.

Now, didn't I get a hint earlier about gears beneath a hill?


Something about dinosaurs?


#042 Velocirifle, the "lizard with a gun-shaped head"
"The back of the Velocirifle's skull contains a chamber filled with gunpowder that it can ignite at will, launching any projectile stored in the 'barrel' of its face. They have subsequently learned to have very good aim."
Velocirifle is a little bit slower than the Bulletino that it remasters from, but makes up for it by having a Ranged Attack that's worth a damn (while still being faster than most monsters out there). They do indeed have very good aim, starting with Raise Arms (increase Ranged Attack) and Ricochet (sometimes the user's ranged attacks ignore walls). At five stars they pick up Headshot, a typeless ranged attack with 200 attack power (and costs 10 AP).
The inspiration: I like the little horn on its chin that looks like a trigger.

While I'm in the cave, Terracooka also reaches five stars, picking up Crumble. So I have two remasters to do next time I rest.


#077 Coaldron, the "tall ceramic figure with a cauldron body"
"Coaldrons are living cooking pots, constantly brewing a delicious broth in their basin bodies. Whilst not very mobile, they are able to turn their bodies in order to shoot streams of this steaming hot broth at anyone who may approach for a taste without invitation."
That dripping pipe off to the side is the cannon Coaldron uses for its ranged attacks. With its HP, Melee Defense, and Ranged Defense where they are it's an awfully good defensive monster, and a base Ranged Attack of 160 is nothing to sneeze at. Thematically enough the first move they learn upon starring up is Boil, a water-type move that has a chance of inflicting a burn.
The inspiration: Why does Harry Potter often confuse his best friend for a tall ceramic figure? They're both coaldron.


#093 Skelevangelist, the "floating skeleton with a robe"
"The Skelevangelists are constantly emitting a stranged whispered vocal chant. This chanting grows louder when they engage with their ability to psychically manipulate rocks and stones."
Mine can psychically manipulate sparkles and glitter.
Velocirifle and Coaldron both pick up Headshot at five stars. Skelevangelist picks up the melee equivalent, called Last Rites, at only two stars. It's got pretty middling stats but a power 200 move can quickly bring an end to any fight that's dragged on long enough that Skelevangelist has 10 AP to use it.
The remaster: The pawn that promotes into a bishop can in fact promote further! Now, should I focus on melee attack, or speed?

I keep Coaldron around for a little while because it's pretty good, and Skelevangelist gets to stay since it has more growing to do. I drop Wingloom and Blossomaw in favor of a couple monsters who need to develop. I replace them with Velocirifle and Allseer.

[nosimpleway]

Rather than going around the peak of Autumn Hills again, I head west into the Eastham Woods/Lakeside area. This person warns me that it's a dangerous place, but she's level 19 and I'm level 26, so I think I'll be okay.


At Lakeside, a person asks me to stand on a button, which raises a signpost with an arrow pointing straight down. That signpost points the way to another button, which raises another signpost... and so on, and so on, all over the lake. Does it lead to treasure? A pointless loop? The Frog Song of Soul? Nobody knows! But I won't be able to figure it out until I learn to swim, since this first signpost is pointing somewhere in the middle of the Thirstaton lake.


This is illustrated by going straight down the stairs to the edge of the water, which catches the attention of another trainer waaay out there who has to swim over to challenge me.


Heading west, a switch activates a lamp, which causes a man who was flying above to drop out of the sky and attack.


I get it!


ohhhhhh now I get it!


On the west side of the lake is a little beach, with a monster I'm looking for.


I don't have any tapes specifically for water-types, but one of the Diveals here obligingly gives itself an ice coating. I do have a couple of Ice-IX tapes!


#045 Diveal, the "seal with a helmet"
"The Diveal's helmet heads not only allow them to breathe in water, but contain an air pocket that helps them float in water. Whereas they are very mobile in lakes and seas, they are a little slower on land."
There are no dual-type monsters in the game outside of fusions that combine two single-types. Diveal straddles the line between water and ice by starting with ice coating and learning a couple more ice moves. They are otherwise largely unremarkable.
The inspiration: I want to say "they could have made it look more like a diving suit" but I'm not really sure how. A tube wouldn't go anywhere, they don't have any feet for the brobdingnagian boots, and the fins are already made to look like heavy gloves. Maybe it's the missing shoulder pauldrons that are throwing me? (As much as this game loves its references, I'm a little surprised they never end up with a rivet gun and a drill.)
The remaster: If Ice Coating is left on Diveal when it remasters, it turns into a fully ice-type iceberg monster. Peeling it off remasters it into a "the same but more" water creature.


Like Bulletino before it, Diveal isn't very good to use but is very important to find.


So let's swim! What could possibly be out in the middle of Thirstaton La--


I don't know what I expected.

[nosimpleway]

Music: Like Chimeras
My first rogue fusion in the middle of the lake and it's frickin' Moon Moon.


Kayleigh's Decibelle gets wrecked on the first turn, so I swap out for Skelevangelist. Skelevangelist Prismatics into one of the worst types against a water-type, and is immediately rusted for its trouble.


To be fair, deliberately switching to Coaldron was not my smartest move.


This is about the point where I realize I did not return to Harbourtown and buy more Rewinds after the Djinnviper fight. So, uh, crap.


Thankfully Moon Moon gives me a break and spends several turns reapplying Doc Leaf on itself, giving it slow regeneration... but layering statuses in this game increases their duration, not their effectiveness. And I keep smacking it with Coal Story, so whatever it gets from its healing leaf it loses to its burn.


Moon Moon splits apart into Moonpole and Frillymoon, and the rest of the fight is not particularly noteworthy.


#063 MoonPadpole, the "lily pad creature with a tail"
"The Padpole is the larval stage of the Frillypad, residing underwater until it matures. Since it has not developed proper limbs yet, it is able to attack with its long tongue, which secretes a gluey mucus that can slow down any would-be attackers."
Much as Diveal tries to straddle the line between water and ice, Padpole straddles between water and plant. It's quite fond of Doc Leaf, as we've seen, and always starts with a Plant Resistance sticker. Resistances remove the type advantage from incoming attacks, so Padpole treats plant-type moves as neutral.
The inspiration: A froglike water creature beneath a lilypad brings to mind Lotad. Lotad grows up into a kappa, while Padpole's extended description explicitly mentions the Nixie.


Defeating Moon Moon gets Skelevangelist its second star, and Last Rites develops as an Uncommon... for even more damage on what's already the strongest melee hit in the game. Wooltergeist just hit five stars, too, so when I go recover from that fight...


#021 Ramtasm, the "angelic towering ram ghost"
"The Ramtasm has honed its connection between the spirital and physical realms, and is able to fully manifest itself across both simultaneously. This gives it access to an untapped well of tremendous astral energy."
This is it, the final form of the little Bansheep I got at the very beginning. Well, one of the two possibilities. It'll be postgame before I can explore the other evolutionary branch, though. Ramtasm picks up several moves you'd expect from a spookum, such as Ritual (if slain when this status is active, revives at 25% HP) and Haunt (adds Ghostly status). It picks up Last Rites at five stars, and has a sturdy 170 base Melee Attack to use it.
The inspiration: The description insists on only ever referring to Ramtasm as a ghost, but with the little wings and halo it's got an angelic motif... perhaps as a contrast to the Candevil line.

[nosimpleway]

The pale people that Eugene has a bug up his ass about are scattered here and there as regular trainers. They seem to be really focused on, uh, real estate.


Yeah, I played that other game you're in. (This guy's a crossover character from Lenna's Inception.)


Music: Jaunty Merchant Tune plays any time I'm in a shop menu, from the Gramophone Inn to the stalls in Harbourtown to wherever I might find myself buying stuff. But I'm never there long enough to warrant linking the music here, and I'm not now, but it's a special shop so what the hell.
The Traveling Merchant has a more or less entirely random stock, with some stuff that can be hard to find elsewhere. Mostly I'm happy to see Chrome Tapes for only 35 wood, that's a bargain. The traveling merchant disappears as soon as I leave the menu.


There are mobility upgrades that would make this easy, but I don't have them yet. Climbing up this particular cliff in New Wirral Park, in order to glide across this broken bridge and get to the inaccessible cliff on the other side, requires a brobdingnagian detour. Finding a spot I can climb with my wimpy little jump takes a minute.


Which is all to say I barely make the jump across. I'd have been pretty annoyed if I didn't make it.


Music: Meredith's Theme

Prompt: "Have we met?" / "You knew about me?"
Meredith: Hoylake was babbling on about you when he came by to pick up some parts from my shop. Have you met him? He's the worst. Did you know he's not even a real scientist? Before he landed on New Wirral, he was a DATA ANALYST. Someone needs to tell him that only wearing T-shirts that say "I love science" is NOT a personality.
Anyway, I'm Meredith. Enjoy being trapped on this rock forever with the rest of us until you die.
Prompt: "I'm going to find a way out!" / "It doesn't seem so bad!"
Meredith: That's cute. You're new here. Sorry hun, but there isn't a way out. There's just weird nightmare creatures, and us. On an island. That's it.
Anyway, I just needed a breath of fresh air. Come meet me at my shop in town sometime. Yellow building on the boardwalk.

As much as I like Meredith she isn't why I came to the park. Swimming requires stamina, and I don't have much of that. There's only one way to get more...


Music: The Stations Underneath
...so I'm back in Glowcester.

Kayleigh: The pressure here is overwhelming... it felt like this when Morgante first appeared...


The game going "HEY YOU ARE ABOUT TO FIGHT ANOTHER ARCHANGEL ARE YOU READY FOR THAT

but you get no hints on what the archangel is like or what its battle strategy is so you've just got to hope I guess

[nosimpleway]

Music: Archangel Encounter
The arriving train pulls in...


...and drops off a bug-eyed pixelated stop-motion skeleton in a top hat.

Kayleigh: It's an Archangel... It gives me that horrible feeling I had when we fought Morgante... Like I'm looking at it all wrong...


Like Morgante, whatever-this-is speaks without using a text box, with visual effects like a VCR trying to read a tape that's been pulled out from the casing, crumpled up, and then rewound.

Kayleigh: This Archangel's eyes are creeping me out...

YES... YOU TWO WILL MAKE A FINE PAIR OF GLOVE PUPPETS! HAHAHAHA


Music: Same Old Story
Poppetox carries his stop-motion look into the battle screen. Archangels really don't look anything like regular monsters.


Poppetox has two little effigies on either side. The one at the back, with the mostly blank face, is supposed to be the player character. The one closer to the camera is Kayleigh. Hitting an effigy is a bad idea, since it reflects the damage onto whoever the effigy represents. Aim for Poppetox carefully! And take Echolocation off of Decibelle, using attacks that hit all targets just invites multiple counterattacks.


Complication: Poppetox switches places with one of the two effigies every turn. It's never in the middle.


Of course, Poppetox doesn't sit idly by and hope its opponents are fooled by its switching places. It gets its own moves, including Clobber, Wallop, and The Old 1-2 to crank out the damage, Neutralise to remove its own status effects (those it's vulnerable to at all, Archangels always resist stat-down statuses), and Revenge Strike. But I'm pretty sure the worst move it knows is AP Steal, which robs me of the AP I need to use my moves, and gets it to the ten AP it needs to do its Angelic Attack all the sooner.
Poppetox moves twice in a turn, and usually uses one damaging move and then either Trip or AP Steal.


The one saving grace for this fight is that there's a subtle visual hint, one the game never explicitly calls attention to. I've read testimonies and seen videos from people who go through the whole fight without figuring it out. The effigy that Poppetox is going to swap places with is highlighted with a spotlight, so it's possible to aim for that effigy and have Poppetox move directly into the line of fire.


nice croppi
shitlo
But seriously the Archangels are brobdingnagian enough that the camera doesn't quite work right. If this wasn't an intentional decision in the first place I'm sure it was at least intentionally not fixed.


Poppetox uses The Old 1-2 on its third turn, then gives me the old 3-4 on the next. That damage is really starting to pile on.


I swap out for two fresh monsters in time for Poppetox to use its Angelic Attack.

[nosimpleway]

Apart from its eyes rolling back into its head and its face opening along the vertical seam, Feedback has an even subtler visual effect than Coda Morgana. The camera fisheyes a bit, and then we just take some damage. I'm pretty sure Feedback is air-type.


It's not foolproof by any means, but Wonderful 7 might give Poppetox a status ailment that'll slow it down a little...


I'm... not sure how to feel about this. Forcing Poppetox to only use its offensive moves will prevent it from using AP Steal... but means I may well be getting The Old 1-2 twice in one turn.


I manage to land a burn with Coal Story and AP Drain with another Wonderful 7, but at this point I've done enough damage that the fight's over.


Winning does indeed improve my stamina, by 17%. Whatever 17% means.

Music: Morgante's Song

[nosimpleway]

Music: Archangel Encounter
...hey, who's that?



Triangle-headed person sucks Poppetox into his face,



then excuses himself and flies down the train tunnel.


Prompt: "What the fuck?" / "What was THAT all about?"
Kayleigh: The way that Archangel spoke about us, it was like we weren't even real... like we were just toys. Maybe it'll think differently now that we beat it.

!scenechange


Music: Wherever We Are Now, lyrical version
Kayleigh: So, now there's a mysterious man with a triangle for a head intervening in the hunt for the Archangels? I don't know what to make of that... Anyway, you said that defeating the Archangel earlier has given you a clue? What's the clue, exactly?
"To the east your wings must fly, to the place only I have known"?
That... doesn't sound like much to go off. I guess we need to find another Archangel, then! Right, let's crack on! Didn't you hear some rumours about something happening in the outskirts? We could see what's happening there, if you want!


I don't know how flexible Kayleigh's script is for this part, but she pretty explicitly points out "Hey let's go see what Eugene is up to"

and I reply "Nah"

[nosimpleway]

No "Wherever I am now" this update, because I played through all that and the next update in one sitting and didn't collect where I was with all my quests and rumors halfway through.

Type Interactions Thus Far:
Air: Uproots grass (AP Drain), Extinguishes fire (Melee/Ranged attack down), Energizes astral (AP Boost)
Astral: Drains fire, water, earth, air (AP Drain), Energizes astral (AP Boost)
Earth: Energizes astral (AP Boost), Buries plastic (drops Evasion and Speed)
Fire: Updrafts air (free wall), Energizes astral (AP Boost), Melts ice (Water coating)
Glass: Insulates lightning (Unitarget)
Ice: Chills air (Accuracy down), Conducts lightning (Multitarget)
Lightning: Electrifies ice and water (Conductive, extra lightning damage whenever a lightning move is used), Insulates plastic (electric-type contact damage)
Metal: Disturbs astral (Berserk)
Plant: Seeds earth (Leeched)
Plastic: Distracts astral (AP Drain), Insulates lightning (Unitarget)
Poison: Disturbs astral (Berserk), Poisons plant,
Water: Conducts lightning (Multitarget), Corrodes metal (drops Defenses), Erodes earth (drops Defenses)

[nosimpleway]

Part 5: All The Wants You Waste


Turn in the Nevermort to Hoylake and he sends me off to find a little elf in a mask. I've already seen one of those! It was very close to kicking my ass! I didn't record it!


Music: Meredith's Theme
Meredith: Oh. You again. I had something to ask you... Are you really gonna be searching for a way off this island?
Prompt: "Yeah!"
Meredith: Huh. I almost admire your optimism. Well, if you are gonna be doing the whole "travel across the land" thing, could you look out for something for me?
Prompt: "Sure! What are you looking for?" / "Not right now."
Meredith: It's a, um, music record. Do you know what that is?
Prompt: "Yeah!" / "Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

No need to be condescending, everybody in the room knows people come from different worlds and some of them might be from worlds that didn't have vinyl, or from a time before music records were invented.

Meredith: OK, cool. It's, uh, hard to know who knows what around here. Not everyone is from similar... worlds. It makes it pretty hard to talk to people. Harder than usual, even.
Anyway, the record, it's an album. "All I Ever Needed" by The Witch House. Maybe you've heard of it.

I'm under the assumption that this is some kind of dev reference that I don't get. Apart from "All I Ever Needed" being the name of the quest she gives me, and since all the quests are named for music lyrics, that is a throwback to Depeche Mode's 1990 "Enjoy the Silence". But I don't know where The Witch House comes from.

Meredith: I used to listen to it back in my previous life. It has... sentimental value, OK? There's a few music nerds in Harbourtown - reckon you could ask around for me?

So we're off around Harbourtown to find a music nerd. Somehow I missed the obvious prompt of who that is... y'know, someone who collects music records because she runs a cafe themed around a record player.


But Clémence just tells me to go ask the rangers anyway, since she doesn't have the album I'm looking for.
Leader Ianthe: You must know your chances of finding this particular record are pretty close to zero, right? I really can't emphasize that enough. The things that end up in New Wirral come from a lot of different worlds, you know. Nonetheless, you might have some luck in Falldown Mall.
Prompt: "Falldown Mall?"
Leader Ianthe: Oh - of course. You're new. There's a shopping complex on the northside of New Wirral. Totally abandoned - just popped into being around fifteen years ago. It's where we get all the clothes for the locals. Not to mention our cassette players and tapes.
There's a music shop in the mall, filled with records and cassette tapes, but we keep it locked up for security. Cassette supplies are pretty important, after all. It's a good idea to keep them safe.
If the record is there, Meredith might be risking her life just to get it. The rational part of me wants to formally forbid her from trying... But if you go with her, maybe that's a little safer. Here, take this.

She gives me a letter to deliver to Meredith, so I deliver the letter to Meredith.

Meredith: Oh.
Prompt: "What did it say?"
Meredith: It's a note from Ianthe. She says my record might be at Falldown Mall, and I have permission to go... But only if you accompany me. She also included the keys to get in. Well, shall we go, then?
Prompt: "Are you sure?" / "It could be dangerous!"
Meredith: Don't worry, I can defend myself - you didn't think I wouldn't have my own cassette player, did you? Sitting around here all day is killing me. Finding that album is just something to strive for, I guess. It's like - if you don't have something to keep you going, you may as well be dead, right? Do you - Do you know what's driving you right now?
Prompt: "I want to find a way back home."
Meredith: Like I said to you before, that's impossible. But... If you help me find my record, I'll help you find your way home. Why not, right? I'll need something new to strive for, after all.


Kayleigh will be hanging around in the Gramophone Cafe whenever I need her.
For personality, Meredith is written to be grumpy and sardonic, in specific contrast to the high-spirited and extroverted Kayleigh. But according to the art book, Meredith was drawn before Kayleigh -- or anyone else, for that matter. She was the first character to be designed for the game, period.
Meredith's base stats are 100s across the board, except for a 120 in HP and Melee Attack. So whatever monsters I have in the party, Meredith will do slightly better with Smackers than Spitters.
As with Kayleigh, Meredith gets a 10% boost to all her stats while using her signature mon, the tape she joins with. And that is...


#037 Kittelly, the "cat with a broken television head"
"The Kittelly's only way to communicate is through the static patterns on its television-like 'face'. These messages are difficult to decipher, and this hurdle often prevents the common Kittelly from being able to connect with other creatures."
Yes, the character who joins as a partner despite being an introverted shut-in with difficulty talking to other people has a monster that also can't communicate well. Meredith's job around Harbourtown is fixing electronics, and Kittelly has a piece of broken electronics for a head. It's a perfect match all around.
The inspiration: Kittelly and its remaster are an homage to Lenna's Inception, the studio's previous game that did pretty well before Cassette Beasts was released and became a major hit. One of the bosses in that game is Catsiel the Murder Tabby, a gigantic feline with a TV for a face and an electrical plug for a tail.


Music: Jaunty Merchant Tune
I have some metal to spare, so I hit up the vending machine next to Wilma over at the Ranger HQ. Stickers come in packs of four, following general themes, and guarantee at least one uncommon/rare for each pack. I have enough to buy one of each, so let's see here...
The Elemental Pack I get gives me Uncommon Fire Wall, Sandstorm, Fossil, and Sonic Boom. Sandstorm is probably the best of that lot, it's an earth-type move that hits both targets for ranged damage and decreases all their status effect durations by 1.
The Nature Pack I get gives me Uncommon Crystal Lens, Frozen Ground, Torrent, and Unicast. Crystal Lens is a glass-type ranged attack, and it being Uncommon grants me a critical hit on type advantage. But glass-type moves are hard to use effectively, because they only have one type advantage in the first place (and only one monster in the game, not counting bootlegs, is naturally glass-type, so they rarely benefit from a same-type attack bonus). Frozen Ground is an ice move that raises the user's speed but drops their accuracy. No thanks.
The Pollution Pack gives me Uncommon Poison Coating, Brick Blast, Shield Bash, and Plastic Coating. Brick Blast is probably the most useful of these, a plastic-type move (they're Lego bricks, not clay) that hits twice at 40 power.
The Wildcard Pack gives me Uncommon Gasoline Spray (gives the target Flammable status so that further Fire moves do more damage), Neutralise (a passive that removes all debuffs from the user when they drop below 50% HP), Uncommon Revenge Strike, and Blood Donation. Neutralise has saved my bacon on occasion, and Revenge Strike is free damage sometimes. Best pack of the lot, really.


Some of these hints are a lot less subtle than others.

For planting the flowers around town, the Anxious Ranger gives me a Fused Material and an Uncommon New Leaf. New Leaf is Esuna, removing status effects from the target. The Uncommon flag also gives the user a 4% experience boost while the sticker is attached.

That puts me one Fused Material under what I need for the next Microphone Upgrade, so I go beat up a Carnicrab I find in the outskirts.


Wow, a new establishing shot!
Meredith: Back in the cafe once more... some things never change, do they?
Prompt: "Do you come here often?" / "Have you been here a lot?"
Meredith: This is Harbourtown. There's literally nowhere else to hang out. That's small town life for you. At least the coffee is good.

[nosimpleway]

And then it happens again. My screenshot software takes 150 captures of the wrong window, followed by 150 more of the full screen. What is even happening here? I guess I'm switching back to fullscreen mode for my screen captures and I'll just figure out how to crop everything down however I need to.

Let's see... I leave Harbourtown, I head north through the park past the lake, into Eastham Woods. It is here that I record a Busheye, which does nothing in particular, an Elfless, which Hoylake was looking for, and Boltam, which gives me the next mobility upgrade.


#066 Elfless, the "wooden-faced elf"
"In order to hide their true emotions, Elfless fashion crude smiling masks out of tree bark. Unsubstantiated rumours claim that there is one day a year where all Elfless will assemble together to replace their old masks with new ones."
Since this screenshot comes from later on, Elfless is four stars instead of zero and has slightly higher stats than its base.
Elfless doesn't get any unique moves or particular strengths to speak of, but it's the first monster I've found that learns "Treat", the counterpart to "Trick". "Trick" inflicts a random negative status on the enemy, "Treat" grants a random positive status to an ally.
The inspiration: There are a couple different kinds of elves across the breadth of fiction, but Elfless is the cheerful, helpful sort you might find baking cookies in a hollow tree or something. They're basically displaced from making toys in Santa Claus's workshop, and "from the North Pole actually" is the only reason I can imagine for them being ice-type.
The remaster: At five stars, they learn Toy Hammer. As the scrap of paper in the Ranger outpost hinted, it's important! If allowed to keep it they remaster into a swift-footed Tolkein-style elf. If it's taken away before they remaster they transform into an angry, hulking "wrath of nature" style elf.


#073 Busheye, the "walking bush with legs"
"Busheyes are almost exclusively found hiding within bushes, which gives them the ability to both hide from predators and sneak up on their prey. They can lie motionless in hiding for hours at a time, sometimes dozing off and missing their moment to pounce on their targets."
Busheyes look remarkably like random forest detritus on the map, so they can be hard to avoid while zipping around. That's more or less the only interesting thing about them.
The inspiration: Damn near every culture in the world has some flavor of "lurking forest spirit so different from humans that it can't possibly be understood". The index entry specifically mentions the Green Man, a particularly Celtic interpretation.


#071 Boltam, the "pinball-headed creature"
"The metal heads of the Boltams are extremely conductive, and they passively absorb electric currents from the atmosphere. Boltams are able to channel this energy into a magnetic field, which they can use to travel across land and air with ease."
Boltams are fast but not particularly strong, sort of a lightning-type Bulletino. It gets better moves than Bulletino, though, starting with Broadcast to give themselves Multitarget. They pick up Charge at their first star for a power 60 melee hit, then get Battery at their second star, which always crits if it's used the turn after Charge.
The inspiration: The index entry just talks about magnetism, so it's anybody's guess where the rest of the design comes from. Speculation is that the name comes from "bolt", the obvious bit, and "tamarin", a sort of little monkey.
The remaster: Upon reaching five stars, Boltam can choose between "incredible speed" or "thundering power".

With BOLTAM, MASTER OF MAGNET recorded I get the Electromagnetism ability, allowing me to build up a magnetic charge around myself. It can repel me from metal plates on the ground, pull me up to electrical boxes hanging from poles, and pull metal boxes toward me from a distance. I thought I had some pretty good action shots of those things happening!

I find a deactivated robot in the woods. There's a coin slot on her back, starting the quest "Coin Operated" to figure out what that's all about.

By the time my screenshots start collecting anything useful again, I nab a Braxsuit.


#055 Braxsuit, the "floating round-faced creature with a tie"
"Braxsuits put a lot of attention into their appearance. They seem to become very distressed if their collars and ties become lop-sided or dishevelled."
Despite being air-type, the majority of Braxsuit's moveset is astral stuff. It gets a specifically Astral Wall, which is pretty good considering how many type resistances astral has over air. Then it picks up Deja Vu and Shooting Star before it remasters up. Its signature move is "Suit Up", increasing its lackluster Melee and Ranged Defenses.
The inspiration: The Flatwood Monster, a cryptid allegedly spotted in 1952 in Braxton County, Virginia. Only this one is a snappy dresser.



That's a mall? Tiniest mall I've ever seen. It must be one of those video game dungeons that's brobdingnagier on the inside.


Smashing a crate off to one side makes it possible to use Boltam's magnet power to reach the roof. The chest on top doesn't matter much but this is the first screenshot I have of doing the Electromagnetism thing.



Music: a version of Look at the Sun that's filtered so that it sounds like it's being played in a very large empty room, lots of reverb, to give that "piped-in music played at the mall" sound to it.


While Meredith looks around to find the music shop, it's hard to miss the little red-eyed wisps floating around the mall.


The mall is haunted! By spoooky ghosts! Which isn't all that weird or unusual since my main monster is also a ghost. So... uh, yeah. "Ghostly" is a status, normally self-inflicted with the move "Haunt", where it makes the user nigh invincible for three turns, but the tape breaks once the status wears off after three turns. Some monsters in the mall start under Ghostly status, giving them three turns to smack me around without reprisal.
There are two ways to overcome a spookum's invincibility. One is to attack them with a monster that is also under Ghostly status. The other is to equip Phase Shift, which allows the user to hit Ghostly targets with their regular moves without the risk of self-destructing when Haunt wears off.

Ramtasm learns Phase Shift (and Haunt) naturally, and I've picked up another Phase Shift sticker somewhere. Now to find which monster can equip it...


Lightning-type monsters are hit-or-miss in the mall, given that water, air, and plastic monsters are around. But Kittelly would be helpless against any ghosts I happen to run into, so I let Meredith open with Phase Shift Skelevangelist instead.


With Phase Shift, this is just a normal fight instead of a grueling endurance match.


#082 Binvader, the "alien garbage can"
"Binvaders appear to be tentacled green beings housed inside a combat vehicle that is reminiscent of a garbage can. It has two 'arms' on its front - one for emitting deadly beam attacks, and the other for aggressively prodding."
Binvaders are themed around setting up one mediocre move to hit enough times that it's useful. At five stars, a Binvader learns "Binvasion", a fire-type beam that hits with power 30. However, that beam hits as many times as there are Binvaders on the user's side, so if both the user and its partner have transformed into Binvaders, it hits twice. Binvaders also get "Binvitation", a unique variant of Call for Help, where they summon an ally, and that ally is always a Binvader rather than randomly chosen. And finally, Binvaders that put up a Metal Wall don't get the usual pile of scrap, they summon a tiny UFO to take hits for them -- and that UFO counts as a Binvader for the purpose of determining how many times Binvasion hits.
So by designing a team around the gimmick and taking a couple of turns to set up Binvitation and Metal Wall, you can make Binvasion more useful than, uh, Rapid Fire... which is also fire-type, also power 30, also costs 3 AP, and always hits three times.
The inspiration: After getting shot by alien beams you might need to go see a doctor. Who? Yeah, that one.


#092 Faucetear, the "leaky tap"
"The Faucetear's ability to project powerful streams of pressurized water is tied directly to their emotional state. They are very easily startled and upset, which leads them to often unexpectedly use their water attacks without intending to."
Hey, thanks for your help in taking down Morgante!
The inspiration: You know that old idiom where crying is referred to as "waterworks", either to turn them on to start crying or shut them off to stop? Well, this is a plumbing valve that can't turn off the waterworks. Makes sense to me!

[nosimpleway]

Falldown Mall is a square structure, with a corridor around the perimeter. Some of the shops can be explored, but as I was warned previously, it's been pretty thoroughly looted and there's not much to be had. If the player enters from the south, then the corners at the northeast and northwest are impassable pits. There's a catwalk around the second floor, but the middle of each side is a gap. That gap includes a passageway through the center of the mall, where it's possible to go from east to west or north to south.


Trying to explore the east side of the mall gets me zapped by electrical wires, pictured at the left here. To reach this side of the mall, one must go to the west side, cut through the center, and emerge from the door.



Flipping the switch here shuts off the electrical current in the wires and raises a platform on the east and west sides. I can't get to the middle passage anymore, but once I go upstairs I can get across from the northwest side to the southwest corner.


The robot on top of the panel has a strong opinion about all my reckless switch-flipping, though.


chompu


#113 Arkidd, the "robot with a lightning bolt emblem"
"The Arkidds were first spotted on New Wirral after the arrival of Falldown Mall. There they have been seen running around, jumping on the heads of other monsters, and generally displaying a radical attitude."
This one Arkidd is a forced encounter, and apart from it they are maddeningly difficult to find. They can show up as the second monster in random encounters with other critters here, but at a very low rate.
Since it can't remaster, Arkidd has a stat total rivaling those of fully-remastered monsters... but then spent all those points on Speed. I'm pretty sure base 250 Speed makes it the fastest monster in the game, but with starter-level HP and defenses it would break like wet tissue paper if targeted by anything.
The inspiration: I'm pretty sure that's a Power Glove on its arm, and gosh darn if its head doesn't look like a VR helmet... or maybe a Virtual Boy. In the Discord, Mongrel described Cassette Beasts as "like you're creeping into someone's very personal nostalgia trip" and this is a pretty good example of the game just going "Hey, remember the 90s?"


One of the passages on the first floor leads to a train station, so I can fast travel back here whenever I need. There's another gate that I presume leads to an Archangel battle on platform B, but there's nothing else in the room. How am I gonna open that?


The camera flipping around for perspective might make describing how to navigate Falldown Mall kind of difficult. Here I'm facing north, for instance. Having flipped the Arkidd switch, I can't pass from west side to east side through the middle anymore, but I can get from the south side (where I came in) to the north side (which I couldn't reach before on account of the pits).


The north side has an Escalator Temporarily Stairs that leads to the second floor.


I never did figure out if there was anything to this room. It's empty, but it's weird how it's also clean. The rest of the mall is covered with scattered detritus.


The next shop over, for instance? Ruined bookstore. There's a switch on one of the shelves, behind one the green book, that opens the chest. And the reward is another Old Book, good only for recycling... so the reward is 500 pulp. :shrug:

[nosimpleway]

Probably? There are a lot of Faucetears here.


The clothing store -- nothing inside for me -- is named Tunley & Potter, after the merchants in Lenna's Inception. One of them made equippable tunics, so... clothes store. Sure.


Kittelly reaches five stars from random battles here, learning "Echolocation but Worse since it doesn't auto-apply". Ready to remaster, though.


Let me know... if you see... a Radio Shack...
Using the platform I raised with the Arkidd switch, I cross from the north side of the mall to the south, on the west side. The southeast side second floor has the music shop that Meredith wants to get into, but that brobdingnagian gap to the right keeps me from reaching it. I can't get to any part of the second floor on the east side of the mall.


But inside Electro Shack is an elevator. Now that I've reached it on the second floor to activate it, I can get to the second floor on the south side of the mall, too.


I stop a moment to recharge...


...and charge up.

#038 Cat-5, the "beast with a flat screen for a head"
"Whilst its face may resemble a plasma screen display, Cat-5 appears to have no difficulty in seeing. Since it lacks a mouth, it draws static electricity out of the atmosphere with its twin cable tails in order to power itself."
Having moved from a TV theme to an Internet of Things theme, the first move that Cat-5 learns when it stars up is Fire Wall. I also like that when Cat-5 takes damage its face displays a Windows bluescreen for a moment.
The inspiration: The first design for Cat-5 gave it video component cables for tails, but I guess somebody came up with the name pun and the tails were switched to ethernet cables to accomodate it.


#054 Triphinx, the "giant metal tripod"
"The metal exterior of the Triphinx is completely impenetrable. It is speculated that it is actually an organic creature piloting some sort of exoskeleton or transport vessel."
Remastered up from Allseer, Triphinx has some of the first properly min-maxed stats I've seen. If I can build a monster around only ranged attacks, I don't care what it's base Melee Attack is! Put those points into its HP, Defenses, and Speed!
The inspiration: In the War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, the martians piloted gigantic metal "tripods" that shot energy beams at the puny earthlings below. Triphinx is one of those. I can only assume the "phinx" part is a reference to the great Sphinx of Giza, leftover from Allseer's "aliens did ancient monuments" schtick. Triphinx can still use Wonderful 7, after all.


Back at the mall, still got stuff to do. I switch away from plastic-vulnerable monsters to fight off a couple of Mascotoys, and one hits Velocirifle with a Toy Hammer. But plastic is flammable stuff, so the heat in Velocirifle's body melts some of the hammer, surrounding it in an evasion-boosting smokescreen.


In turn, fire-type attacks will melt plastic-types and release enough toxic smoke that it turns the plastic-type into a poison-type for a few turns. And that's okay, because poison is volatile stuff, and further fire attacks will always give a poison-type monster a Burn to sap its HP over the next three turns.


It takes me an embarrassingly long time to remember the last piece of the puzzle. Go flip the Arkidd switch again, lowering the platforms that connect the second floor on the east and west side and raising the platforms on the north and south sides. I can't reach the south side of the mall from the escalator on the north side anymore, but I have the elevator inside Electro Shack. Return to the south side, go up the Electro Shack elevator, and simply walk over the raised platform to Vinyl Beat.

[nosimpleway]

A lot of these album covers are the same as the artwork on the wall at Gramophone Cafe... but in turn it completely makes sense for the cafe to do its interior decorating with album covers.



Mmhmm.
Let's see... "Mac and the Awesome 5 - Mac to the Future", nope... "Treeman - Legacy of the Treeman", nope...


Meredith: That album art - you've found it!
Wait. Something's not right. "Timeless and Strange"? That's not the name of the album...

Yeah, we're looking for a Depeche Mode reference, not a Keith Christmas reference!

Meredith: And this cover art is slightly different too... The track listing... I don't know these songs. It's some alternate universe version. The one I wanted isn't here.


Uh... Hey, Meredith, not to interrupt, but I just thought of something...


Does it seem weird in any way to you that this place is named "Falldown Mall"? Like, falling down has not been a major part of our exploration heeee--


eeeeere...


Music: Archangel Encounter
And what was on the first floor right beneath Vinyl Beat? The train station. We fall to platform B.

Meredith: Urgh, what happened... snalligator, are you OK?

The game did not give me the option to glide down on Dominoth wings like Meredith did, so it's a stroke of luck I'm not hurt.

Meredith: The record, I dropped it... Can you see it?

Meredith we have something slightly more important on hand to deal with.




Yeah, that.


Meredith: It hurts my head just looking at it... snalligator, it's an Archangel, isn't it...?

I KNEW I FELT IT!
AN EMPTINESS. A HOLE WHERE A HEART SHOULD BE. IT EMPOWERS ME.
I WISH TO CONSUME IT WHOLE.

Meredith: W-who are you? What are you talking about?

YOUR KIND COULD LIVE SUCH RICH LIVES.
BUT INSTEAD YOU TRADE IT FOR HOLLOW SYMBOLS AND ARTIFICE.
YOU EXCHANGE SOMETHING MEANINGFUL FOR NOTHING.
MY CASTLE IS FILLED WITH ALL THE EMPTINESS YOU LEAVE BEHIND!

Meredith: Your... castle? The mall? Are you serious? This place is a ruin! Filled with trash! It's nothing!

YES... IT IS NOTHING...
AND I AM THE KING OF NOTHING!
COME, LET ME CONSUME YOUR EMPTINESS!

Well, hold on a second. You're accusing Meredith of being so attached to her stuff that she's empty inside, but she told me the album we were here to find was important to her for sentimental reasons. She wasn't here for the album, she was here for--


Music: Same Old Story
Oh, whatever.

[nosimpleway]

Nowhere Monarch's regular move is Slippery Grip, which has a chance to flinch the target.


How are you talking without a mouth?

Meredith: It'd be so easy to give up and just die...


Meredith: But that's not me! I'm sick of letting myself down!



Music: Same Old Story, lyrical version
Our combined gemsona is still mostly Ramtasm, with only the yellow-and-blue highlights hinting at Cat-5's inclusion. I don't know where those antennae came from, Cat-5 doesn't have antennae at all and Kittelly's are the old rabbit-ears style.


As it charges up its AP, Nowhere Monarch will use Call to Arms to call first one Nowhere Peasant, then another. They don't have an HP total, so while they can be targeted, they can't be defeated. They only attack with Spit, though, so they're not particularly dangerous. (In previous versions of the game, there was a bug where Nowhere Peasants were recordable with tapes despite not being monsters like the other stuff that can be recorded, but that's been fixed.)

Once two Nowhere Peasants show up, Nowhere Monarch uses Trick every turn until it builds up to 10 AP. You know what that means...


NM pulls the fur covering its abdomen open and stares with a gigantic eyeball when it uses its Angelic move, but the eye doesn't really factor into it apart from just looking creepy. Bomb Voyage sacrifices both Nowhere Peasants, each doing a fire-type hit when they self-destruct.


I used a Rewind for this? Bomb Voyage is not strong enough to put more than a little dent in Ram-5's HP... and being fire-type, Empowers my astral/lightning monster into getting an AP boost.


Music: Victory Theme
This lets me use my strongest move every turn until I win.


Skelevangelist stars up to five.


Nowhere Peasant be like "Uh... I'll just be on my way, then? Guess I'll go figure out some form of government other than absolute monarchy..."

[nosimpleway]

Music: Morgante's Song