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Having played through the entirety of Joker 2, I'm pretty certain the only character from 1 that gets any kind of mention is Solitaire.
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Jan 20, 2018 00:55
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| # ? May 2, 2024 21:16 |
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Postgame Part 2: Euchre The Librarian Last time, Euchre was given a task by Solitaire: complete the Advanced Monster Scout Proficiency Test and achieve Rank X in the arena in order to face her. This time, he'll be making a start on the former of those objectives. To that end, he's going to be filling up his monster library with all the generic synthesis monsters that he hasn't gotten yet. This update will basically be an extended look at the monster library because of that, so feel free to skip ahead to near the end if you don't like that sort of thing. Music: Scoutpost  By opening up the pause menu, we can see how many different monsters Euchre has obtained in total, and how many of each family. I'll be going through the monster library in order, which means each family will be finished off before moving on to the next. For some reason the monster library is primarily sorted by family instead of ID, and it's incredibly annoying for manipulating generic synthesis.  Let's begin, shall we? The first monster family we'll be going through is the Slimes. She-slime is probably the best candidate to start with in this case, and anything paired with it below its ID will make the target monster.  It's a Drake Slime! I won't be detailing what Skills are inherited for monsters obtained here, since Euchre won't actually be using them.   Drake Slimes get the Skill Slimer when synthesised and cannot be scouted. They have the Trait Artful Dodger and are immune to Fire Breath and Ice Breath. Slimer was first found on Slimes back in Part 2.  Next up, we have a Shell Slime. I didn't record it being synthesised, but the recipe is simple enough: the Drake Slime Euchre just got, plus anything below its ID.   Snail Slimes have Mage Aid as their Skill, can't be scouted, and have no Traits. They're also immune to Dazzle. Mage Aid is a new Skill! This one in particular is all about providing support to magic-focused monsters, as the name might suggest. This is primarily through the use of Drain Magic, combined with Share Magic and Give Magic. The latter two abilities give either half or all the user's MP to another monster, depending on which one is used. Accelerate and Ping are the buffs of choice here, and only appear in their single-target forms. Then there's Fizzle and Kafizzle to shut down other casters, as well as Magic Drain Guard and Dim Guard to cut down on any problems that might shut down the Skill. Overall this is a nice Skill to have if you're planning on bringing along a magic-hungry monster, and it's definitely good at what it sets out to do.  The third monster that Euchre will be getting today is one above the Snail Slime in the Slime hierarchy. It's the same method as usual for synthesising it: a Snail Slime, plus anything below its ID.  I'm not a big fan of the design of Wild Slimes, but they're a necessary step on the way to total monster domination.   They've got Champion as their Skill, Psycho as their Trait, and are immune to Sag. That's about it for what they've got going for them. As for Champion, it's a Skill for those that want to do lots of physical damage. Double-edged Slash, Double Up and Hatchet Man are the good offensive abilities here, while Body Slam is unfortunately also present. Oomph and Oomphle are very nice for increasing damage, of course, and Meditation is mostly unnecessary if you've got a halfway decent healer. Sap Guard is nice for offsetting the increased damage you'll be taking from this, just in case opponents decide to go for that strategy, but by no means essential. This Skill is also not half bad, despite Body Slam being awful as usual.  After all that, Euchre's trading in the Wild Slime for a more impressive model. The standard method for going up in Rank applies.  The result is something I thought would have been obtained far earlier: a Slime Knight! Euchre's keeping this one for later, for obvious reasons.   Along with the somewhat interesting Slime trivia, Slime Knights have the Skill White Knight and the Trait Counterstriker, and are immune to Confusion. White Knight is a Skill that enables Slime Knights to leap to the defence of people they don't know on the internet. ...Wait, that's wrong. White Knight is actually a Skill that specialises in Zap-elemental attacks. It's got Zap and Zapple for offensive spells, and Sacred Slash and Hallowed Slash for Zap-elemental physical attacks. Dazzleflash is here for flavour reasons and is okay, I guess. Then there's Baffling Bonk, which is good, and Stupefying Slash, which is less so. Zap Guard is here too, and it's not bad but not particularly good either. Overall this Skill is pretty unfocused, and I would suggest giving it a miss. There aren't any really good abilities here, but on the plus side there aren't any egregiously bad ones.  For my next trick, I'll be having Euchre skip a few rungs on the Slime family ladder and go straight to the monster after King Slimes.  Cureslimes are the go-to healer if you can't be bothered to wait for a King Cureslime. They're pretty decent! Or they would be at the time they were first available. Now they're hilariously outdated.   These guys, like their palette swaps, get Healer as their Skill and Health Professional as their Trait. They're immune to Whack and Fizzle, which is pretty nice based on their intended role in the party. Healer was first on Healslimes back in Part 5.  With that, that's all the Slimes it's possible to get through generic synthesis. Euchre's already got all the high-end generic Slimes, so those aren't necessary. It's time to move on to the Dragon family.  The result of this one is a Snapdragon, a palette swap of the Dragonthorn.   Their uninteresting description belies an uninteresting set of abilities. Their Skill, Frizz & Woosh, is of a very standard archetype, their Trait, Artful Dodger, is incredibly common, and they're weak to Frizz and immune to Confusion. Frizz & Woosh is a new Skill, but it might as well be an old one. It's another dual-element Skill, so that means it has three tiers and only the highest is really worth mentioning. As such, Frizz & Woosh III has Kaswoosh, Kaswooshle, Kafrizz and Kafrizzle for spells, as well as Gale Slash and Inferno Slash for physical attacks. There's also the standard defensive passives of Frizz Guard and Woosh Guard. This incarnation of the Skill is pretty good if you like the high damage variance of Woosh spells, and it's nice enough to come with both single- and multi-target damage types.  Next is the Dragon above Tyrantosaurus. Again, Slimes are the way to go here, though anything with a low ID should work.  The result? An Abyss Diver, the Seasaur's palette swap. Something interesting about it is that it levels up incredibly quickly compared to other monsters of its Rank, as I found out when using it in my practice run through the game.   Abyss Divers have the Skill Crack & Zap, the Trait Artful Dodger and an immunity to Sleep. As for Crack & Zap, take what I said for Frizz & Woosh and apply it to these elements except the part about high damage variance. It's just as viable as that Skill.  That Abyss Diver isn't going to be lasting very long, because it's going straight towards the next Dragon on the list.  That just so happens to be a Megalodon, which has the honour of being so long that when rotated 90 degrees it won't fully fit on the screen. Hence the name I've given it.   Megalodons have the Skill Breath, and the Traits Artful Dodger (again) and Magic Regenerator. That second one should be new, and it's insanely powerful: it gives the user 10% of their MP back every turn. They're also immune to Fizzle, further complementing their usefulness as mages. As for Breath, it was on Great Argon Lizards back in Part 16.  Megalodon is next on the list to be synthesised away. Again, the strategy for ranking up monsters is to synthesise them with something weak.  A Drakularge is the result, and it's the last one in this particular synthesis chain.   Drakularges have the Skill Boom Boxer and have no Traits, but are immune to Bang and Whack. Boom Boxer is new, and is there for Bang-element attacks. There's Bang and Boom, but there's also Bomb Slash and Blast Slash. Slowing Slug is there too, and it's pretty useful. One-on-One, though, is much more questionable and drags down the whole Skill. War Cry is somewhat decent utility, and Bang Guard is actually pretty helpful given how common Bang is. Overall, though, this is not a great Skill by any stretch of the imagination. One-on-One is just so horrible, and you've always got it looming over you should you let the AI take control in, say, the arena.  We're not quite done with Dragons yet, but this is the last one. Again, just mix a Seasaur with basically anything.  A Red Dragon is the result. These things aren't actually called Red Dragons any more! They're called Dread Dragons instead.   Red Dragons get the Skill Seal and the Trait Magic Regenerator. They're impervious to both Fire Breath and Fizzle. Seal was on Winkies back in Part 4.  After finishing off the Dragon family, it's time to move onto Nature. The monster we're going for is actually only the second monster in that family, so it might be difficult to find a monster with a low enough ID to count for this sort of recipe. Thankfully, Slimes are really easy to get, have an ID of 1 and live close to my chosen grinding spot: Fert Isle.  This monster is a Wild Boarfish. It's basically just there to fill the monster library, since you generally have to go out of your way to use one.   Anyway, Wild Boarfish have the Skill Huntsman and the Trait Artful Dodger. They're immune to Drain Magic and healed by Water. Huntsman was first on Hammerhoods back in Part 7.  Next is the monster after Hell Hornets.  This just so happens to be an Eveel. More filler! More!   Eveels have Hypnotist for their Skill, Artful Dodger and Poisoner for their Traits, and are healed by water and immune to Poison. Hypnotist was on Lips monsters back in Part 3.  The Eveel will, of course, be immediately thrown away in favour of the next step up.  This is a Bullfinch. It's a good pun and I like its design.   These guys get the Skill Toughie and the Trait Counterstriker. For once, they're actually weak to a status ailment - Sleep - and are immune to Sag. Meanwhile, we've seen Toughie before. It was on Jargons in Part 18.  Let's skip a few Nature monsters, and go to the monster after Hades Condor.  This is a Treeface, and according to the monster library it can be found in the wild on Fert Isle. Oops. Euchre will need to scout one eventually, because it has a Ward Skill he hasn't got yet, but we might as well go over it here.   Treefaces have the Skill Green Finger when synthesised and gain Earth Ward on top of that when scouted. They have the Trait Steady Recovery and are weak to Frizz. Green Finger was on Stump Chumps in Part 4. Earth Ward is new, and it's your standard Ward Skill. +10 to Attack, Maximum HP and Maximum MP, as well as +15 to Defence are the stat-ups here, and while Magic Miser and Magic Scrooge are very helpful passives, the two Earth Guards kind of aren't. It's too rare of an element to take this over another Ward.  Anyway, speaking of monsters found on Fert Isle, the next monster that's being synthesised away is a Gorerilla.  A Yabby is the result from this. It's the highest ID generic monster in the Nature family, so that's the last Euchre's going to be seeing of them for a while.   They've got the Skill Mage Aid, as well as the Trait Paralyser. It's a water-dwelling monster, so it's healed by Water, but it's also immune to Confusion. Mage Aid was on Snail Slimes earlier in this very update.  After the Nature family, it's time to move on to Beasts. Chainine is the first candidate for synthesis.  This combination of monsters produces an Orc. For being a boss fight, these guys aren't very hard to get.   Orcs get the Skill Speedster, and don't get any Traits. Interestingly, despite being a boss fight, they're not immune to Whack. They are immune to Sleep, however. Speedster was on Jumping Jackals in Part 11.  A Night Emperor is next up.  Out of this synthesis comes a Weartiger. We've seen these before, too, just not in battle. Unless you count Tryger's role during the finals, of course.   Weartigers get the Skill Boom Boxer as well as the Trait Critical Massacre. They're immune to Fizzle, too. Boom Boxer was on Drakularges earlier in this very update.  The final unobtained Beast family monster is obtained through synthesis using a Bodkin Archer.  This Merman will be somewhat important later, but for now it'll just be gathering dust in storage.   Mermen have the Skill Aquapothecary and no Trait, but they are healed by Water and immune to Dazzle. Aquapothecary was on Khalamari Kids in Part 8.  Moving on to the Material family, my chosen method to get the next monster on the list is to synthesise using a Wax Murderer.  A Rockbomb results from this particular combination. While not as much as Slimes, these things are fairly iconic for the series and tend to have rather explosive personalities.   Martyr is an excellent choice of Skill for Rockbombs, since they like exploding so much. They don't have any Traits, but are immune to Whack. Martyr was found on Nardragons back in Part 12.  Next, it's time to synthesise away the Rockbomb Euchre just got. It's safest to dispose of high explosives quickly, after all.  Gold Golems are another of those monsters that appear in the wild without my knowledge. Apparently they rarely appear in Palaish Shrine.   Gold Golems have the Skill Iceplosion Slashes, and probably get Defence Boost on top of that when scouted. That seems to be the pattern for Material monsters, at least. As for their other characteristics, they're the same as normal Golems: the Trait Psycho, a Sleep weakness and an immunity to Whack. Iceplosion Slashes is a new Skill, and it's very simple. It teaches Frost Slash, Blizzard Slash, Bomb Slash and Blast Slash. As for the abilities it gives that aren't immediately obvious from its name, they're Hallowed Slash, Sacred Slash and Metal Slash. Slashes all around! This is overall a solid Skill, though it might be a little bit over-centralised. Of course, it's not the best Skill available for that, but the one I'm thinking of that's basically just better is kind of difficult to obtain.  Dingaling is the next monster to be improved.  Puppeteers are cool because they have these cute little monster puppets that they use to act out various things. Sadly it's a little difficult to see sometimes with the DS's low quality models. The puppets they have be default are a Slime and a Lump Mage (which doesn't even appear in this game, just its palette swap), but they're swapped out for a Golem and Dracky for some animations.   Anyway, that's beside the point. Puppeteers have the Skill All-Rounder and no Traits. They're immune to Sleep. All-Rounder was on King Kelps back in Part 8.  The Puppeteer is the next monster to be synthesised away.  The result is Jum, one of four gimmicky monsters that can all be synthesised together via grandparent synthesis. The result, as well as the other three, won't be coming up today, since they all depend on recipes.   Jums' chosen Skill is Defender, but they have no Traits. Like Puppeteers, their only immunity is to Sleep. Defender was on Komodos way back in Part 5.  The next synthesis doesn't feature Slimes, which is pretty surprising. Euchre hasn't got Golem, the second-highest ID generic monster in the Material family, right now. This means that the best option is a Wailin' Weed plus any Material family monster.  A Living Statue is produced from this union of palette swaps. There isn't much to be said about it, so let's move onto the monster library entry.   Living Statues get the Skill Barricade and the Trait Critical Massacre. They're also immune to Sleep and Whack. Barricade is an undeniably defensive Skill. Kabuff is always nice for physical attacks, of course, and Blowback and Brake Wind are there to deal with breath as well as Bounce for magic. Defending Champion is basically just Defend but with even more damage mitigation, so it's pretty solid. Clang isn't all that great, but it's situationally useful. Finally there's Mist Me, Counter and Sap Guard. Counter is stupidly expensive in terms of MP, but the others are pretty good. Overall this is a solid Skill if you want to tank.  That's all there is to do for the Material family. Next up, Demons! It's a shame that Euchre has to synthesise this Archdemon away, really, but it's the closest monster to the target.  Jamirus, a sort-of-major villain from Dragon Quest 6, is the result. I don't know why he's a generic monster here, but it is what it is. At least he's Rank A.   Jamiruses have the Skill Frizz & Woosh and the Trait Double Trouble. They're immune to Whack and Fizzle, but weak to Inaction (War Cry, Sultry Dance etc). Frizz & Woosh is another one of those Skills that we've seen in this update. More specifically, Snapdragons have it.  Believe it or not, that's the last Demon family monster needed. Now there's just the Undead family left to deal with. The first unobtained monster is right after Soulspawn, so that's Euchre's starting point.  Stark Ravens don't look like they're Undead monsters, but they are anyway. There's always one.   They've got Bird Brain for their Skill and Artful Dodger for their Trait. Since they're apparently undead, they're immune to Whack. You can't kill what's already dead, after all! Mecha-Mynahs were the first to sport Bird Brain, back in Part 12.  And now it's time for the last monster left that can be gotten through generic synthesis. It can be obtained by synthesising using a Wailin' Weed and literally any other monster.  A Tortured Soul is the result. We've seen it before, in the final battle with Dr Snapped, but other than that it's unremarkable.   Cursader is the Skill of the day, and Poisoner is the Trait. They've got the fairly standard Undead Whack immunity, as well as immunity to Sleep, but are also weak to Zap. Cursader is a Zam-focused Skill, and it's actually shared between Tortured Soul and Ace of Spades, of all monsters. As such, it's got some very good abilities: Zammle, Shade Slash and Kazam are powerful offensive abilities, though the lack of Kazammle hurts the Skill a bit. Wave of Panic and Disruptive Wave are great support abilities, and Whack and Thwack are excellent encounter-clearing spells. Then there's Whack Guard and Zam Guard, the latter of which is especially nice to have for, say, the fights against Ace of Spades or Dr Snapped. Overall, this is a very strong Skill to have.  Tortured Soul may have been the last monster available through generic synthesis, but it's not the last monster Euchre's going to be synthesising.  Wildcard will be a Diamagon Ace for the majority of the postgame, since that was voted for by the thread. Might as well go over what it's got going for it while it's here.   Diamagon Ace gets the Skill Diamagon III, which should be fairly obvious through simple pattern recognition. Other than that, he gets two Traits, Psycho and Steady Recovery, is immune to Whack, Poison and Confusion, is healed by Water, and is weak to Lightning. Diamagon III is a Skill that specialises in magic. It's got Crackle, Kacrack, Boom and Kaboom in terms of offensive spells, Dazzleflash and Disruptive Wave as support, and Gigaslash as a damaging ability that I think scales with level. The main downside of this Skill is that it comes with Magic Burst, which is kind of awful. It might be good for nuking teams before they can do anything in multiplayer, but otherwise its uses are extremely limited. Using up all of your MP tends to do that. Since it comes last in the Skill, though, it can be skipped entirely and save 30 skill points in the process, which is probably the best option. Overall, this Skill has potential for a magic-focused Incarnus. Just don't go anywhere near Magic Burst. And, with that, that's every monster that's going to be synthesised today. That certainly took a while. Music: Contest Castle  It's not the last monster Euchre's going to be getting this update, though. With all the new Skills, he managed to just about pass 100. That means a reward!  It's well worth it, too - a Metal King Slime is not something to be given out lightly. One of these is equivalent to eight Metal Slimes, or four Liquid Metal Slimes!  Oh, and this is the requirement for the next reward. The correct response to this is "piss off, I'm not doing that", but I'm contractually obligated to do the opposite...eventually.   Anyway, Metal King Slimes. They all get Bang & Crack, but this one and wild ones get Agility Boost too. They've also got the standard Metal Slime tricks of having Metal Body and Escape Artist, as well as being Practically Invincible. Bang & Crack was found on Great Drackies back in Part 15. Music: Island  Now it's time to actually get started on the Advanced Monster Scout Proficiency Test. I promise it was worth doing all that synthesis to get here. If you'll recall, the first monster Scoutmaster Shuffles needed was pretty obviously a Slime Knight, which Euchre now has.  What green-coloured slime likes to think it's a courageous steed, night OR day? Why, a Slime Knight, of course! This is your prize - an Elfin Elixir.This is only a slight improvement over buying one of these - a saving of 260 gold pieces, in fact - but the real reward is being able to move on with the test. Speaking of which...  ...the next question costs only 100 gold pieces more than the first. This needs to be done eventually, so Euchre will be paying up immediately. Bring me a hot-tempered monster that needs a spittoon! Think of what kind of hot-tempered monster would need a spittoon - if you know what a spittoon is!This one's a bit harder, since spittoons have very little to do with the monster in question if taken on face value other than having similar-sounding names. You kind of have to look at the monster's animations.  Hmph. What are you looking at me like that for? You've never heard of a spittoon? Well, I didn't say it would be easy! This is your prize - a phial of Yggdrasil Dew.This is basically just a filler reward, sadly. On to the next question!  Again, the price goes up by 100 gold pieces. I'm starting to see a pattern here. This one's a gift! First, fill in the blank: "------ Quest is my favourite RPG!" Now, bring me one of those! Specifically, I want the GREEN one...He's right, you know; this one's easy. Good thing Euchre didn't use up that Green Dragon from Palaish Shrine, otherwise he'd have to synthesise another.  I mean, there's no such thing as Bubble Slime Quest! This is your prize - a Gold Nugget!Gold Nuggets may just be vendor trash, but at least it means that Euchre will be turning a profit from this question.  There's definitely a pattern here with these prices. I don't want just any "G-rate" monster, I want you to bring me a monster that's better than good. Now don't let my question "grate" on your nerves too much. Just bring me the monster I desire.This is a bit of a weird one. The monster that Shuffles is asking for isn't just one thing; Euchre can, in fact, bring any monster with "great" in its name. That means Great Sabrecat, Great Sabrecub, Great Dracky, and Great Argon Lizard all qualify. Euchre's going to be using a Great Dragon, though.  Now that problem was better than good, wasn't it!? Heh heh heh! This is your prize - a Sage's Staff.The Sage's Staff is, I think, the second-strongest staff in the game, and it gives a hefty bonus to Wisdom, too. Poppet will appreciate this.  Next is question 5. Euchre's really getting through these quickly, isn't he? Fetch me a "manly" monster! To figure out the type of monster I want, you'll have to look closely at the species name. If you look hard enough, I'm sure you'll see what I mean by "manly". It's right in front of you!This is another question that depends on the name of the monster in question. Any monster with the word "man" in its name counts for this, so Merman, Mud Mannequin and Phantom Swordsman can all be used, as well as a monster we haven't seen yet, Anchorman are all perfectly valid options. Euchre's going to be putting his new Merman to good use for this one.  In short, I was looking for a monster with "man" in its name! So your MerMAN is perfect! This is your prize - a Scourge Whip.Again, this is a particularly strong example of its weapon type, although it's not quite the best one. On a slightly different note, I wonder how this question, as well as the previous one, work in other languages. Maybe they're just completely different questions.  The price is steadily going up, but Euchre's halfway there now. The monster I seek was meant to stand on a pedestal... ...but it prefers to spend its whole life stomping around, with the same stony expression on its face.This question requires another monster that Euchre only got earlier in this update: a Living Statue. There isn't really anything to say about this one, to be honest.  What other stony-faced monster was meant to stand on a pedestal... ...but now stomps around wherever it pleases? This is your prize - a Sage's Scroll.This prize brings me to a bit of information that I wasn't aware of before now: the Skill scroll shop on Domus Isle has a random inventory. Apparently, if Euchre were to buy all of the scrolls sold there, the place would restock with a selection of four scrolls chosen from a list of six: the Warrior's Scroll, Priest's Scroll, Mage's Scroll, Martial Artist's Scroll, Sage's Scroll and Thief's Scroll. Otherwise, all these were prizes available from Wifi tournaments, which have long since been shut down. Getting this one for free is nice, at least, since it isn't in the current shop inventory.  Anyway, moving on to question 7. The monster I seek is a man-eating menace that likes to think outside the box. Watch out - it's one canny little carnivore!This is another fairly straightforward one. Shuffles is looking for a Cannibox this time. The other mimic monsters won't work, sadly.  Why, a Cannibox, of course! You're sharper than you look, young man. This is your prize - a Hero Spear.The Hero Spear is just another strong weapon. It's not the strongest by any means, but it's definitely up there.  Question 8 is next, and the pricing scheme is still entirely predictable. The ghoulish ghost that I seek may have a grin on its bony face, but it really is a very unhappy soul. Just think about it... Sad souls whose bony grins hide the torture within...Again, the exact wording of this one gives the game away. The answer is not just any undead, but a Tortured Soul.  Yes, yes. It could be none other than a skull-faced tortured soul. ...Although, names are deceiving. Some of them can be quite good company... This is your prize - a Dragon Slayer.Dragon Slayers are swords which do lots of damage to Dragons and are pretty strong in their own right. They're only the fourth or so strongest sword, though.  There are only two questions left, and this one is actually a little tricky if you don't know what you're doing. The many-armed demon I seek wears a skull around its neck. It's MAL-evolent, it's WRATH-ful - and, er, it has wings too!Euchre's had this one in his team for some time. It's Malroth, otherwise known as Sidoh! This is the only monster required for the test that needs a recipe, but thankfully a recipe for it is given out in this very tent: mixing a Living Statue with a Demon-At-Arms.  You are a mighty scout indeed, to bring me a Rank S monster! This is your prize - a copy of "Neutral Ground".Oh boy, one of the polarity books. At least this one's free, and objectively the best one. That's not saying much, though.  The final question is here, and the price has jumped up by 200 gold pieces this time instead of 100. What dastardly puzzle could be awaiting Euchre? I'm sure you have fond memories of your first monster, so bring me one of that type! This is absolutely, positively the final problem. So anyway, do you remember?Wait, that's not difficult at all! In fact, it's the easiest question on the advanced test! All the potential monsters required for this can be found on this very island, and there are only three anyway so it's easy to guess. Thankfully, we know that Euchre's first monster was a Platypunk.  But surely you must know. So I suppose you're correct! Here's your prize - a pair of amazingly durable Orichalcum Claws. Couldn't blunt 'em if you tried!Orichalcum Claws are the strongest set of claws in the game, and one of the strongest of any type. It's only beaten in terms of sheer power by three weapons, in fact.  ...and, sadly, my Advanced Monster Scout Proficiency Test is over. On a more positive note, you've fulfilled one of the two conditions for entry into Solitiare's Challenge. Aye, you did very well indeed. Those problems were not at all easy! It's been an honour to meet a scout of your calibre!And, with that, the Advance Monster Scout Proficiency Test is over. Next time, Euchre's team will be completing the Xeroph Isle arena and earning the right to battle Solitaire. Extra: Synthesis Recipes With the sheer number of new monsters Euchre got in this update, this is going to take a while. Hope you like text! Wild Slime + Buffalogre = Mohawker (Rank A, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) It's another Mohawker recipe! This one isn't quite as useful as the one involving a Great Sabrecat due to the intermediate steps, but it's still perfectly valid. Slime Knight + Skelegon = Demonrider (Rank E, scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) Don't. Just don't. Demonriders are incredibly easy to find in the wild, so just get one from Xeroph Isle instead of using this rubbish. Drakularge + Golem = Gold Golem (Rank D, scoutable, available through generic synthesis) Again, don't. Gold Golems are far below either of their component monsters in terms of Rank. Get one through another method if you really want one. Drakularge + Boss Troll = Night Clubber (Rank S, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) This is a good recipe for getting a Night Clubber if you don't want to faff around with uncharted islands looking for a Frou-Frou. Drakularges aren't particularly hard to synthesise, after all. Red Dragon + Hunter Mech = Metal Dragon (Rank C, scoutable for a limited time, not available through generic synthesis) This is a good recipe for Metal Dragons for those who didn't get them while they were scoutable. It's probably the better recipe out of the two available, since Hunter Mechs are easy to get a hold of. Additionally, Monster Matchmaking can enable this recipe; a negative Hunter Mech is provided, and a positive Rank D Dragon family monster is required. Red Dragon + Metal Slime Knight = Metal Dragon (Rank C, scoutable for a limited time, not available through generic synthesis) Don't use this recipe if the other is available. Metal Slime Knights ceased being scoutable when Infern Isle changed, so it takes more work to get one. Even if you've got one spare, there are better uses for the things. Eveel + Seasaur = Sea Dragon (Rank C, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) This is the only recipe for a Sea Dragon, so it should be done for filling up the monster library. That's about it, really, since Sea Dragons aren't used in anything themselves. It's an improvement on both its components, since both are Rank D. Yabby + Scorpion = Scissor Beatle (Rank C, scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) Again, don't. Scissor Beatles are another monster that's easy to scout, this time on Fert Isle. It's not worth giving up a Yabby for them. Merman + Archdemon = Gracos (Rank A, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) It's difficult to say whether this or Octavian Sentry + Archdemon is the better way to get Gracos, so it's pretty much down to personal preference and which monsters you have spare. Gold Golem + Archdemon = Belial (Rank A, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) No matter how many Belial recipes we come across, the one that uses Dessert Demon will always be the best. Ignore this one in favour of that one. Jum + Nature Family = Boe (Rank A, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) Boe is an important monster to get, and this is probably the best way to do it. It's one of the gimmick monsters that go with Jum. This recipe is available through Monster Matchmaking, but it's a rip-off. A negative Jum is provided, and a positive Rank S Nature family monster is required. Jum + Beast Family = Boh (Rank A, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) This is the next gimmick monster. Again, this is the best recipe for it, and you'll probably want multiple copies eventually. Jum + Material Family = Mum (Rank A, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) And this is the third and last one. Take what I said about the others, and that's basically all there is to say about this. Living Statue + Demon-At-Arms = Malroth (Rank S, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) Hey, it's Malroth again! This is the recipe that the game gives to you, and again, it's basically personal preference which one to use. I think this one edges the other out slightly, since Buffalogres are more generally useful than Living Statues. Jamirus + Hades Condor = Garuda (Rank A, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) This is the only way to get a Garuda, so go ahead and use this recipe. It's not used in much, but what it is used in is a good monster to have. Jamirus + Silvapithecus = Pazuzu (Rank A, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) Pazuzu's nice to have, too, though there are four different recipes that can be used to get one. This definitely isn't the worst, but I wouldn't call it the best, either. Just use a Gigantes instead of a Jamirus. Tortured Soul + Bone Baron = Dullahan (Rank S, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) This one's currently only doable for Euchre through Monster Matchmaking, but Bone Barons are easy enough to get. There's another recipe for Dullahans, but it's not doable with Monster Matchmaking. A Tortured Soul + King Slime = Wight King (Rank S, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) Wight Kings have two recipes with which they can be made, and this is the easier of the two. They can only be used to make one other monster, and there are other recipes for that, but it's a good idea to get them in the monster library anyway. Metal King Slime + Beetleboy = Beetlebully (Rank S, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) This recipe is stupidly hard to do, but it's the only way to get a Beetlebully. Do it once, then forget about it for ever. King Slime + Metal King Slime + Liquid Metal Slime + Metal Slime Knight = Metal Kaiser Slime (Rank A, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) Do not use this recipe! It's an incredibly bad idea to do this, since it's a huge waste of resources. Metal Kaiser Slimes are used in a lot of things, but the other recipe for them is a massive improvement over this one. Epicmissingno fucked around with this message at 13:23 on Feb 4, 2018 |
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Jan 21, 2018 17:20
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Wow. "Do you remember what your starting monster was" is pretty darn fiendish if people have been playing this thing in fits and starts. Then again I suppose there are only three so with them all on the team you can't lose.
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Jan 31, 2018 01:08
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I really hope his "I don't know either" means any of the three work
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Jan 31, 2018 01:25
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Glazius posted:Wow. "Do you remember what your starting monster was" is pretty darn fiendish if people have been playing this thing in fits and starts. Is it bad that my mind went straight to Wulfspade when he asked that? Or maybe that's what they expected.
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Jan 31, 2018 02:33
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Except apparently is just accepts whatever monster you present anyway 
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Jan 31, 2018 13:57
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Postgame Part 3: Arena Antics Last time, Euchre synthesised a bunch of monsters, using some of them to complete the Advanced Monster Scout Proficiency Test. Music: Scoutpost  This time, he'll be doing some more synthesis. Don't worry, it's not as much as last time! This is basically just to get the team up to speed for the Arena, which will also be in this update.  This combination of monsters, as has been previously established, results in a Belial. This isn't the most efficient recipe, but the Great Dragon has a Skill I want and both of these guys have a lot of skill points to pass down.  Bang & Zam II doesn't matter, but the rest do. You see, Abel is getting a Phoenix Sceptre...  ...and getting mixed together with Li'l Green. He's been falling behind considerably in terms of bulk, and having a Double Trouble monster around can only help.  The reason for getting Healer on Abel is so that he'll start with more points in it at this stage. He's got all the same Skills that Li'l Green had, but with Wisdom Boost II instead of whatever was there before. It's not like it had any points invested in it anyway.  And that's the team's healer done, but while we're starting on the subject of synthesis, I want to talk about monster generations. This is the number next to a monster's Rank on its status screen. For example, Abel is considered a Rank A+7. That means that the monsters used to synthesise him stretch back seven generations. What's the significance of this number? Well, it affects level cap. Normally, a monster's level cap is 50. At +5, this is lifted to 75, and at +10 it becomes 99. The problem with this system is that it takes ages to even get to level 50 with the amount of experience the game gives out. Oops! Next up is a replacement for Poppet, starting with a fusion of a Silvapithecus and a Gigantes.  A Pazuzu is the inevitable result. Unlike with Abel, though, this synthesis chain isn't done quite yet.  These Skills don't matter in the slightest, but here they are anyway.  Now for a synthesis involving that Pazuzu and a Drakularge.  This is a recipe that gives a Drakulard. Again, though, this isn't the end result that I'm going for.  Crack & Zap II was on the Drakularge from doing all that generic synthesis. Might as well put it to good use here.  Next up is this synthesis, which should produce a Mechan-o'-Wyrm.   Again, these Skills don't matter in the slightest. Poppet's mostly fine with his current Skills, although there will be a change for Reasons.  The final monster that Euchre will be making today is obtained from synthesising Mechan-o'-wyrm and Drakulard.  This is an Alabast Dragon, and it's pretty decent. Maybe not the best mage, but it's got Psycho and has a good set of resistances to make up for it.  Again, Skills don't matter too much. Crack & Zap III is important, though, and not just because it's filling up the Skill Library.  Like with Abel, Gypsum is going to be synthesised together with a current team member, along with a Phoenix Sceptre.  And again, like with Abel, Gypsum's name isn't being changed. His Skills are, though, inheriting Frizz & Bang III and Fortifier from Poppet and Crack & Zap III from his namesake. It's nice to have some versatility, although there is another reason for this decision. It'll have to wait a couple of updates, though. Music: Island  Anyway, that's all the synthesis that needed to be done. With Abel and Gypsum grinded up to around level 20-25, it's time to finish the arena.  Rank S is first. At 2000 gold coins, the entrance fee is already up there with the highest question fee in the proficiency test. Sadly Wildcard still doesn't want to fight, so Euchre's going to be stuck with his other three team members. Not that that's a bad thing. Music: Monster Battle  The first fight in Rank S is a selection of Restless Armour palette swaps. Pretty much every battle from here on contains a monster that was a boss in another game, and this one has Roseguardin from Dragon Quest 4. It's fairly generic here, sadly, not even getting any decent attacks off before being unceremoniously killed. Much like in its original game, then!  The Lethal Armour has Bomb Slash, though! That's something mildly threatening, maybe. Abel being immune to Bang puts a damper on it its plans.  Fight number two's also a set of palette swaps, this time of Dessert Demon. Belial, as well as being a boss in this game, was also one of the late-game minibosses in Dragon Quest 2. It's kind of important that Euchre got a copy recently, though, because it made me realise something about it.  The arena cheats! Abel doesn't have Psycho, and there's no way to get it from Skills, so a monster like this is impossible for a player to obtain.  At least the Archdemon plays fair. Boom is underwhelming, but it's being boosted by Bangmeister so it's more dangerous than average. It's not like that's saying much, though.  Oh, and the Dessert Demon gets Magic Frailty. This is a magic-heavy fight, so it's best if this doesn't hit. It's even better if this doesn't get cast at all and the fight ends quickly, just like with every one of these battles.  With the end of that, Rank S is nearly done. There's just one fight left, and because there are only two monsters that use the Gigantes model, there aren't enough palettes to go around. The boss this time is Atlas, from Dragon Quest 2 again. It's in the same stretch of game as Belial. It's also a postgame boss in Dragon Quest 9, but that game was released after this one so it doesn't count.  Anyway, they don't do anything remotely interesting. They basically just hit hard with their physical attacks, as their appearances might suggest. Music: Island   Here's ya prize then. An amazin'...er...loyalty card. For shops an' that, y'know. Euchre receives a loyalty card!Oh, hey, one of these! It's a key item that lowers the prices in all shops, or at least ones with a shop interface. There's no discount on Metal Tickets, for example. It would definitely be worth getting this even if it wasn't required to get to the fight with Solitaire.  Come back soon. We're lookin' forward to seein' ya fight again... Hooroo!Considering how horrible Rank S was last time Euchre tried it, this attempt went surprisingly smoothly. On to the next!  Rank X costs 3000 gold coins to enter, which is by far the most expensive entrance fee. It's still a drop in the ocean compared to Euchre's current funds. Music: Monster Battle  This first fight is unique in that it has two prior bosses in it. I've already talked about Gracos last time Euchre ran into one, but Khalamari was one of the early bosses of Dragon Quest 8. He was much bigger then, and expressed his multiple personality disorder through his tentacles, Tenta and Tickles. No, I don't know either.  Here, he has...Crackle? It's a bit late in the game to be using something that weak, isn't it? The fight ends before anything else can be shown off, which is nice for surviving the rest of these fights but not so nice for showing off what these guys can do.  The second fight has Don Mole as the resident boss fight. He, too, comes from Dragon Quest 8, where he stole a harp which he used to play terrible music. It was so terrible, in fact, that it confused everyone around him. This series is kind of weird sometimes.  While Don Mole doesn't manage to do anything significant this time, the Wight King actively makes things harder for its team by healing Sidoh with Kazammle. If it hit anyone else, though, this would actually be dangerous. And, of course, the Demon-at-Arms does nothing much too.  The final battle in the arena is against these guys. Ruin is yet another boss from Dragon Quest 8! It comes out of basically nowhere and is made from the ruins of the villain's castle, sort of. It's a filler boss by pretty much every definition. At least its design is fairly cool, although its hand blocks most of it from this camera angle.  Anyway, the Megalodons have Kazapple. It hurts! A lot!  In fact it hurts so much that Abel gets killed by it, leaving Team Euchre without a healer.  It doesn't help that Ruin hits really hard too, and with no direct control over the party there's no guaranteed way of mitigating the damage.  Thank goodness for wasting turns with Share Magic. The only monster that's even used MP on that team is the Megalodon who just used Share Magic, and sure enough...  ...it gives its MP to itself. Why would the game even allow for this? It's completely pointless!  Thank goodness for incompetence, then. With this, Euchre has conquered the arena. Music: Island  Now I ain't the emotional type, but you've brought a tear to my eye, ya have. Here's (sniff) ya prize - a m-mighty (sniff) Miracle Mace. Y-You've earned it! (sob) Aww, he's getting all emotional! Anyway, the Miracle Mace is a high-powered hammer which heals the user for some of the damage done. It's not the best hammer, but it's very good regardless. You've done it all, ya mongrel! The arena don't have no more ranks! So...I spect you'll be leavin' us then? (sniff) Well, d-don't be a stranger... We'd all love to see ya battle again. (sniff) True blue...Goodbye, aggressively Australian arena man! You will be missed. In any case, that's about it for this update. Next time, Euchre will be facing off against Solitaire. Extra: The Monster Library Mechan-o'-Wyrm   Mechan-o'-wyrms have the Skill Barricade when synthesised, and also get Whack Ward when obtained as a gift (see Part 24). They have the Trait Critical Massacre and are immune to both Whack and Paralysis. Barricade was on Living Statues in Postgame Part 2. Drakulard   Drakulards get the Skill Toughie and the Trait Critical Massacre. They're immune to both Zap and Whack. Toughie was on Jargons in Part 18. Alabast Dragon   First off, that description is horribly inaccurate. Joker 2 has both Alabast Dragon and the Zenith Dragon in its roster, and it looks like this:  Anyway, back to Alabast Dragons. They've got Cleric for their Skill, and have Psycho for their Trait. They absorb Zap, and are immune to both Ice Breath and Whack. Cleric was on King Slimes in Part 7. Pazuzu   Pazuzus have the Skill Bombardier and the Trait Wooshmeister. They're immune to both Crack and Whack. Bombardier was on Liquid Metal Slimes in Postgame Part 1. Belial   Belial gets the Skill Bang & Zam II and the Traits Double Trouble and Bangmeister. They're immune to Bang and Whack, but weak to Fizzle. There's a lot of Whack immunity going around, isn't there? Bang & Zam II is new. We haven't even seen the first tier of the Skill yet! Anyway, it's once again your standard dual-element Skill, so only Bang & Zam III is worth it in the slightest. It's got Kazam, Kazammle, Kaboom, Kaboomle, Blast Slash, Shadow Slash, Zam Guard and Bang Guard. Exciting! It's probably the rarest of this set of Skills, so it might be a good idea to keep it around for completion's sake. Other than that, it's unremarkable. At least it's got varied targeting. Extra 2: Synthesis Recipes Mechan-o'-Wyrm + Drakulard = Alabast Dragon (Rank S, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) Hey, it's a synthesis recipe that was used in this very update! This is an excellent recipe to get to know, because Alabast Dragons are used in a decent amount of high-end recipes themselves. Plus they're good monsters in their own right. This is the only recipe that can be used to make them. Mechan-o'-Wyrm + Hunter Mech = Killing Machine (Rank S, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) Save your Mechan-o'-Wyrms for making Alabast Dragons. This recipe is pointless, since it's much easier to use a Phantom Swordsman if you want to make a Killing Machine. Drakulard + Malroth = Nimzo (Rank S, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) This is the only way to get Nimzo, the final boss of Dragon Quest 5. He's used in a couple of monsters himself, both of which also only have one recipe. If you want to climb the Ranks, Nimzo is definitely a good stepping stone. Pazuzu + Drakularge = Drakulard (Rank S, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) It's another recipe used in this update! Drakulard is used in Alabast Dragon and Nimzo and nothing else, but those are really common recipes anyway. It's worth giving this one a go. Pazuzu + Boss Troll = Night Clubber (Rank S, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) This isn't a great recipe to use for a Night Clubber. Save your Pazuzus for making Drakulards.
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Feb 4, 2018 15:22
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Jeez, looking at those models, I suddenly perfectly understand why they added the size system in Joker 2.
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Feb 4, 2018 22:30
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The Miracle Mace, huh? It's finally made the leap from sword technology. Good for it!
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Feb 4, 2018 23:36
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serefin99 posted:Jeez, looking at those models, I suddenly perfectly understand why they added the size system in Joker 2. For all the problems 2 had, the size system was a pretty cool addition I think! That, and the wandering super enemies, were both pretty neat. Too bad about.. pretty much everything else.
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Feb 5, 2018 00:22
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Chronische posted:Too bad about.. pretty much everything else. What exactly do you mean by this? Unlike 1, I actually beat 2 and I absolutely loved it from start to end. The best way I could describe it would be "1 but better". The only thing I dislike about 2 is how they removed the little pokedex-esque blurbs from the monster library.
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Feb 5, 2018 20:16
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It's an even more barren wasteland of a game. I was hoping for something more like the older Dragon Warrior Monster games, but instead got all the not-monster lands cut down to practically nothing. Removing the little blurbs was pretty lame too! I liked the big monsters, the music (which, to be fair, is just music from the normal DQ games), and the wider variety of critters available sooner (including metal slimes if you're lucky). But as I said, it felt even more barren and lifeless than DQM:J 1. I wonder what 3 is like, though?
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Feb 6, 2018 00:26
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Chronische posted:I wonder what 3 is like, though? I don't know all that much about 3, but here's what I found out. The main gimmick of the game is that you can use your monsters as mounts to travel around. Each has different abilities as a mount, although I would assume that they're split into groups in some way. Apparently this includes flight. There's also a drone you can use to scan the surrounding area for monsters a la Yo-kai Watch. The number of party member slots was increased to 4, in line with the Monsters 1 and 2 remakes that we also didn't get. The plot centres around some mysterious guy showing up with corrupted "break" versions of monsters. Other than that, I know basically nothing about it. There are some new Incarnus forms introduced that are based on a white tiger, owl, bear and turtle. In the Pro version, the protagonists of the first two Joker games show up for some reason, along with a few other characters. Apparently there's an English patch floating around for the vanilla version but it's  and I haven't got it anyway. Also be aware that some of this information might be inaccurate.
Epicmissingno fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Feb 6, 2018 |
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Feb 6, 2018 01:02
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Chronische posted:I liked the big monsters, the music (which, to be fair, is just music from the normal DQ games), and the wider variety of critters available sooner (including metal slimes if you're lucky). But as I said, it felt even more barren and lifeless than DQM:J 1. I know that the DQMJ2P adds a bunch more stuff including a town (populated by monsters, but still)
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Feb 6, 2018 01:27
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It's kind of a shame we never got DQMJ1/2P. I am holding out hope for Joker 3 to get an international release (With the Professional content of course), if only so Final Fantasy Brave Exvius can FINALLY have a reason to do the Monster Quest colab we missed in Global. But still, I can't read moon runes for poo poo and I don't intend to mod my N3DS to play import titles. (FFBE still has a far better track record for colabs and adding in holes with GL exclusive content than, say, Record Keeper does, if I'm being completely honest here)
Kemix fucked around with this message at 07:16 on Feb 6, 2018 |
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Feb 6, 2018 07:13
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Postgame Part 4: The Other Final Battles Last time, Euchre finished off the Xeroph Isle arena, qualifying for the finals of Solitaire's Challenge. Music: Contest Castle  This time, he'll be doing what he's been working towards for all of the postgame and fighting Solitaire.  First, though, let's have a look at Team Euchre. Sidoh should probably have been synthesised with the Phoenix Sceptre at some point, because his stats are a bit lacking compared to everyone else.  He's mostly a vehicle for debuffs and ailments, though, so it's not too bad. It'd be nice if he did a bit more damage, but c'est la vie.  Abel's stats are also all over the place, with the lowest Wisdom of the team. It's a good thing he doesn't really need it thanks to his abilities. He's surprisingly good at attacking, helped by Double Trouble giving him two attacks per turn.  Speaking of abilities, he's got all the healing he could possibly need and not much else. Omniheal is especially useful and will probably get spammed a lot, since it's a full heal for the entire party. Its MP cost is appropriately high at 36.  Unsurprisingly, Wildcard has the highest total stats of anyone in Team Euchre. In fact, all of his stats are the highest in the party without boosts from equipment! That's no mean feat.  As for abilities, he's still mostly using stuff from Wulfspade II. It's a pretty balanced set, but Oomphle will probably get the most use. If the enemy tries buffing up, Disruptive Wave could be good too.  And, finally, there's Gypsum. Despite his comparably low level, he's still competitive with everyone else. His Sage's Staff is boosting his Wisdom enough to beat Wildcard, but even without it it's still very good.   He's the only member of Team Euchre who has enough abilities to reach two pages. They're mostly redundant, sadly, but Kafrizzle will be good for damage and the various buffs will be good for support. With all that checked out, it's finally time to face Solitaire.   You think you're ready, Euchre? HA! You'll never be ready for me!You know, I think this is the first time that Solitaire's called Euchre by name. Maybe she's finally warmed up to him or something. But there's no time for formalities; the two have to get to the arena ASAP. Music: Colosseum (IV)   There's no love lost between these two battle legends!  ...Commissioner GINNY RUUU-MMMMMMY! I said, DO...NOT...USE...THAT...NAME!  Music: Boss Battle  Okay, let's get down to business here: with a team even slightly weaker than what he's got here, he would lose. Kaisey the Metal Kaiser Slime is probably the most annoying thing present, and needs to be either isolated or dealt with quickly. The team that Euchre will be using here is comprised of Sidoh, Abel and Gypsum, by the way. Don't worry, Wildcard will still get some screentime!  As you can see, Solitaire's monsters are very strong. Thankfully none of them get Double Trouble, but both the Atlas and Mumboh-Jumboe doing 150 damage per turn each is still very nasty. The Metal Kaiser Slime does about half that, but won't get many opportunities to attack anyway.  Immediately Sidoh lands a debuff on Atlasey, lowering its damage by a factor of around 1/3. It's guaranteed to move last thanks to its Trait, Last Word, so this affects it before it can attack.  And Gypsum does what he does best and casts Oomphle a couple of times, increasing everyone's damage.  Here's one of three reasons why Kaisey is a huge pain: Hustle Dance. Obviously it's a dance, but here's what it does.  It's a full-party heal! While it's not as much as Multiheal or anywhere near Omniheal's level, it's still more than enough to top off Kaisey. Yes, that means that it can heal itself fully whenever it feels like it, which is incredibly annoying if you don't have Hatchet Man. Guess who doesn't have Hatchet Man!  Speaking of healing, that's what Abel will be doing when anyone's particularly damaged. Otherwise, he'll be left to his own devices, so he'll be attacking a lot. Double Trouble really cranks up the damage output in that case.  Here's the second reason why Kaisey is a pain: Critical Miss. Relying on Hatchet Man or random crits to win this is no longer an option if this hits, so that's a big problem.  Thankfully this one hits Gypsum, who doesn't really care about this sort of thing.  Next, Weakening Wallop lands on Jumbey. Now Team Solitaire is no longer a threat.  Even more so now that Atlasey has bitten the dust.  And that brings me to the third and final reason why Kaisey is a pain: Zing. That's right, the hardest monster to kill on Team Solitaire can also bring back its brethren.  It's not Kazing, though, so it's still got a chance of failure and only revives monsters with half their maximum health. Unfortunately, death wipes all ailments away, so Atlasey is back at full strength in terms of attack power.  Not that it matters. At that point Jumbey was almost dead, so it falls very quickly...  ...followed swiftly by Atlasey once again. Now it's just down to Kaisey, and it can't raise two monsters on the same turn.  Here's why Team Euchre is just barely strong enough to beat Solitaire, by the way. The physical damage formula is additive, so if Sidoh had just 20 or so less Attack here he would do either 1 or 0 damage. Obviously this is a huge improvement.  Abel is in the same boat, but is slightly weaker. Still, two attacks do wonders for damage.  At this point, Solitaire must be getting desperate. Zing completely fails, but it probably wouldn't make any difference to the outcome.  In a last-ditch effort, Kaisey attempt to wipe Oomphle off Team Euchre.  But, like the rest of Team Solitaire, it eventually goes down. Music: None  Music: Colosseum (IV)  Was there ever any doubt?  Euchre takes the championship! Give it up for the greatest scout in history, our Green Bays wild card... This challenge would get kinda old fast if I kept winning all the time. So I decided to throw this one...y'know, just to make things interesting for the fans. If I REALLY tried, there's no way I would lose to this kid!And of course Solitaire's not taking this well. I'd have hoped that she'd have mellowed out a bit, but no such luck.  ...Well, IF that's true, maybe you could try "for real" next time...The announcer doesn't seem to believe her either. Who'd have thought? In any case, Euchre wins Solitaire's Challenge! See you all at the next challenge!Music: Solitaire  So, like, congratulations, I guess. Here, take it. Euchre receives a brass key.I'm sure Solitaire thinks she's fobbing Euchre off with a useless reward, but it's actually fairly important.  It looked kind of interesting, so I hung onto it for a bit. I tried opening all the doors in HQ, but it didn't work on ANY of them. But anyway, I'm giving it to you as a present, so I hope you're grateful. We've just got started. More battles lie ahead! You've only won the first round, nothing more.Now that Euchre's got the Brass Key, it's time to go around and see what it opens. Think back to all the locked doors Euchre's come across in his journey... Music: CELL Headquarters  Oh, wait, there was only one. The Domus Isle sewer has that locked door that's been taunting us ever since fighting Dr Snap on Xeroph Isle.  This is Dr Snap's secret laboratory. Igor Folds already said that his research partner had a lab here, and the key being in Snap's belongings suggests that he conducted his research here.  There are some monsters floating around in tubes here. They can't be interacted with, but my best guess is that Snap was using them to study monster biology.  There are a couple of bookcases around the room that contain details on Snap's backstory. Let's take a look.  I discovered the legendary Mark completely by accident. Who would have imagined I'd find such a treasure amongst Igor Folds's accumulated rubbish!? I might not even have recognised it were it not for the strange light it gave off. I took the Mark from Folds, and banished the senile fool from my laboratory. It meant losing my research partner of many years, but I did what I had to do.As it turns out, Folds was indeed telling the truth about his partner. This new piece of information paints Snap in an even worse light than before; after all, he could have just asked for the Scout's Mark but decided to steal it instead, leaving poor Igor destitute in the process.  And lo, the Mark now glows in my hand, just as the legends described. But though I wait and wait, the Incarnus does not come to me. Perhaps it is unaware of the existence of the Mark? If that is the case, I must somehow tell the world about the treasure I have discovered.And that's the story of how Dr Snap had the idea of putting the Scout's Mark up as the tournament prize. The next (and final) book isn't about Snap's discovery of the Scout's Mark, unlike these first two. Instead, it's just his research, and it's the first time the game tells players about a specific game mechanic...  We assume this phenomenon to be caused by the awakening of dormant traits in the base monsters. If we randomly pair up a Mum, Boh, Jum and Boe, we can synthesise two visibly similar monsters. But if we combine these, we produce a new monster impossible to create by any other means. I have named this phenomenon Quadrilineal Synthesis.Yes, I've been calling this particular mechanic the wrong thing the whole game. Sorry about that! I find that Grandparent Synthesis is a far more descriptive term, though. The recipe described here is for a Mumboh-Jumboe, unsurprisingly. Anyway, there's just one more thing in Snap's secret lab. Euchre goes down the corridor and runs straight into...  ...Estark! This guy is a recurring boss in the series, first appearing in Dragon Quest 4 as the main villain, sort of. After that he was a superboss in 5, which makes sense since it's a direct sequel to 4 albeit countless years later. He's also appeared in the remake of 8 for the 3DS, as well as 9 and Joker 2. There's also the matter of this not actually being Estark, but rather a character called Psaro who changed into a form very similar to Estark. The original Estark was blue instead of brown.   Thou who darest waken me... ...I have waited long for thee. I was born of the firey flames in the ancient depths of the underworld known as Nadiria. My destiny is to evolve beyond Lord of the Underworld and Emperor of Monsterkind! I bow to none excepting he that can defeat me through force of arms. There's no question that Estark is the hardest opponent in the game, and Team Euchre is powerful enough to handle him. Let's start this fight!  Do not flinch! Fight me now, with all your strength!Music: Fight Against Milayou  Estark, as a boss fight, has a bit of a gimmick to him. In pretty much every game he's been in he's either started battle asleep, been weak to sleep, or both. This game has the third of the options, so Kasnooze spam is a viable option. As for what he resists, he's immune to both Whack and Fizzle.  Since he's asleep, it's best to start out with buffing everyone up. For this fight, Euchre will be using Sidoh, Abel and Wildcard. Psych Up is the best option here for both Wildcard...  ...and Sidoh.  Meanwhile, Abel will be casting Buff to shore up the team's defences. Estark is a very strong monster, and we need as much damage mitigation as we can get.  Unfortunately Estark wakes up before everyone's finished buffing up, so Wildcard doesn't get increased defence. There's less time for Psych Up, too, but that's fine.  As for Estark's damage, he hits hard. It might not seem like much compared to Solitaire's output, but remember, this is through Buff. And he does it twice thanks to Double Trouble!  Kazammle is a little less dangerous, but can't be disabled due to the aforementioned Fizzle immunity. When a top-tier spell is weaker than an unbuffed physical attack, you know you have something special.  Once Wildcard hits 100 tension, he starts casting Oomphle to prepare for attacking.  This goes off before Sidoh's Weakening Wallop hits, which is nice. Sadly only one stack of Oomphle was applied for this, and Weakening Wallop seems to be slightly weaker than just attacking, but it's still very good damage. Sadly it doesn't debuff Estark.  On top of what he's already done, Estark likes to toss Scorch the party's way.  Since it's the highest tier of fire breath, it hurts like hell.  Wildcard, having cast Oomphle twice, uses up his tension with a Thunderbolt Slash and produces some ludicrous damage. And yet Estark still won't die!  Sidoh finally gets Weakening Wallop to land its additional effect, though, which is nice.  And on the next turn, he does the same with Breathtaking Bash, shutting down Estark's Scorch.  And again with Helm Splitter! This battle looks like it's almost over.  Of course, that's not going to stop Estark from blatantly cheating. Like the Belial in the arena, Estark doesn't have Psycho. In fact, his only Trait is Double Trouble. This is dangerous regardless, of course, but he immediately uses the tension on a physical attack. It's a good thing he's still doing barely any damage with those!  Soon enough, we're down to one last hit...  ...before Estark falls. Music: None  Like any good boss fight he drops an item. The Royal Rod is, predictably, the strongest staff-type weapon in the game. On top of its relatively high physical attack boost, it also adds a whopping 50 points to Wisdom. Music: CELL Headquarters  I shall honour my vow, and accompany thee on thy quest. Estark is Euchre's very first Rank X monster! It's a shame that his stats aren't too great, but what new recruit has good stats? He'd have to be synthesised before he got good, and thankfully there are a few good recipes that use him. There's actually one that's possible to do right now! I'll go over it at the end of the update, as usual.  Now that that's over, it looks like someone has come in to investigate. Is that Igor Folds? But it's not night-time!    V-Vat!? You tamed ze Estark!? Snap created zat creature, but it vas too much of a handful, even for him. It vould throw a tantrum venever it lost, so Snap locked it up down here. Vell! If YOU can best Snap, maybe I can too! I vill become a greater researcher zan Snap! Ah, it's been a long, long time since I was zis excited about anything!With that, Igor leaves Euchre to his own devices. But what if Euchre talks to him one more time?  If I invent something even better, zen I, Igor Folds, vill be ze vinner! My only regret is zat he vill never know. I vould have loved to see ze look on his face ven he lost!This raises the question of how Folds knows that Snap is dead, but I guess he could just be assuming based on how long Snap's been gone. Whether there's a plot hole here or not, that's all we're doing this update. Join me next time for synthesis, synthesis and more synthesis! How exciting... Extra: The Monster Library Estark   Estark has the Skills Estark and Defence Boost when obtained in Dr Snap's laboratory, and just Estark when synthesised. He's got Double Trouble for his Trait, is weak to Sleep, and is immune to Whack and Fizzle. Estark is quite an unfocused Skill, but the abilities it has are generally very good. It starts out with Double-Edged Slash, which is a nice and powerful physical attack despite its recoil. Multislash is also good for multi-target physicals, and Assassin's Stab is great for bulky monsters who aren't Whack-immune. That's all for physical attacking, but for offensive spells he gets both Kacrack and Kazam, which are decently powerful without costing ridiculous amounts of MP. Then there's Spooky Aura for making those hit harder, as well as Wave of Panic and Disruptive Wave, both of which are very good. Overall this is a good Skill, although it may be difficult to find where to fit it into a team. Extra 2: Synthesis Recipes Estark + Alabast Dragon = Dhoulmagus (Rank S, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis) This is one of four ways to get Dhoulmagus, one of the villains in Dragon Quest 8. It's probably not the best one, though, because of a quirk involving the monster Psaro that I won't go into here. Suffice to say, Estark has a recipe that only he can be used in, and it's not this.
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Feb 10, 2018 00:31
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I've always felt a little sorry for Psaro. At least we can pretend this isn't somehow him.
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Feb 11, 2018 09:54
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Next update will probably be taking a while yet. There are something like 50 monsters still to get, and some of the requirements are just silly. Sorry about that!Glazius posted:I've always felt a little sorry for Psaro. At least we can pretend this isn't somehow him. He got a sort-of redemption and could join the party in DQ4's DS remake, at least. It's probably non-canon, unfortunately, since 5 has him in monster form as a superboss and that game takes place in the future of 4's world.
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Feb 16, 2018 00:11
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I'm not really getting why you think all the other appearances of Estark are Psaro, instead of just Estark with a different color.
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Feb 16, 2018 00:50
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savixeon posted:I'm not really getting why you think all the other appearances of Estark are Psaro, instead of just Estark with a different color. Yeah, Psaro was never gold.
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Feb 16, 2018 02:08
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MightyPretenders posted:Yeah, Psaro was never gold. Then what color is this? (dragon quest 4 spoilers)
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Feb 18, 2018 04:26
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To be fair, the brown version of Estark tends to have amnesia when you come across him, so it's difficult to say which one he is. I err on the side of Psaro mostly because of the colour.
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Feb 18, 2018 05:18
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I'd say it honestly makes more sense for it to be Estark since he always has his weakness to sleep which is something Psaro never had. Also it just makes more sense to me that Estark changed color than having Psaro be in his first form instead of his final form.
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Feb 18, 2018 05:45
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Postgame Part 5: The Eternal Grind Hello, and welcome back to Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker! Last time, Euchre officially became the strongest monster scout in Green Bays by defeating Solitaire, so what could possibly be left to do? Why, complete the monster and Skill libraries, of course! Music: Contest Castle  Before that, though, we're going to see what Solitiare has to say if Euchre is to challenge her to a rematch. Fine, fine, if you insist. I suppose I could do with some practice. But this time, I won't be holding back. Do you hear me?Music: Colosseum (IV)  Can you believe it? Their very own Commissioner is fighting, and they don't care. As soon as I'm done here, that announcer idiot is going to get a piece of my mind. But right now, we have some business to settle!Music: Boss Battle  Solitaire's team on rematches is...exactly the same as it was before, just with different names; they're random, just like any other scout. There's no reason to do this fight again other than to farm stealable items, which are apparently very valuable. Unfortunately nobody on Team Euchre has Klepto Clobber, so this is a moot point. They don't even give experience points or money! After defeating Solitaire for the second time... Music: Contest Castle  Hmph. Enjoy it while you can. Because I'm gonna turn the tables, kiddo, and SOON. Just you wait and see!Since there's no point to talking to Solitaire ever again, that's the last we'll be seeing of her...in this game, anyway. Music: Scoutpost  Now that that's sorted out, it's time to move on to the meat of this update: synthesis. Lots and lots of synthesis. Too much, perhaps. Strap in for a boring update, folks!  The combination of a Behemoth Slime and a She-Slime predictably makes a Beshemoth Slime. Since this update would be deadly dull otherwise, I'll be talking about these monsters' origins! Beshemoth Slimes, for example, are new to this game. The Monsters sub-series tends to add in a bunch of Slimes every game, so this is expected.   I'm going to go over monsters as we come to them once again. Beshemoth Slimes have got the Skill Frizz & Zam, and the Traits Frizzmeister and Desperado. Since they specialise in Frizz, they're also immune to it. Frizz & Zam is new, but it might as well not be. It's yet another two-element Skill, and I'm sure you're familiar with those at this point. The elements here are both single-target, and Beshemoth Slimes aren't particularly easy to get compared to other monsters with similar Skills, so consider a different version.   The next arbitrarily decided monster that Euchre will be getting is a Sea Dragon, obtained from this recipe only. This guy's claim to fame is that he's a mandatory fight in Dragon Quest 8, in which it used Dazzleflash and little else.   Sea Dragons get Ice for their Skill, and Artful Dodger for their Trait. They're immune to Bang for whatever reason. Ice was on Great Dragons back in Postgame Part 1. They're probably the better option for getting it.   Pan Piper is next, and there isn't much to say about it. Its first appearance was in DQ8 again, but it was just a random encounter unlike the Sea Dragon. Again, this is the only recipe.   Pan Pipers are kind of boring in terms of their abilities, too. They've got the Skill Nightmare, no Traits, and an immunity to Sleep. At least Nightmare is pretty decent! Speaking of Nightmare, it's also available from Mimics and was covered in Part 11.   Brownies are another of those random encounter monsters, and another with only one recipe. This time they're from DQ5...but they were also in 8. Presumably most of the models in this game are based on models from that one.   Bounty Hunter is a Skill that Brownies are by far the best recipient of. They also get Psycho as their Trait and are immune to Drain Magic, because of course the primarily physical attacker will have a lot of MP to steal. Bounty Hunter, unsurprisingly, is new! Its primary use is that it has Klepto Clobber and Penny Pincher. Klepto Clobber definitely has its uses, and it's probably better for getting money than Penny Pincher based on the selling prices of some of the stealable weapons. Other than those, there's the active Metal Slash and the passive Metal Beater that each add one point of damage to metal monsters, which are blatantly there for experience farming. Dodgy Dance, Mercurial Thrust, Paralysing Punch and Assassin's Stab round out the Skill, and they're all pretty decent. Overall this is a pretty decent Skill for getting money and experience, although it won't be all that great for serious battling.   This is Moosifer, and it's the first monster today to have multiple recipes! Either Pan Piper or Satyr is fine here, but the Buffalogre is part of both recipes. Moosifers are, again, random encounter monsters. This time they're from DQ4!   Moosifers have the Skill Woosh & Crack. Yawn. They've got Psycho as a Trait, at least, and since one is a boss in this game they're immune to Whack. Woosh & Crack is nothing new. It was on Jailcats back in Part 9.   Grim Rider is next. Again, these guys have their first appearance in DQ4, and are just random encounters. Unlike Moosifers, though, this is their only recipe.   Grim Riders have Assassin for their Skill and Counterstriker for their Trait. Like most undead they're weak to Zap, but unlike most undead they're not immune to Whack! Instead they're immune to Sleep. Assassin's been available to see since Metal Dragons in Part 22.   Next up is the combination of a Buffalogre and one of a Wild Slime, a Great Sabrecat or a Bone Baron. Honestly, Bone Barons are the best monster to use for this, but only through Monster Matchmaking. They're a real pain to get otherwise. This is another monster from DQ8, where it's a palette swap of a boss. No prizes for guessing that particular boss's name.   Mohawkers get the Skill White Knight and the Trait Critical Massacre. Immunities to both Sleep and Whack round it out. White Knight is much more readily available on Slime Knights, which Euchre first encountered in Postgame Part 2.   Speaking of Bone Barons, that's the next monster on the agenda. A Grim Rider is mandatory, of course, but the other monster in the recipe can be either a Dark Slime Knight or a Mohawker. One of these is obviously easier to obtain than the other. Like Grim Riders, Bone Barons were originally random encounters from DQ4.   Diabolist is Bone Barons' Skill, and it's joined by Counterstriker as their Trait. Again, like most undead, they're weak to Zap. This time, though, they're immune to Whack as well as Inaction. Diabolist is much, much easier to get from Lesser Demons and Silvapitheci, with the former first appearing in Part 12.   That Bone Baron is immediately thrown into the melting pot with Sidoh the Malroth to make Zoma, the final boss of DQ3. Synthesising one final boss into another seems to be quite a common theme for this game. To make Zoma Malroth is always required, but Wight King and Dullahan are perfectly reasonable options to pair him with on top of the Bone Baron used here. We haven't seen those two yet, though, so Bone Baron it is.   Zoma comes pre-packaged with Ice II for a Skill instead of just Ice, as well as having the Trait Double Trouble. Useful! Unfortunately he's weak to Zap, but such is life. He is immune to both Whack and Fizzle, though, with the former becoming distressingly common among the higher ranks of monsters. The lesson here is not to go all in on instant death. Ice II is a straight upgrade of Ice, which was covered along with Great Dragons in Postgame Part 1.   And now for something completely different.That Heligator Euchre got as a gift a while back is finally useful! And this is the only thing it's useful for! With a Jumping Jackal, it can make a Riptide. Riptides are normal encounters in their game of origin, which is DQ8 again.   Riptides get the Skill Firewind Slashes, which can't be found on any other monsters. The Trait Early Bird makes the already fast Riptide even faster, and an immunity to Confusion is extremely nice to have. As I've already implied, Firewind Slashes is new. Its content, shouldn't be, though! This is your standard Slashes Skill, with both tiers of Frizz and Woosh slashes present as well as the Bang slashes and Dragon Slash. Pretty solid overall, but a bit one-note. There are only so many variations of "does damage" one Skill can contain before it becomes boring.   Riptide is going straight into the synthesis machine again along with a Lethal Armour, so that Euchre can make a Roseguardin. There's another option for this involving a Bone Baron instead of a Riptide, but this one was lying around so there was no reason not to use it. Bone Barons have more important things to do anyway. I've already discussed where this guy comes from, but here's something interesting: Roseguardin is one of the few missable boss fights in the series. After a certain point in DQ4's plot it disappears from its post and never comes back.   Anyway, on to the mechanical details. Roseguardin gets Diminisher, which you should all be familiar with by now, and also has Double Trouble to make good use of it. Immunity to Whack and Fizzle is present, but a weakness to Paralysis sadly lets it down. Diminisher's been available for ages on wild Demonriders and Hell Hornets. The former was first seen back in Part 6.   An Anchorman can be made from a Dingaling and any Demon family monster, but See Urchin happened to be the most convenient. It was originally a normal encounter in, you guessed it, DQ8! It was the most recent game in the series, after all.   Anchormen get Materialist for a Skill, and we've seen it three times already. Boring. No Traits either, but they've got an immunity to Inaction if you care about that sort of thing. Materialist, being a really common Skill, was first seen on Muddy Hands back in Part 6. It's also on Dingalings and Golems, so they're options too if you care.   Next up: a Black Dragon. Originating in DQ5 as a normal encounter, these guys are only have one recipe. Since Bone Barons are a bit of a pain to get, it's best to use the one in the Monster Matchmakers for this. Just remember that the Great Dragon used has to be positive or neutral.   Black Dragons get Antimagic and Zammeister for their Skill and Trait respectively. Unsurprisingly they're immune to Zam as well as being good at using it, but they're also immune to Whack. Antimagic isn't all that common, but it's also on Gryphons. They were first seen in Part 13.   Garuda is next on the admittedly badly-ordered list. Again, this is the only recipe. Garudas originated in DQ3 and, you guessed it, they're a normal encounter.   With Frizz & Zap for their Skill and Artful Dodger for their Trait, Garudas are honestly pretty boring. A Fizzle immunity doesn't do much to fix that. Frizz & Zap is by no means new. She-Slimes are readily available and have it, making their debut in Part 10.   Jum, Boh or Mum and a Nature family monster makes a Boe. If it wasn't obvious, I'm working towards a Mumboh-Jumboe here. Just take it as read that all the Mumboh-Jumboe-related monsters come from DQ8. They're normal encounters once again.   Fortifier is the Skill of the day, but Boe doesn't have any Traits to go along with it. Immunity to Confusion is decent enough, though. Fortifier is, as usual, something we've seen before. More specifically, it was on Bodkin Archers in Part 18, and is currently in use by Gypsum. It's good!   Boh is the next of the four to be synthesised. This time the recipe is one of Mum, Jum or Boe as well a Beast family monster.   Boh has Healer for whatever reason, but no Traits. Immunity to Fizzle is decent, but Boh doesn't have much going for it overall. Healer's another of those really common Skills, even more so than Materialist. The first monster we saw it on was Healslime, all the way back in Part 5.   The final component for Mumboh-Jumboe is Mum, obtained from one of the other three and a Material family monster.   Mum is actually different to the other three Mumboh-Jumboe components! Instead of having no Traits and an immunity, they have none of either. Their Skill, Mage Aid, is decent enough, though. Speaking of Mage Aid, it's also on Snail Slime and Yabby. Both of them were first seen in Postgame Part 2.    Now that Mum, Boh, Jum and Boe have been assembled, it's time to combine them into Mumboh-Jumboe. It's a Quadrilineal/Grandparent synthesis recipe, unsurprisingly.   Unlike its components, Mumboh-Jumboe is actually an interesting monster. Barricade as its Skill isn't all that exciting, but it has a Trait - Bangmeister - and is immune to both Whack and Sleep. Barricade has cropped up before, of course, on both Mechan-o'-Wyrms and Living Statues. Living Statues appeared first (in Postgame Part 2) so that's where the Skill is described.   Atlas here is the first monster in a while that isn't just a normal encounter! Hooray! Euchre's already fought it as a boss three times in this game, and because of that I've already discussed its origins. Gigantes is a requirement to make one, but the other monster in the pair can be a Moosifer, a Garuda or a Boss Troll.   Diabolist is Atlas's chosen Skill, which is a terrible fit for it. Critical Massacre is a good Trait for this physical-focused monster, and immunity to Whack is expected at this point.   Ruin is also a monster that's come up before. It's got two recipes: this one, and one involving a Living Statue instead of a Gold Golem.   Ruin's got the Skill Niflheim, which is learned by it and one other monster that we've not seen yet. Last Word is a Trait that is actively a detriment, but Critical Massacre somewhat makes up for it. Immunities to Whack and Confusion are, of course, very helpful. Niflheim comes pretty late for how mediocre it is. You've got Cool Breath and Chilly Breath, which are the first two (of four) tiers of ice breath, as well as Crack and Crackle, again the first two tiers of Crack spells. At least the line of Zam spells here go up to Kazam. Other than that, there's Wave of Panic...and that's it. What you end up with is a Skill that teaches three abilities that don't even reach full strength and a pretty good debuffing ability. If you want Wave of Panic, there are far better Skills that also have it.   Moving on, here's Gracos, which is the third boss monster in a row that appeared in the upper ranks of the arena. Again, there are two recipes for it: Archdemon and Merman, or Archdemon and Octavian Sentry.   Gracos gets Crack & Zap as a Skill, and Crackmeister as a Trait. Immunity to Fizzle is something that might be worthwhile, but being healed by Water probably won't amount to much. Abyss Divers are the only other monster that get Crack & Zap, and they're detailed in Postgame Part 2.   Gracos is an intermediate step on the way to King Squid. It's one of those rare monsters that have two recipes containing unrelated monsters! As well as this one, a combination of Khalamari Kid and Night Clubber. We haven't come across the latter yet, so the recipe pictured is the only option right now. DQ3 is their game of origin, and they're normal encounters out on the ocean.   King Squid gets Cleanser and Steady Recovery for its Skill and Trait, as well as the same resistances to Gracos: Fizzle immunity and Water absorption. Cleanser has only been on one monster so far: Chimaera. It's been present since Part 6.   Psaro is a monster I've already talked about, but this is a different form. Admittedly the Estark we saw last update could have been the original, but this is definitely Psaro himself. More specifically, this is the last form of his boss fight in DQ4. Combining a Roseguardin and a Ruin is the only way to make him.   Psaro is the other monster who gets Niflheim, which you should already know my thoughts on. Psycho and Desperado are his Traits, and he's predictably immune to Whack. Niflheim is also on Ruin, which is only three monsters above this one. It's not good.   Psaro is useful because he can often be used as a stand-in for Estark, and he's slightly easier to obtain. In this case, either can be synthesised with an Alabast Dragon to make Dhoulmagus. This guy is the villain in the first half of DQ8, and also has a voice actor who played 22 characters in Thomas the Tank Engine. Yes, seriously. This was your daily Dhoulmagus Trivia!   Dhoulmagus is the first monster of the update to come with a Skill named after itself! Other than that, he has the Trait Psycho, which is always welcome, and he's immune to Woosh and Whack. The Skill Dhoulmagus is...interesting. There isn't much of a theme to it, to be honest. Kasap and Kasag are pretty decent debuffs, Kaswoosh and Kacrack are pretty decent attack magic, and War Cry and Bemusing Breath are pretty decent ailment-causing abilities. That's the problem: everything is pretty decent. There's no standout so far. Other abilities here are Bounce (good but situational), Disruptive Wave (also good but situational) and Kamikazee (actively detrimental now that everything is immune to instant death). Overall you've got a Skill that can definitely be usable but doesn't fit any particular niche.   And now it's time to move on to something else. Killing Machines are basically a series staple at this point, originating in DQ2. We've got two recipes this time, with the other using a Mechan-o'-Wyrm instead of a Phantom Swordsman.   Assassin is the Skill of choice for Killing Machines, and like usual they can attack twice, specifically through Double Trouble. Whack and Dazzle immunities are appropriate for what its job is, but a weakness to Bang is kind of crippling. Assassin was on Metal Dragons in Part 22, as well as Grim Riders in this very update.   Mixing two of the game's larger monsters together results in another large monster: the Night Clubber. The Frou-Frou could be replaced by either a Pazuzu or a Drakularge, but the Boss Troll is mandatory. It only appeared in DQ4 before this, possibly because it's a boss's palette swap from that game.   Night Clubbers get the Skill Martyr and the Trait Critical Massacre. Immunity to Whack is standard, of course.   It's time for some more Quadrilineal synthesis! Don Mole can be made from two Mischievous Moles and two Night Clubbers. There are a few monsters that work this way, with two of each monster required. Don Mole's another of those monsters that turned up in the arena a couple of updates ago, so I've already covered his backstory. He's still one of the weirder inventions of the series, in my opinion.   Don Mole's Skill, Mime, is way easier to come by through other means, and he's got the ever-common Psycho as a Trait. Inaction immunity may well come in useful, but an immunity to Whack is surprisingly not present. Mime is a Skill that's already cropped up on Chainines in Part 9. It's considerably easier to get from them than Don Mole.   Hey, a recipe where both components make thematic sense! Wight Kings can be made using either this combination or by synthesising a Tortured Soul with a King Bubble Slime. They originated in DQ8, much like Tortured Soul itself, but were a normal encounter instead of a boss.   Reaper is the Skill that Wight Kings get, and Poisoner is the Trait. A weakness to Zap is predictable, as is an immunity to Whack, and while Sleep immunity isn't quite as expected it's still present. Shadows in Part 3 were the first to have Reaper. It definitely doesn't hold up as much now as it did then, though.   Another recipe involving a Tortured Soul involves mixing one with a Bone Baron, although Dullahan here can also be made by using a Phantom Fencer instead of a Tortured Soul. Other than the Joker games, Dullahan has only made an appearance in DQ8 as a normal encounter.   Champion's the Skill, Psycho's the Trait. Whack and Paralysis immunities are nice, as usual. Champion was on Wild Slimes in Postgame Part 2, so it's fairly recent. Speaking of Wild Slimes, apparently they're found in the wild on Fert Isle. Unfortunately I never saw any, so I couldn't say where they are exactly.   Khalamari is next up. He's another monster that can only be obtained through Quadrilineal synthesis, with two King Squids and two Khalamari Kids. Again, his origins were detailed briefly during Rank X of the arena.   Khalamari has the Skill Breath II and the Trait Paralyser. As with most aquatic monsters he absorbs Water, but he also has immunities to Whack and Fizzle. Breath II is technically new, but Breath can be upgraded to Breath II and can be found on Great Argon Lizards and Megalodons. The former came first and made their first appearance in Part 16.   Moving on, more final bosses being synthesised into final bosses! The result of this particular synthesis is Nimzo, or at least his final form. As the ultimate villain of DQ5, he and a lot of his underlings have a chess motif. He himself is named after a chess grandmaster called Aron Nimzowitsch.   Nimzo is another monster who gets a Skill named after them. Trait-wise, he's got Double Trouble going for him, and is immune to Whack (of course). Being healed by Zam is appropriate, but a Sap weakness is particularly crippling. Nimzo as a Skill is a lot better than Dhoulmagus was earlier. First off, it actually gets a top-tier ability in Scorch, as well as its lesser fire breath ability Inferno. Deep Breath really helps with increasing the damage of this, and Blowback can counter enemy breath attacks just in case. Kaping is a bit of a weird choice, but it goes well with Kafrizz and Kaboom as well as Spooky Aura to increase spell damage further. Finally there's Disruptive Wave which is good as always. There's nothing more frustrating than having all your tension wiped away in an instant, and being able to do that to an opponent is immensely satisfying. Overall, this is a solid choice. If there is a negative, though, it's that the spells included don't live up to their full potential. It might be a good idea to supplement this with another Skill to give some good magic attacks.   This is Rhapthorne, and this is his only recipe. Rhapthorne is another final boss, this time from DQ8, but...this isn't even his final form. He's fought in this form a little before the end of the game instead. Since he's another voice-acted character in his own game, I might as well talk about some of his VA's other roles. The most well-known around here would probably be General Gismor from Drakengard 2, for which he went uncredited.   Rhapthorne's another monster with his own Skill named after himself. Artful Dodger is a given for his Trait, since he's flying, but Zammeister is a nice bonus. Finally he's healed by Zam and, of course, immune to Whack. Rhapthorne's Skill itself is another of those Skills that might be good but doesn't really have a focus. Damage-wise there's Cold Blizzard, Kaswoosh and Kacrack, all tier 3 abilities. Note the lack of Zam, despite Rhapthorne's Traits! Other than that, there are a couple of ailments: Kasnooze, Spooky Aura and Death Dance, the last of which is terrible considering the company that Rhapthorne keeps. Otherwise there's Kadim (bad), Drain Magic (used to be good) and Clang (incredibly situational). Overall this Skill probably isn't worth anyone's time, though it still might be workable.   Moving on, this is Rhapthorne's second (and last) form. Zoma can be replaced by Orgodemir for this recipe, but he's considerably harder to get and won't even be coming up in this update. He's the same character as before, just a lot bigger. In Joker 2, in fact, he takes up three party slots compared to his first form's one. Here's something mildly interesting about him: despite him being a different monster to his other form in this game, they have the same name. As such, he's generally referred to as "Rhapthorne 2" for obvious reasons.   Speaking of which, his unique Skill is called Rhapthorne II. He's dropped his Zammeister for Psycho, but he still has Artful Dodger despite his huge size. Unfortunately he's not immune to Whack any more for some reason, but he still absorbs Zam. Rhapthorne II is much better than regular Rhapthorne for a few reasons. First up is the attacking abilities. C-C-Cold Breath is a straight upgrade to Cold Blizzard, while Kazammle and Kaboomle are also tier 4 abilities. Shadow Slash is a new, physical option, and again it's the most powerful of its kind available. Ailments are back too, with Dazzle, Sweet Breath and Spooky Aura. Finally, Disruptive Wave is always useful. Overall a good Skill that's a powerful offensive and supportive option. The main problem is that Zam, ostensibly the main focus of the Skill, is absorbed by a lot of monsters.   Moving on once again, it's time to finish Wildcard's set of forms. The first one is Cluboon Ace.   Cluboon Ace has the obvious Skill of Cluboon III, and Psycho and Critical Massacre for Traits. While he's weak to Fire, that won't come up much, and neither will the absorption of Earth. Immunities to Whack, Poison and Sleep are all useful, though. Cluboon III is, surprise surprise, good! It's mostly physical abilities, with a couple of my personal favourites: Helm Splitter and Hatchet Man. Blinding Blow and Multislash are both great options as well, although Assassin's Stab isn't all that useful any more. Gigaslash and Gigagash are very powerful abilities that scale with level, with the former being single- and the latter being multi-target. Dazzle Guard is also okay, and fits well with the other abilities on display. Overall, I'd say this is a worthy addition to a physical Incarnus's arsenal.   The final monster we're taking a look at today is Hawkhart Ace. I've already talked about how to get him, so let's quickly move on to the details.   Hawkhart Ace's Skill should be a no-brainer, but if you must know it's Hawkhart III. Psycho's here as usual, but the rare and incredibly good Magic Regenerator is the other Trait on display. As for resistances, Hawkhart Ace is completely immune to all attack magic and Whack, as well as absorbing Fire. These massive advantages are offset by being weak to Water, Poison and Sleep. Hawkhart III is taken up entirely by healing spells. You've got Heal, Midheal, Fullheal, Multiheal and Omniheal, which is a little redundant but still useful. Zing and Kazing are in the same boat, and Wave of Relief and Reheal fill out the Skill. While it isn't versatile by any means, this is still an excellent Skill for healers. It's just a shame that the Incarnus, who this Skill is locked to, has much more interesting things he can do. Next time, I'll be going over the last few monsters in the game that can only be obtained through using Metal Slimes, as well as the last few Skills that can't be obtained through just synthesis. Hopefully it won't be too soul-destroying!
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Mar 9, 2018 01:14
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If it makes you feel better, I didn't find the update boring. I never got even remotely close to getting any of these monsters, so it's interesting to actually see them.
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Mar 10, 2018 07:07
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Same. I find all of this ridiculous chaining into new monsters really interesting.
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Mar 10, 2018 07:10
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I'll probably post a chart of the longest synthesis chain in the game after next update (which should also be the last). It's amazingly long and stupid and would probably end up breaking the archive image size limit, but whatever.
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Mar 10, 2018 12:51
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Long as in vertically, correct? Split it up into two images and then post them both directly underneath each other.
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Mar 10, 2018 13:10
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I like Solitaire snarking about not even having an audience or an announcer. I think they might be worried she'll beat them up.
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Mar 10, 2018 13:28
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I got some of the monsters in the process of getting some of the S and X ranked monsters I wanted. Never bothered for a 100%, because gently caress that! Just farming metal slimes was annoying enough, hellish in fact, to get the metal kaiser slime.
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Mar 10, 2018 16:37
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You know, despite it not being great in this game, I REALLY like Ruin's design. I don't know how to explain it, but I like the idea of a crumbling building being haunted by a ghost and being used to quell the evils of the world in the right hands.
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Mar 11, 2018 04:30
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Postgame Part 6: Dragon Quest Monsters Joker Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Cheat Codes Last time, Euchre started his task to obtain every monster in Green Bays. This time, he'll be finishing off that task. Music: Monster Battle  The first job to take care of is scouting a Metal Slime. As you can probably guess from this scouting percentage, this is incredibly hard to do and requires a lot of setup, as well as monsters powerful enough to raise the percentage an appreciable amount anyway. This is incredibly time-consuming, for obvious reasons. If you want to do this legitimately, it's entirely possible to get strong enough for this through excessive grinding. Tartarus has changed since defeating Dr Snapped, but not in an obvious way: Metal King Slimes now roam its halls, making it hands-down the best place to go for gaining levels.  I'm not doing that, though. It'd take far too long, so in the interests of time I'm going to be cheating monsters in from here on out. Hopefully nobody is too horrified by this. Metal Slimes originated in the original Dragon Quest for the NES! They were notable in that game for giving out the most experience out of any monster at a whopping 115, and have appeared in every game since. Their payouts have since become inferior to their larger relatives, but they're still a viable early grinding option. They're also impossible to synthesise, so there are no shortcuts to getting one.   Metal Slimes have the Skill Slimer, which was one of the very first Skills Euchre could obtain. As for Traits and resistances, they've got the same as all the other metal monsters we've seen so far: Metal Body and Escape Artist, and they're Practically Invincible. Slimer, as I said, was one of the first Skills Euchre encountered. More specifically, it was on Slimes back in Part 2. Music: Appearance of the Town  Now for something incredibly important. The Monster Matchmakers are a somewhat useful tool for some synthesis recipes, but Metal Slimes are where it becomes incredibly important. Because it's harder to scout monsters if you've already got one of the same species, and Metal Slimes' only recipe involves synthesising two of them together, the Monster Matchmakers' Metal Slime is a godsend.  This recipe makes a Liquid Metal Slime, which is the only way to synthesise them. That's not important right now, though. Music: Scoutpost   There's a Quadrilineal synthesis recipe for making Metal Kaiser Slimes that involves two Metal Slimes, a Liquid Metal Slime and a Metal Slime Knight, and it's so much better than the alternative: a Metal King Slime and a King Slime replacing the two regular Metal Slimes. Remember, a Metal King Slime is the equivalent of eight Metal Slimes! Metal Kaiser Slimes are new to this game, but they're a palette swap of something else that started off in a previous game. We'll be seeing that monster soon enough.   Metal Kaiser Slimes get Bang & Zam as their Skill, and have the exact same Traits and resistances as Metal Slimes. That means Metal Body and Escape Artist again, and they're Practically Invincible. Bang & Zam is unique to Metal Kaiser Slimes! We've already gone over this one, though, because Belial already got Bang & Zam II back in Postgame Part 3.    Grandpa Slimes are another Quadrilineal synthesis-exclusive monster, and this is the only recipe. These are the palette swap of Metal Kaiser Slimes that I mentioned, and they're the first monster we've seen lately that originated in a non-main series DQ game! They're from Dragon Quest Monsters 2, in fact. The Monsters games have a habit of adding in a few new Slimes every game, and there are a ridiculous number of them now.   Bang & Zap is the Skill here, and it's really rare! Psycho is a great Trait, and Magic Regenerator is even better. Add in the now standard immunity to Whack, and you've got a solid mage. Bang & Zap is new, but like all the Skills of this type it might as well not be. You can probably guess what its deal is at this point.   We've got yet another Quadrilineal synthesis recipe here! It's two Grandpa Slimes and two Gold Golems. Gem Slimes, despite their looks, are actually considered to be metal monsters! Like all the others, it has low-capping HP and high-capping Defence. This guy hails from the first DQ Monsters game.   Gem Slimes also get Bang & Zap as a Skill for some reason. Since they're metal monsters, they've got the standard metal monster set of Traits and resistances. I've already listed them twice in this update, so I see no reason to do it again. Bang & Zap is on the monster directly above this one, Grandpa Slime. It's not like there's much to say about it anyway.    Dragonlord comes from two Alabast Dragons, Captain Crow and a Gem Slime. This is the only use for Gem Slimes, and also the only recipe for Dragonlord. He's the final boss of DQ1, and is in fact who the whole series is named after. It's quite an achievement!   His blurb even contains a reference to the original Western name of the series, Dragon Warrior! Since he's such a significant monster, it's no surprise that Dragonlord has a Skill named after himself. Trait-wise he's got Psycho (not much of a surprise here) and resistance-wise he's immune to both elemental breath types and Whack (even less of a surprise here). Dragonlord is a really good Skill! It's got both great damaging options and great support options. First off, damage: Kafrizzle, Cold Blizzard, Inferno, C-c-cold Breath and Scorch. That's three top-tier abilities right there! As for support there's Fullheal, Spooky Aura and Wave of Panic, all good abilities. Overall this is a solid choice for pretty much any team. Just be aware that it's incredibly frustrating to get because of the sheer length of the synthesis chain needed for Dragonlord.   Dragonlord plus Rhapthorne 2 makes a Dragovian Lord, who is one of the postgame bosses from DQ8. He's called Lord of the Dragovians there, though, so maybe one of the translators just didn't get the memo. In any case, he has a voice actor! Unfortunately he doesn't have many lines and I can't find him listed anywhere, so this occasional segment will have to be cut short.   Dragovian Lord has a unique Skill, once again named after himself. Critical Massacre and Desperado are nice Traits to have together, and to my knowledge this is the only time they come together. That's because they stack, quadrupling Dragovian Lord's critical hit rate at low HP. As for resistances they've got immunities to fire breath, ice breath and Whack, just like Dragonlord. The Skill Dragovian Lord doesn't seem to be quite as good as Dragonlord, though it still has its merits. Offensively it's still got C-c-cold Breath and Scorch, which are both great, and Gigagash is too, but Zapple, Kazap and Magic Burst just aren't that useful considering their company. Magic Barrier and Wave of Relief fill out the Skill's support roles, with both being solid. The main problem here is that Gigagash comes after Magic Burst, so it's unavoidable if you want the best ability from this. Overall this Skill is definitely workable, but there are generally better options available.   Dragovian Lord is something of an evolutionary dead end, since there are no recipes that it's a part of, so it's time to move onto something else. Beetlebully is a monster that makes its first appearance in this game, and I have...issues with it. See that Metal King Slime that it requires? Beetlebullies have the same recipe in Joker 2 as they do here, but with one key difference: they're not used in anything there. They're almost completely pointless. Thankfully they're useful here, and can be synthesised together with Psaro to make Estark.   Bounty Hunter is the Skill here. Psycho's kind of expected at this point, and Beetlebullies are immune to Dazzle. Unfortunately a weakness to Frizz is kind of dangerous. It's a pretty common element, after all. Bounty Hunter was found on Brownies in Postgame Part 5.    Darkonium Slimes are, unsurprisingly, new to this game. After all, this is the first (and only) DQ game that mentions darkonium outside of these guys, to my knowledge! This is the only recipe, once again. It's a very common trend for the high-rank monsters. It's also a very important monster to get if you're serious about getting the "best" monster in the game. Here's a good tip, though: don't.   Darkonium Slimes get Fire II as their Skill, which is okay. Being palette swaps of Gem Slimes, they're also metal monsters. As such, you can probably guess what their Traits and resistances are.   Despite Darkonium Slimes being useful eventually, they're not right now. That means we're moving on to a new synthesis chain, and the first monster in it is Mortamor! This is, hands down, the best use for Estark. Every other recipe he's involved in can have Psaro substituted instead. Anyway, Mortamor: he's the final boss of DQ6. He's unique in the series as a final boss with multiple targets! His hands are both targets during his fight, and can even revive each other and his head. Sadly that particular gimmick isn't represented in this game.   Again, Mortamor has a Skill named after himself. Steady Recovery and Magic Regenerator are, of course, great Traits. Immunity to both ice and fire breaths as well as Whack is very welcome too. Mortamor's Skill is kind of meh. The first few abilities (Dazzleflash, Venom Breath and Burning Breath) draw you in, and then you get Meditation and it all falls apart. Inferno, Kaboom and Kazam are okay, but a monster this late has no business having its only offensive options being tier 3 spells and breath. Disruptive Wave, the final ability, is at least good. Overall this probably isn't a Skill you should take over its alternatives.   Mortamor is going to be traded in immediately for Orgodemir, the final boss of DQ7. That Alabast Dragon isn't actually required here! Dragonlord could be used instead, but...why would you do that? Other than for that awesome Skill, that is. Orgodemir is fought on two separate occasions in his home game, and this form is his second in the first battle and his first in the second.   Orgodemir, surprisingly, doesn't have his own Skill! Instead he has Muspell, which we've seen before. Double Trouble is a good Trait to have, of course - it looks like almost every monster around here has either that or Psycho - and Whack and Paralysis are good immunities. A weakness to Confusion is very unfortunate, though.   It's at this point that Euchre has all but one of the monsters it's possible to legitimately obtain. So what's the last monster in the game?  Why, Dr Snapped, of course! Yes, it's possible to get Dr Snapped on your team. He's considered to be the "best" monster, requiring some of the hardest monsters to obtain in the game and also Captain Crow. In fact, it's probably possible to get Dr Snapped before the final boss fight! It's incredibly ill-advised, but it's possible.   Dr Snapped, unsurprisingly, has his own Skill named after himself. His Traits are amazing, having both Double Trouble and Psycho, and being the only monster to do so. Unfortunately this isn't Joker 3, where Accumulate Tension is an AI option. Still, he's healed by Zam and immune to Whack. A weakness to Zap is unfortunate, but what do you expect from a monster created from concentrated dark matter? Dr Snapped as a Skill is, surprisingly, not all that great. Most of the abilities are support, but for offensive options it has Kazammle and...Lightning Storm? Wulfspade's signature ability? Okay, then. They're both good, at least. Unfortunately the other abilities are where this whole thing falls down. War Cry is okay, but there are much better ailments out there than Inaction. Clang is baffling, and as usual incredibly situational. Meditation is just horrible when Fullheal and Omniheal are available. Wave of Panic is great. Decelerate Guard and Gobstopper Guard are fine, but don't fit with everything else whatsoever. And, finally, there's Kasag. It's good enough. Overall, there's really nothing to recommend this Skill over more focused ones with better abilities. So now that Euchre's got all the monsters it's possible to get, what is there left? Why, Skills of course! There are some Skills that aren't available without scouting specific monsters randomly held by scouts or even synthesising other Skills together. Add that to the fact that I never went over the stat-boosting Skills that are on almost everything and you get a lot of Skills to look over. Let's get started! If you're not interested in this sort of thing (and honestly I wouldn't blame you) then you can skip ahead to where the images start up again. So, remember when Gypsum got both Frizz & Bang III and Crack & Zap III? This is why that was important. If you get 100 points in two dual-element tier III Skills that combine Frizz, Bang and Zam and then synthesise, you get Uber Dark Dynamiter. This is, in short, a very good Skill to get, if only as an intermediate stage to something else. Kafrizz, Kazam, Kaboom, Kafrizzle, Kazammle and Kaboomle make up the spells, and Inferno Slash, Blast Slash and Shadow Slash make up the physical attacks. In that way, it's very much like the Skills that have to be used to make it. Despite this being a solid Skill, though, I honestly can't recommend it. If you can get this, you can get something better, and I'll talk about that soon enough. There's a counterpart to Uber Dark Dynamiter: Uber Blessed Blizzardier. The conditions for getting it are similar to Uber Dark Dynamiter, but the elements it requires are Crack, Woosh and Zap instead. Unsurprisingly, the abilities it teaches are similar: Kacrack, Kaswoosh, Kazap, Kacrackle, Kaswooshle, Kazapple, Blizzard Slash, Gale Slash and Sacred Slash. Since it's so similar, just take what I said for Uber Dark Dynamiter and apply it again. So now we've got two separate Skills that do very similar things for different elements. What would happen if they were to be combined? You'd get Uber Mage, of course! Both Uber Dark Dynamiter and Uber Blessed Blizzardier have to be at 100 Skill Points. Uber Mage is basically just better than those two for magic-focused monsters, since it teaches all the tier 4 spells. The main problem those have is that they cost loads of MP, so it also teaches Magic Scrooge! As the name suggests, this is the ultimate Skill for offensive magic, and I think it lives up to that. Uber Breath is next, and there are a lot of combinations for it. There's Fire III + Ice III + Bad Breath, Fire III + Ice III + Graveheart, Breath III + Bad Breath, Bad Breath + Dragonlord, Bad Breath + Dragovian Lord, and Bad Breath + Rhapthorne II. As for the Skill itself, it's pretty good too. Sweet Breath, Venom Breath, Bemusing Breath and Burning Breath all inflict good ailments, Deep Breath and Blowback are great support abilities for this set of abilities, and Scorch and C-c-cold Breath are the highest tier of fire and ice breath respectively. The capstone ability here is Gobstopper Guard, which is a great passive just in case an opponent is packing a Gobstopper-inflicting ability. Uber Knight is probably the hardest of the Uber Skills to obtain on normal monsters. The combinations that make it are as follows: Firewind Slashes + Thunderwind Slashes + Iceplosion Slashes + Darklight Slashes, Fire Fighter + Boom Boxer + Wind Blower + Icemeister + White Knight + Dark Knight, Firewind Slashes + Darklight Slashes + Captain Crow, Cleric + Cluboon III, and Captain Crow + Cluboon III.The third of this is, obviously, the easiest to get on non-Incarnus monsters. As for abilities, it's strictly damaging ones. All the elemental slashes are here, plus Gigaslash and Gigagash. It's pretty good! Uber Healer is our sixth Uber Skill. This one has the distinction of having the most recipes out of all of them at seven! There's Healer + Cure-All + Mage Aid, Healer + Mage Aid + Bolsterer, Healer + Mage Aid + Barricade, Healer + Cure-All + Bolsterer, Healer + Cleanser + Cleric, Healer + Mage Aid + Crusader, and Cure-All + Crusader + Cleric. Crusader is exclusively on Wifi-only monsters, though, so there are effectively five recipes instead of seven here. Now, on to the Skill itself. Unsurprisingly, it's great! Fullheal, Multiheal, Omniheal and Kazing are obviously going to be there. Otherwise there's Give Magic, Magic Barrier, Mist Me and Wave of Relief. Honestly the weakest link here is probably Give Magic, because there's no way to refill MP after giving it all away. Next is Uber Helpful, which is arguably not as helpful as its name sounds. First off, though, the recipes: Fortifier + Enfeebler + Saboteur, Champion + Defender + Thief, or Saboteur + Thief. So what's the problem with Uber Helpful? It gives every buff and debuff, so it must be good, right? Well, it only gives the multi-target variants, and those aren't always the best option. It can still be useful, of course, but it's much more down to personal taste than the other Uber Skills. The final Uber Skill (sort of), although not the final Skill we'll be looking at here, is Uber Charmer. Its job is to teach lots of abilities that cause ailments, and its potential components reflect that. The recipes are as follows: Seal + Hypnotist, Hypnotist + Fear-monger, Hypnotist + Cold Sleep, Hypnotist + Diabolist, Hypnotist + Hive Mind, or Hypnotist + Mage. Let's move on to the abilities it imparts, shall we? There's a bit of redundancy here, unfortunately: Fuddle and Kafuddle, Fizzle and Kafizzle, and Snooze and Kasnooze all come up at some point. Otherwise there's Dazzle, Drain Magic and Magic Frailty. I don't think this is a very good Skill, to be honest. Its ailments just aren't that good compared to Uber Breath, and there just isn't much versatility. Now that we're through the Uber Skills, what is there left? Well, next on the list is Attack Boost. This Skill comes in three tiers and ranks up in the same way as every other Skill like it. As such it's only worth looking at Attack Boost III. The whole thing is Attack and HP boosts, plus Sag Guard. The total boost to Attack is +70, and the total HP boost is +60. It's worth noting that these increases can push a monster over its natural stat caps. Defence Boost is very similar, with the tier III version giving Defence +100, Maximum HP +80, and Sap Guard. Agility Boost III has Agility +100 and Maximum HP +80, unsurprisingly. Decelerate Guard, too. Finally (at least for the stat-boosting Skills) Wisdom Boost III gives Wisdom +100 and Maximum MP +80 in total. That's right, MP! It's the only one of these four that gives that. Oh, and Dim Guard is here too, I guess. Now lets' move on to the scout-only Ward Skills that haven't cropped up yet. Funnily enough, the first one is Frizz Ward. This is one of the Magic Miser/Scrooge variants, with the stat boosts adding up to Wisdom +15, Maximum HP +20 and Maximum MP +10. Oh, and of course there's also two Frizz Guards. Crack Ward is next. It also teaches Magic Miser and Magic Scrooge, as well as two Crack Guards. The stat-ups here add up to Wisdom +15, Defence +5, Maximum HP +10 and Maximum MP +10. Thunder Ward is, you guessed it, another Skill that teaches Magic Miser and Magic Scrooge as well of two copies of its Guard, in this case Lightning Guard. Stat boosts this time are Attack +10, Agility +5, Maximum HP +10 and Maximum MP +20. Fire Ward is, once again, a Skill that teaches Magic Miser and Magic Scrooge. I swear this is the last one! Again, two copies of Fire Guard, and again, some stat boosts. They're Attack +5, Wisdom +5, Maximum HP +10 and Maximum MP +30. That's it for damage Wards, but what about ailments? Whack Ward gives out Steady Recovery, two Whack Guards, Maximum HP +30 and Maximum MP +20. Dazzle Ward provides Magic Regenerator (very, very good), three Dazzle Guards, Maximum HP +10 and Maximum MP +20. I have no idea why these abilities are distributed like they are. Antimagic Ward is next, and it also has Magic Regenerator. Two Fizzle Guards are obvious, and the stat boosts are Wisdom +10 and Maximum MP +30. How very appropriate. Paralysis Ward! Steady Recovery! Three Paralysis Guards! Maximum HP +20! Defence +10! That's all the Ward Skills there are left! Now onto something a little different. I already said that we've gone through all the Uber and stat-boosting Skills, but that's not quite right. There are Uber stat-boosting Skills, too! The first one is Uber Health Boost, and exclusively increases Maximum HP. By 150, no less. It's obtained by mastering both Attack Boost III and Martial Artist. Uber Magic Boost is very similar, but it exclusively increases Maximum MP instead. This time it's by a whopping 200, though! Wisdom boost III and Mage are the combination you want here. Predictably there are also Uber boosts for the other stats, starting with Uber Attack Boost. It's a total increase to its stat of 150, which is pretty incredible. Attack Boost III and Warrior make up this one. Uber Defence Boost gives an extra 200 Defence to its bearer, although this is almost completely inferior to Uber Health Boost because of the way damage is calculated. Defence Boost III and Priest are the Skills you want in this case. Uber Agility Boost is next, of course, and it imparts 200 Agility. There isn't much to say about this one, other than that it makes whatever monster gets it incredibly fast. It's made up of Agility Boost III and Thief. The final Uber stat boost Skill is Uber Wisdom Boost, obviously. Wisdom +200 is arguably useful, I suppose. Wisdom Boost III + Sage is the recipe for this Skill. Did you think we were done? Of course not! There are still a few more to go. It's time to move on to the Uber elemental Wards. First is Uber Heat Ward, which is comprised of Frizz Ward and Fire Breath Ward. Obviously Fire Ward didn't feel like showing up. Anyway, it's kind of underwhelming, giving Maximum HP +50 and Maximum MP +50, as well as just one of each of Frizz Guard and Fire Breath Guard. Uber Cold Ward is similar, requiring Crack Ward and Ice Breath Ward. It has the exact same stat boosts as Uber Heat Ward, but gives different Guards: Crack Guard and Ice Breath Guard. Again, it's pretty crap. Uber Windblast Ward requires Bang Ward and Woosh Ward, and is the same Skill once again but with different guards. In this case they're Bang Guard and Woosh Guard, if that wasn't obvious. Uber Darklight Ward is the last one of this line of Skills before we can move on to something more interesting. Once again it requires two Ward Skills - Zap Ward and Zam Ward - and it's got Maximum HP +50 and Maximum MP +50 again. No prizes for guessing what Guards this one has, but if you must know they're Zap Guard and Zam Guard. Now that those are done, we're on the home stretch. Remember those Skill scrolls from the Domus Isle department store? Those contain the last few Skills on the list, and the first is Warrior. It's a mix of stat bonuses and abilities, like all the others. In this case the permanent buffs are Maximum HP +20 and Attack +20. Ability-wise there's Helm Splitter, Metal Slash, Dragon Slash, Multislash, Hatchet Man and Master Of Weapons, a passive ability that allows the bearer to equip any weapon regardless of their species. They're all pretty great, especially at the time they're first available to buy. Second up is Mage, whose stat boosts are a magical counterpart to Warrior's: Maximum MP +20 and Wisdom +20. Its abilities are much more of a mixed bag, unfortunately. Swoosh, Frizzle, Crackle and Boom have long outstayed their welcomes at this point, but they might have been okay at the time. Kafizzle is nice, though, and Magic Regenerator is still one of the best passives in the game. Priest is third on the list, and it's just as much of a mixed bag as Mage. Maximum MP +20 is the same, of course, but Wisdom +25 is slightly better. Heal, Squelch, Midheal and Zing are unfortunately the best this Skill can do in terms of healing which, again, makes it pretty bad right now. Then there's Whack, but you've seen how many monsters are immune to that. Magic Regenerator is here too, though, and it's still the best ability here by a long shot. Don't go for this one. Next we've got Martial Artist. Again, let's get stat boosts out of the way first: Maximum HP +20, Attack +20 and Agility +20 are what we have this time. Ability-wise there's Heart Breaker, which we haven't seen in a while (it's an Inaction-causing physical attack, as a reminder) Body Slam, which we don't want to see ever again, Mercurial Thrust, which moves faster than the eye can see, Defending Champion, which will see to it that nobody gets hurt, Double Up, which will see us through with lots of damage, and Able Ambusher, which ensures that the enemy will never see us coming. So a lot of seeing all round, there. Unfortunately this whole Skill is thoroughly disappointing and doesn't really have a place anywhere. Sage feels a bit like a combination of Mage and Priest, which is what it really should be. Maximum MP +20 and Wisdom +20 are borrowed from Mage, of course, and it teaches the tier 2 spells Zapple and Zammle. Dazzleflash doesn't really go anywhere, but hey, it's decent. The Priest half of the Skill imparts Multiheal and Wave of Relief, the latter of which is almost essential for a good healer. Unfortunately the former is not so great right now, although it was at the time when this was first available. The final ability on the list is Magic Scrooge, but I'm sure you all know how good that one is. Overall this isn't a Skill you want on an end- or post-game party by any means, but it might be serviceable for a while. The final Skill on the in-game list, although not the last one we'll be looking at, is Thief. Again, let's look at the stat boosts first. It's just Agility +40 this time, which is by no means a small amount. Accelerate and Acceleratle are decent enough buffs, and this being Thief, of course it teaches Klepto Clobber and Penny Pincher too. Dodgy Dance is good enough, and Decelerate Guard is fine as well. Overall this is a Skill that knows what it wants its recipient to do - go fast and steal things - and it's by no means unworkable, but it's mediocre and nothing can really change that. Music: Contest Castle  Now that we're done with that long list, it's finally time for Euchre to receive his rewards for completing the monster and Skill libraries. This is another thing that it's impossible to do without cheating your way to victory, as I've already mentioned, so that's what's happening in order to show this off.  Let's check on Skills first. There are 192 of these in the game, so this isn't completely out of the question, but it'd still require a lot of grinding. Euchre had somewhere around 140 of them catalogued before his libraries magically filled themselves. Well, that deserves a prize, doesn't it! Here you go: it's a Metal Kaiser Slime! We've already seen one of these this update, so I see no reason to talk about it again.  Wunderbar! It's prize time! Here, have a Leopold! Euchre receives a Leopold. Leopold is one of those monsters that can't be synthesised and was otherwise only a Wifi prize because Square Enix hates you. His only appearance outside of the Monsters games was as a villain in DQ8, where he was a dog possessed by Rhapthorne, who is sealed inside the sceptre in Leopold's mouth.   Leopold's Skills here are exactly as you see above: Leopold, Whack Ward and Defence Boost III. Leopold is the Skill he gets on synthesis with the Phoenix Sceptre, which should be obvious. His Traits are Artful Dodger and Zammeister, and he's immune to Confusion, weak to Zap and absorbs Zam. Leopold's Skill is okay. Its only offensive capabilities are ice breath, which goes from Chilly Breath to Cold Blizzard to C-c-cold Breath, and Uncarnate. Whack and Thwack are here and just not good any more because of rampant immunity to them. Critical Miss and Magic Frailty are here too, and they're decent enough. Overall this is, as I said, okay. It's not particularly great, but it's not particularly bad either. Maybe you can find a niche for it.  Why not try and complete your monster library too? That would REALLY be something! You'd win a VERY special monster prize then, I can tell you!Unfortunately, even though Euchre's already finished the monster library, he won't be awarded the prizes for completing both libraries until he receives the award for it. That's the next order of business, then!  This particular mark is, once again, completely possible to do if incredibly frustrating. Just counting the monsters it's possible to get outside of these rewards, there are 204 in the game. 205 if you count monsters that can be seen but not obtained. That certainly deserves a prize: namely, a Grandpa Slime! Yep, that's certainly a monster. Again, we've seen these before. It seems a bit pointless to give one of these out with so few monsters left to get.  Such an achievement deserves a very special prize: namely, an Empyrea! Euchre receives an Empyrea. Empyrea sort-of makes her first appearance in DQ8 as the Godbird, a divine entity that helps the heroes on their journey...at least, after her inevitable boss battle. She's also known as Ramia, who appeared in DQ3 as a phoenix who acted as the party's method of flight. Her voice actor in DQ8, Jessica Martin, is more well-known for TV roles than videogames, and has acted in Doctor Who multiple times among other roles.   Empyrea gets the Skills you can see above: Crusader, Cure-all and Bang & Zap III, and when synthesising her (through Phoenix Sceptre again) she gets Crusader. She's got Artful Dodger and Zapmeister as her Traits, and is healed by Zap, weak to Zam, and immune to both Whack and Sleep. Crusader is new, and it's...okay? Maybe? Damage-wise you've got Zap, Zapple, Kazap and Hallowed Slash. Zap has no place on any Skill obtained this late, of course, and I really wish each of those spells was a tier higher. This is clearly more of a support Skill, though, and that's where it's much better. There's Multiheal, Omniheal, Wave of Relief and Reheal, and Zap Guard. They're really standard healer abilities, though, and I'd find it hard to recommend this over Cleric other than the fact that it can cure ailments.  Well, well, I must give you your prize: it's a Robbin' Hood! TA-DA! Euchre receives a Robbin' Hood! Robbin' Hood is a bit of a weird one. Not only is he flat-out impossible to get without cheating, unlike every other monster in the game, but his origin is a little muddied. He probably hails from DQ5, but he's similar enough to Kandar from DQ3 (a recurring boss) to be him as well. The more recent localisation of his name is Robbin' 'Ood, though, and one letter changed could well make a lot of difference.   Sadly I couldn't find artwork of the palette swap used in this game, so artwork of Robbin' 'Ood will have to do. Sorry about that. In any case, Robbin' Hood gets the Skills Bounty Hunter and Assassin from getting him as a gift here, and using a Phoenix Scepter on him while synthesising shows that he'll get Bounty Hunter from that. He's got Psycho for his Trait and he's immune to both Whack and Inaction. Since Robbin' Hood can't be obtained whatsoever, it's nice that his Skill isn't unique. Bounty Hunter was also on Brownies in Postgame Part 5.  Anyway, now that Euchre's gotten the reward for completing the monster library, it's time to go back to Skill library woman. Then you must have a prize, young scout! Please accept this Trode! Euchre receives a Trode. Trode is the King of Trodain from DQ8, where he was turned into the form you see here by Dhoulmagus. It's kind of weird to see him here, since aside from his appearance he's completely human and wants to be treated as such. Oh, also, he's got a voice actor too! Jon Glover is primarily a television actor, and he's been in a lot.   Trode's got a unique Skill: Trickster. It's a little surprising that it's not named after him, but whatever. He's also got Attack Boost III and Dancer from this one-off gift. His Traits are Psycho and Counterstriker, and he's immune to fire breath, Whack and Fizzle. Seriously, though, why would you ever use him in battle? The poor guy's probably traumatised enough already. Trickster is all about debuffing Agility and Wisdom. You've got Decelerate, Deceleratle, Dim and Stupefying Strike for that. There's also Breathtaking Bash and Break-dance Beat to stop breath and dancing respectively, which is pretty nice. Weird Dance isn't great, honestly, but it's there anyway and sort of fits in with everything else, but Double-edged Slash and Blowback don't fit at all. Still, they're good abilities. Overall this is a decent enough Skill, but I find it hard to recommend over, say, Diminisher. With that, that's every Skill in the game covered! There are still two monsters to go, but they've got repeats. Music: Scoutpost   Speaking of which, here's Ace of Spades. This recipe is notable in that it's one of two Incarnus recipes where the form it's in to start with matters. More specifically, Wildcard has to be a Wulfspade Ace to even consider this.   Wildcard's edgy DeviantArt recolour has the Skill Cursader and the Traits Psycho and Zammeister. He's weak to Zap, healed by Zam, and immune to both Fire Breath and Whack. Cursader was shown in Postgame Part 2, where it was held by Tortured Soul.   And now for the final monster. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...Wildcard! That's his name. And also his species. Full disclosure: I thought it was hilarious when his name got voted to be that.   Wildcard's final form has the Skill Crusader, making him one of those unfortunate monsters that has the same Skill as one of their synthesis components. As the counterpart of Ace of Spades, he's got Psycho and Zapmeister as his Traits, is healed by Zap and weak to Zam, and has immunities to both fire breath and Whack. Crusader was on Empyrea just a little further up this page. What a let-down for the final monster. Music: Overture So, now that all that's over with, what are my final thoughts? Well, I enjoyed LPing this game, although both the LP and the game are far from perfect. It's a lot of fun to see just how strong you can make your monsters, although some of the mechanics are very frustrating (a lack of decent fast travel, for one). It may not be the best DS game out there, but it's certainly a fun one if you're in the right frame of mind. Just make sure to hop off before trying to be a completionist, because this game hates you. I have no idea how to end this thing, so...see you next LP! Hopefully it'll be better than this one!
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Mar 13, 2018 00:47
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So, in order to obtain the rewards for all monsters you need to obtain the reward for all skills first. But to do so requires the reward for all monsters because of Crusader, which you cannot get because it requires the reward for all skills. That you cannot get because... That sure is a design decision alright. It's definitely a good thing this is all optional end-of-end-of-endgame nonsense to even consider doing in the first place.
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Mar 13, 2018 03:22
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Thanks for the LP, and bless your soul for going through all that skill bullshit.
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Mar 13, 2018 04:32
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I don't blame you for cheating at the end there, because good lord  Anyway! Cheers for the comprehensive LP!
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Mar 13, 2018 04:48
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I heartily approve of you cheating through the remaining monsters. The first Joker game is in an awkward place in a series of games that's full of awkward mechanics. It introduced scouting, skill sets and a redesign of breeding/fusion, but all of these systems lack major quality-of-life features that the sequels and remakes added. Even if you don't count the monsters that are technically impossible to obtain, I think this may be the most frustrating DQM game to try and 100% legitimately. Sure, the later games added a ton more monsters with even longer, more absurd breeding chains, but they also gave you many more tools to quickly scout and fuse high-rank monsters. Of course, none of that really matters when you're just playing through the story. I remember having a lot of fun making a few strong monsters I thought looked cool and plowing through to the end credits. I happen to have a huge soft spot for this series, and it's great seeing someone show off one of the games in depth. Thanks a lot for doing this LP, and especially for going above and beyond in showcasing the post-game!
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Mar 13, 2018 05:09
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Thanks for the LP! I tried playing this myself but I got bored and/or lost quickly, so seeing it fully is great, especially considering I doubt I would've gone this far for the sake of completionism...even moreso seeing how it is literally impossible thanks to terrible coding and events. Geez, at least Pokemon only does the latter.
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Mar 13, 2018 05:15
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Thanks for the weird, Dragonquest/SMT ride Epicmissingno It's interesting how odd the game was, and this LP was a godsend in that I'd never have played it myself
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Mar 13, 2018 06:43
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Thank you for showing us the game till its completion, I consider myself a completionist but I'd never had the patience to complete this game legitimately, jesus christ. I think the worst part is how little incentive there is to get the strongest monsters outside of WiFi battles since you can probably beat the post-game bosses with pretty much the same team you can finish the game with.
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Mar 13, 2018 07:56
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It seems really unfortunate having all of those long monster synthesis chains which you don't really need even to finish the hardest postgame content. Do the later games in the series have tougher challenges to take on?
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Mar 13, 2018 10:04
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