Let's Play: Wild ARMs!

Welcome back to this quickie edition of the Wild ARMs LP, brought to you by sheer boredom and the incredible disappointment that is Mimana: Iyar Whatchamacallit. Easily the blandest RPG I’ve played in years, and that’s saying something, as I have first hand experience with 90% of the RPGs released in the late ‘90s and onwards in the U.S.

Anyway, now for something completely different:



This is the Guardian Shrine, the next pseudo-dungeon that’s the main thrust of this update! We’re not going there yet, as one of the NPCs in Milama mentioned something about a separate Elw Pyramid farther back in the forests, and for reasons that will eventually become clear, all of the Elw Pyramid we find will be located in forests, and it’s not cause of magical-tech elves either. Well, it is, but it’s not. Hrm. Talking about this in non-spoilers is sort of difficult, since the way the Shrines “work” is related to something else important to the backstory.



Here’s the pyramid, which is in the top right of the area Milama and the Guardian Shrine is nested right at the top in the middle of a forest.

Pyramid Theme: Ancient Shrine



All of the “pyramids” look like this inside, lots of water and blue stone, although we can’t go any farther inside right at the moment, a duplicator door’s blocking the path.

Well, that was a disappointment. Let’s look around and see what else we can find, eh?



Dammit SHOOT, quit getting poisoned.



Wat.

More like “fourth window” amirite?

Even more amusingly, that sign can only be reached by walking through a very narrow gap between a mountain range and the coast by the Elw Pyramid. You read that right, the developers stuck a sign in the middle of nowhere in a hard to reach spot just to remind you about the world map in the last dungeon map.

Does that count as an easter egg?



White dots are towns, and the red dot is us. Milama’s to the south, Curan Abbey is the white dot straight right, Adlehyde is the dot furthest right, and Surf Village is the one top-right. So it’s sort of useless as a map, since it lacks any sort of distinguishing features beyond types of colored dots.



Dungeon Theme: The Power Which Supports the World

Let’s get this update underway, shall we? This is the entryway of the Guardian Shrine “dungeon.” I will likely be spending more time quoting the script than anything else in here. “But wait,” you might ask, “this is a dungeon right? It’s not like this is FFXIII where no one ever shuts up, ever, goddamn you Hope?”

“Ah,” I would reply, “but if you would recall what I titled this update, you would then know that we are going to get bizarre speechifying and nonsensical plot developments and foreshadowing courtesy of an actually competent localization.” For the 90s, anyway.

And I am dead serious. The layout of this dungeon is painfully simple, although we do have to unlock the “front” door, so to speak.



Possibly important.



I seem to learn something new about this game with every update. Please to be looking at SPELL, who seems to be doing the boogie-woogie as a victory pose instead of her usual wand raise thing. I have never seen this happen before in the game, and had never heard of it before now and it seems to be incredibly rare since it only happens when SPELL kills the last enemy with a physical.

There are up stairs to either side, but both of them lead to the same room on the second floor:



Hmm, twelve torch stands lined up in something resembling a circle, or oval, I guess.




That wasn’t terribly difficult. I just lit the torches as instructed and used the Holy Medal on the door on the first floor to reveal those stairs.

From here on things get a little less linear, although there’s still only one path forward. The basement floor is symmetrical actually, there’s one path to the south leading to a trio of Mystic Apples, and a wing to the left and right that each have a Magic Carrot chest at the end and a door. Each door opens up into a corridor with two doors; one leading to a room with a Crest Graph chest and a door that leads to the next section of the Shrine. Assuming I didn’t write that funny, that means we got two Crest Graphs, two Magic Carrots, and three Mystic Apples.

That’s also 100% of the treasure in here.



Random Battle Screen: Important only for the green and white guys on the left—those are one of the few monsters who show up in most of the games like the Balloons do. They’re generally low-HP with powerful attack magic monsters, and they’ll serve as basic cannon fodder monsters to pad out mobs for the next few dungeons. They’re so weak that SPELL can kill one with a single attack, but they can unleash group attack magic, so it’s usually best to take them out first.



Hmm…new puzzle.

That didn’t work (doesn’t show in the screen, but the door hasn’t opened), so I hit the Pocket Watch and reset the room.



Lighting the bottom right torch creates that path to the next one…



Lighting that one opens up a path to the next one, and…

I get stuck in the middle again with three unlit torches, and a closed door.

Okay, try number three.



Operating under the assumption that I lit the torches in the middle of the chain and that if I swap over to the other corner I’ll get further I get the above, leaving me with a choice of which torch to light. I go for top left, since I get the feeling that this is the right choice (it is), which closes off the path to middle left, but opens up the path to bottom left.



After that, things turn out like the second try, and with all seven torches lit the door opens and I can go on.



We get a little cutscene where the trio walks into the mirror, complete with transparency effects and even ripples in the mirror’s sprite.



The game is also kind enough to let us know that we have to control each character separately (we can switch via the Start Tools menu), and that we have to complete each section to progress.

Dungeon Theme: From Anxiety to Impatience (same as the town theme)

SLASH’s section is pretty straightforward, as all we have to do is use OZZIE to hit switches with increasingly difficult placement. Just go in a straight line from the starting platform, fight lots of monsters, and at the end:



The sword burns SLASH, and he tosses it away, only for it to rise into the sky. The screen fades to black, and:

“SLASH: Gggh.... Where am I? Vast nothingness... It's like a dream.

SLASH: Is someone here? Come out, whoever you are!”



“SLASH: I've never run from anything before. I've accepted every challenge I've faced.

You ran from your friends and your responsibilities.
But most of all, you ran from yourself.
Don't you get it?
A [coward] can destroy, But true power is the power of protection.

SLASH: I know that... I really do... That is why I am seeking it. Please be patient.

[One by one, all the people disappear. The last to disappear is a red-haired woman.]

SLASH: Wait a minute! I'm gonna be alone again?”

Yeah, I think so dumbass. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that gaining the power to protect something is probably incompatible with the very concept of revenge.

Next up is SHOOT’s section:

Dungeon Theme: Alone in the World

I didn’t screen his section at all except for the cutscene for one good reason: It’s boring as hell; just five minutes of blowing up boulders at intersecting passages and hoping that there’s not a hole under the rock to block my passage. Think of a Jacob’s Ladder game and you’d be pretty close.



Tony’s the kid from Surf who got SHOOT into trouble, remember.



“Tony: I'm scared... You're just as scary as the monsters. Your powers are not like ours.

(images of townspeople appear on the sides)

Man image: There is no place for you in this world. You're not needed here...

Woman image: Nobody wants to be with you. You're a stranger... Who are you fighting for, [stranger]?



Man image 2: ARMs contain a form of energy that is different from the one found in humans. They could have originally belonged to the demons.

Man image 3: You're another monster! We don't want you in Filgaia. Just look at you!



Tony: Filgaia isn't for you... You don't belong here.”

(SHOOT drops to his knees and the scene fades to black)

Needless to say, foreshadowing! Though is it still foreshadowing when it’s applied with the force and delicacy of a sledgehammer?

SPELL’s turn:



Dungeon Theme: Oh, Abbey Maiden!

This is pretty close to most of what SPELL’s section’s like; she gets to push blocks! And sometimes the other end’s blocked by another block so she has to use the other path. Perhaps the developers burned up all their creativity for this section with that last torch puzzle?

No…not more evidence of the fact you’re not comfortable with being the princess!



“Minister Johan's image: The princess herself is coming to save the world. May the Guardians be with her.

Soldier image: The princess is responsible for being a princess. Remember that.

SPELL: I know... I know... But...

Soldier image 2: Have you noticed that no one calls you by your name...

SPELL: ...!?!?!?

Soldier image 3: The princess is a symbol. SPELL is not. Do you understand?

[An image of her father materializes before her on the throne.]

SPELL: Please... not you too, father...

King Adlehyde image: You knew no one loved you. So, what's the surprise?

[An image of herself appears behind her wearing her traditional abbey clothes.]

SPELL: Are you me?”

No, she’s the tooth fairy. She part times for Mrs. Santa too as an elf.



“…to be loved by someone... You're going to save the world because it's your duty as a princess. But, what you really want is sympathy. You hypocrite.

[SPELL drops to her knees and holds her face]

SPELL: Am I wrong? Answer me!

[One by one, all the other images disappear but the other SPELL.]

The other SPELL: No one loves you... You don't love anyone... Wake up! [She vanishes.]

Poor SPELL, she just wants [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxbFLYa0_bwsomebody to love[/url]

All of the ellipses and general punctuation junk you just saw in the above really do exist in the original script, well, except for the one leading from that last screen anyway.

Now that we’ve done all three of these incredibly dumb and clichéd little interludes, we get treated to a cutscene with the trio on a platform.

Extra Theme: Taboo Storyteller



“SPELL: The voice inside my heart, is the voice of the Guardian.

Second Voice: What a weak mind! The weakening of the world is really the weakening of the human soul. Gurdijeff! Do you really want to let this one decide Filgaia's destiny?

SLASH: What? What do you hear?

Third Voice: Listen, Moa Gault. We have no choice.

SPELL: I can feel the emotions of the Guardians in my heart. The anger and
rage... The doubt and sorrow...

SLASH: Damn you... Show yourselves! Stop toying with us!”



“…answer our call...”



“I have looked into your soul, it is weak and vulnerable. It is not strong enough to defeat the demons, who we have been fighting with for the past 1000 years.”



Hmm, white tiger, red phoenix, blue dragon, and black turtle…where have I seen those before?

“We are the spirits of the Guardians, and we need your help.

Gurdijeff: You may be right, Fengalon. Look at them... They look defeated. Nevertheless, they are our only hope.

SLASH: [he steps forward] I'm not deaf or blind! Damn you! Why have you been showing us these illusions? Answer me, Guardians!

Gurdijeff: You must understand... We do not have enough power to fight the demons. We must get the [Tear Drop] back! We need its power to defend Filgaia.

SPELL: The [Tear Drop]?! How do you know?

Moa Gault: We know... We can feel its power... The [Tear Drop] is the light that gives life...

Fengalon: Yes, it's the same light that gives us life... Which means you hold the key to our existence...

SPELL: What do the demons want with the [Tear Drop]? Do they want to destroy the world with it?

Gurdijeff: With the [Tear Drop], it is possible. The demons, however, are trying to use it to revive their master, the Mother.

SLASH: The Mother? So, that's the name of their master, huh?

Gurdijeff: Warriors! Do you still seek our power?!

SPELL: We can't possibly do this ourselves...

SLASH: I want the power... I want to defeat them...

Gurdijeff: Because you are weak, you seek power... We shall give you the power that you seek, but time is running out. You will have the power to summon us into your reality. Take our powers before they weaken any further and stop the demons from regenerating the Mother. We shall send our warriors to their lair.”



“SPELL: How is that possible?

Fengalon: We have our ways... We can sense the power of the [Tear Drop].

Moa Gault: The only way a warrior, with a weak mind, is able to defeat the enemy is by striking at its heart. Come now, show us your faith and leap!

[Moa Gault and Fengalon fade, but Gurdijeff remains. The lights start flashing.]

Gurdijeff: To reclaim the [Tear Drop], we... [Gurdijeff suddenly fades; the room turns white and the three warriors are back in the last room of the shrine once more. They stand up.]

SPELL: What happened...?



“We are not strong enough to transport to the battle. Go now... I will guide you to your destiny. You must prevent Mother...

SPELL: Gurdijeff!

[The room fades into whiteness.]

The [Tear Drop] is a source of life.

It should not be used for the birth of Destruction.



Extra Theme: Knight Quarters

He swore! (This ain’t Nintendo folks, as FFVII would aptly “show” a few months down the road. Oh, Barrett, you foulmouthed $#@#$!#).

“He scanned this area with his mind!”



“But now we know the humans are in contact with the Guardians. We have a few problems...

Zeikfried: [He turns] When the fight is lost, the decay begins... Look at this place, it's a dying land of cowards! Humans, Elws, and the Guardians...Their defenses are no longer effective. They don't even have a world to defend. We have nothing to fear from the Guardians.”



“Now that the Elws are no longer helping the humans, they don't stand a chance.”



“When I watch them squirm in the flames, I can feel my power...

Lady Harken: (looks to Belselk) We could have gotten the [Tear Drop] with less destruction.

Belselk: What? What are you talking about, you newby!

Zeikfried: Both of you, stop it! [turns northward] We, the Quarter Knights gather for a single purpose. We must break the seal which binds our leader, Mother. The dreaded Guardian seal must be undone!

Belselk: Sorry... This one is mine.

[Belselk leaves.]

Alhazad: Why should he have all the fun?

[Alhazad teleports off somewhere, also leaving.]

Lady Harken: ......

[She jumps into the air and vanishes, leaving Zeikfried by himself.]

Zeikfried: Mother, when you finally wake, will the rest of the Quarter Knights
share our dreams?”

[He looks up to a tube with the beating cocoon of Mother. The scene fades to darkness.]

Short answer: I don’t exactly think so, Zeik my boy.



“SPELL: The place of the seal. Gurdijeff said he would lead us here. But...It doesn't seem like there's anything here... Mother... That's the last thing I heard before I fainted...

SLASH: You're saying the demon boss is buried somewhere around here? I don't like this... Not at all... Being dragged everywhere by the Guardians and having to save the world...

SPELL: What is this? ......

All of a sudden, SPELL noticed she was holding three stone slabs. [Earth Rune, Fire Rune, and Wind Rune are acquired.]

SPELL: These slabs contain the spirits of Gurdijeff and the other Guardians. What is this seal that the Guardians are willing to risk the last of their strength to protect?”

Uh.



Oh for God’s sake. They stranded us in the middle of nowhere!

NEXT TIME: THE BEST PLACE IS THE OBVIOUS PLACE, OBVIOUSLY

----
That’s it for this one—I’ll explain more about Runes and summoning in the next update. I do want some feedback though; Is the LP too image-heavy or text-heavy, would you like more summarizing, less snark, etc etc.

Please let me know!

I wouldn't mind slightly larger images, for a certainty.

I could maybe do that, if I knew how to rescale sprite-filled images so they don't artifact themselves to hell and back.

I tend to hoard magic for after-battle healing and attacking bosses, so I used to see the Princess Shuffle quite often.

Anyway! I'm liking the LP so far, Mr. Blue, though yes, larger images couldn't hurt. I'm surprised by how much of this game I remember. Caught in a wave of 90's nostalgia~

I'd just doublesize them, making sure to pick "Nearest Neighbor" or whatever the equivalent is in your graphics program.

It was two things that did it for me: the music and the weather. This game originally came out in May so it's still a bit chilly, but every time nice weather rolls around I get a bit of Wild ARMs nostalgia.

Okay, here's a test:

Original:


Resized:


Original:


Resized:


Just rescaled them with the Cubic option in Gimp, is this okay?

I don't see anything wrong with those upscales.

Those look good to me, but the smaller pics are actually OK too. If you have any bandwidth issues to think about, I'd say take a note out of Eddie's book and just use the big ones for key scenes.

I have Photobucket Pro, so bandwidth isn't a problem; I actually blew through 2/3'rds of my non-Pro bandwidth the first week of the LP, so I just went and bought a Pro subscription.

I love it when a song just slams into me and takes me way back to the time it was first composed. The very same happened to me this morning when I heard After the Chaos and Destruction.

Older JPRGs are definitely the masters of overblown song titles.

The older I get and the wider my musical tastes become, the more I realise a lot of my favourite pieces of game music er, "sampled" bits from other songs. I feel a combination of pride and sadness.

At least they tried to explain why she has to eat a lot (spellcasting). With most anime and games, it's just the base of a joke. Durr hurr this girl likes to eat a lot and girls aren't supposed to do that because they'll get FAT and unattractive, durr hurr.

D'aww that's dedication. This is a lovely LP so far.

I think the upscales look great, I love it when I can count the pixels in these old tile-based games. =)

Yeah, my tax refund paid for that one.

This makes the images look overly soft. Personally, I'm a fan of not using interpolation for low res game screen shots. Interpolating muddies your colors and destroys the crispness of the image, so things don't look as vibrant. By way of example, take a look at this. (I'll link it so as not to steal your thread's thunder.) The one on the bottom isn't using interpolation.

As long as you use a clean multiple of the original image size, interpolation isn't needed for old video game screenshots. Either way, though, I think it's an improvement over the smaller image size.

Sorry for the delay on this one (real update’s coming sometime this week, promise), but I was busy and was half waffling on that kneejerk Wiki link being enough, which it sort of wasn’t, simply due to the mythological tangle that is Japanese mythology. I’m not simply talking about Japanese origin myths like the ones most everyone has heard about with Amaterasu and the cave, or Yamata-no-orochi and Susa-no-ou [yes, the hyphenates are correct], but the Taoist and Buddhist mythos imported into Japan with the large scale importation of Chinese culture and writing systems into Japan circa 5-6th centuries A.D. (it occurs throughout history, but this is the beginning of it). Keep in mind that Buddhism as an “organized” religion dates back to the 5th century B.C. or so, and T/Daoism is nearly as old, for those of you scratching your heads at the dating.

Since neither the predominating Shinto “religion” of Japan at that point nor Taoism or Buddhism were exactly big on codified beliefs, they mostly merged together in a similar fashion as to what most early 20th century thinkers thought about the “Melting Pot” of American culture. While most of the “gods” (termed immortals in Chinese Taoism) were simply assumed to be equivalents of the already existing Japanese pantheon of Shinto deities or dropped in translation, the Four Symbols were ported over as is (although renamed), possibly because they fulfilled a purpose not already filled by native god figures, and have since become a major fixture of Japanese popular mythology. The Four Symbols themselves are representations of a particular aspect of Chinese astrology, which is closely tied with Taoism and related things; While they were deified as Taoist immortals, their earthly purpose was much the same as their astrological one, as each Symbol was associated with a cardinal grouping of stars in the astrological system. This gets further tied into the Chinese system of the Five Elements, and so each of the Symbols is also associated with an element:



Azure Dragon of the East – Associated with the element of Wood – Called Seiryuu in Japan / Guardijeff* in WA



Vermilion Bird of the South – Associated with Fire – Called Suzaku in Japan / Moa Gault in WA



White Tiger of the West – Associated with Metal* – Called Byakko in Japan / Fengalon in WA



Black Turtle of the North – Associated with Water – Called Genbu in Japan / Stoldark in WA

Their elemental associations need some explaining, as you’ll note the screenshots seemingly contradict me. The Chinese Five Elemental system goes basically Wood -> Fire -> Earth -> Metal -> Water -> Wood, and has a terribly complex and argued about history to it. It is also completely integral to understanding the way the Guardians “work” in WA later on with some of the plot developments, but I’ll cover that there as that deserves an entire update to itself. There’s actually a “Fifth” Symbol associated with direction of Center in the Chinese form of the mythology, the Golden Dragon of Center, and is associated with Earth. There is no direct analog to the Golden Dragon in the Japanese system (although Kouryuu sometimes get substituted due to some mythological similarities), because the Japanese system comes from the Buddhist/Hindi conception of the Elements, which goes like this:

Earth -> Fire -> “Void” [Void/Heaven is actually placed at the center here, as it’s the pure force or energy, usually from beyond worldly constraints] -> Wind -> Water

If you put the Four Symbols in the same spots as they were in the Chinese system Wood changes to Earth and Metal to Wind. Since Void or Heaven is supposed to be pure energy, it cannot be represented by a materialization of that element like the other four. Since WA “seems” to be based more on the Greek conception of elements (just drop the concept of Void/Heaven from the Japanese system), there’s no Guardian that directly corresponds to the Void element. However, if you’ll recall whenever I make SPELL’s magic, I get to choose from combinations of the four elements represented here (labeled Muse [Water], Wing [Wind], Geo [Earth], and Fray [Fire], and choosing a combination of opposed elements like Fire and Water nets a non-elemental choice—that’s Void in this game.

This will also get a full post later on once we find the other two Imperial Treasure-alikes, but the Tear Drop is in all likelihood the Yasakani no magatama (portrayed here as a single jewel as opposed to a necklace like it is traditionally. Most pop media tend to portray it as a single jewel as well). Beyond serving as a symbol of the Adlehydian royalty, it apparently has magical purposes beyond that, just like the Yasakani no magatama is usually portrayed in pop media too. We’ll run into the Yata no kagami pretty soon and the Kusanagi-no-tsurugi (although its original name of Ama-no-Murakumo-no-tsurugi is probably more fitting in this context) much later on.

So why include the Four Symbols in your Japanese RPG? Because everyone else does it. Seriously. Aside from the Shin Megami Tensei series where they’re practically guaranteed to show up as either bosses or PC summonables, it’s a fairly safe bet to say that at least two thirds of the JRPGs ever produced have featured them in one fashion or another, and the only notable exception to this rule is the Dragon Quest series. The Four Elemental Fiends of FFIV are probably loose analogues of these guys (FFI not counting because it borrows’ 2nD Ed D&D almost wholesale), for an example of it creeping into FF there (of which there’s not many). Then there’s the whole host of games based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in one fashion or another too.

Over a month since my last post!? Holy shit I'm an idiot. In my defense, I was sort of buried alive in real life affairs.

------

The LP rises from it’s gwave!

So, uh, yeah, this LP’s not dead. I was just really busy with real life concerns (Spring cleaning and various forms of house remodeling) and also learning the ins and outs of RPGMaker VX, so I had little time to do the LP stuff or much of anything else really. I actually played through this section of the game a week ago or so before I left on vacay, but didn’t have the time to write it up. I also forgot to bring my screens along on my laptop, so I couldn’t write it up while I was gone either. Being scatterbrained is a pretty normal thing with me. I was just glad I didn’t forget my laptop power cable this time.

Anyway, we left off last time with our intrepid crew being stranded in the middle of nowhere by a bunch of vaguely familiar god-like beings.



Of course, their idea is to strand us in a nondescript corner of nowhere, so we whip out our trusty world map to see where we are:



Well, that’s neat, they stuck us on the bottom continent!



Wandering on over to the left, we find Baskar Village, which is the token spiritual tribe/village/etc just as you’ve seen in many other JRPGs. I’ll give you three guesses to figure out just what ethnic group they’re supposed to be, and the first two guesses don’t count.



Town Theme: Village of the Elw (Oh, you bet this is gonna come up again sometime)

Hey, it’s a village of Native Americans Back-to-Nature-ists! Everyone lives in tents (which we can’t enter, sadly) and adobe houses, all with our prerequisite barrels and boxes to blow up and search for loot. Per usual, it’s a scattering of status healers, Gella, and an occasional stat apple. It’s actually disappointingly lean compared to all the stuff we found in Milama. There are no real “shops” per se, including magic and ARMs, although we can find vendors for weapons, armor, and bullets should we be so inclined (we should, although it does consume pretty much all of the money and sellable junk I’ve accumulated honestly to this point to gear up). It’s actually pretty easy to miss the weapon and armor guys, since they’re sort of tucked off to the sides of the village, and their only distinguishing features is that they look oddly like missionaries. There’s a bit of black humor there what with the cross-section between ironmongers and their religious equivalents, especially if you’re cognizant at all of the history of the American West.

Not that I’m ascribing that deep of a research to the writers and artists behind Wild ARMs, since Japanese renditions of the West tend to be…strange. Really strange. It’s just one of those moments that’s oddly and simultaneously appropriate and inappropriate that tend to pop up in JRPGs that are based in some sort of fantastical version of a historical period.

Talking with the NPCs serves up the usual sort of drivel that you get with these sort of villages; mostly meekly condescending garbage about living with nature and so on, although one of the NPCs does say something along the lines of how the Baskarians live in nature as opposed to the Curan Abbey style of living with nature. No, I’m not sure how that’s different either.

Once we’re done with all of the errands, our natural course of action is to turn to the biggest house in town and talk with the chief.



Talking to the chief gets us a brief history of the Baskars, which goes along the lines of “When the humans were finished getting their asses kicked by the demons and sealed away the Mother of them all, we swore off warfare and hid out in this remote region to follow our back to nature Guardian worship.”

It also nets us this winner of a line:



Excellent.

And in case you’ve been following me so far, you know that randomly capitalized nouns mean something important, so the Chief goes on to say that the ancient humans and Elws couldn’t actually defeat the demons, they were just too strong, so they got all sneaky and stole the heart from the demon Mother, divided it into three and sealed the portions into Guardian statues. Since we’re the chosen of the Guardians, it’s our Sacred Duty� to guard these statues and keep Mother sealed away, otherwise everyone’s fucked.

A few factoids for your consideration:
a) The Tear Drop is a magic crystal that links together the powers of the Guardians.
b) The demons stole said crystal for no explained reason.
c) The demon queen’s unmentionables are all sealed within Guardian statues.

It’s almost as if the demons stole the Tear Drop to find Mother’s Pieces of Heart and get her a new Heart Container!

What’s that you say? Wrong series?

Anyway, he also tells us to check out the Temple of the Wind-Callers and appeal to the Spirit of the Wind, Zephyr for aid (He’ll be important later).



I note that the statues lining the stairs up the temple face all bear axes and shields. I guess true pacifism requires a pointy stick to jab in the ass of people who don’t agree, I assume. Or a Gundam or five.

Talking to entrance guard reveals that this temple serves as the resting place for the “hope” of the Baskar and also where it gathers together. This, by the way, is an extremely oblique hint to a late-game sidequest, and if you’re normal you will have completely forgotten about this hint by the time this portion of that side-quest rolls around.

Going all the way up to the top nets us a five second cutscene of silence and town music, and when we go back down the guard is all in the dumps about how Zephyr didn’t answer our call, the “hope” of the Baskars is gone, etc etc.

Now that we’re done with that, we can run up the mountain range that the Chief mentioned one of the Guardian statues was stored in. Since there’s nothing else to do or place to go, why not go check it out?



We spot this strange circle with accompanying platform in the middle of the continent that Baskar’s on. It’s arranged like a clock-face, with eight equidistant points along the circle probably representing 12, 3, 6, and 9. I’m not sure what the other points are supposed to be, but it’s still a curious thing to be sitting out in the middle of nowhere. This sign is pretty close to it, so I figure it goes with it:



That’s certainly cryptic enough! I get the feeling we’ll be seeing this circle again at some point. Going further to the north gets us to Mount Zenom, the place that the Baskar Chief told us the Guardian statue was hidden in.



Dungeon Theme: Cold Darkness

Mt. Zenom is a “fun” little dungeon, although it’s not filled with anything in the way of challenging puzzles. No, it prefers to substitute monsters for that one. Our objective is to basically scale the inside and outside of the mountain in an effort to reach the peak with the Guardian statue. If you hadn’t picked up the Revive spell prior to completing the Adlehyde sequence…you’re probably screwed at this point, or at least in for a rather tense and difficult ride. This particular trip for me was more difficult than past playthroughs of the game, probably because I haven’t really been grinding much for extra cash. I’ve been getting lucky with junk drops and running into high-payout mobs, so I’ve been able to afford pretty much everything I need without grinding overly much (even ignoring the massive pile of money sitting in my wallet).

Anyway, most of the reason why Zenom is easily the most difficult dungeon in this section of the game is due the prevalence of status-effect causing monsters, and a monster with an instant-KO attack that likes to show up in mobs. *sob* I didn’t exactly keep track, but you’re likely to be inflicted with Poison, Disease, and Forgetfulness (pretty sure this nulls FP gains) from the regular dungeon monsters alone, and on some occasions with all three at once. Poison takes off 1/10 of your current HP per combat turn, Disease prevents HP recovery, and Forgetfulness prevents you from building FP to use Force Abilities, so guess what happens when SPELL gets afflicted with all three at once in a single round!

Gnashing of teeth and rending of hair, of course.

The other part of that are these cute little dudes:



Motherfuckin’ Tiny Edges. They are of the same genus as that wascally wabbit Anthrax, and are glass cannons of the incredibly fucking annoying sort, especially when three or four of them all use their instant KO attack. Otherwise they hit for respectable damage, die from a stiff breeze, and are faster than my party at this point. I absolutely loved Game Overing in a single turn in the room with the mid-dungeon save point. Especially since I hadn’t gotten to save yet, and thus wasted a half hour.

Zenom itself is pretty unremarkable in a dungeon sense—it’s almost a straight line from start to finish, aside from treasure side trips, but it is also a very pretty dungeon. Also, environmental effects!



Motherfuckin’ snow, bitches YEAH!

This replay has made me all too aware of how horrible WA2 is in retrospect, at least from a graphical standpoint, because trading copious amounts of awesome 2D spritework for ugly-ass isometric sprites on jaggy-PS1 3D was such a horrid choice. Well, there’s the brain-numbing localization too, but if I know you guys, you’re gonna want me to LP that next anyway, so you’ll get to see it anyway.

Just inside the initial cave, we run into this:



Three glowing statues and one out of place not-glowing statue--I wonder what the solution could be?



Congratulations, if you can do this, you can solve every puzzle in this dungeon (I swear they get more complex, I really do)! Unlike the Mountain Cave, we don’t have to worry about light sources here, and it’s pretty much a straight yet twisty shot to the next outdoor segment.



Shriekers are a pain in the ass, although not as annoying as Tiny Edges, because they’re the source of most of the status ailments in this dungeon, and they’re by far the most common enemy type in both the outdoor and indoor sections. More fun is when they show up with Tiny Edges, which leaves you a wonderful choice between being pissed off or dead, and sometimes both if you get ambushed.

The outdoor sections are a little more interesting, if only because the game teases you with future treasure locations, and also happen to be the only semi-non-linear sections in the dungeons. Of course, you also run into upgraded Harpies here which love to inflict Disease on you and steal valuable accessories from you and then run off the next turn. Maybe the guy in charge of the monsters had a particularly acrimonious divorce while he was working on the game or something. They also dodge most physicals, which makes them doubling annoying when I have to waste bullets and MP killing things stealing my extra gear. So you heard it here folks; stay away from women otherwise they’ll end up kicking the crap out of you, giving you weird diseases and running away with your baseball card collection.



Going back inside we run into grass. Inside a twisty cavern in the belly of a mountain. Said grass also happens to be dried out and impassible. There has to be an obvious solution to this.



Oh, right, fire.



I also pick up a Secret Sign in one of the chests, which lowers the cost of one of SLASH’s Fast Draws—I need this one to get a technique down the line, so I’m hanging onto it for now.



Push statue over to the right to unlock door again, eh? The funny thing is that I didn’t even look for the door to begin with, I just walked over and pushed the statue into place as soon as I saw it. Going back outside:



After plundering the gold chests with the help of OZZIE (this is the same spot you saw in an earlier screen), the screen rumbles and the crew spreads out like so.



If I told you this was the last time we’d see those boulders in the game, would you believe me?



OZZIE: The bigger they are, the harder they fall. If we hit one of those rocks, we're goners.

SLASH: So, if I use my sword from higher up, it will always do more damage?

OZZIE: Well, I wouldn't say always, but it wouldn't hurt.

SLASH: Maybe it's worth a try.



This particular Fast Draw is called Meteor Dive, and will basically be SLASH’s bread and butter Boss attack for quite a while—it’s damage is comparable to where I’ve got SHOOT’s Hand Cannon at the moment, a bit stronger, but not overly so. And the attack is exactly as named. SLASH basically draws his sword, jumps into the sky and drops down on the enemy who explodes from the impact. No, I’m not sure how he got that from boulders rolling down a mountainside either.



The door switch was cunningly hidden underneath a patch of grass, and while I’d normally not mind this sort of thing too much, the fact is that you’re basically stuck for two or three seconds while the grass burns out, and when you’re doing this a dozen times per screen to either clear a path or find a switch it gets old. Quickly. Going through this section takes us outside again (and through the save room of DEATH [not pictured for sanity reasons]) and to the only nonlinear section of the dungeon. I forget which cave entrance leads to the boss, but there’s three counting the one we just came out of, and this neat little ledge:



Jumping off there nets us that red chest in the left corner, which happens to be a Crest Graph. We then have to jump down to the previous outdoor section, and thus run through the inner-cave segment from the screen before last. I also note that the grass doesn’t regenerate, so I can pretty much dash through with no problem. Of course, since I seem to have been somewhat unlucky on that section, I wiped again to a party of Tiny Edges and Mk. 2 Goblins on my way back up. But, since I saved just prior to that, it only cost me a few minutes. I’ll be pretty happy if I never see this dungeon again though.



More statue pushing, although this is the second to last time we have to do this here. I ended up taking the entrance that doesn’t lead you to the boss (although for a second I thought I had given the room layout), but it’s sort of odd to have a puzzle when this isn’t the right way to go, right?



Oh, neat, a new hand-slot item for SPELL. Where the dudes get items that generally raise their DFP and PRY, SPELL gets books that raise her SOR and MGR which is a bit pointless, since she already has well and away the highest scores in either category even without Runes. The fact that we picked up an item here means that in the next few dungeons we’ll be finding new ones for the guys as well. This is a trend that continues up until the final dungeons which generally contain complete sets of gear for everyone anyway. Of course, the real ultimate gear is squirreled away a piece at a time behind various sidequests, but that’s natch for most RPGs anyway.



Going the right way this time leads us to the last statue pushing section, and it’s a bit more involved than the other ones, simply because it involves two columns of statues you have to make sure are in the right spots. We’ve pretty much hit the peak at this point, and walking outside again we find a statue.



Do you know of any other statues of mythical beasts hidden behind braindead glorified box pushing puzzles SPELL?

I think even if I were a god trapped in a statue, having my head blown off by a purple column of energy would hurt just a little. The little puff of smoke near the top of the screen is what’s left of the Guardian’s head.




Turns out Berserk’s a little too busy with recovering the heart piece to deal with us himself (which is oddly out of character, but as we finish out the arc it makes sense from a metagaming persepective. I’ll explain then if you guys haven’t figured out what I meant from that already), so he just unleashes a minor demon on us to kill us while he runs off. Nice fellow, Berserk.



Boss: Orga Widow

I’m blanking on her mythological basis, but there is one. Wiki’ing Orga got me Godzilla 2000, which wasn’t quite what I was looking for. I’m pretty sure it’s not Arachne, either.

Anyway, she’s not a terribly difficult fight, for one reason: she uses status effect attacks 90% of the time, and they don’t deal damage directly. Sure, it’s annoying when she uses her party-wide random status attack, but since she does it all the time spending the time to remove all of the status effects is just a waste of items and time. It’s a bit of a red herring. Now that SLASH has Meteor Dive, I just spent a few turns filling her face with bullets, fireballs, and swordsmen from the sky and she dies in short order. The only one of the crew that was actually in any danger was SPELL, and that was mostly due to the poison effect she had. On the whole, just a really aggravating and underwhelming dungeon.



We get the Summit Rune as a consolation prize—it’s more or less an upgrade to the Water Rune, so SPELL gets a double boost to SOR and MGR.

“SPELL: The statue of the God Seal has been broken. The return of Mother is becoming a reality! I can't believe the [Tear Drop] is being used for such horrors.



As you might expect, SLASH’s bloodthirsty idiocy is going to get us in trouble more than once. He does learn though. Eventually.

That’s it for this update, and I hope to have the next one done in a much more timely fashion.

NEXT TIME: JUST A LITTLE INTERGALACTIC PING-PONG

Slash is a pretty creative guy; he finds inspiration in the most unlikely, and inane, places.

That's right kids. I'm back. Playing the next chunk as we speak, and it's gonna be a big one! Sometime this week would be my guess, unless I break down and post bits as I finish them.

I know it's a bit late for this, but I think that "Orga" might be a mistranslation of "Ogre." Just my own little theory.

Okay, I have my planned update all played and screenshotted, now to actually type up and assemble the shots I want...which may take me a day or two depending on how much free time I find. Now for some dinner!

I am. SO. PUMPED.

I can't believe this is coming back.

Hey folks, it’s been a while. I’d issue a long and drawn out apologia, but it would basically boil down to extreme depression on my part and taking a while to dig myself out of that particular hole. As part of that process, one of the things I decided on was trying to fulfill the obligations I felt I had one of which was this LP.

So yeah. I’m back with the LP, and I am going to finish it one way or the other. On to the update proper!

------------------------------

Last time, the crew kicked the spidery butt of one of Berserk’s minions after he’d blown the head off the Guardian idol sealing a chunk of the demon Mother’s heart. The trip back was uneventful, thanks to the power of the Evac (Escape) spell thankfully, since post-boss wipes are not one of my favorite things.



The crew decides to report to the Baskar Elder for more guidance since they don’t know where the other two Guardian statues are; he seems remarkably calm about the whole thing.



The demons are one step ahead of us. Do not be alarmed. There are two other seals which have not been broken. The other two statues are located at [Saint Centour] and [Port Timney]. If we can save just one of those, then we can prevent the queen from reviving. Only your brave party can accomplish this mission. You must use [Elw Pyramids], for they are the link to the Guardians. You can usually find the pyramids in the same area the statues are kept. It is said that all life can become energy and be transported to faraway places through the use of Elw technology. Warriors of the Guardians, please take this gift, the [Kizim Fire] of Baskar! You can use this to light the furnace in the pyramid. For the good of all life on Filgaia, please protect the remaining statues.”



Whew. The short version is that we can use the weird pyramids to teleport across the planet to the places where the other two statues are ‘hidden.’



Baskar’s Elw Pyramid is located to the SE of the village; it features the same general layout as the Pyramid near Milama but with no magical door blocking the path inside.

Misc Theme: Ancient Shrine



Of course, nothing is ever easy, and we’re presented with a riddle as soon as we walk in the door.



“Life shall dance in the sky and connect the lands.”

The hint points the party towards the two waterfalls at the sides of the chambers, and if you look hard enough, you can barely make out the stairway tiles on the left side.



The basement leads to the furnace chamber, where we use the Kizim Fire to reignite the furnace.



Misc Theme: Kishum Flame

Going back upstairs and into the depths of the pyramid we find this spot:



Stepping on it does this (thank God for Youtube)



which seals the evil heart!”

‘Holy’ by the way, refers to the element of the statue Guardian, not that it’s a holy statue. Which it is.

Anyway, that’s one of my favorite bits and themes of the game. Even post FFVII when I first played the game that sequence still stood out as particularly memorable. Assuming I’m not just reading into things too much, the Elw satellite system is probably the stand-in for the Yata no kagami like the Tear Drop is for the magatama, while the Guardian Blade is the Kusanagi/Ama-no-Murakumo no tsurugi.



Hopping outside finds the party to the north of Saint Centour, one of the two towns the Chief said the statues were hidden in. Further off to the E and SE are the “Cage Tower (our next dungeon” and another Elw Temple. Curiously enough, you can do the next two sections in any order you want to although most players would probably want to complete the Centour part of the arc first just for the special item in the Cage Tower. The Port Timney segment is just weird (and funny), as we shall find out soon enough.



This poor guy is wandering around just south of the Pyramid, and our first hint that all is not as it seems in Centour. The town proper is down south, nestled between two mountain ranges as they meet at the Inner Sea.



Town Theme: Town

I’m also pretty sure that Saint Centour is also the only walled town in the game, and this quickly becomes a significant issue as the party bounces off an invisible barrier at the entrance arch.

“SLASH: Wh... What? I was pushed away...



The town of Saint Centour is protected by a dimensional protection seal. The entire town wall is a charged barrier. It keeps the monsters out. Are you sure you guys aren't monsters?

OZZIE: I wonder if I triggered the device?

SLASH: Why would you get caught in the device?

Guard: The shield is very sophisticated. It will stop spirits as well as
monsters. Is that a pet of yours?

OZZIE: I'm not a damn pet! SLASH and I are...

SLASH: [holds OZZIE still] OZZIE and I are partners... ...Can we come in?

Guard: Then hold him deep inside your pocket and step through. That way, you
won't trigger the device. That is, if you're not a monster... If you are,
you'll be stopped again.”

Now, this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. If you have a fancy magic/tech barrier that can detect and isolate non-humans across a given area, just holding a non-human close to a human’s skin probably wouldn’t be enough to trick the system. However, this is a rather significant event that will foreshadow a few things down the road.

--


There’s not a terrible lot of interest to the town itself other than the new shops (I took the opportunity to use up the five or six Crest Graphs I’d picked up doing the Baskar segment and upgrade the Hand Cannon some more). Most of the townsfolk are chatting about the strange kidnappings and then reappearance of the kidnapped several days later, with no memory of what happened to them. In me being stupid, I missed a shot of the intact Guardian statue (which we can’t get near because the guards are rightfully paranoid about people tampering with the seal).

New Spells:
White;
Rage (which is basically Berserk, only with a 10% boost to all stats and a passive 10% HP regen attached. Situationally handy, but I’ve already picked up most of the directly useful spells)
Haste (Does what it says on the tin, boosts RFP by 50%, essential for boss fights)
Sleepna (‘Awaken’, wakes up the party from the Sleep status effect. Also damn handy on occasion)
Runic (‘Absorb’, creates a shield that absorbs magic cast at the target and gives the MP back to the target. Also really handy.)
Black;
Kasap (Forgot the original name, lowers the DFP of an enemy group by 25%)
Slow (Also does what it says on the tin, lowers the RFP of a monster by 50%)

Most of the T1 black magic is pretty situational at best, and SPELL’s spending most of her time healing and buffing the crew, so I’m focusing on picking up white magic for the time being.

There’s a number of chests scattered around town that I can’t get access to right now because there are townspeople cleverly placed in the way of the chests (and a dog in one case, who knocks you away any time you get close). One building in the rear part of town apparently houses a Duplicator, which we are going to need a ton of at some point; only a few are required to progress through the game, and we’ll pick up enough of them scattered around to get most of the sealed doors scattered around.

One of the townsfolk also mentions that Calamity Jane, a famous Dream Chaser, has been spotted in the area.



This girl is of particular interest, since she points out something relevant to each of the PCs that talk to her; it’s mostly along the same lines as what the Guardian tests revealed about the three, but this is also setup for the later secret boss that shows up here in the endgame (the part where she can tell what a person is like by the sound of their voice). I also picked up SLASH’s next armguard at some point (I believe it was in a chest in the first Centour Pyramid), before I forget. It probably means we’ll have some special item for SHOOT in the next dungeon.

And speaking of the next dungeon, talking to the sheriff in one of the houses nets us this exchange:



Strangely enough, most of the abductees were found near the [Cage Tower]. If you [Dream Chasers] want to check out the tower in my place, I can give you the key that opens the sealed door. I have to stay at Saint Centour and protect the people here.”



Gee, I wonder (this is not a ‘But Thou Must!’ moment, although there is one later in the update)?

Saying yes nets us the ‘Key Plate’ (Which looks suspiciously like a key card) that will open the doors to the Cage Tower which is to the E of town.



Dungeon Theme: Courage

The first half of the tower is pretty straightforward: The stairways to the right always are the correct path to the top, but they’re also blocked off by purple stakes whose switches need to be hit before we can get to them. Naturally, these switches also happen to be up the left staircases, and most of the treasure in the first half is scattered around the ‘left’ portions of the dungeon.




Once we get past that, the middle section of the tower is a big open pit with small ledges scattered around which are connected by panels that fall down after a PC touches them. The arrangements of islands and switches controlling stake barricades get more complex the higher we get into the tower, although we do get a break in the middle of it.



Hey, what’s this funky thing? SPELL and SLASH can’t open it, hmm. Oh well, why don’t we let SHOOT try it?



Woot! This is SHOOT’s second ARM, a group-target laser...shotgun? It basically sprays a bunch of lasers at an enemy group for MASSIVE piddly damage, and it’s pretty shitty base accuracy-wise too (enemies have PRY ratings too, so it’s not really an 80% chance to hit). It’ll be pretty decent once I upgrade it some, although with the Hand Cannon being nearly fully tricked out, SHOOT is already doing about 2x what SLASH can with Meteor Dive at this point.



The monsters here aren’t much to write home about, other than the first Fire-nulling enemy showing up, and neither is the treasure besides the new ARM and a shield for SHOOT. Mostly berries and stat healers.

The final segment of the tower is a strange little stairway puzzle:



You have to go up/down the stairways in the correct order for the path to the tower summit to open up, and you don’t have to use the Pocket Watch if you screw up; just starting over again works fine.

Can I just mention how beautiful the spriting is in this game? I mean, the environmental effects alone are heads and shoulders above most of the other contemporary sprite-based RPGs to the game.



Right. Standing on the red spot in the middle triggers a trap and a cutscene.

SLASH: You!!!

Alhazred: The statue, in the human town, will be destroyed. Unlike Belselk, I don't like making a mess out of things. I'm going to need a few minutes to complete my experiments in town. Here, you guys can play with my friend. I promise, you won't be disappointed.”

Aaaand he teleports out and summons his minion, a Night Gaunt to fight us. Which is fitting, considering that Al there is the fictional author of the fictional Necronomicon in the Cthuloid universe.



The Gaunt is a chump for a few reasons; his attacks are relatively wimpy, he has pretty low HP, and while he has a crazy PRY stat, Fast Draws and magic don’t “miss,” and neither do ARMs if you use the ARM Lock On Force command. Of course, I was an idiot and wanted to try out the Fury spell and accidentally cast it on SHOOT instead of SLASH, who promptly spent the rest of the battle trying to attack the NG and missing horribly. I Meteor Dive’d and Sizzle’d him into oblivion eventually though.

While the beastie might be dead, we’re still stuck in this strange pyramid prison.



SPELL: The statue is in danger! We must get out of here!!

SLASH: I wonder what Alhazad meant by [experiment]? Can we do something about
this barrier?

[SLASHs hits the barrier with his sword, but to no avail; he is pushed back.
At that minute, a young, 14-year-old girl with blonde curls approaches them.
She is accompanied by an older man.]

Extra Theme: Not Just Any Kid, But A Lady! (Jane’s Theme)



you know of the Night Gaunt? Is it in this tower?

Servant: Yes, I understand...

A Girl: So... This is the evil Night Gaunt?

Servant: These people are just like us. They're bounty hunters. They apparently killed the Night Gaunt. Master, what should we do?

SLASH: [steps forward] Yeah! Do something, will ya!

A Girl: So, you want to get out, huh? How much is it worth to you? You have my bounty and I need the cash.

SPELL: Money? You want money! We're trying to save the world and you're asking for money...

A Girl: Give me a break! I don't give a damn what you're trying to save! All I care about is money... It's as simple as that.

SLASH: Damn it! How much do you want?

A Girl: Hmm... How about 2000 gella?

SLASH: There is no way we can pay that much.”



This folks is the ‘But Thou Must!’ I was talking about earlier. :P She’s not letting us out until we agree to pay her the 2k. She then whips out an ARM and blasts apart one of the prison barrier posts.

A Girl: [walks forward then turns] I'm Jane Maxwell. I'm known locally as the most beautiful woman here, next to my sister.

Servant: She's known as, Calamity Jane in some parts.

SLASH: This little girly is Calamity Jane?!

Jane: [looks to him] What's wrong with being a little girl?! [to her servant] Don't tell them anything, McDullen!

McDullen: Excuse me.

Jane: Where is my money? We had a deal, remember?

[Your group forks over the money.]

Jane: A deal is a deal. Don't hate me... See ya!”

And the pair leave. Jane’s a recurring character and SHOOT’s love interest in the game. Well, one of them anyway. And as you can probably guess already, her love of money is for a very specific and noble purpose which we’ll find out soon enough. A quick Evac takes us to the foot of the tower, and we hoof it back to Saint Centour.

Town Theme: After the Chaos and Destruction

The town is empty, the statue is broken, and the only living human in town is the blind girl in her house. Monsters roam the streets, and things are pretty screwed up in Saint Centour right now. Luckily for us though, all the chests are available to get, and we pick up an Ambrosia (basically a Megalixir!), a Duplicator, a Bullet Clip, and...a Bone that the dog was guarding before. :/



Talking to the girl nets us this conversation:

“Blind girl: I have been hiding in my house all this time... What happened to the town? I felt some strange energy surrounding this place.”

There’s also a bloodstained diary sitting on the sheriff’s desk:

Entry
As I lie here wounded, I know that my time remaining here is not long. The
monsters appeared all of a sudden... Out of nowhere... Did the dimensional
protection seal not operate? The monsters' numbers increased as the people
watched in horror... Those bastards went straight for the statue... They
destroyed the statue and then turned on the people... Is it true that a
piece of the heart of the Demon Queen was sealed in that statue?

What’s implied rather heavily here is that Al implanted monsters within the abducted townsfolk who’d gone outside the city walls, and once he’d gotten a sufficient number of the unwitting carriers within the city he unleashed the monsters sealed within them to kill the townsfolk and destroy the Guardian statue. Which is pretty damned monstrous, if you ask me.

Our business in the ruined town nearly done, the party approaches the broken statue.



I am the sacred spirit, [Ione Paua]. My powers are weakening. Take what I have left and use it against the demons.

[SPELL receives the Saint Rune.]

SPELL: Another piece of the Demon Queen's heart has been released. There's only one left. Let's hurry to the town of Timney... We must reclaim the [Tear Drop] before they use it to wake their Queen.

SLASH: The entire town is empty. Everyone just disappeared.

SPELL: The demons must have done this... All this just to get at the statue.”
[When you exit town, scene change]

Extra Theme: Knight Quarters



Mother:
I can hear the voice of pain.
The voice of sadness...
I can feel the screams of
The human fools releasing me
From these cursed chains...

Zeikfried: [he turns to his comrades] We are almost there. Filgaia is practically ours!

Alhazad: I'm still concerned about the humans who contacted the Guardians.

Lady Harken: You screwed up again? Not once, but twice. I think these humans are too much for you to handle. Why don't you let me take care of them. I'm sure I can accommodate them.

Belselk: Damn you! Arrrgh! Just you wait!

[Zeikfried approaches Belselk.]

Zeikfried: Stop it, Belselk! She's right, you know... The Elws and the Humans have shown abnormal abilities when pushed into a corner. We cannot afford any mistakes until the revival of our Photosphere and Lord Mother is completed.

Belselk: [Belselk steps forward] Not you too, Zeik! I'll show you... I'll show everyone what Belselk can do. I will bring the heads of those humans and line them up right here. Guardians or not, they are history!

[Belselk promptly leaves.]

Alhazad: You have such a temper my fellow duke. Here, let me see what I can do...

[Alhazad vanishes in a whiff of air.]

Lady Harken: Do what you like...

[Lady Harken jumps into the air and disappears; Zeikfried turns to face Mother.]

Zeikfried: It's been 1000 years since we came here. The loss of our home world, Hiades... We came to this planet to make it our home... Power rules all. This place will belong to us. Only then will we...”

So yeah, the demons definitely play hardball. Most of the Quarter Knights are pretty straightfoward in their approach to problems; i.e. they just kill it dead, but Al is the resident schemer and mad scientist of the bunch and tends to come up with the nastiest of the little ploys the group puts out over the course of the game. Next time is the Port Timney segment, which not only includes a FFVI joke but some vaguely uncomfortable subtext!

NEXT TIME: A Princess, A Bride, And A Maze of Death!

Huzzah for the return of the Wild ARMs LP! Wild ARMs is one of my favorite PSX RPGs, and one of the last jRPGs made with the 16-bit values that faded away when Final Fantasy VII changed the game.