Earthlock - Part 13 - Here Comes the Ninja!
8The GobKing has been defeated, but there's still a little bit of dungeon left, it seems, which this video will cover. It's...pretty much a bunch of filler, as there's no reason why the handle to operate the lift wouldn't be right behind the GobKing, narratively speaking.
Of course, the fact that we have a lift not only makes sense topologically as we're on a cliffside, it seems it also gives one of the bad guys a chance to catch up to our heroes. Okay, so she's not officially a ninja in-game. But she runs like one, jumps like one, demands things from people like one, and vanishes when surrounded like one. If you like her, don't worry, because she'll be back soon enough, when Ive isn't right near the rest of her squad, who are ready to defend her at any cost. We'll also learn her name soon enough. And what she's up to even later.
And because Ive's squadmates are down there, they get some closure, knowing Ive is all right and vice versa, and that the goblins had been taken care of. It's at this point that our ragtag team of misfits start getting recognition, since the goblins, as you might recall, had been considered a problem in the area for quite some time that no one knew how to deal with.
We'll also have a bit of a change in our team's composition--the Owl Tide has requested Olia's help urgently, and she needs to go to the Underwater Mile immediately. As a result, she'll be leaving the party for a spell. Our focus will remain on the other three as they head out into the Burning Desert to look for Taika, whom Ive has been searching for ever since Amon and Gnart found her at Zabirum Temple. The last machine part that Olia needs will also be in the Burning Desert, but she trusts Amon and Gnart (and Ive) enough for them to search for it there on her behalf.
We now head from a dry, arid area to...an even MORE dry, arid area. What's with Scandinavians and deserts? They seem to really like visiting deserts too. Then again, perhaps it's because it's nothing like the climates back home, and it's probably much like how I'd like to visit a cold, snowy place, as I live in a desert and I find deserts boring.
In any case, we have Fiery Bibis here to catch. A Fiery Bibi is a lot faster than a Dozy Bibi, and Gnart is the only one able to keep up with them. There are also new enemies here. The Fire Djinns and Ympkins return, but we also get new enemies: the Bone Stag (wich is a beetle, not a deer), the Shimmerbug, and the Green Quadragon. All of them are adapted to the desert, and enemies tend to be resistant to Fire attacks but weak to Water (though not all of them). Bone Stags are troublesome due to their high HP, but Shimmerbugs can fly and Green Quadragons have elemental attacks. You might also notice that the Ympkin fought in the first battle in this area was a lot more resilient than the ones in Zabirum Temple. That's because the same kind of enemy can be scaled up in later areas of the game, boasting higher HP, attack power, and defense, so just because you see a familiar enemy doesn't mean you can take them out as easily as you used to. That's how this game manages to get away with a surprisingly few number of different kinds of enemies. I think at this point, we've encountered about 40% of them.
...And then we find an even drier, even more arid area than before--here is the Burning Desert for real, which is the third major dungeon in this game (after Brooker's Den and Zabirum Temple/Nomad's Hoist). We'll begin to explore it in the next video.