Where we last left off, "Part 2" had begun and everyone had been split apart and spread off to various random places across the world. Also, while everyone was frozen in stasis thanks to the emergency escape system built into the airship, three years passed.
Mejuai started out off on the west coast, moving up from Nalles Geso to Wohgsa before passing through a volcanic cave (newly created thanks to the meteor impacts that new villain Obesius had been raining down upon the planet) and ending up around Clodaro. After wandering across the midwest for a bit, she finally made her way to an especially large crater near Sannak, where she finds...
...a bizarre religious cult revolving around an entity known as "Lord Mangos," known as the "Order of the Yummeh Mango." I'm not sure how exactly mangoes (yummeh or otherwise) give you superpowers, but apparently they somehow do.
I'm pretty sure the "yummeh mango" comes from an old roguelike type game I played in the past where the food item was a mango. It may have been
Rogue itself, now that I think about it, but for some reason all the records of what food item existed in that game suggest that the food was "slime molds" rather than mangoes. I distinctly remember a description saying "my, that was a yummy mango" popping up after eating one (and that cracking me up for some odd reason), though, so I'm not sure what's going on there -- I don't remember slime molds as food at all, and I don't think I encountered them until playing
other roguelike games years later.
Random side-note: "Mangos" is not pronounced like the plural of mango (the fruit) by the way; the "gos" part is like "ghost" without the T on the end. He's still
named after mangoes, for some bizarre reason, but his name isn't pronounced exactly like "mangoes."
You have to fight two waves of regular Mangos Priests, the first being only two and the second consisting of four of them at once. They're not incredibly tough enemies even for only two characters at once (though these two being
fast characters so they don't get overwhelmed by repeated attacks probably helps a lot -- an Enduo and Robert team-up against this bunch might be a little more frustrating for that reason, despite those two being pretty powerful characters overall.)
And every time you beat a group of them, they say "Ouchy! We're dead!"... which is pretty silly even for this game. I guess the Order of the Yummeh Mango wasn't ever intended to be all that serious of an enemy.
After the two waves of ordinary priests, you have to fight two more plus the High Priest. In this particular battle, the priests seem to use the Life spell a lot, reviving one of their fallen comrades with around 500 HP to fight again. The ordinary priests will revive the High Priest if you finish him off first, of course.
And apparently the High Priest has a name: Amamoy. I'm not sure exactly how I came up with that name (it actually sounds name-y which is nice), but upon closer inspection it seems to be a backwards-written and smushed-together version of the phrase "YO MAMA." Yeah, pretty sure the Mangos Priests were intended to be kind of a joke. XD
And apparently Lord Mangos is the "master of all that is yummy and mango-y." "Mango-y" is probably not a word, but my spellchecker doesn't complain about it, surprisingly enough.
And Lord Mangos finally makes an appearance! He's... some big creepy cloaked guy with blue skin and a hat, apparently. He's also kind of a pushover, especially with Ninja Mejuai being so fast -- especially after I had her use Haste to make herself
even faster! Mangos barely got a chance to attack before the constant ninja-swording and clawing dropped him down to 0 HP.
And the High Priest apparently survived his previous fight and...
...gives you directions on how to use the teleporter on the temple's roof? Huh. Well, that was a bit unexpected. But yeah, he's trying to remember the name Nifclont, but gets it mixed up with
Clifton -- as in Clifton Forge, the actual town that Nifclont was named after!
There's actually several NPCs who make similar mix-ups throughout the second half of the game, for some odd reason.
Also, I'm just now noticing a weird, possibly unintentional recurring pattern in this game -- wherever those Aztec-esque statues (shown throughout the Mangos Temple screenshots) show up, there's going to be some weird super-advanced technology of some sort involved. First there was the crystal back at Wafterville that fell from the sky and was somehow
keeping ghosts from passing on, and now there's more here and the top floor's set happens to be a functional teleportation device. I think they may have been around in the Lava Kuarudo cave, too, and there was an airship there. I wonder who the Mysterious Space Aztecs (...that are never really mentioned or alluded to in this game, just in this oddball "conspiracy theory" about it that popped into my head a decade after the fact) really are/were? Maybe an idea to keep around in the back of my mind for future stuff....
And here's the teleporter...
...and here's where you end up. This little spot on the other side of the pond in Nifclont was unreachable in the first half, but now there's a ladder leading down to it (or up from it.)
There's some Jerrghu hanging around at Obuyo Rock, commenting on the name similarity between the rock and Obuyo Kusomuyo whose grave was placed on a similar hill in the middle of Sannak.
I'm not sure if the game actually explains what the "psychic surge" felt from Nifclont was actually caused by. I know there's mention of one happening in Clodaro earlier (resulting from Kekyu in giant-mutant-cat form), but I can't remember what the one in
this town was supposed to be all about.
Yep, this is why I didn't immediately open that chest off to the side upon first reaching Nifclont...
...because there's bugs in the box! Four Ikkers, to be specific, though they're not going to put up much of a fight at this point (they showed up as regular enemies in the forest around Woghsa back in the first half and were a bit more trouble then.)
Here's one of the kids responsible for the box o' bugs. I'm not sure how little kids were handling
Ikkers, which are dangerous even to well-armed adults, but still.
This is referencing Ma-Du Nebozu, of course. Also referencing the fact that my sprite for him in this game is just a slightly edited version of a generic vampire, hence the "bad Halloween costume" comment.
This guy said "Fnrrf Ygm Schnish!" in the first half of the game and now says a (possibly slightly "off" now that I've considered changing how verbs work, though I haven't decided for sure yet) full sentence in Khurbyish.
It translates basically to "I think Burije is cute." This is how statements of "so-and-so is attractive" are phrased in Khurbyish -- attractiveness is widely recognized as a subjective thing by Khurbyish-speakers, so just saying "
[whoever] yu sykiobulu" would kinda sound like you're talking in Hulk-speak -- or worse, like you're insisting that everyone should find that person attractive just because you do, since you're basically stating it as a fact (the same way you'd say "the sky is blue," "water is wet," and so on) rather than an opinion.
...never expected to fit a mini Khurbyish Lesson post into the Uggy Barfoo retrospective, but hey, weird stuff happens sometimes. XD
This screenshot doesn't look like much, but due to a mistake when I was setting up the NPCs, stepping over this spot causes a cat meowing sound to play.
There was a midget with a giant kitty there in the first half. I basically just made the cat invisible and step-on-able, but technically it's
still there and
still meows if you walk over it. XD
Apparently one of the targets of Obesius' meteors was Wafterville, as it has been completely wiped off the map in the second half.
Also gone: Alfrido, and not just the city this time but the entire surrounding landscape. Holy crap, Obesius must've
hated this place! Or he hated some other place and his aim just sucked that day, I suppose. XD
The island chain of Ghan D'Sae is also pretty messed up -- the northern islands where the city is are fine, but the southern ones are broken up and no longer connected to the rest by bridges.
Some hints at what's going on with other characters. Apparently Nancos was around these parts a while ago, looking for Enduo. This makes it sound like she only recently found him (unless "a while ago" is years...) while her version of the story makes it sound like she found Enduo three years back... I wonder which one was what really happened?
(Seriously, I can't remember which -- if either of them -- was the truth since it's been so long since I made this thing. XD)
Chaeba (which is an anagram of "a beach" and is basically this game's analogue of Virginia Beach) is now an island rather than just a beach-town like before. It's also been rotated around, it seems, as the dock was sticking out to the east before.
This seems to happen a lot on this bridge... literal plot boulders strike again!
Yep, remember me mentioning Nebozu's plan to get elected president? That's going on now.
Formerly the "don't look at my butt!" girl. Now known as the "butt? what butt?" girl. XD
And
this is a reference to a movie one of my classes back in high school made. The guy Nebozu was based on was one candidate, another student was one too, and finally there was the
living chicken piñata that ended up randomly getting second place due to a massive last-minute write-in campaign.
...which may or may not have been entirely me stuffing a ballot box with "Chicken" votes while laughing maniacally. (That's still my favorite scene in that entire thing, and one of the few that has actually aged pretty well, or at least from what I remember years ago the last time I watched it... we haven't had a working VCR in a while. XD)
But yeah, Mr. Chicken got his start as a character in
Uggy Barfoo. In the history of the current
Fnrrf Ygm Schnish universe, he actually ended up becoming President of the United States in 2008 (rather than either of the real-life candidates, Obama or McCain), as seen in the ending of
Okédoké.
The end of a long-running "NPC text subplot" going on in the background of the first half of the game. This girl was hanging out with a different guy three years ago, then breaks up with him because she caught him cheating on her, and now she's dating this blue-haired guy instead, randomly.
Another reference to Nancos searching for Enduo, though this hobo gets his name mixed-up somewhat and mangles it together with the name of his real-life equivalent. XD
Oh, remember the girl who's now dating the blue-haired guy after breaking up with someone else? Well, this guy is "someone else," and he wasn't just cheating on her with another human -- he was
humping scorpions.
I have vague memories that this guy and his (ex-)girlfriend were supposed to represent an actual "recently-broken-up" couple that I knew at the time, and apparently the guy was kind of a douche while the girl was one of my friends at the time. I think we're still friends on Facebook actually. I wonder if she'll read this and think "wait, am I the one who broke up with the guy who humped scorpions?" Okay, probably not, because I don't think any scorpion-humping was ever involved in the real-life equivalent of these events (actually I can't even remember
why they broke up in real life, except possibly that he was just kind of a douche.) XD
In the first half there was a lone old guy sitting at this table. Now there's two, and apparently they might be a gay couple? Either that or not-William is just really upset that William won't be able to marry someone he likes if the ban goes through. XD
Now, back to plot-important locations... it's time for another trip up Mt. Goribo. The first floor is a bit different, with tougher enemies, but for some odd reason I got lazy after that and the other floors are exactly the same as in the first half, complete with ultra-wimpy first-half enemies that Mejuai can easily defeat in a single hit now. Some of them are so weak a single
unarmed hit would probably do it.
And now Mejuai (...and Julia) finally meets Bunprego! The story of the team's clash with Nebozu is passed on, and...
...and apparently Bunprego is not familiar with Nebozu being able to become Barney, and is pretty confused by the whole situation. Some weird creepy music starts playing around this point.
Apparently Bunprego is convinced that the Yenrab Nebozu was not actually the real Nebozu at all, but some sort of copy (which might have actually been
stronger than the real thing) which somehow took the place of the real Nebozu at some point after Mejuai was kidnapped.
This kind of bizarre twist is part of the reason why I'm not all that happy with the second half of this game, looking back at it now, though my opinion toward it is a bit higher now than it was the
last time I played through (several years ago during the SVU years.)
Apparently the Nebozu-swap was the cause of the "full of teleporting robots, no random enemies" state that Nebozu's castle on the moon was in when Enduo and company made it there. Also, why there were
endless hordes of Moronic beings randomly attacking all across the moon's surface.
First Obesius got involved by spitting meteors, then Mejuai came across Goatsu and Deathio... and now the fifth member of Burije's gang (...though considering it's Burije, now known as Bridget... I suppose "swarm" would be more appropriate? XD) finally makes an appearance.
The Demon-Baby.
This is pretty much its only line in the game. Well, it
is a baby, so I guess that shouldn't be too surprising.
The Demon-Baby isn't that tough of a boss battle. Despite the game treating it like it was after the fact. XD
And hey, Bunprego's a playable character! He has a
ridiculously deep voice when attacking, yelling out stuff like "WA-SHEEEEAH!" and "BRRRROOOOSH-EAH!" when you have him launch a regular physical attack. He also has 999 MP and a ton of high-end elemental attacks, so there's not much reason to actually use his physical attack if not just to hear his ridiculously funny voice clips a couple times.
Bunprego tries to finish the thing off with a beam of energy, but...
...the Demon-Baby suddenly raises a barrier, blocking the attack (or worse,
absorbing it, so it's probably healed somewhat now.)
He's going to pull off a self-destruct move to destroy the Demon-Baby once and for all, of course.
*insert screen-shaking and enormous explosion sound here*
The aftermath of Bunprego's attack (which definitely did destroy the Demon-Baby, but may or may not have been fatal to Bunprego... I think I did have some plan to bring him back in a weakened form later on) results in
the entire Mt. Goribo cave system being utterly destroyed, so thoroughly filled with rubble that it doesn't even have an entrance on the map anymore.
Bunprego's death(?) was not in vain: the explosion was so huge it just caused the plot boulders on the bridge to spontaneously roll over into the ocean! XD
Of course, the obligatory "end of the world" preacher, who might be slightly more right about the situation than most of his kind. XD
Apparently Jakarjo's the only one who swims, so his parents just ignore the pool when he's away... or something like that.
Now there's a land-bridge connecting the Swont-Ghina area to the Rebumont area.
And apparently the gangsters who moved in here have taken up the hobby of
humping little old ladies. Without protection. Ewwww. XD
I knew there was somebody who flat-out called Nifclont "Clifton Forge" in this game, but I forgot that it was one of the Jerrghu up here. XD
And as soon as you enter Swont-Ghina, you're stopped by this guy, who directs you toward the local bar (which is apparently where the election is being held, for some bizarre reason.) And so ends Mejuai's solo chapter of the story!
Yep, there's another mention of Nebozu's plan going on at this point in the game. It goes further than just that, though...
...he's apparently gone around hypnotizing
all the Republicans in order to make sure they vote for him, guaranteeing his victory since brainwashed followers of Moronism don't stay home or forget to vote the way normal, non-hypnotized people sometimes do. It actually makes sense -- if the "only 25% of registered voters actually vote" statistic that gets thrown around from time to time is accurate, getting
every single member of one major party to vote for you should pretty much guarantee a win.
Why didn't he go for an
absurdly massive landslide victory by brainwashing members of
both major parties? I dunno. Maybe he just didn't have time. Or maybe he was running as a Republican so he only had easy access to large groups of Republicans (crowds at speeches and party-sponsored events and such), not so much Democrats. The history-class movie that Mr. Chicken originates from had Nebozu's real-life equivalent as the Republican candidate (though the candidates' parties, or even what they were running for in the first place, were never actually stated in the movie, oddly enough!), pretty much matching his real-life political views... so that's probably the real reason.
I'll elaborate more on how the "President Nebozu" story arc would've gone (if I had completed it) when I get to the end of Enduo's segment of the second half. Which is the one I'm going to play through next, coincidentally. More Uggy Barfoo coming sometime soon!
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