One last order of business before we head into the Barry fight - new weapons.
The Killer Bow does exactly what you think it does, but the Brave Spear just provides a slight regen effect when it’s equipped. Come on Atlus, I want to see some multi-hit action here, don’t wimp out on me now.
Anyway, let’s get this train rolling. Barry awaits!
Ngh, it’s strong… That’s a lot of negative energy coming from him.
If we can somehow separate them…
I know a few of you were hoping for Vaike (and Vaike would have been a great choice, not gonna lie), but Barry is all about heavy metal.
Draug is a knight from FE1, and like pretty much every character of that era, his characterization starts and ends with “Is a knight of Altea”. And like most Shadow Dragon characters, he’s the template that the rest of the series has followed, for better or worse. At least his SD art is nice, although admittedly it would be hard to be worse than whatever passes for a face in 1990.
Uncle Barry!
You shouldn’t have come! It’s too dangerous here - you need to go back to the office!
No, I will not be going back! U-Uncle Barry’s in trouble! I can’t just sit still and do nothing!
Mamori…
What’s happened to Uncle Barry!? Why is he playing the guitar with that monster!?
Barry’s being controlled.
Uncle Barry… He was…always by my side, cheering me on… And he was there for me whenever I was sad…
And he even saved me from that monster earlier… He always protects me! So…this time, I’m going to be the one to help Uncle Barry!
…
…
Uncle Barry…! Can’t you… Can’t you hear me…!?
Ma…mori…
Uncle Barry!
Do not listen…! You need only the axe in your hands…! Heed them not! Harden your heart! Yield to none! Withstand! Withstand! WITHSTAND!
Mamori… All I… wanted… was to hear… you… sing… Your… song…
Barry’s regaining consciousness…!
The man’s got guts… He’s fighting off the Mirage’s control with sheer force of willpower…! If we can give him one last push, he might be able to break out of the Mirage’s grasp!
Your song might be able to help him break free!
Me, sing…? Okay… I’ll do it!
Anyway at this point Mamori sings an abridged version of Raindrop Memories. The full version is in the next update so if you’re really curious you can watch the video, otherwise all that’s important is that she sang for him.
You have to listen… Hear my voice…!
Mamori’s song has overcome the Mirage’s influence. I had no idea she had this much power within her…
Mamori… So this is your song… your heart… I could feel the message of your soul… It made my heart pound, with a fiery eight-beat measure…!
Close your ears! Let not your feelings sway you! Deny your heart! Deny! Deny! DENY!
Even if I can’t listen, or I’m out cold, true feelings resonate right here! That’s what the metal’s about! You ain’t anywhere NEAR metal right now! You think you can control Barry goddamn Goodman… with THAT CRAP!?
And so we do the usual song and dance.
Now’s our chance, Itsuki! Break the connection, and sever the Mirage!
Gaaaaaaaaaah!?
All right, everyone! Let’s do this!
Draug is, relative to when you fight him, probably the easiest boss in the game. There’s a lot of reasons for that, but the big one is that at the end of the day, he’s a glorified knight with boss levels of HP. And when we’re at the halfway point of the game, you have to do better than “a generic enemy with a couple thousand extra HP.”
As usual, our first priority is to kill off the extras, but especially the mages. Both the cleric and the red mages serve no purpose other than to cast Mediarama, and Draug has a lot of health that doesn’t need refilled three times a turn.
Of course, a turn one Labyrinth doesn’t hurt.
Draug has four tricks up his sleeve, the most basic of which is to hit for moderate axe damage. Depending on which mooks are alive, that can spiral into a nasty combo if he hits the wrong person, but you can see that even when hitting a weakness, Draug barely gets above 150 damage.
Unlike a regular knight, Draug has both the HP and the mooks to make Bodyguard annoying. This means we’re forced into using multi-target spells and abilities in order to hurt his remaining flunkies, and neither Tsubasa’s Mazan nor Kiria’s Mabufu is going to do much to the red mages. Time for another plan.
I won’t complain if the red mages want to spam spells on themselves, though. An interesting quirk of Bodyguard is that it still applies even when the attacker is one of Draug’s own, so the peg knight ends up poking Draug for minimal damage.
Okay, now you’re just showing off. That Mabufu would have killed the red mage and peg knight anyway.
Mad Dash is his final attack, and really the only one of any real threat. It’s powerful enough to instantly kill just about anyone except Itsuki, and he can drop it any time he wants, although he’ll only use it once a turn.
His final toy is a particularly nasty one, although it’s only really dangerous if he still has some mooks alive. Makarakarn reflects the next magic attack on the entire party, which is a problem when the boss has a glaring, magic-shaped weakness.
Unfortunately for him, Itsuki nulls electricity.
Reinforcements arrive on a 3-turn delay after you kill them. That’s not to say they’re a problem, just that you have less time than you might expect once they’re out.
And we have just the cure for a wayward cleric.
I legitimately forgot he even had Tetrakarn until I was writing this update. It could be dangerous if combined with Bodyguard, but he’s already in critical HP and we’re about to stuff him so full of magic that it won’t matter.
Good night, my friend. What a waste of a boss fight.
Right around here is the point when I realized that I never used Ellie and so she missed out on the experience bonus. Oh well, she got used a lot during the dungeon so I’m not really torn up over it.
And the last thing for the night is a quick round of skills. Itsuki picks up Elec Boost, Kiria gets extra experience off the bench, and Touma upgrades Skewer to Assault Dive.
Next time, the big finish to Chapter 3, and the halfway point of the game. See everyone then!