41 - Reruns

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Last time we roasted a chicken and got the band back together. This time, we'll check out the couple of new things that open up in the Cairo map after the aforementioned event.

Cascada: Any thoughts, Steel?
Steel: So you've found Dio's mansion at long last. The time for the final battle is drawing near... I'd stock up on items in town as much as you can.
Cascada: Well, duh. What else?
Steel: I have no advice left to give. From this point forward, the only "reality" is that which you've seen with your own eyes...
Cascada: what does that even mean

Kakyoin has rejoined the squad and is now permanently in Cool Sunglasses Mode.

Kakyoin: Have you discovered any charming local flair around Cairo, The Machine?
Cascada: Nah. It mostly just seems like every place we've been in Egypt put together.
Kakyoin: Well, it IS the capital, after all.
Cascada: I played poker against some Stand-using asshole, I guess.
Kakyoin: I prefer baccarat myself.
Cascada: Of course you do.

This guy in white spawns in after you defeat Pet Shop. If you're close he'll start talking to you without any prompting.

He's a little-known character called Scribe Ani, a villain from a Part 3 side-story novelization. His Stand is a history book that can materialize past events. That should be enough to let you figure out what's coming.

Time for a boss rush! We're up against every Tarot assassin in a row with no breaks, and they're all scaled up appropriately.

All of their gimmicks are intact, as well. Tower of Gray can still only be damaged by all-target attacks.

And he can of course still retreat offscreen to become essentially unhittable.

Tower of Gray also gets this new one-hit-kill attack. If we were playing Hard mode, he would have busted this out back on the plane.

One more reason Wave Motion Gun is the MVP: it can hit enemies who are at "?" distance. It and Nuclear Warheads might be the only things in the game that can.

This is by far the most efficient way to get EXP.

Since there's no chance to heal up on the map between bouts, it's generally a good idea to immobilize enemies when possible for the opportunity to juice back up.

Always satisfying to force a self-kill.

Even though their stats are scaled up, most of the early enemies are still pushovers. They do however all get an insanely powerful self-buff move if the average party level is over 50. Which it isn't.

Fuck this guy though. He still has unreasonably high defense. He won't change forms to the other party members to become vulnerable anymore either.

It cannot be overstated how much simpler everything is when you've got a Wave Motion Gun. For example:

If we specialized in single-target attacks? Huge pain. But we don't.

Joseph soloed this one pretty easily. With two party members, it's no problem at all.

Kakyoin started this rush at level 37 and he's probably around level 40 by this point.

Not pictured: Kakyoin pouring the party's entire collection of SP-restoring beverages into Cascada's throat.

Any you defeat that aren't the real one revive at the start of every turn. You can actually grind out certain stat-boosters this way if you're feeling particularly bored.

Keep 'em coming.

We're recreating history here, since we fought this guy the first time with both Cascada and Kakyoin.

I suppose same goes for this asshole. He doesn't have Dream Star Platinum this time though.

If Cascada's HP is in good standing, I use Absorb Iron over and over just to mitigate the drain on my SP curatives.

how did i ever play this game without wave motion gun

Kakyoin went from 37 to 43 in a single go. Insane.

Cascada: I guess I'm not complaining, but, uh. Weird.
Kakyoin: We've certainly been through quite a bit, haven't we?
Cascada: -I- have. You were only there for like half of those.
Kakyoin: -frown-

Finishing the boss rush gets you a random reward from a pool of 22 different options. This one isn't my favorite (I don't even end up using it) but it's not the worst either.

It's a huge all-around stat buff but you can only use it during battle.

Cascada: We did, actually. Pretty sure he's fucking dead now though.
Man: O-oh...

A new enemy type spawns in the map now, visible at the bottom of the screen. He can and will jump that entire distance to ambush you.

These guys are the strongest normal encounter in the game, so still not really a threat and certainly not worth hunting down.

Decent EXP if you can't handle the boss rush, I guess. They also have a very low chance of dropping a manual for the Ripple Gale attack, which would be great against any vampires we might be going up against soon. I don't bother to grind it out.

An unlisted benefit of the boss rush is that you get a free Phantom Blood after each of its individual fights. Neat.

And for the last order of business before the home stretch, I dump most of the perma-stat-ups I've been accumulating on Cascada. It's not a huge boost and wasn't really necessary in the first place, but might as well.

Aaand that's Cairo 2! There are one or two other secrets that appear, but we've locked ourselves out of at least one of them already. Perhaps another time.

Next stop, Dio's mansion. See you again!

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