Endure This! Run! Part 5: Oh Hey, Bullet Time!

Previously, on Dragonball Z: Rush went on a quest with Pagus to find some anti-Remnant terrorists who had somehow fought their way through a ruined castle full of monsters just to hold a rally about how much they hated Remnants, despite the fact that no one was forcing them to use one. Also, Rush learned to use magic, and started shocking people left and right with Spark bolts channeled through his weapon.

Now we return to the throne room, where David is noticeably displeased at this turn of events.

Gallery

In a nutshell, Pagus says: "Hey, we got reports of a glowing Remnant flying across the sky and landing in Dillmoor." Also something about Luminescence. Which is apparently a big thing in this world when a Remnant does it. David says that they might be able to find Irina there along with whatever Remnant landed at Dillmoor. Not sure how he figures that out.

Also, Rush awkwardly does a pelvic thrust at the end of this cutscene, while David stares at him for several seconds. What disturbing thoughts could be going on in his mind? One can only speculate as the camera fades out. Also, speculate away in the comments below.

Off to Dillmoor we go, then! You can buy things at the shops in Athlum if you want to give Rush something like a second weapon or a shield, though it's not required at this point. I got him a one-handed axe.

Gallery

Rush finds that his Super-Saiyan abilities also give him the power to slow down time outside of battle. How Torgal was able to tell just by looking at him is not explained. This mechanic is useful in game to aggro several enemies at once and draw them all into the same battle. As long as you run near them and hit the trigger before the glowy thing runs out. Otherwise, the monsters will feel very offended that you slapped them with the magical dueling glove and did not deign to show up on the field of battle. Then they will chase you all over the map until you do decide to engage something in battle or trigger an exit from the scene. Whichever comes first.

Remember what Blocter said before: higher risk, but also higher reward. Don't aggro five different monsters at the same time unless you think you can defeat them.

For this thing, you have ten guys in two pre-fabbed squads. At the beginning of the game when you can finally make your own Unions, it is suggested that you focus on having fewer squads with higher HP. Later in the game when you can bring out several more at once, switch to more Unions with fewer people each, as the enemies will use more powerful Area-of-Effect attacks that will really get annoying. Especially since you have almost no control over how your units position themselves to engage the enemy.

Also, another new little quirk gets introduced into combat: the Critical Trigger. On Offense, it lets your allies leapfrog the enemy's turn and sometimes convinces them to perform more powerful techniques on enemies if done correctly, along with some added damage. On Defense, the margin of error is a lot shorter and chances are fewer, but if you pull it off you will do much more damage than you would with a standard attack.

I guess this is to assure that you won't just nod off after selecting a list of attacks, to keep you "playing the game" as the experts put it. You can set it to automatically resolve Critical Trigger moments in the options menu, but then your chance of success is left to the whims of the Random Number God instead of you, the player, who will get it right more often once you memorize the timing.

Also this thing pops up for Rush. There's not much you can do with it now except for upgrading Spark to Spark II. I guess Square Enix envisioned some sort of tech tree that you could choose from, but decided to simplify the fuck out of it as the development went on to the point where it became more of a tech branch that doesn't even split into two until much later on.

Pagus: Dillmoor used to be a prosperous town, full of harmony, thanks to the peaceful Remnant called the Rubber Soul.

Rush: So what happened?

Pagus: Well, the one who bound the Rubber Soul died, and the town soon died as the Remnant fell into...

Rush: *yawns*

Pagus: ...and when a Remnant becomes unbound, it brings forth what we in the business call "The Collapse."

Rush: Did you really need a nickname to describe it? I'm pretty sure I could figure that out from this place being full of nothing but monsters.

Pagus: You could? Well, it never hurts to be sure...

Blocter: Will you two pipe down! You're ruining the view!

Rush: Wait, why is Blocter the stealthy one here? I mean, seriously?

Blocter: Why, just cuz I'm a Yama I can't hide behind a pillar?

Rush: I didn't mean--

Emma: Look, we can discuss your ignorant racism later. What's going on?

Blocter: Two old men and a little girl, standing by the Remnant.

Emma: Sick bastards.

Blocter: How should we proceed?

Emma: We'll have to do this carefully, while we have the element of surprise on our side. Okay, let's sketch out a quick plan...

Rush decides to execute his own plan, tentatively titled "Run at the bad guys and scream."

The good news is that Rush was actually right this time. The bad news is that the bad guys just take Irina and disappear anyways. GG, Rush.

Emma: You bloody idiot! Do the words "Element of Surprise" mean nothing to you?

Rush: Hey, I was actually right this time about the girl being Irina! Give me some credit!

Emma: I'm sure Irina will be very happy that she's been kidnapped yet again, but at least you recognized her!

Evil plants somehow emerge from under the ground. Thus begins another (mini-)boss battle as you attempt to deal with the fallout of Rush's careless action.

This fight isn't really all that hard, aside from the fact that you have five slightly weaker enemy Unions to Athlum's two. On the other hand, these two Unions can hold out for long enough thanks to the boost of HP and the fact that at least one person in each Union knows a healing Art.

The Vicious Plant releases Natural Gas. I believe that this attack can poison a whole Union, but in this case it missed. That's what happens when you try to use a small amount of gas in an open environment, but I guess plants don't have brains for that sort of thing.

Pagus flash-fries the Vicious Plant to death, driving the rest of them back underground or something.

Gallery

Back at the Athlum Castle, tensions are brewing as the crew reports their findings to David.

David: A flying Remnant not even the Academy knows about? This could be a problem.

Rush: Hey, so...when are we going out to find my sister again?

Torgal: All we know is that two guys in strange clothes with a flying Remnant kidnapped your sister. We can't do anything until we find out who they are.

Rush: But you knew before! And you gave me your four Generals to help me search for her!

David: Yeah...about that. Emma tells me I shouldn't let you run around with my forces anymore until we find out more about this enemy.

Rush: Can't you do something?

David: Like run out into the fields shouting "HEY BAD GUYS WHERE IS IRINA" until they turn up? That didn't exactly work the last few times you tried it. Besides, I got a country to run here.

Rush: Fine, screw you, I'll find her on my own!

As Rush leaves, Torgal wonders if maybe they should've swiped his talisman first before letting him go.

Rush decides to stop and smell the strangely-familiar flowers before he leaves, for they remind him of his "Most Important Person."

Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom...

The somewhat-threatening, shirtless black gentleman here is named Jager. Fun fact: his American voice actor also does the English voiceovers for M. Bison (SF4/SSF4) and Jax (MK9) among others.

Irina is not feeling too hungry. Apparently being trapped in a room by two older men with evil plans involving a little girl is not an ideal bonding situation.

The gentleman in the white outfit is Wagram. I'm only saying this because writing "Guy in white Chinese outfit with matching fan" over and over until someone says his name later will get tiring.

Wagram: Oh Irina, want to hear a funny joke? It's about how I killed your brother.

Irina: What?

Wagram: Yeah, you see, I sent these evil plants after him just before I left. He was all "aaaaah, ooooooh, I thought plants fed on sunlight instead of people, what an ironic twist of fate, aaaaaaaaaah!" and then he died.

Irina: You're the worst comedian ever.

Wagram: And you just earned yourself an early bedtime, missy! Now get some rest or I will continue practicing my standup routine in front of you.

Irina: *begins sobbing*

Jager: Look, boss, not that I'm questioning your authority, but do we really need to keep her locked in there? I'm kind of getting nervous about babysitting her while you practice your standup routine.

Wagram: I'm sorry, does it look like I care? Yours is not to question why, soldier.

Jager: Fine, then give me something to do that doesn't involve children.

Wagram: Okay, how does the idea of somewhat-discriminate slaughter sound to you?

Jager: That fits more within my skill set, just tell me where.

Wagram: In due time.

Next Time on Endure This! Run!

• Rush discovers that One is the Loneliest Number
• The joy of sidequests?
• A whiny yama and a not-whiny yama.

Cutscenes!

• I Guess we're heading for Dillmoor!
• The Rubber Soul and the Element of Surprise
• Screw you guys! I'll find her on my own!
• Meanwhile, at the legion of doom!

Bonus Content!

Torgal's profile:

Leader of the Four Generals, and David's right hand. It is unknown why a sovani, infamous for their pride, works for Athlum.

The sovani are a race of four-armed cat people that have incredibly long life-spans. This probably explains why Torgal has little tolerance for putting up with people's bullshit: he's seen everything over the years, and he knows that at some point all of the Generals are going to die and he's still going to be there, wondering what'll happen next.

There aren't that many sovani characters in this game, PCs or NPCs. While you probably won't be able to recruit them as normal soldiers, you can find a handful scattered around as Leader units that you can pick up later. Also, sovani for the most part have their own weapons and weapon arts that make use of all four arms.

Well, I guess that explains all the playable races in this game. There's also the humans that do human stuff, but they're called Mitra just because. In any case, one weird thing about this game is that there is pretty much no racism in this game at all. Of course, people still find reasons to attack and slaughter one another, but it's weird that so many different races are willing to unite in this game under one banner or another...as long as they aren't monsters incapable of intelligent speech. I guess.

Endure This! Run! Part 5: Oh Hey, Bullet Time!

Previously, on Dragonball Z: Rush went on a quest with Pagus to find some anti-Remnant terrorists who had somehow fought their way through a ruined castle full of monsters just to hold a rally about how much they hated Remnants, despite the fact that no one was forcing them to use one. Also, Rush learned to use magic, and started shocking people left and right with Spark bolts channeled through his weapon.

Now we return to the throne room, where David is noticeably displeased at this turn of events.

Gallery

In a nutshell, Pagus says: "Hey, we got reports of a glowing Remnant flying across the sky and landing in Dillmoor." Also something about Luminescence. Which is apparently a big thing in this world when a Remnant does it. David says that they might be able to find Irina there along with whatever Remnant landed at Dillmoor. Not sure how he figures that out.

Also, Rush awkwardly does a pelvic thrust at the end of this cutscene, while David stares at him for several seconds. What disturbing thoughts could be going on in his mind? One can only speculate as the camera fades out. Also, speculate away in the comments below.

Off to Dillmoor we go, then! You can buy things at the shops in Athlum if you want to give Rush something like a second weapon or a shield, though it's not required at this point. I got him a one-handed axe.

Gallery

Rush finds that his Super-Saiyan abilities also give him the power to slow down time outside of battle. How Torgal was able to tell just by looking at him is not explained. This mechanic is useful in game to aggro several enemies at once and draw them all into the same battle. As long as you run near them and hit the trigger before the glowy thing runs out. Otherwise, the monsters will feel very offended that you slapped them with the magical dueling glove and did not deign to show up on the field of battle. Then they will chase you all over the map until you do decide to engage something in battle or trigger an exit from the scene. Whichever comes first.

Remember what Blocter said before: higher risk, but also higher reward. Don't aggro five different monsters at the same time unless you think you can defeat them.

For this thing, you have ten guys in two pre-fabbed squads. At the beginning of the game when you can finally make your own Unions, it is suggested that you focus on having fewer squads with higher HP. Later in the game when you can bring out several more at once, switch to more Unions with fewer people each, as the enemies will use more powerful Area-of-Effect attacks that will really get annoying. Especially since you have almost no control over how your units position themselves to engage the enemy.

Also, another new little quirk gets introduced into combat: the Critical Trigger. On Offense, it lets your allies leapfrog the enemy's turn and sometimes convinces them to perform more powerful techniques on enemies if done correctly, along with some added damage. On Defense, the margin of error is a lot shorter and chances are fewer, but if you pull it off you will do much more damage than you would with a standard attack.

I guess this is to assure that you won't just nod off after selecting a list of attacks, to keep you "playing the game" as the experts put it. You can set it to automatically resolve Critical Trigger moments in the options menu, but then your chance of success is left to the whims of the Random Number God instead of you, the player, who will get it right more often once you memorize the timing.

Also this thing pops up for Rush. There's not much you can do with it now except for upgrading Spark to Spark II. I guess Square Enix envisioned some sort of tech tree that you could choose from, but decided to simplify the fuck out of it as the development went on to the point where it became more of a tech branch that doesn't even split into two until much later on.

Pagus: Dillmoor used to be a prosperous town, full of harmony, thanks to the peaceful Remnant called the Rubber Soul.

Rush: So what happened?

Pagus: Well, the one who bound the Rubber Soul died, and the town soon died as the Remnant fell into...

Rush: *yawns*

Pagus: ...and when a Remnant becomes unbound, it brings forth what we in the business call "The Collapse."

Rush: Did you really need a nickname to describe it? I'm pretty sure I could figure that out from this place being full of nothing but monsters.

Pagus: You could? Well, it never hurts to be sure...

Blocter: Will you two pipe down! You're ruining the view!

Rush: Wait, why is Blocter the stealthy one here? I mean, seriously?

Blocter: Why, just cuz I'm a Yama I can't hide behind a pillar?

Rush: I didn't mean--

Emma: Look, we can discuss your ignorant racism later. What's going on?

Blocter: Two old men and a little girl, standing by the Remnant.

Emma: Sick bastards.

Blocter: How should we proceed?

Emma: We'll have to do this carefully, while we have the element of surprise on our side. Okay, let's sketch out a quick plan...

Rush decides to execute his own plan, tentatively titled "Run at the bad guys and scream."

The good news is that Rush was actually right this time. The bad news is that the bad guys just take Irina and disappear anyways. GG, Rush.

Emma: You bloody idiot! Do the words "Element of Surprise" mean nothing to you?

Rush: Hey, I was actually right this time about the girl being Irina! Give me some credit!

Emma: I'm sure Irina will be very happy that she's been kidnapped yet again, but at least you recognized her!

Evil plants somehow emerge from under the ground. Thus begins another (mini-)boss battle as you attempt to deal with the fallout of Rush's careless action.

This fight isn't really all that hard, aside from the fact that you have five slightly weaker enemy Unions to Athlum's two. On the other hand, these two Unions can hold out for long enough thanks to the boost of HP and the fact that at least one person in each Union knows a healing Art.

The Vicious Plant releases Natural Gas. I believe that this attack can poison a whole Union, but in this case it missed. That's what happens when you try to use a small amount of gas in an open environment, but I guess plants don't have brains for that sort of thing.

Pagus flash-fries the Vicious Plant to death, driving the rest of them back underground or something.

Gallery

Back at the Athlum Castle, tensions are brewing as the crew reports their findings to David.

David: A flying Remnant not even the Academy knows about? This could be a problem.

Rush: Hey, so...when are we going out to find my sister again?

Torgal: All we know is that two guys in strange clothes with a flying Remnant kidnapped your sister. We can't do anything until we find out who they are.

Rush: But you knew before! And you gave me your four Generals to help me search for her!

David: Yeah...about that. Emma tells me I shouldn't let you run around with my forces anymore until we find out more about this enemy.

Rush: Can't you do something?

David: Like run out into the fields shouting "HEY BAD GUYS WHERE IS IRINA" until they turn up? That didn't exactly work the last few times you tried it. Besides, I got a country to run here.

Rush: Fine, screw you, I'll find her on my own!

As Rush leaves, Torgal wonders if maybe they should've swiped his talisman first before letting him go.

Rush decides to stop and smell the strangely-familiar flowers before he leaves, for they remind him of his "Most Important Person."

Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom...

The somewhat-threatening, shirtless black gentleman here is named Jager. Fun fact: his American voice actor also does the English voiceovers for M. Bison (SF4/SSF4) and Jax (MK9) among others.

Irina is not feeling too hungry. Apparently being trapped in a room by two older men with evil plans involving a little girl is not an ideal bonding situation.

The gentleman in the white outfit is Wagram. I'm only saying this because writing "Guy in white Chinese outfit with matching fan" over and over until someone says his name later will get tiring.

Wagram: Oh Irina, want to hear a funny joke? It's about how I killed your brother.

Irina: What?

Wagram: Yeah, you see, I sent these evil plants after him just before I left. He was all "aaaaah, ooooooh, I thought plants fed on sunlight instead of people, what an ironic twist of fate, aaaaaaaaaah!" and then he died.

Irina: You're the worst comedian ever.

Wagram: And you just earned yourself an early bedtime, missy! Now get some rest or I will continue practicing my standup routine in front of you.

Irina: *begins sobbing*

Jager: Look, boss, not that I'm questioning your authority, but do we really need to keep her locked in there? I'm kind of getting nervous about babysitting her while you practice your standup routine.

Wagram: I'm sorry, does it look like I care? Yours is not to question why, soldier.

Jager: Fine, then give me something to do that doesn't involve children.

Wagram: Okay, how does the idea of somewhat-discriminate slaughter sound to you?

Jager: That fits more within my skill set, just tell me where.

Wagram: In due time.

Next Time on Endure This! Run!

• Rush discovers that One is the Loneliest Number
• The joy of sidequests?
• A whiny yama and a not-whiny yama.

Cutscenes!

• I Guess we're heading for Dillmoor!
• The Rubber Soul and the Element of Surprise
• Screw you guys! I'll find her on my own!
• Meanwhile, at the legion of doom!

Bonus Content!

Torgal's profile:

Leader of the Four Generals, and David's right hand. It is unknown why a sovani, infamous for their pride, works for Athlum.

The sovani are a race of four-armed cat people that have incredibly long life-spans. This probably explains why Torgal has little tolerance for putting up with people's bullshit: he's seen everything over the years, and he knows that at some point all of the Generals are going to die and he's still going to be there, wondering what'll happen next.

There aren't that many sovani characters in this game, PCs or NPCs. While you probably won't be able to recruit them as normal soldiers, you can find a handful scattered around as Leader units that you can pick up later. Also, sovani for the most part have their own weapons and weapon arts that make use of all four arms.

Well, I guess that explains all the playable races in this game. There's also the humans that do human stuff, but they're called Mitra just because. In any case, one weird thing about this game is that there is pretty much no racism in this game at all. Of course, people still find reasons to attack and slaughter one another, but it's weird that so many different races are willing to unite in this game under one banner or another...as long as they aren't monsters incapable of intelligent speech. I guess.

Well its nice to see that someone besides me cares about this game.