Palet Clense

I wasted a lot of time exploring tonight only to enter a terrible dungeon!

Firstly, I went back to Momo's tower. Nothing was there, but I did get the Ring of Ice from that crystal puzzle. I then did some stuff in that random forest off the road before the eastern checkpoint and learned I don't understand Peco's field ability. And there's nothing at the arena or the mountain near to it. I'm very good at doing nothing...

So it's on to the Plant. We learned in Wyndia, the Cafe, and the arena that the entire country is having problems with the mutant crops. They taste bad, are getting expensive, and might be doing other strange things. The scientists here confirm it. The machines are breaking, and no one can fix it. Take the stupid conveyor belt system to the middle again, and we'll meet Momo! She doesn't recognize anyone, but I wonder if this would have changed if I brought Garr? Honey knows who we are, though, so it keeps bugging Momo until she comes around. We all enter one of the houses and catch up. After expressing her views on things, she says she can't come with us. She's more interested in machines and not suitable for what we're doing. Peco, though, lives at the Plant now but often spends time in the grove to the east with Yggdrasil. She'll escort us there, and we'll all hear a voice as we enter. The voice talks about Yggdrasil, and its connection to a sage in the past, giving us some story on it. No one's really sure where it came from, so it wasn't narration, but something happened. Peco joins the team, and I'm bummed he hasn't changed in the interim. His sprite is still ugly, and his menu portrait is too. After this, return to the Plant.

Momo senses something is strange. Talking to NPCs reveals that it's all finally broken. Two greenhouses are filling with toxic gas, and several scientists have left. Make your way almost to the center on the stupid conveyor belts to find someone with a plan. If we throw a rock at the glass, he might be able to spill the gasses harmlessly into the air. ...harmlessly... To do so, have Peco slowly kick a rock on the X as marked by the guy. Then, get a running start to smack into it, sending the rock flying. If you make a mistake, you have to reset the area and use the stupid conveyor belts again... Who designed this crap? Once we've done that, smoke will start to come from one of the houses in the middle. Head there, have Momo blow off a lock, and we'll head down into tonight's entertainment.

We're in a factory beneath the farms. Momo wonders who build this place, and we'll get a definitive answer later on. But to reach that, we need to navigate this terrible place. Start by heading south and loop around the ducts. We'll come to a room filled with computers. This makes Momo think it's a ruin. From here, we have to find passwords to use on the computers, which'll open doors down the path. We learn the first password when she gives an example of what it could be: "PALET." Door number one opens, and we backtrack to the door we couldn't open north of the spawn point. Enter through, find a password clue, and return. We have to do this three times! There is a room to rest and save behind the computers, but I hated this. Backtracking isn't fun, and the monsters we fight down here are annoying. The ones that breathe fire are fine but expect to get hit with a lot of status effects. Poison, blind, and confusion especially. And since Momo's here, we're already having accuracy issues.

But the story of this place is Repsol, Momo's dad, built the lab for his experiments, which we'll learn what those at the final boss. Along the way, we see more mutant creatures and have to fight a centipede boss named HugeSlug. Cast fire on this guy and whale away. I brought Momo and Peco with me, so my team is kinda weak down here. We also read a note about something called project AA, which we surmise is the name of what Repsol was doing. At one point, though, Repsol stopped. Why, though?

At the very end of the place is our old friend Palet. We overhear his plan and the whole reason this facility exists. He and Repsol build this place to revive Palet's dead mom. Palet is an old, bald, white bearded man, so I'm sure reviving his mother is a worthwhile idea. To achieve this, he and Repsol used the crhysarim and collected Yggdrasil's sap. The experiments have been running ever since. To "protect my mother," Palet drinks a vial of his experiment and turns into a giant mushroom.

Shroom isn't that hard. Buff up your defense, and you're good to go. It might be wise to speed up Ryu, too, so make sure he goes before the boss, though. I had him use Focus and Combo Attack with Momo buffing his strength. My new best damage output is 1200 HP! Shrom's attacks consist of a heavy physical attack and Head Cracker, which hits one person two or three (or more) times in a row for decent damage. It's why casting Shield a few times is a good idea. He also has a move called Ragnarok, which hits the whole party. With buffed defense, it either hits for thirty damage or, by design, zero damage. It's an all-or-nothing attack that's a whole lotta nothing. After we finish Palet, Momo can turn off the machine. This kills what remains of Palet's mom and ends the disaster that was Monsanto. But it's an option, so I wonder if we could have left that status quo?

In the camp, later that night, Momo thinks she knows why that place was built. Repsol wanted to revive Momo's mom. She's not sure why he stopped, but she wonders if it has something to do with the mutants. He knew the resurrection would have created a monstrosity and ended it all. She then wonders if Peco is the result of such an attempt? What really is our sentient onion? Nina thanks her for her help in saving her kingdom, and Momo changes her mind about rejoining the team. She does want to see hat boat... King Wyndia should have a change of heart about Ryu now, so we'll be getting a passport from him again...

...tomorrow.

I got the indication that Palet and Momo have been working together for much of the time Ryu "died." Was it ever brought up that he sold us out to Balio and Sunder? Did he try to kill her at any point between now and then? Dropped plot points, man... Also, remind me to return to that terrible place to get another dragon form for Ryu. I don't know if I'll be using Ascension often, but I'm an in game collectible hoarder!