Let's Play: Wild ARMs!

Okay, I was supposed to start this earlier tonight*, save for the fact that my hard copy of Wild ARMs disappeared into the ether sometime in the last six months, or it's stuck in one of my storage bins somewhere.

At any rate, that means I'm rolling .iso style for now until I have some time to try and find it! It's either that, or my copy of Alter Code F willed it out of existence or something silly like that.

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Ahem! So, uh, starting over here, welcome to Let's Play Wild ARMs!



For those of you who don't know about the game in particular, I'll take a moment to describe it; The spiritual successor to Lufia 2 in some ways, and to 16-bit RPGs in others, it was one of the few early-PSX games to escape Sony's soft ban on sprite-based anything, mostly because of the 3D battle system. Now before you start preemptively gouging your eyes out, keep in mind that while this is most certainly going to be ugly in some spots, for a game that came out before FFVII it still holds up remarkably "well" for one reason: Gouraud Shading. That, combined with the combat's SD-style models keeps the eye-bleeding to an oddly cute minimum.

Mechanically it's pretty simple; battles are turn-based affairs with action order determined by a character's RES stat (think agility anywhere else); and everybody takes their turn as determined by the game engine. Since this isn't the remake, WA only has three characters; Rudy, the blue-haired kid with the gun, Cecillia, the girl with sparkly fingertips, and "Jack," the guy with the sword in back. The parenthesis' are there for a reason, one which you'll all find out in due time, as SPOILERS, y'know.



Rudy will be the main damage dealer out of the group, simply due to his special abilities; his ARMs. The acronym varies a bit throughout the series, but here it stands for Ancient Relic Machine...which is what they are, more or less. Just think massively powerful weapons, and you'd be on the right track. Each gun Rudy picks up has its own ammo gauge (basically spell charges), that can only be refilled in most towns for 10 Gella a bullet, or with the Clip items we'll find increasingly more often as the game goes on.



Jack's, finicky, mostly because you don't gain access to his main sources of dealing damage until late in the game, but he does have the highest RES out of the trio and a Force ability (more on that in a sec) that lets him act first no matter who has the highest RES score that turn. He'll usually be our pinch hitter, doing heals and revives when I need them done with his Accelerator Force and otherwise just supporting Rudy and to a lesser extent Cecilia. Like Rudy, Jack does get an innate skillset called Fast Draw (or, Iaido, as that is what it is), which is a group of sword techniques with wildly varying effects done at a certain MP cost. Where Rudy has to find ARMs in the wild and then upgrade them to get the best use out of them, Jack gets "hints" instead, which upon repeated attempts to use those hints will eventually learn the skill in question. Some skills are more useful than others, but Jack's usually best at support roles since he can't really challenge Rudy for damage output.



And, finally, Cecillia. She'll be our healer until about halfway through the game when we unlock the second tier of her magic, at that point she can switch to more of a buff/debuffer or damage-dealer role. The problem with her, at least compared to the boys is that she gets a ton of magic. A ton. She has 64 possible spells across both tiers, split evenly into 32 for each tier and then further into Black and White categories. Needless to say, a great deal of it can be very situational at best, especially the tier 1 stuff. Complicating this further is the fact that we'll need Crest Graphs in order to actually make her spells; each Graph lets us make one spell (for free, thankfully) at any magic guild we run across. You pick a tier (if you're in the second half), a color, and then a combination of the two elements. She starts with two, and we'll be picking up one or two each town and dungeon we come across pretty much, though there are a number of graphs tucked away in hidden spots of the globe. As a surprisingly nice touch, we can also rename her spells to whatever we want! Let's keep it clean though, eh guys?

A handy chart (from the manual) of her tier 1 spells

I skipped over this in the basic mechanical overview, but the Force system is basically the one "unique" element of the series' battle system. Each character has a Force gauge, divided into four bars with two segments; the blue on top which tells you in general how much FP you have, and the red progress bars which tells you how many quarters of the gauge you've filled for easy reference for Force usage. The gauge "starts" at 0, as in WA1 each character starts battle with a number of FP equal to their level, and goes to a 100 at the end. If a character does hit 100 outside of starting battle at it, it triggers a "Condition: Green" event which nulls all status ailments and debuffs and provides a hefty bonus to all stats. Each character also has access to Force "commands" separated into four levels; level 1 abilities consume 25 FP, level 2s consume 50 FP and so on. This makes level 25 a fairly major milestone in the game, as it lets us open up our combat options right at the start of battle, and for one additional reason:

The higher the FP gauge, the higher your character stats get, and when you spend them, you lose that boost (to whatever your current FP total is). While Condition: Green is a significant boost by itself, the idea is that you're supposed to balance command usage with combat performance. The problem is that Rudy breaks the game, or rather, his ARMs do. The biggest change they introduced to ARMs users in subsequent games is limiting the number of total upgrades you can place on a single ARM, as you can upgrade every ARM stat to the max in this, which is slightly gamebreaking when combined with Rudy's level 1 and 4 Force commands.

Now, the reason I compared this to Lufia 2 is simple: It has tools. It has dungeons; and it has more than a few dungeons that are little more than glorified puzzles. The developers liked puzzles so much that they included a minigame mode called Puzzle Cubes from WA2 onward that are entirely tool puzzle based affairs. They also happen to be a lot of fun in general! Each of our little trio gets their own selection of tools, and once we group them up, we can switch freely between characters to use the tools best for the job, and some of the puzzles can be fairly mindbending if you aren't paying attention.

And so, before I start the LP proper, I have three requests for you guys:

1) Names! We can go with the canon names for the party, or we can rename them at the start. Also spell names for those so inclined.

2) Am I a cheater? One of the more infamous bits about WA is its item duplo trick. Once I get the crew together I can duplicate any item (and get 255 of it as a result) as long as I have three or four Heal Berries (basic healing item). The only reason I ask is that doing the optional bosses and secret dungeon is going to be a pain unless I grind out to level 100 or thereabouts or fudge it on healing items using the duplo trick. This is also an easy way to get all the Crest Graphs I'll ever need along with Bullet Clips and Jack's Secret Signs (item which reduces the MP cost of one of his skills by one per item, also need one or two to get a skill hint).

3) What order should I do the intros in? It doesn't matter at all, really, but I'll try to explain each character's abilities more in depth with each intro segment, and if you guys have favorites already for some reason, we can do whatever! Cecillia's segment's the most annoying of the three though, and Jack's is the most fun.

Chapter Links:
Prologue 01: Dangerous Levels of Metal; Parts 1, 2, 3, F
Prologue 02: When One Hamburger Was Not Enough; Parts 1, 2, 3, F
Prologue 03: The Roar of His Gun is the Roar of His Heart; Parts 1, 2, 3, F
Adlehyde Arc: Chapter 1; Three's Company, But What About the Rat? Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, F
Adlehyde Arc: Chapter 2; Is this a Festival or a Gun Show? Parts 1, 2, 3, F
Guardian Arc: Chapter 1; Mountain Hiking and Masculine Inspiration Parts 1, 2
Guardian Arc: Chapter 2; Because Everyone Loves Divine Tests, Facial Hair Optional Parts 1, 2, F
Guardian Arc: Chapter 3; THE BEST PLACE IS THE OBVIOUS PLACE, OBVIOUSLY
Guardian Arc: Chapter 4; Just A Little Intergalactic Ping-Pong!
Guardian Arc: Chapter 5; A Princess, A Bride And a Maze Zoo of Death!

Secret Update 01: The Key to the Riches of Wisdom
Secret Update 02: A Stroll on the Town
Secret Update 03: Shenaniganry

Mythology Update 01: Because the Undead and Gods of Death Go Together
Mythology Update 02: You Got Your Taoist Deities In My Western

Music Links:
Battle Theme: Critical Hit!
Boss Theme: Battle against Mid-Boss
Boss Theme: Power Fighter
Dungeon Theme: Courage
Dungeon Theme: Cold Darkness
Dungeon Theme: Way of Illusion
Dungeon Theme: The Power Which Supports the World
Dungeon Theme: Alone in the World
Extra Theme: Shock
Extra Theme: Taboo Storyteller
Extra Theme: Against the Backdrop of World Destruction
Extra Theme: A Sorrowful Separation
Extra Theme: Knight Quarters
Game Over Theme: Defeated
Intro 1 Theme: Into the Wilderness
Intro 2 Themes: Castle of Flames / Clash and a Promise
Prologue Scroll Theme: Funeral Procession
Pyramid Theme: Ancient Shrine
Special Theme: The Sky is Being Torn Apart
Special Theme: World of Loudening Screams
Title Theme: Wild ARMs
Town Theme: A Monastery
Town Theme: Ancient Civilization Exhibition
Town Theme: After the Chaos and Destruction
Town Theme: From Anxiety to Impatience
Town Theme [Also Guardians/SPELL's Theme]: Oh, Abbey Maiden
Town Theme [Also SHOOT's THEME]: Hope
Town Theme: Town
Town Theme: Adlehyde Castle
Town Theme: Marsh Where the Migrant Birds Gather
Victory Theme: Retreat

Links of Interest:
The World Map: Linked here is the unadulterated model; I'll be using Paint (or Gimp if I'm dumber than usual) to mark off where we are, and where we're going.
Intro Movie 1; Probably the one thing you've all seen or heard from this game whether you've played it or not.
Intro Movie 2 (You can skip past the cropped Intro 1 movie, or not!): As a sidenote, I didn't even know about this one for a few years until I replayed it once and let it sit on the title screen as I was fumbling for snacks. This is also fairly important for one of the trio's backstory, though it won't come into play for a fair chunk of the game.

EDITED TO FIX LINKS....because it was late and I was tired and made some mistakes! Second op movie now links to the sandwiched double intro movies.

FURTHER EDIT: To add chapter and music links! Shall be updated as I go along.

Only if we make you do the insane things that you'd need to cheat for, and maybe once otherwise to show off.

I was just wondering the other day why there aren't more RPGs that take cues from Lufia II, and then (somewhat regrettably) remembered Wild Arms. I only played half of the first game and liked it alright, but only finished the second game out of pure, unbridled hate for it.

The game is definitely a curious artifact from another time, coming as it did between the 16-bit world and the advent of FF7. Or at least it was released very shortly after FF7 in Japan and hurriedly localized for release in the US, from what I remember.

The world map link is broken. Just sayin'. Please do go on.

For the spells, I suggest using the names from their DQ alternatives. For those without appropriate analogues, just use the same style and name them for their onomoetopia.

On that matter: Name the characters after their primary roles in combat: Shooty, Speedy and Magicy

Hot damn, another massive RPG LP. I guess we're all set on readin' material for the next two years.

I say name them FF1-style: MUTE, HAND, and HAIR. I think you can figure out who is who.

Meaty edit: This is probably my favorite PSX game. I bought it at release and played it a shit-ton.
A great man once said something to the effect of, in 1997 the Nintendo attitude was "Hey fans, we hate you, go buy a Playstation" and that's exactly what I did. I was 12, and could afford a new game just about once every never.
Mario 64 release date: Sep 26 96
Mario Kart 64 release date: Feb 10 97
Wild ARMs release date: April 30 97

So Wild ARMs was the first new PSX game I bought at release after trading in my N64 and SNES stuff (I saved up for the N64 for a few grueling years and had to trade in all the SNES stuff to make the second big purchase in a year). I played Vandal Hearts and Beyond the Beyond before that, but did not purchase the former until later on and threw up all over the latter. I didn't know about Suikoden at the time.

That's my story.

So, anyway, I am against item duplication because it's just not necessary. You can clear all the bonus bosses by equipping Sacrificial Goats or whatever they're called every turn. No need to grind levels, no need to dupe items. Just open the secret shop. I think that costs a ton of money so maybe you can do duping for that.

This can't be a Wild Arms thread without its awesome intro movie.

I recommend cheating but only so that you don't need to waste time grinding, but do it with some apprehension. That means you're not allowed to make everyone with 255 stats. I typically would only dupe the Secret Signs to fund my ARM modifications and to make sure I was well stocked up carrots and berries.

Rudy - Nelly (because of that band-aid)
Jack - Garrett, or Emiko (if you played the game you should know why I chose these names)
Cecilia - Toots

That's some very mid-90's looking font there in those instruction book scans.

I remember enjoying this game back when it first came out. Never did try any of the sequels, though I still love a lot of stuff from the various soundtracks.

I think we should settle upfront what the proper spelling is for Cecilia's home kingdom. You know, since the game never does.

While I prefer its sequel, this game is still near and dear to my heart. As for order in which to tackle the character prologues...mmm, I'm impatient, so I advise tackling Jack's first, since his is the best. Love the wacky booby trap shenanigans. Cecilia's is also alright, while Rudy's is dull as dirt. It's astonishing how many cliches of the genre they packed into such a short amount of time with him. I mean, it's not that I admire this game for its bristling imagination, but still, Rudy. Boo, Rudy. Booooo.

But I did link it? It's at the bottom of the initial post with the second intro?

I realized some time ago that Jack Van Burace's name is stupidly mistranslated and should be "Jack Vambrace." Now all I can think about when I see this game is how dumb "Van Burace" sounds.

Also, I recommend naming the trio SHOOT, SLASH, and SPELL. All-caps mandatory.

I always thought it was supposed to be a misspelling of Van Buren.

Thanks for teaching me, Mr. Parish!

I still say the most amazing thing about Wild ARMs is how amazingly coherent the translation is, coming from Sony. Did they just have a token lucid staffer who burnt out after that one or what? I mean, just compare it to, say, WA2.

Just finished a trial run of Jack's intro segment...the video capture program I was going to use (that camstasia thing) lagged horribly and didn't even capture the game audio like I set it to, and recorded, well, terribly. So this is going to be a mostly screenie affair until and unless I can figure out something. I'll post links to the music as I go along though, as it is really good.

Also had a minor heart attack while using psX like usual...apparently Wild ARMs has an odd little error that delays the start of the game proper after the BIOS screens for 15 seconds on psX that I didn't know about until I went through the compatibility list! Works fine though, although it seems like psX's screenshot tool doesn't capture the floating text boxes on top of the screen for attack and ability call-outs though.

I'm planning on getting two out of the three intros out of the way tonight; most likely Jack's and Cecilia's unless there are any objections.

As for names; most of you guys seem to want Brickroad FFI-styled names, which is fine, and not terribly surprising. :P SHOOT, SLASH, and SPELL it is!

I've been recently contemplating a replay of this game, and now I don't have to bother! Bless you, sir.

I love the first half or so of this game but at some point the random battle engine just becomes an interminable slog. Maybe it suffers in comparison to Suikoden, but so many first-gen PSX RPG battle systems were just so slow.

Wild ARMs is one of the fastest RPGs for the PSX era as far as battle goes. Very few drawn out animations and the like. It gets a tad repetitive sure, but slow isn't something I'd call it, not in comparison to say, the PS1 FF games.

If it makes you feel any better, I prefer Screenies to Videos by a terribly wide margin indeed.

And if this also makes you feel any better, I don't think I was expecting anything different to happen.

Even though I'm all curmudgeonly and tired of anime tropes, I never, ever, get tired of the Wild ARMS intro.

I lost my copy of the game years ago. I should nab it on PSN.

Well, I was mostly planning videos for the first part of the intro segments and some of the puzzles, and screening the rest. Ah well.



Heh, neither did I.

well, uh, it needed to be posted twice? Whoops

SHOOT, SLASH, and SPELL are great names.

I want LARRY (Rudy), CURLY (Jack), and MOE (Cecilia, pronounced Mo-EHHHHHHH.)

- Eddie

I feel like a fool for not noticing this when I can recall, after over a decade, exactly why he would have the designation Vambrace right down to the dopey romantic subtext of it. To prove this anti-boast, he was one of seven special (royal?) guards in his snow-laden erstwhile kingdom. Their designations were themed around arms and armor, so lacking in seniority he gets to the the hand guard or vambrace. This sucks in his view, but the guard girl he is sweet on--Christ, I think she may be the one Al-Hazad begins attempting to rape in the attract mode opening--was the sword (or maybe something else held in the hand) so he gets to act as her protector. Well, I described how well that plan turned out (well only some of it, but now I remember that that was in fact her).

I might be getting muddled here by loading times and high encounter rate, or I might just have been bad at the game (the first time I played through I avoided using ARMs and most spells in anything but boss battles, as I recall). Or I could just be misremembering outright, this game is fairly old after all.

Win.

So yeah, tons of screens in this update. Lemme know if you guys want a lower average number of screens per update because half an hour of gameplay tops netted me something like 150 screens which I compressed half of into the composites you're gonna see in a second...which took me an hour and a half to do all the cut and pasting. Most of the image density is due to the intros themselves though, as trying to get all of the text and introductory bits out of the way takes a while.

Anyway!

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Title Scroll Theme: Wild ARMs
Intro 1 Theme: Into the Wilderness
Intro 2 Themes: Castle of Flames / Clash and a Promise

Welcome all to the first installment of the Wild ARMs LP! Not much to say before I get started beyond the fact that I severely underestimated the time requirements for putting all those screens together--yeesh.



We're starting with a certain Treasure Hunter extraordinaire, and then moving on to the mage girl in the third slot for the intro scenarios. As I said above, these first three updates are going to be heavier on screens as they look sort of neat and I have to do some explaining of each character's combat options.

Here's the start of ol' longhair's scenario:

Dungeon Theme: Courage [Hmm...perhaps this theme title is slightly foreshadowy?]



This scene does a fairly good job of establishing the 'Treasure Hunter' as a character along with his partner in crime, the blue rat, er "Wind Mouse" Hanpan. The Hunter's a hothead and very stubborn about what he's hunting for, almost as he's haunted by some skeletons in his closet or something.

Nah, couldn't be.





Definitely a hothead, and randomly touching odd looking machinery in ancient ruins isn't usually a good idea.



And here we get the results of the impromptu vote for names:



...I think that makes Hanpan "Ozzy" now, or maybe "OZZIE"?



So SLASH apparently doesn't have clearance to visit the back of some ancient ruins! Why am I not surprised? Looks like we get to take the scenic tour of the inside anyway:



The floor opens up beneath SLASH and OZZIE, casting them into the, er, depths.

SLASH's Theme: Small Thoughts are Worth a Lot / Getting Rich Quick

Dungeon Theme: Courage

Man, SLASH's habitual disregard for personal danger seems to be growing with each passing second.

This is also the first point where we have direct control over SLASH (and OZZIE, in Tool form), so we head south and check out a note on the wall:



Seems like prior theives...sorry, Treasure Hunters, have truly picked this place mostly clean and left snide notes to taunt whoever else is dumb enough to go to this place. The Heal Berry in the chest next to the note seems to have been left behind though, so in the bag it goes. This leads us to talking about the status screen:





Hitting triangle brings up that row of icons on the side and the brief character stats on the right. The little OZZIE icon on the bottom left is the active tool indicator; which happens to be little OZZIE as he's the only "Tool" we have access to at the moment. The item bag is the inventory screen, which only has our single Heal Berry in it at the moment, the little star below it is the special skill screen, and the vest icon is the equipment screen, as shown in the first row of screens. The megaphone is the combat AI settings menu, although everyone is normally set to MANUAL (as shown underneath SLASH's sprite) so you don't have to worry about that.

The heart icon is the status screen. Most of it's pretty self explanatory; STR and VIT affect ATP and DFP respectively, SOR influences magic damage (and Fast Draw damage) and MGR (MaGic Resist). RES determines agility, hit rates, and turn order in combat, and PRY (Parry) is your evade rate. SLASH's highest in RES and PRY, ties with SHOOT in STR mostly, and is middle of the road for VIT and SOR (not hard as SHOOT has no MP and has pathetically low SOR and MGR). LUCK, is well, luck. It does have a numerical value, but all we'll see is a rating going from WORST->BAD->NORMAL->GOOD->BEST. The ranking changes randomly upon level ups and inn stays, and determines the odds of a lot of little and major things, among which are ambush/preemptive strike rates and our odds of entering the game's secret dungeon.

Another neat little note is that the game kept track of the two traps SLASH ran into during the cutscene there, as he's not at full health.

The last icon is the config sub menu which we don't need to mess with at all, though amusingly the game does have a screen saver of all things; it's just a blizzard of all the various icons that flits around the screen.

Now that we're done with that, SLASH takes a left at the T and follows the turn up to a pair of empty chests, and goes further up to this little room:



As OZZIE says, we can send him out over gaps and the like to open chests (although we'll only rarely need to do this in particular) and hit switches that can't be reached. SLASH has a hearty laugh at the poor Treasure Hunters' expense as he sends OZZIE out to fetch...a cowboy hat?



With Stetson on head, SLASH goes back to the T with the two empty chests and goes right, spotting what looks like a barred door and a chest near a spike patch, and decides to follow the path all the way over to the right and up the side to another empty chest and a switch on the floor.



While he's doing that he runs into his first battle (as I was literally stepping on the switch), and has the luck for it to be a Preemptive Strike, meaning the party gets a free turn. Or SLASH does, at any rate.

Balloons are a mainstay of the series' bestiary, and they look like a bunch of anguished faces in the shape of a spherical cloud. Candidates as nightmare fodder, definitely. They're also the weakest enemies in the game, although SLASH can pretty easily kill anything here in one normal hit.



Now for a bit of explaining: Lufia fans will probably recognize the command layout; I'm not sure whether that's a homage or if some of the devs were ex-Estpolis devs or what. At any rate, the top battle command menu lets you choose to fight (the sword), to run (the green guy on the right), swap out gear (vest up top), choose AI settings if you're so inclined (you shouldn't be, and it's the megaphone on the left), and finally choose the party order (mostly unnecessary, and it's the finger on the bottom).

Choosing the fist brings up the character command menu; the fist in the center is a basic attack on a target of your choosing (generates FP when you do), the green star on top is your special skill menu for that character, the shield is your defense command (and also generates FP), the item bag is your inventory, and the fireball is your Force command menu.

My wife has been bugging me to play this game for forever, but while the intro is beautiful and the top-down exploring parts are cool, the battle engine gives me detached retinas. I'm not a graphics whore, but dang those are some chunky polys

After being so rudely interrupted, SLASH steps on the switch, raising the gate over the up stairs, so he runs over, finds the chest by the spike chest is yet another empty, and decides to go upstairs.



Once he steps up to the next level he pushes a block out of his way and starts running down one side of the path, avoiding spike patches as he goes.



A note about running; there is such a thing as momentum in this game, which I'd forgotted since I'd played it last. Who wants to guess how many times I fumbled myself into a pit via running momentum while trying to blaze through this?

Anyway, at the bottom of the hall SLASH finds another chest guarded by spike traps, and sends OZZIE out to retrieve it, finding another Heal Berry inside. He then steps out into another hallway, this one with odd...holes in the walls?



Turns out those are spear trap holes, and merely trying to walk by isn't fast enough to avoid a sharp jab to the gut, so SLASH runs over to the right side, thudding and bouncing off the right hand wall of the hall as he makes his way into the door above him.



As he's doing that, he gets in a few more fights, but this one is important because SLASH is fighting more than one Balloon this time; a Pillbug is rounding out the enemy crew this time, and generally should be killed first if you want the EXP and cash, as they tend to run away if you kill the other monsters first. Killing the pillbug and getting hit by the Balloon's attack gives SLASH enough FP to hit Force Level 1, allowing him to use his level 1 Force command, Accelerator:



Accelerator lets SLASH act first, no matter what. That, as is pretty obvious can be very handy. SLASH here is pairing Accelerator with his Psycho Crack Fast Draw (the blue flash on the right screen) to utterly slaughter the Balloon. Psycho Crack does about 2x the normal fight damage that SLASH deals and also has a chance to inflict Confuse, and also happens to be completely worthless compared to SHOOT's ARMs and SLASH's later Fast Draws.



This S-shaped room is lined with pits and has a little platform with another switch on it, only this switch is blocked by stones which SLASH is only too happy to push one in a hole so OZZIE can run over and step on it. A rumbling sound in the distance announces the opening of another door, so the duo hotfoots it back to the spear hall, this time going all the way over the left. They hop up the stairs to find an odd pentagram glowing on the floor.



This is a Memory Circle; it's basically our dungeon save device, as towns have a different mechanism and you can save freely from the menu on the world map.



They also get in another fight that brings SLASH to level 2!



Going out of the save room brings us to a narrow hallway lined with spikes, so SLASH charges across and stops at this little puzzle.



...crushes more Balloons as he presses the switches...



And goes up the stairs to this little floor arrangement:



The center of the room is shaped like a moebius-loop or infinity symbol, but there are a few dead-end branches paired with the spike traps at the crossroads that make it a bit of a pain to navigate if you haven't been through here a few times.

Making our way over to the bottom left nets us two more chests; another Heal Berry and a Hide Glove:



Why, that's almost like a, er, Van Burace!

Not pictured is the third level up I got from killing a few Skeletons, easily the most dangerous things in here as they do a ton of damage.

Moving up, SLASH happens upon another less-than-snide-and-possibly-puzzled note:



Hmm, two blue switches that a certain mouse can easily reach?



I think that did it.

SLASH steps into the glowing spot on the floor and teleports to an odd looking room.



Well, duh. SLASH does it anyway though.



Extra Theme: Shock

...you mean elf, right?

"SLASH: What... What's an Elw?

OZZIE: Long ago... an alien race lived here, an advanced race who used
technology laced with magic. These are the remnants of a race whose lives
were in sync with the laws of nature.

SLASH: So is this an Elw?

OZZIE: No, this is a holographic image. This machine must be a data storage
device of the Elw! Information is left here to be retrieved later! This
certainly is a [Temple of Memory].

SLASH: Wait a minute... The Elw is speaking directly into my mind!

OZZIE: Wow! With your thick skull?! This certainly is advanced technology!"

OZZIE, you rock.



That's certainly cheerful. Or not.



I think SLASH just heard the "Loli" in Lolithia and got excited, personally.

"Hey OZZIE, you heard
him! Where is this [Land of Light]?

OZZIE: Hmm... I'm not certain, but... In an ancient tongue, Adlehyde means
[Light]. Perhaps it's related... Do you want to go there? It's not that
far from here.

SLASH: ... OK.

OZZIE: Adlehyde is a kingdom located to the southeast of here."

Stepping on the new glowy spot teleports us back to the main room of the ruins. As a "fun" note, you can also try to enter a password into the computer again, but if you screw up again you get dropped right back where you started.

Heading south through the door takes us back outside, and when SLASH hits the world map a monologue starts:



How vaguely philosophical!

That wraps up Jack's intro, so see y'all next time for:

WHEN ONE HAMBURGER WAS NOT ENOUGH (SPELL'S INTRO)