When we last saw Benjamin, he and Kaeli had just entered an incredibly large and rather demanding tree.
Hmm. It does have a rather beige feel about it. I'm not sure if I like it or not. We'll head to the right first and attack the Mummy.
"Mummy is strong against Poison attack."
"Mummy is strong against Sleep attack."
"Mummy is strong against Paralyze attack."
And the claw did zero damage. That's how ludicrous the Dragon Claw is. Bizarrely, it's still not that useful. Exit is generally more reliable than the Claw for insta-death, and it's not great against dealing with the enemies which its insta-death fails on. I can't believe it's come to rejecting insta-death weapons because there's more effective stuff available.
Oh the Spector's easy to take care of, but it's that tree at the top I'm looking at.
Heh heh heh...
This is a Live Oak, which seems like a bit of a redundant name because trees are, by default, alive. Still, it dies with a snap of the fingers and a glorious *thwack*. Snipions are reskins of Scorpions, which we haven't seen since way back at the Wintry Cave. They burn just as easily as their colder counterparts though, and have a far less sensible name. I mean, seriously, Snipion? What's that supposed to be?
That treasure box to the left has Cure Potions in it.
So we'll head back into the middle and go up. The path going up further was blocked by a Spector, but I've already killed it. Further up was a Live Oak guarding a treasure box containing Refreshers.
So we head through the Mummy and Live Oak...
...and the Spector and the Live Oak, and there's a treasure box containing Heal Potions. There's another treasure box further up. We've already picked up Cure Potions, Heal Potions and Refreshers, so naturally, the box contains Seeds.
Yep. Seeds.
Further up and clockwise around the room, we find Live Oaks, climbable walls, and pegs. This dungeon's gimmick is, of course, abusing the features of the Dragon Claw we just got in a vain attempt to trick us into thinking it's actually useful.
Also, that Live Oak up there is placed rather meanly. Stuck in front of that there peg to make you think you need to kill it in order to be able to get back after beating the dungeon. Trying to stop you realising that the door's on the northernmost platform, that gives you clear access to the peg without killing the monster. Trying to make you forget that Exit completely removes the need to backtrack anyway.
How mean. How very mean.
As you no doubt have figured out by now, the Dragon Claw can hook onto pegs that it is shot at, so long as they are within a certain range.
With the HOOK SHOT and attached to the peg, it will then retract, pulling you across any intervening space. I'm not sure how it does that considering that the hook and the rope aren't connected but WHATEVER, we'll run with it.
You know this is far more fun than it should be.
There are absolutely no enemies or, indeed, objects of any kind the whole way around this room. The only purpose of this was to make you go around the entire room again whilst showing off the power of THE CLAW.
That's fucking horrifying. Hey Square. If you wanted to convey the torment that the tree's going through what with all the monsters inside of him you certainly succeeded. If, on the other hand, you were simply trying to spice up a simple switch-door, you could have done a lot better than making it look like it's SCREAMING.
Fuck.
Upstairs and to the left, there's a Snipion guarding a treasure box, and a Snipion guarding a chest. The box has Heal Potions. We're going to have to get through another room to get to that chest.
Specifically, that room in there.
But there's a Giant Toad (Remember? From the Wintry Temple?) reskin to get through.
Mad Toad's differ from their earlier incarnations in that these ones are actually weak against something! Specifically, Blizzard. This makes them somewhat easier to defeat, which is nice considering that they can cause some nasty status effects.
Inside, we have literally tens of mushrooms ready for the *thwacking*.
Oh, and these bits have an irritating number of dead ends. Those boxes contain Cure Potions and Explosives.
It's really hard to notice the one space wide gap when there's a mushroom occupying it. We've got a few Mad Toads to take care of.
MEANWHILE, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM:
Basically the same stuff is happening there. There's three of them before the door.
And here is our prize! Meteor is an earth spell (in the same vein as Quake) that automatically targets all enemies.
And it's stupid strong. As in, the same strength on a single enemy as Aero WHEN A MONSTER IS WEAK AGAINST AERO. It does a godrillion damage per frickin' hit, that's how strong it is!
White Meteor is a gamebreaker.
Back inside...
...the monsters are still gone but the mushrooms have respawned, making this room take twice as long as is necessary.
Hmm. Looks like this dungeon has decided to follow the Ice Pyramid in terms of tedious artificial gameplay lengthening. Fun fucking times.
Outside, and in the middle of the room, there's a hole you can climb down. This is presumably for the convenience of people who are backtracking and forgot they have Exit.
On the left side of the room, there're some pegs you can use. You'd be forgiven for thinking you couldn't, what with there being a huge hole between them and no turning space, but it turns out you can't actually fall down that hole. Which makes you wonder why they didn't just have FLOOR there but whatever we'll run with it.
We're going to kill these enemies, and go in that door. Yes, I know what you're thinking. "What about all those other monsters and pegs?"
...
What about them?
Yeah because we couldn't just leave the door that looked vaguely peaceful alone could we?
In other news, you need to remember this:
It's important. It's on the far left of the room. We can't get to it from here, so we'll need it later.
Well these are new.
So what we have are Sand Worm/Land Worm reskins, called Leeches. They're weak against Axe, as usual, and Earth, as usual. They're also now weak against Aero as well. Now, if *thwacking* them with an Axe wasn't as much fun as it was, I could Meteor them. The outcome of that can be described as HOLY SHIT.
We've also got Slime/Jelly reskin Ooze, who remains weak against bombs. It is only at this point did I discover that all enemies of this type can reflect magic automatically, thus causing basically instant death if you try it. Which I did, like an ass.
So, back in the real world, that treasure box contains Heal Potions.
That other Leech was protecting a peg.
All the way around the room, through some Leeches on the way, we get to a door. I really hate to have to do this to you man but...
*SWISH*
Inside, we have yet more mushrooms and Leeches.
Up the path I've cut down above is NOTHING. Up the path through this first Leech are both Heal and Cure Potions. Up the next path to the left is the exit, and up the fourth path (just offscreen to the left) is NOTHING. Yes, the fact that the exit isn't on the hardest path to get to caught me by surprise as well.
So we're going to kill this first Leech, climb up the wall, slide down, kill the Leeches on the ground, then run out the exit.
And if you replace "Leeches" with "Russian terrorists" you have what sounds like an awesome scene from a Bruce Willis movie that doesn't exist yet.
Outside, and on the far left of the room, there's a door on a ledge we can't get to.
Further round, there's a climb-downable hole. Now, if you were paying attention to the geography, you'll have noticed that this hole is conveniently placed above...
...this platform on the floor below which, you may have figured out...
...had this door on it that I told you to remember. It also had a treasure box containing YET MORE Heal Potions, but they aren't important.
The door, of course, is connected to the door on the otherwise unreachable ledge I just told you about. So we kill the Leech and Mad Toad on it, and start climbing.
This looks a lot harder than it actually is. All you need to is release A to start sliding down the wall, then press it again. We'll automatically grab the grabable part of the wall as soon as we hit it.
We have to do this three times for some reason.
And then, because they couldn't just let us leave without making us waste MORE damn time, they put a Leech right next to the door.
You'll notice here the Ooze sprite, as well as the sprite for a Skeleton/Red Bone reskin.
This barely qualifies as a pun. Skuldiers are, like their older versions, weak against Cure. They're also weak against Aero. These enemies are weird, because they seem to be cycling through weaknesses. Skeleton, weak against Earth. Red Bone, weak against Ice. Skuldier, weak against Wind. Skuldiers do have one trick up their sleeve though: Doom Powder. Instant death. Which is just mean.
Further around, we have an Ooze, and another Skuldier. Then, this.
Three doors, two of which will INEVITABLY lead to dead ends. Which to choose?
Let's try the middle one for now.
Oh man I should have seen these mushrooms coming.
Also: Check out the right path, it seems to split off into multiple paths on its own. Christ I'm glad I didn't go there first.
Huh. The middle path and the left path meet up anyway. That's something I didn't really expect from a game that seems to love wasting your time.
Further around, we find an Ooze, and you can see above that one of the right path paths leads to a dead end, and the other leads to a treasure box, neither of which I would like to waste two or three minutes running into.
Further around, we have another Ooze, and a climbable wall which takes us up to ANOTHER Ooze, and then the door.
You see that bit of climbable wall on the right side of the screen? We're going to have to go all the way around the room fighting enemies to get to it. Specifically, a Leech, Ooze and Skuldier, and then a Leech, an Ooze and a Skuldier AGAIN. IN THE SAME ORDER.
Killing a Leech for two boxes sounds OK but...
Yeah no.
So we head through the door, and end up in a room full of Skuldiers and holes you can't fall down. Those treasure boxes at the bottom have both Cure Potions and Heal Potions.
At the top of the room, there's the boss. Bizarrely, this one isn't blocking the door, and you can just walk around it. If you try to stab the door though...
Uhm, why? It's not like that happened in any other dungeon. Are we just randomly changing how the game works?
Apparently!
This is wonderful. Regular viewers will recognise the Gidrah as a reskin of Chimera, a monster we encountered in Doom Castle (specifically, in the basement of the Focus Tower). Except the Doom Castle is a dungeon that we haven't actually been to yet, so we've managed to encounter the reskin of an enemy before the original enemy. How silly.
It can cast Quake, just like Benjamin could at pretty much the start of the game. It can also cause Paralysis.
The Gidrah is weak against Aero, but Meteor is just as effective at killing it. Meteor does 1837 damage, Aero does...
...only 1726. So yeah, Meteor is slightly better against single enemies. As you'd expect, with moves this powerful, it goes down fairly quickly.
... Allow me to carry you!
At this point, his mouth opens, and we walk outside.
As the Giant Tree walks (yes, walks), some letters made up of trees scroll past in the background.
"GO ON KID!!" it seems to say.
Evidently, the Giant Tree is channeling the spirit of our good friend Tristam. Old, jerkass Tristam, obviously. Nice Tristam actually called Benjamin by his name before he left forever.
Look at that Giant Tree go! After we get to our destination, we can Exit out of the tree and back into the real world.
So let's move on, shall we?
Oh this should be fun.
Right, so that's why he matters. Wait, why can't you tell me?
Oh.
This door leads to a tunnel in which you can't see. As such, you have to guess your way around. There are two exits.
No I don't get why they did that either.
Back outside, we come across a Battlefield. And by gum it feels like it's been ages since we saw one. In here we have Skuldier/Skuldier/Skuldier, Ooze/Ooze/Ooze and Skuldier/Skuldier/Water Hag.
Water Hags are, of course, reskins of Desert Hags from the water section of the game (last seen in the Ice Pyramid). Wait, they put the Water Hag in the wind section and the Desert Hag in the water section? Instead of the earth section? What?
They're still weak against Fire though, but Fire isn't that strong a spell, so it's hit and miss with regards to one-shot kills.
Our prize?
Ugh.
Our next Battlefield is Water Hag/Water Hag and Water Hag/Water Hag/Vampire.
Vampires are reskins of the stupidly named (and now we know why) Fangpires from the Lava Dome. They're weak against Wind instead of Fire, so they're a little easier to kill. They can, however, Drain HP and use it to cure themselves, as well as cause Confusion.
Our prize for this Battlefield?
YET MORE FUCKING EXP.
And now, the moment you've been waiting for! We finally reach Windia!