33 - The 2nd Runner
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Last time, we learned about the Egyptian beer scene and the Mel Brooks movie Spaceballs within the same update. This time, we're starting with a flashback of something that actually happened a few updates ago but I held off on including for pacing reasons.
I normally don't like having too many images in sequence with no break but I sure ain't cropping portraits for all of these NPCs.
A random NPC in the previous update was complaining that the bald guy who delivers grain was late. Pretend you saw this stuff first.
I'm skipping probably 40% of the text boxes in this segment which are just people going "Huh?" or "Rrrrghh!!" and I still feel like it's too many.
Peek behind the curtain: I just complained about cropping out portraits for unimportant characters and then remembered the game itself has a placeholder portrait. Oops.
End flashback zone. This sequence happens immediately after the conversation between Alicia and Berlin and right before the scene with Kakyoin in the hospital, so maybe you can understand why I felt like moving it here.
The game has referenced the temple near Kom Ombo a few times. It's a notable site because it's a double temple (possibly the only one in Egypt?), venerating two different gods and built to be perfectly symmetrical. One side is dedicated to Sobek the crocodile god (hundreds of crocodile mummies have been found in the vicinity) and the other to Horus the Elder. A bunch of it was defaced because the Copts (remember them?) used it as a Christian church at some point.
The sprites dance around for a bit, maintaining one-tile distance.
The string of Anubis boss fights (spoiler: there will be more boss fights this update) is infamous as probably the greatest non-superboss challenge in the game. I even mentioned back when Polnareff first joined that we'd need to keep him juiced for a tough fight. Turns out I misremembered and was only half-right.
Chaka can randomly choose to go out of sight, becoming totally untargetable and healing himself up. Your only recourse is just to attack at all costs while he is visible. It's infuriating.
However, we're really overleveled. I also get a lucky bleed proc which, as established so long ago, does a hugely outsized amount of damage over time.
Using Brainstorm to follow the manga and end the fight for free involves Polnareff revealing his secret ace in the hole: Chariot's sword is a ballistic rapier. He ricochets the blade off the pillars and gets Chaka right in the neck.
This would probably be a bigger surprise if he hadn't had a "darts" attack pretty much the entire time he's been in our party.
The connection between rodents and cheese comes from the pre-refrigeration days. Most preserved foods would be hung out to dry or packed in jars, but cheese was just left out on shelves and whatnot. That made it easy pickings for rats.
During this scene in the anime, Jotaro's reading some kind of marine biology magazine as a call forward to his future profession. Nice detail.
The barbershop I go to is run by a like 70-year-old Korean guy who doesn't speak English. He does 90% of the work himself and then tags in his middle-aged daughter to use the straight razor at the very end.
Rather than "honk shoo" or "mimimi", I imagine Jotaro "OraOra"-s even in his sleep.
Polnareff straight up killed that guy. Sucks to be Chaka.
Second verse, same as the first. Khan won't vanish into the "cannot be targeted" zone like Chaka, but he's got 50% more HP and hits harder. You've got to stop and heal a lot more.
I didn't grab footage of it because this boss rush is annoying as hell, but there's a unique interaction if you didn't use Brainstorm in the previous battle but do use it here: Polnareff's blade eject attack works without Anubis blocking it like in the manga. Because, of course, he hasn't had a chance to memorize it yet.
Someone runs in from offscreen.
Jotaro does what we all wish we could do and punches the cop so hard he flies down the street.
The true boss fight starts here. Polnareff hits hard and has a lot of HP, like any tough boss. Your best bet is to proc some kind of damage over time and then try to keep him stunlocked with BlowBack (aka, Jotaro punching him over and over).
This buff move is the absolute last thing you want to see. Those numbers don't sound like a lot on paper, but Cascada's Spirit right now is hovering around 230. Remember the last time we fought Polnareff? +20 Defense made the difference between 4 damage and 0 damage. Two or three of these and he can outmatch both Cascada and Jotaro in a straight slugfest.
This is enough to outpace any of our curatives that don't just heal up to max. It becomes a battle of attrition.
Finally.
This motherfucker right here. What an asshole.
He's getting last fight's post-buff numbers without buffing at all.
I didn't buy a bunch of these Pyramid Models last time just as a bit. Most of the souvenir items also have battle effects; they just aren't listed anywhere. This isn't going to keep up with Anubis's memorization skill, but it prevents the gap from widening quite as much.
The game's AI isn't actually smart enough to do this on purpose, but it sure feels like he starts buffing up any time you stop to heal.
Of course, in the end, the mega grinding session does its job.
This was doing 500ish damage in the last fight. That's how much his stats were buffed by the end here.
10,000 EXP is five times what fighting Vins got us. The Badge of Honor is nice, but secondary to another reward for beating this boss that we'll see in the next update.
See you again!
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