Part 9.4: All this proves that sending massive chunks of metal screaming down into earths atmosphere is the solution to all problems.The enemy
continue to die horribly at Blades hands as we head into the final enemy turn of the game. The last remaining enemy is Dagger,
who naturally attacks Blade. We see the Sword Cut skill in action, which protects a unit equipped with a sword from many melee attacks so long as their Ability is high (and D-Boys is).
Our turn, and once again, Scan is a lifesaver,
allowing even the Archangels main guns to hit the tiny Tekkaman, although Murrues Focus is also a big help.
Dagger is a nasty enough boss for this stage in the game, but with a bit of prep he can be whittled down easily.
Combattler does one more attack to put him in the red, and with Cheer and Luck on,
our lowest level Mint gets the kill and big rewards.
Dagger drops a crapload of stuff. The Dustproofing gives a unit and its weapons an A rank on ground, which is useful for certain flying units like the Aestivalis Air Frame, letting them do more damage to ground units and the option of landing to use terrain without losing stats. The Combo Module is very useful, as it unlock Chain Attacks: A unit can use a weaker version of its melee attacks to attack multiple enemies in a row. And the Hit And Away module is a godsend for our sniper units that don't have the skill naturally. We'll need to come back to these.
Dagger dissappears in the weird flash seen in the video, presumably dead. Custom death animations were the new thing at this point in SRW development, though I always thought the standard explosion for J enemies was kinda cool.
Our heroes have seen off the Radam, but now an old enemy return: The Jovian Lizards. Unfortunately, it seems my screencap hotkey started to act up at this point, and I lost some good dialogue from Ruri here, which I'll try to Paraphrase:
Yurika: How many?
Ruri: You really want to know?
Yurika: Um, gimme a ballpark figure.
Ruri: ...A lot.
You'll have to rely a bit on the grey text, I'm afraid.
Again, I ask, why wasn't this option even discussed before? We saw from the map posted earlier that going from Heliopolis to the Moon sends you straight past earth anyway? Were they really that afraid of the Radam that they'd literally let ZAFT chase them from one end of the Earth Sphere to the other?
Our heroes, including Blade, land back in the Nadesico:
Says the biggest eater of the three Bellzelute Powerpuffs, and given your competition is Melua thats saying something.
The only way you could get the insane power requirements of that walking nuke suit is if its turning the nutrients in your body directly into energy, and if so, why would it preferentially take your organs once it runs out of food? Theres plenty of other matter in your body that it could take first. Not that its a good situation, I'm just saying, snot is less nessecary than your stomach lining.
"I'll also answer to Manface McGatlingcock, but D-Boy will do for now."
I remember Ryoko being ok with the Amnesia earlier...
And Noal only speaks bullshit and macho grumbling! And Aki only speaks in meek feminine platitudes! It's a logic puzzle!
Little things like falling through the atmosphere at hundreds of miles an hour being bombarded by both Radam and Jovians aren't going to stop PCs interrogating the new guy, Uru.
"Its Plot Armor levels are at Gundam Wing and holding."
"Oh thank god. I'll miss the blond dude, but thank Christ we lost those losers!!"
(Ok, this is another image capture error, but I had to leave it in.)
An explosion effect happens. I possibly missed more dialogue.
Another weak explosion effect meekly illuminates the screen.
"Dive in and collect the XP, thats what!"
Theres another explosion.
"We're now barely at ZZ Gundam levels! If it drops any further it'll hit Zeta Gundam, and then we're doomed!"
Using the Nadesico as a means to slipstream the Archangel to a safe landing may seem crude, but its better than the method in Gundam SEED, which is to use the Lohengrins to disintegrate the air in front of the ship...Which would have the side effect of bathing the ship and most of Africa in huge amounts of X-rays. So lets go with Yurika on this one.
Yup, looks like it. Ironically enough, it looks like Tunisia, which is kinda a warning of the next chapter of the SEED plot.
Just acres of wierd purple trees planted by the Radam which can't possibly be a threat.
Have our flagships ever not been fucked since we got back from Mars?
And with the interesting stuff past, onto more teenage gossip:
Flays final line here is to walk slightly away and whisper "It can't go on like this..." rather ominously. Though the ramifications of that line are probably not what you think. Just as horrible as you think, but in a different way.
Meanwhile, in space, Lacus is telling Athrun how awesome Kira is because the audience really needs help to see it by this stage.
And thats the end of that chapter, onto the Puzzle Robo.
Another Batta for Kouji and Sayaka to destroy, but theres a trick this time: Put in below 1/3 health without killing it, and it'll run off, failing the mission.
Koujis and Sayakas move ranges, weapons are as before. So, what to do?
Now that we're on earth, a few decisions to be made:
Aestivalis in Air, Ground or Artillery frames? (I know the answer really, just checking)
Change the Strikes Launcher Pack?
Who gets the Combo Module? Virtually any of our melee units have one chain weapon, so theres any number of options here.
Who gets the Hit and Away module? There are a few major candidates: The main ones are the Battleships, the Archangel especially has very few effective attacks on the move. The Launcher Strike is another, if we want Kira to be a major gun-and-runner. And oddly enough, Crash Intrude and Voltekka make Blade a good choice for it, hes really not the melee character his constant swordplay would imply.
Will we switch around the boosters again? After that level, our lowest level guys (not counting Akatsuki) are Akito, Eiji, Izumi, Sayaka and the people on the Nadesico itself. The next level has a lot of running back and forth across the map, so who will we make it easier for?
And finally, this is the first level we'll truly have to pick who we'll deploy. Calvina, Mu, Kira, Ryoko, Akito and Koji are definites, but who else would you prefer to see among the people we take with us?