Also, for some odd reason Obesius' go-to insult (basically the only one he seems to know) is "dumb frogs." I'm not sure why, since even a dumb frog would almost certainly be smarter than Obesius.
(Still doesn't change the fact that he's not really a dragon, of course. XD)
Like most bosses in the second half of the game, however, he's foiled by the use of barriers -- though he does have some single-target attacks that can hit un-barriered characters, and if I hadn't poisoned him with a booger attack early on he probably would've berserked and done a lot more damage. Unlike some of the 2nd-half bosses (like Goatsu), he isn't harmed by his own attacks, so you still have to do most of the damage yourself even with a barrier up.
Lots of screen-flashing and shaking and kaboom sounds follow, but...
I'm leaning toward "delusional mutant Yenrab" at the moment.
Yep... Joguo's solo chapter is pretty incomplete. Basically nothing story-relevant happens, just random encounters and wandering through random towns where nothing really significant is going on. I can't remember exactly how things were going to go from there, but I do remember one thing for sure...
Remember the nameless narrator girl from the "choose a character" parts? If not, here's her status screen:
Yep, nameless narrator girl was actually going to join the party at some point. She had an actual name, too -- Anrijue -- and even her own set of special attacks... all of which hint at her true nature long before the game would've revealed it up front. Oh, and "at some point" was going to be during Joguo's segment, by the way; she would have met him... somewhere (my guess is either in the town of Schned or in that mountain cave that I never even started working on, though Schned doesn't have any NPCs in the most recent version of the game file so it's hard to say) and provided him with a means of transport to the mainland. Probably by way of another ancient Hudawuda teleporter device hidden in that mountain cave, which she would be able to energize using her powers.
Which would make sense, considering that her actual identity was eventually going to be revealed as the power of the shattered Ajrien Crystal that has taken on a humanoid form.
(If you didn't shatter the Ajrien Crystal by giving it to the Kuarudo queen and then defeating her while she was drawing power from it, it would've been explained that it was broken during the meteor swarm that smashed up the airship, which also conveniently explains why all of your items except the ones you had equipped at the time vanish from one half of the game to the next.)
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| Here's a random drawing of Anrijue from the 2006-2007 time period. I actually still really like her design, even though this picture is so old... Maybe it's something about the way I drew her eyes? |
Like Fredd, however, Anrijue wasn't going to be a permanent member of the party. She and Joguo would've come across Deathio at some point (presumably in the China-equivalent area, considering that I was already thinking up Chinese-food-themed enemies), and rather than stopping after summoning some random monster, he was actually going to step in and fight them personally. With Joguo already weakened from fighting off the summoned monster, Deathio himself was going to prove to be too much for him, and this would've been one of those "you can't really win" battles where it's not a "Game Over" even if you lose, and winning is near-impossible. Afterward, Anrijue reveals who/what she actually is to Joguo, and decides to unleash the full power of the Ajrien Crystal all at once to take out Deathio. Unlike Fredd blowing up on Obesius, I think this one actually was going to work -- at least, I don't remember having any further plans for Deathio after this point in the game, and he was always kinda the forgotten member of the Arkolo in my drawings and such around the time (well, not as forgotten as the Demon-Baby, but the Demon-Baby was just a generic three-eyed baby with devil horns whose only line in the whole game was something along the lines of "GYYYAAAAAAH!" so that's understandable.)
All I remember of the plan for Jakarjo's solo segment -- which I never even actually started working on in anything other than the vague ideas in my head back in 2005 or so -- was that he would've started out in the Japan-equivalent area, and rather than a lot of traveling his story revolved around a lingering mental issue that had developed as a result of the battle with Tuham Yigro way back in Part 1. Tuham Yigro wasn't just vaguely Cthulhu-esque -- it actually did have that whole "can drive people insane" thing going on about it, and Jakarjo was the unlucky one among the orb carriers who clashed with the big tentacle-worm-thing in the city of Bubarubas. I'm thinking that a big part of his story would've been going through a hallucination caused by Tuham Yigro's lingering presence, then coming out of it in an insane asylum, which of course he would've broken out of. The world map of the Japan-like place is pretty small, so I'm guessing he would've sailed off to someplace else not long after escaping.
And with the end of Jakarjo's solo segment, the groups would've started to come together -- obviously there were Enduo's and Mejuai's groups both ending up at Swont-Ghina just in time to interrupt Nebozu's evil plans to rig the election and become President (the Nebozu battle looks like it would've been pretty easy by 2nd-half standards, as his stats are barely any better than the imposter Nebozu's were in the "Nebozu and not-really-hypnotized Mejuai" battle), but Joguo and Jakarjo would've also met shortly after the endings of their respective segments of the game. Robert would've continued his solo (or "with random allied Yenrab" if you happened to get Crunk to join) adventure a bit longer, reaching Urket and finding the robots in the process of repairing the airship. I'm guessing there might've been a "find some missing airship parts" quest at some point around here but I'm really not sure as I don't clearly remember my plans for this bit. The one thing I do remember, though, is that Joguo and Jakarjo's journey after meeting up in China would've led to them reaching the airship as well, and the two of them plus Robert would've flown off to track down Enduo and Mejuai's groups after that. Not sure if Crunk would've stuck around, though I do know that Junk and Gunk would have been very much temporary party members if you convinced them to join and would've chosen to stay behind in a bar somewhere rather than tagging along as permanent characters.
As the White Orb's presence suggested, there was another character hidden in the game just like Julia with the Red Orb in the first half. This was Sarah the psychic cat, though I can't remember where the heck she was going to be hidden. I'm guessing Robert could've found her in Urket or somewhere else on the European-equivalent continent, since he's the one who had the ability to find her orb.
Speaking of hidden things on the European continent, there was actually an entire optional dungeon built into the game that's impossible to access currently since only Robert and Fredd (and Crunk) can reach Naldrie. If you came back with someone class-changed into a Psychic (which means Enduo or Julia... or Sarah the cat, of course), there's a hidden stairway in the basement of the Kartol church, which leads down into the sunken Gehhkeh swamp palace. It's populated by random encounters and also the wandering souls of dead Gehhkeh, who tell you about all kinds of random things. Some random details include the fact that the Gehhkeh pretty much stopped being bad guys after Karptic defeated them, but the humans kept killing them afterward anyway, partly (but not entirely) due to the influence of Buhtt McPharten. Speaking of Buhtt McPharten, the Gehhkeh name for him was "Butmekkhf'ton," and he was apparently a demon unleashed upon the world by Nebozu (during his original time on Earth, I assume, since he'd been active longer than Nebozu had been released from the crystal prison that had been holding him on the moon.) Reaching the bottom of the Swamp Palace would reward you with one of the game's hidden legendary weapons, the Moojwhammer, which was a giant golden hammer that was the only way in the game to inflict "Holy" damage (which heavily damaged evil beings of all types.) It's also the only hammer in the game, oddly enough, and due to its oddball category it could only be equipped by the Warrior and Summoner classes... meaning that Enduo and Mejuai (and Bob, and Sarah, and all of the non-orb-using optional characters) would never be able to equip the thing.
This was only one of many secret weapons I had planned for the game. One of the others, the Excalibooger, could be earned by defeating King Ratpoo (it turned out that the "source of the chaos" puzzle I couldn't figure out before was absurdly simple -- there was exactly one rock in the room that wasn't symmetrical with the rocks on the other side.) I made an attempt at this during my Robert playthrough...
...but as you can see from these screenshots, I did not succeed. XD
The unique thing about the Excalibooger is that it counts as both a sword and an axe for the purposes of Robert's super moves, allowing him to use both Booger Ray and Boogery Ooze without switching equipment. It's also the third-strongest weapon in the game (Moojwhammer mentioned above is the fifth-strongest) and has a chance of poisoning enemies hit by it.
The other super-weapons? Well... there was the Noop Knife for Joguo, which had a 1-in-3 chance of instantly destroying any enemy it touched (making it a lot more effective than its low attack power -- in the range of Kirbium equipment, rather than being Snozzorium-level or above like most of the other ultimate weapons -- would suggest.) It's basically the only way for Joguo to ever use his "Death Cut" super move, since after the very beginning of the game every other knife-type weapon would be ridiculously weak.
Mejuai's exclusive weapon was the Yagyurang, a boomerang that damaged all enemies at once and (for some bizarre reason) was programmed to count as a knife-type weapon rather than a boomerang... I'm guessing that was the result of copying the Noop Knife's item slot, not an intentional decision, as the knife-type designation would prevent Mejuai from using her boomerang-exclusive super move Thunder Slash.
Enduo's super-weapon was, of course, the Numnum Sword -- which was the strongest weapon in the game by a good margin with an attack power of 200 (a standard Kirbium Sword was only 90, and even a Snozzorium one only had an attack power of 130.) Aside from boosting all of his other stats slightly, the Numnum Sword had no special attributes aside from insanely high attack power. I can't remember where the Noop Knife, Yagyurang, or Numnum Sword would've been hidden, though I assume Yagyuoo were involved with the Yagyurang just going by the name.
Jakarjo's weapon was simply named "Tentacle" -- and it actually was not connected to Tuham Yigro at all, but to another tentacle monster known as the "Eye of Fnrrf" which would have been an optional boss at the bottom of a dungeon beneath Antarctica. In addition to having the second-highest attack power in the game, the Tentacle could also induce poison, stun, or insanity in enemies struck by it. Finally, Julia and Sarah share two claw-type superweapons, the Dragon Claws and Demon Claws. The Demon Claws are a bit stronger, stun enemies about a third of the time, and have a higher critical-hit chance... but they lower the wielder's defense, have lower accuracy, and are cursed. The Dragon Claws, on the other hand, provide a boost to defense (and also a higher speed boost than the Demon Claws), in exchange for no stun and lower attack power and critical hit chance. Julia always gets critical hits anyway, so it seems like the Dragon Claws' defense/speed boost and not-being-cursed-ness make them the better option for her. Oddly enough, Sarah (yes, the cat) actually has higher attack power than Julia, but without the automatic critical hits she might need more of an attack-power boost to do a lot of damage anyway.
Finally, there were a few other super-weapons not exclusive to any one character, in addition to Moojwhammer. There was the Lightning Spear (originating in The Story of Supernum as Jade's strongest weapon), which combined the attack power of a Snozzorium Spear with a speed boost, lightning-elemental damage, near-perfect accuracy and a chance of paralyzing enemies on contact. Weirdly, it seems that it was exclusively equippable by the Trainer and Warp Mage classes, meaning Robert and Julia could never equip it. There was also the Staff of Parupoo, originating in the never-finished OHRRPGCE game of the same name, which was both the 4th-strongest weapon in the game and provided a huge boost to the wielder's magical powers. Last (and least) of the superweapons is the Plunkodon Club, an ice-elemental spiked club that had a chance of stunning enemies and boasted a relatively puny attack power of 92. Like the Lightning Spear it had an odd array of classes able to equip it -- Warriors (okay, that one makes sense, heavy-armor/heavy-weapon guys using a giant spiked club), Summoners (...eh?) and Foodfighters (...WHUT!?) This, of course, meant that Enduo and Mejuai could never equip it... and that chances are good that nobody else would either, unless Robert (or Bob) was a Foodfighter and you didn't have the Excalibooger for Robert yet. I'm guessing this one would've been fairly easy to find in comparison to the rest.
...okay, got a bit side-tracked with the talk of Uggy Barfoo's lost super-weapons. Anyway...
Once the team was reunited, I can't really remember my full plans for the rest of the second half of the game. I do remember that another character, named Bob, was going to be introduced -- at first as a sort of "third party" opposing both the heroes and the Arkolo, but later joining up with the heroes. Bob was a hobo who carried the Brown Orb and had a limited selection of classes (just Foodfighter, Ninja, and... something else I can't remember, maybe Summoner?) rather than the full list that the other major characters got. It was at this point that the Uggy Barfoo -- as in the title -- would have actually become involved; Bob was going to steal it at some point, while the Arkolo are trying to track it down so that Burije can absorb its power into her spaceship and use that to conquer the world unopposed.
Once the orb holders are reunited, of course, that means Nancos wants another fight with the combined group -- and at that point she would've revealed that she actually did absorb the Black Orb, contrary to her claims to Enduo that she had abandoned it entirely. Before she could actually attack, however, Burije appears unexpectedly, distracting Nancos and actually making her seem a bit worried for the first time in the entire game. Burije proceeds to extract a lingering fragment of Tuham Yigro from Jakarjo's mind, then fuses it together with Nancos, creating a freakish monster that basically looks like a Tuham Yigro mermaid with a naked (aside from weird buggy-parts and growths covering her boobs) Nancos as the upper body. Oh, and Tuham Yigro heads instead of arms, of course. My sister and I both drew versions of this fusion at some point, but unfortunately I can't find any of them anymore -- if I could I'd post one here. Maybe I'll go back and do that if I ever stumble across one and scan it in. The game already has a boss battle theme set aside for the Tuham Yigro/Nancos fusion, but of course it went unused because that fight never happened in the parts of the game I got finished.
Speaking of unused themes, there's also one that was planned to be used for Burije's Barfoo-infused ship, which would've been the final dungeon. Probably including rematch battles with Goatsu and Obesius before the final battle with Burije herself, ending up with her fusing with the Barfoo and her ship to become this freaky-looking thing with a giant Burije head with tentacle-hair and glowing eyes, and also two giant floating claws and lots of tentacles sprouting out from all over the walls.
Oh, and it turned out that the "Guard Donut" item was the secret to surviving the fight(s) with Burije, as it provided resistance to claw-based attacks. She would've used the same Death Claw move as Julia, of course (as well as probably some others), which would do pretty heavy damage and cause some nasty status effects such as paralysis and insta-death, so having a way to resist this would've been pretty vital. I sort of repeated this in Okédoké, with the Guardian Donut providing resistance to physical attacks that made it the only way to survive Bridget's Death Claw (which caused 999 damage if you had no resistance to it, but only around 100 if you were resistant to it... and the only way to resist it was with the Guardian Donut.)
And now, I'll end off with a random funny thing I discovered when poking around in the game's programming... if you try to use Frog Juice while Nancos is with you, she refuses, saying the following: "No way am I drinking hallucinogenic frog slime."
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