Fintan's Story: Hunter's Mania
VS Kazuko: Chapter 2
| Prologue/Introduction | | Table of Contents | Profiles | Non-Gamer Primer |
Open on Grand Festival Hub
Fintan is standing at center screen, facing the right. Eamon walks in from the left.
Eamon: King Fintan, I’ve been looking all over for you and Uncle Aodh.
Fintan turns to face Eamon.
Fintan: It’s just Fintan now, King Eamon. Are you doing well?
Fintan: (He reminds me so much of his father. Doran, what would you have thought of all this?)
Eamon: I’ve been trying my best to live up to your legacy.
Fintan: There isn’t much to live up to, not with how things ended. You shouldn’t aim to be like me. It’d be in your interest to model yourself after a successful king instead. And being seen with me here might be risky.
Eamon: … Uncle, people look back on your reign fondly. The commoners never had an issue with you, and the nobles, well there aren’t any from the treasonous factions left, but we know who their real grudge was with.
Eamon: But even if it was a problem, I’d still seek you out.
Fintan: It isn’t becoming for a king to run after their predecessor. Lunis needs to move on from me, I’m not returning to it.
Fintan: You should think of me as if I’m dead.
Fintan turns and walks away.
Exploration Start
If you want to rush to the next battle, just charge ahead. But, this is also a good chance to play around with anything you’re still struggling to get a handle on. And there are NPCs to eavesdrop on while on your way to the match.
Well Read Dravalan Noble: It’s written that the Corkoa tribe live in a boat village, traveling around a select set of islands based on the seasons. Though they themselves do not write, so I wonder if that’s still true.
Judgemental Mondragean Noble: Those draconic powers are quite the advantage for those who have them. You got to respect someone like Hyperion who has the decency not to rely on such things.
Sheltered Pheonan Noble: I didn’t expect to see the former king of Lunis in the tournament. I thought he was living in the mountains.
Exploration End
Transition to Corkoa Village
The main platform of the stage is a wooden platform on the sea, at the left side are elephant seals harnessed to the platform, like horses for a chariot. There’s a hut in the background of the stage.
Also in the background are similar platforms, when the stage starts moving they move with it. At times the stage will stop at different islands, each island has a summer and winter version, only one version of an island is used in a match.
Fintan and Kazuko face each other at the center of the stage.
Kazuko: Hi. I’m Kazuko of the Corkoa tribe, let’s have a good fight.
Fintan: You can call me Fintan. You look rather young to be a tournament like this. Are you on your pilgrimage?
Kazuko: Oh I didn’t know people outside the tribe and isles knew about the pilgrimage. Yes I am.
Fintan: I once did something similar when I was younger. You should enjoy it while you can, you won’t always have the freedom to explore like this. And I assume you know where to find your tribe.
Fintan: (My royal pilgrimage was when I met… him. I had thought it was a blessing, but curse feels more fitting now.)
Kazuko: Don’t worry, I do. I’ve got a lot of people waiting for me back at the village. The outside world is exciting, but I’m looking forward to seeing them again. Is it like that for you too?
Fintan: …I’m not so fortunate. There’s nowhere or one to return to for me, don’t take having either for granted. But enough about that.
Fintan: Let’s see who makes it to the next round.
Battle Start
Once again this is a fight on a stage with changing layouts, only now it’s possible to send the opponent out of bounds.
Kazuko likes to set traps, which is easy to do when facing opponents who prefer to stick at long ranges, in other words you. You want to get more aggressive here, sticking within range of attacks so you can prevent any traps being laid.
One of Kazuko’s traps deals no damage upfront, but poisons you for a set amount instead. So keep a closer eye on your health than usual if the traps come into play, you might have less than you realize.
Another thing to look out for is her own boomerang projectile. Once thrown it ends up on the ground, where it can be pulled back to Kazuko via string. If you’re between her and the boomerang when it happens, you’ll be tripped and damaged.
The key to winning this fight is positioning, applying as much pressure as you can while avoiding any traps that have been set up. And the the stage has other layouts that will come into play as the fight goes on, requiring you to adapt your spacing.
Layout 1: On each side of the main platform are two wooden platforms. One wooden platform is diagonally above the main platform towards the edge of the screen, the second in the set continues in that direction.
Layout 2: The extra platforms are connected to a water wheel, so they move in a circular formation just over the main platform.
Layout 3: A platform equal in length to the main stage is now hovering over it.
Layout 4: You have to hop off the main platform to get on a rock formation. The formation has three flat segments, with the center being lower than the left or right (which are equal in height). Try to keep on the left side, that’s where the main platform will reappear when it takes off.
Regardless of what form the stage takes, your overall gameplan should remain the same. Prevent traps from being set as best you can, avoid ones that are set, and exploit your range. If you stick to that you should have no difficulty achieving victory.
Battle End
Fintan and Kazuko are back on center stage.
Kazuko: Are you okay?
Fintan: That’s an odd question to ask. You lost, are you okay?
Kazuko: I’m fine. But, you don’t look fine. That look in your eyes, it reminds me of what we call Hunter’s Mania.
Fintan: Hunter’s Mania? Maybe I do have it. I’m hunting for someone after all.
Kazuko: Well people with Hunter’s Mania take it way too far, they don’t think about anything other than pain and death, usually because of revenge. There has to be someone who wants to be with you, right? You should go see them, that’s the cure.
Kazuko: I mean, that’s what the adults in my village all say at least.
Fintan: (Bold of a child to give me advice. But that is on the mark. Of course it was equally bold to assume I think this is a problem. I can’t afford to not be in pain, otherwise I might forget them.)
Fintan: I’ll keep it in mind.
Chapter END
Note from the Author: Due to the magic of scheduling this is being posted when I’ll likely won’t be able to immediately respond to comments, but I do intend to get around to them.
Optional Discussion Prompt: On a scale of bad to ‘worse than anyone else’ how would you rank Fintan’s coping mechanisms?
| Prologue/Introduction | Table of Contents | Profiles | Non-Gamer Primer |