I mean, I say tutorial, but realistically all you get is Harrid telling you to . . . well, I'll let the man explain it himself.
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Poetry.
But seriously, while there are a few elements worth explaining here, this area is a quite simple and unexceptional tutorial area where the player can get used to the battle system and we are basically jumping straight to the boss after some tips and equipment shuffling. Notably I steal Harid's Hard Leather and swap it with Ellen's Leather and steal Monica's Spirit Stone, which I'm going to sell later on. I also move the Fur Vest onto Ellen and remove her axe, as we have opted her into the Monk build over the axelady one.
We also have the option of shifting up formations in the menu here, but the game conveniently starts us out in the Desert Lance formation with Harid on point, which will easily carry us through this area and boss, and I don't particularly recommend swapping it around unless you want to try putting a martial artist on point in the hopes of learning Counter, which, even then, is a pretty sketchy plan right now for various reasons and probably not the best of options.
! Player Tips - Formations !
While the game can be completed without ever touching the formation screen in the status menu, I highly advise making use of it, as proper utilization will drastically increases the effectiveness of your party and certain equipment loadouts. Notably, the Desert Lance formation Harrid starts you in here is among the best solo tank formations in the game, eclipsed only by the late game Phoenix formation, and I highly recommend making use of it when you can.
! Player Tips - Spellcasters !
If you wish to play a non-hybrid spellcaster, it is important to avoid using physical attacks at all times, as these can grant WP growth and significantly delay you earning your magic crown. The snake enemies in this area have a chance to drop an early MP recovery item called Snake Scent, so it might be worth fighting a few just in the hopes of finding one.
! Player Tips - Harid Players !
If you started the game as Harid you are strong enough to solo the boss and can safely remove everyone you don't intend to use later's gear and sell it; you won't be seeing them again until after the entire introductory sequence is over and they don't contribute a meaningful amount of damage during the boss fight itself.
Following that gear swap, we run north between the trees and follow them to the east, taking a quick step down and around, then right again to this river.
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Now instead of following this all the way up, which will trigger the fight, we are actually going to save here -- not because the boss is hard, because it certainly is not, but because this is the first place in the game where two mechanics come into play and I figure this is a good time to explain them for the curious.
! Player Tips - Rare Drops !
Several enemies in the game have semi-to-extremely valuable rare drops, and it is completely up to you whether you feel it is worth grinding in an attempt to get them. I will generally be ignore them, but there are at least a few story events where it is possible to snag some of the very valuable ones and I will mention the drops beforehand, just in case you want to put in the effort to snag these drops well before they are otherwise available or required. Be warned, however, rare drops are RARE, and the Harid playthrough I was originally working on for this LP picked up over 40 hours of game time drop hunting. You never need these drops, just know that they are there and can be extremely valuable.
In the case of this boss, it drops the 'Hair Ornament', which is a semi unique accessory that provides strong magic resistance for this point in the game, especially notable for it double defense value against the 'Status' element. Another character comes with this item, but he has a departure stipulation that can be annoying to meet for anyone other than Julian or Monica, who essentially get a copy for free.
The drop is nice to get, but I advise against farming for it.
! Elements and Elemental Resistance !
Though your characters have a generic displayed defense value, what is actually going on under the hood is much more complicated than what that value shows, and by looking at gear you can see that some gear will have symbols indicating augmentation to their defensive values.
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For instance, we can see here that Sara's Silk Dress has a blue circle in the Mag Def field and says Cold, so this item offers additional defense against that element, doubling with circles and quadrupling with concentric circles, as I recall, except for Blunt elemental defense which I recall having a different, reduced formula because. . . I have no idea why, really, likely because all the helmets running around in the game reduce it.
There are also red triangles and 'X's that reduce the defense against an element as well, with the triangle halving the defense value and X negating it entirely. The important thing to remember here, however, is that those symbols do NOT apply to your character as a whole, only to the defense value the piece of gear itself is contributing, so running a Troll Stone with an X in fire does not mean you have 0 magic defense against fire, just that the Stone itself will not contribute resistance against fire attacks.
Almost all attacks in the game will use one of the 8 coded elements and almost all armor will contribute towards defending against all of them, so you can generally trust your displayed defense values, but be aware of armor penalties if you find yourself taking a lot of bonus damage and look for resists if you know you are going to be dealing with a lot of a certain element.
The single most important magical element you can have resistance against is the 'Stat' element, because the game creates psudo extra elements like Water and Anti-Air by using this element in conjunction with flags, so it operates like a non-elemental defense that hits 'fake' elements as well.
That out of the way, we decide to travel north a bit more when this lovely bird decides to pay us a visit by ramming right into us! :O
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Oi, she's a lot bigger on the inside. X_X This is the Garuda Wing and I believe this is the only time we will see this enemy, so if you want the Hair Ornament drop you can choose to farm it here, but I'd recommend just letting the chips fall where they will on that -- it isn't THAT great a drop. If you are playing as Harid here and didn't remove everyone's gear for the fight I'd recommend having the back row use up the their techs, just in the hopes they'll master something for you. If you are playing as any of the settlers or Monica, I'd advise using normal attacks against the boss in the hopes of learning new techs. Either way, just have Harid spam Demi-Rune until the boss dies annnnd . . .
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Wow. We actually got stupid lucky here, I never get this thing.
Welp, we'll definitely be using it since we got it. We also learned a few techs during the fight, but nothing I'm super excited about or consider noteworthy, other than Deflect which is a very bad sword based counter attack that I recommend going into your skill screen and removing it whenever you learn it. There's a lengthy explanation of why, but I'll save you all of that and just say to trust me on this one.
We also get a moment of Ellen taking note of the strength of that monster, which is pretty fair considering the strength of, you know, snakes and goblins that are normally around here.
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She also mentions a rumor going about that the Abyss Gates have reopened with the most recent Death Eclipse. Hrrrrrmmmmmm . . . first we've heard of that, and we haven't had a new King, devil or holy, emerge yet, so this bodes a bit poorly. Then again, it's not like anyone built a castle on top of the still living body of a demonic god this time around or anything, so fate can still twist in our favor.
Following this we march north to meet Monica's brother Mikhail in his warcamp so Monica can finally deliver her message.
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Yep, turns out Harid was right and a rebellion has swept Loanne while Mikhail was away. That's a blow that's gotta sting.
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Like a wet noodle.
So, yeah, it turns out Mikhail, being the genius strategist he is, is completely unsurprised by this turn events, and you find out had even planned for it in his and Harid's introductions, but he was certainly not planning for Monica's escape from the castle to warn him. I've always been a bit curious how he planned to deal with her being a hostage when he invaded, which is never addressed, but she explains who we are and how we helped her, and he thanks us and even offers us a reward when he retakes Loanne! :0 Confident fellow, this.
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He also points out that he can't really bring kids like us into a warzone with him, mostly for reasons of our squishy bodies and not goodness at battles, but also that he can't really drag Monica into the warzone either, and so he offers us the job of escorting Monica north to Podol until the fighting is over. Seems like a good plan to me, I mean, we basically used Harid as a crutch to get here, so it isn't like we're going to contribute much to his plan if we do go anyway. Certainly the safer option.
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Oh. Oh, okay. Thanks, boss. I'm sure Monica will enjoy her time there.
He then explains that he trusts the Earl and Monica agrees to the trip, though, in all honesty, she doesn't exactly have many other options. Also, Mikhail is a strategic genius, so there isn't much of a reason to disagree with his plan.
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Thanks boss!
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Well, whatever, we've got a job to do and a princess to protect, and, much like the previous area, Harid is strong enough to carry us through to Podol without issues, so with this cutscene done we take our leave of the ten...
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%^%$ING THANKS, BOSS.
*Sigh*
Well, I think I figured out the character of his plan for dealing with his sister being a hostage. Guess we'll continue this next time.