THREE DAYS LEFT, PART 4: PYREFLY FOREST
Similar to the SPROUT MOLE COLONY of CATTAIL FIELD, SPROUT MOLE VILLAGE exists underground, making this section a bit of a side-scroller. Climb down the ladder from the surface and you'll find MARI at the bottom, waiting to lavish you with a save point and some tomatoes. She'll also give you TOFU, which SPROUT MOLES apparently love. Good to know.
To the left of MARI is a ticket boot. The ladder beside the booth leads up to SWEETHEART'S show, for which you have tickets. Before you head up to see the show, however, you should have a look around SPROUT MOLE VILLAGE for a bit:
- To the right of the entrance ladder is a ladder up to a small home. There's a BROTHER MOLE here who wants to send a CARE PACKAGE to his brother in OTHERWORLD'S SPROUT MOLE COLONY. This begins the CARE PACKAGE side quest. The SPROUTE MOLE COLONY is accessible via CATTAIL FIELD. Turning over the CARE PACKAGE will earn you a LIFE JAM.
- If you head into the depths of SPROUT MOLE VILLAGE you'll find a classroom on your right. The students have some goofy things to share. (Especially if you grew up in a certain time period.)
- If you go down the ladder from the classroom you'll find the home of the MOLE SPROUT MAYOR, who is apparently conducting scientific experiments. To the left of the ladder is a wire, and if you cut it it will flatten a monster one level down, allowing you to access ORANGE JUICE, a COMBO MEAL, and LIFE JAM. If you cut the wire you can't fight the monster, however, which we should... so...
KING CARNIVORE
This is a bit of a rough fight. The enemy team consists of KING CARNIVORE itself and its two ROOTS, which can both attack you and heal the enemy party. KING CARNIVORE'S attack set is pretty basic, though painful: Either it will attack a character with vines and do damage or use a gas to make the whole party HAPPY. HAPPY status lowers everyone's accuracy, which is not ideal.
Normally you'd have to defeat the ROOTS to get anywhere, but there's a simple solution: Have OMORI make them SAD with SAD POEM. Once the ROOTS are SAD they will no longer take any useful actions, allowing you to focus on KING CARNIVORE. You can now either make KING CARNIVORE SAD to reduce its damage output or make it ANGRY, then have OMORI use MOCK to reduce its damage output. AUBREY will be able to HEADBUTT it to death at that point, and her POWER HIT will make reducing its health even easier. Under normal circumstances KING CARNIVORE can hit for over 100 HEARTS each turn, so it's within your interests to keep everyone's health high.
You'll receive JAM PACKETS for defeating KING CARNIVORE. You'll also receive a whopping 9,000 EXP and 2,750 CLAMS, making this fight more than worth the extra effort.
- West of the classroom you'll find a kitchen staffed by TOFU fans. Two of the chefs will argue over the merits of cold and hot TOFU with HERO, and the third will offer you a slew of TOFU-related facts. Fascinating. If you go up the ladder you can buy TOFU for one CLAM from the TOFU JASH. (For the record, TOFU is not particularly good as a restorative item, especially in battle.)
- Head down from the kitchen to find a bunch of ladders. Right next to the entrance ladder is a JOKE that you can record in your JOKE BOOK. There's a ladder here leading to a small room with a Christmas tree. Slice it up to earn an achievement, as well as receive a PRESENT. What a monster.
- Head west from the laundry and you'll find four SPROUT MOLES who love the four seasons of the year. Agree with one of them and it will give you a CHARM... but you'll annoy the other three. The WINTER MOLE will give you a SCARF, which boosts defense; the FALL MOLE will give you a RAKE, which boosts attack; the SUMMER MOLE will give you SUNSCREEN, which boosts HEART; and the SPRING MOLE will give you a WATERING PAIL, which boosts JUICE. Choose as you will.
- At the bottom of the ladder near the seasonal quartet is a line of SPROUT MOLES on treadmills. Near them is a giant electrical outlet and plug. We'll get back to this shortly.
There's more to see and do in SPROUT MOLE VILLAGE, but you can't access any more content until you've seen SWEETHEART'S concert. Return to the entrance and bypass the ticketer. Inside the concert hall you'll find a ton of SPROUT MOLES, waiting for the show to start, and a surprising number of them have unique dialogue. (One of them is just straight-up dead.) Take your seats at the front-left when you're ready for the show to begin.
Suffice it to say that the show will not quite go as planned, and a sudden blackout will... result in the death of one of the contestants. Ahem. Head back to SPROUT MOLE VILLAGE and climb down to the room with the SPROUT MOLEs on treadmills. Plug the plug back into the wall socket, then head back to the concert hall. (You can also jump on a treadmill for a bit, if you like.)
Upon arrival HERO will be picked out of the group by a MUSTACHE MOLE. Sit down in your seats again and, surprise surprise, HERO will be one of the three contestants on stage. Things do not go well - SWEETHEART does not like to be rejected, it turns out - and the whole party will be thrown into THE DUNGEON.