Howdy, folks, and welcome back! Last time, on Attack of the Saiyans, we got Goku back in the party, to help search for the Dragon Balls, and then I held a vote to see where we started Dragon Ball hunting. Today, we're going to Muscle Tower, so let's head out.



It's here, in the frigid north. Well, north and on the eastern part of the map. Still, there's snow around.



Muscle Tower here had been a base for the Red Ribbon Army a while back, but I was pretty sure it had been destroyed.



Okay, lady, I was wrong. Sorry.



Oh, she's being hollered at by these soldiers.



Eighter? He's around here, too?



Whoa, hey, let's not threaten the lady.



Let's take care of this problem.





We've got more Red Ribbon dudes to handle, including a recolor of an enemy we encountered literally at the beginning of the game.





I think the other guy is a new enemy, but I don't remember. He's got a little punch rush combo to use, though.



It's got some power behind it, too. Gohan is wearing a Defense Bracelet and the Energy Bracelet, netting him an extra 5 Defense and 300 HP.





So, naturally, the dog guy throws a grenade at him.



Okay, we've just gotta get him like, twenty-five more levels and he'll be better.



Piccolo is a few levels lower than the others, but, damn, man, it's Piccolo.



This is Goku using Combination, but he's doing about 250 with his regular attack. He's going to keep putting the others to shame.



Now that's a nice amount of EXP. Inactive characters get 10% of total experience, as well as a similarly low amount of AP. They'll gain levels, sure, but it'll be a long time coming.



Not a problem. Any time we beat up bad guys is a good time.



Well, Goku is strong. The others...Well, Krillin and Yamcha could hang. Piccolo needs to get some more experience, and Gohan is four and a half.



Oh, yeah, Suno and Goku know each other from way back in Dragon Ball. As she said, she lives in Jingle Village and is friends with Eighter.



Though, as for why she doesn't recognize Goku, he has grown about three feet since she last saw him.



Ah, there it is.



: I'm looking for the Dragon Balls!

: The Dragon Balls...

: What's wrong?

: I'm looking for them, too.

: Oh, really? You're looking for them too? But, why?

: It's not that I really want them. It's just... Well...

: What is it? Just say it!



Eighter is Android 8, one of the Androids created by Dr. Gero (who made 16, 17, 18, and Cell, if you're wondering why you recognize that name), who Goku had met on his first visit to Muscle Tower. Eighter is kind of like 16, in that he's actually pretty nice, in addition to being pretty strong. At one point, he destroyed Muscle Tower, so I'm not sure how it's still standing.





Were this a different game, I'd reckon we'd be about to encounter some sort of spooky section.



However, it's just General White. Who had been punched out of the top of the Tower by Eighter. He's also pretty Russian, and tends to over-react. He was the commander of the RR Army around these parts, and I guess he's back.



Well, there's at least one here. And we have the Four Star Ball in our possession (it's in our inventory; I forgot to mention that earlier), and I'm pretty sure he has no way to track them down, so this probably isn't a concern. That, and there's not really much of the Army left.



: I guess that the rumors are true...The Dragon Ball was stolen... So Eighter went to Muscle Tower to get it back...

: If that's the case, you shouldn't have to worry about Eighter! He's stronger than a bulldozer!

: But it's been ten days since he left... That's why I've been so worried...

: It has?! All right! We'll help you find him along with the Dragon Ball then!



Jesus Christ, I feel like I used some sort of ellipses budget up in that last bit of transcription.



Though, that's the most I'll have to do for this update. There's not a ton of talking in this one.



And we're inside Muscle Tower! 



We can talk to Suno throughout our trip here, as she's following us around. It has no real effect on anything, so we're not escorting her or have to worry about her at all.





On the inside, there are some new foes to face off against.



Including the Red Ribbon Spy, who has 2,000 HP to his name.







You can't really go wrong with Ki blasts, but the Spy has no real weakness to exploit. I thought that he did, since he's in a machine, and the other machines we've encountered tend to take better damage from Ki blasts; not as much as a Ghost, but I thought they had a weakness at least.



They don't, so just pound on them however you'd like.





They can dish out a fair bit of damage, though, and that Stun could easily get someone's shit pushed in.



Piccolo gets his ass kicked a few different times in this place.



And since the fight finished with Piccolo out of commission, Goku and Gohan get his share of the experience. As you can see on the bottom, Tien got the regular amount for inactive characters.

Oh! Before I forget to mention it, our other three characters can be swapped in and out of battle at will, so we're not really locked into a single party. I tend not to switch in the middle of a fight for two reasons; A.) when I pick my party, I'm pretty well locked into what set of skills I'd like to have and have who I like and, 2.) I'm not playing FFX here.



There's a few different floors to Muscle Tower; there's only one I'm going to talk about, as there's only one I really know about that has anything interesting.





It's not this one, even though we've met two (technically) new enemies here.





The Spy Dog has 600 HP, so he's already dead.



Though, these guys can heal like the ones we encountered before, but it's for a pretty good chunk of health, more than a physical attack could get rid of.



I might have to do some grinding at some point. If not for EXP, then for carrots, and one will follow the other.



Though, if I do go and grind for carrots, I'll go back to an early dungeon, where I won't wind up massively overleveled.



At this point, I stopped and looked through my Capsules.



There's one that's not needed to get through here, but certainly makes it easier, especially on my amount of supplies.



But first!



New fox enemies!



Energy Wave Combo is pretty great for softening up a group.



They have 630 HP at max; Energy Wave Combo can be a bit random with how it spreads out the hits. I've seen groups of two where one of the enemies is only blasted with just one hit and the other takes it like the French.



Gohan is coming along nicely, I think.



I don't think there's an actual order you're supposed to take these areas on in, but Muscle Tower feels like a good starting point; the enemies aren't too tough, they drop good EXP, and it's not too long to get through.



Some of these dungeons are fairly long, with strong enemies that will wreck some shit.



Anyways, the Capsule I want for this dungeon is in this shop in West City.



Yes, there are Thunder elemental damage floors.

And yes, I hacked my money to infinite levels. If I hadn't, I would have to either grind up nearly 50,000z to buy these boots, growing overpowered in the process, or ground up the money to buy enough healing items so that I can just tank through the damage floors. The only other thing I bought with this much money was a Fire Knuckle, since I'd like to test that out. If it works out well, I might try out the Ice and Thunder Knuckles. Goku has the Fire Knuckle equipped, since there are some enemies in Muscle Tower weak to Fire.





Anywho, back to the Tower.





The backgrounds in this game are really damned nice. Holy shit, is that nice.





These electrical generators spit out that arc and if we walk into it without the Rubber Boots, we're going to take a ton of damage.



And random encounters can still come through during that, so we could easily have gotten a game over without those Boots.



In a special moment of the game, Goku is revealed not to be an actual, corporeal body, but a Will O' Wisp.

What a tweest!





Ah, a new enemy! And I'm pretty sure this fellow is a bit on the rare side.



It's a little robot!



With 980 HP at max, with a weakness to Ki attacks and Thunder.



I didn't realize how much AP Goku had until I saw this shot. I might have to spend some of that before I update next.





This is the room, I'm pretty sure, where Goku met Eighter. He fought the ninja Murasaki here, proving to be more than a match for the smoke and mirrors warrior and his identical brothers. Originally, Marasaki had tried to get Eighter to kill Goku, but Eighter is just too nice for that sort of thing, so Goku knocked him the fuck out. Unfortunately, we never encounter Murasaki himself; that could have made for a fun boss fight.



Clearly, there's something up with that little house down there.



Instead of opening the door, like a reasonable person, Goku proceeds to blow it the fuck up.



This is a nice find; Energy Rings give +100 HP, Energy Bracelets give +300 and Energy Necklaces give +500.



This goes on Gohan, to help him survive. If you're curious how his Defense stacks up against the others, Gohan has nearly as much as Yamcha! 



And here's the Fire Knuckle in action. From what I've seen, it only adds Fire element to your physical, so things like the Combination or the Meteor Combination won't have Fire running through their physical hits. Which is unfortunate, but what can you do?





There's not much left to the Tower right now.



There's some other treasure, not counting what's present here, but we need a better Ki Blast to get to it.



Hey, now we can deal Thunder damage!

One time. To one enemy. With an item.





We're at the top floor now, believe it or not. Muscle Tower isn't the longest of dungeons.



But, man, it looks like we're up high.







This isn't a new enemy, just one I'm collecting Scanner data for.



I didn't get to show this earlier, since I just completely annihilated him. Scrap Iron is good for selling, but only for 3,000z.



They have a beam attack of their own, but it doesn't pack the punch that ours do.



Alright, let's go fight the boss.







Up the stairs, we find General White and Eighter.



C'mon, really? Do you even know who we are?



Well, you know who Suno is, but do you recognize Goku?



I'm not even sure if he met anyone else here. I'm pretty sure he didn't.



I should watch Dragon Ball, just so I can have an idea of these things.



However, Eighter has been brainwashed, so we've gotta snap him out of hit!



SWEET CINNAMON TITTY JESUS HE LOOKS SO PISSED





And he's coming this way!



So, this boss fight takes a looong time. That video is about five and a half minutes long, but some of that comes from Eighter having a ton of health and a few characters going down.



Eighter has 5,000 HP to whittle down, while General White has 4,200.



They're both able to attack, but I focus on Eighter to begin with. He's the damage dealer here, but that doesn't mean White is a slouch.



As he has a gun that shoots Ki blasts.



This can cause Paralysis, but hitting the Guard on it really drops the chance of it. He also has an attack that can Stun someone.



But, Eighter, to me, is the more dangerous here, since he can really smash your ass if you let him.



There's nothing really special about White, other than he's here. Though, if you got the Emerald, you could sell it for 12,000z.





He has a one-two punch to dish out damage; that nearly 300 damage is through a Guard.



As well as a fucking belly flop. This can Stun someone, too. He has an attack he didn't use in this fight, which hits the entire party with some rock spires. He can also raise his own Defense.



He's also weak to Fire, but I'm not really sure that the Fire Knuckle raised Goku's damage all that much.



Piccolo was certainly around in this fight, and earned the MVPB (Most Valuable Punching Bag).



Goku and Gohan, in addition to being father and son, are also the only two playable Saiyans, and so they have an S-Combo together.



It starts with Goku's Kamehameha, which blasts for a bunch of damage and flings him back.



Where he slams into the wall and Gohan comes in with his Rush combo, laying the smack down on the unfortunate fellow.



Nice. 1,200 of 5,000 HP gone, just like that. S-Combos are extremely powerful and can turn the tide of a bad battle if you use them right.



And then, Piccolo, not wanting to be out-classed, kicked General White right in the dick.







And General White responded by beating Piccolo's ass for such an action. The green guy did not have the best time in this dungeon.



General White can also raise either his own, or Eighter's, Attack, which could be very dangerous.



So let's skip to the end of the fight, where Piccolo gets the last hit in.



Gohan actually gains two levels from this fight; he's getting ever closer to the magical level of 35, where things start to turn around for him.



This is the only time in the game you're going to see that portrait. That is such a minor thing, I'm not even sure why they'd make a portrait for it, but it's very cool that they did.



But he's dead now, and Eighter is still pissed. Great.



Or will the Power of Friendship™ prevail!?







Then, Eighter looks around the room, starting with Gohan.



Oh, hey, he doesn't look scary anymore! He looks really nice!



Maybe a little like Frankenstein's Monster, but that's okay. The Monster was cool.



: You had me worried! But... I'm so glad you're all right...

: Eighter, I'm glad you're alright!!

: Who are you...?



That...Is not where Goku is standing, Eighter.



...



Though, the confusion is understandable.



It could very well have something to do with all the punches to the head and face we gave him.



Hey, is it even possible to give an Android a concussion? I mean, they used to be human...



: I've got it right here!

: Good! You see, Goku and his friends need to gather the Dragon Balls!

: ...I see. If it were someone with an evil heart, there'd be trouble. But I know Goku will use it for good. Take it...



Alright, one down! We're that much closer, people!



: You saved me again...I should be thanking you...

: Thank you, Goku! Stop by Jingle Village if you have time! We'll give you a big welcome!



Alright, people, that polishes off this update! Well, the Dragon Ball hunt part of it. Before we go too much farther, let's stop by Goku's house real quick.



Chi-Chi might want to know Gohan wasn't turned into monster chow and pooped out, and that Goku is out kicking around, trying to get revived.





Keep in mind, Goku doesn't say one fucking word to Chi-Chi here. He just lets her say this and moves on with his day.



Piccolo doesn't garner any special reaction out of here, and neither does anyone else. She just asks about Gohan.



However, if Gohan speaks to her, she has more to say.





She gives us a new Capsule!



Also, Gohan takes a page from his father's book, and doesn't say shit to his mother.



It'll restore some HP as we walk around, which could be handy. I might play around with it, as it'll still restore HP, even when it's on Standby. It could come in handy in a pinch.

VOTE OR DIE


The Devil's Toilet is just south of Baba's Palace and holds a Dragon Ball. It's the closest location by far.



The Yunzabit Heights are in the frigid north, cold as shit, and a place at the end of the Earth.



Next is this mysterious cave in the ocean; what wonders could it hold?



There's also this barren desert, marked by the gigantic skull of some long-dead beast.

These are the places available to us to continue our search, so BOLD a vote for where we go to begin our search for the Dragon Balls. And while you're at it, you can even BOLD a vote for who I take in my party; anyone is available to take, and you have until Saturday, 8:00 PM, EST, to get your votes in. Whichever place has the most votes is where I'll go next, and the three characters with the most votes are who I'll be taking along.

Part 31 | Part 33