We don't always like being nonplussed

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Black Matrix Zero Part 3: Tourist Traps and Serial Killers

After our nice little illustration at the end of yesterday's installment, we go right back to the pre-battle menu. I go to the BP screen and upgrade all three weapons. The special ability Cain's short sword gains is "Haborym," which happens to be the name of one of my favorite characters in Tactics Ogre. He's worth a point of VIT. The other two do... something! I'll find out later.



Yohane's hair's a lot more purple in spritey form. Their levels are equal to Cain's, and he's stronger than either of them. Well, he is the hero. Er, protagonist. We also discover that the seven-page blank list will ultimately give the names of all the unlockable special abilities of weapons and such, as the first option up is Haborym. But that's all we can do, so it's time to move on!


Chapter 2 begins with Luca talking to some kid in goggles. If he has a drill I sure hope he ends up on our side. They talk and the screen goes red. Did she kill him? Guess we'll find out. (Or not, since we never see or hear from or about him again.) Then we see Veil and Matia standing in a town and talking. Matia looks healthy and in good spirits, so that's positive. Then we hear the flapping of wings...


...and the two of them are outside this building; I guess he flew. Luckily our entire pursuing party also has wings. Then we get Yohane and Cain talking in front of the same building.


Then we get these guys talking in front of the same building. Dude on the left's gonna be a problem- he looks like a mid-level Yu-Gi-Oh! villain. (Which means he probably sounds like Sheriff John Bunnell. The "World's Scariest Police Chases" guy with the smarmy voice? Just imagine him saying "This crook thought he could get away from the law, but he didn't count on triggering my TRAP CARD!" That is what this guy sounds like in my head.)

And a woman is then shown, but she's never seen again so there's no real point in posting her picture. I suspect that this must be a local tourist trap, since everybody's showing up to stand in front of it and have their screengrabs taken. Then we go back to Yohane and Cain, then we go back to Trap Card and his buddy... the conversation goes on and I'm lost.


Then we get this girl, who I strongly suspect is our tour guide. Trap Card runs into her face first, but she is unfazed. Whatever the tourism board pays her, it ain't enough. Yohane talks to her for a while, and when Cain does the same he gets very flustered, but eventually starts shouting about Matia. She's unimpressed. This goes on and Yohane brings up the subject of Incest, who maybe wasn't the Friar afer all.


This startles her, which is understandable since Cain was just talking about his sister. Yohane and Cain depart, somebody addresses our tour guide, whose name seems to be Sutei. I'm gonna go with "Stei" for that. Then we get Luca talking to Trap Card in a dark alley. I think a... transaction, is occurring here. Or Trap Card thinks there is. Luca then stabs him, it seems, or attacks him in some way.


After which this guy restrains her. In town square, Trap Card's burly pal drops a note from Luca in Yohane's hand. Whatever it said, we end up in the dark alley, and Cain's wings pop out for some reason. Then Luca appears, and introduces the guy who grabbed her...


...whose name is Zion. (Well, "Zaion.") Definitely not Zeon, so no Gundam references for me. Aw... After a lengthy conversation, Stei bursts in and she is pissed. But it comes out that Stay is short for Steien ("Suteien") and Cain BETTER not act so familiar with her again. I can't read the words, but the attitude says it all.

And then back to the battle prep screen! We put Haborym on Zion's axe, which costs ten BP. Better be worth it. As we prepare to fight, the game allocates the remaining BP evenly among all characters- 7 apiece.


We're fighting on the city streets. Steien's around the corner, and she and her goons are all level 2 like us. Behind them is one level 4 goon. Tricky! I now have two choices when I go to attack, but I don't seem to have enough BP for the other one. A few interesting things: Luca's whip has a range of 3, and Yohane has a magic spell called Luminacros which is hideously expensive at 17 BP. You're also, for reasons I'm not sure of, able to attack the bodies of fallen enemies and destroy them completely. Weird. Level 4 guy had a flail, which gave us trouble (how appropriate!) but we won hands down.


We get A rank and a Cutlass as our prize.


Now this is interesting! EXP is won in a communal pool, and you get to decide who gets what. And I discover that the two options for leveling up are Auto and Manual. You can allocate which points go where and control character growth. Nice!


Steien seems to be a little upset about being knocked unconscious and having all her allies killed outright. A guard arrives and Stei tries to talk to him for us. It doesn't seem to work, and now Luca is eyeing the poor bastard. But Stei tells her to back off, and there's more talk of Incest.


Then there's this guy. And then back to the battle prep screen!

No comments:

Post a Comment