Mother of All Terrors
Previously, we explored the depths of Uratheul, and opened the way to the Matriarch's resting place. However, we're not ready to face her just yet. Sure, we can probably defeat her handily at this point, but we've only opened five of the Paininite chests in the Observer's Shrine. Of course, there were only five areas in Uratheul that hid a shard, so where could the last one be?
From the shrine's basement, you can access this minigame. Run around this enormous mine (with several un-mine-like sub-areas) gathering Fortune Tickets.
Just don't dilly-dally for too long, else you'll end up going home empty-handed!
With what we gathered from just one visit to the mine, we can pick up all sorts of things you can't buy from Erick, like healing items, buffing items, and, of course, the last Paininite Shard.
With this, all of our party members are at max power. Now, onwards to the new Daybreak---
Oh. Pulling out most of the stops for the home stretch, I see.
There's a brief passage where we both get warned by the Inner Evocations, and chat up more Expanse denizens that have found their way here.
Despite being sidetracked in dreamland, it looks like we're just in time.
The Inners have also reached this twisted inner sanctum, and are prepared to go to any lengths to ensure that their plan succeeds. And with that, the final battle with the Matriarch begins.
The Final Battle (click to view)
The first phase is just a formality. After a few turns have passed, the Inners will get irritated and force the Matriarch's awakening, as seen above.
However, things do not go as they anticipated.
Imagine being woken up from a pleasant nap, only to find that your children have burned down the house and killed the neighbor's dog. This is sort of what she's feeling right now.
Noticing the humans standing before her, and horrified by the atrocity that has been carried out in her name, that she begs them to kill her and end her misery.
Phase 2: the boss does not take any action, and is weak against guns, similarly to the very first boss we fought. But of course, beating up on a suicidal deity does not make for much of a final boss, doesn't it?
At this point, the Inners are panicking. All their effort, gone just like that? But just then, Chagora pulls out a mysterious object, and attaches it to the Matriarch. This is the Override Relic, which, as its name indicates, can be used to overwrite the will of whoever wears it. So what on earth was the point of reviving her if they were just going to use her as some sort of flesh mecha?
The next four phases consist of each of the Inners commandeering their mother's body. They performa lot like how they did when taking on human hosts. Lamar's elemental shields prove useful here, as do Dottie's buffing relics. It's the final battle, after all,so there's no need to be stingy with your resources. Phritotch can be rather tough, since there's no Eldritch shield, and even while the whole party's defending, her charged attack does around half of their health.
Let's look at this from the boss' point of view. Her own children have awoken her from death against her wishes, killing an untold amount of people in the process, and are now puppeteering her body in an effort to kill the people trying to stop them.
To put it simply, Xelanyel is pissed.
, she breaks free of the relic and, cursing her rebellious spawn, devours them.
There's barely any semblance of tactics with this phase; the Matriarch, or rather, her spawn that are still struggling inside her, pound you with hard hitting psychic attacks. The one saving grace is that this phase isn't quite as durable as the earlier boss rush phase, so it isn't very long before the Matriarch is returned to her eternal rest.
Side note, anyone else reminded of Final Fantasy XIII with the villains' plan? To make a long, confusingly told story short, in that game, the gods were trying to kill everybody so they could bring back their creator, and tried to use the main party to bring it about. Here the gods of the eldritch nether-realm are trying to bring back their mother, and kill off an entire town to do so. I guess we know which plot makes more sense.
Ending (click to view)
With the defeat of the Matriarch, the warped and ruined town that was grafted to her carcass against her will is no more.
But there are still a few questions: first, how do we get back home? Second, what happened to the survivors that we met over the course of the adventure?
Well, that answers the second question, while at the same time raising another. Didn't the entirety of Daybreak get forced into the Expanse after the temple appeared? Hasn't it been made abundantly clear that the Inners have absolutely zero regard for human life?
Fortunately, the first question a conveniently placed portal leading back to the real world popped up just offscreen. Unfortunately, since Vi and Erick are zombies now, they can't go back to the real world with everyone else. At least they'll have Zlonyth to keep them company in...the empty void this place is turning into, I guess.
No need to worry about the logic of this situation, let's enjoy the credits!
The last thing you see as the credits wrap up is this image where literally no one is on model. Thank you for playing.
And that was the game. Sure, three of our four party members have had not only been uprooted from pretty much everything they've known before, but have either resided or been employed in a place that, from an outsider's perspective, never existed to begin with. And one of them is still a minor, to boot! How do you think that any of them will be able to go on living a normal life after this? I feel that telling the wrong person about any of the stuff that went on in this game will no doubt be a one-way ticket to being institutionalized!
...But at least the game lived up to it's title, right?