Piastol

Piastol
Profile:
Character Type:	Enemy
Age:	17
Homeland:	Valua (former)
Faction:	Bounty Hunter
Voice Actors:	Lynn Eve Harris (English Version)

A character appearing exclusively in Skies of Arcadia Legends,
Piastol (ピアストル, piasutoru) is a quiet, icy cold, and surprisingly lethal bounty hunter who has taken on the nickname given to her by her foes: The Angel Of Death. She has devoted her life to the sole purpose of hunting down and killing any and all Air Pirates.

Appearance

Piastol is a tall, slender 17 year-old woman with a startling appearance. She has icy blue eyes and silver-streaked black hair, held up in three ponytails that have been dyed to match the icy blue color of her eyes, as well as the moonstone blade of her scythe. She wears a leather outfit comprised of full length pants and a sleeveless top revealing her arms and stomach with huge blades attached to the toe of her boots, and carries a scythe that is at least a foot taller than she is. Like Vyse, she also bears a scar across her left cheek, but the cause of which remains unknown.

Personality

Piastol holds no value to distinction between Blue Rogue or Black Pirate, believing them to have little to no real differences. She is quoted as saying, in a rage, "they're all the same!" Piastol starts appearing in game soon after Vyse and Aika rescue Dyne, his crew, and Fina, at which point she begins to challenge Vyse a succession of times. It turns out that she has ties to his past, but she does not begin to reveal them until Vyse and party defeat her the third time.

It is revealed after her fourth battle with Vyse that Piastol knew that Vyse and Aika were not lying about their end of the story and wished to die to her old enemy in battle out of remorse for her unwarranted attacks. Vyse and Aika instead encourage her to reconcile with her long lost sister aboard Doc's ship.

Plot

Her Past

Young Piastol and Aika

Piastol is the daughter of the now long deceased Admiral Mendosa of the Valuan Empire. When she was still very young, around 10 years old, the family traveled together aboard Mendosa's Flagship, the Aquila. One night the Albatross encountered the Aquila, and discovered the vessel to be in severe distress. Vyse and Aika were both aboard at the time, being around 10 years old, and can both recount the appearance of the Aquila burning in the sky. The Albatross, being a Blue Rogue vessel, followed code and attempted to render assistance to the vessel in need. Thinking that this would be merely a rescue mission, Vyse and Aika accompanied the crew as they boarded the ship without weapons. Piastol encountered the two of them alone as they searched for survivors and, having awoken in the midst of the blaze, assumed that the air pirates were attacking the vessel. Thinking that it was they who has set fire to the ship she reacted swiftly and tried to kill Aika with a throwing knife aimed at her throat. Vyse jumped in front of Aika, barely clearing her from the path of the blade, which grazed his face, resulting in the characteristic scar on his cheek. In the confusion, Piastol makes for the life boats and escapes unharmed and with a permanent grudge against Air Pirates of all colors. Mendosa's body was later listed in the Valuan obituary, his cause of death listed as a sword wound, further confirming Piastol's grudge. Piastol left Valua sometime after that. The loss of her father, coupled with the apparent death of her sister, resulted in the birth of the individual now known as "The Angel of Death," whom swore to hunt down and cleanse the sky of all air pirates.

Ironically, Valua would put Piastol as one of the most dangerous violators of Empress Teodora I's anti-piracy laws.

Encounters

The first time Piastol encounters Vyse and his crew, she is merely hunting them because of the renown Vyse has gained as an Air Pirate, which attracted her attention. She did not recognize her opponent from the past until after her first defeat, when she notices the scar on his cheek. After that point she turns her hunt into a personal vendetta to bring Vyse and his allies down. The second time they battle she reveals that it was because of Vyse that she became the Angel of Death, but it is not until the third battle in which she is defeated she reveals her past. While Aika and Vyse try to explain their side of the story, Piastol refuses to believe them, instead telling Vyse that she would hunt him down one last time, in which she would put everything on the line. Each time Piastol wishes to fight, she delivers a 'Black Spot' through the Sailor's Guild to the pirate she wishes to fight.

Truth Behind the Attack

After the third battle, Piastol realized she had the events surrounding the death of Mendosa completely wrong. The Albatross had no hostile intentions against the Aquila, and never fired a single cannon against it. As told by Doc, the cause of the fire turns out to have been Ramirez himself, then an officer directly under Mendosa. Ramirez had just discovered that Mendosa had betrayed him; Mendosa had promised Ramirez that he would investigate allegations of cruelty towards the Ixa'takan people. However, Mendosa himself was responsible for said cruelty, forcing the Ixa'takans into slave labor to mine Moon Stones for himself and increase his own wealth and influence. Due to the shock and heartbreak resulting from this event, Ramirez, then very similar in personality and demeanor to Fina, suffers a major breakdown and goes berserk. Being an extremely powerful combatant, he devastates the ship and crew, killing Mendosa and any that got in his way as he escaped the vessel. This is the day that Ramirez refers to at the end of the game when he says to Fina "the Ramirez you knew is already dead." The old Ramirez died that day, much the same as the old Piastol died that day.

End of the Angel of Death

When Piastol is finally presented with this version of events, she refuses to believe it at first. Eventually, she accepts this as the truth when she learns that her sister is not in-fact dead, but had been rescued by Doc before the Albatross had arrived, which is why she had been listed in the obituaries as "missing." Although she vows (again) to kill Vyse if he is lying to her, she accepts his advice and goes to see her, finally beginning to heal the scar on her personality that had defined her for many long years.

Going back to Doc's ship after the fourth fight and feeding Picollo all 24 moonfish will show the cutscene required for completing the "Angel of Death" sidequest, a pre-requisite for the "Vyse the Legend" Title.

Attacks

Piastol does not fight alone. In combat, she is accompanied by a Ferlith named Deathhound, which can be assumed to be either her pet or a trained beast. Deathhound is formidable, but compared to Piastol, it is merely irritating. It often casts Green spells, including both the Sacri and Noxi line spells (depending on which version of Deathhound you encounter.) It will eventually use stronger spells, such as Sacrum and Noxus at the higher levels. Deathhound's standard attack can cause fatigue.

While Piastol has a number of devastating Super Moves, what makes her truly dangerous is an uncanny success rate with Eterni based spells. This is due to the fact that in Legends the Eterni spells begin with a 50% success rate which is then altered in favour of the attacker and defender depending on their will and magic defence stats. As Piastol's will registers nearly off the chart compared to the parties magic defense stats (as well as all other foes), her Eterni and Eternes casts nearly always succeed. In the last encounter, she has mastered Eternum.

Super Moves

Piastol has her own Super Moves, all of which are extremely lethal.

Tempest Dance

Tempest Dance, is her personal favorite, where she viciously kicks and slashes at her opponent with the spikes of her boots and scythe. Tempest Dance is named after the manner of the attack, her motion and movements during the attack are very dance-like, with great effect of every arc of her arms and legs bringing a blow to connect with her target at otherwise unpredictable angles. Over the course of the various encounters with Piastol, she hones her ability to perform this attack to better and better effect, extending the animation as she learns new motions to attack with. This attack seems to correspond to Vyse's Cutlass Fury.

Deluge

Deluge is her secondary S.Move, which she only begins to perform after a few encounters. During this technique she leaps into the air and hurls an array of throwing knives down at the battlefield, striking the entire party, not unlike Vyse's Rain of Swords. Her S-Moves all become much more powerful after every encounter, as well as all of her other overall stats.

Battles

Piastol can be fought four times throughout Skies of Arcadia Legends; her battles serve as some of the toughest in the game. During battle, she fights alongside her dog Death Hound. All battles are optional, and are signified by receiving a "Black Spot" from a Sailor's Guild that directs Vyse to go west of Sailor's Island, where one can commence battle by talking to her aboard her small boat.

Though Piastol and Death Hound do level up with the player to a certain extent, it is still recommended that players level up if they are struggling, such as to learn new Super Moves or magic.

Battle 1

The first battle is available as soon as Vyse and company escape from Valua for the first time; however, the battle is best started once the party are at least around level 17, which most players will likely reach after defeating Recumen and Belleza in her Lynx. At the very least, before starting the battle, Fina should be leveled up as she starts at level 1 and other characters will be above level 10 at this point. As well as leveling up, the party should take the time to learn some magic – especially the first two Silver spells (Risan can prove very helpful) – the enemies in the skies around Maramba are great for this, offering double the magic experience than other enemies.

As with all battles against Piastol, Death Hound should be focused on first. All characters should be buffed with Increm (the item Glyph of Might, bought in Maramba's item shop for 100 Gold each, can also do this with the added benefit of not using Spirit Points or MP); Vyse and Drachma will benefit from the damage boost while Aika and Fina will benefit from the defensive boost.

Piastol's Tempest Dance and Eterni attacks are the biggest threat to the party. Vyse and Drachma should concentrate on dealing out damage, using Cutlass Fury or Tackle respectively when the Spirit Bar is sufficiently charged, while Aika and Fina take a more supportive role, using items (or magic, though items are recommended as they don't use Spirit Points) to keep the party sufficiently healed and free from status ailments. Casting Aika's Delta Shield every turn will prevent Piastol from casting Eterni, which is capable of killing a party member instantly and has a much higher success rate compared to any other enemy in the game; however, this means that the player will also not be able to cast magic, and as such should buff everyone with Increm beforehand and then utilize items to heal everyone. Tempest Dance is capable of devastating damage, particularly when used against the girls; every character needs to be kept in high health (well over 1,000), so use Sacres Crystals preemptively if possible.

Much of the difficulty of this battle lies in preparation and luck; be sure to buy supplies from Sailor's Island and Maramba beforehand, and make sure everyone is sufficiently leveled and know a good amount of magic. In terms of maximum health, Piastol and Death Hound do level up with the party but not to the same scale. As this fight can be tackled whenever, players who are struggling can consider coming back much later in the game when they have better stats and more Super Moves and magic.

Battle 2

In the second fight Piastol adds a few kicks to her Tempest Dance, making it stronger. Like the first fight, she will cast eterni, and now wevles during the fight making Aika's Delta Shield extremely helpful.

A good way to deal with Tempest Dance is by waiting until Enrique is a member of the party and casting Justice Shield every turn in order to half the damage for the whole party.

Death Hound will now cast Sacres on Piastol for this and the next fight.

Battle 3

In this third fight, Piastol will now do a jump attack with her scythe after kicking you in Tempest Dance, increasing its damage once again. She introduces a new move called Deluge that does about a third of the damage of Tempest Dance to the entire party. The threat of these two moves makes Justice Shield very handy.

She also will now use Eternes and Wevlum during the fight making Delta Shield a borderline necessity for the fight. If you do not wish to use Delta Shield or Aika is frequently put out of commission for whatever reason, bringing anti-death accessories is highly recommended.

Death Hound will now cast Noxus on this and the next fight.

Battle 4

This fight is only available after feeding Maria's Hamachou, Piccolo, 22 moonfish and completing the events of Dangral Island.

Piastol now adds a backslash after her second jump attack, upgrading it even further. Deluge is also stronger but the animation is the same.

Piastol now adds Eternum and Wevlen to her magic arsenal.

Piastol's regular attack can now inflict party members with stone making curia crystals useful.

Death Hound will now use Sacrum for this fight.

Trivia

• In keeping with the theme of naming characters after currencies (see Drachma, Gilder, Dyne), Piastol's English name appears to be mistranslation of piastre, which was the name of several currencies formerly used in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Her Japanese name, ピアストル, is written the same way that piastre is in Japanese.
• The black spots Piastol sends out to her targets are a reference to the book Treasure Island, in which pirates receive a black spot before they were to be executed.
• Piastol's super moves parallel Vyse's in both name and effect of attack: Tempest Dance corresponds to Cutlass Fury while Deluge corresponds to Rain of Swords; Vyse's Cutlass Fury was called "Cutlass Dance" in the original Japanese.

External links

• Skies of Arcadia Legends Boss FAQ by Cyril - GameFAQs