Let's Play Trickster Online! (LP #9)

No matter how many times I hear this song, I'll never get sick of it - it's just too bouncy! (You need to get used to it too because you need to hear this every time you want to log in)

I should mention that the lovely title screen you see here is seasonal and that they change it every so often. (I'll show off new title screens when they come around, mostly because they tend to be really cute.)

Apologies about the screen size though, because this was the absolute smallest I could make it.



So, an interesting bit of trivia: there used to be more than one server. Trickster is a very old game and I remember Baby Dan checking in when the game was still in its heyday - the other server was originally called Fantasia or something, but I could never log onto it for some odd reason.

Also, remember the yellow slime fella on the server icon for later.

For now though, let's make a character!



There's four different classes separated by gender - the cute bruiser I'm going to be using today is the Bunny class, and she's going to be called Star Heart for maximum cuteness. 

She and everything else in the world of Trickster is defined by these four types:

• Power type  - Bunny and Buffalo
  
• Magic type  - Sheep and Dragon
  
• Sense type  - Fox and Lion
  
• Charm type  - Cat and Raccoon
  

Power and Magic are as straightforward as they seem. Sense, on the other hand, deals with luck and Charm deals with health and defense. (I'll go into further detail when we start the game.)

That said, while I can only use the Bunny for this playthrough, the other characters are all great in their own way. They all have really cute designs that only get better as you advance to the next classes, but... that's something to worry about for another day.

(My favorite 1st job designs are both magic classes, the fox and the cat.)



Before we drop our new Bunny into the world, I just have to mention that all the player characters have their own reason for coming to the island. The Bunny's plot is that she's a master athlete that wanted to use the money from Don Cavalier's fortune to buy a pair of "mammoth leather" boxing gloves... very silly, I know.

That's fine and all, but how we about we add some spice to this playthrough? 



: "Looks like I made it safe and sound!"

: "... Not counting how quickly I got seasick, but as long as I don't get on another boat..."

This, my friends, is my ideal "look" for Star Heart beyond what's shown in gameplay. (This isn't the end of it either, because I plan on making more portraits when she changes job classes.)

I figured I should do this to give her some more emotional depth because... you know, expanded LP plot with greater emphasis on how the main character feels about things. 



: "If you want to start your adventure in [Caballa Island], you need to first complete your [Registration Form]."

: "How can I?"

Heidi is a mega cutie, by the way. She might also be a newer character than from when I first played Trickster, because I remember being greeted by guys in hawk suits (also known as the GMs/Game Masters) instead.

I should also take this time to mention that Trickster is a point and click game - I should stress that it wouldn't be interesting to me if it weren't for the amount of cool things you can do in this game.



: "If you head north and follow the path of the welcoming hula dancers, you’ll see a [Reception Building] and [Bunny Maid] standing in front."

: "Sounds good!"

Side note, I love how they show which NPC it is you need to talk to with a press of a button. That's neat.



: "Did you come to complete your [Registration Form]? If you give me your [Registration Form] then I can start the process right away! Once the registration has been completed you will receive a pack of equipment called the [Rookie Set]."


: "Here you go!"

[Star Heart gains half of a level just from doing that]

... Yep, that's really how we're doing things!

One of the most interesting and useful aspects of Trickster Online is that doing quests gives you experience. This isn't piddly stuff either - it's all proportionate to where you are in the game, with late game quests giving you as high as ten million EXP just for doing one part of a quest. 


This is only one part of what makes playing Trickster worth it... and I am happy to spoil that this is not my first time playing. Heck, that's probably why I'm even doing this let's play to begin with! 

: "It looks like everything is in order, so I’ll give you the [Rookie Set]. To finalize the registration, you will need to take a quick test. Please equip the [items] from your [Rookie Set]."


: "… A test?" [Gulps loudly]



Ha, get it, because she's a bu-- 



... My computer couldn't handle that one for some reason.

The design of the Bunny Maid makes me think she's an older Bunny character that switched jobs or something. I'm not the only person that sees it, right?



There's quite a bit to unpack with this HUD, but I'll break it down piece-by-piece.



All the important things have shortcut buttons, with Guild and Friend not being important to us. MyShop is... well, while Trickster Online is free and can be played completely solo, MyShop is an unfortunate reminder that there are microtransactions in this.

I should stress that nothing in My Shop is required to beat Trickster, but there's things in there that can't be obtained via normal gameplay. Every piece of equipment in the game is level-locked too, so you can't cheat doing this anyway.



: "Not exactly flattering but I'll take what I can get right now..."

Another cool thing about Trickster is that equipment actually shows up on your person. Some equipment... doesn't gel well for lack of a better word, but even this of all things has a fix. (You'll see what I mean later on.)

[A buzzing rings out in Star Heart's pocket. She jumps and pulls out a rectangular, phone-like object.]

: "... Rach... Rachel? Can you hear me? Did you make it to Coral Beach?"

: "Oh! It's you, mister Nebulos. Yeah, I made it."

: "Good, good. Just keep doing what you have to and you'll be just fine. I've added a bestiary function to your gear so you can identify the monsters on Caballa Island... just be careful, understand?"

: "Oooh! Thank you. I'll put it to good use!"




I really love how you can multi-grab several items around you by pressing Z - it saves a lot more time than simply tapping on them with the mouse.

With that said, it's time to talk about the monsters in the area:



Type: Charm 
Level: 1
HP: 100
AP: 4
MA: 0
DP: 0
MD: 0
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: Baby Carrot (Very Common / Quest Item) 
Gear Entry (LP exclusive): "A small bunny monster that roams Coral Beach. Better to pet than attack."

I... actually feel bad about beating up Torobbies. They're so cute! 

They are the epitome of cannon fodder because they're about the only enemy outside of special event monsters that only drops one item.



Type: Power 
Level: 2
HP: 246
AP: 20
MA: 0
DP: 3
MD: 0 
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: Tottochi Card (Very Rare / Card)  
Gear Entry: "A tiny sea urchin that sticks to the sands of Coral Beach. A little prickly."
When you look this cute, you probably won't be all that dangerous... sorry, little sea urchin. 

Cards are... very complex things. All you need to know right now is that they're unbelievably valuable and that there's cards for (almost) every monster in the game and they have many purposes.



: "Noooo, what have I done!? I'm a monster!!"

You'll get used to it.



Besides, it's part of the Trickster contest to horribly slaughter the tiny bunnies... what the hell was Don Cavalier thinking?



Actual Gameplay Explanation: TM Level is different in that it's bonus points for your skills... yeah, you level up your skills too. There's missions that boost ONLY your TM Level because having a high TM level is required for certain quest chains.

This might be a good time to bring up "My View" because we actually gained some bonus points when we leveled up.



(Gah, this screen is always so satisfying to visit even if there's not much to do here.)

I'll explain the different attributes because understanding them is pivotal for knowing how this game works:

 -
AP: Physical attack power. Boosts the strength of melee weapons.
AC: Physical attack accuracy. Boosts the strength of gun weapons.
DX: The lower the number, the faster you attack with melee weapons. Right now we have 10+ frames of lag, but it can actually go into the negatives. In that case, it's actually a good thing because it removes lag frames.

 -
MP: The amount of MP you have. (Both physical and magical skills use this.)
MA: Magic attack power.
MD: Magic defense. (A crippling weakness of the Power types...)

 -
WT: Your carrying weight.... Yeah. We'll get to that one.
DA: Detection ability. Currently not important.
LK: Luck. Affects how often you block (completely negating an enemy's attack) or how often you land critical hits.

 -
HP: The amount of HP you have.
DP: Physical defense.
HV: How often you can avoid enemy attacks.

There's no need to pour bonus points into anything but Attack right now, so I'm doing just that.

Power Property and Resistance deal with elemental additions to your equipment, but we're a loooong way away from getting those... much less even putting them to use.



There's our girl. 

The only thing that matters here is the "growth point" chart - this dictates how significantly your stats go up as you level up. Since we're 40% on Attack and Charm, our health, defense and attack are gonna be pretty good.

I will gradually introduce the Boss Seals, Secret and Titles when they become relevant.



You also have more slots than just "weapon" and "armor", as evidenced by the fashion tabs and "speed up" boot in the upper right corner.



I'm not quite sure what dictates this, but this version of Trickster has special multipliers for EXP and TM. That's really nice because it helps speed up the process.



This sidebar is where you can place item and skill shortcuts for quick use... you'll need it too, because you can't just click your way to victory.

There's also one more monster that I would have not covered if it didn't show up!



Type: None
Level: 40
HP: 10
AP: 170
MA: 59
DP: 154
MD: 150 
Aggressive: No
Skills: Shockvibe (Paralyzes opponent)
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: N/A
Worthwhile Drops: GM Lucky Bag (Common)  
Gear Entry: "A rare penguin of unknown origin that sometimes carries a goodie bag. Don't let it get away if you see it!"

Yes, it's really called the PinkPink Penguin and it is level 40. It's a rare enemy that can occasionally show up every time you enter the area and killing it is worth your time no matter your level.

You do 1 damage no matter what, but it only has 10 HP anyway, so -

: "Get back here! The phone said I have to beat you up!"





: [Dazed groan]



Wow, that's what I get for trying to pick a fight with a monster that's level 40. Good thing revives are free right now, otherwise this would have been a problem.

Conversely, this is what happens when it dies:



... Which is pretty morbid in a funny way, not gonna lie.



: "All over [Caballa Island] are people that are in need of an adventurer’s help. Help those people and get stronger. I’m sure you will quickly find out what the goal of [the Trickster Game] is."


: "Oh I see!" 

: ("Oh no, more work...")

: "Here in [Blooming Cora, there is a girl named [Winnie] that is looking for some help. Why don’t you lend her a hand?"


: "Sure, leave it to me!"



... I'm not quite fond of her eyes. They're uncannily large for some reason. 

: "Ah! Did [Bunny Maid] send you? Well, it’s a good thing since I do need help. You will help me, right? If you do I will give you a [Young Egg pet.]"


Player: "What the heck is a Young Egg? … How do I help?"

She wants to know how the lifeguard back in Coral Field 1 is doing, but doesn't want to admit that she just wants to see him. You can't fool me, lass. 

The Young Egg is the first of the "Pet" items that we can have as equipment - they're little companions that follow us around, but don't actually attack or anything like that. While I probably won't equip the Young Egg myself, you just need to see it for yourself:



This game has some really great, fluid animations. It's like this for almost the entire game, too!



Some clarification towards what the items on the mini-map entail. The landmarks really help me when it comes to traversing because the maps in this game get long-winded as the game goes on.



Whoof, look at this stud. He even has a heart tattoo on his shoulder and everything, the badass.

: "[Winnie] told you that she wanted me to call her? I told her that the beach would be dangerous and that she should stay in town. I guess she sent you instead of coming out herself."

Hold up, the beach is dangerous? Everything here is super docile, friend. (Not counting the penguin because it doesn't even friccin' live here.)


: "Heh! She isn’t my little sister by blood, but she definitely follows me around like she is. It looks like she’s lonely. I’ve been pretty busy these days and haven’t been able to play with her."


: "You mean you really don’t..."


: "Huh? What did you say?"


: "Ah, nothing..."



: "Heh! You’re kind of thick, aren’t you?" 

: ("Rude...")

To be fair, we did pick a fight with a level 40 penguin.

He tells us the Tottochis are a problem for a woman called Tinnie and her volleyball practice, which brings up the question: why does the beach have so many monsters to begin with?

Is there an infestation of cute little critters or something?


: "Who is Tinnie-"



: "... Fine! I'll beat up the dumb little sea urchins. How'd I get suckered into doing this anyway?"



Ah, the age old classic of "beat up a certain monster x amount of times to complete the mission". I don't mind it too much, but there's times where it gets... pretty ridiculous, especially later into the game. 



Steel Punch is the skill we start with as a Power type and... frankly it's not too bad, especially when compared to the skills the other classes get. It does its job just fine.

This would also be an important time to mention that skills have cooldowns as well as costing MP. This way you can't infinitely spam the same ability until your MP runs out. Pretty smart if I can say so myself.



Galder Coupons of any kind are pretty worthless. All they do is give you pocket change and some are even required for quests, but that's about it.



I remember playing this game as a Dragon and... hoo boy. Players who use the magic classes in this game kinda get the short end of the stick, because they're really hard to master.

You are very squishy and killing even a Torobbie took more than one shot, so god damn.



I love getting experience just from talking to people. It makes everything so convenient! 



Pressing M summons a world map for the area you're in. Areas primarily consist of three to four maps, not counting their dungeons. It's very nice when they interconnect, but the most painful maps tend to be really far apart...



If everything's looking a bit orange-y, that's because Trickster has a day and night system. It's not quite real time, but it's nice to see how environments change color because of this.

(It's also not purely aesthetic as there's at least one or two quests affected by the time of day.)



[s](Whoa, mama.)[/s]


: "So you met with [Deen]? Me? I’m always doing well, of course hehe. Oh my! You hunted down the [Tottochies]? Thank you~"


: "It was a piece of cake."

Even if her soul hurts from having to beat around such cute little critters.

: "That’s good, but… these days it’s not the [Tottochies] that are bothering me, but another set of pests. Do you think you can help me with something?"



Long story short, she gives us another monster hunting mission. Shouldn't be too hard.



Right now the monsters don't have skills, but... god just wait until they do. The game has a very nice difficulty curve, but just wait until we hit deeper waters.

It will not be pretty.



Type: Sense 
Level: 4
HP: 205
AP: 16
MA: 0
DP: 0
MD: 0 
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here (Look at that smile!)
Worthwhile Drops: Bad Fury Card (Very Rare / Card)  
Gear Entry: "A mischievous little ball of fluff with a bad temper. Harmless, but has a big bite."

Bad Furies are my kind of cute, not gonna lie. I'd love to be surrounded by them.

They're also very popular for their cards, because even high-level players come around to hunt them for this on occasion... I was just very lucky to not have that happen on this outing. 

It must suck to be a Bad Fury in this universe given that's what their daily life is like.



Type: Charm 
Level: 5
HP: 345
AP: 32
MA: 0
DP: 12
MD: 11 
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: Little Cora Card (Very Rare / Card), 50 Galder Coupon (Common / Quest), Stat & Element Stones (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A young sea maiden born from the coral reef. Loves to pose."

Little Coras are adorable little... coral people that roam the beach. I do like how the game introduces new enemies every map or two - it helps make each map feel unique.

Now these I feel bad about beating up because they are just minding their own business and you don't even need to attack them for a quest or anything like that.



A demonstration of random cruelty to a Little Cora and how wicked strong we are.  



Type: Power 
Level: 8
HP: 520
AP: 52
MA: 0
DP: 27
MD: 29 
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: Bustshell Card (Very Rare / Card), Stat & Element Stones (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A docile shelled creature that comes out of the water to get food. Do not stick your hand in its mouth no matter how curious you get."

These guys are the scariest thing on the entire beach and even then they're not much of a threat. How about that.



: "Well, [Lifeguard Bean] has been, like, sending me gifts over and over again and it’s starting to get super annoying. I’ve returned his gifts over and over again, but he still keeps sending them."


: "That really is annoying… and kinda creepy, not gonna lie."



: "Of course! Might as well, right?"

Fighting all those monsters kicked me up to level 10... and there's a set of equipment in our inventory that we couldn't equip until we got to 10+.

Let's what we g--





Oh hell no. I'd rather sacrifice my flesh to the monsters than wear something as degrading as that.





why would you do this, Star Heart

: "I don't need dignity if I can hit things harder! Bring it on!"

Going over to Coral Field 3 takes introduces us to three new monsters:



Type: Sense 
Level: 6
HP: 450
AP: 44
MA: 0
DP: 21
MD: 22 
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: Blue Penguin Card (Very Rare / Card), Blue Penguin (Very Rare / Pet), Stat & Element Stones (Very Rare / Crafting), Cool Ice (Common / Quest)
Gear Entry: "A blue baby penguin that migrated to the warmer ocean. Keeps cool with ice it carries on its body."

No relation to the Level 40 Pink Penguin.



Type: Sense 
Level: 13
HP: 660
AP: 68
MA: 0
DP: 39
MD: 44 
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: Thiefmon Card (Very Rare / Card)
Gear Entry: "Sneaky monkeys that like to steal when you least expect it. Keep an eye on your things around them."

Thiefmon is your ordinary monkey burglar that also happens to be a merchant sometimes. The "level 13" may seem intimidating compared to what you started off with, but they're marshmallows if you've been doing everything right.



Type: Magic 
Level: 10
HP: 590
AP: 60
MA: 0
DP: 33
MD: 36 
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: Clione Card (Very Rare / Card), Cool Spring Water (Common / Quest Item), Mysterious Milk (Common / Quest Item)
Gear Entry: "A sea angel with mysterious powers. Has strange properties that makes it attractive to many Tricksters."

Clione is the first of the monsters whose design I really liked, given how it's a little sea angel thing. It's also a magic monster that... has no spells or even magic power. Huh.

That's all well and good, but the most important thing about Clione is that its Card isn't just for show -  it's one of those rare cards that increase the Mastery of a skill.

Their card's low drop rate makes them practically coveted by higher leveled players and it's especially important for us because it improves one of our skills. I might hunt them to oblivion for that reason alone, just saying.



Oh my god look at this guy. It's like Dan Avidan if he were a casanova wannabe.

He's delusional about Tinnie and even when we tell him straight up, he just brushes it off.

: "Hehe~ Since you brought me a message from my lovely [Tinnie] I will tell you something good."


: "… What?" 

: "(He’s even worse in person than I imagined!)"



Okay, you weirdo. I guess we just have to go hunting these poor, innocent penguins then.







Like seriously. Can you tone down the cheese? I'm afraid the computer's gonna explode for the fifth time. 

He hands us a Pocket Pouch for our bloody deed and tells us to equip it.



At the very least he's persistent. (I like the dialogue in this game, by the way. Right now it's about at its strongest, so just wait until the localization starts stiffening up and turns all Engrish.)



... Right! Scary 【ＴＨＥ　ＰＡＴＨ　ＴＯ　ＴＨＥ　ＳＨＡＤＯＷ　ＷＯＲＬＤ　ＩＳ　ＮＯＷ　ＣＬＯＳＥＤ】 message aside, the pocket pouch takes up one of two accessory slots.



You might have noticed this bag icon at the top left: this is our carrying capacity. I guess this is to make the game more realistic and to put more value in the objects that you collect, but I never usually like inventory management.

If our weight goes over 100%, we will slow down and lose our ability to run... hence why getting equipment to relieve your weight is absolutely critical in this game.

Also, 18,000 Galder is not even chump change. Trust me on this one. 



"Well, first of all you should meet [Don Giuvanni]. He is the one that manages the game and is currently preparing to train beginner adventurers. So make sure you meet him~"



: "Don Giuvanni, huh? Sounds like a big shot."


: "... Why am I so nervous about this...?"



Sounds like a smart idea, especially coming from this guy of all people. 





The first of the optional quests here is this lass who will give you a monster hunting mission. She's part of a guild dedicated to hunting monsters and you kind of have to build your way up if you want anything substantial out of them.

I don't feel like taking on her mission though.



However, this lady is a different story. Explorer Reina is one of four specialists - in particular, she is the Sense specialist and her job is that she goes around digging for treasure. Right now she wants some water because we're in the desert.



Pressing Q on the keyboard brings up this handy-dandy quest menu that even goes as far as to specify which kinds of missions you have, as well as what kind of prizes you'll get once you complete them.

Here's the list:

* Normal quests are... well, quests assigned by random NPCs. 
* Monster quests are the hunting missions we've already done.
* Party quests are special multiplayer missions done with a team of 2 or more people. They're essentially bigger monster hunts to compensate for the extra manpower the players have.
* Story quests have to deal with the actual plot of Trickster itself and are split up by chapters.
* Job quests are unique missions dedicated to promoting your character's class to the next level.
* Key quests will be elaborated on in chapter 2.

I kill enough Clione to get 5 bottles of water and hand them over to Reina. 



: "Yup, [Harkon]. The [Harkon] is a legendary stone that shines brightly with the seven colors of the rainbow. It’s a mysterious gem that supposedly has great powers. I’m sure it’s worth a lot!"

: "Oooh, rainbows!"
: "It sounds out of my league though..."





Mama mia.

I mean. Uh. [s]Nice baps.[/s] *Is slapped by Star Heart*



Nice to meet you indeed. 

Okay in all seriousness, I just think she's cute. They knew what they were doing when they made her though, especially if she wanted to get the player's attention.



Another neat thing is that you get special prizes every time you reach a level milestone! Good shit. 



The level 15 prize isn't that impressive, but the later ones certainly are. It's certainly a good idea to open them as soon as possible.





Whoa, lookit' them. Yeah, I guess the other important thing about let's playing an MMO is that... yeah, other people play the game too? Every screenshot is a potential moment captured in time, even more so than a normal game because everything's in real time.

Look at this smooth criminal though - the players that spend all their time on this game tend to have some bling. 

: "Whoa... I wish I could look that cool!"



Transitioning to and from a dungeon is often accompanied by these cute little transition images. I won't take screenshots of every transition but damn it this game is cute.



Have this surprisingly straight-forward cave with not much in it! We're not going to worry about Assistant Hunter and Warrior Kei - they're just more optional quests that we can freely skip.

Name: Real Golden Mole
Type: Magic 
Level: 15
HP: 765
AP: 80
MA: 0
DP: 48
MD: 54
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art:  Here
Worthwhile Drops: R. Golden Mole Card (Very Rare / Card), Mole Crown (Very Common / Quest Item)  
Gear Entry: "Despite the name, it is more of a platypus. Thinks it is royalty but has multiple imitators."

It's strange having monsters that don't attack you right off the bat. It's the first area of the game, yeah, but it still feels uncanny to me.



Type: Power 
Level: 18
HP: 695
AP: 72
MA: 0
DP: 42
MD: 47
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: Addax Card (Very Rare / Card), Addax Horn (Common / Transfer Item), Apron (Common / Transfer Item)  
Gear Entry: "While fierce-looking, this goat man would rather keep to himself. Beware his double tap when he's angered."

I really like Addax's design and it's funny that they never re-use it past this cave (spoilers). His gimmick is that he attacks twice in one attack, but that's about it.





... He looks like a dork, my god.

I mean, what else did I expect? (Megalo Company, though? Subtle, game...)



"Even though I have yet to formally become the president, there isn’t another well-qualified person other than me. Haha… therefore, the winner of the game will be chosen by me. But, you know, the one thing I hate the most is waiting."



: [Still snickering a bit] "Okay, sure."

He tells us to talk to Driller Marky (aka. the man in the yellow mascot costume) and get a "Drilling for Dummies" book out of him. Should be pretty easy.



I forgot to show it off when we started the game, but these chapter indications flash from time to time when you complete story missions. That's nice, I guess.



I feel bad for people who have to go around in costumes like these - the heat must be catastrophic, especially in an area like this. (What the heck is the Trickster mascot supposed to be, anyway? A mouse?)

You can tell this is where a lot of players hang out to drill and stuff. I'm not quite sure what's up with the sad face emoticon over their heads, but I've just accepted that as a "Trickster culture" thing.





He’ll give us a basic drill, a “cute pet” (whatever that means) and the book if we do a job for him. Sounds simple enough. To actually equip the drill he gives us, we have to put it on our person and press D on the keyboard to use it. It doesn’t even matter where we do it, you just have to press D.


… This also includes digging over water on wooden bridges somehow, but I’m not even going to start questioning this game’s logic. 



Wow, the tutorial was ruined by the people auto-drilling all around us. Good job, internet.

Rule of thumb: an item drilled up by another person can't be picked up unless some time passes. Same thing goes for monster drops. 

: "... Um."

[She picks up two random Tanning Oils from the ground]




: "I finished!"




Is the drill the pet he's referring to? Because that's kiiinda weird, my guy.



The defining feature of Trickster aside from combat is Drilling - you basically have to engage in a digging mini-game and hope that something pops up.

More often than not, you'll get "nothing found" instead... if you're in the middle of a quest and you desperately need an item from the ground, you'll learn to hate this message with all of your strength. 

Digging has you barrel through different depths of rock, grass, whatever - the drill Marky gave us only goes up to 30 meters, but better drills go deeper and dig faster. If you push it too hard, the digging meter resets and you have to do it over again. (Gets really aggravating with deeper depths, boy lemme tell you.)



: "My strict regiment for you is not over yet! Go to [Paradise] and meet my special agent to start the second stage!"


: "Second stage?"

Long story short, he tells us to go to the Desert Town of Paradise and meet up with his agent, Robert. It's past Desert Beach Field 1 (there's two beaches back to back for some reason, but I'll take it).

: "Excuse me, Don Giuvanni, but isn’t there a quicker way to town?"



I'm infinitely thankful that Trickster has fast travel, otherwise the drag from walking back and forth between maps would have killed my enthusiasm for the game.

(The fast travel girls are marked on the map as wings, so that's a good way to keep track of them.)



: ("Sheesh, another rude person... Is this an omen for my stay here?")

: ("Man, I hate it here... I want to go home already...")



Their services do cost money, but they're never an obtuse price at the very least. (Also, what the heck is her dress supposed to be?)



Best Gal tells us to find Stargazer Stella in the next beach over. I'd follow her advice, but it seems like we're running out of time for this chapter.

: "All that work really ate away at me..."

[Star Heart sits on the sand near the waves]



: "Lemme just... rest for a bit near these... soothing waves..." [Snore]

Next time on Trickster Online, we delve deeper into the beaches and do some errands. See you guys then.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Player Status:


 (Star Heart / Rachel): [Currently dreaming about a mountain of chocolate cake]
* Job class: Schoolgirl ( Tier 1)
* Type: Power 
* EXP level: 17
* TM level: 19
* Gender: 
* Bosses slain: Zero

Oh hey, the title screen changed again! That was fast. (I kinda like this one more than the snow girls one, but that one was still hella cute anyway.)

... Hey wait a minute...



Oh shit she actually showed up this early? I didn't expect that.

... If you want an explanation about who she is though, you're not getting one right now. I'm gonna leave you guys hanging on this one for a while. 



: "Zzz..."

[Star Heart suddenly wakes up and wipes the drool off her face]

: "Wah! Why's it so cold all of a sudden?"



: "... Oh. Wow, is it really night already? That was one long nap... better get going!"



[My OST for Desert Beach: Lethal Lava Land]

One beach is hotter than the other, and it shows with the monsters because they're a bit meaner than the Coral Beach ones -



Type: Power 
Level: 19
HP: 730
AP: 76
MA: 0
DP: 45
MD: 51
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Shell Trap Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Iron Grass (Common / TM Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 20 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A cousin of the Bustshell monster that grew to live on land. Beloved for its juicy clam meat."

I love how these are two different monsters, but they're not palette swaps. the only other game i know that changes up the actual designs of similar monsters is Dark Cloud 2, and that's like my favorite PS2 game of all time. (The Kingdom Hearts games coming in at a close second, of course.)

(... You may have noticed that I don't include EXP or TM EXP in these bestiary entries. That's because hunting monsters quickly becomes obsolete in terms of EXP gain - completing quests fills in this niche after a while.)



Type: Sense 
Level: 20
HP: 765
AP: 80
MA: 0
DP: 48
MD: 54
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Golden Mole Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Duck Doll (Uncommon / ??? Item)
* Earthworm (Common / Quest Item for Fox characters)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 20 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A humble platypus-like creature that dedicates their time to cleaning up the beach, hence why it is covered with junk."

These guys are the hard workers of the Golden Moles because they actually clean up the mess... unlike their cousins inside of the cave earlier who just sit around wearing crowns and calling themselves royalty.

I put in ??? Item as something different than "quest item" because sometimes the people who run the game like to include special missions where previously useless items become valuable as quest items. These are cool because they hand out unique prizes to the winners, but I usually miss them.



Type: Sense 
Level: 18
HP: 695
AP: 72
MA: 0
DP: 42
MD: 47
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Fanta Slime Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Twinkle Star (Uncommon / Quest Item for Lion characters)
Gear Entry: "Starfish with a slime-like body. Known as Paradise's star animal due to its dance moves."

Fanta Slime is one of those monsters that kinda just... exists. It's pretty hard to say much about it, because the only item from it that's even somewhat valuable is only useful to Lion characters.



Type: None
Level: 40
HP: 10
AP: 170
MA: 59
DP: 154
MD: 150
Aggressive: No
Skills: Shockvibe (Paralyzes opponent)
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: N/A
Worthwhile Drops: 
* GM Lucky Bag (Common / Item)
Gear Entry: "A rare penguin of unknown origin that carries goodie bags. Don't let it get away if you see it!"

Oh hey, thanks for showing up! I kinda expected the PinkPink Penguin to show up given that Coral Beach Field 1 is where I go to hunt them, but this is a very nice surprise. (Let's Player's luck, I'm telling you...)



: N-not this time! I'll get you for sure, oooh...

We no longer get one-shot by them, thankfully, but getting paralyzed in this game suuuuucks.

You are not able to move or even defend yourself should you get paralyzed, making it one of the deadliest status effects in the game. Right now it's not a problem because the Rare Penguins just want to get away from you, but later enemies can possibly stun-lock you to death with it unless you have a certain skill.

It's pretty rough, man.



: "Oooooh, fancy bag! I wonder what's inside."

Aw snap, Star Heart managed to overcome her penguin weakness! That was pretty fast, not gonna lie. I was expecting to lose the penguin and give up, but it thankfully stuck around for its demise. 



The GM Lucky Bag actually warns you if you want to open it - this is a good thing too, because two of the potential items it can give you is super heavy and bound to increase your Weight by at least 80%. (You can go over 100% in terms of weight, but it's always a bad idea.)



... Damn it, I got the second least useful one. At least 100K Galders is good for in-game shops (because surprisingly, the economy of the setting isn't horribly broken... the same cannot be said for a certain other feature, though.)

Potential list of items the GM Lucky Bag can contain:

* 1x Store-More Ticket (Increases capacity of warehouse) 
* A set of five 10,000 galder coupons
* One 100K galder check
* 3x Adamantite Ores 
* 3x Alexandrite Gems
* 1x Friend Finder (Teleports to the location of one of your online friends)
* 5x GM Gift Certificate (Used for special items)
* 1x Memory Port Ev (Allows you to record the location you are currently in and teleport back to it later. Extremely useful) 
* Mighty Turkey VR (A somewhat mediocre Pet item)
* 3x Portable Port Ev (Allows you to teleport to towns or even dungeons)

The ones marked with the siren are pivotal for me to get should they appear. (This is also the only free way to get these items, because most of them are "MyShop" exclusive otherwise.)

The relevance of the Ores/Gems will be explained in this chapter, so we'll get to them in a bit.



Type: Charm 
Level: 38
HP: 1,640 x3 (4,920 total)
AP: 195
MA: 0
DP: ???
MD: 135
Aggressive: Yes
Skills: Cure (Magic skill that restores some health.)
Element: None
Weakness: Guns
Resistance: Water, Light
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Cannon Shell Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Broken Artifact 3 (Uncommon / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones Lv. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A Cannon Shell mutant that attacks anybody that enters its territory. It is aggressive and leads a troop of lesser Cannon Shells."

Ooof, the punisher enemies... So these are special "mutated" versions of normal enemies that have much more health and are always aggressive regardless if you attack them first or not.

They can heal themselves up, can summon minions and are overall a pain to deal with compared to normal enemies.



This looks exciting and all, but Star Heart is gonna get wiped out by this thing.

: "It's too strong! I can't fight it like this... retreat!"



: "Oh jeez... that was a close one... I probably shouldn't mess around and just go into town already."



I love how much style this game has, because each major town has its own special title card when you visit them.



(Ignore the sudden shift into daytime, I had the game running while I was doing some errands.)

Whoa, look at this guy! 

He legit looks like he walked off the set of Men In Black. It's nuts just how different each NPC in this game can get - I like that they can change things up in terms of art direction. (Even if it gets... a bit strange from time to time, but whatever.)

: "I’m not exactly what you would call a nice person. However, after receiving special instructions from [Don Giuvanni], I have come here to help guide new adventurers. First of all I’ll explain to you what items you will need for the second part of [Don Giuvanni]’s training."

(No wonder, he works for Don Dork.)

: "The second part is getting you used to [Compound Items]. In this game, you are able to acquire items through the shop, monsters and by drilling. However, you can also make items through Compounding."

: "How do I make it?"

He tells us that the guy is up ahead and that there’s also… storage and a bank there? Hallelujah!  I can finally put away stuff I don’t need.



Alright, should be pretty simple. (Fun fact: the item we're going to make heals even less than a normal consumable HP item, so we might never see it again past this mission.)



You might notice these little houses from time to time - there's a feature in Trickster called My Camp, which is like a "make your own little house" simulator. I don't play around with it because it's not my thing, but apparently people use it for special mini-chatrooms or something.

I don't check because I usually keep to myself, but it sure is interesting.



[My choice for the Shop OST: Digimon World DS - Shop]

... Huh. The Paradise shop is usually more packed than this. Oh well.

(Damn, the fox with the scythe and shield looks sick. You can get your character to look super anime thanks to custom item sets, something that's far beyond our grasp right now.)



This lovely lady is in charge of the Warehouse - a lifesaver in more ways than one. I also love how non-intrusive the cost for putting away stuff you don't need is, too.



Her arguably-even-more-lovely sister(?) is in charge of the Bank. It differs from the Warehouse in that it can transport cash and items between the different characters in your account, so that'll be a great mechanic to take advantage of in the future.



This finely dressed lass is in charge of Timed Items, a... rather unfortunate aspect of Trickster.  

They are items with real world time limits that tick down regardless if you're playing or not. Once the time limit is up, the item becomes unusable and automatically comes off your person.

I can see why they did this - you know, microtransactions and all - but it's still really painful to deal with. 



The lass in charge of the card shop might be dressed as a hyena, but I'm bad at recognizing animal ears. The card shop doesn't sell monster cards unfortunately, but instead offers these random packs. 

They're very important because sometimes they can have skill cards or even rare Arcana cards (used for job promotion purposes), but oftentimes they'll just hit you with empty cards instead. It's kinda a gamble that way, especially since they cost a lot by normal shop standards.



The item lady is in charge of more standard items like equipment, consumables, etc. (Also, look at the tiny little cat inside of her basket.  )

She doesn't sell anything we really need right now, but there's an item I just have to show off:



Empty cards are functionless cards used as throwing weapons for the Raccoon class... since apparently on top of being a Teacher, they also become a gambler that uses razor sharp cards as weapons.



Oooh, he looks pretty cool. Also, I think the job of explaining Compounding will go to me instead.



This is arguably the most simple of these systems and the one that requires the most busy work. See, Compounding has you use materials to make items out of a pre-determined list.



This gets really aggravating later in the game where you have quest-required items that have to be compounded into existence, but that's kinda the bitch of relying on Alchemy, huh?

It may also be influenced by the Luck stat, but that's more the Sense types' specialty.



... Crap. Every time you fail, you get Compound Waste - literal garbage that has no other purpose but to clog up the inventory.

We can increase the amount of materials used, so how about we use three of the materials Bobbert gave us at once?





Oh, okay, three at once somehow works yet just one doesn't. Funny logic there, game.



Ooh, my favorite mechanic is here! He tells us to look for a guy called Alchemist Nate, who is conveniently in the same shop as the other guy.



He may look snooty but god damn if his service isn't the most helpful in the game.



Mature Compounding is practically completely different in that you're applying the effects of items onto equipment. Applying the Hard Scales will increase the defense of the Life Vest by 16 to 33 points.

We can only do it once, but thankfully higher-tier equipment can be matured multiple times.



The maximum possible point increase is pretty rare though, and you can only apply certain types of stat improvements. I love Mature Compounding because it allows me to make up for weaknesses in armor, like... patching armor with Magic Defense boosts to make up for the Power Types weakness to magic!

That and adding more AP to equipment is fantastic. Enemies can drop special items that increase stats, but the most powerful kinds tend to be really rare. 



: "Thank you, mister Nate. I plan to make good use out of this!"



: "If I may tell you again, I’m not usually a friendly person. Please do not misunderstand this fact."

Jeez, the least you could do is show a little bit of emotion. It wouldn't kill you, Mr. Robot.

[Star Heart shows him the vest]

: "It looks like you were able to learn and understand [Mature Compounding]! The Mature Compounded [Life Vest] will increased your DP, so make sure you have it equipped. Finally, part 4 of the training will now commence. In Trickster, you are able to [refine] your equipment, like swords, shields and helms, with [Blacksmith Marx]. Using refining, you can increase the AP or DP on the given item."

Now we have to go to the blacksmith and refine the wooden sword he gave us earlier, even though we’re not going to actually use it. (Damn duck gear is actually pretty good for this early in the game…)



: ("W... wah... he looks pretty intimidating...")

God damn, he looks badass for a blacksmith. He certainly gives the other two goobers over there a run for their money in terms of style.

: "To [Refine] the [Wooden Sword] to Level 1, you will need 7 [Bronze Gemstones]. [Bronze Gemstones] can be drilled up from the mine in [Desert Beach Field 2]. There is a possibility of failure, so bring as many as you can."

Bronze Gemstones and a chance of failure, huh? (He's lying about the latter, by the way.)



So one of the greatest features of Trickster is not its experience-based quest system or its solid mission structure... no, it's this: Players being able to sell off what's in their inventories. 

You'd think this would primarily be used for dumb stuff like selling off a regular wooden sword for 9,999,999 galder (which people have done, although nobody really buys it... I hope), but more often then not you have people selling off pre-collected quest items to other players as a way to speed up the process of getting Stickers.

This makes Trickster go from good if slightly tedious to buttery smooth in terms of pacing: the reason being that if you don't want to collect items, you don't have to - all you need to do is buy them from someone else and get free experience!

It's absolutely goddamn fantastic, but a critical flaw of this is that... well, these inventories are managed by real people who aren't going to be around all the time. If you need quest items but nobody is there, then tough luck.

One area in particular still haunts my nightmares, but that's for another time. Let's move on to Desert Beach Field 2 before I develop a migraine thinking about that place.



Type: Charm 
Level: 25
HP: 940
AP: 100
MA: 0
DP: 63
MD: 72
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Hula Octopus Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card)
* Bouquet (Common / Quest Item)
* Octopus Leg (Uncommon / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones Lv. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A friendly octopus that wanders Desert Beach and greets travelers. Not a fighter."

The Hula Octopus is another Mastery Card holder that isn't quite as necessary for us particularly, but it does improve Cure for the Magic types.



Type: Magic 
Level: 21
HP: 800
AP: 84
MA: 0
DP: 51
MD: 58
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Fanta Fish Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Color Pencils (Common / Quest Item)
* Pen (Uncommon / Quest Item for Raccoon characters)
* Stat/Element Stones Lv. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Magical flying fish with psychic powers and delicate, rainbow-colored scales. Beloved by artists for their vibrant palette and ability to inspire art."

So it drops color pencils and pens when it dies... the Fanta Fish don't even have hands, how are they gonna draw? 



Here's the mine like Marx talked about and... wow, he's already here? Looks like I don't have to travel far then.



Oh, never mind, this is a different quest altogether. Sorry, but no dice.



: "Is this where we have to go...? No, wait, there's a sign here."



: "O... oh... that sounds really scary. What the heck is up with this island that there's so many strong monsters on it?"

I don't even want to think about how deadly that place must be for our current level, so I'm not trying it even as a joke.



This is what it would have looked like normally had that generous Lion player not been here, but thankfully I don't have to stay. You can get other gemstones for the Marx quest here, but I'm not gonna do it because drilling takes too long.

(What the heck is up with that "%'s set has been completed" though, I've never seen that before.)



At the very least he's a jolly guy. If he had the same dryness as Officer Bobbert then that'd be a real problem.



Refining is another essential mechanic in terms of equipment improvement, although it's more straightforward than Mature Compounding. Take X amount of an item, craft and then you're done.

Physical equipment like swords, axes and the like require Ores for refinement while Magical equipment like staves require Gems. Adamantite and Alexandrite are the rarest and most powerful of these objects, so it's even crazier in hindsight that a GM Lucky bag at the start of the game can gift them to you for free.

Granted, they will practically double the weight of your inventory, but that's what the Warehouse is for.



This slot is where Anvils go - Anvils are another My Shop exclusive that increase the success rate of the refinement process, because as it turns out refining can actually fail after the first attempt.

If that happens, then the weapon breaks and you'd have to use Repair Powder (another MyShop Item) to get it back in usable condition. It's kind of a risk vs reward thing.



Mature Compounding and Refining, when properly utilized, allow you to do some nutty shit in term of weapon customization. Don't be fooled by the low numbers you see with the Wooden Sword, because Refining can absolutely help you out if you take the time to get the materials.



: "Of course, mister Robert. Here you go!"

: "I’ll trust that you understand how refining works now? I hope that now with all this knowledge you will use it to the best of your abilities."


He also gives us a Hologram Port where we can talk to… Don Cavalier himself?! 

What?! I have to see this.



Hell of a way to tell the player they've accomplished something by getting to level 20. Let's see what we got from Notice.



"You can learn a skill by double-clicking the skill card in your card inventory."

Excellent. Now I can finally break out more useful techniques than Steel Punch!



Oh? What do we got?



Ah. The Level 20 gift box is useful while the panda equipment is... well, it's not actually equipment. It's the appearance of equipment without the stats. How in the world is that going to be useful?

Well, as it turns out, you can actually fuse the appearance of one type of equipment with the other via Artisans' Flames, yet another My Shop item (god they really want to shill the microtransactions, huh). 

It's the best of both worlds - you get to have a matching set and keep the stats of the superior weapon. It's actually ridiculous how much thought the Trickster people put into this, because they didn't need to do this... but they did anyway to improve the players' experiences. That's rad. 



Opening the Level 20 gift box would be a good idea but I think it gives you a timed item and I'd rather save it for the sessions when I do play this game.



I'm storing all this junk away because i'm not sure I'm ever going to use them again.



For now though, I want to see what's up with this Hologram port. Take me away, technology! 



[My choice for this OST: Welcome to the World of Pokemon]

: "No way..."



: "What you see right now is just a hologram which was made before my death. I certainly wasn’t expecting you to be able to talk to me directly after struggling to find me on the island."

: "Hoo~! I’m glad I’m not seeing dead people."

No kidding. Also can I just say that Don Cavalier is really silly looking? Like there's probably an intentional design thing going on with him, but... damn, I can't help but chuckle when I see him!

: "I would like to thank you for participating in the game I made. You have properly sent off your application and managed to pass the test. I salute you as a novice."

: "Thank you!"

He states that only the chosen ones can become Tricksters… which I have to admit is a really clever way to integrate the players into this story because it opens the floodgates for people to come in and make their own characters… like me!

Big Don goes on to say that if we guide him (???) to the legendary Harkon Statue known as “Poseidon’s Blessing”, we’ll be proclaimed the winner and receive his inheritance. Sounds pretty crazy.

: "Umm… Don Cavalier? This sounds a bit too big for me. I don’t even know where to start."

: "You must carry on with a positive attitude and make yourself born again each day of your life. Take advantage of the rules of this game I made... Show me what you can accomplish. I expect great things out of you. Until then, I will see you later."

: "O-of course! I won't let you down, Don Cavalier!"

Wait, what the hell? See you later? But he's dead! (Unless this is an invitation to the great beyond... )

: "Hahaha. Keep up the good work."

[Teleport back to Paradise]

Continued in Chapter 2-2...

: "There is a total of 8 people that are waiting for you. Listen to their requests and they will give you [Heart Gems] as a welcoming gesture. Please come back to me once you have collected all eight."

This finely dressed chap is Andrew, and he's in charge of banking and guild management normally. All I can say now is that if we use his services to sell off the 100k Galder check, he'll pay us back full price. (Selling it in normal shops would only give us 50,000 galders.)

: "[TM] is necessary when leveling up [skills]. However, you should meet with the [Skill Masters] who can be found in [Paradise] towards the southwest."

You have the option of letting him teleport you to the skill masters, but it’s honestly really silly and pointless because they’re right friccin’ there! We’re in Paradise, dummy!



I do think it's nice that they give you the list of people (which also shows up in your quest menu in case you get lost, thankfully.)

But anyway, let's go meet up with the Skill Masters!



Master Louis here is our specialist and has a bunch of great skills for us to learn. I get Shockwave (a more powerful attack than Steel Punch), Shockvibe (the ability to paralyze enemies, so you know that'll come in handy) and a few others.

But before we go, I just have to show off one amazing thing and that's Shockvibe's card art:





This is like the epitome of the "shook" meme, my god.



Pressing "S" on the keyboard bring ups the Skills menu (likewise, C for the card menu) - here you can see how many Tech points you've accumulated and distribute them to learn more skills or level up old ones.



This is important too because leveling up certain skills is often a requirement for learning others. They really thought their combat through for a point and click based system, huh? 

Oh, and to make things better? You can assign multiple skills for quick use as shown here:





Oh, uh -



[s](Apologies for that, I couldn't help myself.)[/s]

But yeah, as you can see here, you can combo different skills into each other and speed up combat even more... you can kind of see why I wanted to do the let's play now, huh? 



This small lad is Genius Cochma, the Specialist for Sense types.

A lot of the Sense skills end up revolving around weight, drilling, guns and throwing weapons. They're also useful for luck-based things like compounding and so on, so Sense types definitely get an edge in terms of limiting quest item screw-ups at the very least.

You can also get Invincible Reload for Guns, which makes it so enemy attacks can't interrupt you when you reload ammo. (Though why this is a skill and not just default for gun wielders is... strange to me.)



Whoa, mama. She sure fits the part for the Charm specialist if you know what I mean. 

... In hindsight it kind of makes sense that Charm is the Health/Defense/Avoid stat build - if you're more attractive, your enemies don't pound you as hard. Genius!

The skills she sells revolve around defense, with Mana Reflector and Skunk Pouch being the most standout ones. Mana Reflector deflects magic attacks and can be stacked with a later skill to further reduce the damage you take.

Meanwhile, Skunk Pouch is the Charm version of Shockvibe, so that automatically makes it essential to have. (I just find it hilarious that you paralyze enemies with a bad smell, alright?)



Sephira is the Magic Specialist and even has her own little black cat companion. 

I have to be honest and say that the Magic types get the shortest end of the stick starting out: the Steel Punch equivalent is extremely terrible and there's just a lot going on that can counteract them (re: mana reflector and terrible physical defense)

However, if you stick to it, you can get some really good stuff. Invincible Casting is essential for any mage in that it prevents your spells from being interrupted and Rust weakens the strength of any Power/Charm type that gets in your way. You might have to play a keep-away game, but being a wizard is Difficult But Awesome anyway.

 


"My name is [Steve Ryu]. I’ve got arms like a T-Rex’s legs and becoming the top boxing star of [Caballa Island] is more than just a dream!"

: [Says hello]

: "You… you’re that girl! No! No! My fair lady!"

I actually thought this was just a generic dialogue tree where he will refer even male characters like the Buffalo or the Dragon (with that one being extra funny due to how androgynous they are) as "his fair lady", but as it turns out this is the Bunny-exclusive quest of the area! How about that.

Not-Ryu here gushes about how “our punch stole his heart” and I’m just like, dude we haven’t even gone to have dinner yet, like chill.

: "Uhm, why’s your face so red?"

: "Sh… shut up! Don’t even try to refuse me! I have been waiting for the day we would meet… What I mean is… I have been waiting for the day to fight you again. So don’t misunderstand!"

: "Do you… mean me?"

I’m not sure if this guy is delusional or going through some odd desert fever. His request is that we have to have the girl of his dreams stamp her lipstick on a challenge letter.

He specifically tells us to not have the “Mermaid Babe” in Desert Beach Field 2 stamp it, so guess what we’re doing?

: "Alright. I won’t do just that." [wink]



I won’t go into exquisite detail into transcribing every NPC’s dialogue because if that were the case, we’d be here all day.

Mr. Owl here is actually part of a secret society dedicated to preserving the laws of reality and balance, and he’s signaling to his comrades in owlspeak. (We’re really getting into some shenanigans today, huh folks?)

Unfortunately, his feathers are falling out and he wants to maintain his image, the poor thing.



So he wants us to bully some Golden Moles and get feathers from them so he can replace his own. Sound idea.



... Stop staring at me with them big ol' eyes!

Little Dorothy here is trying to get some experience in being independent, but her lion-dressed friend is in the hospital. So she wants some Scorpion Jerky to make him feel better… I didn’t know scorpion meat had medicinal properties, but whatever I’m rolling with it.



Scorpion Jerky doesn't sound that disgusting, but I'm also not in the game to taste it. (God can you imagine if they made a virtual reality headset for tastes? I know South Park the Fractured But Whole did something similar with a smell-o-vision or whatever it was called.)



"... For three days the fish and I fought to the death. When I finally cut the fish’s stomach, a scroll fell out."



Uh. Whoa.

Mr. J here sold the scroll at an auction and got called up (presumably) by Big Don Cavalier himself. This doesn’t have much to do with his request, but he wants us to get some salt anyway. I’m very tempted to make a tasteless joke, but I’m above that sort of thing.



It's extra weird because he looks like a fish himself. I would ask what's up with that, but I'd rather just play the game.



(Oh hey, it's Vincent from Super Smash Brothers!)

: "Let me draw you a portrait or a landscape painting in commemoration of your arrival to [Caballa Island]. How about you trying one too?"

: "Please draw me something!"

: "There are many people that come to this island for different reasons. I’m sure you have your own reason for participating in this game, right? Before I came here, I was drawing pictures in Notre Dame Square. The reason why I ended up coming here was because of an old painter who left a portrait in my care."

: "Notre Dame? Sounds pretty fancy... I remember me and my cousins visiting Paris that one time, it was sure real pretty."

: "To look at the woman in the portrait and to paint her accurately is this old man’s last wish. When I found out that the painter was the owner of this island, I came straight here. I had a feeling that if I came to this island, I might be able to meet the girl in the painting..."

This is probably foreshadowing? I was too busy playing the game to pay attention to the story on my first playthrough, so this is intensely fascinating to me. 



Color Pencils and paper, huh? I'm still curious as to how beating up Fanta Fish gives us color pencils, though. 



... Oh. I... can see why they call her the Mermaid Babe. You’re not my type though, babe.

She’s willing to help us, but monsters took the truck that her lipstick was in and apparently crashed into a palm tree or something. Now it’s all buried under the sand and we have to dig them up. (What a silly-ass game and ironically one of the best explanations for why the thing we need is underground.)



Type: None
Level: 29
HP: 1,395
AP: 92
MA: 0
DP: 108
MD: 126
Aggressive: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Same as Hula Octopus
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Illegal CD (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones Lv. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A shifty lookalike of the Hula Octopus that refuses to make contact with people. Implied to be dealing in black market work."

Yeah, another thing Trickster likes to do is have copycat enemies that look identical to others but fulfill another purpose entirely. It can get pretty infuriating finding these guys when all you want to do is complete the quest you're on, but them's the breaks.



Oh jeez, the game's starting to get serious. 



But hey, it's fine! We won't get into trouble now that Shockwave does like, 600 per hit without criticals. I'm feeling pretty confident, how about y--





... What a time for fate to remind me that there's other people that are stronger than me. In all seriousness, it's always hilarious watching higher leveled players storm in and wipe out all the enemies in the area with their mega overpowered skills.

It's cathartic in its own way, if that makes any sense.



Star Card Packs are... well, let's say they're not very useful. The ones dropped from enemies, at the very least.



: "I got the color pencils for you, mister artist!"



"I’m happy to know that your family and friends were happy to hear about how you’re doing. If you ever want to send another postcard then speak with me again."

: "Y… yeah. About that. See, I’m here to look for my sister. She’s one of the reasons why I came to Caballa Island to begin with, but I’ll leave it at that." 

: "Thank you so much for the drawing, though."

: "I won’t hassle you with questions. You’re welcome, young lady."



: "A… alright, madam. I’ll be sure to keep it in mind for later."

: [Internal vomiting]

Snrk. Well, with that fun stuff out the way, let's go onto Beach Field 3 and see what we can find there!



Type: Power 
Level: 28
HP: 1,045
AP: 112
MA: 0
DP: 72
MD: 83
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Sand Demon Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Broken Artifact 1 (Uncommon / Quest Item)
* Sand Cake (Common / Quest Item)
* Sand Glass (Uncommon / Quest Item)
* Legendary Recipe (Uncommon / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "An ill-mannered sand spirit that guards the pyramid. The archnemesis of the Sandmen."

Whoa, look at that drop list. Looks like we'll be hunting these guys for a while.



Type: Sense 
Level: 24
HP: 905
AP: 96
MA: 0
DP: 60
MD: 69
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Pineapple Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Pineapple Mask (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A pineapple that was given sentience from the magic leaking from the pyramid. Is popular with tourists due its cute appearance."

Yeah, I decided on "sentient pineapple" as my idea for what these little guys are because they literally turn into pineapple slices when you kill them.



Type: Magic 
Level: 22
HP: 835
AP: 88
MA: 0
DP: 54
MD: 62
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Sea Scorpion Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Flower Necklace (Common / Quest Item)
* Scorpion Jerky (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A docile scorpion variant that accustomed to life near the ocean. While it lacks a conventional stinger, it can shoot poison with deadly accuracy when threatened."

Not much to say about the Sea Scorpion.



Who in the name of Judas Priest hid bathing supplies under the sand!? Kinda defeats the purpose of cleaning supplies if they themselves get dirty, just saying.



... Oh hey I had another pet all along and it's much better than the Young Egg. Come along, little Peng. 



We're getting salty today, friends. 



Wow, immediately after the salt joke this happens. That's karma for you.

Sometimes the only thing worse than "nothing found" is "item is not here", but at least it doesn't force you to do a digging mini-game only for the game to say that it didn't even matter.



Oooh! That'll come in handy later.



Yo, look at that guy winning a treasure jackpot!

This, my friends, is what's called "finding Poseidon's Treasure". It can randomly happen any time you dig, and the result is often getting a bunch of coupons and maybe some cooking supplies for some odd reason.

It's not terribly exciting when you get one, but there's a way to trigger this on purpose through treasure maps... those are where the real rare items are kept.



Oh snap, something cool! See, this is what I keep talking about when I put "Elemental stones" in the bestiary entries: you can mature compound these crystals onto equipment to give them elemental properties.

It doesn't... mean anything since none of our attacks actually use the element in their damage calculation, but they're there in case you need them. (It just takes a lot of monster slaying to get them...)



: "Eeee! W... was that a ghost?! I just hope that was my imagination or something, because that was creepy."

So! I would oftenly find these spectral versions of enemies during my first playthrough of Trickster Online and think that they were the ghosts of monsters I had slain before as some morbid attention to detail.

The truth behind it is actually far more sinister, but alas we can't even interact with it.



Star Heart bullying the Golden Moles by doing four digits worth of damage, god damn. She's getting stronger faster than I expected.



Oh and the golden moles even dropped a duck doll for her. How nice. 

: "Oh no, not more duck stuff. Even though it's... kinda cute..."



We get Kristoff his salt and he cooks up some delicious salted fish for our troubles. I also go and finish up  the other two quests while we're at it: 

Big Eyes Dorothy tells us to meet up with a lady called Officer Tera while the Owl continues to blow my mind with his magical secret society nonsense.



I do like how they hand out cards based off of the playable characters. Every single card we gather is important, even if they’re not used for increasing Mastery like the Clione card. As for why that is?

… I won’t like it, but trust me when I say that we will get to it. 



"Uhm… if you ever want to see me… no, if you need help, then come back again."

: ("I’d rather not, thank you. Man, is everyone on this island nuts or what?")



Crazy Drilling is my favorite non-combat skill for various reasons, but I'd rather let Driller King Marky talk about it later.



"The key quest was sent to the mailbox. Take a look at it for future purposes."



I'm not quite sure why they send you a pamphlet of what Key Quests entail when you get an explanation of how it works in this area, but it's for the less attentive players I guess.



... He's a literal Sand Man with a little pail and shovel to boot. This game, I swear.



Mr. Sandman here is basically giving us the big lowdown of Trickster’s mission structure for every major area of the game:

To qualify for a Key Quest, you must complete the requests of (almost) every NPC in town – doing so nets you with a Sticker for the area. I think this system for mission progression is pretty good because it gives the player a goal to look forward to while also giving them tasks to do at the moment, with the reward being massive amounts of experience and cool shit.

Also, lore on the world of Trickster in case you care. (I do.)



"This island has so much interesting stuff. I haven’t had a chance ot see everything just yet, but I do really feel that it was a good idea to come to this island. Also, I’ve been able to find fantastic items!"

: "Fantastic items?"

Oh no, it begins. Better strap in for this one, fellas, cause… whoof.

: "Sure I will! Anything for a famous lady."



Fffffuck. Alright, the game has officially taken off the kid gloves!

You see the “1/5” on Miranda’s quest? This means we have to complete it five times in order to get her full reward and this applies to every single “normal” quest from now on. While the mission overlay will say we only need 2 Pineapple masks, we actually have to get ten. 

Right now it’s not too bad given how easily the Pineapple monster drops them, but… man, have I got horror stories about how intense this gets when we get into the real high level dungeons. * shiver *

Thankfully, every other type of quest only needs to be completed once and we never have to see them again.





Skipper Min here smells super rank from not showering and we need to get him some bath supplies. Simple enough.

: ("Whoa!! What, does he use skunk spray as colonge? It’s almost enough to knock me out.")





Vagabond Eloy gets sunburns easily and he wants us to get some sun screen for him.



Homeless Ian is making enough cash to not go hungry, so good on him. He’s spending the time by making water buckets out of the coconut trees nearby, and to get a bucket from him we have to give him some flower necklaces.



: "Hohoho! Of course when people see a beauty like me, how could they not want to talk to me? By the way, my name is [Rosemary]."

: ("Stop that. What is that. Hohoho? You sound like a nasally challenged Santa Claus.")

: "Yeah, you’re beautiful..."

Rosemary says that she’s already fallen for a guy on the island that has “amazing fashion sense” and “mad funds”, and how he has the power to turn her into a queen. Star Heart says it even better than me, to be honest:

: "I guess you can dream..."



: "A-ah... sorry, miss Rosemary. What do you need?"

Sigh.

She wants us to get a swimsuit for her that is also buried under the sand in Desert Beach Field 2 for some reason. What the hell happened in this place before we got here, like seriously? It must have been wild.



Officer Tifa here is the island’s public security officer and lets us know that people have been coming to the island without permission. The big problem she’s having is that some people are bringing in illegal CDs that can destroy the peace of the island (somehow).

I see Don Cavalier is the “don’t copy that floppy” type. (snrk)

Tera tells us that the Grumpy Octopi in Desert Beach 2 are hoarding the CDs and planning to distribute them, so you know what we have to do.



STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM

NOBODY BREAKS THE LAW ON MY WATCH 



What a funny coincidence that I also got Poseidon's treasure on the same chapter as the other guy.



They can also drop card packs, but these are more for characters in the area than anything else.



Oh hey, would you look at that! The MA stone, while useless for us, is one of the vaunted "stat stones" that I keep listing on the bestiary. They come in every color and hunting for specific ones blow chunks, but they're very nice to have when you do get them.



I love preparing in advance, it makes me feel smart. 



Here's what the other fast travel sister looks like. I don't quite remember how their services differ, but I at least like her color palette more when compared to her sister. (I'm the red guy, after all. That's also probably why I'm a Power type too.)



: "Thanks!"

She only had to cease the existence of some cute little pineapple fellas, that's all.



More often then not, the game will contrive a reason for why you have to get multiples of the same thing. I don't actually hate it until we have to bring like 25 things to one person, like jesus have you had enough already?



But it's worth it to actually get a sticker at the end, though... that and all the experience and loot they give you in the meantime.



Kyu, huh? Now that'll be fun to talk about for later.



Homeless Ian is now covered in flower necklaces. Why did he want so many? I dunno, but thanks for the water buckets.



Completing Skipper Min's quest to make him and his swab buddies not smell like dead rats rewards you with both a sticker and the Harpoon Neo.

... It sounds cool but it's actually just a spear with a fish still stabbed on it. What a silly game.



"Hohoho~ What a good friend you are! If there’s anything I need in the future, I’ll make sure to ask you. So be ready for it!"





: "You're welcome, miss officer! I hope you break this black market ring or whatever it is."



Oh right, I never explained the little angel fella at the right. Basically you can serve as a guide for beginner players in case you need them, but I haven't seen anybody that actually uses it.



Giuvanni feels the need to re-introduce himself for some odd reason. Our attention span isn’t that short, buddy… also, I doubt anybody can forget the glittery tuxedo and red butterfly glasses combo just from how over the top it is.

His director friend asked him for a favor – to find a famous model. Giuvanni is as pompous as ever and states he doesn’t remember who it is because he’s just that busy and rich. The model’s name is Jenny and he wants her picture buried in Desert Beach Field 1.



Star Heart is surprisingly enthused about this for some reason:

: "Jenny? I’m Jenny’s #1 fan!"



... 

Would you believe this was right after talking with Giuvanni? I swear it really is like the Let’s Player’s Blessing or something.



I do like how they direct you to the other Heart Gem NPCs even though you’re likely to complete all of them by proxy.





Whatta dick.



: "I recommend that you speak with [Sandman] and complete the [Key Quest] that he has prepared. You should be able to grow a lot from completing the [Key Quests] in each town."

No kidding. Didn’t we start this chapter at level 17? We went up like fifteen levels just from doing some slightly repetitive menial tasks. That, my friends, is the true power of the “gain EXP from doing missions” mechanic and I love it to bits.

This is like the Anti-Grinding Life Solution (unless you have to get monster/drill drops, but I'd prefer that a thousand times over grinding for experience the traditional way).



Good shit.



Bunny Maid is watching the well and wants 10 octopus legs and 5 water buckets (that we conveniently already have from doing Homeless Ian’s quest!). Thinking in advance is practically recommended for this game, and thanks to the Player Inventory Shop system Trickster has… it can be made even easier!

It’s actually brilliant how well thought-out the mechanics for this game are… even to the point of invoking jealousy from me as a fellow game dev. (In a good way, mind you.)



: "Oh look, another poverty stricken person."

: "Who…!"



Wow, what a bitch. If this is what a typical tsundere is like, then no thank you. I’m not about being humiliated and talked down to – that’s not my kink. (Though I do have to admit that she’s pretty heckin’ cute.)

: "If you’re going to do some sad confession then go away. I’m not interested."

: "Can you read the stars?"

: "... What business do you have with me?"

: "I heard rumors that you can read the stars."

: "Rumors?"

: "You are the one that can read stars, right?"

(The other option was “you look too young, sorry wrong person” and that’s just dandy.)

She mentions that Don Giuvanni is interfering with her business and that he was floating down to sea… this sounds hilarious enough as it is, but let’s see where it goes.



Long story short, Giuvanni told Stella that she needed to get permission from Megalo Company first, but then this happened:

: "I went to tell her that she need to get permission then she kicked me into the trash can! I got stuck and after floating around I ended up here. It’s only because I can’t be giving permission right away to underaged kids."

: "So that’s why you smell like trash… Oof."

I mean, he’s bold and brash enough to belong in the trash. 

He wants some soap to clean up his stink and for some odd reason we only need three bars instead of five like the other guy, but I’m not complaining.







Well would you look at that. The first Monster card we get in the entire game and it's the Hula Octopus of all things. This is a good omen. 



Have fun with all those sun screens, you weirdo.



Authority, huh? This dork can't even rule over a bowl of pudding.



Oh huh, she's actually 26? I mean, I'm glad to see she's actually older than she looks for once.

Also, I wouldn't put it past Giuvanni to fall into a trash can and still blame someone else for it. See what I mean?



Oh? I guess she really is like, a tsundere after all: the "sweet to you" part just had to kick in.



Nice. Stella's forte is... well, star reading. This is yet another one of Trickster's mechanics and the primary use behind the Star Card packs - they're different from normal cards in that you can only use them via her services.

What they do is boost certain stats or give you bonuses for a limited amount of time, like extra EXP or TM EXP - stuff like that. The pack Stella gave us is actually way, way more valuable than a normal pack dropped by monsters and can actually fetch a pretty penny should you set up shop in the right place.



O-oh. It wasn't mean to be, I guess.



"Hm… What was I in the middle of doing?"

: "You were talking to me…"

The Sandman remarks that there’s a ton of incoming adventurers, but none of them show interest in how the city was built. That’s... surprisingly meta commentary considering most people would just complete the quests and leave, let’s be real.

Before he can tell us more, though, he’s feeling peckish. (Somehow. I guess Sandmen need to eat to regain their strength.)



He wants us to go through another quest to... make him food. Alright, cool.



: ("I know this is to become a trickster and all but... wow I want a break soon or something!")

Look at the mini-quest bar on the right - we've already completed most of this quest before it even started. That's pretty nuts.



... Are you kidding me, this was the first Sand Demon upon re-entering this place! This is also another required item for this key quest. Good thing the game decided to be nice and spare me an hour or two of hunting Sand Demons.



I love pre-collecting quest items before they're necessary, alright?



This was surprisingly generous. I'm suspicious of games that have done this in the past and I'm not stopping that now.



"I’m going to mix these ingredients together and feast on this legendary food. Would you like some too?"

: "Eh, no thanks."


: "Oh, it’s too bad that humans can’t enjoy this food. Well then, time to mix it up. Aha! It’s done. Time to taste… the best way to taste this is using a garden trowel."

He goes into extensive detail about how to delicately eat this super sand cake, even down to the degrees of how to scoop it and it’s like…



After he’s done gorging himself, he talks about the sandmen’s famous sand tar that was used to build the Alteo Empire, an ancient civilization that will remain a mystery for us right now. He also says that his people helped work on the pyramids in Egypt too.

He then asks us to look for a Glyph Tablet in the Pyramid Dungeon located at Desert Beach Field 3, but for now I think that’s a pretty good place to leave off.



Hell of a second chapter, wouldn’t you say? Next time on Trickster Online, we complete the Sandman’s Key Quest and expand our horizons even further. See you guys then!



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Player Status:


 (Star Heart / Rachel): "Oh jeez, the Pyramid... I sure hope the mummies in there don't come to life and eat me."
* Job class: Schoolgirl ( Tier 1)
* Type: Power 
* EXP level: 34 (+17)
* TM level: 31 (+12)
* Gender: 
* Bosses slain: Zero

[My choice for this OST: Hail from the Past]

Last time on Trickster Online, we finished most of the quests in Paradise and now we're going spelunking in the local Pyramid for a Glyph Tablet. Something about needing it for food, I think.



Type: Power 
Level: 30
HP: 1,360
AP: 160
MA: 0
DP: 90
MD: 104
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Magic
Resistance: Physical, Gun
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Oran G Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A large orange scarab that lives inside of the pyramid. Is sought after by certain Tricksters for its potent abilities."

The Oran G Card is useful for Fox and Lion characters due to it boosting the Mastery of Shuriken Master, a throwing weapon-type ability. I should also note that if you're the other characters, normal AP is not calculated when it comes to dealing damag.e

For example, Shuriken Master has a formula like this: [(DA + Throw AP ÷ 10) × Mag.Ratio] - 1

Likewise, the Cat uses HV (aka. avoid rate) and HP to deal damage. It's pretty wild, so be sure to study your character before you choose them.



: ("O-ooh... Now he's my type...")

Love Hunter Robin is one of the various monster guild members and one of the cooler ones if you ask me: Look at how much style he has! 



He wants us to hunt twenty Oran Gs and I'm like... why not, right? I don't really plan on staying here, so I might as well do this one quest and leave after we get the Glyph Tablet.



Type: Sense 
Level: 32
HP: 1,290
AP: 155
MA: 0
DP: 97
MD: 113
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Air, Earth
Resistance: Physical
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Oran G Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A territorial bronze-colored cousin of the orange scarab. Deters outsiders from entering the pyramid."

Oh hey, it's one of the first aggressive normal enemies in the game! (I don't count the Punisher enemies because they're weird like that.)

That said, why are they called G? Is there a reference I'm missing here?





It always brings a smile on my face to get MD Stones because they help patch up Star Heart's crippling magic weakness. Granted we'd have to get three or so to properly Mature Compound them, but there's actually ways to get Stat Stones beyond monster slaughtering.



When you complete a monster quest, the creators of the game were kind enough to give you a little "teleport back to questgiver" icon. It's little details like this that make this game so much fun to play.

It disappears in 30 seconds, but unless you have other stuff to do then that shouldn't be a problem.



: "Th-thank you, mister Robin! "

The "gift" is just a bunch of TM experience and not much else, hence why I'm not too keen on staying here.



It took quite a bit to actually get one Glyph Tablet (as evidenced by the mess of items I've left around), but all we have to do is hand this back to the Sandman and we're done with the Key Quest! 

: "Alright, time to get out of here before I get cursed or something." [Shivers]



(Wow, way to be mean, Star Heart. You can be an outright dick in this game if you really wanted to, and sometimes you get alternate responses to boot.)

So it turns out Pharaoh Boy was bullied for his name and he used to get so mad he would get into fights. Honestly I cannot blame him because that is truly an unfortunate name.



He has accepted it as time went on and wants us to get a Uraeus Statue, Nekhbet Statue and a Round Bone Seal for him... so he can prove his legacy or something. I’m almost tempted to do his request, but we have more pressing matters at the moment to deal with.



The Sandman goes on to say that even the Pyramid’s giant stone blocks were created using the sand tar his species makes.

: "I’m sure by now you are wondering how this sand tar is made, right? I’ll specially tell just you. Oh hohohoho… Ooh huhuhuhu…"

: "What’s with that laugh?"

: "After digesting large quantities of the legendary recipe that you brought me, it mixes deep within us and from our bodies it is created! Sand tar is what we leave behind after the digestion is complete! Arrrg~"



: "Ehhhh!! Then this city is…"

After that disgusting reveal, he adds all the desert stickers to our adventure book and tells us to go to Megalopolis, the heart of Caballa Island.



He tells us to meet up with this lady for our next mission, as well as directions on how to get there. We also have the option of talking to Pachi (the red teleporter sister) in case we’re too lazy to walk.



The Level 20 Gift Box is not what I thought it was, and is instead just a larger pouch item. I distinctly remembered one of these level gift boxes holding a mobility enhancer item, so it might be later on.

… Oh yes, Trickster has mobility booster items. Believe it or not, you are not locked to the same running speed all game. The terrible thing is that most of the booster items are timed, so you can’t keep them on forever – thus propagating the need to do MyShop purchases.

However, there’s one item in the game that throws that out the window in a good way: the Kitty Earring. It is a permanent speed boosting item that’s not sold in any store, real world cash or otherwise. It’s absolutely fantastic, but it’s a percentage based drop from Mileage Bags, things you can only get from points anyway.



This adorable lass is Mint and she's in every town you visit as the rewards manager - you come to her to trade in the tickets and collectibles the townspeople give you.



Since Paradise works a little bit differently from the other towns, she only gives us generic but strong equipment here. The Edge Stone Sword will finally give us something more powerful than the stupid duck stick, so there's that at least.



I held off on using the Star Card pack last time because I was a bit worried on what we'd get, but I'm more confident now.




... Holy shit that's actually super good. This increases the rate monsters drop items, so if I ever lose my patience I can just break this out.

Or I could sell it off for a ton of cash. If you want a demonstration of how treasured these cards are, just wait until we get to Megalopolis.



Awww, we had a little bunny pet this whole time!? Too bad unequipping Peng gets rid of some pretty nice stats otherwise I would have swapped right away.



This sick looking fella is Alan, and his service is... well, unpredictable to say the least.



Tempering is different from the other equipment improvement services in that it randomizes the minimum and maximum range of stats. To use it you need a Gold Tempering Gem and something else I'll show off later.

I... do not recommend it because sometimes you can actually wind up with lower stats than you originally had, so that's a huge risk.



Shara is like a combination of Alan's shop and Mature Compounding... but for pets instead. Hardants are basically Pet Stat Stones, but there is no way to obtain them without paying cash for MyShop points.

Pet Training is the Tempering part of the equation, only it takes Vitamins and Lock Candy (assures that you will keep a stat the same) instead.

Not too terribly useful considering Pets tend to be less permanent until you're really high level, but she's there in case you need her.



Arlene here is your woman in case you want to customize the appearance of your equipment, but it will take Artisans' Flames to do so. (And they're usually MyShop exclusive)



The Recycle Bot is where you can throw away MyShop equipment you don't need anymore and exchange them for stuff like stat boosting scrolls, Trickster's version of the Escape Rope and other fun things.

The scrolls it gives you are surprisingly effective in case you want to buff yourself up for a tough boss, so I'll probably come back here in the future.



Holy crap that's a lot of bonus points I haven't used yet. I tend to forget they're even here from how occupied I get doing all these quests. (Side note: A nice detail I keep forgetting to mention is that you fully recover every time you level up, which can be really handy if you’re in a tough spot.)

Four points is one whole level, so pouring all of those into attack nets us with...





What a perfect number to land on.



I haven't listed these on any bestiary entries but Pointy Objects are synthesis items - they can be compounded into throwing weapons for Foxes and Lions... making them utterly useless to Star Heart because she's a Bunny. Oh well. 



Keeper Julio here wants to fill up his storage with 100 of these  crystals for no other reason but because he wants to. The only reward we get out of this is TM experience too, so this is like the epitome of “not worth it”. At least he has a unique look to him.

Let’s head back to the Dark Cave in Coral Beach while we’re here though – there’s something we can do now that we’re super buff.



"Kee kee~ My sworn enemy, [Master Mong], who killed my father, is back! I came all the way here to defeat him, but I’m so scared that I can’t do it.

: "You’re that scared?"

: "Kee kee~ With his fists he can destroy Caballa Island with one punch, is built like granite and hast the most vicious temperaemtn. His face… his face is scary too! Kee kee~ Could you please avenge my father in my place? Kee kee~ You’ll help me right?"

: "Okay! I’ll help you!"

: ("I don't really have a choice in this, do I?")

He wants us to bring him back Master Mong’s fur  as proof, but… I dunno man, this smells like a trap. He’s real suspicious.

To get into Master Mong’s lair, we have to give him three pairs of Addax horns, so… excuse me for a bit.



ARE YOU KIDDING ME THAT WAS THE FIRST ADDAX I CLICKED ON AFTER TALKING TO MONKEY T

... Not that I'm complaining, mind. 



While we're grinding I should explain some of these items: the Wing Port is a teleporting item that takes you directly to a town, and later ones are level locked to prevent you from going to future towns too easily.

When you die you have the choice of using a revival scroll or teleporting back to town at the cost of some experience. The latter option can be intensely painful due to how levels in Trickster are built, so be sure to get as many of these as you can. You can also use them on other dead players in case you want to be a nice person.



Here's a sprite of what the revival goddesses look like and hot damn the middle one is smokin'. I'm not sure they even have names or appear anywhere else in the game, so I want to know what's up with them.

Anyway...



This is totally a trap, isn't it? Look at his dumb face: that's the same kind of face that condemned a bunch of magical girls into becoming witches.



[My choice for this OST: Great Wild]

: "Oh boy, here we go... I just hope I can deal with this."



Type: Magic 
Level: 25
HP: 1,815 x 4 (7,260 total)
AP: 120
MA: 62
DP: 234
MD: 230
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills:
* Mana Arrow (Basic magic attack)
* Mana Shield (Buffs magic defense)
* Mana Ring (Shoots three magic rings at enemy)
* Mana Storm (Damages multiple enemies)
* Cure (Restores some HP)
* Rust (Lowers enemy AP)
* Summons level 13 Thiefmon if health gets critical
Element: Light
Weakness: ???
Resistance: ???
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Master Mong Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Master Mong's Fur (Rare / Quest item)
* Master Sword + Ult. Equipment (Common / Equipment)
Gear Entry: "A Thiefmon mafia capo who has big plans for both Coral and Desert Beach. Has a very short temper."

Hoo boy, where do we start with this one. Master Mong is the boss of Coral Beach and the strongest Magic monster in the game so far, with the HP and skills to boot.

If we tried to take him on when we got to the Dark Cave the first time, Star Heart would be toast.



Thankfully he's no harder to dispatch than a Punisher Cannonshell, so Rust only slowed down his inevitable demise. Only problem?



... There's somehow multiples of him. 

The funny thing is that in earlier versions of Trickster, Master Mong was higher leveled and was even considered a proper boss of Coral Beach: complete with his own boss seal and everything.

I guess since he's the boss of the first area of the game, having him be super high level wouldn't make sense so the new devs nerfed him a bit. 



One of the various things Master Mong can drop are Ultimate versions of common weapons and the Master Sword. Unfortunately this one isn't as badass as the real sword of evil's bane and requires being level 50 to even use, making it extremely unattractive.

Good in-game vendor trash though.



Two or three more Master Mongs later, I finally get the fur to complete Monkey T's quest.



: "What the! I was tricked!"

Of course that's the direction they would go in. Since this is a Coral Beach quest the experience was gonna be pretty bad, but I still had to show him off anyway.



The "neo" versions of the drills simply have more health than normal, so there's absolutely no reason to grab the lesser versions.

I also haven't noticed a penalty for digging on the "wrong" kind of terrain, so as far as I'm concerned these are multipurpose.



A really nice thing you can do is that you can sell multiple items at once, although they stop you from selling over 50 things if my memory's correct.



They also have the foresight to warn you in case you try to sell a MyShop item, which I can appreciate if you're not keeping track of what you're selling off.



Forgive me audience, but I have sinned. I have... spent money on this game.



But do you want to know the funny thing is? The Trickster people take Subway cards (of all things) as legitimate forms of payment. 

Yes, the restaurant. 

Yes, I am being 100% serious and this is how I've been able to pay for MyShop items without having access to a credit card or Paypal. This video is a perfect summary of my thoughts on Subway.



"My name is Aikyumelanbrenaigh du Amoreliebden III, the Couples Manager. Huh? What’s with that look on your face?"

: "Can you say that once more?"

Helluva name you got there, pal. Even just writing it down was a hassle.

: "Haaa? What kind of person doesn’t even listen when someone’s talking? Forget it, no matter how many times I tell you, you probably won’t listen anyways. Just call me Kyu."

: "Uh… wait, are you a guy?"

: "What is that look on your face? Of course I am a guy! I mean look at me! What part of me looks like a girl?"

I mean to his credit he had me completely fooled before I learned this. He makes a really cute guy. 

: "... Well..."

Kyu’s purpose in this game is that he handles weddings. If you have two players of opposite genders, you can match yourselves up. It sounds simple until you realize you have to create a realistic virtual wedding, even to the point of handing out reservations and even buying your own rings and wedding clothes.

It's pretty nuts how much detail goes into it, but I guess they have to go the extra mile to make it actually mean something.

You do get some neat benefits out of it, like these cute skills that activate heart-shaped emoticons over the targeted character's head and the ability to instantly warp to your spouse without needing a portable port or Friend Finder.

... You can also divorce your characters, funnily enough. If that happens you're forbidden from getting into another relationship for a week.



Ah yes, the monster guild. Every town has this, and they work in a certain order.



You start off with Yuri and deal with some easy monsters. Completing her quest the first time is good enough to move onto the second stage, but you can keep doing it over and over.



Then you move onto this lad, the assistant hunter, and do some of his quests for a bit.





When you're done with the other two, you get to the Hunter Master and damn. Damn. If there's anything I remember from the first time I played Trickster, it was that the Hunter Master is a babe. 

(As well as wondering what her backstory was with how her dress is shaped)

I swear I'm not normally like this but the NPCs in this game are that intoxicating to me. She hands out the toughest monsters for you to hunt down, and completing her request nets you some neat equipment.



So to cut a very long story short, Driller Marky goes on about Driller King Marcourt. Marcourt was a legendary driller who doubled as an inventor, with his teachings inspiring many adventures about drilling. He states that evil forces might have caused his disappearance, however, and that the Megalo Company is looking into it.



That’s interesting and all, but Marky’s true purpose here is to hand out the Crazy Drilling skill to anybody that can pass his challenge. To complete it, we have to get the Earth Charm and the Drilling Certification from Indiana John (… yes, really) and Explorer Reina.





He’s... literally Indiana Jones. I’d argue to the point of the copyright event horizon, but this game does so many good things that I don’t really care.



We want the charm he has, but he refuses to give it up because it’s a special treasure Marcourt gave to him. He and Marcourt were trying to discover the secrets of the Alteo Empire, but that kinda grinded to halt when Marcourt disappeared.

The civilization in the legends still exists, surprisingly enough, but getting there is the hard part. To fulfill John’s mission, we have to grab three broken artifacts from three monsters.



Likewise, Reina notes Marcourt as her primary source of inspiration. Man, for a guy we never see, he sure influenced how Trickster’s world works.

We have to get these items (above) to complete her quest. Thank god the game handed two of the items to me (the ring and necklace) before they were important. It sure spares me an hour or two of digging in vain.

The rest of the important items are in Desert Beach 4, an area that’s actually optional if you’re not doing the key quest. Let’s see what’s there, shall we?



Type: Magic 
Level: 26
HP: 975
AP: 104
MA: 0
DP: 66
MD: 76
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: None
Resistance: None
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Fan Lizard Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Broken Artifact 2 (Uncommon / Quest item)
* Stat/Element Stones Lv. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A frilled lizard that walks around the beach without a care."

Wow the Fan Lizard's official artwork is not flattering. I think the sprite is much better looking.



Type: Charm 
Level: 33
HP: 1,465
AP: 170
MA: 0
DP: 116
MD: 113
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Water, Light
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Cannon Shell Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Broken Artifact 3 (Uncommon / Quest item)
* Stat/Element Stones Lv. 35 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A large crustacean creature with a hard shell that can propel marbles out of its body like bullets. While docile, antagonizing it is a bad idea."

Also, here's the normal Cannon Shell monster. They may look all big and scary, but they're not actually all that mean.



I just had to take a gif of the Fan Lizard strutting along. It looks so happy, damn it. 



... Also thank you for the card. 



There's the second Broken Artifact! Good thing we only have to get these once unlike other quest items, otherwise this'd be silly.



: "Huh? What's this?"

[After reading the letter] 

: [Sniff] "That was... so sad..."

Yeah, there's just... a bunch of letters buried beneath the sand for some reason. How'd they get there? I dunno, but they ought to have some interesting backstories.



[Star Heart reads through it]


: "Awww, this one's sweet!~"

These aren't things you can actually read, mind you - they're actually quest items. Shame too, because I would have loved to see what actually went in them.



Hey wait, that's not a letter! 

Fiesta Tickets are super rare drill drops that can appear in any area of the game. You might have noticed a message saying "the fiesta is over!" from time to time - this is what that's for.

The Fiesta is a special even that opens up every two hours and is essentially "beat up as many monsters as you can in 15 minutes", with the goal to get Fiesta Marbles from said monsters. You have boosted experience when you enter (for what good that entails) and the Fiesta Marbles are used to get unique equipment.

It's also the place where you can find unique monsters that I think are dummied out monsters from an older version of Trickster. They are, in order from left to right:

 

Cucool, Raver Skeleton, Persona, Snow Lady, Moa Stone and O'Crown. Persona and Snow Lady are notable because their cards are still in the game, but they go unused because their Fiesta counterpart doesn't drop them. Fascinating...



: "Oh heck no! I'm not touching that one!"



Oh hey, that's one quest done! Now how about the -





That was pretty fast too... also, I love how the Cannon Shell actually waves a white flag when you defeat it.



: "Aww, it was nothing!"

It really wasn’t thanks to the bountiful amounts of Let’s Player’s Blessing backing me up.

Reina is equally thankful, but she muses that it’d be great if Marcourt came back. Yeah, sorry but I kinda doubt it.



"Have a safe trip~ One of these days you’ll have to come see me again."

: "Why?"

: "Haha~ No, it’s nothing. It’s just soon there will be a situation that will flip [Caballa Island] upside down. Just keep that in mind. Okay then, bye~"

: "What the... ?"

Strangely ominous message there. 



But hey, at least we get a lot of cool things from him! The Detection Scrolls will allow us to see where items are buried before digging them up, with the Super version being way more useful due to it lasting longer than a second.



Let's bring out the Crazy Drilling Card and oh my god look at that card art. It's absolutely hysterical.

I'll show off what it does in a bit, but how about we finally go to Megalopolis now that we're done here?



: "Oh boy... this is the big city, isn't it? Well, I'm ready!"

To be continued in Chapter 3-2...

[Actual Game OST: Megalopolis]

or

[My choice for Megalopolis OST: Sabat] 

: "Whoa...! So this is is..."

Say hello to Megalopolis, friends - the hub of Trickster in more ways than one. This is supposedly the center of Caballa Island and is where all the players converge for different reasons (shopping, guild stuff, relaxing, etc.)



Let's check out the first store we see, huh?



God damn. The player made shops tend to get really intense, but this one's alright. The Book Bag is a WT-increasing mature compound item while the Light Attribute Stone isn't level locked like the element boosting stones dropped by enemies.

Really, the only ripoff in this store is the Mighty Turkey VR going for a million and a half despite how terrible that Pet is.



The Chaos Feather is the other ingredient of Alan's Shop and is likely why there's random effects when we use Tempering.



NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT

This isn't even the most expensive shop in the area, because people will try to peddle off Wing Items (aka. a fashion accessory that actually boosts your stats and decreases the weight of your inventory) for over 150 million galders a piece. To let you know how insane that is, the most I've ever gotten was 50 million.

But for now let's focus on one certain item in that list:



While a bit more higher leveled than what we have, you can still sell off the Star Card we got for quite a bit. To actually make your own inventory you just have to right click on your character and wait.

... The unfortunate truth is that if you do set up shop, you're going to have to wait a long time and hope someone comes along. The only exception I know is if you're selling Mastery Cards or [information expunged], but that's the kind of thing that'll keep you busy for a while.



Here's the Megalopolis Bank - this is another good place to set up shop and is my personal choice if I ever decide to do that. 



In the center of Megalopolis lies the Guild Center, where this lovely lady waits for us.

: "Have you looked around [Megalopolis] yet? As the major travel hub of [Caballa Island], you’ll bump into many adventurers. Also, you can apply to a guild here. It’s a group of Trickster adventurers that support each other. You can check out the [guilds] in Trickster through me, and you can apply to the one you like."

: "Oooh, guilds?"



She goes on to talk about our next major mission: a “Poppuri” (see above: these big cute dog-men) needs our help in Southeast Forest. I’ll be sure to deal with that when I’m done here.



Aight, so - Andrew's job aside from banking is that he's in charge of managing the guilds. Guilds in Trickster are simply groups of people who have allied themselves for one reason or another; there's no actual stat bonus or anything like that, it's just a way to keep track of people without actually adding them as contacts.

The main benefits of being part of a guild is that you can participate in GvG battles (mass multiplayer fights, located over at the Coliseum) and just... having people to help you while you hunt for monster/drill drops.

Joining one is easy-peasy as long as the guild leaders are willing, but to actually make a guild you'd have to shell out 2 million galder. I would make my own, but... something tells me that'll be a bit complicated. 



"That place is beautiful, do you want to join? If you want to go you have to pay me 1000 Galder. Are you sure? "

Cherry Blossom Garden...? Alright. I'm up for it.





So beautiful. I am moved beyond words.

(In all seriousness, what the hell. Sometimes the grammar is just fine and then... stuff like this starts happening. It's really off-putting.)



It really is pretty looking but there's nothing actually here. I'm sure it'll make a great backdrop in the future, though. (Assuming it's still gonna be around)





… Remind me to get this for later because the player who runs this shop is selling it for nearly 3 million galder. Why is it so expensive? Trust me, it's really hard to get. 



They were selling some Portable Ports for exactly 2,222 Galders though, so why not? (These are more limited than the MyShop ones because they can only take you to certain places.)



Awwww. 

I really adore how this game can tell a story with animations alone, like they didn't have to do this at all. Yet... they did anyway. That's how you know it's done out of love.



Here's the Megalopolis Shop and whoa I didn't notice that face in the ground until now. Flip the screen and you'll see what I mean.

This place is pretty high class - while the equipment here is about the same level as when you first arrive to Megalopolis (aka. level 20-30 range), this is the only place in the game I can think of that actually sells revival scrolls. 



While Leonardo himself is one sharply dressed lad, his shop isn't all that great. It only takes Bonus Eggs, special eggs that you can only get after buying items on MyShop or recycling items through the recycle-bot.

It also sells stat-boosting scrolls, as well as some novelty equipment that isn't all that great stat-wise.



Holy crap the fashion sense of the people on this island is on point (for the most part).

This lass with the fancy nails is Compounder Nadia, and her purpose is that she can make throwing weapons and Element Resistance stones for you as long as you bring her some 500 Galder coupons.

The Resistance stones are very nice, but the throwing weapons are only useful to Fox and Lion characters unfortunately.



Erin here is effectively the Arlene of Pets in that she can swap out the appearance of one pet for another (via fusing). She's also really cute, just saying.

... Wait a sec, did she just throw an emoticon at me in the actual dialogue? This game sometimes, man.



There was this guy shooting hearts at my character for some reason. Like yeah it was cute but it kinda came out of nowhere.



Here's what a mileage bag looks like. Let's just hope what it has some stuff actually useful stuff inside!



... Ah. Nate's Bottle is an item that lets you delete a Mature Compound item from one of your equipment slots - like let's say you put in MA stones while you're a Power type.



If I remember correctly, the Craftman's Anvils are the worst of the Refine-boosting items. Meanwhile, the Black/Green Elixir is part of a series of items that help improve the stats you gain from a mature compounded item.

There's some that boost the minimum amount of points while others boost the maximum - either way, having them would be helpful.



I went and bought a Christmas Move Key from the Card Girl because... why not, right? It's a teleporting item that takes you to a special room that I want to show off.



Hhhhuh? That's weird, there's absolutely nothing here. Looks pretty fantastic, though.



: "I wonder where Mister Nebulos wants me to meet him, because there's nobody here."

[She pulls out the Contact Gear and rings his number. An automated message comes out the other end]

: "... Hmm. Might as well wait for him to call back, I guess."

[Star Heart sits in front of the large Christmas tree]



: "This tree... it reminds me of the time me and sis went to get presents for mom..."

[Star Heart starts to think about the past...]

-



[Current OST: At the Bottom of the Night]

[A tall young woman with blue hair wearing black clothes smashes her fists against the face of a hooded robber, knocking him to the ground. She snatches a pair of bags out of his hands and kicks him while he's down.]

: "Steal from us again and I'll make you regret it."

[Rachel runs in from behind] 

: "Sis?! Are you alright?!"

: "Oh! Rachel."

: "I'm just fine. Can't say the same for this guy, though. Here, you take the presents."

[The woman hands the bags over to Rachel while the robber shakily gets to his knees]


: "What are you waiting for? Get out of here!"


[The robber yelps in fear and runs off into a distant alleyway]

: "Sheesh, what a scumbag. Like I was gonna let all that money I earned on Caballa Island go to waste..."

: "Wow! You're such a cool big sister, Veil!"

: "But don't scare me like that! You gave me a heart attack when you just ran off like that! Who knows what I'd have to tell mom if you got hurt?!"

: "Ah! Sorry about that. You're right." 

: "Sheesh... I wish I could fight just so you didn't have to endanger yourself so often! But... but I can't stand to hurt anybody..."

[Veil lets out a sigh]

: "Rachel, you've got a big heart. That's more than I can ask for from most people. Just because you can't fight doesn't mean you're not valuable. Heck, I'd be terrified if you tried to do what I normally do." 

: "I guess you have a point... but it's still frustrating."

[The girls walk into a park, with Rachel holding on to Veil's arm. She looks over to a tree decorated with lights in the center of the park.] 

: "I'm glad to be here with you, sis."

: "Me too. I do miss you and mom when I'm off being a Trickster, so don't forget that I'm always thinking of you when I'm not around."

: "That's good..."

[She holds on tight to her sister's arm, only to gaze up at the star-illuminated sky]

: "...!"

-



: "I miss you so much, sis...! I just hope I can find you..."

[The Contact Gear in her pocket starts ringing]

: "Oh!"

[She wipes her tears away and grabs the Gear out of her pocket]

: "Hello? Rachel? I'm at Megalopolis. Did you finish up the requests of the people in Paradise?"

: "Yes, I did! Hang on, I'll be right there!"



: "He sure is taking a while to get here... At this point I'm just hoping this wasn't some elaborate prank."



[Current OST: Feeling of Love]

: "Hey! Is that you, mister Nebu--"

[She stops midsentence as her heart skips a beat]

: "(Oh daaaaaaang! He's... a lot cuter than I imagined... ")

: "Sorry to make you wait so long. I had my hands tied with something else."

: "... What the heck are you wearing...?"

: "I... uh... don't judge me. I don't like the duck equipment but it was actually really helpful!"

: "Aha, gotcha. I didn't wear that junk when I first came here, so I just threw it away."

: "So about my sister... Do you know what happened to her? Aren't you one of her closest friends?"

: "Yes, but... I'm sorry, but I don't know much. One day she just... vanished, and nobody's been able to find her since."

: "You're kidding... Just when I thought I'd gotten a good lead..."

: "... Don't worry though, I'm sure we'll find her eventually."

: "Are you sure?"

: "Yeah! If you cleared Paradise this quickly, then it shouldn't take you long to get through the other locations."

[The both of them walk down the stairs]



: "Well... thank you, mister Nebulos! That's nice to hear."

: "So how come you can't go after Veil yourself? You look really st -"



(There's what the kitty earring looks like, by the way. Anybody that has this is one lucky son of a bitch.)

: "Scratch that, very strong! Jeez, with stats like these, why do you even need me to help?"

: "Yeah I know I'm high-leveled, but... I hate fighting, honestly. Too much work. I'd much rather spend my time gathering quest supplies in Megalopolis. That and study the different parts of Caballa Island."

: "Oooh, that's cool too."



(By the way, this is what happens when you right click a pet that isn't yours. She even dances too!)

: "I can make you a member of our guild, the Remedies, in case you need some help. Feel free to contact us. Just... don't be surprised when you see there's not many people."

: "Uhm... alright! I dunno what that means but thanks!"

: "I have some junk I need to sell off, so I'll be seeing you!"

[As he walks off, he lets out a long sigh]

: ("At least I've managed to get one of us calm about this...")



So... yeah, that just happened! I figured bringing in some of my friends would add some spice to the let's play, and they're going to be helping me with plot and stuff like that. I mean, it's an MMO - it'd be kinda a waste of the genre if I didn't take advantage of the multiplayer aspect.



[Current OST: Secret of Mana Overworld]

With all that hefty LP Plot out of the way, let's make our way over to where we actually need to go.



... See when I said we'd be meeting the yellow slime fella in the login screen, I didn't think we were going to meet him right away. Granted, this is a weird special version that I don't think even has enough info for a bestiary entry, so I can safely ignore that.



What I can show off though is that they like licking people to death. Gross. 



Type: Sense 
Level: 39
HP: 1,500
AP: 175
MA: 0
DP: 120
MD: 140
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Physical
Resistance: Magic
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Queen Yamu Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Green Lace (Uncommon / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A small green chipmunk known as Queen Yamu to the creatures of the forest. Known for hoarding green lace."

It's called Green Chipmunk yet its card name is Queen Yamu? What the heck is the connection here? 

Other than that, they're notable for being important for a late-game quest despite being encountered this early. If that isn't an omen for the quests later on then I don't know what is...



Type: Power 
Level: 35
HP: 1,360
AP: 180
MA: 0
DP: 105
MD: 122
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Magic
Resistance: Gun
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Popo Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Multi-Vitamin (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A tiny earth spirit full of nutritious vitamins. They are often synthesized to create medicine."

Look at how round this lad is. I would regret trying to hurt him if his name was perfectly capitalized, though.



: "Sooo lonely…"

: "Lonely?"

: "Waaaaa- Oh! It’s you! [Esther] told me about you."

: "Yeah, what is it?"

: "I’m lonely and I’m tired of playing by myself."

So Poppuri’s problem here is that monsters wound up stealing his friend’s toy box  and they’ve had a falling out because of that. Since his name is literally “scared” Poppuri, he’s too much of a chicken to go into the dungeon the monsters ran into.



Oh, don't be such a baby. I will keep that name in mind though when I start planning out my monster hit-list.



"What, you don’t believe me? Are you insulting my grandpa? Fine! Sounds like you don’t believe me, so let me fill you in a bit. Actually, did you know [Caballa Island] used to be part of the [Alteo Empire] a long time ago?"

: "Well, duh!"

So sassy. 

Star Heart wonders what the connection between the treasure and the island is, only for John to say that he accidentally dropped his grandfather’s research paper in the sea. Maps for Poseidon’s Treasure are scattered across the island: this is what the Worn Beach Map we picked up is for.

: "I could help too!"



... Bindi Code. They’re really taking the piss with this Indiana Jones expy, huh? But he does do a Cool Guy thing for us and lets Reina and Driller King Marky interpret the map pieces we find.



So the big thing with Treasure Maps in this game is that they lead you to special Poseidon's Treasures that contain extremely valuable items such as Black Elixir Fragments (which are the only way to use Elixir qualities without doing MyShop), Nikarium Shards and so on.

Nikarium Shards are especially beloved because if you take five and compound them into a full Nikarium, you can boost the strength of some equipment to the highest tier possible. I don't have the patience for that kind of thing so I'd rather just sell them off to people who do need them. 



Oh shit, that's one lucky guy! So Absolute Unique equipment is an extremely rare drop from any monster in the game, like one in a blue moon levels. It is not level locked, meaning even level one characters can equip it, and the stats it gives are absolutely insane (960 attack for just the sword, not counting the boost you get from completing the set)

However, it comes with a few reasonable caveats to prevent it from being uberpowered:

* Once equipped, you can't get rid of it or it'll disappear.
* It has a time limit of seven days, so you can't hold onto it forever. To recharge the timer you have to kill bosses.
* You can't refine it to make it even more powerful
* You can't put it into the bank

It's really good novelty equipment, but other than that it kinda loses its thunder when you go deeper into the game.



Aw snap, I knew I forgot something! This is the Paradise spa house and it can be optional if you do all the quests outside.

Hey wait...



Oh... I hope that other guy saw this because imagine how terrible it'd be if they lost their once in a lifetime drop.



Anyway, the bathhouse’s closed because the water pump isn’t working properly, leaving Al-Hauri here without much options. To help fix his problem, we have to bring him five filled water buckets… which we conveniently already have from helping the Bunny Maid! How about that.



No problem, mate. This is the reason why we came back: the Shell Shield Neo and an extra Desert Sticker. Doing 100% in the areas often results in gaining leftover stickers.

When we do it, it's kinda pointless, but there are nice people that like to sell off the leftover stickers of later areas to people who are having trouble... those guys tend to be my favorite of the player shops.



Eliza Bath (boo) is the owner of the Paradise bath house and she wants...



The letters buried all across Desert Beach 4 for the reasons described above. Reading love letters and confession letters are fine and all, but do you really want to read the cursed ones? That... just seems like a bad idea. 



Take a look at the extra number beneath the Trickster mascot face - that is the "stress" you accumulate after every failed drilling attempt.

When it fills up completely, your character goes berserk and you can instantly pull up items from the ground without having to do the mini-game. It's one of the most useful skills in the game, and apparently Sense characters get an even better version called Mega Crazy Drilling. (As well as a skill to boost how many stress points you get per dig.)



… Is this guy supposed to be Marcourt? They never specify. Driller King Marky here is one of the treasure map interpreters, although he deals in weird maps instead.



Weird Maps are different from normal ones in that they don't lead you to treasure, but instead the Black Market. It sounds scary, but it's actually a secret shopping map where you can craft Nikariums and buy some neat stuff you can't get in normal shops.

Driller King Marky’s kinda nuts too because he’s practically fanatical about drilling, to the point where he makes even the in-game character feel weird.

: "It’s not that hard, so don’t worry okay. Alright then, bring me Weird Beach Map A and Weird Beach Map B and I will transforming it into a splendid map. Just trust me…"

: "I don’t really feel any trust…"

I mean he's a big weirdo so I can't blame you.



The nice thing about the treasure map quests is that they're technically infinite - you can keep doing them as many times as you want, as evidenced by the "1/99" there. They're never required for any greater quest chain, so you don't have to worry about doing a mission that many times.



The basic Detection Scroll is pretty bad, not gonna lie. It shows the items long enough for a screenshot, but after that they go away real quick. I prefer the Super version because at least you can dig while the spots are still glowing.



I'll never get over the sight of crazy drilling, mostly because of how pissed the Trickster Mascot face gets. I should mention that better drills can keep Crazy Drilling for longer periods of time, so it'd be good to remember that for later. 



: "You're welcome, miss!"

I'm glad she can be happy with all the dumb letters we gave her. I mean, reading corny love letters doesn't seem like a bad way to pass the time.  

But alright, we seem to have the complete set of Paradise's equipment! Let's see how it looks.



... Hey listen, it's at least much more dignified than the duck equipment. This is at least a step in the right direction.

What's more important, though, are the boosts that it gives you:



You see the purple numbers in our stats? Having a completed set of equipment gives you additional bonuses, often making them better than just getting random weapons and armor.

This is another major reason why completing a town's requests is so important, because aside from all the experience you get, you also get to look forward to some really good equipment.



We've finally made it to Poppuri Dungeon, but this chapter's been eventful enough as it is.



Next time on Trickster Online, we get some toys back and smash some faces in! See you guys then.



-

Team Set-up:


 (Star Heart / Rachel): "It's so nice and humid here... makes me kinda sleepy..."
* Job class: Schoolgirl ( Tier 1)
* Type: Power 
* EXP level: 37 (+3)
* TM level: 34 (+3)
* Gender: 
* Bosses slain: Zero (Mong doesn't count)
* Guild: None

 (Nebulos): "Man, how did I wind up with all this junk anyway... I need to stop hoarding."
* Job class: Magician ( Tier 2)
* Type: Magic 
* EXP level: 129
* TM level: 139
* Gender: 
* Bosses slain: 1
* Guild: Remedies - Star Captain (De-facto leader)

[My Choice for this OST: Foreboding Forest]

Last time on Trickster Online, we made it to the Poppuri Dungeon where there are apparently a lot of big fluffy dogmen waiting for us. Out of context that sounds pretty unsettling but let's just be thankful the Poppuri are a benevolent race.

For now though, let's dive straight into some toy hunting!



Type: Charm
Level: 39
HP: 1,710
AP: 205
MA: 0
DP: 142
MD: 144
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Physical
Resistance: Magic
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Kokebi Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Poppuri Fur (Uncommon / Exchange Item)
* Talky Mushroom (Common / Quest Item)
* Toy Box (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A fuzzy mushroom creature that always seems to be sleepwalking. Despite their demure stances, they are known to be incurable pranksters."

God damn it these things are super cute. Makes me want to just go up to one and squeeze it to death.

I do love how they tie the typings into the actual designs of the monsters themselves (most of the time), because just look at him.



Type: Sense
Level: 42
HP: 1,640
AP: 195
MA: 0
DP: 135
MD: 158
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Physical
Resistance: Magic
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Simbatta Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Poppuri Fur (Uncommon / Exchange Item)
* Squeaky Hammer (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A living plant sentry created to scout the Poppuri Dungeon, but has an awkward personality and no real fighting power."

What the heck even are these guys? The Gear Entry is my best guess as to what they are, because there's no actual descriptions for the monsters anyway. It's rare you get an explanation for why a monster is the way they are, but that just winds up making it more fun for me to speculate.



Side note while I'm butchering these Kokebi: I love how each type has their own magic sigil whenever they do a special attack. It adds even more flair to the graphics that way.



I love it whenever I can prepare in advance for anything, and Trickster lets me do just that.



Speaking of which, there's the lost Toy Box! We only had to beat up the poor mushroom lad to get it, but that's an acceptable loss to me.



: "Ahhh!"


: "What’s wrong?"


: "What am I going to do?! The toys aren’t in the box! Oh no! I can’t make up with him without the toys! Waaaaaah!"


: "Then let’s find the toys!"


: ("And please don’t cry like that… it just hurts my ears!")


: "Really?! You’ll find the toys for me and not run away?"


: "Of course!"

(Why would we run away, though? The place isn't even that bad. Then again, i'm not the guy who literally has "scared" in his name.)



He tells us to hunt down four specific monsters, with each one having stolen a toy from the box for whatever reason. (Yeah, don’t expect the toys to last very long with monsters playing rough with them)



Type: Sense
Level: 46
HP: 1,640
AP: 215
MA: 0
DP: 150
MD: 176
Aggressive?: No
Skills:
* Impelling Rage (HP-based Charm skill that pushes enemies away)
* Armor Destructor (Sense-based skill that lowers enemy defense)
Element: Light
Weakness: Physical
Resistance: Magic
Official Art:
Worthwhile Drops:
* Sppo Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Exchange Diary (Common / Quest Item)
* Gold Powder (Uncommon / Quest Item)
* Poppuri Fur (Uncommon / Exchange Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "The Sppo are cotton-like creatures that bundle together to form a large one. They weaponize seeds as bullets and are attracted to light sources."

It's kind of amazing how many little critters on Caballa would work as mascots for their own little product or something. Sppo-brand pillows or something like that.



Armor Destructor isn't that scary of a skill, ironically. Sppo (however you're supposed to to pronounce that) are also interesting in that they attack five times in one animation, but thankfully their base power is low to compensate.

It may also be worth noting that these are the first common enemies that actually use skills, Punisher Cannonshell and Master Mong notwithstanding.



Man I'm having such good luck with these card drops! I just hope this is a good omen about my luck or something, because I need all the cards I can get for later on.

Moving over to the next map nets us with:



Type: Magic
Level: 48
HP: 1,850
AP: 226
MA: 0
DP: 180
MD: 213
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Magic
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Moss Moth Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Sylph's Playground (Very Rare / Skill Card for third-tier Magic characters)
* Teddy Bear (Uncommon / Quest Item)
* Poppuri Fur (Uncommon / Exchange Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A brilliantly colored moth with magical properties that clings to moss and damp places."

I love the Moss Moth's color scheme - it's just real pretty looking. The Sylph's Playground card it drops is a skill that lowers water element resistance for enemies, and there's even other cards for other elements too.

Yeah, I'm not kidding about the magic characters having a ton of tricks up their sleeves.



Whoa, okay, this map has quite a bit going on for it.



Type: Charm
Level: 52
HP: 2,725
AP: 220
MA: 0
DP: 270
MD: 294
Aggressive?: No
Skills:
* Dodge Master (Increases chance to avoid enemy attacks)
* Cure (Restores HP)
Element: None
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Magic
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Larva Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card)
* Poisonous Moss (Common / Quest Item)
* Robot Model Kit (Common / Quest Item)
* Poppuri Fur (Uncommon / Exchange Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "An oversized insect in its larval stage. Nobody knows what it grows into, but one fact is certain: it has stone-hard skin to protect it from predators."

(The Mastery Card boosts Basic Detection for Sense characters and Mana Storm for Magic characters)

Oh no, it's this thing. I'm surprised this thing is categorized as Charm, because ech. Then again, to someone else, this might be one of the most beautiful things to exist on this planet. (I'm not pointing fingers.)

Either way, say hello to the first genuine stone wall of the game! The Larva enemies are super bulky for this point of the game, to the point where you could be stuck fighting one for a while if you don't use skills.

... Plus if they're larva and already this defensive, I shudder to think about what the final evolution would be like.



Type: Power
Level: 55
HP: 2,095
AP: 430
MA: 0
DP: 82
MD: 95
Aggressive?: No
Skills:
* Shockwave (Power-based special attack)
* Berserker (Increases Attack but loses control of character)
Element: None
Weakness: Magic
Resistance: Gun
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Koom Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card)
* Special Whistle (Common / Quest Item)
* Poppuri Fur (Uncommon / Exchange Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A mischievous bear that wanders Poppuri Dungeon and causes trouble."

Koom is notable for being one of the first enemies that can actually prove a threat to us - I mean, just look at that big honking attack stat! To make it worse, he hits twice in one attack, so don't be surprised if you see my health drop significantly between screenshots.

(Mastery Card boosts: Armor Destructor (Sense), Mist of Mana (Magic), Skunk Pouch & Titanium Wrist (Charm) and Upper Smash for Power types. That makes it relevant to us later on.)



Uh... Star Heart, are you sure you want to be touching that with your bare hands?



Good shit.

(Also, the death animation for Larva is just as gross as you'd expect. Just look at that.)



Type: Power
Level: 45
HP: 1,745
AP: 268
MA: 0
DP: 146
MD: 171
Aggressive?: No
Skills:
* Shockwave (Power-based special attack)
* Bull's Eye (Increases Accuracy)
* Guard Break (... I'd rather demonstrate this one.)
Element: None
Weakness: Magic
Resistance: Gun
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Turvy Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card)
* Turvy's Tooth (Common / Quest Item)
* Poppuri Fur (Uncommon / Exchange Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A vampiric bat that nests in Poppuri Dungeon, often biting into sleeping travelers."

Hoo boy, this one. Turvy's notable for not only the fact it seems to have its wings growing out of it's feet, but also for the Guard Break skill.

It's also yet another Mastery Card owner, with this one boosting: Armor Breaker (Power), Gun Booster (Sense), Mana Shield (Magic) and Sturdy Shield (Charm).



: "... What the..."

[Star Heart looks around and sees the faint image of a blond girl before it vanishes]


: "I could have sworn that I saw something over there... This place must be getting to me."

And leave we shall because all I wanted to do was to document the monsters in here anyway.



"Ahhhh!"


: ("Oh no is there something else wrong this time??")

Thanks to an unfortunate (but predictable) turn of events, the toys are all broken and need to be fixed. Thankfully there’s an Artisan Poppuri inside the cave that can do just that, so…



Artisan Poppuri says he can repair the toys as long as he can get something called Instant Adhesive (), but he already gave out his set to some of the other people in here… So you know what that means, fellas! It’s key quest time!~



: "O-oh, of course! Don't mind me, I'll just be shuffling off..."



… This sounds like a few people I know.

Anyway, Poppuri with no specific name says that he was the one who dug out the dungeon we’re in along with the help of his friends. I mean… it makes perfect sense why it’s called the Poppuri Dungeon if that’s the case, but imagine how weird it would be if humans did that.



His deal is that he’s lost his whistle somewhere on the ground, yet he wants us to bring back three (equaling to a total of fifteen) whistles for some god forsaken reason. You’d think he only needs the one, but Trickster likes to be difficult like that.



Type: Power
Level: 60
HP: 2,550
AP: 478
MA: 0
DP: 112
MD: 131
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills:
* Shockwave (Power-based special attack)
* Berserker (Increases Attack but loses control of character)
Element: None
Weakness: Magic
Resistance: Physical, Gun
Official Art: Same as normal Koom
Worthwhile Drops:
* Special Whistle (Common / Quest Item)
* Poppuri Fur (Uncommon / Exchange Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Fiercely territorial Koom that attacks anybody that gets in their way. Infamous for their hoarding tendencies."

Normal Koom is scary if you piss them off, but these guys don't even give you the choice. You have to run away or fight them if you want to survive, and trust me - they really hurt.



Thankfully we survive and make it to level 40! What's our prize this time?




Oh, is this the treasure box I was thinking about? Cause it'd be rad if it is.



It’s a good thing the Feisty Kooms give up those Special Whistles really quickly – it saves me a fair amount of time and they’re pretty scary monsters as it is. (Look at my health!)



Ach, damn. Sometimes you need to activate certain quest chains to even interact with some NPCs, so that sucks. At least they tell you what to do for this one, thankfully.





Oh hey there, Indiana Johnes. He’s here because he’s trying to discover the secrets of the Poppuri Dungeon, so this somehow means we have to dig up amber (for carbon dating of course) and golden powder for him.



Whoops, this isn't good. This message will pop up if your drill isn't strong enough to dig through the ground in a new area, so I guess it's time to visit the item girl!



I grabbed this new pouch on top of some new drills and recovery items - it's better than the Megalo Pouch we had before, so of course we're going to slap it on.



Oh boy, here we go.



I think it's nice that they give you a mobility booster item as a gift for reaching level 40, but the two day time limit is pretty unfortunate... especially since it still ticks down regardless if you're actually playing the game or not.

By the time of me writing down this chapter it's already obsolete, so what can you do.



I swapped out Peng for this cute baby rabbit because trading 3% in weight for 24 attack isn't actually that bad.



Good, no more Amber or Gold Powder to grab. I should be glad I only need to grab five and not twenty-five like some later dungeons. Yes, it gets that ridiculous.  



The Poppuri Bean is a new type of quest reward – they’re collectibles you give to Mint in exchange for the powerful equipment set of the area. Getting these often require doing most of the quests, so if that and the EXP isn’t an incentive to do as many quests as you can then I don’t know what is.

… Oh and John has a second quest for us to do because the rewards distribution in Poppuri Dungeon is bonkers even by the standards of the rest of the game.



He basically goes all mode and hypothesizes that not only was this dungeon not completely built by the Poppuries, but that they are also aliens. Honestly with how they look and their bizarre attitudes I cannot blame him.

John asks us to get him some Moss Waters and Peridots – the former is easy because they’re buried in the ground, but the Peridots are items you get from completing the other Poppuri quests in the area so that’ll be fun. Not.



: "Huh? There it is again! Wait, it..."

[Star Heart takes a closer look at the faint figure]

: "Oh heck no! It's a ghost! I'm outta here!"

I think it was this pale ghost girl that caught my attention to the "spectral" enemies mechanic, cause she didn't look like any other monster in the area and even looked like a normal person to boot.

I love trying to solve stuff like this out, alright?





Excellent, I can finally explain this! Sometimes when you go Crazy Drilling, you have a chance of getting ~BIG BANG~, an occurrence where tons of items pop up from the ground from one drill poke… and as you can see up there, it can be super helpful if you’re starving for items.

I cannot believe how I managed to play through the game without this feature, this is practically life-saving.



A few screenshots in and my new drill is already half-dead. That should tell you how much time I spent trying to dig for those damn Ambers.



"Each [Poppuri Whistle] has a different pitch. Depending on the pitch, different friends come. So I was wondering if you can find me different ones, to gather more of my friends. If you do it five times, I’ll give you a valuable gift."


… At least he gives us a good explanation for why we have to give him a bonus of fourteen whistles. Though I can’t help but imagine those meet-ups being the slightest bit creepy…


: "Wait a minute… I think I have enough for you! Here you go, mister Pop-ur-ee?"



His second quest is that we need to get the Special Whistle () back from Koom to summon the Great Giant Poppuri (whatever he looks like). Apparently Koom is a giant jerk that thinks he owns the dungeon, but stealing the whistle was the last straw. Good thing you have the world’s cutest hitwoman on your side, then.





Artisan Poppuri is apparently deaf and needs ten Talky Mushrooms and Long Lasting Batteries (oh I’m sorry, their in-game name is battery lasting long – we just needed to Engrish it up, apparently) to make some alarm clocks for us.

This is weird even by normal standards because it’s a 1/10 quest instead of 1/5, but you only need to get one of each item each time. I assume they did it like this to split up the rewards per completion, but it’s just strange to think about.

(He also tells us to get a good drill from Item Girl, but I’ve already done that in advance thank you.)



What an odd way to distribute quest rewards.

The Wing of Return is like a dungeon equivalent of the other warp wing, but I'm just glad they even have these to begin with.



: "Sorry!"

Ten trades later, we more than our fair share of experience and a few quest items to boot.





This hungry lad wants us to give him fifteen Red Petals because they’re apparently a Poppuri favorite, but I’m just trying to imagine how one would taste to a human. I’m picturing cherry-flavored.



This Poppuri was originally asleep before we had the Super Alarm Clocks in our inventory, so we couldn’t do much with him until now. The problem with him is that vampire bats (the Turvies) keep biting him in his sleep, so we have to defang them and bring said teeth to him to ease his mind. This just got a bit psychopathic, but who’s bothered about killing monsters anyway?

: "I am!"

I said you’ll get used to it.



Ooooooh god.

M-Defense Failure, otherwise known as Guard Break, is one of the most powerful and dangerous skills in Trickster alongside Faint. (Apologies, I got Shockvibe mixed up with Faint. Shockvibe lowers your accuracy – faint is the paralyzing spell.)

It completely nullifies your avoid rate so you are completely unable to dodge or block when it's active. That by itself is bad, but when you combine it with Faint, you become absolutely defenseless.

Turvy isn't strong enough to be scary with it, but trust me when I say this combo is notorious later on - regardless if it's us using it or the enemy.



We never got a clear view of what happens when a monster dies – this spirit flies out of them and flies off to Monster Heaven, I suppose.



Oooh, very nice. I guess I'll keep that in mind for later.



This guy doesn’t even attempt to give a good reason for why we had to get fifteen of the same thing, so I have to give him an F for failing to suspend my disbelief.



Now he wants us to kill some Larva to get their Poisonous Moss... Yeah, this is a totally a good idea. Won't get sick or anything.



Pictured above: Star Heart blowing up a Larva to get the last Poisonous Moss. (Also, another player around my level! I’m not quite sure why they were doing a tenth of the damage I was doing, but then again I am a pure Power type.)



If anybody needs to take a nap for a week, it’s Star Heart. Under normal circumstances this would be a tremendous amount of work for just one girl.



Couldn’t have said it better myself.



So the Poppuri are aliens after all?!

Somehow I feel this is common knowledge that Star Heart and John just aren’t caught up with, given how many more Poppuri are out there though.



: "Let's... let's take a small break before we do anything else. I'm extra tired."

[Twelve minutes later]



... In hindsight, this game is one of the strangest I've ever encountered - it's up there with Earthbound for the sheer amount of kooky nonsense.



Man, does this guy do anything for himself? Granted he is confronting the person whose belongings he wound up getting stolen and broken, so maybe I should cut him some slack on that part.



Okay, now this line is disturbingly relatable to me and a fair amount of my friends. It’s like this game can read my mind sometimes.

: "Why are you here? Is there something you want…?"

: "Take this!"

: "My lost toy box! Thank you! I can’t believe you came here to give this to me when you don’t even know me… All I can say is thank you… this is a small token of my gratitude!"

He gives us nine Poppuri Beans for our troubles, so I appreciate him being so generous. He’s upset that Scared Poppuri wound up causing all this, but we tell him what’s up.

: "Actually, he found it!"

: "What? Really? He’s the one who went through the trouble?"

: "It’s true!"

: "Oh no… What do I say to him? Sigh, I must use telepathy to thank him… It must’ve been tough for him… to have a mean and impatient friend like me. I should be nicer to him. I want to thank you for allowing us to be friends again."

This is actually very sweet.

Stern Poppuri tells us to go to Caballa Relics when our level is past 45, and even tells us that Caballa Relics is to the west of Megalopolis. Once we’re there, we have to talk to… wait, what?



: "Hen!?"


No shit. I told you man, this game just keeps getting weirder and weirder every session.



More often than not, actually getting the equipment set requires completing several quests for the exchange items... so there's that.

I accidentally poured too many beans into the wrong type of equipment so I can't even get the full set anyway. That's our Dan!

(The Poppuri Furs I keep mentioning are part of an extra thing: collect 50x furs and you can create a Poppuri Strength Elixir that boosts one of the equipment you have here, provided you compound it with Paul over there. Since compounding has a chance of failure and you get strong equipment by the next dungeon anyway, it's not that worth it.)



The Poppuri Cave is pretty much done, but there is this Artisan Poppuri here. He seems to be a part of a different quest chain than the ones here because talking to him doesn't accomplish much.

If you talk to him he's like "do I look like a joke to you?", so...



Does this the face of mercy to you?



Oh hello, rainbow bridge.

Nice to see you're why this part of the dungeon is called Rainbow Cave.



This suspicious fella says he found a secret passage at the end of the rainbow bridge, but he’s too big to fit through.

: "Alright, I’ll go through… Just don’t pull any funny business, you hear?"

The other end is either a pot of gold or Ganon’s Castle from Ocarina of Time, so let’s just hope it’s the former.



What's all this?



: "Ooooh! Look at how shiny it is! This has to be important, I know it!"

: "I should definitely come back here in the future and see if anything changes."

What she said.



: "Wow, that dungeon sure was a lot of work. Is this how they're all like? Cause yeesh. I'm starting to think I should ask Nebulos for his help or something..."

[A distant voice rings out]

: "Hey! You there!"

: "Huh? Who's that?"

[A Cat walks up to Rachel]



[Current OST: Sunflower Girl #1]

: "You there, stop!"

: "What the--?! Am I in trouble or something?!"

: "You're pretty funny. Nah, you're not in trouble. I'm a new player of the Trickster game just like you!"

: "Oh! If that's the case, then... hi?"

: "Nice to meet you. My name's Blanche, what's yours?"

: "You can call me Star Heart, I gu--"

: "That's nice. See, I was hoping to make my stay on this island a bit more interesting, so... I was wondering if you could be my rival? I was paying attention to how you blitzed through the previous challenges, so why not, right?"

: "Wait, hold on! Rival? What the heck are you talking about? I don't even know you!"

: "Oh come on, it'll be fun! I need someone to compare my growth to, and you seem to be fairly competent."

: "I mean that's flattering and all, but --"

: "Then it's settled! I'll meet you later, Star Heart!"

: "Hey, what?! I didn't  --!"

[Blanche disappears into the Megalopolis crowds]

: "... Sheesh, what is it with this island and attracting weirdos?"



(Take a look at that sign - how majestic.)

... So yeah, that just happened! Blanche is another character I control, and she's a Cat character (aka. the female Charm choice) because while I can't show off every character, I might as well show off the other class I really liked.

I won't go quite as far with Blanche as I will with Star Heart/Rachel, but she's mostly here to be a supporting character anyway.



Also, look at how fucking adorable this whole sequence is. They're called Fluffels or something, and just... a bunny with butterfly wings that accidentally bites themselves.

They're too precious for my blood.



The western end of the Emerald Forest leads to Caballa Relics, but there's some enemies here I need to show off before we leave:



Type: Charm
Level: 47
HP: 1,955
AP: 244
MA: 0
DP: 171
MD: 176
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Physical
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Forest Wasp Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Honey (Common / Compound Item)
* Royal Jelly (Uncommon / Compound Item & Mastery Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A bee sentry that patrols the southwest part of Emerald Forest for any intruders. The royal jelly their queen produces has strange qualities."



Type: Sense
Level: 44
HP: 1,675
AP: 200
MA: 0
DP: 138
MD: 162
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Physical
Resistance: Magic
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Forest Tickler Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Biscuit (Common / Compound Item)
* Energy Grass (Uncommon / TM Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "An ant sentry that patrols the southwest side of Emerald Forest for intruders. Nobody knows how they gained humanoid form."



Type: Power
Level: 50
HP: 1,885
AP: 262
MA: 0
DP: 162
MD: 191
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: None
Element: None
Weakness: Magic
Resistance: Gun
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Forest Mantis Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Sharp Leg (Uncommon / Crafting & Throwing Weapon)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 50 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A mantis sentry that, unlike the other two, actively attacks travelers without provocation. Is the rudest out of their trio to boot."

Yeah, there's just a bunch of these guys walking around for some odd reason. I like their designs, but they're kinda pointless considering you might not even do the quests they're connected to here.



The mantis and wasp merely fall over while the Tickler actually turns back into an ant and nearly gets impaled by his own spear. Jeez.



Ah yes, this guy. Card Hunter Eugene is kind of an uncommon character - if you trade certain cards with him you can get special boxes that can contain a "sealed angel feather".



What it does is that if you take a sealed angel's feather and 100x Card Hunter's Crest (no seriously) to a certain NPC in Megalopolis, you can get a special accessory that increases your elemental resistance.

That sounds like a neat idea and all, but there's other ways to increase elemental resistance and there's no way in hell you're getting me to give up my cards.



Oh boy, even more monsters. Good thing these are the last ones before I have to wrap up the chapter:



Type: Charm
Level: 53
HP: 2,165
AP: 280
MA: 0
DP: 198
MD: 207
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: Earth
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Magic
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Mandragora Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Ginseng Root (Common / Quest Item)
* Thick Radish (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 65 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A tiny flower spirit who flourishes with the power of the earth. She and her kin are infamous for their delicious vegetables."

Mama mia, that's one cute plant. No wonder why they're Charm-type.



Type: Sense
Level: 50
HP: 1,885
AP: 232
MA: 0
DP: 162
MD: 191
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: Earth
Weakness: Magic
Resistance: Physical
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops:
* Leaf Bird Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Boiled Corn (Common / Quest Item)
* Millet (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 65 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "A photosynthetic fiend bird with a short temper."

Meanwhile we have the Leaf Bird and its rows of beak-teeth.

That doesn't look quite right to me.



There's Love Hunter Robin, but he surprisingly doesn't have a TM Quest for us to do. In fact he's actually a Story Quest NPC as evidenced by the bubble over his head, so that'll be fun to deal with.



[My Choice for this OST: Boktai 2 - City of Death]

Say hello to the second main area of the game, folks! Well, the preliminary part of it anyway. There's actually quite a fair amount to do just in this part, but I'll keep it simple for now.



I'm not sure who this Poirot lad is, but I definitely remember his name from a movie. The icon over his head deals with one of the most infamous areas in the game, so I think that's cause enough to ignore him for now.



The Wise Hen basically tells us that once we’re over level 55 we have to talk to the fortune teller lady there, so there’s some more busy work we have to do.



Look at these precious Nope Ropes. This game has some fantastic background details when it tries.





That… extremely odd introduction aside, she calls us the odd one for wanting to talk to a chicken. Apparently the hens are being paid to stay here and this fella (lady?) wants us to get them some Thick Radishes () from the Mandragoras a screen back. [s](Thick Radishes, huh? I mean, they’re pretty well-endowed for such tiny plants. Don’t mind me.[/s]



Two thousand damage and it's already chapter 4.

To think, damage like that and our levels would be end-game worthy in most other games. Stuff like that is pretty nuts.



Oh that's right, I almost forgot I had this! That and we have the appropriate TM Level to learn it now!




Good. Now let's break some heads!



I think it's pretty morbid how the Mandragoras wilt when they die, especially with how cute they are.



Also, I love how the bunny cheers Star Heart on as she ravages through the crowds of monsters.



Aww, for me? You shouldn't have!

One of the gifts is a guide on Job Class Promotions, but I'll cover that one myself as the time comes.



The Level Up Gift Box contains a 100K Galder Check while the Level 50 Box contains some free Memory Ports for us! It allows us to record specific areas and teleport to them later, so it's super useful to grab.



: "... Uh..."

Let's be honest, a Talking Chicken wouldn't be out of place from Earthbound.



[s](Gotdamn it it there’s so many cute girls in this game. I can’t keep up.)[/s]

Vinosh here joined the Trickster game because she thought it would be fun, but she lost her appetite as she kept killing monsters to finish quests. (Honestly, it’s pretty tedious if there’s no players to help give you supplies, but at least there even is an alternative to begin with.)

: "How about steamed corn?"

: "Corn? I can have that any time away from the game! Do you think I joined to eat corn?"

: "... No."



: ("Oh no, another crude person! And she seemed so cool at first glance...")

Man, she’s kind of a spoiled princess isn’t she? Granted she looks infinitely better than Rosemary, so why the hell not.



Side note, the quests here give a ton of experience because we entered at what, level 49? Just doing Vinosh and the Weirdo Hen nearly pushed us up to level 53!

(Vinny's quest was even the easier of the two, because the Mandragoras dropped a lot more Ginseng Roots than radishes...)



That said, that's all we can take for now. Next time on Trickster Online, we go dumpster diving into some ancient ruins and see what we can find. See you guys then!



-

Team Set-up:


(Star Heart / Rachel): "Sheesh... people like Vinosh, Rosemary and Blanche just drive me crazy. But at least this elephant statue is enough to calm me down."
* Job class: Schoolgirl ( Tier 1)
* Type: Power
* EXP level: 52 (+15)
* TM level: 41 (+7)
* Gender:
* Bosses slain: Zero
* Guild: None

(Nebulos): [Is still stuck selling off junk from his inventory]
* Job class: Magician ( Tier 2)
* Type: Magic
* EXP level: 129
* TM level: 139
* Gender:
* Bosses slain: 1
* Guild: Remedies - Star Captain (De-facto leader)

~

Rival?:


(Blanche): "I gave up my comfy mansion for this... There's no way I'll let that penniless bumpkin beat me!"
* Job class: Model ( Tier 1)
* Type: Charm
* EXP level: 36
* TM level: 31
* Gender:
* Bosses slain: Zero
* Guild: None

Last time on Trickster Online, we left Star Heart sitting around an elephant statue because she wanted to wind down from all the crazy people.

Sad to say that she's not quite done dealing with 'em yet.





Favian here is head-over-heels for Vinosh, so he wants us to get him some… boiled corn. Oh. The poor sod has no idea what’s coming to him, but we help him feel useful regardless.



Ah, crap. There goes our increased mobility – it was nice while it lasted. Notice’s announcement is that you can recycle it or give it to Pia to recharge it, but I don’t think I’ll do either.





The Wise Hen wants us to give her some Millet Caviar – this and the corn both come from the Leaf Birds before, so I guess it’s time to smash some freaky beak-teeth.



Holy shit! Don’t surprise me like that, game. Stat-boosting stones are valuable by themselves, but the WT ones are extremely precious due to how much weight cripples you. (As you’ll see later on in this chapter…)



Good luck with her, dude. You’re gonna need it.



Star Heart does not want to touch that stuff with a ten foot pole and the game thinks so too. Also, ooh! Red notifications are my favorite kind.



Oooh, rad. 

I... should probably stress that the Fortune Teller she’s talking about is not the one standing right here, but instead a different version in the town ahead. (I dunno, man, Trickster’s wacky with its NPCs sometimes.)



: "Business going well?"

He tries to guilt trip you with his sob story about getting abused by Master Mong, a sick mother and siblings to take care of... but come on, it’s friggin’ Monkey T. He tries to play highway robbery by asking for fifteen thousand 500 galder coupons (7,500,000 IN CASH, let alone how much that would weigh) but our heroine doesn’t even take it -

: "What?! I’m reporting you!"



This forces Monkey T to backpedal and offer a pretty woman-shaped necklace as a reward if we get him five 50 Galder Coupons. ()



This chapter's starting off strong if we're having to deal with Monkey T and his shenanigans. 



This is the twin sister of the famous reporter lady from Paradise and she says that everyone at the TV Station loved the pineapple masks we gave them. (Oh snap, continuity?!)



Mirabo wants to impress everyone too, so she asks us to get Stone Soldier Helmets in her place (because she’s a weenie.)

Speaking of Caballa Relics Field 1...



Type: Charm 
Level: 57
HP: 2,305
AP: 304
MA: 0
DP: 216
MD: 229
Aggressive?: No
Skills: None
Element: Light
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Physical
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Stone Soldier Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Gold Plated Wheel (Uncommon / Quest Item)
* Stone Soldier Helmet (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 65 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "An ancient sentinel made of stone armed with cannons. They are only hostile if attacked, implying that their creators only made them as a self-defense mechanism."

That official art was cuter than I expected, so at least I know why they're Charm-type. They're not too dangerous or sturdy, despite what their "resistance" slot says, which is good because there's a hunting mission revolving around them.



When you kill one they just fall apart, so that explains where their drop items come from.



Despite the fact both the Mermaid Babe and the Old Artist are here, they’re not relevant to us right now. They’re Story Quest NPCs, but I’ve got quite a bit to tackle when we get to Azteca...



Aw hell.

This, my friends, is the Tower of Chaos – the ultimate dungeon in the game! Why did they put it in Caballa Relics? Beats me, but at least it's not in an obnoxious place.

I am not even one tenth capable of tackling this place right now, so lemme just steer Star Heart away from this place before she gets herself in trouble.

: "W-wow... I can’t even see the top from here. Real scary..."



I just love how Trickster Online can let you get away with SWORD WINGS. It’s just over the top in a good way, alright?

Ah yes while we’re still at it – wings in this game are special equipment items that go on your back. Their primary purpose aside from making you look like a JRPG overlord is to reduce the amount of weight your inventory has, but they’re exclusively MyShop items anyway. Alas.



Type: Sense 
Level: 61
HP: 2,340
AP: 310
MA: 0
DP: 221
MD: 261
Aggressive?: No
Skills:
* Impelling Rage (HP-based skill that pushes enemies away)
* Stone Strike (Standard Sense Attack)
* Aura of Luck (Boosts Luck)
* Sixth Sense (Boosts Detection Ability)
Element: Earth
Weakness: Light
Resistance: Physical
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Mimic Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card)
* Gold (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 65 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Living chest animated by greed that often pretends to be a regular treasure chest to lure people in. Carries a wicked morning star to punish the greedy."

(Boosts Hyper Beat for Bunnies and Physical Training for Cats and Raccoons)

Man, I've seen a lot of mimics in my day and this one just takes the cake. It's a bone lizard chest that carries a flail, like what? It's honestly kinda freaky looking, but at the same time it's just a really cool monster design.



Too bad it has a pretty janky strut, but hey not every monster can be a Disney-level animated marvel. 



Indiana John here is an Story Quest NPC that will play a much bigger role later on, but for now we'll just let him play in the dirt.

(Ah yes, it’s a good time to mention that pressing alt on the keyboard reveals everything around you, so if an item is obscured by the foreground a textbox will hover over it.)



Type: Charm 
Level: 66
HP: 1,990
AP: 370
MA: 72
DP: 176
MD: 469
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills:
* Mana Arrow (Summon two bolts of magic to strike opponent)
* Magic Breakdown (Lowers opponent's magic attack)
* Magic Defense Breaker (Lowers opponent's magic defense)
Element: Earth
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Magic
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Aposis Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Aposis's Stick (Common / Quest Item)
* Crystal Marble (Common / Quest Item)
* Old Book (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 65 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Chaos deity that takes the form of a snake woman. She is extremely dangerous to beginner adventurers no matter their walk of life."

Oh damn, I didn't expect the mythological references to sneak up on me here. That's usually a Castlevania thing.

Anyway, Aposis here is based off of Apep / Apophis (as they're known in Greek) - an ancient Egyptian deity that represented chaos and served as the archnemesis of Ra, god of the sun.

Why are they here instead of the blatantly Egyptian dungeon back in Desert Beach? I'm not quite sure, so there must be a clever reason that I'm not getting.



When you kill an Aposis, they turn into a gold statue version of themselves…? I dunno man, these monsters are already weird as it is.

(Also wow look at my health. They really battered my poor bunny girl! Even if you were a magic user, their stupid high magic defense would be an issue regardless)





SWEET JESUS THAT’S A LOTTA SCARY SNAKE WOMEN 

I’m outta here



[My choice for Azteca OST: Sailing to Scaraba]

Say hello to Azteca, everyone! This is the second major town in the game, and it shows with how much stuff is here: it's kind of like an intermediate version of Paradise in a way.



"Oh, are you the adventurer the [Wise Hen] was talking about?"

: "Yes, I am!"

: "Ho, ho, ho. Okay, adventurer, did you find out something new while looking around this village and the Relics?"

: "Yes, I did!"

I mean... Star Heart was nearly smothered to death by half-naked snake women twice her size. That counts for something, right?

Impa here teases us with the backstory of how this place was made, but she asks for the price of ten recommendation stickers before she proceeds. Ten’s quite a step up from before, but we don’t really have to mess around with Heart Gems like in Paradise, so...



She points us to these people, but... doing all of them would be dumb. This is when 100%’ing the quests in Trickster becomes unfeasible because they throw a ton of extra sticker quests at you…

This is very good for player choice and all (because you have alternatives in case a mission sucks), but the unfortunate thing is that nobody set up shop here today for some godforsaken reason... So I have to do all of the hard work myself.

GOD DAMN IT.

This place is normally packed with player shops, but suddenly when I have to do the LP chapter there’s nobody here? Come on.



Here’s the bank and the storage, as well as Pia in the odd scenario where you decide to use her services. I do like how they change out the normal storage lady with Julio to fit the setting - nice touch.



They even changed out the item and card girls for more Azteca natives (I assume?). The items she’s talking about will not be all that useful for us, so I don’t really care.

I will be coming back here periodically to refill my potion count just so I can survive - you know, standard stuff.




These fancy guys are all the skill masters for the second-tier classes: no joke, their titles are the same as ours if we upgrade. The only one that’s relevant to us is Boxer Jeanne, but we’re both: not high leveled enough to even advance to the next tier, and none of the Skill Cards in her shop are ones we can use as a mere Schoolgirl.

(Honestly the coolest ones of this pack are Warrior Kei, Card Master Taniel and I think Entertainer Elisha is cute.)



Oh hey, Cochma isn’t just a one-off NPC for skill cards.

... Wait, Caballa V?

"You can’t make this on your own. You need the help of your friends to build such a giant robot even if you might be a genius. So I told them to come: the Doctor Neko. You can call him Doc Neko. With the help of his father, he made Caballer Z and Cabalion. They are the best of the best."

... Ancient super robot built by a lost civilization...

Oh my fuck, he wants us to make Voltron with the help of intelligent talking cats. This game, man, you can’t say it’s not creative at the very least. Hell yeah, sign me up!



He wants us to fix up these important parts with the help of the doctor cats (which is surreal enough as it is – is this a thing outside of Caballa Island?), so this shouldn’t be hard... 

Right? 



What a dork. 



Star Heart missed a perfect opportunity to say meowst definitely. 





(Is pelted by tomatoes.)

Anyway, the deal with all four cats is that they want us to do a hella amount of grinding to get the items they want.



Like yikes. Thankfully all the cats give stickers and slates, so at least doing all of their quests are meaningful. (You know, as opposed to doing a ton of busy work just to get one sticker. That would just be evil.)

Each item is in the Caballa Relics Dungeon. You only need ten each of the drillable objects while the monster drops require fifteen. That’s pretty steep, but screw it - we might as well get used to this.



This whacko is Louis Bitton – no doubt inspired by the real life fashion company of the (almost) same name. Louis here may be wacky, but he’s no slouch when it comes to his job: see, upgrading tiers in this game actually changes your appearance.

But let’s say you liked the look of a previous tier better? No worries because he can fix that up for you. It’s all aesthetic, so you still retain the powers and abilities of your highest tier. Man, I’m still astonished by the amount of care the developers put in so the players can enjoy customizing their characters; I love it.





Uh... Moving on.



Guide Sabrina is leading a restoration effort to preserve the beauty of Caballa Relics, so she has three different quests to follow.

With the tomb raider one, she tells us that someone’s been stealing priceless relics and that she wants proof of whodunit. She points us to someone called Fairy Feria who is…



Tiny and adorable. 



In the second quest, Sabrina tells us that her restoration effort is failing because of the lacking amount of tourists contributing to her fund. So her plan of action is to get 15 chunks of gold and 5 gold eggs to sell them off that way.

That’d... certainly be a good way to fix the problem.



The third and final quest of hers is one where we have to ask the Old Artist for an empty container, making him the one of the few Story Quest NPCs that fulfill multiple roles in this area.

(This may also be part of the Story Quest that I'm not remembering properly, so whoops.)



Going into the bath house has us meet up with… Gollum from Lord of the Rings? Are you kidding me? At least I can’t decipher what is name is meant to be, but he even goes “my precious” for corn’s sake.



He asks us to bring him back one of each of these stones (adding up to fifteen total), which isn’t too bad given that this is a TM EXP quest.



… I didn’t expect to get this, but I’ll gladly take it. Good shit.  



Oh yeah, this thing. Shtella's Profile is a daily quest item - if you go to Fortune Teller Stella to trade this in, she'll hand you a Daily Coupon that can be used for getting special items like Stat Stones without having to fight monsters.

You can only do it once per day, but that's not much of a hassle to be honest.



Very nice. There was more than one penguin here, by the way, so I got to reap the reward multiple times!



One of them being the Friend Finder, which would be very useful it I ever really needed it. 



Killing the Mimics destroys their teeth and limbs, leaving me to wonder if they were monsters shaped like treasure chests or simply possessed ones the entire time.



A weight accessory, huh? That'd sure be a nice thought. 





Bunny Maid back at the gate wants us to give her fifteen of these  coins because... well.

Important relic sites at Caballa Island are being damaged, so people wished for it to get better by throwing coins in the fountain. The fountain filled up and the act was prohibited, so people started throwing coins at the ground instead.

I’m just in awe of the sheer amount of thought put into a random sidequest ultimately meant to give you more EXP for the next town.



: "Wow… They sure know how to overwhelm you with quests here, huh? I’m getting tired just from walking around."

[Star Heart's contact gear starts ringing]

: "Oh!"

[She answers the call, with Nebulos appearing on-screen]

: "Hey, Rachel. How are you doing?"

: "Oh! Hi, mister Nebulos! I've made it to the third town - they call it Azteca, I think."

: "Very nice! Glad to hear you're making decent progress. Say, I prepared a gift for you to make your journey a bit easier - it'll make walking around less of a problem, so be sure you equip it!"

: "A gift! Oh, you didn't have to. Where do I go get it?"

: "The lady in charge of the bank has it. Her name is Lisa: you can't miss her if you're still in town."



: "Oh hello there. You must be Star Heart – your friend asked me to give these to you."

: "Thank you, miss! I really appreciate it."



Note: This is not part of the base game, this is just me messing around with some extra stuff I had lying around that Star Heart could utilize.

But yeah, I had a spare Kitty Earring lying around that I wanted to utilize for our own convenience, as well as a pet to replace the one we already have. (Sorry bunny, but Jack here's got your number.)

I forgot to mention that the Trickster website has a function where you can buy stuff from other people using either galders or points. It's honestly pretty fantastic in case I want to get something none of the player shops in-game have.




It's just cathartic seeing all these extra bonus points only to pour them all into attack.  





: "Waah! What the heck are you doing?!"

Name: Punisher Aposis
Type: Charm 
Level: 66
HP: 2,220 x3 (6,660)
AP: 410
MA: 74
DP: 202
MD: 532
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills:
* Mana Arrow (Summon two bolts of magic to strike opponent)
* Magic Breakdown (Lowers opponent's magic attack)
* Cure (Restores some HP)
* Magic Defense Breaker (Lowers opponent's magic defense)
Element: None
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Magic
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Aposis Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Aposis's Stick (Common / Quest Item)
* Staff of Purification (Common / Daily Quest Item)
* Crystal Marble (Common / Quest Item)
* Old Book (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 65 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Leader of the Aposis that lurk in the Caballa Relics fields."

When the Aposis aren’t in the mood for using Mana Arrows, they straight up just flash you for their physical attack. That’s an… interesting way to flex your muscles. (Thankfully they don’t really have any real features otherwise this’d turn into an M-rated game real quick.)



She’s literally just Tinker Bell. Indiana Jones is one thing but I’m pretty sure Disney could sue if they saw this, so yeesh.

Her thing is that she’s been framed as the tomb raider by Monkey T (to the shock of absolutely no one) after being tricked into doing a “treasure hunt”. 





She wants us to retrieve a total of 30 pots from the ground. For some reason it doesn’t bother me when we’re already multi-tasking all these other quests – getting at least one quest done lessens the load, you know?



That's even a mastery card...

Yessssss, give me more! 



: "Awawawa..."

I never got to properly show off what it looks like when you lose all your HP. She looks so dopey lying on the ground there like an idiot. 

The other characters have unique death animations, with the cat even twirling her hair in defeat.



I can at least trust her to use the gold responsibly, because…



Yeah, we’re gonna have to do this one too. You’d think this would be strange given how readily he framed Not-Tinker Bell, but nope: he’s a sticker owner too.



We have to bring him gold rings, bracelets and wheels specifically. Why? I dunno, but I’m pretty sure it won’t end well. He might have even stolen the sticker too, so we gotta do this anyway.



Did I ever explain what the Card Hunter’s Diary does? Because while it’s not kill-a-person valuable like some of the other drops (like the cards themselves, for example), it’s still used for the trade sequences with Card Hunter Eugene.

(By itself it's worthless, though.)





Awwwww. 





I’m not quite sure why they sent this message again, given how we already have the job advancement guidebook. There’s not even a gift for us this time, making it extra weird.



I'm curious to know if this is a problem in real life with all the coins people throw into like, mall fountains.



: "... Oh, if only I were allowed to punch you out here."



This scummy monkey even had the balls to hand us a five galder coupon. That’s just plain insulting.



At least Sabrina has my back regarding Monkey T, the swine.



So fun fact, I decided to trade in my Caballa Slates early to see how much they cost and... yeah, I got both the shield and helmet, but not the weapon. That will be our second best present, you see... 



Vagabond Eloy is cuckoo for coffee. Standard stuff until you realize he wants us to actually freaking make it via compounding.



To do so, we need to buy some empty bottles and water from the store while we have to slay some monsters in the dungeon to get the coffee beans. This can go horribly wrong, so I’m prepared to make repeat visits.



[My choice for this Dungeon's OST: Secret Circle]

Caballa Relics Dungeon is the first real wake-up call in the game, because there's a few monsters in here that show off how devious Trickster can get with its enemy lineup.



Type: Magic 
Level: 73
HP: 2,830
AP: 394
MA: 0
DP: 306
MD: 364
Aggressive?: No
Skills: Rust (Lowers enemy attack)
Element: Earth
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Physical
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Chibcha Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card)
* Ancient Jar (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 65 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Mystical snake that hides its face under an ancient jar. Its glowing eyes seem to dull the strength of those who strike it..."

(Boosts Hellfire for magic users)

It's literally a snake with a jar on its head. That's adorable.



Type: Magic 
Level: 70
HP: 1,190
AP: 376
MA: ??? (Around 70-ish, based on how much they do)
DP: 198
MD: 551 (!?)
Aggressive?: No
Skills: Wind Blade (Air-elemental magic attack that surrounds user)
Element: Earth
Weakness: Fire, Physical
Resistance: Air
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Lima Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card)
* Eye of the Sun (Common / Quest Item)
* Flying Weight (Common / Quest Item)
* Julio's Key (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 65 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Ancient eye sentinel that roams the catacombs of Azteca. It and its kin seem to represent the sun, but nobody knows who - or what - they answer to."

These guys, on the other hand, are weird and I love it. They're like flying eye monsters made out of Aztec technology and that's just cool.



Type: Sense 
Level: 66
HP: 2,585
AP: 352
MA: 0
DP: 252
MD: 299
Aggressive?: No
Skills: Sticky Foot (Reduces enemy avoid rate)
Element: Earth
Weakness: Dark
Resistance: Air
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Guiana Card (Very Rare / Mastery Card)
* Coffee Beans (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 65 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Mouse creature that roams Caballa Relics Dungeon to cause mischief. It is surprisingly fond of coffee beans and is known to cultivate them."

Guiana is just a cute little rat with a nice hat, but it does leave me wondering if these names have actual significant meanings behind them.



This scene with John and the aptly-named Weird Box is a quest we can’t even touch right now, so we’ll leave it alone.



Paul, you better not screw me on this one or I swear to Arceus...





What are the fucking odds of them all coming out right?!

Like seriously! I was expecting at least one to come out as waste, but this is like the best case scenario! No unnecessary grinding, thank god.



: ("This guy has a very punchable face.")

Enjoy your coffee, you dope. Alright, now that all of that is over with, let’s just display the quests the doctor cats gave us and…



Good god my mini-menu looks like a nightmare. If you have too many missions they don’t show up on quest view, so good thing you can choose which ones you want to display.



Malachite is a very powerful item even beyond its quest requirement purposes due to it being a compound item for Magic Defense. Also, unlike its far rarer MD Stone variant, it can simply be dug up in Caballa Relics Dungeon whenever you want.

This makes it pivotal to grab if I get screwed in terms of enemy drops.



If you switch to a different drill the Crazy Drilling meter you accumulated will deplete back to zero, so be sure your old drill didn't have full meter before swapping.



Thanks for all the TM Experience, Not-Gollum. I really appreciate it. Now get off my screen because you're kinda gross.




I’m... beyond words. Back to back MD stones just like that. I’d have to extensively hunt monsters on purpose to get even one stone that I wanted, but this?

Thank you so much, Random Number Goddess.



(No prob)



Yeah... Thanks to how heavy all this shit gets (look at my carrying capacity - 90% and above reduces your speed), I have to come back periodically back to Azteca to give items to the Doctor Cats.

Expect this to happen for... pretty much the rest of the game from now on. 

But hey, you get to see what the advanced portable port looks like! No joke it can take you anywhere and it's not limited by level, so if you wanted to go to an end-game level and get slaughtered then this is your ticket! 



You know what, we might as well take out the time to advance to our second job tier.

Long story short, Boxer Jeanne here wants us to get a Growth Badge from a monster called Kaboom (located in the depths of the Caballa Relics Dungeon). After we do that, we have to hand her three 100,000 Galder Checks to get certified by the Megalo Company.

We have to be at least level 60 with a TM Level of 50 to do this, but honestly? This is super easy and straightforward compared to the third job class trials – those are just a long-winded nightmare waiting to happen.



Andrew sells them here, thankfully... as well as one million and five million galder checks for the crazy rich people out there.

I have no idea what the more expensive checks could be used for aside from giving galders to other players, so you got me there.



WOAH IS THAT A SPHINX

: "W-what the heck!? Where did you come from!? I’m outta here!"

These ghosts are getting crazier each chapter, I swear.



It just so happens that we have not only the required level but also enough slates to get the weapon we need!



We look like a gladiator or something. This is pretty sick in terms of default equipment.



Pay special attention to these slots now that we have the appropriate items to put on them. Different items can be enhanced in different ways: the shield here can only be boosted by MD, LK and HP boosting items.

Likewise, the Helmet can actually have its Attack boosted. (Ironically, the weapon itself can only have DA or HV boosted, so at least it’s good for making sure you can avoid enemy attacks.)

[Star Heart walks back to the dungeon, only to be stopped by a familiar person]



[Current OST: Sunflower Girl #1]

: "Hey, Star Heart!"

: ("Ugh, not her again!")

: "I'm sorry to tell you that I'm making excellent progress! You won't be able to keep up."

: "Oh really? I wasn't aware that this was a race, Blanche."

: "... Sheesh, what kind of rival are you? You're supposed to be like 'yeah, as if - I'll totally beat you!' Put some more spirit into it!"

: "... Can you cut the rival stuff already? Again, I don't even know you. Second, I'm not doing this as a race to see who's the best - I came to Caballa Island for my own reasons."

: "Well! I didn't expect you to be so rude about it. What are you even doing here, then? I bet you haven't even started a quest here!"

: "Actually, on the contrary, I'm almost done. I just need to get some stuff from the dungeon and then that'll be it."

: "What!? No! I won't let someone like you beat me!"

[Blanche storms off in the opposite direction]



: "... What the heck is her problem?"

: "Oh well, that's not any of my business! Back to work!"



Type: Charm 
Level: 78
HP: 3,180
AP: 358
MA: 0
DP: 257
MD: 278
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: 
* Dodge Master (Increases avoid rate)
* Banish (Another demonstration is necessary)
Element: Earth
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Magic
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Chimu Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Smiling Face (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 65 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Masked feline-like creature that lurks under the ground. Its true face is a mystery, with some monster hunters theorizing that the mask is its face."

Chimu is another weird enemy that I'd love an explanation for, mostly because it just seems to have a mask for a face. That and it's the first enemy to have one of the most cruel attacks in the game.



(shrill scream)

You see this abominable blue circle? This is the infamous Banish attack, an enemy exclusive spell designed to completely screw over you, the player.

What it does is that it kicks you out of the dungeon: in any other game that wouldn’t be a problem, but Trickster is specially designed to make dungeon traversal a miserable experience.

Sure, you have fast travel and Memory Ports, but those are limited resources. Not only that, you can’t just teleport to boss rooms unless you use a special item that you can’t get normally anyway.

Killing the monster or getting out of the circle at least stops it from teleporting you, but you have to be quick otherwise you're getting thrown back to Megalopolis.



They just keep coming. 



Type: Power 
Level: 84
HP: 3,215
AP: 541
MA: 0
DP: 333
MD: 396
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: 
* Guard Break (Nullifies enemy avoid and block rate)
Element: Light
Weakness: Magic
Resistance: Gun, Physical
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Naranjo Card (Very Rare / Card)
* Lamplight (Common / Quest Item)
* Ancient Die (Common / Quest Item)
* Stat/Element Stones LV. 65 (Very Rare / Crafting)
Gear Entry: "Enraged relic lantern that punishes intruders of Tombeth's territory. You cannot escape their glare once they see you."

Rude Crude Dudes Alert

Whoof, these guys. Naranjo are the premier damage dealers of the Caballa Relics dungeon and the most powerful enemy we'll encounter yet. This is thanks to their sky high attack and Guard Break, so even if we wanted we couldn't avoid their hits anyway.



The worst part about dealing with them is running out of HP and MP potions. If that happens, it's kind of a slow burn until you die: your natural regeneration is nowhere near capable of refilling your health while in a dungeon. I strongly recommend you retreat when that kind of thing happens.



Look at how dangerous just one is! How the fuck am I going to kill enough to get fifteen ancient die?

But at least they’re generous enough to drop their card for us, given how ruthless they are. (I actually got a second one offscreen if you can believe it. This is like Chuggaaconroy level luck.)



I’m finally using my Memory Port because getting back to this part of the dungeon is an absolute chore, so…

I love how you can write down memos for each of the areas you’ve recorded – that’s real neat.



Oooh! Give me two more of those and we’ll be set for a while.



Type: Charm 
Level: 80
HP: 5,245 x4 (20,980)
AP: 534
MA: 0
DP: 599
MD: 684
Aggressive?: Yes
Skills: 
* Shockwave (Standard Power Attack)
* Berserker (Significantly boosts attack power but can only use normal attacks)
* Cure (Restores HP)
* Guard Break (Nullifies enemy avoid and block rate)
* Dodge Master (Increases avoid rate)
* Suicide (Instant kills opponent but sacrifices user)
Element: Earth
Weakness: Gun
Resistance: Light, Magic
Official Art: Here
Worthwhile Drops: 
* Growth Badge (Common / Job Quest Item)
Gear Entry: "Rough riding mole-man that deals with demolition work. He is the guardian of the second job class promotion items due to a misguided idea that the Growth Badges will transmute bigger and better explosions."

Kaboom is a big boy and has the stats and moveset to prove it. He is, aside from the Naranjos, one of the toughest monsters in this area. Thankfully dealing with him isn't a problem because he's practically guaranteed to drop the Growth Badge in the event you want to promote your character to the next job tier.



Sissy Cello here is… well, as her name says. She got herself lost in this dungeon and is scared of the dark, so she wants us to bring her some lamp lights and smiley masks.



The latter is easy because Chimus are easy to kill, but the Naranjos are a different story.



Lamplights are easier to grab and she only wanted five of them, so at least that wasn't too bad. It's nice knowing she gets to have fun being a weirdo with all her masks and lamps. 



When Kaboom is at low health, he uses the Berserker skill to buff the hell out of his attack. Combine this with Guard Breaker and fighting him turns into a serious hassle.

(I even died offscreen a few times thanks to him and those damn Naranjos. )



As long as you keep your distance it shouldn’t be a problem, but man: for a point and click game there’s a fair amount of strategy going on here.

I really like how it works, you know? It’s not just mindlessly clicking on an enemy until you win.



: "Here you go!"

Aside from Kaboom’s surprising strength, this was easy as pie. Jeanne was just hyping it up to be more difficult than it really was.



: ("Oh boy, I really get to advance to the next tier just like that? This is so exciting!") [Heart thumps]

[A flash of light envelops Star Heart's body. After a while it clears to reveal her new form]



: "Is... is this really me? Wow!"

[Star Heart flexes her muscles]

: "Awww, heck yeah!"



Awwww yeah, here we go. 

Our cute little bunny is now a Boxer! A whole new world of possibilities has just opened for us! The primary reason for upgrading to the next job class is less about stat improvements and more about learning new and more powerful skills.

The caveat is that you have to re-equip all your stuff, but that’s-

Wait... Star Heart’s hair is blue? Whoops, I should probably fix that.



There we go.

I went and bought this Vivid Coloring from MyShop to fix her up since her hair’s supposed to be pink and all.



The Boxer skills are fantastic. For one, we get to use Guard Breaker ourselves! It’s automatically equipped to Shockwave so that skill will get use no matter how far we go into the game. (It also gets Faint applied to it later on, so it becomes practically invaluable.)

However, I just want to highlight some other special skills:



Quad Punch is exactly as it sounds and if the burly boxer man on the cover is any indication, it means business. You actually hit an enemy four times in a row, making it ridiculous in terms of damage output.

Tetra Punch down the line is its improved version that does more damage with each punch, making this vital for slaughtering enemies one-on-one.

If this sounds like cheating... it kinda is but not really? Trickster’s just nuts like that.



Uppercut is an improved version of Upper Smash that is monstrously powerful once you properly level it up. It has a support skill called Counter Punch that increases the damage it does, making it and Tetra Punch the lynchpins of any Boxer moveset.

These are the first steps for Star Heart to become a tiny goddess of death... and I dig all of it. 



Only problem, I forgot to purchase the skill required to learn Quad Punch because it didn’t cross my mind. 



Beautiful.

Word of warning though: if you right click on the Guard Breaker skill, the game will crash. I don't know what's going on there, but it sure freaks me the hell out. 



Another essential I forgot to grab was Pumping Heart, which boosts your attack for a short amount of time. It’s not a significant buff, but every little bit helps.



The Doctors have all completed their mission to build the Super Fighting Robot with cat science!  



Cochma hands us a mini UFO as a pet and he gets to summon not-Voltron. All in all, a major success. 
: 
(Oh and we get more than enough stickers to complete Caballa Relics, hooray. That’s just as cool, I guess.)

: "Nice! That should be enough stickers to finish this town."



: [Pants] "Fancy to meet you again! You caught me in the middle of my own quest. After I finish here, I'll definitely be--"

[Blanche observes Star Heart after noticing her new form] 

: "Wait... why do you look so different all of a sudden?"

: "Oh, I managed to complete the quest to grow into my second job class. I'm a Boxer now!"

[Blanche yells out in anger, with Rachel flinching back]



[Current OST: Sad Tiesel Bonne]

: "That's not fair! This island challenge is so hard and tedious yet you make it look so easy! How do you do that!? My family has more money than you can imagine, yet it hasn't helped me at all here!"

[She stomps the ground]

: "... Whoa..."

: "Listen, Blanche. I don't know what's up with you, but if you want help then you can just ask."

[She pulls out a pair of Azteca stickers and hands them over to Blanche]

: "Here, you can have these leftover stickers. I did more than my fair share of quests, so this isn't a problem for me."

: "What is this? Are you taking pity on me?!"

: "No, dang it!"

: "I'm not doing this because I pity you. You got here to Azteca too, right? If that's the case, I genuinely believe that if you keep going, you'll get far - so why not take some help from time to time?"

: "... Well yeah, but... it doesn't feel the same... How am I supposed to know you even mean this?"

[Star Heart puts the stickers in Blanche's hands] 

: "Just take it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go."

[She walks off into the rest of the city, leaving Blanche alone]



: "... I was expecting everyone on this island to be competitive, but I guess that's not the case..."

You know what, I think that's a good place to cut it off here. The chapter's already eventful enough without the Fortune Teller giving us a history lesson. Next time on Trickster Online, we finish off the Azteca quests and maybe even the first story questline of the game!

See you guys then!



-

Team Set-up:


 (Star Heart / Rachel): "... I hope my words reached her or something. At the very least I hope she'll leave me alone."
* Job class: Schoolgirl ( Tier 1) >> Boxer ( Tier 2)
* Type: Power 
* EXP level: 68 (+16)
* TM level: 56 (+15)
* Gender: 
* Bosses slain: Zero
* Guild: None

 (Nebulos): "I wonder if Rachel enjoyed the pet and Kitty Earring I gave her?
* Job class: Magician ( Tier 2)
* Type: Magic 
* EXP level: 129
* TM level: 139
* Gender: 
* Bosses slain: 1
* Guild: Remedies - Star Captain (De-facto leader)

~

Rival?:


 (Blanche): [Sitting on the steps while gazing at the stickers Rachel gave her]
* Job class: Model ( Tier 1)
* Type: Charm 
* EXP level: 54 (+18)
* TM level: 40 (+9)
* Gender: 
* Bosses slain: Zero
* Guild: None