Update 3: The Real Demon’s Souls Starts Here
Down in the basement, Roland and Evan find out what all those explosions were earlier.
Well, that explains where anyone who would oppose the mice went.
: “Ding Dong Dell has been at peace for generations..”
: “Hm?”
So one thing I’ll never really understand about this game is that Evan has exactly zero questions about where Roland came from. In fact, I don’t think he even finds out about Roland until.. I want to say about an hour before the end of the game and even then he doesn’t really care.
We now have our second objective leading to the first dungeon of the game.
Along the way, there are a few fights against the same mouse guards we killed earlier.
They’re pretty easy to kill, not much to see here. Most of the combat in Ni no Kuni 2 is fairly easy - apart from a couple of places.
Now we enter the first (and strangely, only) stealth section of Ni no Kuni 2.
This turns out to be a pretty much bog-standard red light/green light scenario.
We run into another battle here, but what’s this?
Blocking in Ni no Kuni 2 is a losing proposition for everyone involved. You still take damage, and become virtually unable to move. Anyway, one fight against generic mouse guards later..
Meet the Mouse Sorceress. The developers had the art team make a model that is only used here and I really don’t know why.
The sorceress wastes no time launching fireballs at Evan, who is completely oblivious. Roland does the usual diving tackle save and fires a couple of shots from his pistol, only to find..
The sorceress has an Anti-45 Caliber Shield. Too bad Roland isn’t packing a Five-Seven or a Deagle ™ (R) Brand Deagle.
She then proceeds to summon skeletons..
And prepare fireballs to launch from behind her newly-summoned meat wall.
Meanwhile, the guards catch up. Roland is now out of bullets.
See? At least someone knows how Dark Souls works. The mysterious green-haired woman introduces her bandit knife to the sorceress’s back.
Meet Aranella, Evan’s bodyguard.
This fight introduces the Skeleplasm, a common enemy we’ll be seeing probably too much of. They’re usually pretty resistant to physical damage.. though not always. This fight teaches us the evasion roll, which is the preferred way of avoiding damage. Rolling provides a very generous amount of invincibility frames and can be spammed to avoid most attacks that don’t have a colossal AOE.
Here, Roland levels up mid-battle, which is very much a thing in this game. Levelling up fully restores HP and MP.. which we don’t have access to yet.
: “But today of all days.. how could they?”
: “Who exactly are you, and how did you get into the castle undetected?”
: “Roland saved my life!”
: “Very well. If His Majesty counts you as an ally, then so do I. Forgive my suspicion. I was merely doing my duty. My name is Aranella, and I have served as Evan’s governess since his birth.”
: “I suppose you could say that, yes - but I’ve never had to prove it until today.”
: “What’s going on, Nella?”
As you can tell, Evan is dangerously genre-unsavvy. I mean seriously kid, did you need him to be called the Grand Vizier?
: “It won’t work. This was no spur of the moment uprising. This was planned. If he says he wants you dead, he means it.” : “Aranella, do you know of a safe way out of here?”
Thankfully, said passage is right behind this door.
Next update, we’ll start the first dungeon in earnest.