Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Wow, I don't like that design at all. The white and green just seems really out of place to me.
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Crossing the bridge between dreams and reality - Let's Play Eternal Sonata!
- Thread starter Cadenza
- Start date
Wow, I don't like that design at all. The white and green just seems really out of place to me.
Yeah, I agree with that - the final design is much better.
Verse IX-III: Chapter 3 Redux
Hello and welcome back to Eternal Sonata! Last time we went through Chapter 2 of Encore Mode, which had two very tough bosses (who, coincidentally, both happened to be Tuba). Today we’re going through Chapter 3; here’s the compilation video if you want to watch the cutscenes and such.
We start with one half of the party, which consists of Allegretto, Viola, and the three members of Andantino; they’ve been trudging through Adagio Swamp the past few days on their way back to the rebels’ hideout at Andante, and with any luck should reach a nearby inn soon.
Of course, that means they have to walk through more gross swamp water, much to Claves’s chagrin.
♪♪~ Silence and Life
Adagio Swamp is only two screens long, so we’ll be out of here in no time – after tussling with the local wildlife, of course.
♪♪~ Leap the Precipice
The Rare Metal Picker has a lot of nasty attacks (including the requisite poison move inherent to all scorpions), and its defenses are beefy enough in Encore Mode that most of our party’s basic attacks won’t damage them at all. Jazz and Viola can manage just fine (and Viola can mark them with Hawk Eye, which is very helpful), but everyone else is better off spamming specials, especially if Allegretto can knock one into the light to transform it.
Of course, the Blue Gil won’t make that easy for you; they can keep you at bay with a couple long-distance attacks and inflict Darkness Body on you if you aren’t careful. Strangely they never used Great Revolution (the fishes’ spin attack) on me, but I won’t complain too much.
You’ll notice that I’m not using Claves here, and that’s because there’s no real reason to in Encore Mode, at least in Chapter 3. In the first playthrough it was fine, but in Encore Mode enemies are just too tough – and Claves starts out weak enough – that she just isn’t very effective in battle. We can fix that in Mysterious Unison, but that’s a long ways off.
Anyway, we pass through Adagio Swamp safely…
♪♪~ Relaxing Place
And reach Cantabile Inn, where the party decides to turn in for the night.
♪♪~ Strategy
Back at Forte Castle, Waltz is upset at the news that the guardian of Agogo Forest is apparently dead, but decides not to dwell on it, instead redoubling his efforts to find glowing agogos.
That night, Viola and Allegretto discuss the possibility of there being a spy within Andantino, which upsets Jazz greatly.
The next day, we help a traveler catch his pet rat with the Fruit Basket, and he repays us with the Winder.
♪♪~ Wonderland of Wanderer
Trading quest item in hand, we’re ready to head off to Woodblock Groves.
This place will be important later, but for now we’re just passing through on our way to Andante.
The first area mainly has you fighting these Mushroom Ups, which are now huge blobs of HP; Harmony Chains are the way to go here. In addition to the moves shown here, they can also use Poison Scatter, which doesn’t do anything to affect the perma-poison you already have in this area but is still a fairly strong AoE move. The Emerald Bracelet we got from Thief Slur back in Chapter 2 will keep one character free of poison while you’re traveling through the groves, which is nice; I tend to put it on Viola so she can snipe enemies without wasting any time at the start of her turns.
On your first playthrough you can play Score Piece 1 with Hungry Drum here for the Brilliant Brooch, and Score Piece 4 for a Poison Whitecap. With our new stash of Score Pieces we can get one more item from him:
“If the session doesn’t go well this time, there are some mushrooms growing over there you could eat!”
“Woo hoo! My cup of joy runneth over, baby! If this session were a drink, I’d be getting refills!”
Playing Score Piece 8 gets us an A-rank and the Gold Necklace, which increases the wearer’s DEF by 5.
Moving right along…
You really want to take out the Leaf Eggs before they get a chance to transform in the light; even in Encore Mode they’re pushovers.
The Bloody Onions are even tankier than Rare Metal Pickers, to the point that even Viola’s arrows won’t do much if she’s shooting them at a close enough range (but that’s what Hawk Eye is for, natch).
Further into the groves, Jazz hands everyone a Neutralizing Stone, which doesn’t prevent poison but does render its already minor damage negligible.
Soon afterwards we find a Bloody Onion that seems to be very tired until we give it the Winder, and it runs off, leaving this Empty Vase behind.
Time to backtrack!
Hello and welcome back to Eternal Sonata! Last time we went through Chapter 2 of Encore Mode, which had two very tough bosses (who, coincidentally, both happened to be Tuba). Today we’re going through Chapter 3; here’s the compilation video if you want to watch the cutscenes and such.
We start with one half of the party, which consists of Allegretto, Viola, and the three members of Andantino; they’ve been trudging through Adagio Swamp the past few days on their way back to the rebels’ hideout at Andante, and with any luck should reach a nearby inn soon.
Of course, that means they have to walk through more gross swamp water, much to Claves’s chagrin.
♪♪~ Silence and Life
Adagio Swamp is only two screens long, so we’ll be out of here in no time – after tussling with the local wildlife, of course.
♪♪~ Leap the Precipice
The Rare Metal Picker has a lot of nasty attacks (including the requisite poison move inherent to all scorpions), and its defenses are beefy enough in Encore Mode that most of our party’s basic attacks won’t damage them at all. Jazz and Viola can manage just fine (and Viola can mark them with Hawk Eye, which is very helpful), but everyone else is better off spamming specials, especially if Allegretto can knock one into the light to transform it.
Of course, the Blue Gil won’t make that easy for you; they can keep you at bay with a couple long-distance attacks and inflict Darkness Body on you if you aren’t careful. Strangely they never used Great Revolution (the fishes’ spin attack) on me, but I won’t complain too much.
You’ll notice that I’m not using Claves here, and that’s because there’s no real reason to in Encore Mode, at least in Chapter 3. In the first playthrough it was fine, but in Encore Mode enemies are just too tough – and Claves starts out weak enough – that she just isn’t very effective in battle. We can fix that in Mysterious Unison, but that’s a long ways off.
Anyway, we pass through Adagio Swamp safely…
♪♪~ Relaxing Place
And reach Cantabile Inn, where the party decides to turn in for the night.
♪♪~ Strategy
Back at Forte Castle, Waltz is upset at the news that the guardian of Agogo Forest is apparently dead, but decides not to dwell on it, instead redoubling his efforts to find glowing agogos.
That night, Viola and Allegretto discuss the possibility of there being a spy within Andantino, which upsets Jazz greatly.
The next day, we help a traveler catch his pet rat with the Fruit Basket, and he repays us with the Winder.
♪♪~ Wonderland of Wanderer
Trading quest item in hand, we’re ready to head off to Woodblock Groves.
This place will be important later, but for now we’re just passing through on our way to Andante.
The first area mainly has you fighting these Mushroom Ups, which are now huge blobs of HP; Harmony Chains are the way to go here. In addition to the moves shown here, they can also use Poison Scatter, which doesn’t do anything to affect the perma-poison you already have in this area but is still a fairly strong AoE move. The Emerald Bracelet we got from Thief Slur back in Chapter 2 will keep one character free of poison while you’re traveling through the groves, which is nice; I tend to put it on Viola so she can snipe enemies without wasting any time at the start of her turns.
On your first playthrough you can play Score Piece 1 with Hungry Drum here for the Brilliant Brooch, and Score Piece 4 for a Poison Whitecap. With our new stash of Score Pieces we can get one more item from him:
“If the session doesn’t go well this time, there are some mushrooms growing over there you could eat!”
“Woo hoo! My cup of joy runneth over, baby! If this session were a drink, I’d be getting refills!”
Playing Score Piece 8 gets us an A-rank and the Gold Necklace, which increases the wearer’s DEF by 5.
Moving right along…
You really want to take out the Leaf Eggs before they get a chance to transform in the light; even in Encore Mode they’re pushovers.
The Bloody Onions are even tankier than Rare Metal Pickers, to the point that even Viola’s arrows won’t do much if she’s shooting them at a close enough range (but that’s what Hawk Eye is for, natch).
Further into the groves, Jazz hands everyone a Neutralizing Stone, which doesn’t prevent poison but does render its already minor damage negligible.
Soon afterwards we find a Bloody Onion that seems to be very tired until we give it the Winder, and it runs off, leaving this Empty Vase behind.
Time to backtrack!
♪♪~ Silence and Life
Back in Adagio Swamp, we fill the vase with water and dump it on this Blue Gil, who float-swims away, leaving behind the Power Ring.
We then return to Woodblock and reach the end, where the Neutralizing Stone breaks just in time for the boss.
Speaking of, it’s time to fight the deadliest smoothie-ghost this side of Forte.
♪♪~ Opposition Resignation
Trick or Treat has some strong AoE’s in melee range, and a long-distance teleporter move that it strangely never bothered using during recording, which I’m okay with. It also has two Red Caps along for the ride - which are even bigger blobs of HP than the Mushroom Ups were - and it can resurrect them with Heaven’s Assist if they’re defeated.
Luckily for me, the enemies all decided to bum-rush Viola, which grouped them all together for some nice, easy Echo-building.
Needless to say, the Red Caps didn’t last long, and with the party surrounding Trick or Treat it didn’t have anywhere to run.
A few more Harmony Chains later, Falsetto finishes off the boss with her basic combos. That could have been tougher, but thanks to taking advantage of the enemies’ positioning the fight is little more than a speed bump.
Afterwards, the three members of Andantino explain that Andante is actually underground, with the cave entrance being nearby. Jazz and Claves head for the hideout at Lake Reverb to discuss some things, leaving Falsetto to give Allegretto and Viola the tour.
♪♪~ Relaxing Place
But first we need to see this man about some sessions. In the first playthrough we could only use Score Piece 1 or 3 to receive a Shadow Tail, but on this second pass we can get a couple more items:
“Well? What is your impression, having looked within yourself? No, you need not say a word. Your music will speak for you.”
“Ooh! So this is a session. This is the feeling of truly sharing another’s company.”
Playing Score Piece 20 with Lonely Pitch results in an A-rank and the EZI Photo, a battle item that costs 20 points and deals exactly 2,000 damage to an enemy. Let’s do one more session:
“I’ve learned that music made with others can be beautiful, too. Would you play a session with me?”
“So, this sound is your response? Let me tell you what you lack. Loneliness is not a bad thing. Only through understanding loneliness can true compassion for others be born.”
Playing Score Piece 23 gives us an S-rank, some dialogue that’s clearly meant to be read before the A-rank session, and the Onyx Bracelet, a fantastic accessory that renders the wearer immune to Stop. This will be very useful indeed later on.
♪♪~ Endure and Resist
With that taken care of, we can take a look around Andante for a bit.
Remember this dude? He’s way too enthusiastic about being in Andantino.
In a nearby storage room, we can play some more sessions. In the first playthrough you can play Score Piece 1 or 13 with Sullen Melody for a free Peach Cookie, and she has a couple more goodies for us in Encore Mode:
“This is getting annoying. Hurry up and get out your score piece.”
“W-what the heck was that?! That was surprising!”
Playing Score Piece 10 or 12 nets us an S-rank and a free Floral Powder. There’s one more item we can get from Sullen Melody, but it requires a Score Piece we don’t have yet, so we’ll need to come back later.
That done, I stop by the shop, upgrading what equipment I can and stocking up on items.
Next door, these idiots are scheming to make an attack on Forte Castle, and plan on roping Etude into it. This isn’t part of a sidequest, but we can actually get some resolution to this tiny subplot later on.
In a nearby home, this little girl is upset that her Simile flower is wilting; however, in order to save it, it needs special water from Simile Spring in the nearby cemetery, as ordinary water will kill it outright for some reason.
The girl’s brother runs off to the cemetery by himself, and the party heads after him.
♪♪~ No No I Don’t Die Noooo!
They soon find him in Lento Cemetery, where he explains the area’s central puzzle: collect colored flames to light like-colored torches and eventually reach the back of the cemetery, where Simile Spring is.
(Side note: I much prefer the in-game translation of this track, “Who Wants to Die”. It’s much less awkward.)
So we set out to do just that.
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♪♪~ Leap the Precipice
Of course, we do have to fight some monsters while we run around the place. The Light Antiques are the bigger concern out of the two enemies here, because they can inflict Stop with Soul Circle; the Onyx Bracelet we just got comes in handy for that if you’re having trouble blocking the attack.
Scourgers aren’t too tough; even in Encore Mode they don’t have a lot of HP, so they shouldn’t last very long.
Eventually we reach the back of the cemetery (being sure to pick up the Hellstriker along the way, which gives Allegretto permanent Burst)…
And it’s time to fight the spring’s guardian.
♪♪~ Opposition Resignation
Death Crow is an annoying fight in Encore Mode; it can resurrect its Light Antique friends with Warder’s Call, and all of its attacks do a stupid amount of damage. Curdle in particular is dangerous because it can inflict Stop on multiple targets (although it didn’t use this move when I recorded the footage for this chapter, strangely).
You might think it’d be a good idea to have someone wear the Onyx Bracelet for this fight, but I’d actually advise against it; if you put in on a character now, you won’t see it again until Chapter 5, and there's at least one very good reason to let the Chapter 4 party use it instead.
Thanks to some smart positioning, I’m able to take out both Light Antiques with a single Night Fist.
I picked up the Power Stroke for Falsetto in Andante, and with it managed to actually inflict Slow on the boss, which severely limits its mobility.
From there I stick Hawk Eye on it; this plus Burst will let us chew through Death Crow’s HP near-effortlessly.
It gets a few good hits on us, but the boss can’t handle Hawk Eye + Burst + Harmony Chains for long, and soon enough Falsetto finishes it off with her basic combos, for the second time in a row this chapter.
After the fight, Allegretto and Viola briefly muse on whether or not it was okay to just barge in and defeat the Death Crow, but Falsetto reassures them that it’s a spirit and will come back eventually. They then collect the Simile water and leave the cemetery.
Meanwhile at the hideout in Lake Reverb, Jazz confides in Claves about the spy situation, and suspects that it might be Falsetto…
But Claves disagrees, making a strong case against it. Reassured, Jazz leaves to go get the others…
♪♪~ Strategy
Just in time for Rondo to appear, revealing Claves to be the true spy and fatally wounding her for failing to implicate Falsetto. She then makes her exit, leaving Claves to die.
♪♪~ When We Are Together
Claves ruminates on her actions, regretting the path her life has taken.
♪♪~ Your Circumstances
With the last of her strength, she writes a message to Prince Crescendo of Baroque, and sends a messenger dove his way.
She dies, expressing her love for Jazz with her last words...
♪♪~ Fantaisie-Impromptu in C Sharp Minor, Op. Posth. 66
And we close out the chapter with the next Chopin history lesson.
I think, on reflection, that Chapter 3 is my least favorite in the game. I like Claves’s character arc less and less every time I replay Eternal Sonata, because there simply isn’t enough time given to flesh it out in any meaningful way. We meet her in Chapter 2 and then she dies in Chapter 3, in a poorly-written scene with too many unnecessary flashbacks that feels very unearned. I love this game, but the developers did Claves dirty, y’all.
On a more positive note, Chapter 4 is one of my favorites, and we’ll be picking up lots of items from Score Piece sessions. See you then!
Next time: Encore Mode Chapter 4!
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I see what you did there.
Ha! That actually wasn't intentional, but I'll take it.
Anyway, I've got some stuff going on irl - nothing dire, but it requires my attention - so the next update probably won't happen for at least another week, unless I can find the time to spend on it. Additionally, much to my annoyance, some of the soundtrack links in the OP are dead now, because the youtube account associated with them got deleted. I'll see about getting replacement links when I can.
In the meantime, I've got some more art to post. Let's start with Beat:
This is the pose he's in on the original NA box art.
Some details on his hammer gun...
And a closeup of the medal on his outfit, which is also the icon for Encore Mode.
A simple turnaround of Falsetto. There's not a lot of concept art of her floating around that I can find, unfortunately.
A look at an earlier rendition of Jazz's final design; he has messier hair here, and he's wearing a full-on cloak over his battle sweater.
Verse IX-IV: Chapter 4 Redux
Hello and welcome back to Eternal Sonata! Last time we went through Encore Mode Chapter 3, and today we’ll keep going and play through Chapter 4; as always, here is the compilation video if you want to watch it.
We start off the chapter with Beat and Polka at Baroque Castle sometime after the destruction of Cabasa Bridge; Frederic and Salsa are also at the castle, albeit somewhere else than where this scene takes place.
Polka thinks back to when they were rescued by a passing ship from Baroque…
Which triggers an extended flashback to said ship; Crescendo here is the captain, and he insists that the party just take it easy after their ordeal.
Salsa does not need any encouragement on that front, but Polka is too worried about the rest of the party to get much sleep, and decides to take a walk on the deck of the ship.
♪♪~ A Buffer for Quiet
While I do, I upgrade everyone’s equipment and buy a whole bunch of items. It’s especially important to do so here on the ship, because once you finish the pirate ship dungeon you won’t get another chance until after Lament.
Polka finds Frederic on the ship, and the two strike up a conversation.
In it, Frederic muses about how his perspective on life has changed ever since he was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
This in turn makes him think of his younger sister Emilia, who was the same age as Polka when she died from tuberculosis. He grows angry, cursing God for letting someone die so young.
♪♪~ Walk of the Heart
But Polka points out that, in a way, Emilia lives on in Frederic’s memory, and in the music that he composes and performs. He thanks her for the reassurance and leaves.
♪♪~ A Faint Light Grasped in the Hand
Polka, in turn, muses on how she’s changed since meeting Frederic.
However, her musing is interrupted by a massive rumble…
♪♪~ Seize the Artifact for Tallness
That turns out to have been caused by a pirate ship!
Salsa, of course, is delighted, and immediately jumps on the ship, leaving the rest of the party to hurry after her.
Now it’s up to the party to stop the pirates from boarding the Baroque ship while Crescendo does his best to keep the two ships separated.
If you’ll recall from the last time we were here, the Pirate Ship Dolce has four decks and a bunch of side cabins, all of which are crawling with pirates.
♪♪~ Leap the Precipice
Speaking of pirates, they aren’t that much tougher in Encore Mode. Raider Pirates and Warrior Pirates both have the same moveset, including the attacks you see above, as well as the ability to put themselves into Burst with Rising Power. The Warrior Pirates have higher defenses, but you don’t need to save up for a Harmony Chain to defeat them, especially with Salsa’s Shadow Silhouette.
While making their way through the ship, Polka trips and falls, dropping a weird stone that Salsa subsequently picks up and asks about.
Polka explains that she’s had the stone for as long as she can remember, and that it was apparently given to her by someone she loved, although what exactly this means is unclear.
On the third deck, we run into Captive Conga, who was kidnapped by the pirates at some unknown time in the past. Our first time through the game we played Score Piece 3 with him for the Dark Brooch and Score Piece 4 for the EZI Scarf; now in Encore Mode we can get one more item from him:
“It’s crawling with pirates out there. I’m gonna sit tight here a little longer.”
“How was that?! Are you gonna help me out?”
Playing Score Piece 17 with Conga results in a B-rank and a Twilight Feather, which heals Shining Body. Not exactly the greatest reward, but we’ll take it.
After a lot of wandering around and beating up pirates, we eventually find this key to the captain’s quarters…
And meet Dolce herself. Beat and Salsa immediately get into an argument about pirate stereotypes as soon as they walk into the room, and Dolce has to yell at them to get the party’s attention. And now it’s time to fight her!
Hello and welcome back to Eternal Sonata! Last time we went through Encore Mode Chapter 3, and today we’ll keep going and play through Chapter 4; as always, here is the compilation video if you want to watch it.
We start off the chapter with Beat and Polka at Baroque Castle sometime after the destruction of Cabasa Bridge; Frederic and Salsa are also at the castle, albeit somewhere else than where this scene takes place.
Polka thinks back to when they were rescued by a passing ship from Baroque…
Which triggers an extended flashback to said ship; Crescendo here is the captain, and he insists that the party just take it easy after their ordeal.
Salsa does not need any encouragement on that front, but Polka is too worried about the rest of the party to get much sleep, and decides to take a walk on the deck of the ship.
♪♪~ A Buffer for Quiet
While I do, I upgrade everyone’s equipment and buy a whole bunch of items. It’s especially important to do so here on the ship, because once you finish the pirate ship dungeon you won’t get another chance until after Lament.
Polka finds Frederic on the ship, and the two strike up a conversation.
In it, Frederic muses about how his perspective on life has changed ever since he was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
This in turn makes him think of his younger sister Emilia, who was the same age as Polka when she died from tuberculosis. He grows angry, cursing God for letting someone die so young.
♪♪~ Walk of the Heart
But Polka points out that, in a way, Emilia lives on in Frederic’s memory, and in the music that he composes and performs. He thanks her for the reassurance and leaves.
♪♪~ A Faint Light Grasped in the Hand
Polka, in turn, muses on how she’s changed since meeting Frederic.
However, her musing is interrupted by a massive rumble…
♪♪~ Seize the Artifact for Tallness
That turns out to have been caused by a pirate ship!
Salsa, of course, is delighted, and immediately jumps on the ship, leaving the rest of the party to hurry after her.
Now it’s up to the party to stop the pirates from boarding the Baroque ship while Crescendo does his best to keep the two ships separated.
If you’ll recall from the last time we were here, the Pirate Ship Dolce has four decks and a bunch of side cabins, all of which are crawling with pirates.
♪♪~ Leap the Precipice
Speaking of pirates, they aren’t that much tougher in Encore Mode. Raider Pirates and Warrior Pirates both have the same moveset, including the attacks you see above, as well as the ability to put themselves into Burst with Rising Power. The Warrior Pirates have higher defenses, but you don’t need to save up for a Harmony Chain to defeat them, especially with Salsa’s Shadow Silhouette.
While making their way through the ship, Polka trips and falls, dropping a weird stone that Salsa subsequently picks up and asks about.
Polka explains that she’s had the stone for as long as she can remember, and that it was apparently given to her by someone she loved, although what exactly this means is unclear.
On the third deck, we run into Captive Conga, who was kidnapped by the pirates at some unknown time in the past. Our first time through the game we played Score Piece 3 with him for the Dark Brooch and Score Piece 4 for the EZI Scarf; now in Encore Mode we can get one more item from him:
“It’s crawling with pirates out there. I’m gonna sit tight here a little longer.”
“How was that?! Are you gonna help me out?”
Playing Score Piece 17 with Conga results in a B-rank and a Twilight Feather, which heals Shining Body. Not exactly the greatest reward, but we’ll take it.
After a lot of wandering around and beating up pirates, we eventually find this key to the captain’s quarters…
And meet Dolce herself. Beat and Salsa immediately get into an argument about pirate stereotypes as soon as they walk into the room, and Dolce has to yell at them to get the party’s attention. And now it’s time to fight her!
♪♪~ A Flicker Which Divides Light and Darkness
Dolce’s attacks do way more damage in Encore Mode, so it’s very important to get the guard timing for each of them down so as not to leave yourself open. In addition to Dead Man’s Tale, she also has Burning Spindle (two-hit combo on one target at melee range) and Tempest Swirl (single hit at a slight distance, but it leaves her open to attacks and she uses it less often in Encore Mode).
Guitar and Bass are powered-up versions of the pirates you’ve been fighting up to this point, with the same general moveset. However, they can revive each other with Guts, so it’s best to take them out at or near the same time to prevent this.
Our first time through the game I split the party up to attack targets individually, but for Encore Mode I’m having everybody gang up on Guitar here; this will lure Dolce and Bass over to attack the party, which should leave them grouped up for easy Echo-building.
Unfortunately, because I’m very smart and attacked from the front, I completely whiff the first Harmony Chain.
It’s not until Polka can hit the whole group with a Shadow Silhouette-powered Nether Wave that Bass actually goes down; Guitar follows soon after thanks to Frederic.
Dolce is more likely to attack you from behind in Encore Mode (and she was already pretty likely to do it to begin with!), so you’d better make good use of all the space you get for items from Party Level 6.
My recording of this fight went a little sloppy (which will be something of a theme for the bosses of this chapter), but eventually Salsa deals the final blow with Shadow Silhouette.
After the battle, the party discusses whether or not it’s okay to take the pirates’ treasure, but eventually reason that since it was all stolen in the first place it’s probably fine.
Salsa, for her part, nabs the greatest treasure of all for herself.
Back in the present, Beat is excited for the concert that’s happening soon…
♪♪~ Grande Valse Brillante in E Flat Major, Op. 18
And we get the next Chopin history lesson.
Turns out Frederic was actually performing that piece in-universe, but Polka was too distracted by the dancing to notice that it was him.
Salsa suddenly runs in to tell them that Crescendo – who it turns out is the prince of Baroque – wants to have a meeting with the party, but she’s only concerned they’ll eat all the food that she’s convinced has been prepared for them.
♪♪~ An Inspection Which Values Harmony
Before we go see Crescendo, we can perform some sessions with a couple people. In the original playthrough we could play Score Piece 2 or 9 with Impatient Pizzicato for a Peach Cookie, and Score Piece 3 for an Angel Trumpet. Now that we have a bunch more Score Pieces thanks to Encore Mode, we can get one more item from her:
“Ah, you want to try again? That’s the spirit! Now, hurry up and get out your score piece!”
“Okay! Good job! I guess you aren’t half bad!”
Playing Score Piece 22 with Pizzicato gives us an A-rank and the Ruby Bracelet, an accessory which makes the wearer immune to Passive.
Up on the second floor, we can play Score Piece 1 with Celebrity Marcato for the EZI String Phone, and Score Piece 7 or 9 for a Club Clover; no new items, but we’ll take these anyway.
With that business taken care of, we can go see Crescendo; he’s worried that Count Waltz will invade Baroque once he’s used the mineral powder to make an army of magic soldiers.
It turns out that Baroque has also secretly been backing Andantino, but Crescendo and Serenade have decided to stop assisting them directly.
♪♪~ Journey to the Projective Mind
Frederic calls them out on this, pointing out that Andantino will be in a very precarious position without their main source of support.
♪♪~ A Faint Light Grasped in the Hand
Crescendo then explains why he decided to help Andantino in the first place – he and Jazz, its leader, are childhood friends, and Crescendo felt he owed it to them because of this. But if Forte were to find out about Crescendo’s support of the rebels, it would almost certainly lead to a war anyways, which Crescendo and Serenade are trying to avoid. (Complicating matters is the fact that Serenade also has ulterior motives for not wanting a war with Forte, but we’ll get to that later.)
Newly convinced, the party agrees to pass on the message to Jazz and leaves to head off for Ritardando, where they reason the rest of the group would head to meet up, but Salsa runs into this mirror right outside Crescendo’s room.
It’s an old family heirloom called “Lament”, and Crescendo wanted it moved up to his room.
Unfortunately it falls on Serenade’s dog Minuet…
But she seems to have disappeared? Crescendo, sensing that something is amiss, touches the mirror…
And the group is engulfed in a blinding flash of light.
When it clears, Polka suddenly finds herself in a very different place.
♪♪~ The Royal Mirror
We have to play through the first section of Lament with just Polka in the party, but the enemies here aren’t that big a deal.
♪♪~ Leap the Precipice
Having said that, the Petite Fatties can still catch you off guard if you aren’t careful, because their attacks all have very weird guard timing. On the other hand, they don’t have much HP, and I’m pretty sure they’re completely unable to block attacks even from the front, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble, especially since Party Level 6 lets you carry over Echoes between battles.
After some wandering, Polka reaches a mirror within the mirror and passes through it…
Finding Crescendo on the other side. He’s studying a portrait of someone that’s fixed to the gate that’s barring the exit to this room.
The person in the portrait, much like Crescendo, is worried about a possible invasion from Forte.
The gate opens after the portrait’s musing is finished, and Crescendo reveals that they’re actually inside of Lament, relaying an old legend about the mirror’s “hiding” people who stand in front of it.
The two of them press onward to the next area, where they spot Minuet running off into the distance.
The two pursue her, hopping across platforms and fighting weird swan knights along the way.
The L’Opera Workers can deal out some decent damage with their attacks, but they’re pretty easy to guard against. They’re also annoyingly sturdy, but you don’t quite need to use a Harmony Chain against them.
Eventually, Crescendo and Polka find Serenade, and the two royals speculate that the people inside the portraits are the thoughts and feelings of the rulers of Forte and Baroque from generations past, and that the Baroque ruler is Crescendo’s grandfather.
King Baroque is utterly opposed to fighting a war with Forte, stating that the cost in civilian lives would be too great.
But Lord Forte, it seems, is all for some needless bloodshed.
In the next area, Minuet passes through another mirror, and the party once again chases after her…
This time through a maze of one-way mirrors. They pass through it uneventfully…
And reunite with Beat in the next room.
In the portrait, King Baroque laments the fact that war seems inevitable, but Lord Forte proposes a deal: give him the royal mirror (and surrender to him), and he won’t invade.
In the next area, the party is in fact upside down.
This reverses left and right on your controller, but not up and down, which makes it annoying to navigate and almost impossible to ambush or avoid enemies.
Speaking of which, the Queen Scissors has some strong long-distance attacks and is tanky enough to warrant using Harmony Chains, but for whatever reason I found them very easy to counter and didn’t have much trouble with them at all.
Anyway, soon afterwards the party is properly oriented, and finds the exit-mirror…
Where they reunite with Frederic and Salsa.
Inside the portrait, the minister of Baroque is outraged at Lord Forte’s demands for the mirror, and insists on going to war over this insult.
Now that we have the party together, I’m promptly benching Crescendo and Serenade; they’re good characters, but they don’t have enough specials to initiate a Harmony Chain, and they’re behind in levels compared to everyone else. They’ll be mostly brought up to speed when they join the party for good in Chapter 7, and since you can’t backtrack to previous areas in Lament – and thus can’t level-grind – the main group needs all the exp they can get. (You could get around this by clearing out a given area, saving, reloading, and repeating the process, but that’s boring, so eh.)
We got this set of armor after defeating Dolce; it’s exclusive to Salsa and is the best armor she can get for quite a while, but wearing it puts her under permanent Stop status. In the first run through the game, that effectively meant that we couldn’t use this armor at all…
But now, thanks to the Onyx Bracelet, Salsa has just become the second-tankiest character in the party (only out-shined by Crescendo, who we’re not using at the moment anyway). Hooray!
Serenade spots Minuet in the next area, and the party once more chases after her.
It takes a hot minute, but eventually the party reaches the exit mirror…
As well as the final portrait.
King Baroque gives the mirror, and himself, an ultimatum: surrender the mirror to Forte, or march to war.
♪♪~ Rapid Fire
Suddenly, a large monster appears!
♪♪~ Opposition Resignation
Svetovit in Encore Mode is one of the most difficult fights in the entire game; it’s quite fast, and all of its attacks hit like a speeding truck, as seen here. They’re also tricky to guard against, so be prepared to eat a lot of cookies if you can’t get the timing down.
Man Splitter is by far Svetovit’s deadliest attack since it can hit the whole party, and it uses it more often than anything else in its moveset; I only saw Boom and Bolt and Man Fillet the one time pictured above. Compared to other bosses it almost never uses its physical combos, preferring instead to spam its specials at you. This is extremely dangerous!
I think I should have brought Salsa along with the Dark Brooch, instead of Beat; that way she could power the party up with Shadow Silhouette for incredibly damaging Harmony Chains to decimate Svetovit’s HP, which isn’t a lot compared to most bosses. I thought I’d use Beat to build Echoes at a distance and then move him in close for Harmony Chains, but what ended up happening was I just used him to toss items around, for the most part.
Eventually I wear the boss down enough to where it’s almost defeated, and forego saving up for Harmony Chains in favor of ending the fight in as few turns as possible.
And thanks to Polka, this works! My performance of this fight in the compilation video is pretty poor, feel free to watch that if you want to see me get my butt kicked and still win somehow.
After the battle, the party finally finds Minuet, and are engulfed in another flash of light…
Which brings them back outside of the mirror. Beat and Salsa immediately start arguing, of course…
While Crescendo muses about the nature of choice.
♪♪~ Little Dog Waltz (Waltz in D Flat Major, Op. 64 No. 1
We then get another Chopin history lesson.
♪♪~ White Mirror
Later, outside the castle, the party prepares to cross the Sharp Mountains on their way back to Ritardando. But before we do that, we have a few errands to run here in town.
Over to the right of the fountain square is Lonesome Loco; we can play Score Piece 15 with him for the Sky Blue Brooch, and Score Piece 22 for a Fallen Feather. There’s one more item we can get from him, but it requires a Score Piece we don’t have yet.
I believe I mentioned when we explored Baroque during the first playthrough that you could play either Score Piece 5 or 6 with Contrary Marimba for a Glowing Tail. Turns out I was misremembering, and that’s not entirely accurate; Score Piece 5 does get you the Glowing Tail…
“So, you’ve finally brought the ultimate score piece. It sure took you long enough.”
But Score Piece 6 actually gets you the Smiling EZI, an accessory that inflicts permanent Poison on the wearer. Uh, hooray??
Anyway, thanks to all the fighting we’ve been doing and selling off some excellent photos, we can afford to upgrade everyone’s equipment and buy a lot of healing items, including a whole bunch of Snowpuff Cookies.
At the inn, we listen to Grandma’s creepy poem; it is very important that you do this now in Chapter 4, because if you don’t, we'll be unable to obtain a certain item in Chapter 6.
The couple next door will be part of a sidequest later on, but for now we’ll just pick up this accessory.
♪♪~ The Posture You Do Not Despise
With our errands in town complete, we can start climbing the Sharp Mountains. This area will be important much later, but at the moment we’re just passing through on our way back to Ritardando.
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♪♪~ Leap the Precipice
Ice Coffins aren’t too terribly challenging to fight; they’re bulky enough to require Harmony Chains to take down swiftly, but they’re pretty slow, and all their attacks are rather easy to guard against.
However, the Swordfish is a different matter. It has less HP than the Ice Coffin but higher defense, and its attacks seriously hurt if it catches you unawares. Don’t let it hang around too long if you can help it.
The party make their way up the mountain and run into Killer Bell Lyre along the way; you can play Score Piece 3 or 7 with them for a Star Cookie, and Score Piece 14 for the EZI Egg. No new items here, so we’ll be on our way.
Further up the mountain, the party finds a cozy little lodge, and decide to rest there.
As they do, Beat spots a dove flying towards Baroque…
♪♪~ Strategy
Back in Forte, Count Waltz is unperturbed by the news of Claves’s death, and orders Rondo to go check on Fugue, who is still fruitlessly searching for glowing agogos in Agogo Forest.
Inside the lodge, Polka is reminded of home, and this suddenly triggers a long-forgotten memory…
♪♪~ From Tomorrow On...
In this flashback, Polka’s mother tells her about astras, a special jewel that everyone has inside their heart; depending on the person, their astra may shine very brightly, or not at all.
♪♪~ Journey to the Projective Mind
She also laments that Polka’s astra is so bright that it’s leading her to a very dark place, and wishes there was someone who could take her place.
Polka is left to wonder about what it all means...
But for now we have to keep going to reach Ritardando.
♪♪~ Rock and Burn You
The party are now inside Wah Lava Cave, which is the complete opposite environment to the one they were just in.
The most common enemy in here is the Fire Antique, which is a little sturdier in Encore Mode but is otherwise not much of a problem.
Next are the Coelacanths, who you’ll probably barely fight at all, because they’ll spend most of the time gunning for the nearest light source to transform.
In the light, Haken Büchses are much bulkier, necessitating Harmony Chains for a swift victory, but otherwise are about as hard to fight as the Ice Coffins back on the mountain.
We travel (and fight) our way through the cave, jumping across and down various platforms and trying not to get lost.
You might recall that investigating this spot will initiate a rematch with Dolce and her two lieutenants. In the original playthrough, you have to do this rematch before you finish Chapter 4, otherwise you can’t do it later and the sidequest just stops. But in Encore Mode, you can initiate these rematches whenever you choose, so I’ll hold off on fighting Dolce for now. This does mean that I won’t have access to the very useful Werewolf Choker accessory for a while, but I’ll make do.
We reach the end of the cave soon afterwards, and it’s time to make preparations for the fight against Fugue. Polka loads up on defensive accessories; she’ll be unavailable for the first half of Chapter 5, and I want to make sure the Mandolin Church party has access to the best stuff. Salsa has to keep the Onyx Bracelet so she can wear the Skull and Bones armor without being hampered with Stop, and she also gets the Lace Veil for some extra HP. Finally, Frederic gets the Power Ring and Recovery Gloves, to boost his offense and survivability.
The party exits the cave and finds themselves in Agogo Village.
Salsa reunites with March and starts telling her about the party’s adventures, but March interrupts her…
To point out that this is happening.
♪♪~ Pressure
Fugue picks this exact moment to show up and start threatening the party, and soon enough it’s time to fight him again.
♪♪~ I Bet My Belief
Unfortunately for me, for some reason I have a really hard time blocking Fugue’s attacks during this recording session, and eat a whole bunch of damage for it. Most of his move are single-target, but they inflict stupid amounts of damage, and it’s highly likely that characters with lower HP will just drop on the spot if they take the full force of an attack.
Fugue is also more likely to attack you from behind in Encore Mode, and to make things worse, if you fail to block his standard combo he can sometimes immediately initiate another one without giving you a chance to block it, guaranteeing that you’ll eat a lot of hits.
♪♪~ Two Ends of My Doze
Fugue makes quick work of me on my first attempt at the fight, much to my chagrin. Let’s try that again, shall we?
You know, I’m not sure how effective Very Odd Chocolates actually are; they definitely help against standard attacks, but I’m unsure if they do anything to mitigate the damage from specials, which are the big cause of concern. In future battles I might just reserve the space for more healing items instead; I’ll have to think about it.
Anyway, not helping my guarding troubles is the fact that sometimes bosses get their own little cutaways before a special, which can fake you out into guarding early. It wasn’t the end of the world in the original playthrough, but here in Encore Mode it can be the difference between whether or not the targeted character actually survives an attack.
I spend a lot of time in this battle scrambling to recover and trying very hard not to wipe.
But I do get in a couple good hits every now and then. Pictured: the only successful full Harmony Chain I pull off in the entire fight.
I manage to sneak in a Shadow Silhouette to power up Salsa and Frederic, and fire off a boosted Grand Slam with Salsa, which brings Fugue to critical status.
This is good, because Fugue immediately knocks out Salsa afterwards, and I’m completely out of revival items at this point. I really should have brought a few more, especially after my first attempt at this fight.
Thankfully I manage to eke out a win, probably my hardest-fought victory in this entire thread so far. Thank goodness that’s over with!
Afterwards, the party gives Fugue some sass, and Fugue runs off.
♪♪~ Strategy
Unbeknownst to the group, Rondo has been watching the whole time, and seems to have put together the secret of the glowing agogos. She then leaves to report this news to Waltz.
The party wonders what could be causing the agogos to glow, and March tells them about a legend she came across while researching the subject. Polka ventures a guess that this legend could be referring to astras, and March agrees.
Frederic points out that, if that’s the case, then it seems to be Polka’s astra in particular that’s causing the agogos to glow.
Salsa feels like the situation is getting a little dangerous, so she decides to stay in Agogo Forest with March for a while. Polka decides to head back to Tenuto Village to spend some time with her mother, and Beat and Frederic head to Ritardando to hopefully meet up with Jazz and the others.
♪♪~ Someone’s Evening, Someone’s Daybreak (but only the first few seconds of it)
Back in Baroque, Crescendo receives a message from a dove; it’s the message that Claves wrote before her death, revealing Serenade to be another spy for Forte. And with that, we close out the chapter.
This update ran a little longer than I thought it would, but the Chapter 5 redux will definitely be shorter, and we’ll get to fill out some prerequisites for one of the big sidequests in Encore Mode. See you then!
Next time: Encore Mode Chapter 5.
During the recording sessions for this update, I completely forgot to look at some optional dialogue. Were it only a sentence or two I wouldn’t be bringing this up, but it’s actually pretty substantial, so I loaded an earlier save and backtracked to Baroque Castle to give it a look.
Turns out you can visit the magic research laboratory after you finish Lament.
You get different flavor text if you examine the various objects in the room as Polka, versus doing so as Allegretto later on. But, more importantly…
Polka: “W-wait, please! That’s not why we’re here.”
Frederic: “You’re studying magic, aren’t you? We’ve come here to ask you about your research.”
Magic Researcher: “My research? It’s rare to find people who are actually interested in magic. Are you serious?”
Polka: “Yes. Well, it’s not exactly that we’re interested in magic. You see… I can use magic.”
Magic Researcher: “What?! You can?!”
Polka: “Oh, Frederic can as well.”
Magic Researcher: “Ah, excuse me for getting so excited. I don’t have the opportunity to meet magic users very often. People who can use magic are not really that rare, but few will come forward and talk about it. Of course, that’s to be expected, since admitting you can use magic is the same as saying you’re sick.”
*awkward pause*
Magic Researcher: “Ah… um, I mean… I’m sorry.”
Polka: “It’s okay. I’m used to it.”
Magic Researcher: “My apologies. But I want you to know, that rumor about it being contagious is completely false. The illness that magic users suffer from-- Oh, actually, that’s kind of backwards. Because they’re able to use magic because of the illness. Though just catching a cold or having a stomach ache doesn’t make you able to use magic.”
Magic Researcher: “But I’ve probably said too much already. Do you want to hear more? It may not be pleasant for you.”
*Polka nods.*
Polka: “Please continue. I want to know more about myself.”
Magic Researcher: “I don’t yet know what causes the illness to occur. But those who suffer from it will eventually die. However, it cannot be transmitted to others, in spite of what people might say. That rumor is a product of the human tendency to judge based on appearances instead of investigating the truth.”
Polka: “...”
Frederic: “Besides the illness, have you discovered anything about the magic itself?”
Magic Researcher: “I’m not positive there’s only one. And I don’t know whether all those who contract the disease can use magic, or if it varies from person to person. It’s possible that the illness has nothing to do with it. It could be a completely separate factor is at work.”
Magic Researcher: “I’m lacking in both materials and time to uncover the details. But I still intend to try. To understand the workings of magic will mean understanding the nature of the mineral powder Forte is producing. We might be able to neutralize that terrible drug. In so doing, we may be able to avoid war. That’s how I’d like to repay the Prince for granting me this research opportunity.”
And that’s that! This scene doesn’t affect any sidequests or anything, it’s just an optional thing you can see.
Turns out you can visit the magic research laboratory after you finish Lament.
You get different flavor text if you examine the various objects in the room as Polka, versus doing so as Allegretto later on. But, more importantly…
Polka: “W-wait, please! That’s not why we’re here.”
Frederic: “You’re studying magic, aren’t you? We’ve come here to ask you about your research.”
Magic Researcher: “My research? It’s rare to find people who are actually interested in magic. Are you serious?”
Polka: “Yes. Well, it’s not exactly that we’re interested in magic. You see… I can use magic.”
Magic Researcher: “What?! You can?!”
Polka: “Oh, Frederic can as well.”
Magic Researcher: “Ah, excuse me for getting so excited. I don’t have the opportunity to meet magic users very often. People who can use magic are not really that rare, but few will come forward and talk about it. Of course, that’s to be expected, since admitting you can use magic is the same as saying you’re sick.”
*awkward pause*
Magic Researcher: “Ah… um, I mean… I’m sorry.”
Polka: “It’s okay. I’m used to it.”
Magic Researcher: “My apologies. But I want you to know, that rumor about it being contagious is completely false. The illness that magic users suffer from-- Oh, actually, that’s kind of backwards. Because they’re able to use magic because of the illness. Though just catching a cold or having a stomach ache doesn’t make you able to use magic.”
Magic Researcher: “But I’ve probably said too much already. Do you want to hear more? It may not be pleasant for you.”
*Polka nods.*
Polka: “Please continue. I want to know more about myself.”
Magic Researcher: “I don’t yet know what causes the illness to occur. But those who suffer from it will eventually die. However, it cannot be transmitted to others, in spite of what people might say. That rumor is a product of the human tendency to judge based on appearances instead of investigating the truth.”
Polka: “...”
Frederic: “Besides the illness, have you discovered anything about the magic itself?”
Magic Researcher: “I’m not positive there’s only one. And I don’t know whether all those who contract the disease can use magic, or if it varies from person to person. It’s possible that the illness has nothing to do with it. It could be a completely separate factor is at work.”
Magic Researcher: “I’m lacking in both materials and time to uncover the details. But I still intend to try. To understand the workings of magic will mean understanding the nature of the mineral powder Forte is producing. We might be able to neutralize that terrible drug. In so doing, we may be able to avoid war. That’s how I’d like to repay the Prince for granting me this research opportunity.”
And that’s that! This scene doesn’t affect any sidequests or anything, it’s just an optional thing you can see.
Next update is coming later today! In the meantime here is some more art from the JP strategy guide:
Some closeup details of Frederic's extremely fancy baton and pocket watch.
A rare look at his hair, without the top-hat covering it up.
And some details of his tuxedo.
A Viola turnaround, with Arco off to the side.
And a closer look at her longbow.
Some closeup details of Frederic's extremely fancy baton and pocket watch.
A rare look at his hair, without the top-hat covering it up.
And some details of his tuxedo.
A Viola turnaround, with Arco off to the side.
And a closer look at her longbow.
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Verse IX-V: Chapter 5 Redux
Hello and welcome back to Eternal Sonata! Last time we went through Chapter 4 of Encore Mode (and I got the crap kicked out of me by all the bosses in the process), and today we’ll continue onwards with Chapter 5. Here is the compilation video if you’d like to watch along.
We begin the chapter, uh, somewhere, with Falsetto wandering in a haze after Claves’s death. She’s, not doing so well right now.
Meanwhile in Ritardando, Beat and Frederic meet up with Allegretto in the hideout. Allegretto fills them in on what happened with Claves, and tells them where Jazz and Viola went – Jazz went off to Baroque on his own to meet with Crescendo, and Viola went to set her goats free and head to Salsa’s house.
Beat tells him about the whole pirates thing and explains the plan for everyone to meet in Ritardando after they take care of their respective business, but Allegretto pretty obviously wants to blow them off to go hang out with Polka.
Beat teases him about this, and it annoys Allegretto enough to where he stays and offers to give Frederic a tour of the town.
♪♪~ The Mediocrity Sought Out by Everyone
Just making a quick stop before we head to Mandolin Church to do a couple sessions with Worrywart Horn here; you can play Score Piece 1 or 23 for a Snowpuff Cookie, and Score Piece 3 for the Cherry EZI. No new items, so we’ll move on.
The party notice a gathering of folks at Mandolin Church and go to investigate; it seems that there are strange noises (voices?) coming from somewhere in the basement, and nobody really wants to check it out.
♪♪~ DANTOTSU!
Just then, the owner of the bakery notices Allegretto and Beat, and gets the crowd to pressure them into investigating the noises.
Soon after the three of them enter the church, Salsa, March, and Viola show up. Beat explains the situation to them…
And Allegretto seizes on the opportunity and ditches them, leaving the rest of the party to do the dirty work while he saunters off to Tenuto.
On his way there, he picks up a weird rock and pockets it for later…
Back in the church, March volunteers her services, and the party sets off for the church basement.
Before we do anymore plot stuff, we have a couple errands to run in town. To start with, Lib here is sick with a fever, and none of the other kids know what to do. Beat promises to go find some medicine for her.
We eventually get some cold medicine from this woman in exchange for the Power Ring.
We then give the medicine to Lib, who recovers, and as thanks the kids give us this Spell Book. That’s the trading quest nearly complete once again.
Beat: “Darn, they all ran away and I couldn’t take a picture of them.”
I missed this flavor text our first time through the game, but more importantly, there’s something in the cave to Tenuto we need to look at.
♪♪~ A Step
Specifically, we need to talk to this man.
Beat: “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to surprise you. I was wondering what you were up to, so I thought I’d come over and say hello.”
“I haven’t done anything! I don’t know anything! Just leave me alone!”
Beat: “You don’t look so good.”
“I haven’t slept in quite some time.”
Beat: “You don’t sleep at night?”
Beat: “Appears?”
“Ah! It doesn’t matter anymore. I just want to be at peace! I just want to be free.”
*pause*
Beat: “A developer of mineral powder?!”
Former Developer: “I was following Count Waltz’s orders to make a drug that could produce the perfect soldier. When the ordinary citizens who’ve been taking mineral powder find out the truth, they’ll despise me. They’re sure to come looking for the unforgivable fool who made this devil drug. That’s why I was so scared. I was terrified! So terrified, I had no choice. I had to get out of that place as fast as I could. And driven by that compulsion, I fled Forte.”
Former Developer: “I worry so much that someone’s going to get me, I can’t even close my eyes! And when I do sleep, he always appears.”
Beat: “Who appears?”
Beat: “Chord? So, it’s a man named Chord, right? But what could he possibly….”
Former Developer: “Chord is the name of the man who first took mineral powder as our test subject! Please don’t ask me anything more. If you want to know more about Chord, go to Baroque. There is a woman who took care of Chord during the experiments who later fled to Baroque.”
Well that’s interesting. This is the start of a pretty lengthy sidequest, and you can only activate it by talking to the Former Developer with Beat before finishing the events at Mandolin Church; if you try talking to him with Allegretto, or come back later before speaking to him, then he won’t divulge anything and the sidequest won’t proceed. That’s a pretty tight window of opportunity, so don’t miss it! (This sidequest is also limited to Encore Mode, in case you were wondering.)
Like the man said, the next step is to talk to a woman in Baroque, but we have to finish our business here in Ritardando first.
♪♪~ Underground for Underhand
So it’s off to the Mandolin Church Catacombs for us!
♪♪~ Leap the Precipice
For the first section of the catacombs we’re fighting Ruby Eyes (in the dark) and Orange Floats (in the light). They both have the same moveset (including Overrun, their most dangerous attack, pictured here), and the same HP, but Orange Floats are faster and have higher attack and defense, making them by far the more dangerous of the two. You’re best off sniping them with Viola, or powering up with Shadow Silhouette to take them out asap.
We make our way through the basement, and eventually reach the catacombs themselves.
♪♪~ Strategy
Meanwhile, back at Forte, Rondo has just finished explaining what the deal is with glowing agogos to Count Waltz, and Waltz in turn then orders her to find Polka.
We’ll be coming back through this area a couple times – once to read the messages on a group of pillars as part of the Dolce sidequest, and once to grab an item we can only get after backtracking here. In the meantime, we’ll just pass on through to the end.
The catacombs have a new enemy, the Viege. It can inflict Passive with Blow Vortex, and can power up its next attack with Power Blaze, but really the most dangerous thing about it is its basic attack, since it comes out so fast.
Anyway, we pass through the catacombs uneventfully…
♪♪~ Rapid Fire
And reach the very end, where the “ghost” reveals itself. First showdown… begin!
Hello and welcome back to Eternal Sonata! Last time we went through Chapter 4 of Encore Mode (and I got the crap kicked out of me by all the bosses in the process), and today we’ll continue onwards with Chapter 5. Here is the compilation video if you’d like to watch along.
We begin the chapter, uh, somewhere, with Falsetto wandering in a haze after Claves’s death. She’s, not doing so well right now.
Meanwhile in Ritardando, Beat and Frederic meet up with Allegretto in the hideout. Allegretto fills them in on what happened with Claves, and tells them where Jazz and Viola went – Jazz went off to Baroque on his own to meet with Crescendo, and Viola went to set her goats free and head to Salsa’s house.
Beat tells him about the whole pirates thing and explains the plan for everyone to meet in Ritardando after they take care of their respective business, but Allegretto pretty obviously wants to blow them off to go hang out with Polka.
Beat teases him about this, and it annoys Allegretto enough to where he stays and offers to give Frederic a tour of the town.
♪♪~ The Mediocrity Sought Out by Everyone
Just making a quick stop before we head to Mandolin Church to do a couple sessions with Worrywart Horn here; you can play Score Piece 1 or 23 for a Snowpuff Cookie, and Score Piece 3 for the Cherry EZI. No new items, so we’ll move on.
The party notice a gathering of folks at Mandolin Church and go to investigate; it seems that there are strange noises (voices?) coming from somewhere in the basement, and nobody really wants to check it out.
♪♪~ DANTOTSU!
Just then, the owner of the bakery notices Allegretto and Beat, and gets the crowd to pressure them into investigating the noises.
Soon after the three of them enter the church, Salsa, March, and Viola show up. Beat explains the situation to them…
And Allegretto seizes on the opportunity and ditches them, leaving the rest of the party to do the dirty work while he saunters off to Tenuto.
On his way there, he picks up a weird rock and pockets it for later…
Back in the church, March volunteers her services, and the party sets off for the church basement.
Before we do anymore plot stuff, we have a couple errands to run in town. To start with, Lib here is sick with a fever, and none of the other kids know what to do. Beat promises to go find some medicine for her.
We eventually get some cold medicine from this woman in exchange for the Power Ring.
We then give the medicine to Lib, who recovers, and as thanks the kids give us this Spell Book. That’s the trading quest nearly complete once again.
Beat: “Darn, they all ran away and I couldn’t take a picture of them.”
I missed this flavor text our first time through the game, but more importantly, there’s something in the cave to Tenuto we need to look at.
♪♪~ A Step
Specifically, we need to talk to this man.
Beat: “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to surprise you. I was wondering what you were up to, so I thought I’d come over and say hello.”
“I haven’t done anything! I don’t know anything! Just leave me alone!”
Beat: “You don’t look so good.”
“I haven’t slept in quite some time.”
Beat: “You don’t sleep at night?”
Beat: “Appears?”
“Ah! It doesn’t matter anymore. I just want to be at peace! I just want to be free.”
*pause*
Beat: “A developer of mineral powder?!”
Former Developer: “I was following Count Waltz’s orders to make a drug that could produce the perfect soldier. When the ordinary citizens who’ve been taking mineral powder find out the truth, they’ll despise me. They’re sure to come looking for the unforgivable fool who made this devil drug. That’s why I was so scared. I was terrified! So terrified, I had no choice. I had to get out of that place as fast as I could. And driven by that compulsion, I fled Forte.”
Former Developer: “I worry so much that someone’s going to get me, I can’t even close my eyes! And when I do sleep, he always appears.”
Beat: “Who appears?”
Beat: “Chord? So, it’s a man named Chord, right? But what could he possibly….”
Former Developer: “Chord is the name of the man who first took mineral powder as our test subject! Please don’t ask me anything more. If you want to know more about Chord, go to Baroque. There is a woman who took care of Chord during the experiments who later fled to Baroque.”
Well that’s interesting. This is the start of a pretty lengthy sidequest, and you can only activate it by talking to the Former Developer with Beat before finishing the events at Mandolin Church; if you try talking to him with Allegretto, or come back later before speaking to him, then he won’t divulge anything and the sidequest won’t proceed. That’s a pretty tight window of opportunity, so don’t miss it! (This sidequest is also limited to Encore Mode, in case you were wondering.)
Like the man said, the next step is to talk to a woman in Baroque, but we have to finish our business here in Ritardando first.
♪♪~ Underground for Underhand
So it’s off to the Mandolin Church Catacombs for us!
♪♪~ Leap the Precipice
For the first section of the catacombs we’re fighting Ruby Eyes (in the dark) and Orange Floats (in the light). They both have the same moveset (including Overrun, their most dangerous attack, pictured here), and the same HP, but Orange Floats are faster and have higher attack and defense, making them by far the more dangerous of the two. You’re best off sniping them with Viola, or powering up with Shadow Silhouette to take them out asap.
We make our way through the basement, and eventually reach the catacombs themselves.
♪♪~ Strategy
Meanwhile, back at Forte, Rondo has just finished explaining what the deal is with glowing agogos to Count Waltz, and Waltz in turn then orders her to find Polka.
We’ll be coming back through this area a couple times – once to read the messages on a group of pillars as part of the Dolce sidequest, and once to grab an item we can only get after backtracking here. In the meantime, we’ll just pass on through to the end.
The catacombs have a new enemy, the Viege. It can inflict Passive with Blow Vortex, and can power up its next attack with Power Blaze, but really the most dangerous thing about it is its basic attack, since it comes out so fast.
Anyway, we pass through the catacombs uneventfully…
♪♪~ Rapid Fire
And reach the very end, where the “ghost” reveals itself. First showdown… begin!
♪♪~ Opposition Resignation
Root Lurker was an annoying fight the first time through the game because it had a tendency to zoom around the battlefield, making it potentially difficult for melee characters (aka most of the party) to keep up. In Encore Mode it’s more likely to stay in melee range, but its attacks all do more damage – par for the course in Encore Mode – and it likes using Bo-Peep a lot more; this inflicts Passive, making counters unreliable unless you bring along status-healing items.
Its other attacks aren’t to be taken lightly either. Deep Bite hits a single target three times and is now extremely dangerous; Roar hits everybody in range but is pretty easy to deal with; and Trip to Pain lets Root Lurker close in on anybody from anywhere very quickly. It’s easy to block, but the boss likes following it up by immediately attacking you from behind – often with Deep Bite – so be sure to have an item ready if you need it (and you probably will).
My strategy for this fight is mostly the same as last time, only I’ve swapped in Salsa instead of March, who just has too little HP right now to survive most of Root Lurker’s attacks if I mess up guarding against them. Viola’s going to pelt the boss with arrows and top off the party’s HP with Heal Arrow during Harmony Chains, while Beat and Salsa fight it up close to build up Echoes.
It works marvelously, and Salsa finishes off Root Lurker with an especially sweet-looking Solar Flare.
We then immediately cut to later that night as Allegretto arrives in Tenuto.
♪♪~ Reflect the Sky, Bloom the Life
He runs into Polka’s mother, and the two of them strike up a conversation. The subject of Polka’s illness eventually comes up, and Solfège says that it’s due to Polka’s astra, which will eventually lead her to a tragic fate.
Allegretto doesn’t buy it. Solfège thanks him and tells him where to find Polka – she’s at the flower field.
He finds her, and the two start talking.
They talk about their differing perspectives on the view of Ritardando…
♪♪~ From Tomorrow On...
And, once again, Polka’s illness comes up. Polka tries to look at it in a positive light, speculating that, without it, she might not have been driven to leave her village, and consequently wouldn’t have met the rest of the party.
After more talking, and a brief scare where Allegretto thinks Polka is about to jump off the cliff, Polka decides to throw her special stone to the sea, as a symbolic replacement for her.
Allegretto then gives her the rock he found on the shore earlier that day, and heads back to Ritardando for the night.
♪♪~ A Faint Light Grasped in the Hand
Polka is more than a little surprised; somehow, she can tell that the stone Allegretto just gave her is the exact same rock she just threw away. She’s left to ponder on what this might mean…
♪♪~ Nocturne in E Flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2
And we get the next Chopin history lesson.
The next day, the party sails back to Baroque to meet up with Jazz and plan their next move.
As they do, Frederic can only speculate how his dream is going to end.
Cut to a few days later, where the party is staying at Baroque Castle. Viola is playing cards with Beat and Salsa, and is somehow being taken to the cleaners by two children; annoyed, she leaves to go take a walk in the side garden.
Meanwhile, Jazz and Crescendo are trying to hash things out, but can’t come to an agreement on what to do about the whole “possible war with Forte” situation.
Crescendo refuses to budge, and won’t entertain the possibility of taking the fight to Forte. Jazz tries to convince him by talking about there being a possible spy in his inner circle, referring to the Claves situation as an example…
♪♪~ Repeated Tide
But of course Crescendo already knows. He asks Jazz to leave to give him some time to think about the matter.
Once Jazz is gone, Crescendo has a monologue to himself about Serenade’s motives; he believes that, despite her being a spy for Forte, she also fully believes in there being a peaceful solution to the conflict (and this will later be proven correct). It also turns out that Serenade has been listening in the entire time; we’re not shown the ramifications of this, but based on future events we can reasonably deduce that they reconcile.
Outside in the side garden, Viola shows Polka a good luck charm, and jokingly suggests trying it out on Allegretto. Embarrassed, Polka runs off as Jazz enters.
It’s going to take a while for Crescendo to come to a decision, so Jazz suggests they explore Baroque the next day.
♪♪~ When We Are Together
There’s an attempt at an underwritten love triangle subplot…
And Viola goes back to play cards, having determined that it’s totally fine to be single at 26.
The next day, the party decides to have a look around Baroque.
♪♪~ White Mirror
Before we do anything else, we need to talk to this woman to initiate the next stage of the sidequest we started in Ritardando.
“Y-yes, that’s correct.”
Polka: “And didn’t you once do work related to the mineral powder?”
“H-how did you know that?! N-no! I don’t know anything! I have nothing to do with mineral powder!”
Polka: “I’m sorry, it’s okay. Don’t worry. We don’t want to question you about the mineral powder. We just want to know about the first person who took mineral powder. The very first victim.”
Allegretto: “I believe his name is Chord.”
“Chord?! I never thought I’d hear that name again. Maybe he would want this….”
Former Servant: “It was my job to take care of Chord. As you know, Chord was an unfortunate child who became a victim of the mineral powder. He was originally a servant at Forte Castle, like myself. He volunteered to be a test subject in the top secret experiments.”
Allegretto: “He volunteered to test the mineral powder?!”
Polka: “W-why?!”
Former Servant: “I asked him that myself. He told me: ‘The notice said I’d be able to use magic.’”
Polka: “Magic?”
Allegretto: “...”
Former Servant: “He was just a kind boy who cared about his mother. He always had a pendant from his mother with him. But as he was given the mineral powder test samples, it affected his body very quickly. He became unable to use his arms, legs, and mouth, and drifted in and out of consciousness. But he never let go of that pendant. It was painful to watch.”
Polka: “Oh, Chord….”
Former Servant: “Finally, Chord gained the magic he sought. The instant he obtained that power, he broke through the walls containing him and went berserk. It was a terrifying sight. I prayed that God would stop him.”
Allegretto: “A Forte official?”
Former Servant: “Yes. Someone with tremendous power.”
Polka: “W-what happened to Chord?!”
Former Servant: “Chord stopped moving. I thought he was dead. But the Forte official said, ‘He cannot be killed. Seal him away.’”
Allegretto: “He was locked up somewhere?!”
Polka: “Where?!”
Allegretto: “Fort Fermata!”
Polka: “Is Chord still alive?”
Former Servant: “I don’t know. I hope he is, but….”
Polka: “Does Chord’s mother know about this? Is she still ill?”
Former Servant: “A message arrived at the castle, but they told me it would interfere with the experiments and forbade me to speak of it. I was never able to give the message to Chord.”
Allegretto: “What?! But he did all that for his mother!”
Former Servant: “Looking back now, maybe when Chord gained the ability to use magic and went berserk, he was trying to get to his mother and cure her illness.”
Polka: “What happened to his mother’s pendant?”
Former Servant: “Oh, the heart pendant? What did happen to it? After Chord went out of control and was struck down, was it still in his hand?”
Former Servant: “Sorry, I don’t remember.”
Polka: “I’d at least like to find the pendant.”
Poor Chord… The game actually drops a hint at this subplot way back in Chapter 2, when you reach Forte City for the first time; scroll down to the dialogue box that reads “I wonder what happened to the people who used to live in that house” for more on that. It looks like we have two leads to follow up on when we get the chance: keeping an eye out for a heart pendant, and heading back to Fort Fermata to take another look around when we get the chance. Readers with a good long-term memory (or the patience to go back and read older updates) may already know where we can follow up on both of these leads…
But for now we’ll stock up at the item shop, taking special care to pick up this weapon for Frederic; it’ll be an important part of my strategy for the boss at the end of this chapter.
As the party gets closer to the entrance to Baroque, they encounter a priest delivering a sermon, and stop to listen.
The priest thanks them for doing so, and advises that the party might want to look around in Aria Temple if they want to learn more about astras. Having nothing better to do, they decide to do just that.
♪♪~ The Boundary Between Snow and Ice
Unfortunately, a merchant in Celesta Forest tells them that the entrance to the temple is locked, and they’ll have to get a key from the magic researcher in Baroque Castle. Time to backtrack!
♪♪~ An Inspection Which Values Harmony
On our way to the magic research lab, we stop in a guestroom on the second floor to play a couple sessions with Shallow Sweet; we can play Score Piece 3 for a Poison Whitecap, and Score Piece 12 for the EZI Pajamas. No new items this time, so we’ll be on our way.
In the lab, the Magic Researcher is extremely reluctant to give us the key. After some back-and-forth, he finally agrees to do so, on the condition that we find and give him a Spell Book in exchange.
We hand it over, and that’s the trading quest complete for the second time! Now we can keep the Spell Book that’s in Celesta Forest, and it’ll save us some backtracking.
Speaking of which, it’s time to head back there and pass through it to Aria Temple.
♪♪~ Leap the Precipice
The Flamea has much the same moveset as its weaker cousin in the Mandolin Church Catacombs, and can be fought accordingly… as long as it’s in the light.
In the dark, they transform into White Pearls, which have slightly less HP but are otherwise much more dangerous. Use Harmony Chains against these things so they don’t stick around for long.
Finally, Anathemas are generally not a big deal, especially since you have so many options on how to fight them now.
We pass through the forest uneventfully, and reach the entrance of the temple.
Polka sees someone enter the temple, but no one else does…
And the door is already unlocked when they try to enter the place for themselves. Curious…
♪♪~ Grim Purpose
In any case, we have to make our way through Aria Temple in much the same fashion as our first time through the game, with the various chests being teleported around based on what order we fight enemies.
And speaking of, the monsters in the temple are challenging but not insurmountable. The Sorbie pictured above is the toughest thing here, being fast and prone to smacking you with their tails. You don’t quite need to save up a Harmony Chain to take them out, though it does speed up the process.
In the dark they transform into Ice Melodies, which are much easier to defeat. You’ll hardly fight them though, since they spend most of their time gunning for the nearest light source to transform.
Last but not least, Icicle Eaters aren’t really a problem, beyond being surprisingly sturdy.
We make our way through the temple, being sure to clear out all the monsters on the second floor so we can grab this weapon for Viola.
Soon afterwards we reach the top, and it’s time to prepare for the fight against Rondo; I’ll be taking Frederic and Viola along, and the third slot doesn’t matter since they’ll be replaced by Falsetto. Frederic’s Gold Baton will give him Burst, and to offset this I equip him with the Recovery Orb and Brisingamen; Viola’s new bow also gives her Burst, and I put the Recovery Gloves and Power Ring on her, to help her deal even more damage and give her some survivability.
The party looks around the room, but doesn’t see anyone, to Polka’s confusion.
♪♪~ Pressure
Just then, Rondo appears and threatens the party to hand over Polka...
♪♪~ Pyroxene of the Heart
But Falsetto arrives soon after. She explains how distraught Claves’s death made her, but is newly determined and vows to defeat Rondo.
Undeterred, Rondo actually has the audacity to offer Falsetto to take Claves’s place as a spy, which, points for confidence I guess.
♪♪~ I Bet My Belief
But Falsetto isn’t listening, and now it’s time to fight!
I kind of get off to a rough start at the beginning of the fight, partially because I panic when Rondo hits Frederic with Hell Eruption, and I forget I brought along some Time Feathers to cure the Stop status it inflicts. Her attacks have all been powered up considerably, and their accompanying status effects are a bigger deal now than before since they can lock you down trying to deal with them. Aside from the aforementioned Hell Eruption, there’s Grand Venom, which hurts a lot more now, inflicts Slow if it connects, and is more likely to be used several times in a row; and Fer-de-Lance, a two-hit stab with a strong chance of knockdown.
My plan for this fight – after I stop panicking – is to use Frederic and Viola’s Burst to burn through Rondo’s HP as quickly as I can, while Frederic and Falsetto build Echoes for Harmony Chains. Falsetto’s damage output is lagging behind a little, but only because she isn’t under Burst, and she’s still the best Echo-builder in this party. Strangely, Rondo doesn’t really go for her in this recording, unless she’s incidentally caught in an attack; Rondo instead spends most of her time trying to repeatedly murder Frederic.
Unfortunately for me, I slip up and take the full force of Bombardment, which is now Rondo’s deadliest attack, and Frederic and Falsetto go from mostly fully-healed to KO’d in seconds. This is bad!
She very nearly takes out Viola the next turn, but I guard properly this time and save myself from a wipe.
Thankfully I manage to get everyone back on their feet soon afterwards. Since Rondo’s almost defeated by this point, I decide to keep Viola in melee range, reasoning that it won’t be too much longer of a fight.
I reason correctly, because after one more Harmony Chain Rondo goes down to Viola’s melee combos. Things got pretty hairy for a minute, but I managed to pull out a win in the end.
♪♪~ Well Done
We get a bunch of exp for our troubles, as well as a Heart Pendant...
♪♪~ Repeated Tide
Jazz and Falsetto reconcile after the battle…
And the party reads the legend of Aria Temple – or try to, anyway, but it’s written in some ancient language. Luckily, March researches ancient languages for fun, and translates the legend for the rest of the group; you can read it here if you want a refresher.
And that’s Chapter 5! Next time we can actually get started with some of the big Encore Mode-exclusive sidequests, after we do some plot stuff at the start of the chapter. See you then!
Next time: The start of Encore Mode Chapter 6, and getting into some sidequests!
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As of today, it has been exactly one year since I first started this LP. To be quite honest, I didn't think it would take this long when I first started the thread back on the previous version of the forums. Turns out I kind of underestimated how long it would take to play through the entire game twice!
Anyway, I've got everything except for the last two updates recorded, I just have to get screenshots of everything now; irl stuff has been keeping me busy, but I should have more time to work on this thread now. By my estimation, we should finally see the end of the game in about a month or so, if I can pick up the pace of updates from once every two weeks or so to... faster than that. There will be a few miscellaneous things we'll take a look at after the thread is done, but only because it makes sense to see them after viewing the game's ending.
Thanks for reading, and for your patience waiting for the next update. I'll see y'all soon with the further adventures of Frederic Chopin's Magical JRPG Dreamland.
Anyway, I've got everything except for the last two updates recorded, I just have to get screenshots of everything now; irl stuff has been keeping me busy, but I should have more time to work on this thread now. By my estimation, we should finally see the end of the game in about a month or so, if I can pick up the pace of updates from once every two weeks or so to... faster than that. There will be a few miscellaneous things we'll take a look at after the thread is done, but only because it makes sense to see them after viewing the game's ending.
Thanks for reading, and for your patience waiting for the next update. I'll see y'all soon with the further adventures of Frederic Chopin's Magical JRPG Dreamland.
Update tomorrow! In the meantime I have more strategy guide art to put in front of your eyeballs:
Some closeup details of Salsa and March's outfits.
The twins themselves.
An adorable picture of the two of them hanging out.
And some neat art of Salsa, including what looks like a cheeky height comparison with Beat in the upper left. Seems like maybe she would have used a staff at one point instead of her Sun Rings?
Some closeup details of Salsa and March's outfits.
The twins themselves.
An adorable picture of the two of them hanging out.
And some neat art of Salsa, including what looks like a cheeky height comparison with Beat in the upper left. Seems like maybe she would have used a staff at one point instead of her Sun Rings?
Verse IX-VI: Score Piece World Tour
Hello and welcome back to Eternal Sonata! Last time we went through Chapter 5 of Encore Mode; today we’re going to start digging into some sidequests, but we have to get through some plot stuff first. (No cutscene video today because we aren't progressing through all of Chapter 6 right now, and also the video is still rendering)
On the way back to Baroque Castle from Aria Temple, Polka collapses in the snow, and the party rushes her inside.
The magic researcher is at a loss at first, but speculates that Polka’s condition could be related to her astra. The party discuss it for a while…
And Salsa has the idea to go to the Agogo Queen Mother for help. Trouble is, she’s somewhere in Agogo Forest, which is quite far away from Baroque, and time is of the essence.
Luckily, Crescendo grants the party access to Ye Olde Royal Teleportation Roome, which will take them to Agogo Village instantly.
They warp there, and set off to search the forest.
♪♪~ Can We Be Both Different and Alike
Before we do that, we have a quick session to do with Precocious Flute, specifically playing Score Piece 2 for some Guardian Clothes.
♪♪~ Innumerable Animals
That sorted, we can backtrack a few areas into the forest…
And run into Fugue again, who’s being a rude jackass as always. He’s unknowingly been harassing the Agogo Queen Mother, and Salsa and March of course take issue with this.
Salsa insults him repeatedly, which angers him, and it’s time to fight our favorite monocled jerk once again.
♪♪~ Opposition Resignation
He’s got the same moveset as in all of his fights – Dark Presence for a long-distance single-target attack that can inflict Stop, J’accuse for attacking multiple targets in a line with a chance of knockdown, and Blood Scent for a four-hit sword combo. In addition, his standard attacks can hit multiple characters, as seen here.
I have no interest in being fair for this fight – I’m impatient to get started with sidequests, you see – so I equip Allegretto with his Hellstriker sword for Burst and bring Jazz and Falsetto along for Echo-building.
My plan works well, and aside from a shaky start the battle goes pretty smoothly.
Fugue is incensed after losing to the party yet again, and takes his anger out on the Agogo Queen Mother, who repays him in kind by eating him.
Salsa and March manage to calm her down, and the party takes her back to Baroque.
The Agogo Queen Mother absorbs the excess energy being given off by Polka’s astra, and Polka recovers, thanking Allegretto and the others for helping her. The party then goes to visit Crescendo to see if he’s made a decision with regards to the Forte conflict…
♪♪~ An Inspection Which Values Harmony
But he isn’t in his room, or in Serenade’s.
In fact, according to the minister, neither of them are to be found anywhere in the castle.
Jazz states the most likely – and worst – explanation: Crescendo and Serenade are leaving for Forte to surrender to Count Waltz directly, in the hopes of avoiding war.
Some time earlier outside the castle, Crescendo and Serenade prepare to leave on their journey incognito so no one recognizes them.
♪♪~ Tristesse (Étude in E Major, Op. 10 No. 3)
We then get the next Chopin history lesson.
The minister says that the royals most likely headed for the To Coda Ruins through the warp room, and the party rushes to follow them and hopefully catch up before they make it to Forte.
♪♪~ White Mirror
Before we do anything else, we should perform a few sessions with Conceited Choir here; we play Score Piece 11 for the Crimson Brooch, 17 for a Snowpuff Cookie, and 18 for the EZI Handkerchief.
We’ll also stop by the Hotel Ensemble for a few more sessions with Granny’s Girl Quena; we play Score Piece 7 for the EZI Paddle, 10 for the Obsidian Mirror, and 16 for a Fish Incense.
That taken care of, the party makes for the warp room; if you’ll recall our first run through the game, the teleporter to Agogo Village breaks after the Agogo Queen Mother events, preventing us from using it.
Guide: “With the device on the left, you can travel to places you have visited in the past.”
However, in Encore Mode it works perfectly fine, letting us instantly travel to anywhere on this list! We still have to walk to all the connecting areas and dungeons on foot, but otherwise this teleporter will let us access the whole game world at the push of a button. Very convenient!
Hello and welcome back to Eternal Sonata! Last time we went through Chapter 5 of Encore Mode; today we’re going to start digging into some sidequests, but we have to get through some plot stuff first. (No cutscene video today because we aren't progressing through all of Chapter 6 right now, and also the video is still rendering)
On the way back to Baroque Castle from Aria Temple, Polka collapses in the snow, and the party rushes her inside.
The magic researcher is at a loss at first, but speculates that Polka’s condition could be related to her astra. The party discuss it for a while…
And Salsa has the idea to go to the Agogo Queen Mother for help. Trouble is, she’s somewhere in Agogo Forest, which is quite far away from Baroque, and time is of the essence.
Luckily, Crescendo grants the party access to Ye Olde Royal Teleportation Roome, which will take them to Agogo Village instantly.
They warp there, and set off to search the forest.
♪♪~ Can We Be Both Different and Alike
Before we do that, we have a quick session to do with Precocious Flute, specifically playing Score Piece 2 for some Guardian Clothes.
♪♪~ Innumerable Animals
That sorted, we can backtrack a few areas into the forest…
And run into Fugue again, who’s being a rude jackass as always. He’s unknowingly been harassing the Agogo Queen Mother, and Salsa and March of course take issue with this.
Salsa insults him repeatedly, which angers him, and it’s time to fight our favorite monocled jerk once again.
♪♪~ Opposition Resignation
He’s got the same moveset as in all of his fights – Dark Presence for a long-distance single-target attack that can inflict Stop, J’accuse for attacking multiple targets in a line with a chance of knockdown, and Blood Scent for a four-hit sword combo. In addition, his standard attacks can hit multiple characters, as seen here.
I have no interest in being fair for this fight – I’m impatient to get started with sidequests, you see – so I equip Allegretto with his Hellstriker sword for Burst and bring Jazz and Falsetto along for Echo-building.
My plan works well, and aside from a shaky start the battle goes pretty smoothly.
Fugue is incensed after losing to the party yet again, and takes his anger out on the Agogo Queen Mother, who repays him in kind by eating him.
Salsa and March manage to calm her down, and the party takes her back to Baroque.
The Agogo Queen Mother absorbs the excess energy being given off by Polka’s astra, and Polka recovers, thanking Allegretto and the others for helping her. The party then goes to visit Crescendo to see if he’s made a decision with regards to the Forte conflict…
♪♪~ An Inspection Which Values Harmony
But he isn’t in his room, or in Serenade’s.
In fact, according to the minister, neither of them are to be found anywhere in the castle.
Jazz states the most likely – and worst – explanation: Crescendo and Serenade are leaving for Forte to surrender to Count Waltz directly, in the hopes of avoiding war.
Some time earlier outside the castle, Crescendo and Serenade prepare to leave on their journey incognito so no one recognizes them.
♪♪~ Tristesse (Étude in E Major, Op. 10 No. 3)
We then get the next Chopin history lesson.
The minister says that the royals most likely headed for the To Coda Ruins through the warp room, and the party rushes to follow them and hopefully catch up before they make it to Forte.
♪♪~ White Mirror
Before we do anything else, we should perform a few sessions with Conceited Choir here; we play Score Piece 11 for the Crimson Brooch, 17 for a Snowpuff Cookie, and 18 for the EZI Handkerchief.
We’ll also stop by the Hotel Ensemble for a few more sessions with Granny’s Girl Quena; we play Score Piece 7 for the EZI Paddle, 10 for the Obsidian Mirror, and 16 for a Fish Incense.
That taken care of, the party makes for the warp room; if you’ll recall our first run through the game, the teleporter to Agogo Village breaks after the Agogo Queen Mother events, preventing us from using it.
Guide: “With the device on the left, you can travel to places you have visited in the past.”
However, in Encore Mode it works perfectly fine, letting us instantly travel to anywhere on this list! We still have to walk to all the connecting areas and dungeons on foot, but otherwise this teleporter will let us access the whole game world at the push of a button. Very convenient!
♪♪~ Reflect the Sky, Bloom the Life
Like the title of this update implies, today we’re going to revisit every location on the teleporter list (with the exception of the Baroque Ship), find the rest of the missing Score Pieces, and play a whole bunch of sessions with new musicians that only appear in Encore Mode. We’ll be starting our long journey back in Tenuto Village; there’s a fair bit of new NPC dialogue here as well, but this update is going to be long enough as it is, so I’m going to put it all behind spoilerpops if you want to read any of it.
Note: different conversations with the same NPC will be separated by two vertical bars.
Old woman: “Lately, the flowers have been doing especially well. I wonder if it’s because of that rain we had a while ago.” || “The rain that falls gets carried to the ocean, but I wonder where it goes from there?”
Young boy: “My mom yelled at me because I forgot to do my chores.” || “Sniff! I won’t cry just because I got scolded! Household chores? Phooey! Who needs ‘em?”
Woman near the water mill: “Allegretto, was it? So, what’s your relationship with Polka, anyway?!” || “I won’t forgive you if you take my little Polka away!” || “Oh, come on now. Don’t be shy. You can tell me!”
Forgetful old man: “Why, hello there, Captain Worthless. So what kind of burger do you like?” || “I hope we get pickled plum burgers tonight. All right, Prince Chickenliver. Give this poor old man a piggyback ride back to his palace, would ya?”
Horse enthusiast: “We’re best pals for life.” || “Look at that, she only smiles like that for me.” || “*whisper* *whisper*”
Old woman: “Lately, the flowers have been doing especially well. I wonder if it’s because of that rain we had a while ago.” || “The rain that falls gets carried to the ocean, but I wonder where it goes from there?”
Young boy: “My mom yelled at me because I forgot to do my chores.” || “Sniff! I won’t cry just because I got scolded! Household chores? Phooey! Who needs ‘em?”
Woman near the water mill: “Allegretto, was it? So, what’s your relationship with Polka, anyway?!” || “I won’t forgive you if you take my little Polka away!” || “Oh, come on now. Don’t be shy. You can tell me!”
Forgetful old man: “Why, hello there, Captain Worthless. So what kind of burger do you like?” || “I hope we get pickled plum burgers tonight. All right, Prince Chickenliver. Give this poor old man a piggyback ride back to his palace, would ya?”
Horse enthusiast: “We’re best pals for life.” || “Look at that, she only smiles like that for me.” || “*whisper* *whisper*”
Still truckin’ after all this time.
Allegretto: “What’s in this jar? It really smells. Is it for cooking?”
For whatever reason, you have to be standing in the exact right spot to pick up this item, otherwise Allegretto will talk to the woman in front of him. Also, if you check the NPC Chatter below, the woman’s dialogue gives a hint towards one step in a sidequest we’ll be doing next update – but more on that later.
Woman eternally sweeping the floor: “Just when I was getting ready to cook, I found a hole in my pot. If I were to cook like that, everything would just spill out the bottom.” || “I wonder if I’ll have to go all the way to Ritardando to buy a new one?”
Busy woman: “Really? I guess she’s out walking around again. I swear, that girl. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m used to doing all the housework around here.” || “Do you like to cook? I love a man who’s comfortable in the kitchen.”
Busy woman: “Really? I guess she’s out walking around again. I swear, that girl. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m used to doing all the housework around here.” || “Do you like to cook? I love a man who’s comfortable in the kitchen.”
A reasonable assumption to make.
Seems like the floral harvesters are out in force today.
Woman with yellow bandana: “Have you come to buy floral powder? You’re in luck. We’ve had quite the harvest this year.”
Woman: “A little longer, and we’ll have to start gathering the seeds. We’ll get plenty this year.”
Sop: “Someday, when I get married, I want my groom to place a crown of flowers on my head! Hee hee! I said it! I don’t mind telling you, but you have to keep it super secret, okay?”
Rano: “We’re all going to pick flowers today. Will you help us?”
Woman in red dress: “Here now, children. A little more work, a little less play.”
Expert flower picker: “We avoid the misshapen petals and pick only the finest ones. They all look the same? It takes an experienced eye to tell a good flower petal from a bad one. I made a lot of mistakes myself when I first started.”
Woman at the far northern edge: “Picking flowers is our job. If we don’t stay busy, it’ll never get done!”
Woman singing to herself: “See the maiden flowers coming. Come to my basket, pretty one. I’ll see you next year, little one. When you’ve become a maiden flower.”
Woman: “A little longer, and we’ll have to start gathering the seeds. We’ll get plenty this year.”
Sop: “Someday, when I get married, I want my groom to place a crown of flowers on my head! Hee hee! I said it! I don’t mind telling you, but you have to keep it super secret, okay?”
Rano: “We’re all going to pick flowers today. Will you help us?”
Woman in red dress: “Here now, children. A little more work, a little less play.”
Expert flower picker: “We avoid the misshapen petals and pick only the finest ones. They all look the same? It takes an experienced eye to tell a good flower petal from a bad one. I made a lot of mistakes myself when I first started.”
Woman at the far northern edge: “Picking flowers is our job. If we don’t stay busy, it’ll never get done!”
Woman singing to herself: “See the maiden flowers coming. Come to my basket, pretty one. I’ll see you next year, little one. When you’ve become a maiden flower.”
I mean the central square is only like one screen, so =V
Anyway, there is one conversation I won’t be skipping over. If we head to Polka’s house…
Allegretto: “Rock?”
Solfège: “Yes, it’s an oddly shaped rock. She’s had it with her for as long as I can remember. But even though it’s so important to her, she’s always losing it. Every time that happened she would be terribly sad, but before I knew it, she’d have found it again. And she didn’t really look for it either, it would just somehow return to her.”
“She still misplaces that rock sometimes, in spite of how much she treasures it. Honestly, she’s still just like a little girl sometimes.”
Hmm, curious.
I wonder what that cat’s name is.
Alright, that’s enough sightseeing, let’s get down to business. There are two new musicians in Tenuto that we can play sessions with. One of them we’ve talked to in previous chapters; he’s the guy hanging out on the wall near the entrance to the village. Let’s go say hello.
Easygoing Flat: “I hear it’s a lot of fun to play a session with someone, but no one else in the village has a score piece. What? You say you’ve got one? Well then, let’s play a session together!”
“Hmm, so this is a session, huh? I get the feeling it could be a little better.”
To start off, we can play Score Piece 23 for a B-rank and some free Floral Powder. Let’s try again:
“Shall we try again? I hope this one goes a little better.”
“How did that one feel? I know they say to each his own, but in this case….”
Playing Score Piece 6 results in an S-rank and the Silver Bullet, one of Beat’s best accessories; the ATK boost is nice, but it also has the Werewolf Choker’s combo-increasing properties. This extends to Beat’s long-distance shots as well, which lets him build Echoes absurdly quickly!
“Whoa, so this is a session! What a grand feeling, it really sets the heart at ease.”
Finally, playing Score Piece 24 results in an A-rank, and Easygoing Flat gives us Score Piece 26 as a prize! We’ll be acquiring most of the rest of the missing Score Pieces this way, with a few exceptions we’ll get to soon.
Allegretto’s rudeness aside, I get a bit lost looking for the next musician to perform with, before I remember where they are.
If you go left past Polka’s house you’ll run into this cat, who is the musician in question. No, I’m not kidding.
Solitary String: “Meooowr.”
If you play Score Piece 21 with Solitary String, you’ll get an A-rank and the Elite EZI, an accessory that grants the wearer permanent Stop and Slow status; this is the only prize you can get from them. And yes, their sheet music is just the cat meowing at different pitches. It’s kind of adorable.
There’s one more Score Piece to find in Tenuto, and we need to revisit Heaven’s Mirror Forest to get it.
♪♪~ Illuminant Lives
The forest is just as beautiful during the day.
♪♪~ Leap the Precipice
Just in case you were wondering, the battlefield here does have different lighting during the day; it’s one big patch of sunlight in the middle, with a ring of shadow around the edges. This doesn’t especially matter since our party can all defeat the L’Opera Knights in two or three hits, but you can farm them for Angel Trumpets if you want I guess.
♪♪~ No music
Anyway, if you move past the arena where we fought the Forest Boar so long ago, you’ll end up back in Heaven’s Mirror Field (which, incidentally, is on the original U.S. box art).
Squirrel: “Mewww!”
This squirrel kindly gives us Score Piece 27.
Hell of a view.
♪♪~ Trembling Homefront
Our business in Tenuto concluded, we warp back to Baroque and then teleport to Forte City; we’ll be here a few times for sidequest stuff.
Phil: “Hey! Let me tell you what I did the other day! That soldier over there is a slacker and always sitting on that bench over there. So I put cream all over it. That gave away his loafing and he got yelled at!” || “That soldier stopped sitting on the bench. Maybe he learned his lesson. But it’s so boring. There’s not much I can do to him now.”
Koto: “I see lots of different people at the inn when I’m helping out there. There are even people who walk all the way from Ritardando and Baroque. When I grow up, I want to go to different places, too.” || “It’s much better to travel with someone else than to go by yourself, right? What? I should go with Phil? No way! He’d just wander off somewhere. Well, I guess I’d just have to keep an eye on him.”
Moocher: “Liquor! Money! Liquor! Money! Uh-oh! If you don’t give me something quick, I’m gonna turn into a wolf!” || “I’ll never be able to transform into a giant tiger like this!”
Mineral powder fan: “Yeah! I feel a hundred times better! Medicine always gets me going again! This medicine is truly powerful stuff! Hooray for mineral powder! Long live Forte!” || “Mineral powder is the best! I feel like I’m overflowing with power! No matter how far gone I am before I take some, it fills me up with power from head to toe!”
Young boy: “It’s always fun hanging out with Phil. He comes up with the best pranks!” || “But Koto has got him under her thumb. Ha ha!”
Guard: “The number of guards has gone up recently. I wonder if the rumor that war is near is true?” || “The officers are nervous about the power of the rebel groups. Maybe I should take some mineral powder to get prepared.”
Old woman: “Whew, all that walking’s got me tired. No matter where you go, the only thing they sell is mineral powder. It’s nice that it’s cheap, but after taking it, I always feel worn out."
Koto: “I see lots of different people at the inn when I’m helping out there. There are even people who walk all the way from Ritardando and Baroque. When I grow up, I want to go to different places, too.” || “It’s much better to travel with someone else than to go by yourself, right? What? I should go with Phil? No way! He’d just wander off somewhere. Well, I guess I’d just have to keep an eye on him.”
Moocher: “Liquor! Money! Liquor! Money! Uh-oh! If you don’t give me something quick, I’m gonna turn into a wolf!” || “I’ll never be able to transform into a giant tiger like this!”
Mineral powder fan: “Yeah! I feel a hundred times better! Medicine always gets me going again! This medicine is truly powerful stuff! Hooray for mineral powder! Long live Forte!” || “Mineral powder is the best! I feel like I’m overflowing with power! No matter how far gone I am before I take some, it fills me up with power from head to toe!”
Young boy: “It’s always fun hanging out with Phil. He comes up with the best pranks!” || “But Koto has got him under her thumb. Ha ha!”
Guard: “The number of guards has gone up recently. I wonder if the rumor that war is near is true?” || “The officers are nervous about the power of the rebel groups. Maybe I should take some mineral powder to get prepared.”
Old woman: “Whew, all that walking’s got me tired. No matter where you go, the only thing they sell is mineral powder. It’s nice that it’s cheap, but after taking it, I always feel worn out."
Allegretto: “Beer, huh? I’d rather use the grain to make bread.”
Checking this table in the tavern nets us Score Piece 28. This is the reason why we had to listen to Grandma’s poem in the Hotel Ensemble back in Chapter 4; otherwise the score piece wouldn’t be here. No, that doesn’t make sense, and I’m not going to pretend to understand the reasoning behind it, but the important thing is we have it now.
Allegretto: “There’s always something in places like this. Look, there!”
Next, inspecting this dark corner near the inn gives us Score Piece 29. There’s one more score piece to find, and to get it we’ll have to talk to the old man near the castle gates, the one that rejected Polka’s offer to heal him. If we talk to him now…
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♪♪~ No music
*Polka walks closer to him.*
Allegretto: “H-hey, Polka!”
Polka: “I’ll heal him with my magic!”
“You again? Don’t worry about… me. Argh….”
*He falls to one knee.*
Polka: “Please, be still!”
“Aah ahh….”
*The man gets up.*
“M-my chest doesn’t hurt. Amazing!”
Allegretto: “That’s right. If Polka hadn’t used her magic, you’d have been in trouble.”
“So this is magic. It’s different than mineral powder. My whole body feels warm.”
I’m pretty sure Allegretto is just saying this to make the man feel better, otherwise I have no idea where he’s getting this information.
Polka: “I’m glad you’re feeling better. Please take care not to strain yourself again. Well, goodbye.”
*The two of them turn to walk away.*
“Ah, young lady!”
If you talk to him again afterwards:
“Take this in thanks.”
He gives us Score Piece 30! Now then, there’s a new musician here, but one of the prizes he gives requires a score piece we don’t have yet, so for now we’ll leave Forte City…
And head back to Baroque. We’re paying a visit to the couple with the cute dogs who live across from the tavern.
♪♪~ No music
Allegretto: “Whoa, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”
♪♪~ Repeated Tide
Viola: “Three days in the mountains?!”
Wife: “This little one came back all alone! I think he came back to tell me something! But I don’t understand what he’s trying to say. I don’t know what to do.”
*Viola walks closer to the dog. It whines at her, and she nods; this goes back and forth a few times.*
Wife: “Oh no! Please, save my husband!”
Allegretto: “Let’s go, Viola! He’ll be in trouble if he’s attacked by monsters!”
Indeed! No time to waste!
♪♪~ The Posture You Do Not Despise
We head straight there, progressing to the Second Point area and turning east down the path that led to Score Piece 14; you’ll know you’re heading the right direction when you hear a dog’s bark and Allegretto says this.
♪♪~ Rapid Fire!
Looks like the woman’s husband and their dog are in serious trouble. Let’s go rescue them!
♪♪~ Opposition Resignation
Boss: Tracer
HP: 400,000 (Xbox 360)/450,000 (PS3)
Exp: 35,000 (Xbox 360)/31,000 (PS3)
Gold: 1,500
I bet you thought we had escaped palette swap bosses, huh: Well think again! This is the last one in the game, though.
Tracer has a similar moveset to Bread Gang, so if you remember that boss’s attack patterns you should be fine, but do note that its damage output has been considerably boosted to match this point of the game – that Raging Breath damage is with a successful block. Aside from that, it can use Willow Strike (which, weirdly, shares a name with one of Falsetto’s specials) to hit surrounding characters twice with its tail, as well as Cheese Grater to focus on a single character with a ten-hit combo that carries a chance of knockdown. It can also heal itself with Restore for exactly 68,900 HP, although this is rare.
I brought March along because it had been a while since she’d been in a boss fight, and this turns out to have been a good idea, because Tracer is pretty vulnerable to Stop! No boss is technically immune to status effects, but a lot of them have high enough resistance to them that it’s not worth bothering, so this is a pleasant surprise.
From there it’s just a matter of wailing on the boss and healing as needed – with Polka in the party the latter is taken care of pretty easily, and with the boss Stopped for pretty much the whole fight there’s not much it can do to us.
Soon enough we win quite handily!
♪♪~ Well Done
For our trouble we get an early copy of Artemis’s Bow, and the only other Saint’s Mirror we can find in the whole game outside farming Perfect Melons in Mysterious Unison.
♪♪~ White Mirror
The game warps us straight back to Baroque, thankfully.
Wife: “Please allow me to thank you as well. You have my deepest gratitude.”
Viola: “No, you should thank these guys. If this guy hadn’t come and told us, we’d never have known your husband was in trouble. And if this one hadn’t been howling, your husband might have been lost.”
Husband: “Yes. If it weren’t for them, I would never have made it back to this house.”
*The dogs look at him and whine.*
Husband: “I can’t ever thank you enough.”
Viola: “Because you love them like family, they protected you.”
Husband: “Please take this as a token of my gratitude.”
And with that, there’s just one more score piece to find.
Husband: “Thank you. We’re going to go on living with these guys.”
Wife: “I’m so glad he’s safe. I owe it all to you. Thank you.”
We aren’t quite done here yet; if you talk to the wife again…
Gentle Harp: “I know! Do you have a score piece? Would you like to play a session with me?”
“Oh, almost! Let’s keep trying.”
Playing Score Piece 22 with Gentle Harp gives us a B-rank and a Bubble Straw, but we can do better than that:
“Just a little more! Don’t give up!”
“Oh, there we go! Good job!”
Playing Score Piece 16 results in an A-rank and the Weekly EZI Magazine, a battle item that costs a whopping 40 points to put in the Item Set and deals 4,000 damage to an enemy, while also lowering their attack power.
Before we head back to Forte City, we can play one more session with Lonesome Roco now that we have nearly all the score pieces in the game.
Lonesome Roco: “Ahh. How nice. So this is the warmth of a score piece. Just having the chance to know this feeling is enough for me.”
Playing Score Piece 31 gives us an A-rank and the Topaz Bracelet, an accessory that makes the wearer immune to Slow. With this, Jazz can make use of the Rib Crusher broadsword you can find in Aria Temple, which would otherwise hinder him too much to be useful.
♪♪~ Breeze the Conductor
We warp back to Forte City, then leave immediately to backtrack through Hanon Hills.
Right outside the city is a new musician to perform with.
Strolling Ghost Note: “What with it being so hot today, I decided to cool off a bit in the shade of this tree. Do you happen to have a score piece handy? Won’t you play a session with an old lady while we take a break?”
“Aah, that was just the exercise this old lady needed.”
Playing either Score Piece 1 or 21 results in a B-rank and a free Big Paper Fan. Let’s perform one more session:
“Out of breath already? Or do you think you can keep moving?”
“My, my! You have a gift for melody. You’ve struck a chord in this old lady’s heart.”
Playing Score Piece 9 with the old woman nets us an A-rank and the Laughing EZI, an accessory that inflicts the wearer with permanent Passive status.
♪♪~ A Wall With No Front or Back
We only need one more score piece to round out our collection, and to get it we need to backtrack all the way through Hanon Hills to Fort Fermata. Thank goodness the main doorway is unlocked!
♪♪~ No music
We find this man at the entrance in front of the still-broken Cabasa Bridge.
Disappointed Note: “Hah…. Want to play a session or something?”
“That wasn’t quite right. Oh, well.”
We can get a B-rank with Disappointed Note with quite a few score pieces; I’m not sure how many are valid, exactly, but it’s a lot. Anyway, with a B-rank we receive another copy of the Hunting Knife, Allegretto’s starting weapon. Let’s try again:
“Personally, I don’t mind that irregular quality. Actually it might be better that way.”
“It felt like something hit me in the head. Like suddenly being awake after a long sleep.”
Playing Score Piece 19 gives us an A-rank and the real prize of this session, Score Piece 32. That’s every single score piece in the game finally in our collection!
Incidentally, we get this message if we investigate the bridge. It even changes camera angles so we can see it, which is neat.
♪♪~ Trembling Homefront
Back in Forte City, with every score piece in our possession we’re ready to perform with Petty Oud here.
Petty Oud: “This job has irregular work hours, so I can never find time to practice my beloved score pieces. I have to practice on the sly while I’m working!”
“Hmm, it has a sort of illusive quality. No one likes a man who can’t make up his mind.”
Playing Score Piece 30 with Petty Oud gives us a B-rank and the Rapture Head, an accessory for Viola that raises her ATK by 10 points; it’s kind of an in-between step between the Flare Head and Cupid Head.
“I’ve got no time for such vagueness. Those who can’t give a straight answer get scolded by their superiors.”
“That was perfect synchronicity! Yeah! That rocked me like a hurricane! How sad that I can’t celebrate while on the job!”
Playing Score Piece 32 results in an A-rank and the Diamond Bracelet, a very useful accessory that renders the wearer immune to status effects.
♪♪~ The Mediocrity Sought Out By Everyone
Our next stop on our world tour is Ritardando, for one new musician and an item we couldn’t get previously.
Man outside the church: “Don’t you think songs are amazing things? A single song can move the hearts of many.” || “Singing is a God-given musical instrument we always have with us.”
Old man on a bench: “We’ve been married these fifty years. When I look back on it all I get a runny nose.” || “It’s chilly back here. Think I’ll go out in the sun soon.”
Mustache’d fellow: “You really helped us out with that incident at the church. If we have any more trouble, we’ll let you guys know!” || “Huh? You’ve had enough? What a shame, and you really helped the town.”
Floral saleswoman: “You kids are really something. Thanks for taking care of that ghost under the church.” || “Come one, come all! Fresh Tenuto flowers bathed in sunlight!”
Fan of white knights: “I’m so happy we’re finally able to go to Baroque again. My white knight in shining armor got rid of those nasty pirates! With the danger gone, they’ve started up the ferry again!” || “Thank you, Sir Knight, wherever you are!” || “Come to think of it, you guys are white knights yourselves! It was you who saved the town!”
Laughing man: “Wah ha ha! Wah ha ha! Ritardando is mine! Wah ha ha! Wah ha ha!” || “Laugh! Laugh! Laugh as much as you can!”
Old woman: “Now I’ve lost sight of my husband again. Honestly, where could he have gotten off to?”
Man who wanted a stick: “This actually isn’t such a bad spot. Look here, flower petals fall right into my lap.”
Old man on a bench: “We’ve been married these fifty years. When I look back on it all I get a runny nose.” || “It’s chilly back here. Think I’ll go out in the sun soon.”
Mustache’d fellow: “You really helped us out with that incident at the church. If we have any more trouble, we’ll let you guys know!” || “Huh? You’ve had enough? What a shame, and you really helped the town.”
Floral saleswoman: “You kids are really something. Thanks for taking care of that ghost under the church.” || “Come one, come all! Fresh Tenuto flowers bathed in sunlight!”
Fan of white knights: “I’m so happy we’re finally able to go to Baroque again. My white knight in shining armor got rid of those nasty pirates! With the danger gone, they’ve started up the ferry again!” || “Thank you, Sir Knight, wherever you are!” || “Come to think of it, you guys are white knights yourselves! It was you who saved the town!”
Laughing man: “Wah ha ha! Wah ha ha! Ritardando is mine! Wah ha ha! Wah ha ha!” || “Laugh! Laugh! Laugh as much as you can!”
Old woman: “Now I’ve lost sight of my husband again. Honestly, where could he have gotten off to?”
Man who wanted a stick: “This actually isn’t such a bad spot. Look here, flower petals fall right into my lap.”
♪♪~ An Inspection Which Values Harmony
The musician in question is sitting at a pew in Mandolin Church.
Methodical Gospel: “I still come to the church every day to pray for the health and safety of my family. I suppose not much new has happened unless you count this score piece thingamabob I picked up the other day. But I’ve got no idea how to use it. What do you think? Could you teach an old lady how it works?”
“I-I did it! I played that session or whatever you call it!”
Playing Score Piece 27 with Methodical Gospel results in an A-rank and the EZI Pendant, which lowers the wearer’s max HP by 10%; there are no other prizes.
♪♪~ Underground for Underhand
That obtained, we’ll quickly make our way through the Mandolin Church Catacombs again.
If we head all the way to the end, in the room where we fought Root Lurker…
“Congratulations on getting all the way here! I’m impressed by your desire to explore! Here, you can have my only good suit!”
This is the only other time we interact with this “Elder Chapper” in the entire game. I’m only speculating, but it really seems like there should be more to this – it feels like a sidequest that got cut before it was finished for whatever reason. I think it would have been pretty neat to have to backtrack to a series of inconvenient or out-of-the-way places – mostly boss arenas like this one – to get a bunch of increasingly useful items, before ending the quest with a powerful accessory or unique piece of equipment. I dunno, I’m not a game designer, just thinking out loud.
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♪♪~ Can We Be Both Different and Alike
Anyway, our next stop is Agogo Village once again, to perform another session with Precocious Flute.
Precocious Flute: “W-well? What do you think of my scorn peas? I think they’re pretty nice, if I do say so myself.”
Playing Score Piece 29 gives us an A-rank and the Small EZI, an accessory that does literally nothing. Jackpot!
♪♪~ Dive into the Vast Expanse of Plains
Our next destination is the Chorus Plains.
“Sigh~ I’ll bet all the tears I’ve cried over the years could fill this whole lake.”
“Sigh~ There’s my face, reflected in the water.”
We find this despondent old man sitting in front of the lake…
And his musician friend sitting next to him.
Twilight Juju: “I was trying to comfort him, telling him to cheer up. Why don’t you try and comfort him, too?”
“Hmm, I wonder. Maybe he cheered up a little bit?”
Playing Score Piece 7 with Twilight Juju results in a B-rank and a free Club Clover, but we can do better:
“In life, it’s the times when everything’s going like clockwork that you have to watch out. You don’t notice things as much as when times are tough.”
“Hey, that wasn’t bad, was it? Look, the old guy’s cheering up!”
Playing Score Piece 15 gives us an A-rank and the Swimming EZI, which puts the wearer in permanent Stop status. Let’s try one more session:
“He’s in the prime of his life, and no matter how you cut it, that time just doesn’t last long. So since that time is now, it would be a shame if he didn’t enjoy it to the fullest.”
“What did you think, gramps?”
Finally, playing Score Piece 6 results in an S-rank and the EZI Free Pass, which, well, we’ll see what that does later – suffice it to say for now that it’s pretty important.
♪♪~ Relaxing Place
We’re almost done with the world tour! Our next stop is Cantabile Inn.
“Well, you made it back in one piece I see. I thought for sure you’d eat some of those spores and kick the bucket.” || “So, how was Woodblock? Not a walk in the park, right?”
We can find Sister Loving Trumpet in the left-hand guest room.
Sister Loving Trumpet: “Just a little more practice.”
Playing Score Piece 12 with him gives us a B-rank and a free Snowpuff Cookie. Let’s perform one more session:
“I’m pretty tough, you know. If push comes to shove, I’ll carry my sister on my back.”
“Wow! That’s it, you’ve got it! I’ve never heard anything like that!”
Playing Score Piece 23 results in an A-rank and Hippolyte’s Belt, an accessory that increases the wearer’s ATK by 5 points.
We can talk to his sister right next to him, who it turns out is also a musician we can perform with.
Tenacious Cornet: “What? The ferry’s running again?! I’d like to take a boat, but we’ve already come this far…. Oh, well! At least getting back will be easy.”
Playing Score Piece 13 with Tenacious Cornet gets us an A-rank and the EZI Pocketbook, which lets the wearer regenerate exactly 1 HP at the start of their turn.
♪♪~ Endure and Resist
Our last stop on the world tour is the cave-town of Andante.
Entrance guard: “Hey, it’s been a while.” || “I have a bad feeling about what’s going on out there. Make sure that nobody follows you here.” || “We’ll continue our struggle until there’s freedom for all.”
Guard: “Baroque’s prince is on the move?! So our hard work is about to pay off.” || “It’s been a long and painful road since we began our campaign and started getting support. We’ve lost so many comrades, but their sacrifices will finally be rewarded!” || “I can already see the happy faces of the people, freed from tyranny!”
Man inside the storage room: “Don’t tell anyone you heard it from me, but I heard Claves is dead.” || “That sort of thing happens in an organization like this. You don’t ever get used to it.”
Woman cleaning the walkway: “I haven’t seen Claves around lately. I wonder if something happened?” || “I wish I could use a sword like Claves….”
Purple-haired soldier: “Hey, new guy. Haven’t seen you in a while. Were you on a secret mission?” || “No, no, no! Just because we’re on the same team doesn’t mean you should tell me about your mission. Come on! That’s the most basic of basics. Man, new recruits are such a pain!”
Reminiscing woman: “The other day, I saw a Simile flower for the first time in ages. It really brought back memories. Back when they bloomed all over, this town had just started being built. In the beginning, we spread out blankets at night and all slept together. Now the town’s grown so big, and the population as well. But I still remember those days. When we all worked together to build homes in the light of the Simile flowers.” || “That flower only blooms in the cemetery now.”
Cemetery guard: “You went to Lento Cemetery after I specifically told you not to? Why in the world did—what? Flowers? Water? What are you talking about?” || “Lento Cemetery is dark and dangerous and it doesn’t get any upkeep. I’m telling you this for your own good.”
Guy that just really loves doing squats: “One! Two! I’m training! So Jazz will take me along next time!”
Guard: “Baroque’s prince is on the move?! So our hard work is about to pay off.” || “It’s been a long and painful road since we began our campaign and started getting support. We’ve lost so many comrades, but their sacrifices will finally be rewarded!” || “I can already see the happy faces of the people, freed from tyranny!”
Man inside the storage room: “Don’t tell anyone you heard it from me, but I heard Claves is dead.” || “That sort of thing happens in an organization like this. You don’t ever get used to it.”
Woman cleaning the walkway: “I haven’t seen Claves around lately. I wonder if something happened?” || “I wish I could use a sword like Claves….”
Purple-haired soldier: “Hey, new guy. Haven’t seen you in a while. Were you on a secret mission?” || “No, no, no! Just because we’re on the same team doesn’t mean you should tell me about your mission. Come on! That’s the most basic of basics. Man, new recruits are such a pain!”
Reminiscing woman: “The other day, I saw a Simile flower for the first time in ages. It really brought back memories. Back when they bloomed all over, this town had just started being built. In the beginning, we spread out blankets at night and all slept together. Now the town’s grown so big, and the population as well. But I still remember those days. When we all worked together to build homes in the light of the Simile flowers.” || “That flower only blooms in the cemetery now.”
Cemetery guard: “You went to Lento Cemetery after I specifically told you not to? Why in the world did—what? Flowers? Water? What are you talking about?” || “Lento Cemetery is dark and dangerous and it doesn’t get any upkeep. I’m telling you this for your own good.”
Guy that just really loves doing squats: “One! Two! I’m training! So Jazz will take me along next time!”
But before we poke around any, we need to swing by Andantino’s hideout real quick.
Inside the shack is this broadsword for Jazz.
It’s the best weapon we can get for him for a while, but he’ll have to wear the Onyx Bracelet to make proper use of it. Interesting side note: in the original game only two characters had weapons that gave them Burst status, Jazz and Allegretto. For the PS3 port the developers increased the count to five characters – in addition to Jazz and Allegretto, now Frederic, Viola, and Serenade also get Burst weapons.
In any case, with our full score piece collection we can get one more item from Sullen Melody.
“W-whoa. Not bad.”
Playing Score Piece 30 with her gives us an A-rank and the Amethyst Bracelet, which makes the wearer immune to Burst status, if you wanted to avoid it for some reason.
That’s all the score piece stuff we can do for now – there are a few musicians that only appear in Chapter 7, so we’ll have to wait until then. But before we sign off for today, there are a few more things in Andante that we can check out.
First is this man in the town meeting room, who happens to be one of two characters in this game named Bass (the other is one of Dolce’s henchmen).
Bass: “He was the leader of the miners. Kind and courageous, everyone looked up to him.”
“You want to know more about me? You’re a strange fellow, to be interested in this old man. Hmm, well I may not look it anymore, but I used to be a miner. I worked my butt off in Forte. After that, I fought with Tenor and the others. I don’t know how helpful I was, but I fought with all my might.”
“It’s not easy saying goodbye to a close friend. But it was his wish.”
Just a little more backstory about Tenor and the mining rebellion that led to Jazz forming Andantino.
Little girl: “Yeay! Yeay!”
The girl’s brother: “Thanks a lot for your help. My sister’s really happy, and so am I.” || “It’s a beautiful flower.”
Their father: “Thank you so much for bringing water back from the cemetery. The flower is growing strong and my daughter is ecstatic.” || “It’s sad to think that such a flower can now only be found in the cemetery. By coming here, we drove away these flowers.”
The girl’s brother: “Thanks a lot for your help. My sister’s really happy, and so am I.” || “It’s a beautiful flower.”
Their father: “Thank you so much for bringing water back from the cemetery. The flower is growing strong and my daughter is ecstatic.” || “It’s sad to think that such a flower can now only be found in the cemetery. By coming here, we drove away these flowers.”
There’s one last scene to see for today – remember the group of soldiers who were planning on storming Forte castle without telling anyone? (You can scroll down to near the end of this post if you need a refresher.) If we head to the infirmary we can finally get some resolution to that little subplot.
♪♪~ No music
Chaconne: “Etude! Oh! Etude!”
Allegretto: “What happened?”
Doctor: “These four morons tried a nighttime raid on Forte Castle.”
Allegretto: “By themselves?!”
Doctor: “They were apparently trying to assassinate Count Waltz, but they came under attack before they even got inside. He’s the only one that made it back. As for the others….”
Allegretto: “It’s crazy to try something like that! They must’ve done this without even talking to Jazz!”
Jazz: “Doctor, what is Etude’s condition?”
Doctor: “His wounds are deep, but fortunately, they didn’t hit any vital organs. His life isn’t in danger, and he’s conscious.”
Allegretto: “Good! Then let’s hurry and get Polka to heal him with magic.”
Jazz: “Why did you go?”
Etude: “I-I wanted to help the people who are suffering! You feel the same way, don’t you? That’s why you started Andantino!”
Jazz: “...”
Etude: “My life is a small price to pay!”
Jazz: “Did you intend to leave Chaconne to live her life without you?”
Dude, that is an ice-cold thing to say, especially when she’s standing literally right there.
Jazz: “Do you really think it’s that simple?”
Etude: “...”
Chaconne: “Etude….”
Jazz: “Don’t use magic on him.”
I’m not terribly surprised that the soldiers’ plan got most of them killed, but hopefully Etude here will learn his lesson. In any case, that’s all we have time for today; join me next update as we continue chipping away at sidequests!
Next time: More sidequest stuff!
Pretty sure this is going to be the final installment of...
Glossary of Musical Terms
Flat - Musical notation indicating that the labelled note should be lowered by a half-step in pitch; in this way it's the opposite of a sharp, which raises a note a half-step instead.
String - It's the thing that produces the sound in string instruments. Comes in a variety of materials depending on the instruments.
Harp - A string instrument that has a number of individual strings mounted parallel to the soundboard, played by plucking the strings with the fingers. In classical music most harps that are called for are the big orchestral harps that are about as tall as the musician playing them, and you have to sit down and have it rest against your chest to play it. Also, in the French subtitles for this game, Viola's name is changed to Harpe, the French word for harp.
Ghost note - A musical note with a rhythmic value but no discernible pitch, notated with an X for a note head; ghost notes are intentionally deemphasized, often to the point of near silence. In my experience, ghost notes are most often used by drummers in between big snare hits; check out The Bryden Two-Step (for Amphibians), Part 1 by National Health for a good example.
Note - It's the thing in musical notation that denotes musical sounds. They're kind of important!
Oud - A Middle-Eastern string instrument in the lute family, usually with 11 strings. The main difference between the oud and similar Western instruments is that it's fretless and has a smaller neck.
Gospel - A genre of Christian music, performed mainly (obviously) for religious purposes.
Jùjú - A style of Nigerian popular music derived from traditional Yoruba percussion music.
Trumpet - A brass instrument most commonly used in jazz and classical music; historically they were used mainly as signalling devices in battle or hunting.
Cornet - A brass instrument that's very similar to the trumpet, excepting its more compact shape and mellower tone quality.
Didn't think there would be exactly 25 entries when I first started this thread, but I'm happy it worked out to such a nice round number.
Glossary of Musical Terms
Flat - Musical notation indicating that the labelled note should be lowered by a half-step in pitch; in this way it's the opposite of a sharp, which raises a note a half-step instead.
String - It's the thing that produces the sound in string instruments. Comes in a variety of materials depending on the instruments.
Harp - A string instrument that has a number of individual strings mounted parallel to the soundboard, played by plucking the strings with the fingers. In classical music most harps that are called for are the big orchestral harps that are about as tall as the musician playing them, and you have to sit down and have it rest against your chest to play it. Also, in the French subtitles for this game, Viola's name is changed to Harpe, the French word for harp.
Ghost note - A musical note with a rhythmic value but no discernible pitch, notated with an X for a note head; ghost notes are intentionally deemphasized, often to the point of near silence. In my experience, ghost notes are most often used by drummers in between big snare hits; check out The Bryden Two-Step (for Amphibians), Part 1 by National Health for a good example.
Note - It's the thing in musical notation that denotes musical sounds. They're kind of important!
Oud - A Middle-Eastern string instrument in the lute family, usually with 11 strings. The main difference between the oud and similar Western instruments is that it's fretless and has a smaller neck.
Gospel - A genre of Christian music, performed mainly (obviously) for religious purposes.
Jùjú - A style of Nigerian popular music derived from traditional Yoruba percussion music.
Trumpet - A brass instrument most commonly used in jazz and classical music; historically they were used mainly as signalling devices in battle or hunting.
Cornet - A brass instrument that's very similar to the trumpet, excepting its more compact shape and mellower tone quality.
Didn't think there would be exactly 25 entries when I first started this thread, but I'm happy it worked out to such a nice round number.
The next update is coming today, but I don't want anymore updates on this page so I'm making a couple of filler posts. While I'm here, I can at least post some more strategy guide art:
The developers sneaked their own logo onto Crescendo's outfit, which is cheeky but also amusing.
A turnaround of Serenade, including some finer outfit details.
The incredibly inconspicuous cloaked design.
And an earlier, much frillier design, with a different hairstyle. I like Serenade's final design better, but it's still neat to see.
The developers sneaked their own logo onto Crescendo's outfit, which is cheeky but also amusing.
A turnaround of Serenade, including some finer outfit details.
The incredibly inconspicuous cloaked design.
And an earlier, much frillier design, with a different hairstyle. I like Serenade's final design better, but it's still neat to see.
Including today's, there are seven updates left until the game is finished. Some of them will be much shorter than has become the norm for this thread, which would ordinarily mean I could put them out faster, but I need to put together compilation videos for several of them, and Adobe Premiere takes ages to render anything longer than five minutes, so who knows what the general timeframe will look like. Still, I'll try my best to not dawdle.