Romancing Saga 2: Timeskip! Again!

His name is Bokuohn. He gets the special boss music. He has the row-hitting slash, so next time I'm going to change my formation. Amazingly Jeanne learns the evade for it though, and it takes him about ten turns to kill her, alternating between row-slash and "Marionette," a technique better described as "Stop Hitting Yourself!" ...actually, if you have more than one person alive what it does is substitute one party member for whatever target you originally wanted. Annoying.


After about ten tries of this we double back to another save and check out some of the other parts of the ship.

At one point we take a ride on a conveyor belt, even! But nothing we find is too inspiring. It seems like the dungeon is designed to make you ask a specific question: how much defensive gear can I collect before my skill points run too low to take out Bokuohn? I'm thinking "Not too many." Secure in the knowledge that I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't, I return to my initial save to take on Bokuohn again.

After that doesn't work out for us so well another five times, I hit upon possibly the stupidest idea ever. I have an older save, one back in Avalon. I pull out my most weaksauce Greatsword, give it to someone with ZERO levels in the weapon, and he's going to use that row-slash on us during random encounters until as many of us as possible learn the countermove. Meanwhile Jeanne and Luna are going to hone their kung-fu so I don't have to level them up on the fly. Time to go pick some fights!

...but you can't target your own people with it. Crap. Oh well, I can still teach everybody the countermove for Cobra Commander's Ki blast that kills us in one hit, and level up in the punchings. I'm also raising Kerute the Lizardman's Foom while I'm at it. The ideal place to do this, of course, is the Witch's Cave, so I can buy back any LP I lose in the effort. Man, I really should've hired ZA DORAGON this year...

And in the end, though Kerute stands alone, we beat the sumbitch, naked and barehanded.

We annex the Steppe! And... 68 years pass? Weird number.