^^A very dramatic depiction indeed! If only video games could match their concept art more often.
Anyhow....
The town is host to a wide cast of colorful people, like this perpetually sleepy lady...
...this fierce armored man...
...and this lady in green restlessly circling around.
The townsfolk are, generally speaking, pretty upset about the whole situation. Especially since the beastmen are rude enough to rebuke anyone who so much as looks at them funny:
I, of course, knew that fighting them would be unwise, and so desisted from provoking them any further.
The beastmen had confiscated all of the weapons and armor around, but thankfully the general store was spared. All of the stores and the inn are run by Mr Moti and co, now looking a lot pinker. Also, the magic rope is a consumable item now. Huh.
The most notable change, however, is consumable items being able to be stacked beyond four! This is a very welcome change indeed, and it should make resource management much less of a pain. It's hard to forget the inconvenience of being stuck with four whole mana restores!
The beastmen hold a tight grip over the city, forbidding entry or exit.
Fortunately, the bartender spills out the one weakness in their security - they get more lackadaisical/feral in the night, letting people slip past them more easily.
And, sure enough, they turn into rabid wolves that night, letting Hawkeye leave with naught but minor injuries.
The area ahead is inhabited by pathetically easy enemies, making his path a breeze! It was kinda funny to run into the equivalent of FFA's introductory area an hour into the game, heh. Well, I can't fault them for getting more ambitious, and his story was, at the very least, decently interesting so far, but it's certainly still something worth pondering.
The path led to Astoria, the lakeside town. Astoria is fairly spacious by RPG settlement standards, and delivers a fair few nuggets of information: the road ahead to Wendel is closed because they want to protect themselves, a strange light has been seen floating above their lake recently, Hawkeye's former gang have been acting really aggressive and stealing from rich and poor people alike, and they are aware of the beastmen's recent invasion and worried they will be their next target.
That night, a bright light travels around the town.
It is so bright, it stirs our hero out of his slumber, and gets him to investigate!
The light's path leads him to a golden statue, which is essentially a much less cuter version of Neko from Secret of Mana. Or, to put it more plainly, it's a save point that's not tied to a town. I still miss the free saving of the first game, but I'm willing to respect the game's rules enough to adhere to its save points and not break out savestates. The tiny eyed bulb there just sends Hawkeye flying high upward, without letting him move in any meaningful way. I guess they wanted to show his current position on the world map, without actually providing a map? Weird.
The light turns out to be a fairy, who abruptly collapses! He rushes to her aid, and she picks herself back up. She quizzes him on himself, and then beseeches him to carry her to Wendel. Hmm, definitely getting some strong FFA parallels here! Hawkeye explains to her that there's a barrier around the place, but she reassures him that she can take care of it, and then informs him of the Sanctuary of Mana being weakened.
Before she can elaborate any further, they see a red flash, and hear horrible sounds from Astoria's direction! Hawkeye panics, and decides to hurry back, but the fairy stops him and....enters his head. Alrighty then. She tells him to hurry to Wendel, and their scene ends.
On the way back, Hawkeye gains his first level, prompting me to choose one among many stats to level up! I don't know what all the stats stand for, but, from experience with RPGs, I can surmise that Strength raises physical strength, Dexterity raises hitrate and evasion, Stamina raises defense and HP, Intellect and Spirit raise spellcasting potency of some sort, and Luck raises some mystery factor that probably figures into combat. The level up only raises a stat by one point, and at this point the game hasn't been exactly hard, so I just decide to work the list from the top, investing into Strength first.
Alas, by the time Hawkeye reaches Astoria, it's already too late; the place has been thoroughly ransacked! The fairy deduces that the beastmen must've invaded this place, and then urges Hawkeye to get to Wendel before it falls to them. On it!
At the caves leading to Wendel, Hawkeye runs into the lady in green again! She wants to find a way through the barrier, and reveals that she herself had seen its light the night before. As both of them are headed to the same destination, she asks him to permit her acquaintance.
And also narrates her backstory. Apparently, she was the princess of Laurent, and the captain of their guard. Hawk's old buddies tricked her brother into stopping the wind that protected her kingdom, then knocked out its garrison with sleeping spores and successfully annexed it. Welp. This isn't going to be awkward at all. Anyway, she's going to Wendel because she's fallen in troubled times, and believes that its high priest can offer her some guidance. She finally introduces herself - she's Reisz, our second party member!
Reisz promptly joins, and, one brief unlocking scene later, they enter the cave! Which is full of monsters from the area before, and thus even more trivial. I switch to Riesz as she has better stats, and longer reach with her spear. Nothing of note happens for a while.
Eventually, they run into this tiny girl hanging for her life, and rescue her. She introduces herself as Charlotte, and then dumps her backstory.
She was following her foster father, Heath, as he had been sent to Astoria, and she had a bad feeling about him. He got kidnapped en route, and she followed Hawkeye and Riesz, as the barrier had sealed her out of her own city! Hawkeye offers to let her follow them, and she reveals herself to be the granddaughter of the high priest! Then she turns the offer down because Wendel isn't that far, and leaves!
Well, she's certainly right on that matter, as they soon run into Wendel itself. However, I shall leave exploring it and meeting its priest for next session, as this is where my current session ends! Until next time.