Can this Let's Play of Eternal Sonata truly be just a dream?

Welcome back to Eternal Sonata! Last time both our groups traveled through Agogo Forest, and Frederic and Polka got beaten up by some dude with a katana and an attitude problem. Hopefully we’ll learn what happened to them afterwards soon…



♪♪~ Innumerable Animals

Heading through this archway seems like a good place to start looking for them.



Just a little path and we’ll be in the next area.



♪♪~ Can We Be Both Different and Alike





What a cozy little village! It shouldn’t take long to look around, at least.



First we have to finish going up the path, though. As soon as we do...



Click to watch the cutscene

Beat: “Hey, I think I see someone over there.”
*The two of them head up the stairs.*



Allegretto: “So, it’s just the two of you? Alone? All the way out here? Must be tough.”
*The door behind March is heard opening and closing.*



March: “Lately, though, I must admit I’ve been surprised at how many guests have been showing up around the forest.”
*March hears footsteps behind her and turns around.*



*Polka walks down the stairs.*
Polka: “Huh? Where… where am I?”
March: “You were found lying unconscious at the upper entrance of the forest. The agogos came to me, and told me where I could find you. I think your friend is out taking a walk somewhere nearby. He kept mumbling to himself. Something about trying to find inspiration for his music.”
Allegretto: “Excuse me, but what are ‘agogos’?”



Including Beat’s response because it’s adorable.

March: “Anyway, they don’t approach human beings. And recently, it seems as though the agogos haven’t really been showing themselves at all.”



March: “In fact, I still can’t believe they came to me about rescuing a human being at all. This is the first time anything like that’s ever happened.”
Polka: “So the agogos rescued me? Even though… even though I’m….”
March: “I think maybe you should get some more rest right now. I’ll fix you something warm to eat.”
*She starts heading back inside her house, but stops and turns around.*



Polka: “Who, me? Well I’m….”
Allegretto: “You’re Polka, right?”
Polka: “What?!”
Allegretto: “You sell floral powder in Ritardando. Yeah, I heard someone say your name once.”



Allegretto: “Hey, Polka, what’s the matter?!”



Beat: “Why’d she run off like that? Did we say something wrong?”

Gonna guess she doesn’t like being reminded of having a terminal illness. Just a hunch.



*Frederic turns to the group.*
Frederic: “Did something happen?”
March: “She really shouldn’t be running around like that. She’s only just recovering.”
*They all look off in the direction she went.*
March: “That path doesn’t go very far off though. So at least she shouldn’t get lost.”
*Suddenly, Polka screams from offscreen.*



*The two of them run off as the scene ends.*



♪♪~ Rapid Fire

Oh no, Polka’s in trouble! We’ve gotta go do something about it!



It definitely was! The other NPC’s around the village all say similar things, so instead of talking to them let’s go before something bad happens!

(I do take care of a few things offscreen first, but I’ll show that stuff next time so as not to break the pacing here.)



Click to watch the cutscene and boss fight



Oh man, that’s a pretty big monster. Polka might have a hard time fighting it by herself…



♪♪~ Opposition Resignation

Here comes the cavalry!



*Allegretto looks over at Frederic.*
Allegretto: “I can understand that you want to fight. But are you sure? After all, you’re recovering, too, aren’t you?”
Frederic: “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me. Right now, we have to concentrate on keeping these things away from Polka!”



Speaking of, they seem pretty mad!



Boss: Ogre Champ, L’Opera Knight x2
HP: 45,530 (Xbox 360)/43,000 (PS3)
Exp: 2,000 (Xbox 360)/1,000 (PS3)
I see another big sword on its back: Oh don’t worry, it only uses the one in its hand.



Beat: “C’mon, let’s fight!”

The Ogre Champ isn’t really much harder than the Baby Dragon was; sure, it has more HP, but this is the first boss we’re fighting with a full party, and it’s a pretty balanced one at that.

Allegretto and Frederic are going to start the fight by getting rid of the L’Opera Knights. At this point they’re weak enough to fall to standard melee combos, and this way we can keep the Echo Meter intact.



Beat: “Watch the little birdie!”

Beat, of course, is going to spend his first few turns having a photo-op with the Ogre Champ. (Selling the photos of the Baby Dragon is one of the things I did off-screen; more on that next time.)



The Ogre Champ’s basic attack is a two-hit combo with its big ol’ sword; the individual swings are pretty easy to guard against, and it’s so slow that a couple combos can very well take up its entire turn.



Unfortunately the boss prefers using its arsenal of special attacks over its standard combo. Decapitate is the most dangerous one, easily capable of taking off over 1,000 HP if you fail to guard like I did here. It can also hit other characters besides the main target if they’re standing close enough to each other, so try not to do that if you can avoid it.



This isn’t strictly necessary, but I use a Poison Whitecap to speed up the fight a little. Poison inflicts a fixed amount of damage based on the target’s maximum HP at the beginning of their turn, and it also causes them to stagger, wasting time on the Action Gauge if they don’t have any Tactical Time. The latter part is especially useful for bosses, which is what I’m counting on here more than the damage. (I did some math, and it seems to be a little under 5% max HP per turn, but I’ll have to do further testing to see if that’s consistent.)



Sadly I have to spend Frederic’s turn healing himself instead of attacking, but I won’t be caught unawares next time. If you’re confident in your guarding skills or are more willing to lean on items for healing, having Coup de Grace instead is a good option since about half the battlefield is in the light.



These are two of the Ogre Champ’s other specials. Ground Strike is a massive punch that can cause knockdown if unguarded, and Big Smash is an AoE that affects a wide area around the boss. It has another special, called Big Break, that’s kind of a hybrid of the previous two – a big sword swing that sends out a wave of fire on either side – but it’s pretty rare, and I didn’t see it happen in this recording.



The unfortunate thing about poison is that it causes an enemy to enter its hunched-over animation even if it isn’t close to being defeated, so it can be tough to gauge how far along in the fight you are. It’s a small price to pay for the help it provides, though.



Frederic: “A never-ending vibration, within eternal silence.”

Thanks to how the turn order worked out, Frederic ended up dealing the most damage by far over the course of the battle. I tend to use up the Echo Meter as soon as it’s full, and it just so happened that Frederic kept filling it up first.



Once it’s close to defeated, the Ogre Champ might use One Gulp to heal itself, although it doesn’t happen very often. Still, this is your cue that the fight’s almost won.



Just a little bit more…



Allegretto: “Listen closely, to the angry winds of your requiem!”

And Allegretto deals a massive blow, finishing the fight!



♪♪~ Well-Done

Allegretto: “Heh, how was that?”

Excellently done, I’d say. Everyone present gains a level, and a new sword for Allegretto isn’t too shabby, either.



♪♪~ No music

Click to watch the cutscene



Polka: “No, I’m all right. Thank you.”



It might be hard to see, but there’s a glowing ball of light, and it’s starting to bounce toward the group…



Beat: “It’s kind of weird. Look, Retto. It’s glowing.”
*Polka looks toward the agogo.*
Polka: “Agogo, thank you for saving me.”
Beat: “I’ve never seen one of those before. Oh, I know! I’ll take a picture of it!”
*Beat moves to take out his camera, but before he can...*



Polka: “Where did it go?”
Allegretto: “Great job, Beat. You scared it off by taking that stupid thing out! I wish I could’ve touched it.”
Beat: “Gee, I’m sorry Retto.”

Allegretto is being… weirdly petulant here? Like, yeah he’s a teenager, but still. It’s weird. Plus he made Beat sad, and that’s not cool.



Polka: “I’m sure it’ll come out again.”
*She starts to stand up.*



Allegretto: “I’m Allegretto.”



I can understand why he’s lying here – if I were in his situation I wouldn’t go around telling everyone I met that I was an orphan living in the sewer, either.



Beat thinks it’s hilarious, though!

Allegretto: “Anyway, enough about me. What’s a powder seller like you doing way out here? Are you headed somewhere?”



Flashback time!



Solf�ge: “Now is not the time to discuss this! We have a guest in the house.”
Polka: “I told you the reason floral powder isn’t selling is because people can buy mineral powder so cheaply. I’m sure he’ll understand if I talk to him.”
Solf�ge: Polka dear, don’t be foolish!”



Polka: “I’ve already made up my mind! Don’t try to stop me!”
*She runs into her room and slams the door behind her.*
Solf�ge: “Polka!”

*She listens at the door for a few seconds, but Polka doesn’t respond.*
Solf�ge: “Polka, are you listening?”



*The flashback ends and we return to the present.*



Polka: “Oh, yes.”



*The scene transitions once more as the group heads to March’s house offscreen...*



Click to watch the rest of the update

Looks like March made tea for everyone while they talked. That was nice of her!



Beat: “Frederic, huh? Okay. No problem. I’m really good at remembering people’s names.”
March: “You said you’re going to Forte. Do you mean Forte Castle?”
Polka: “Yes, I do.”
March: “You should know that Forte is not a very friendly place right now. It’s much nicer here in Agogo Forest.”



Beat: “Ah! You mean mineral powder, right?”



March: “If something isn’t done soon, the agogos are going to lose even more of their home.”
Polka: “That’s just terrible. You know, I was actually going to ask them to reduce the amount of mineral powder they’re selling.”
Allegretto: “Hey, hey, hold on. Wait a minute, you guys.”



Polka: “Oh!”
Allegretto: “I know you gotta sell your floral powder, but there’s other people out there tryin’ to survive, too.”
Beat: “And with the taxes as high as they are now, people can’t even afford bread most of the time.”
Polka: “Oh no! Really?”



Allegretto: “And if they can’t buy medicine when they need it, on top of that, you’re gonna see people start dying.”
Polka: “But wait, floral powder is medicine, too. I know right now it’s more expensive than mineral powder because of the taxes, but….”
Beat: “Exactly! That’s the problem right there. The taxes are just way too high!”



March: “That all sounds reasonable, but I’m afraid it won’t solve the problem Agogo Forest is facing.”
Allegretto: “Well, yeah, I guess you’re right about that. Then, instead of stopping the mining completely, maybe we can get them to cut back, or even find a totally different way to make the stuff.”



Polka: “It’s just that… I’m so ashamed of myself.”



Polka: “I’m so sorry.”



Beat: “Yeah, and anyway, if people could get floral powder at a cheaper price than now, then there’d be less need for mineral powder right there. Two birds with one stone.”
March: “I think what Beat is saying is more or less correct.”



*March grabs something from nearby.*



Allegretto: “But how’re we gonna find her? I mean, we don’t even know what your sister looks like.”
March: “Oh, I don’t expect that will be a problem. You see, we’re twins. So, I think you’ll recognize her right away.”
Allegretto: “Gotcha. All right, then, I think we can handle that. Come on, let’s get going, Polka. We’ll go together.”



March: “Yes, you should go together. I think that’s a very good idea.”
Allegretto: “I mean, we’re all heading to the same place, so we might as well stick together, right?”
Beat: “Besides, if you collapse again, the agogos might not be around to rescue you the next time.”



*Scene transition back to that earlier flashback...*



Solf�ge: “Polka, are you listening? Polka, please! If you can hear me, then answer me!”
*Rather than answer, Polka walks over by her bedroom window.*



♪♪~ Your Circumstances

Polka: “I don’t have long to live, so I want to do something meaningful with that time!”



Polka: “I don’t have much time. But I… I want to use my power for good somehow. I want to help as many people as I can before it’s too late.”



Polka: “Up until now, every stranger has been my enemy. I’d convinced myself of that and couldn’t trust anyone.”
*She clenches her fist.*
Polka: “But not any more. Now, I’m going to start off by trusting people. Because if I can do that, then...”



*Polka closes her eyes for a long moment.*



*Back to the present once more...*



♪♪~ No music

Allegretto: “Okay! Then we should get going. Oh, Frederic. By the way, what are you gonna do?”
Frederic: “I was heading for Forte as well.”
Beat: “What? You’re going to Forte, too, Frederic? Oh, that’s great! I guess that means we’re all going to the same place!”

Allegretto, my dude, you have no idea.

*One more scene transition for the road, why not?*



♪♪~ Can We Be Both Different and Alike



March: “Don’t mention it. And if you ever come through the forest again, please drop by.”
*She waves as the group starts heading out of the village.*



Allegretto: “Are you still going on about that? You know you can just go back to that same cave again later.”
Polka: “Allegretto’s right. As long as some agogos show themselves, I’m sure you’ll get to take a picture of them next time.”



*Meanwhile, back in March’s house...*



And so Chapter 1 comes to a close. Polka has found her resolve, the main group is leaving Agogo Forest for Forte, and the agogos are apparently not all that they seem. Frederic has only just begun dreaming, and it’ll be a long while yet before the time comes for the dream to end, but until then…

Next time: Chapter 2 begins!

Glossary of Musical Terms

March – A genre of music with a strong regular rhythm, originally written for the express purpose of marching to, and most often performed by military bands. Marches tend to be pretty peppy – see almost everything John Philip Sousa ever wrote – but there are also wedding marches and funeral marches.

Salsa – A musical genre that originated in 1960’s New York City. Put simply, it is a blend of various Afro-Cuban music genres and dances (guaracha, mambo, etc.) with jazz and occasionally other genres. There is apparently some controversy over whether or not salsa is actually its own distinct genre, but I don’t know enough about the subject to feel comfortable weighing in on that particular debate.

Rock – Rock and roll, obviously! It originated in the late 1940’s to early 50’s from several different styles such as gospel and R&B, and was popularized by artists such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry. Rock has changed and mutated quite a lot over time, and not many artists play it in a style that’s even remotely close to its origins.

Waltz – A ballroom and folk dance in 3/4 time that eventually became a concert genre in its own right. It has a long history, dating back to at least the late 16th century, and pretty much any noteworthy classical composer you can think of has written at least one, including Chopin. It fact, it was Chopin himself who helped popularize the waltz as a standalone genre of music that was not meant to be danced to.

So, uh, the youtube account I was using to link to the soundtrack has been deleted. Not only are none of the soundtrack links in any post in this thread good anymore, the "links to every piece of music in the game" file I had prepared before I even started this thread has been rendered worthless. It was already going to be a bit of a wait for the next update - I just recorded the footage for Chapter 2 yesterday and haven't had the chance to make separate videos for cutscenes and things - but this is a bit of a setback on top of that. I'll replace the links with new ones as soon as I can, but given why I'm having to do that in the first place I feel like it'll be a temporary solution at best. I'll try to think of a better solution, but in the meantime I'm open to suggestions.

Incidentally, if you're still reading this thread, thanks! I fully intend to finish the thread even if the audience for it becomes nonexistent, but it's nice to be able to talk about one of my favorite games with other people.

Not me, I’m afraid. I’m just pretty much only interested in screenshot LPs. But this is shaping up to be a pretty fine SSLP (big fan of the extra stats before the bosses), so I’ll be sticking around, even if I don’t comment much. I know it’s a lot of work putting these things together and it’s harder still when you don’t get much response.

Echoing this. Thanks for your hard work on this, Albatoss!

Also screenshot only, but I love the music links so that's a huge bummer! I hope you're able to continue this!

Thank you all for the kind words! I may be having technical difficulties with the main LP, but I can still post bonus material, so let's get to it.

So, Chopin is kind of unique among classical composers in that he wrote almost exclusively for one instrument, that being the piano. Most of the pieces he published in his lifetime were small-scale, single-movement piano works, and he only wrote a comparatively small number of pieces for anything other than solo piano. In fact, every single piece of music he ever wrote involved the piano in some way. Most famous classical composers wrote in a variety of genres for a variety of instruments, so it's notable that Chopin went all in on one instrument and is not only still widely performed today, but was even famous within his own relatively short lifetime.

All that being said, I thought it would be interesting to share one of Chopin's major works written for instruments other than solo piano at the end of every chapter, starting with...

Chopin - Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21

A concerto is, put simply, an instrumental piece written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra. It didn't start out in that form, and in fact the concerto has a long and complicated history that's too much to get into here; if you want to learn more you can follow the previous link or watch this very long video. Piano concertos tend to be one of the more common forms of the genre (along with violin concertos), and Chopin wrote two of them as the capstones of his musical education at the Warsaw Conservatory. Their titles are a little misleading; the Concerto No. 2 was actually written first, but it was published second, and vice versa.

I'm sure you noticed from the link above, but concertos tend to be pretty long, and I don't blame anyone for being unable to listen to the whole thing in one go. If you don't have the time or simply don't want to listen to the whole thing, I recommend at least listening to the second movement, the Larghetto in A-Flat Major (there are timestamps in the video description). It was inspired by and dedicated to Konstancja Gładkowska, a Polish soprano that Chopin fell in love with while he was studying at the Conservatory. It's a beautiful piece of music all on its own.

I'll start fixing the soundtrack links tomorrow. Next update should hopefully be soon, with more bonus stuff in the meantime.

The soundtrack links in all the updates up to the time of this post have been fixed! The links in the OP are still busted, and it might be a while before I fix them; I have an idea about what to do about the soundtrack links in the future, but it'll have to wait until after we get through Chapter 2. In the meantime, here's a couple more pieces for your listening enjoyment:

Samuel Barber - Hermit Songs, Op. 29
Ethel Smyth - Cello Sonata in A Minor, Op. 5

Samuel Barber was a 20th-century American composer. His main claim to fame is being the guy who wrote Adagio for Strings, which you've almost certainly heard before (and which was actually adapted from his String Quartet Op. 11, rather than being a standalone piece), but he's also responsible for several other works that have remained popular in the classical repertoire. He was gay, and met his lifelong romantic partner Gian Carlo Menotti while they were both students at the Curtis Institute of Music. Menotti was primarily an opera composer who wrote over two dozen such works (which is ludicrous, by the way), and he actually wrote the libretto for two of Barber's operas, Vanessa and A Hand of Bridge. I don't know about y'all, but the mental image of two lovers writing operas together is adorable to me.

Ethel Smyth was an English composer active in both the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In addition to being the first female composer to receive a damehood, she was also a prominent figure in the women's suffrage movement, up to and including literally writing the anthem for it. Her opera Der Wald was, for more than a century, the only opera written by a female composer to be staged by New York's Metropolitan Opera. Despite her successes and her prolific output, Smyth was criticized in her lifetime for writing music considered too "masculine" for a female composer; I suspect this sexist criticism is at least partially due to the fact that Smyth was a lesbian who had several high-profile affairs with women, along with being a lifelong fan of sports (particularly golf). Thankfully such criticism has died down in recent years. Smyth became deaf later in life, and retired from music to become an author, writing ten books (most of them autobiographical).

Update coming tomorrow. Apologies for the delay! The whole soundtrack links thing kinda took the wind out of my sails, and then I suddenly owned hundreds of indie games. But I'm slowly picking up steam again, and should hopefully be back up to speed sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, remember when I said way back in the first update that I'd be taking a closer look at Motoi Sakuraba's musical career? Well I figure now's as good a time as any to do it. This isn't intended to be an exhaustive overview or biography, because I'm just one guy doing this for fun in his spare time, but I will be highlighting the things I think are interesting or important about Sakuraba's career up to this point. Let's start at the beginning with the first album he ever released:


Sakuraba had had some piano lessons in preschool, but was otherwise self-taught, and he began composing his own music in college. He formed Deja Vu (originally called Clashed Ice) as a duo with fellow student Genta Kudoh in 1984 while they were attending Meiji University. The name change and the addition of Tetsuya Nagatsuma came after they graduated the following year, and Baroque in the Future was released a few years later. It's a mostly-even mix of instrumental and vocal tracks composed entirely by Sakuraba, and the musicianship is excellent all around (save perhaps for the vocals, which don't seem to be quite the singers' strong suits).

Deja Vu didn't last long after that - Nagatsuma left the band soon afterwards, and despite adding two new members the band broke up in 1989 over musical differences. Afterwards, Sakuraba participated in a special one-off project:


Pazzo Fanfano di Musica was a one-off project/supergroup formed by a who's-who of musicians from the Japanese prog rock scene, consisting of members from such bands as Mr. Sirius, Magdalena, and Teru's Symphonia, among others. Whereas you could describe most prog rock bands as rock musicians drawing at least some inspiration from classical music, here it's kind of the opposite? Most of the songs are carried by the strings with support from the keyboards, and it kinda sounds like chamber music in some places. Unfortunately the three songs linked above are the only ones on Youtube at time of posting, otherwise I'd put up a playlist.


A photo from the inner sleeve; I'm pretty sure Sakuraba is the guy in the back with the straight hair. He co-wrote "Fragoroso" and played piano on the album, although to what extent beyond the aforementioned track I can't say for sure.

I'll do this little retrospective in chunks, with the aim of posting one per chapter until I'm out of material I want to highlight; sources will be in the opening post. I think next time we'll look at the beginnings of his solo career, as well as his releases outside of video game music as a whole. Until then, see y'all tomorrow for the next update!

Hello and welcome back to Eternal Sonata! Last time the party decided to travel to Forte together, with the common goal of speaking to Count Waltz about this whole mineral powder business.



This is one of the longer chapters of the game, and there’s a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get to it.



♪♪~ Strategy

Click to watch the cutscene (recommended viewing)



*We begin with two people in the middle of a conversation.*



“Do they think they’ll start a revolution just by declaring they oppose the government?”



“Perhaps it would be best to nip this in the bud.”

The blond guy in the outrageously ostentatious clothes must be Count Waltz, then.



Legato: “Well, yes….”
Waltz: “But a revolution involves toppling a country’s government. Do you really think Andantino is capable of doing that?”
Legato: “No...”



Waltz: “Andantino knows that better than anyone.”



So, Chapter 2 has some weird pacing choices. It comes up a few times, but I feel like certain cutscenes could have been put in better places. I say this now because we’re about to transition into a history lesson and this cutscene isn’t technically over!




♪♪~ Strategy

Waltz: “I asked you a question: why does Andantino continue to fight?”
Legato: “Well, I….”
*Legato’s eyes widen as Count Waltz suddenly gets up in his face.*
Waltz: “Don’t know the answer?”



Waltz: “So, in simpler terms, our real enemies are the ones who are behind the scenes, backing Andantino. We’ll let Andantino play out their game. They’re no threat.”



See what I meant earlier? I feel like the developers could have put the Chopin history lesson right here at the end of the cutscene instead of in the middle of it. It’s not a huge deal, granted, so I’ll try not to complain too much.



♪♪~ Dive into the Vast Expanse of Plains

In any case, we have a new area to go through, and it’s one of my favorites in the whole game.



Just look at this place! It’s huge and vibrant, and dandelion seeds are constantly blowing in the breeze. It’s only a few screens long, and most of it is a straight line, but man it’s a cool place.



But before we really get into it, we have to go back into Agogo Village for items and such.



♪♪~ Can We Be Both Different and Alike

We’ll start here. During recording for Chapter 1 I spent some time immediately before and after the Ogre Champ fight going around the village for items and shopping for new equipment, and I’ll show that now; the continuity might be a little weird for the time being as a result.



Handy! It’s at this point that we can buy Poison Whitecaps in shops for 100G apiece, but right now our money is better spent elsewhere.

There’s a couple items in March and Salsa’s house, so we’ll search there next; we’ll talk to March herself a bit later.



This item is a little finicky to get, since you have to stand in a very specific spot to examine the bird cage. As for the item itself, it heals a status effect that I’ll go over later when it pops up.



Heck yes! Clovers are extremely useful items that heal the whole party instead of just a single character. Club Clovers are the weakest in that they “only” heal 3,000 HP, but that’s still a full heal for everyone except Allegretto. They cost 3 points to put into the Item Set, same as an Angel Trumpet, so I’ll save this for emergencies for the time being.



Allegretto: “Something was inside of it.”



Right outside, we find this thing in a small shrine. Score Pieces are part of another game-long sidequest that’s actually pretty cool, but we don’t currently have the means to do much with this so I’ll just hold onto it for now.



There’s another couple items over in this building.



Yoink! There’s another item right next to this one, but I missed it before I started recording for Chapter 2; I’ll pick it up later once we’re back in the present.



In the meantime, we’ll head downstairs and check out the item shop.



No A- or B-rank photos of the Baby Dragon, sadly, but that’s still a pretty decent chunk of change there.



I buy the Cork Baton for Frederic (although I forgot to equip it until after the boss fight…) and two Breast Guards for Allegretto and Beat. It’s not really necessary to do this before the fight like I am here, but it helps it go by a little faster.



This is technically the start of another game-long sidequest, although it’s a much stranger one than anything else in the game. More on this later, but trust me it’s really weird.



“She can introduce you to the chief anyway.”

Now that we’re back in the present, let’s chat with the villagers before we set off for Forte.



Agogo Boy: “I hardly see them at all anymore. Where’d all the agogos go? Oh! Maybe I can find them in the forest. But March won’t let me go there.”
“Where did all the agogos go?”

I can’t tell you that, but I do know what we saw…



We can rest at March and Salsa’s house if we need to, but the party was automatically fully healed after the Ogre Champ fight so there’s no need to at the moment.



Yeah, it kinda does. Wonder what’s up with that? (Side-note: A little drum plays every time you examine this statue. It’s neat!)



“Lately, they don’t seem to hear too well. Maybe they’re getting old.”

You don’t say…



“You can’t play all the time. You need to study some, too.”

Says you, dude. We happen to have important business in Forte, thank you very much.



I guess it’s not uncommon for Salsa to leave the forest to do other things.



Allegretto: “I should give the kids some vegetables to eat along with their bread.”

Not a bad idea. Just one of those carrots would probably be enough for all of them!



“Hey that would make a pretty good desktop background” count: 7



Back in the shop I sell off the Ogre Champ photos. Once again only C-ranks; it’s difficult to get the boss fully in the frame without also being too far way, although the photos with L’Opera Knights are helpful since they’re worth a little more than usual.



I buy some Peach Cookies and Floral Powders for the road; I also briefly consider buying some new armor for Polka, but I’m pretty sure we’ll find a new set on the Chorus Plains so I hold off on it for now.



Speaking of equipment, the new sword we got from the Ogre Champ is a nice upgrade over the Saber.



Now that we have more than three party members, anyone not in the first three slots goes into the reserves. Characters who aren’t in the active party still get EXP from fights at a reduced rate (I believe it’s 50%), but they will start lagging behind eventually if you don’t swap them in at some point. This won’t be a problem for us because I like switching the party around as characters level up. Polka’s very close to level 8 so she’ll stay in the party for a while, and I’ll swap Frederic for Beat once the former is at level 9.

Also, you can use Clovers in the party menu to heal everyone at once, instead of just the battle party. Handy!



While we’re in the shop I’ll grab the item I forgot to last time. That’s all of them in the village, but there are still a few NPC’s to talk to over by the place we fought Ogre Champ.

“I heard there’s huge onions and stuff in the forest! I really want to see them!”

More huge vegetables to add to the pile, I guess!



“I hear the leader of that country over there is doing something up in the mountains. And when the mountain isn’t healthy, neither is the forest.”

Hmm… if the agogos aren’t showing up because of the mining operations at Mt. Rock, then why would they suddenly appear around Polka? Something to ponder, I suppose.



“You must never go near that cave! Never!”



Okay okay fine, we get it.



“Anyway, it’s best if you stay away from it, like he says.”

Alright, duly noted. At least you’re more reasonable about it than he is…



♪♪~ Dive into the Vast Expanse of Plains

We’re done in the village for now, so let’s set off for Forte! Hang on, what’s that on the ground over there?





Oh, weird. There’s a village right nearby, kinda strange that this is just laying here. Oh well.



There’s a new enemy over there, but we’ll deal with it later.



First we’ll head over here…



And pick up this new armor for Polka. It’s not quite as good as what’s being sold in Agogo Village, but it’ll do for now.



“Hey that would make a pretty good desktop background” count: 8



♪♪~ Leap the Precipice

Right, time to look at the first new enemy for the area, Angel Goats. They’re difficult to ambush on the field; they seem to pretty much always turn around and run towards you a few seconds before you can get to them, making them the first enemy to behave this way. As for the battlefield here on the Chorus Plains, it’s mostly light, with a patch of darkness over on the right side. Angel Goats also project an aura of light around them, so unless you’re positioned just right (or are Beat) you’re mostly stuck using light specials against them.



Angel Goats are fast, both in movement speed and statistically; until our party gains a few levels they’ll pretty much always go first. They also have a tendency to gang up on one character, even outright ignoring more advantageous targets if they feel like picking on someone else.



They also like to use their most powerful attack the most often. It deals a decent chunk of damage, but the most dangerous thing about Ride of Three Hundred is that it comes out very fast; if you don’t block it pretty much as soon as the prompt appears you’ll get hit. The good news is that it’s slow enough to take up most of their turn, so you won’t have to worry about multiple charges from a single enemy.



Angel Goats aren’t as sturdy as you might think; a single turn’s worth of Echoes from Allegretto is usually enough to get rid of one at our current level.



Their standard attack is to alternate between headbutts and kicking you with their hooves (which hits twice). It also comes out pretty fast, but is much easier to guard against than Ride of Three Hundred.



♪♪~ Well-Done

Polka: “Perfect!”

They give pretty good EXP, and combined with the free rest at Salsa and March’s house the Chorus Plains are a pretty good spot to level-grind if you feel the need. I won’t be doing this, but the option is there.

As for the new special Polka just learned, Nether Wave is awesome; I’ll cover it later when I get the chance.



Moving on. There’s not much to this first area besides the path and the one treasure chest, but it’s very lovely to look at.



There are a couple more pieces of paper lying on the ground, though. Someone was just having a littering field day, I guess.



Hm, seems like there’s something on the bridge blocking the way forward. We should investigate that after clearing out the enemies in the area.



Speaking of which, here’s the other special that Angel Goats have. It’s not especially dangerous even unguarded, and they don’t use it very often, but it is something to consider.



Huh, looks like the things blocking the bridge are more goats. These ones don’t seem nearly as murderous, though, which I am perfectly okay with.



Allegretto: “If you’re going to play, couldn’t you do it somewhere else?”
*bleat*
Polka: “Please, Mr. Goat. We’re trying to get to the other side of the bride. Do you think you could let us pass by?”
*bleat*
Frederic: “It appears futile. He doesn’t seem to have the slightest intention of moving.”
*Beat thinks for a bit as the goat bleats again.*
Beat: “I know!”



Allegretto: “You think?”
Beat: “It’s true! This one time in Ritardando, I gave a seagull some bread crumbs, and it brought me my hat that was stuck in a tree.”
Allegretto: “...”



Sounds like a plan to me. Time for a small (and I do mean small) fetch quest!

You get the same dialogue for all the pieces of paper, so I’ll skip over that bit and just pick them up.



Thankfully you can pick up all the paper in one go; you don’t have to give them to the goats one at a time, which would have made this way more annoying.


*The goat munches on the paper, bleats, and walks away. The process repeats for the second white goat. Allegretto then feeds the black goat...*



Allegretto: “Come on, Mr. Goat. Won’t you pretty please let us by?”
*bleat*



Success!

Allegretto: “Phew, finally we can get going.”
Beat: “See, Retto? It’s just like I told you. Animals listen to you if you give them something to eat.”



I mean it’s worked out so far, right?

Now, before we cross the bridge here I’m just going to go back to Agogo Village real quick…



♪♪~ Can We Be Both Different and Alike

Might as well take advantage of this while it’s still convenient to do so. That sorted, let’s get back on our way.



♪♪~ Leap the Precipice

Beat: “Look over here!”

While I’m heading towards the bridge, I decide to take some photos of the Angel Goats. They won’t be worth as much cash as a boss photo, but it’ll be much easier to hit an A-rank. On the other hand, there won’t be any shops besides the one in Agogo Village for a while, so I’ll probably have to backtrack a bit to sell these. Not a huge deal.



Here’s Nether Wave in action. It hits the enemy six times, with the final hit being a wave of crystalline-looking stuff that fans out in a wide cone (although that’s hard to see from this angle, alas). This is Polka’s best dark special for quite some time, and arguably period; it’s decent for building Echoes, and the last hit is both powerful and capable of hitting multiple targets with the right positioning. It’s pretty great!



♪♪~ Dive into the Vast Expanse of Plains

The bridge has been thoroughly crossed, and we can keep making our way through the Chorus Plains. We’ll deal with that new, distressingly large enemy in a bit.



You can just barely see it, but there’s a chest off in the distance on this ridge. We’ll deal with this Angel Goat first; this is the point where they start showing up in groups of three instead of just two, so keep that in mind if you’re having trouble fighting them.



I’d say we’re doing just fine, though. Here’s a better look at Nether Wave, which did in fact just wipe out two Angel Goats in one go. Did I mention that it’s pretty great?



Ignoring the giant green squirrel for the time being…



Don’t mind if I do!



Earth Shakers are the first enemy that can be considered a serious threat. They’re big, beefy, and have a bunch of highly-damaging attacks that can ruin your day if you aren’t prepared.



Sludge is their least threatening attack, being a mid-range projectile that’s not too bothersome.



Their standard combo is a punch with their weird wing-stub arms followed by a tail swipe; both are pretty slow and easy to guard.



The Earth Shaker’s attack of the same name is its most dangerous one – it comes out super quickly and hits anyone nearby three times with a chance of knocking them down. You really want to guard this attack if you can, otherwise you’ll be hurting like I am here. They have one more attack that didn’t get used here, so I’ll show it off later.



Oh look, it’s the goats that were blocking the bridge earlier, plus a few more. I bet that guy standing nearby is their shepherd.



You know, I have just the thing…

*Handed over Long Johns*
Goatherd: “Hey, thanks! It was getting a bit chilly down south, if you know what I mean. I was just resting in the shade of a bush when all of a sudden, a goat came up behind me and bleated right in my ear! Needless to say I was surprised, and when I stood up my long johns got caught. It was terrible. If I give you this, would you mind giving me some privacy?”



Goatherd: “Hey, come on. Give a fella some privacy. I can’t bring myself to change my clothes with you guys around.”

Right, sorry, we’ll be on our way. Thanks for the goat’s milk, though! I’m sure we’ll find someone who will want it more than us later on.



Just circling back around to fight the monsters on the main path. It might look like I have the upper hand here, but Earth Shakers have this annoying habit of turning around to face you at the last second. There’s an easy way to guarantee an ambush if you really want to: just get into a fight with an enemy and immediately run away. This puts you in a flashing state on the field for a few seconds, and enemies won’t pay attention to you until it stops; this way you can position yourself right behind an enemy and immediately ambush them. Not strictly necessary, but it’s quite useful if you’re accidentally ambushed; that way you can recover from a bad situation and immediately turn the tables on an encounter.



Sore Tail is the last attack that Earth Shakers have in their arsenal; it can hit multiple characters if they’re surrounding it, but it doesn’t quite have a full 360 degrees of coverage.



Moving on from that, we’ll keep heading down the path. It’s uh, pretty long.



At this point the path and the ridge meet up. Say, that looks like a house off in the distance. Maybe we should stop by and say hello.

Dang, there isn’t a bridge across the lake; looks like we’ll have to take the long way around.



“Hey that would make a pretty good desktop background” count: 9

At least the view is nice!



Yep, sure is. Thanks, sign.



This area isn’t too big, so it shouldn’t take long to circle around the lake, at least.



The path is pretty narrow, though, making avoiding enemies tricky.



At last, a save point! Feels like it’s been a minute since we’ve seen one of those. Our party setup is pretty good at the moment; I put Frederic and Allegretto in the first two active slots, but the third doesn’t really matter for reasons that will be made clear soon.



Click to watch the cutscene and boss fight

♪♪~ No music



Looks like we walked in on a bad situation that’s about to escalate. Whoever the floating dude with the cool scarf is, he sure isn’t being friendly.



Polka has the right idea. Let’s go!



♪♪~Opposition Resignation

Boss: Maledictor x2
HP: 27,500 (each)
EXP: 3,000 total (Xbox 360)/1,480 total (PS3)
So like, is that a mask or their face: Great question!



Frederic: “You foolish creatures!”

So the boss theme might be playing right now, but I would call this more of a miniboss fight, really, for reasons that will be clear in the next update. It can still be challenging, but we should be fine.



The Maledictors like to keep their distance, forcing you to come to them. This is less than ideal since they have a long-distance attack they can use anywhere on the battlefield.



Spiritus can do some serious damage unguarded, and has a chance of knockdown as well. I end up whiffing the guard input during the second Maledictor’s turn, which leaves Frederic hurting a bit.



You’ve probably noticed already, but we suddenly have a new team member! Viola here automatically replaces whoever is in the first active slot, sliding everybody over one space (and consequently forcing out whoever’s in the third slot); getting used to how she fights is one of the bigger challenges of this battle, really. She can do some cool stuff, but I’ll go over that next time; right now I’ll just cover the basics of her fighting style.



Once I move everyone over to where they are, the Maledictors decide to engage the party at melee range. Their basic combo is a two-hit alternation between their staff (which can reach characters behind the target, as seen here) and their off-hand. It’s pretty slow and not much to worry about, really.



They like to end their turns at melee range with Deathblow. The long animation can trick you into guarding too early, since the prompt doesn’t appear until right before it connects; this attack can also cause knockdown if it hits unguarded.



The other Maledictor floats over to join the party, which is a big mistake.



I flub the guard input, but Deathblow doesn’t hurt all that much – certainly not as much as Spiritus – and we’re in prime position to launch a counterattack.



See, the Maledictors have made a grave tactical error and left themselves wide open to both be attacked from behind simultaneously, letting us build up Echoes super quickly. Viola is first up to bat; she fights by punching her opponents while holding a huge longbow in her offhand, which is awesome. Her melee attacks are pretty quick with only a slight pause in between combos, letting her build up Echoes reasonably fast.



Viola: “Go up in smoke!”

Since she’s standing in the bosses’ shadows, this lets Viola use Bone Crumble, her dark special; it’s a seven-hit flurry of punches that leads into a graceful backflip kick, followed by a final shot from her bow. Pretty decent for building Echoes, and the final shot can do some serious damage if fully powered up.



This sets up Allegretto nicely to launch an assault of his own.



Allegretto: “Listen closely, to the angry winds of your requiem!”

And that’s one of the Maledictors down already! The other one is seriously hurting and won’t last long at this rate.



It tries to pull one more trick out of its sleeve, an HP-drain attack (the first of its kind we see) that will heal the boss for the amount of damage it inflicts to everyone in range. It’s not especially powerful though, and the Maledictor retreats afterwards.



Hey Viola, why don’t you nip this fight in the bud for us?



Viola: “Huh! You better beg for mercy from this one!”

Thanks, Viola. Sacred Strike is her light special, and it has infinite range, so as long as she’s standing in the light (and isn’t blocked by an environmental object) no one is safe.

♪♪~ Well-Done

Viola: “You’re a mess!”

Heck of an entrance into the party, I’d say! Allegretto gains a level from this fight, but we don’t get any Gold from it, which is kinda lame. Guess that’s what photos are for!

(Viola’s victory animation involves her throwing her longbow into the ground while she crosses her arms. It’s quite difficult to capture a victory pose while also showing the EXP value for the fight, which is why most of these post-boss screenshots look kind of awkward.)



Click here to watch the rest of the update

♪♪~ No music



Frederic: “Yes, they had the ability to use magic. Which means that they must be terminally ill, doesn’t it? But why on earth would they attack us like that? They had a strange, evil look in their eyes."



I’m sorry what?!



Polka: “But, lots of people in Ritardando are using it. That’s why floral powders aren’t selling.”
Allegretto: “So that’s it. The mineral powder. I knew something fishy was going on. It’s been bugging me for a while, and now I get it.”
Beat: “Huh? What do you get?”



Beat: “Well, that’s an easy one. It’s because Count Waltz is doing something nice for his people.”
Allegretto: “No, dummy. You can’t see things for what they are because you’re always looking through that lens.”



Beat: “Yeah, I guess. But that’s okay! ‘Cause, since mineral powder is so cheap, it can help lots of people.”
Viola: “True, mineral powder does cure most illnesses, but it has some very serious side effects.”



Viola: “You saw it for yourselves.”
Polka: “That’s horrible.”



*Viola leads the party to her house as the scene fades.*



Seems like a nice place. And Viola’s made tea for everyone, which from the party’s perspective makes twice they’ve been served tea after beating up monsters in one day. Funny how that’s worked out.



I’m not sure exactly what kind of animal Arco is – he seems like a cross between a rabbit and a squirrel – but he sure is adorable!

Polka: “Oh! How cute!”
*short pause*
Allegretto: “So mineral powder’s a poison!”



Frederic: “What could Count Waltz’s real objective be?”
Viola: “That’s what I’d like to know, too.”



Viola: “Who knows? I’ve heard that there are lots of dark rumors about the Count.”
Allegretto: “But if he wanted to kill his own people, there are easier and faster ways to go about doing it.”



Frederic: “Is it really possible that he doesn’t know?”
Viola: “Well, mineral powder does have its uses, y’know. But just because it’s useful, doesn’t mean it should be used. Those involved might not realize what’s wrong until it’s too late.”



Viola: “And since we can see what’s going on, it’s up to us to let them know.”
Polka: “They like the convenience of it so much, they don’t see the danger they’ll be faced with later.”



Allegretto: “It’s true what they say, ‘the longer you wait, the harder the cure.’”



Frederic: “Once we’re there, we may learn more. If possible, we should try to meet with the Count in person, and discuss his intentions directly.”
*As the others are talking, Viola gets up and walks over to a nearby window. At Frederic’s last line, she laughs.*



Viola: “And since my bow has some life in it….”



Viola: “Besides, I owe Count Waltz some payback. A bunch of my poor little goats have been killed because of what he’s done.”
Allegretto: “What? You’re telling me we’ve got another one now? Oh, terrific.”



And on that adorable note, I’m gonna call the update here. This little trip just got way more urgent, but we’ve also gained a new ally to fight with us along the way. We’ll see what lies ahead soon…

Next time: The journey to Forte continues.

Glossary of Musical Terms

Andantino – A tempo marking, indicating that a piece or section of music should be played slightly faster than andante (about 80-108 bpm).

Legato – A kind of articulation that indicates the marked notes are to be played smoothly and connected, with no intervening silence when transitioning from one note to another. Marked with the word legato or with a curved line (called a slur) drawn over or under the affected notes, like this.

étude – An instrumental composition that is written to provide material for practicing and perfecting a given musical skill/technique. Was not originally designed as a standalone concert genre, but was popularized as such in the Romantic Era by composers like Chopin (of course), Franz Liszt, and Charles-Valentin Alkan, among others.

Chorus – Has multiple meanings. Can refer to the chorus, the line or lines repeated throughout a song (also called a refrain), which in popular music typically contrasts with the verse melodically, rhythmically, and/or harmonically; the chorus effect, wherein multiple sounds are perceived as one; chorus form (more commonly called strophic form), a song structure in which all the verses or stanzas are sung to the same underlying music; or a chorus/choir, a musical ensemble made up of singers that may or may not have an instrumental accompanist, depending on the piece being performed.

Score – Aka sheet music, i.e. the piece of paper or .pdf with all the notes on it.

Viola – A string instrument in the violin family, slightly larger than one, with very similar construction, and deeper in pitch (but higher in pitch than a cello). Is unique among most instruments in that it primarily uses the alto clef. Perhaps partially because of this (nobody likes reading alto clef), the viola is the butt of a lot of jokes for some reason.

Arco – A directive for string instruments indicating it is to be played the normal way, by drawing the bow across the strings. This is the default way of playing for string instruments that use a bow, and is usually not specifically marked unless the music is returning to arco after a contrasting section using a different technique.

Except for Beat - poor kid looks like he could use a cookie.

Pretty sure I gave him one like thirty seconds after that screenshot was taken, so no worries there.

Anyway, I fixed all the soundtrack links in the OP so we should be good to go on that front! And I have more art to share for the first time in a while, this time of Viola:





Compared to other characters we've met so far, Viola's outfit is uh, a bit much, but I would not describe Eternal Sonata as a horny game - unlike some other JRPG's I could name, the camera doesn't constantly zoom in on her backside or chest during fights or cutscenes, and there aren't any creepy moments passed off as ~wacky hijinks~.



In any case, Viola herself rules; she's one of my favorite characters in the game, actually! Plus Kumiko Yoshioka worked some kinda-but-not-really subtle jokes into her design - she uses a bow in battle and has a pet named Arco, and her hair even kinda resembles goat horns. It's thematically consistent at least!

I think a little past here is as far as I got when I played this. Excited to see more.

Looking forward to showing more of the game!

Anyway, I'm awake early for once so it's time to post some more music. Since Chapter 2 is named after one of Chopin's most famous études, I'll be focusing on those. He published three sets of études in his lifetime: Op. 10 in 1833, Op. 25 in 1837, and a set of three études without opus number in 1839, which were written for a piano method book by Ignaz Moscheles and Fran�ois-Joseph Fétis.

étude in C Major, Op. 10 No. 1
étude in F Minor, Op. 10 No. 9

Some of the études in the first set (including No. 9) were written when Chopin was still a teenager, which is quite frankly absurd considering both their technical difficulty and how well put-together they are. No. 1 is primarily a study in arpeggios designed to stretch the fingers of the right hand, while No. 9 is made to promote flexibility in the wrists and fingers, particularly in the left hand. Many of the études Chopin wrote were given fancy nicknames after they were published, although Chopin himself never gave his pieces titles; No. 1, for instance, is nicknamed "Waterfall".

Pyotr Tchaikovsky - Piano Sonata in G Major, Op. 37
Jennifer Higdon - blue cathedral

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer active during the Romantic Era. He was one of the first Russian composers to make a lasting impression internationally, and indeed he's one of the most famous and most-performed Russian composers of all time. He wrote a ton of famous works that are still regularly performed and was a prolific composer, writing three ballets, eleven operas, seven symphonies, four concertos, several overtures and symphonic poems, and three string quartets. Famous pieces of his that you've almost certainly heard before - even if you don't necessarily know the title - include The Nutcracker, Symphony No. 4, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, and the 1812 Overture. As you might be able to tell, Tchaikovsky didn't really do short pieces, so it was kind of difficult to pick one to link here.

Tchaikovsky was gay, but he kept this hidden from all but his closest friends and his brother Modest (who was also gay); his homosexuality has at various times been suppressed/censored by the Russian government at least as recently as 2013, and musical scholars still debate exactly how comfortable Tchaikovsky was with it. Despite this, his music still has a firm place in the repertoire and is still regularly performed to this day.

Jennifer Higdon is an American composer who has been active for several decades and is currently one of the most performed living American composers. She has been a professor of composition at the Curtis Institute of Music since 1994, and currently lives in Philadelphia with her wife Cheryl Lawson, whom she met in band class in high school. blue cathedral is one of Higdon's most popular and most performed works; it is dedicated to the memory of her brother Andrew Blue Higdon.

Welcome back to Eternal Sonata! We last left off in new ally Viola’s house after learning from her that mineral powder is actually real bad news if used long enough, making the party’s journey to Forte that much more urgent.



♪♪~ Relaxing Place

Before we leave, there’s a few things we can look at in Viola’s place, like that obvious chest behind us.



Don’t mind if I do. It’ll be a while before we can buy these in shops, so any free samples we can pick up until then will be gladly accepted.



It’s too bad the dresser in the foreground is blocking it, I bet it’s a cozy little basket.



Allegretto: “Yep, there’s the gift tag.”

That’s everything in this half of the house…



I like the little detail of all the arrows in various containers. I bet Viola practices her archery skills a fair bit.



There is actually a map of this game’s setting floating around out there; I’ll post it much later once we’ve been to some more places so as not to give away locations ahead of time.



Allegretto: “’Essentials of Archery: 1. Aim at your enemy from afar. 2. Aim for your enemy’s head.’”

This is solid advice that will be relevant a bit later.



♪♪~ Dive into the Vast Expanse of Plains

It’s at this point that I realized I forgot to grab an item in the Chorus Plains, and I should also sell off the photos I’ve taken before we press onward. I’m just gonna backtrack to Agogo Village real quick…



♪♪~ Can We Be Both Different and Alike

Alright, our first A- and B-rank photos! This gives us some extra cash to stock up on items with.



I go ahead and do that, and I also buy this armor for Polka, passing her old armor off to Frederic afterwards. We should be all set for the journey ahead.



Just a bit of flavor text I missed the last time we were here. Onwards!



Way up in the top-left corner of the Chorus Plains is what I believe is the third Club Clover we’ve picked up so far.



These are some cute little signs, and completely unnecessary. We can see her house just fine, it’s the only one on the plains! Oh, hang on, who’s this old man?



Letter Carrier: “After thirty years as a letter carrier, how could I make such a blunder? And right before my retirement!”
“This is terrible!”

Uh, three letters, you say? You wouldn’t happen to have lost them near the bridge by Agogo Village, would you?

Oh, no reason. Now if you’ll excusemeIreallymustbegoing



“Hey that would make a pretty good desktop background” count: 10



Small detail I appreciate: you can hear the windmill whirring as you pass by it.



I’m showing off this much of the little ramp we’re going up – even though it doesn’t take long to traverse at all – purely because I like the aesthetic details of it so much. The way the streams on either side babble as you pass by, the rainbow – it’s pretty great!



Click to watch the cutscene

♪♪~ No music



Wow, this is a huge cliff we’re about to pass over. Good thing the bridge is here…



Polka: “This is a really old bridge.”



You said it, Beat. That has to be at least a couple hundred-foot drop to the river below…

Viola: “Since I don’t usually take the goats this far out to graze, this is actually the first time I’ve ever crossed this bridge.”
Allegretto: “You have to cross the Cabasa Bridge… if you wanna get to Forte Castle from Ritardando.”
Frederic: “I understand.”



Allegretto: “Bingo! Hey, you’re pretty darn smart, aren’t you? That’s right. And it’s also why there’s a fort at one end of the bridge. It’s called….”



Allegretto: “Yeah, right! Fermata, that’s it.”
Polka: “Let’s be careful going across, okay? We don’t want to fall.”
Beat: “Uh, guys? I think I’m gonna wet myself.”



Polka: “What?”
Allegretto: “If you slip or something, it’d be dangerous. You better hold my hand.”
Polka: “Um, are you sure that’s okay?”
Allegretto: “What are you talkin’ about? Of course it’s okay. Come on.”



Viola: “Well, well, well. You’re quite the gentleman, aren’t you?”
Allegretto: “What? No, I wasn’t tryin’ to-- Oh, let’s just go!”
*He hurries off across the bridge with Polka in tow.*

It might be hard to see since the cutscene fades out as soon as it happens, but Viola is sharing a knowing smirk with Frederic.

Weird bit of sass from her aside – Viola is not afraid of giving people sass – I like this little moment. Polka probably hasn’t been able to have much interaction with others because of nonsense about her illness, so Allegretto offering something as simple as hand-holding is a pretty big deal for her. You can hear it in her voice-acting if you watch the cutscene, but she sounds kind of overwhelmed (in a good way)! And from Allegretto’s reaction to Viola’s very mild ribbing, it seems like he’s starting to develop a bit of a crush on her. It’s all very sweet, at least in my opinion.



Anyway, it looks like we’ll have to pass through Fort Fermata on our way to Forte.



But before we can even cross the bridge, a wild cutscene appears!



Click to watch the next two cutscenes

♪♪~ Strategy





Waltz: “I’ve no interest in hearing about your failure.”
Fugue: “Yes, but...”



Waltz: “We’ve also come to learn that it only works with the type that glow. I don’t care what it takes, I must have them.”



Waltz: “It’s our duty to protect the well-being of our citizens. And the role of our government is to serve its citizens to the utmost of its ability. If the powder’s effectiveness increases, the people will be happy. Will they not? I can already see the smiling faces of my subjects.”
*Waltz has a good laugh at that; Fugue looks on but doesn’t respond.*



Waltz: “This is for our beloved subjects.”
Fugue: “Yes!”
*Fugue bows.*
Waltz: “I won’t listen to another report of failure. Understand?”
*Fugue takes his leave as Legato enters the audience chamber.*



*There’s an awkward silence as the cutscene ends.*

The heck is Count Waltz up to? Seems like the only thing he’d stand to gain from increasing the effectiveness of mineral powder is killing the people who use it faster. Either he really doesn’t know about its fatal side effects – which I really doubt – or we don’t have the full picture yet. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.



♪♪~ No music

For now we’ll press onward… straight into another cutscene at the front gate. This whole section is another weird pacing decision, but collectively it takes less than ten minutes to progress through so it’s not too bad. Still odd, though.



Allegretto: “How’s it going Beat? So, did you wet yourself?”
Beat: “No! Of course not!”

Aw don’t tease the poor kid, that’s a pretty big chasm we just passed over.



Polka: “After all, the only big city that’s south of here is Ritardando. Do they really need to keep watch from here?”
Allegretto: “That’s a good question. But just take a look around this place. I never said they were actually keeping watch.”
Frederic: “Yes. Now that you mention it, I do not see any soldiers posted here.”



Beat: “Yeah, that is weird. I figured a fort of all places would have lots of guards.”

That is a good point – this place looks pretty old and run-down. It doesn’t seem like it’s seen serious use in at least a few decades.



Allegretto: “This is the best spot for a fort if Ritardando was ever beaten by enemy forces.”



Well that’s troubling; guess we won’t be taking a leisurely stroll through the place. We’d better stay on our toes.



Good thing the front gate still works!



♪♪~ A Wall With No Front or Back





I really like the overgrown look of this place – the crumbled stone, the plantlife that juts out of the walls and floor in odd places, etc.



Handy save point. The path is straightforward for now, but that won’t be the case for long…



Man, how long has this place been abandoned exactly? There seems to be a path heading off the side through a hole in the wall, but let’s try the door first.



Crap, of course it wouldn’t be that easy. No other option but to take the long way around…



Fort Fermata is the first real dungeon of the game. It consists of two large areas, a West Side and an East Side, with a small center area for traveling between them.



On top of this, each side has two elevation levels to contend with, the ground floor we’re on right now and a series of pathways above us you can see in the screenshot. We’ll have to pass back and forth between the two elevations as well as both sides of the fort to progress, but our path might be impeded by rubble or overgrown plantlife depending on where we are, plus there’s another wrinkle to the place we haven’t come across yet. It’s easy to get lost here – especially with the game’s lack of maps – and I suspect at least a few playthroughs have stalled or ended here.

All that in mind, I’ll try and walk us through the place as clearly and concisely as possible. You’d better buckle up, because we’re going to be here for a while. At least the music is good though!



♪♪~ Leap the Precipice

You couldn’t really see it since it was obscured by the chest, but there was an enemy on the rubble path in the previous screenshot; this is a good time to look at the new monster here, as well as the battlefield. It’s a pretty big arena that’s largely shrouded in darkness, and your party tends to be spawned rather far from the enemies. There’s a bit of randomness about the battlefield here, too: sometimes the torches in the middle won’t be lit, although the ring of torches around the edges always are.



As for the enemies, we’ve encountered our first palette swap, the Lord of Darkness. Amazing name aside, it acts largely like the Florite Mice in and around Ritardando, but with beefed-up stats. The main difference is that their tails emit an aura of darkness instead of light, so your melee characters are largely stuck using dark specials against them.

They also have a new mid-range AoE called Sneak Drop, but it’s not very damaging and they don’t use it very often – I think I maybe saw it three or four times the entire time I was in here. Right now they’re faster than us, but ambushing them from behind solves that problem nicely until we gain a few more levels. They also drop Floral Powders sometimes, which is handy if you forgot to stock up on them earlier or are running low.



While I’m here, I think this is an excellent time to go over Viola’s unique mechanics. You might have been able to guess this already based on her choice of weapon, but Viola is the other long-range character in this game; however, she plays very differently to Beat.



Viola: “Take that!”

Pressing and holding the attack button when not in melee range causes Viola to draw her bow; if you’re close enough she’ll aim automatically at whatever enemy she’s facing, but if you’re far away like I am here you’ll have to manually adjust the targeting reticle with the left analog stick. Since Lords of Darkness are closer to the ground we’ll generally want to aim a little bit above them to account for our arrows’ trajectory. Once you’re confident in your aim, you can start mashing the attack button to start shooting arrows.



Viola is unique in that she is the only character who can deal large amounts of damage completely independent of the Echo Meter; the farther away she is from an enemy, the more damage her arrows will do. This can get absolutely ludicrous at extreme distances – say, from the complete opposite end of the battlefield, for instance – and with enough practice you can tear through bosses and enemies with high defenses like wet tissue paper, and even one-shot weaker enemies as seen here. You might think the damage would have been nerfed in the PS3 port, but for whatever reason it was actually increased in this version of the game.

Viola’s arrows do also add a small amount of time to the Action Gauge with each hit, unlike Beat’s rapid-fire shots, but this is a minor bonus in comparison to the sheer damage output they provide. Now that Viola is in the party we have a nice safety net to fall back on if we’re having trouble with certain bosses. I’ll try not to do this too much because I’m sure that would be boring to watch after a point, but some of the bosses in Chapter 2 mean business and I’ll absolutely be using Viola for those fights.



Moving on from all that, we’ll climb up this ladder that we saw earlier.



There are a few little rooms throughout Fort Fermata, and we’ll have to investigate several of them if we want to get through the place, but this room is locked and we won’t be able to see what’s inside for a long time.



Oh, we should look at Viola’s stats before we progress through Fort Fermata any further. As you might expect she has a pretty high ATK, and her DEF is decent as well. She wears Light armor, as well as a line of Robes and Dresses that are unique to her and one other character we’ll see much later; they’re sort of in between Light and Medium armor, similarly to Frederic’s Coats. Viola has been rebalanced a fair bit in this version of the game; in addition to the arrow damage increase mentioned earlier, her SPD has been lowered, and her MAG increases at a slower rate than before. Still, she’s a solid addition to any party combination, and we’ll be using her a lot throughout the game.



With that out of the way, our journey through Fort Fermata continues. Actually, hold on, this enemy here is a good opportunity to show off Beat’s Sledgehammer special we still haven’t seen yet!



It’s Beat’s first close-range special, a six-hit combo that ends in a big shockwave that hits anything in the immediate vicinity. The last hit has a chance of causing some major knockback, making it great for clearing the area of enemies if you’re surrounded. It’s debatable if you’d rather use this or Rapid Shooter while you’re in this dungeon; enemies do tend to spawn pretty far away from you, but with Viola in the party you aren’t totally without long-range options if you decide to have Sledgehammer equipped.

Originally Beat learned a different special at level 8, with Sledgehammer being instead learned at level 24 in the Xbox 360 release, but the developers swapped the two attacks for the PS3 port. We’ll of course cover the other one at the appropriate time much later.



Right, where were we? We’ll check out that room below us in a minute, once we find a ladder back down to ground level.



But before that, we’ll have to fight some Maledictors! This is why I mentioned that they weren’t too big a deal back when we fought them as a boss last time.



Maledictors act exactly like they did in the previous update, but they’ve been downgraded to regular encounter status with stats to match. We already have some experience fighting them so they shouldn’t be too much trouble, and they give out pretty good Exp. Speaking of which…



Allegretto: “I’m just gonna keep on fighting!”

♪♪~ Well-Done

The party will be gaining several levels throughout our trek through this dungeon. We’ll take a look at Void Edge a little later; it’s pretty good.



♪♪~ A Wall With No Front or Back

At last we’ve reached the ladder at the end of the path, and can climb down it to investigate the room we saw earlier.



Uh, oops, one other thing first – nearly forgot about this attack. It’s a good thing Lords of Darkness don’t use it often, because it kinda hurts! (Also yeah, it does make the screen do that briefly.)



This is a hint at the mechanic we’ll be running into later in the dungeon. For now we’ll fight these Maledictors – this room is the first place they can be encountered in separate groups from Lords of Darkness. They’ll only come in pairs for now, but later on they’ll show up in groups of three.



Beat: “I’m getting stronger and stronger!”
Frederic: “*chuckles*”

Fighting both groups of Maledictors pushes Frederic and Beat to level 12. Night Shot is what you’d expect from the name, letting Beat take photos in darkness (very useful for this area); we’ll look at Coup de Jarnac later.



Polka: “Huh, phew!”

Maledictors occasionally drop Club Clovers, as well as a new battle-only item called an Odd Chocolate. They cost 3 points to put in the Item Set, and decrease a single enemy’s ATK by 5% for the duration of the battle. This is very handy for bosses if you can get it to stick, but right now we can’t really afford to use them; we need to save our meager 10 points for backup healing and Angel Trumpets.



“At… I… found…. Moving… room… opens… path…. And… I… outside….”

Another hint. We’ll see just what this means in due time.



There’s another save point right outside the floating room, and another enemy we can use one of our new specials on.



Void Edge is the dark equivalent to Sky Divider, and it’s slightly more damaging. In the original release it was a late-game special, being learned at level 40, but it was swapped with another special for the PS3 port.



Moving on, there’s another room near the save point, but we’ll be ignoring it.



Instead we’ll climb up the ladder and make our way across the roof of the floating room…



And snag this new weapon for Polka. I believe this is the first weapon we’ve come across that does more than increase ATK power, and the MAG boost is very nice indeed.



That obtained, we’ll make for the far wall on this side of the fort. We can’t reach that chest right now, but rest assured we’ll be back for it later.

From there we need to head all the way down…



Past the other side of the pathway leading to the ladder to the floating room…



Until we’re blocked by this pillar from moving south any further. This new pathway stretches all the way around the west side of Fort Fermata, and we’ll need to run across the whole thing, but first…



We’ll climb down this ladder.



From there we’ll run to another small room, and this time we will poke our heads inside.



There are a few things of note in here, but first we need to take care of this Maledictor.



This lets us obtain a new set of armor for Polka; in fact, she’s the only character in our party who can wear the Red Velvet.



Indeed it is. The red dot shows where we are, but the blue rectangle is slightly misleading. The shiny orb behind us is a switch that moves the floating room to different parts of the fort, and there are a few of them in rooms like this; the blue rectangle on the reference map doesn’t show where the floating room is, but where it will be if you push the switch. This particular switch acts as a reset button, moving it back to its original position should we need it; that being the case, we don’t need to press it right now, and will instead make our way back to the ladder we descended earlier.



Like so. Before we go any further, let’s look at Frederic’s new special.



♪♪~ Leap the Precipice

Coup de Jarnac is a new dark special, and it’s a fair bit more powerful than Piu Grave. Rather than simply being a dark version of Coup de Grace, this special hits twice, and the second hit affects enemies behind Frederic as well. You have to be careful, though; for the second hit to connect on enemies in front of you you’ll have to be right up in their face (especially for smaller enemies), and if you aren’t lined up right there’s a chance you’ll whiff it. Still definitely worth using, though.



♪♪~ A Wall With No Front or Back

Now begins the long circuit around the West Side.



I’ve said it before, but I really do like the aesthetic of this place. That’s a hell of a strong tree to burst through the pathway like that!



We’ll make a brief detour down this ladder before continuing on.



Yoink! It’s not much, but I’ll take it.



Back on the top pathway, we keep circling around…



Past the locked room we saw back at the start of this dungeon…



And to the other side of the pathway on the far wall. We couldn’t reach this area earlier thanks to some inconvenient rubble blocking the way. First we’ll head up here for another hint at the main navigational puzzle of this place:



“Four… rooms… switches…. One… moves… back….”

This almost spells out how it works directly, if you’re having trouble figuring it out (and to be fair, with all the battles you fight in this place it can be easy to forget sometimes).



Sweet, we’ve reached the Central Road. There’s a handy save point here if you need it.



Here we are in the East Side at last. Nowhere to go from here but south, so let’s get to it.



We’ll ignore this ladder for now; it doesn’t lead anywhere useful at the moment.



Dang, another chest we can’t reach yet. We’ll be back for this one as well.



There’s a ladder close by we’ll be making use of, and another save point we’ll ignore for the moment.



Another switch room. This Maledictor rushes us as soon as we take a step, so we’ll have to deal with him first.



This is a good time to point out that Sacred Strike can actually hit enemies in a small radius around it; it’s not just a single-target move like you might expect. Useful if you have to fight at close range instead of sniping dudes from afar.

I’m glad the switch rooms all have reference maps, otherwise the puzzle would be much harder to keep track of.



Unlike the reset room, we do need to push the switch here to progress.



*The screen rumbles and something large is heard moving.*



That done, it’s time to backtrack a bit.



Back up the ladder and through the Central Road…



Over to the long outside upper pathway…



All the way back around to the far wall from the south…



Past the broken pathway by the ladder to the floating room’s original position…



Over to a ladder by its new position, courtesy of the switch we pushed. We’ll climb down the ladder, head through the floating room again…



And open the chest we couldn’t reach before, finding a new weapon for Allegretto in the process. There are a few weapons in the game that cause additional status effects, either upon hitting an enemy or while a character has it equipped; in this case the Poison Blood has a chance of poisoning an enemy with each individual hit. The odds aren’t high, but even if it doesn’t proc very often the ATK boost is still pretty nice.



New weapon in hand, we’ll enter this switch room next.



Activating the switch moves the floating room over to the East Side, so we’ll need to make our way back there next. This involves circling all the way around the West Side once again, so I’ll just cut that out.



All the way at the end of the far wall on the East Side is another ladder, which is not going to descend itself.



At the end of this path is the new floating room location, which we will move through posthaste.



This leads to a long pathway…



Past a tantalizing chest that’s out of reach for now…



Which leads to another ladder.



Back across the top pathway…



Across the roof of the floating room…



Which leads to yet another ladder. Down we go!



Back on ground level, we’ll cross this rubble path…



Leading to another switch room.



That’s another switch activated, and the floating room moved once again. Time to head back up the ladder we descended to get here.



Moving across the roof of the floating room again…



To climb down this ladder, leading to…

A new weapon for Viola that we couldn’t reach earlier. This increases her ATK to the current highest in the party, which I am more than happy to accept.



That gotten, we’ll head back up this ladder and across the roof of the floating room one more time…



Down the ladder at the north end…



And then up this ladder a bit south from there.



This leads to the chest we passed by a while back, containing a new weapon for Frederic. The HP boost will help his survivability until we find the next Coat.



We’ve found all the items in the East and West Sides of the fort and don’t need to move the floating room anymore, so now we just need to head to the end of this place. We’ll do that by staying on the top path…



And circling all the way around the room…



Until we reach the far wall from the north.



At long last, we’ve made our way to the other side of the locked door we encountered way back at the start of the dungeon. That is uh, a big boy off in the distance there; we’ll have to fight it before we can leave. To that end I rearrange the Item Set a little bit and shuffle the party. I normally use Allegretto for this battle, but on a whim I decide to keep Frederic in the party instead.



Just for posterity’s sake, I will point out that it took me a little over an hour and fifteen minutes to reach this save point. That’s kind of a step up from the Ritardando Sewers!



Anyway, let’s go say hello, shall we?



Click to watch the boss fight

♪♪~ A Flicker Which Divides Light and Darkness





No dilly-dallying here, this thing wants to fight and has no time for a warmup.



Boss: Killer Knight, Maledictor x2
HP: 102,165
Exp: 4,000 (Xbox 360), 4,260 (PS3)
Gold: 90
How does it even see out of that helmet: Beats me!



Frederic: “How pitiful. You soulless creatures!”

The biggest challenge here isn’t really the boss itself, but rather its massive HP total, which is more than double the Ogre Champ’s. It’s a good thing we brought Viola along to help out with that!



The Killer Knight’s standard attack is to alternate between swinging its two cleavers at you. It does this rather methodically so it’s not too tough to guard against.



Red Death is a different story, though. It hits four times, can hit other characters besides the main target if they’re close enough, and can cause knockdown if unguarded, so it’s in your best interest to learn the guard timing pretty quick.



The Maledictors aren’t really anything to worry about – they’re the same normal enemy they have been throughout Fort Fermata instead of the boss encounter they were in the Chorus Plains.



White Whirl isn’t as rough to deal with as Red Death; it hits three times and also carries a chance of knockdown but isn’t nearly as damaging. It can also hit other characters if they’re grouped very close together, but spreading your party out even a little bit handily avoids this.



Beat: “Say cheese!”

It’s better to have Night Shot here if you’re going to take photos of the boss, rather than Vivid Shot, since the battlefield is mostly in darkness. You’ll also want to try being farther away than I am here, so you have a better chance of fitting the Killer Knight fully in the frame.



The general plan for this battle will be to have Frederic build up Echoes (and have Beat join in once he’s done taking photos) while Viola harries the boss from a distance. I’ll try to have her stay near one of the torches so she can fire off Sacred Strike, but if I have to move into the dark to get a better position it’s not a big loss. We’re actually kind of over-leveled for this bit so Frederic should be able to withstand the Killer Knight’s attacks pretty well for the most part, provided I don’t flub guard inputs.



Viola: “Huh! You better beg for mercy from this one!”

If you’re having trouble with the fight or are under-leveled, a good tactic would be to spread out your party as far as you can; the Killer Knight’s attacks are all in melee-range, and forcing it to chase you around will give it less time to attack you. However, I think we have the situation well in hand.



The boss has two other attacks that it uses less often – Plow, a series of three tail lashes that can hit other characters standing behind or beside it, and Stomp, which is uh, a stomp. It didn’t use the latter attack during this recording, though.



Frederic: “Dance amidst the darkness, amidst the shadows!”

The fight ends up taking a little longer than it probably should have; I could definitely hit the Killer Knight with Viola from farther away, and I also kind of lose track of how many photos I’ve taken. But we’ve almost won at this point – just a couple more rounds and we’ll have this fight in the bag. Speaking of which...



Frederic: “Hear my command and obey: disappear!”

Frederic brings us home with a decisive final blow. Thanks, Frederic!

♪♪~ Well-Done

Frederic: “Go back, back into a nebulous dream.”

Heck yeah, full-party level-ups! That’s what I like to see. The Fort Fermata Key’s function should be obvious, while the Lace Veil increases the wearer’s maximum HP by 5%; this is going straight on Polka.



Viola: “Maybe it’s time to upgrade!”

Viola learns a new special that will be very useful indeed; more on that next time.



Our Party Level also goes up! More on that next time as well.



Click to watch the rest of the update

♪♪~ No music

Seems like everybody made it out of the fight okay.



Allegretto: “Nope. They’re more worried about an invasion from Baroque these days. They’ve probably pulled out almost all the troops from here.”
*short pause*
Frederic: “No matter how much time passes, war remains.”



Allegretto: “For Baroque, it’s an easy way to shake up things in Forte, without getting their hands too dirty.”
Frederic: “Andantino?”



Polka: “Wouldn’t a revolution be destructive?”
Beat: “But isn’t a revolution better than nothing? It may improve people’s lives a little, and that’s a good thing, right?”
Allegretto: “Hm, it’s not that simple, Beat. Think about everyone involved: Andantino, Baroque, Forte….”



Frederic: “I would imagine they have their own agendas.”
Beat: “But one of them has to be the good guy, right?”
Allegretto: “Who knows? They might all be evil in their own way. Then again, they might all be right. It’s hard to be sure.”



*While the group ponders this, the scene transitions to another place...*



*The camera zooms in through the archway.*



That’s the man with black hair speaking.



Claves: “I’m sorry. But this is an important mission, so I want to make sure I get it right.”



Falsetto: “Fine.”



Jazz: “We’ll infiltrate the castle tomorrow at dawn.”
Claves: “But the castle gates are heavily guarded. What will we do about that?”



I did not mean to make Falsetto look so smug here. Poor screenshot timing on my part.

Jazz: “Falsetto’s right. It won’t be that difficult a mission. We just have to bring the guardian back.”
Claves: “Excuse me, but why are we rescuing her anyway? I mean, how will this mission benefit Andantino?”



Jazz: “So, it makes sense that they would want to detain the guardian and make her tell them about the glowing agogos.”
Claves: “The glowing agogos? But, what on earth does Waltz want those for?”



Jazz: “Falsetto! If you don’t take this seriously, we’ll end up making a mess of even the easiest missions!”
Falsetto: “Huh, fine.”
Jazz: “Apparently, agogos dramatically increase the effectiveness of mineral powder. But it seems that only the glowing one have that effect.”



Falsetto: “I guess from Waltz’s point of view… by multiplying the effect of the mineral powder with the glowing agogos, he’ll be multiplying the number of troops he has at his disposal.”
Claves: “I get it now. And then he’ll use those troops to fight against Andantino.”
Falsetto: “I don’t know about that. I seriously doubt he’ll be attacking Andantino anytime soon. He probably considers Baroque more of a threat.”
*Jazz starts to get up.*



Looks like we have more people heading for Forte, and they have an idea of what Count Waltz is trying to achieve with the mineral powder. The situation just keeps getting more serious the closer we get to Forte…

Next time: Finally reaching our destination.