Now we’re in the Placid Parish. There aren’t any enemies here, but we will continually be losing HP thanks to the poison on the ground, except while we’re on the wooden platforms around the area.
“You’re more interested in items than instruments? Hmph. I guess you’re still pretty immature, aren’t you?”
This boy runs the very last item shop in the game.
In addition to Goddess Bouquets, he also sells the single-target and party-wide full-heal items. This is the only place in the game you can buy Spade Clovers, and since we have more money than we could possibly spend I’ll go ahead and buy 99 of them. (I also went back to all the item shops throughout the game and bought 99 of every other healing item before coming here, which is why we aren’t quite maxed out on gold.) Of particular interest is the Scudetto…
Which is far and away Crescendo’s best shield. I’ll gladly take it!
“You’re not going to leave me all alone too, are you?”
“What? Do you have a problem with our romance or something? Well, a boy who hasn’t completed the training of EZI, spirit of flowers, could never understand what I see in him.”
“I can’t believe I’m doing such naughty things with a man who’s not my husband, right under EZI’s nose. Hee hee. I’m a very bad girl.”
“If I complete more of the training and raise my rank, I’ll be able to dress like the EZI Elite. What? You haven’t heard of the EZI Elite?! How could you miss them? You must have seen them on your way here. They’re the coolest, and the hottest, members in the whole congregation.”
“This is the Church of EZI’s ‘Lion’s Den.’ All the newest converts live here. Are you a new member too? If so, I’d make sure to steer clear of the shrine in the back. What are they doing back there? Well that’s a secret, of course. It wouldn’t be much of a ‘Lion’s Den’ without a few secrets, now would it?”
“What do you think of the venomous poison in this room? Pretty nasty, isn’t it? Finding it a bit hard to breathe, perhaps? You go on being poisoned even while you’re carrying out a conversation here, you see. It’s all part of the training necessary to make you a top-notch member of the Church of EZI!”
Geez, thanks for the info dump, stranger. I’m not sure how effective constantly wading through poison water is as ascetic training, but I’m not an expert on religion so what do I know.
“Come on in and give your body and mind the rest they deserve!”
Of course an inn stay here costs 321 gold. Why would it be anything else?
“Your skin is simply glowing, and your hair’s got a wonderful sheen to it. You look so fabulous, I almost didn’t recognize you.”
“This mask has no holes in it, so when you put it on, everything goes pitch black. I hate the dark so much it almost scares me to death. Mommy, what am I gonna do?!”
“Mommy, it’s not like I’ve got an inner eye or something!”
We’ll just leave you be…
“What’s the Grace of EZI? Well, don’t you…? I can’t talk about things like that when it’s still light out.”
“Nothing can beat the Grace of EZI. I can remember it even now, my husband and I were still young then. The two of us went to the EZI festival…. Whoops, I don’t want to say too much.”
“Now, now. It’s not polite to tease your elders.”
“EZI appeared on the horizon, his boat loaded down with his latest catch. He plucked me from the sea with one flick of his rod, and reeled me in to safety!”
“I could hardly believe how tall he stood. His muscular physique would be the envy of any man. I want to become a man like that someday, too!”
With that, we’ve talked to every single NPC in the game. Kind of an odd place to run out of new people to talk to, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.
Anyway, before we head up the stairs out of here, there’s actually something else we can take a look at back in the Courage Checking Chamber, so I’ll head out and get caught again to reset that room.
If you pull the first two levers, then get caught by this statue directly opposite the exit to Placid Parish, you get to fight a super-secret hidden boss!
Click here to watch the fight.
♪♪~
Leap the Precipice
Optional Boss: Dandelion
HP: 569,000
Exp: 527,000
Gold: 0
Don’t let the fact that the standard random battle theme is playing, the Dandelion is no joke.
Aside from its standard attack, the Dandelion has two specials; Un-Oh, pictured here, hits one character six times, and if unguarded can deal upwards of 35,000 damage to the target. Its other attack (which it didn’t use while I was recording), Ecarte, is even deadlier; it’s a spin attack that hits anybody standing nearby three times, and if unguarded can KO just about anyone except possibly a max-level Jazz or Crescendo from full HP.
In addition, Dandelion also automatically blocks all attacks that aren’t critical, and it’s very fast, capable of out-speeding everyone except a very high-level Serenade. Dandelion’s only weakness is that it has pretty low HP for a boss at this point in the game, so your best bet is to defeat it as soon as possible before it gets a chance to kill you.
To that end, I’ve loaded out the party here for maximum offense. Allegretto’s Silver Star takes care of the critical-hit thing, and he’s got the Werewolf Choker to hopefully build up enough Echoes for a Harmony Chain before Dandelion gets too many turns. Serenade and Frederic both have Burst accessories, and Frederic has the Lion’s Chime for more crits since Serenade seems to get more of those naturally.
It takes two Harmony Chains (because during both it blocked an otherwise full-powered Throne of Thorns), but we manage to defeat Dandelion before it can utterly wreck us!
♪♪~
Well Done
Frederic: “This is but a brief parting.”
Our prizes for winning are the Noble White and Sacred Mail, Serenade and Crescendo’s ultimate armor, respectively. Dandelion isn’t guaranteed to drop these upon winning; it can drop either of them, both, or neither. Luckily you can do this fight over as much as you want, as long as you get caught by the specific statue that it spawns from. (It took me only two attempts to get this equipment; the first time I fought Dandelion it dropped nothing.)
This is also the best level-grinding spot in the entire game; no other non-boss enemy gives out anywhere near this much exp, and once you memorize the path to the statue you can repeat the fight roughly every couple of minutes. There’s no reason to do this unless you need more levels for what’s at the end of the church, or are just curious what everybody’s stats look like at level 99, but hey, the option’s there!
I wish every character got unique end-game armor that further boosted their strengths, but this is still pretty good. Not much can stand in our way at this point anyway!
♪♪~ No music
Speaking of which, we’re almost at the end of the Church of EZI. Wonder Way is just an empty hallway that leads to the final room, so we can prepare ourselves beforehand.
Viola doesn’t need much in the way of equipment, so she gets to wear the Seven Stars.
Salsa gets a pretty raw deal in terms of ultimate equipment, so I’m boosting her stats as much as I can here.
And finally, I’m making Claves even stronger, and offsetting the Burst accessory with the Recovery Orb.
Right, let’s go!