Make a Memory: Let's Play Wild Arms 3

[gogglebob]

Like mighty Atlas, I shoulder this LP forum on November 15, Flea Market Day. Sidewalk vendors are to flea markets as red chickens are to sidewalk vendors. When I asked a vendor how they made the chickens red, he told me, 'They're reincarnations of bloody Drifters.' He's just kidding, right?

Chapter 33: The Twin Snakes

Previously on Wild Arms 3: Asgard was sent to another time/place/dimension/whatever. With Filgaia’s least favorite/only robot out of the way, Janus taunted the team and invited them to join him at Yggdrasil. Guess we have to get on that!

So we’re at Baskar Colony right now, chiefly because it has a free inn.

Now we are supposed to find “Nidhogg”, and make our way to Yggdrasil. As you can see, there is a whole lot of unexplored world out there, and Nidhogg could be practically anywhere.

However, there have been books and NPCs that talked about two giants that went to fight Nidhogg, and there has also been mention of two different giant statues out in the world. Let’s look into that.

We already found one statue

Spoiler: while we were on our way to Infinitum...

while we were on our way to Infinitum.

It was on an inconspicuous island that we had to pass, so it would be harder to not notice that statue.

Boot Hill had a population that was particularly chatty about Nidhogg, so let’s head back home.

I seem to remember…

Yes, this guy. To the cape!

Right past the station…

This looks good.

Sweet.

Welp, there’s our answer. Looks like we are heading way the heck north.

Going to be a long trip….

Roadtrip! Or… Sandtrip!

Sometimes I forget how this map works… So one Nidhogg Pass entrance is practically a stone’s throw away from Boot Hill, as its associated beach is accessible from the outer sea (“sea”).

See that white dot in the top left? This is about how we traveled.

Pokémon-ass looking plants in these parts. Or maybe Monster Rancher…

Hey, it’s a teeny, tiny forest. Big trees usually do have smaller trees around them…

Hooray! We found Nidhogg Pass.

Please enjoy the Wild Arms 3 save icon as a placeholder for your character when hiding in a forest.

Nidhogg Pass! I wonder if the whole Nidhogg thing is a metaphor or…

Hm?

Ah. Literal. Starting off this dungeon with a fight with Nidhogg.

Does this mean those statues were literally made in the image of two dudes that got eaten by this thing?

Nidhogg is weak to light and dark (one would assume due to its dual nature). Unfortunately, at this point in Wild Arms 3, it is impossible to have an actual dark-based spell…

Nidhogg is one of those fights that is either going to go easy or hard depending on how your party resists status effects. Niddy loves confusing your buds.

And stomping around like he owns the place.

The other big status effect is downhearted, which will limit a character’s FP options while they feel ways about stuff. This can be quite annoying if it nails one of your healers.

Other than that, Nidhogg isn’t all that difficult, and the fact that you can easily scoot out of the dungeon and level up/heal means you are unlikely to even remember this hydra exists in a few minutes.

Just have Gallows or Virginia use light magic, and everybody else can fill it full of lead.

See ya.

Now! Back to Nidhogg Pass.

This is… a cave. A lot of rocks around? Some water? I’m sure you have heard of these things.

A switch on a lowerlevel means banking the ol’ boomerang around.

Never get tired of hitting switches.

Dum de dum.

There are treasure chests all over this dungeon. Guess this is where the Prophets stow their stash.

And their skeletons.

The skeleton army is not friendly to the living.

Just blast the undead with light magic the minute they appear.

And move along.

Oh! This looks neat.

First we will hit that duplicator door, which contains treasure that may or may not try to kill you.

Three mimics. Remember when these things were threatening?

… Maybe the fact that our reward is a tiny flower is Wild Arms 3’s way of agreeing mimics are no longer relevant.

Back to the puzzle at hand: stand at different levels on these stairs, and light all the torches.

Pretty easy if you have the tiniest concept of depth perception.

And we reach a giant wall next to a switch.

As is good and proper, the switch lowers the wall.

But leads us to a dead end. There are some nice gems here, but we cannot seem to make any further progress.

A locked door, one panel alit, one panel dark.

Do you suppose…

Yep! All that talk of “twin” giants and nidhoggs was a clue to the gimmick of this dungeon: to complete this area, you must conquer two dungeons.

And, yes, whichever dungeon you do first, you have to walk backwards out of the place like a sucker. Puzzles all remain solved, but enjoy those random encounters.

Ah, these jerks.

In one universe, my Level 100 party has ridiculous evasion. Over in the “real” playthrough, Amduscias has an instant death attack that can be a real pain. You just earned an instant death-resistant ability from the last Guardian… but that only protects one character.

Apparently these wannabe unicorns are steel-type thanks to their armor, so immediately immolate on sight.

And for our third beastie of the area, we’ve got a lizard.

Welcome to the ice age, dinosaur.

Since you must leave to start the other dungeon, it is a good idea to rest and heal your VIT back at an inn. This is particularly true if someone got dead’ed by a reverse centaur.

Also, if I may play at being a FAQ for a moment, before hitting Nidhogg Pass #2, you are absolutely going to want to stop at a shop to pick up some status remedies. Cures for poison and confusion are a good idea. Oh! And hit your garden to grab as many heal berries as possible. Once Part 2 gets underway, returning to the world at large becomes a little more difficult…

You can just about see Nidhogg Pass #2 from #1. It’s that green area across the canyon.

Unfortunately, you cannot get there without heading back to the boat.

Pass #2 is only accessible by sailing around the inner section of that circular area in the northeast of the map. It makes for a much longer trip (though you can easily land at Baskar if you need to refuel).

You will know you are in the right place when you start seeing the same monsters again.

Here we are. Once again, that green area on the horizon is where we just were for one dungeon…

And now it is time for part 2.

It is technically the same dungeon, so we get the same name related to that thing we killed forever.

Or…

Maybe not.

There are two Nidhoggs. They are both exactly the same, and equally ineffectual.

In Norse mythology, it is the Níðhöggr dragon that gnaws at the roots of the World Tree Yggdrasil. This is an appropriate leadup to the Yggdrasil base that has been teased for the last few hours of the game. Though the fact that we do not get to see the divine squirrel Ratatoskr is disappointing…

Niddy has got some junk in the trunk.

Anywho, exact same fight, except now we know precisely what to expect. Nothing to write home about.

There! The last Nidhogg is in Niflheim, the galaxy is at peace.

Now for some dungeoning.

I think the Prophets learned to teleport entirely to avoid this musty cave commute.

It is not in great shape.

See? Falling apart.

You have to use the sneak command to make it across this bridge… though you will want to fall a little to find a “hidden” duplicator door.

Always good to find one of those. Also conveniently near the entrance if you lose track of it and need to come back later.

And a book for Clive’s daughter! Book 4 of 11 is probably where the story gets going.

Exactly same monsters across both dungeons.

The treasure room deposits us right past the bridge, though you will have to double back if you want that one treasure chest over the lake.

And we need all the treasure we can get.

Come to Gallows.

Now we can leave.

This side gets a little more “industrial” toward the end.

Remember Clive’s power gloves? You’re going to need to.

Bridges are made from blocks.

And that’s that. Another switch for another movable door.

And now that both sides have been conquered, the large, middle door finally opens.

And guess what! There is even more dungeon ahead! This was just the prelude to the real Nidhogg Pass! So let’s save that for next time. I can only dungeon so hard for so long…

Next time on Wild Arms: We finally murder the most hated character in the game.

 

[Mogri]

It's like the fake Kraid in Super Metroid

 

[SpoonyBard]

The wasteland doesn't look like it could support a shrub, let alone a World Tree, so I don't know what the party expects to find. They should prepare for disappointment.

 

[gogglebob]

Wake up, Wild Arm-erinos, it's November 22, Jellyfish Day. Every time Jellyfish Day comes around, I recall the time I fell into the sea. The next thing I knew, I was floating inside a giant jellyfish. I felt like jelly... So today, I fell jellified.

Chapter 34: Zoom Meeting

Previously on Wild Arms 3: We found Nidhogg Pass. Twice. Now we are about halfway through a double-stuffed dungeon.

Okay! Off into the unknown!

You may recall that the Yggdrasil/Council of Seven system is something that, according to lore we have discovered, a “public good” project spearheaded by men and women that wanted to save the world from its gradual environmental decline for the last hundred years.

And I am noting this because it looks like Filgaia might be failing as a planet because its best and brightest minds had a hell of a commute into the office for a solid century.

Maybe they used to have a work-from-home program to avoid all this nonsense?

Or maybe they had magical flying powers.

Virginia gets

Spoiler: her second tool...

her second tool (and is finally the last party member to get one). The Galecrest lets Virginia “zoom” forward. Enemy encounters do not occur while zooming along, nor do traps impact your HP. And, extra special bonus, you can bypass spaces that are one “block” large. If a gap is any larger than that, though, you drop like a rock.

The Galecrest is very similar to Rudy’s Skates in Wild Arms (1), and Kanon’s Rad Blades in Wild Arms 2 (note also that Tim had the Air Ballet in Wild Arms 2, but that was more of a projectile item). However, both of those tools did not have the ability to jump holes. But like with those previous two tools/games, dungeons from here on out are going contain suspiciously few straight hallways where a Galecrest skate would bypass the room.

The Galecrest will be the focus of the remainder of this dungeon, but the monsters are still exactly the same as what you saw closer to the entrance(s).

Many of the puzzles here will be focused on creating makeshift bridges to keep your Galecrest active.

Pulling this switch will move a block into place…

But there is a hidden (“hidden” as in “hard to see depending on your camera positioning”) floor panel that will reset the block to its original, useless position.

So you have to zoom over the panel, as apparently using the Galecrest means you are not actually touching the ground. This is a cool way of teaching this Galecrest functionality… that I believe is never seen again.

Now we can zoom along to the other door. Unfortunately, since you cannot manually stop while using the Galecrest, you cannot access the middle platforms…

More blocks, more places to be.

Going to want to unlock the door first…

And then use Clive’s Mighty Gloves to make a new bridge.

Two blocks to walk across, and then a shot of Galecrest to fill the final gap. Note that if you try to use the Galecrest to hop over to the first, middle platform, you will fly off the edge.

Remember the collapsing bridge back at the entrance?

Going to have to deal with structural issues again.

Once again, Link, the solution is to use that tool you just found.

Fish out some treasure, too. This is our second amulet, and it protects against status ailments while defending. It could come in handy for some upcoming bosses…

This room has three branches containing a switch, a door, and some treasure. Be sure to check all three (since two are mandatory).

And then leave.

Hey! Now we’re in the middle of that one room from earlier! Don’t fall off! It would be annoying to have to do any part of this dungeon again.

Away we go!

Feels like it has been so long since we last saw a hallway with no puzzles.

And they’re back.

There are three different blocks here. The lightest block is the “ice block” that will slide continuously until it hits another object…

The middle block is the push block, which you can effectively move anywhere without any restrictions…

And that last one must be lifted, so you can always only move it one block length away from its previous position.

Obviously, you need to make a bridge out of these three blocks. There are a couple ways to do it, and, with that middle block having the ability to go anywhere, you can game the other two blocks to go exactly where you want (it doesn’t matter that the ice block is so unwieldly when you can use another block to make an immediate “stop”).

You can also use the corner wall to prevent falling while zooming.

Next room!

First we zoom over to this area…

For treasure!

A full carrot will immediately max your FP to 100 while in battle. They are terribly rare, though, so you would need some kind of… I don’t know… carrot garden to grow a reasonable supply.

Now back to that puzzle we passed.

This is another puzzle that seems kind of finicky for solutions.

Like, those crates are there to encourage you to stick your blocks over the edge there… but you can pick up the crates from “below” the ledge, and just toss ‘em out of the way. Is it supposed to work like that?

And that is finally it for this damned contemptable dungeon. The annoying part of it all? If you want to find everything in Wild Arms 3, you’re going to have to do all of that again at least once more…

But that problem is for another day. Right now we have a prophet to deal with.

Oh man. I just realized Leehalt would absolutely start peddling bitcoin given the slightest chance.

Virginia correctly asserts that “evolution” is not “genocide”. Well, I mean, if you’re not a jerk about it…

Shrug.

Bro, knock it off with the “I’m smarter than you” shtick. Do you know how many block puzzles we solved to get here?

We’re finally fighting Leehalt!

We have battled Melody and Malik already, and this is the final prophet we have to pummel. Unfortunately, it will not be the final prophet fight...

Nothing to write home about here.

In fact, Leehalt does nothing.

But if you decide to do something…

He counters for exactly the same damage.

Asgard had much the same shtick during their clock fight, but the exact damage ratio is the difference here. If your Virginia is only plinking off 50 HP, you may as well have her fight. But if your Clive is doing thousands of HP damage, you want your healers at the ready.

The other trick available is that Leehalt only full-counters the last hit in a sequence. So using Gatling, which can hit repeatedly, will mean that you only take approximately a quarter of the damage you dish out. This is particularly fun with Clive, who can run out of bullets fast enough that his final hit is the dramatically less impactful “unarmed” attack.

But you probably don’t have to worry about all that, as there is very little tension in this fight. If things are looking bad, just take a round off and heal. Leehalt will wait patiently in the meanwhile.

Yeah, maybe you would be more effective if you weren’t so reactive.

Yes, thank you for asking.

Geez, you shoot a guy a couple of times, and he has a complete breakdown.

Leehalt is going supernova! Or something!

Virginia dutifully leads her boys.

And gets shot. Or… something. It is kind of unclear what hit her, but it is definitely something.

And it hurt. She is lying there twitching. I tried making it a GIF, but I found it vaguely disturbing…

“Dude! Dick move!”

Things are not going well here.

“We get shot all the time and we’re just fine!”

“I screwed her up good, didn’t I?

In a weird way, it makes perfect sense that three super scientists would have some nasty ways to scar their opponents. Kind of funny that the best they’ve been able to muster so far is, like, a confusion attack.

“If you start hollering about evolution again…”

What’s the ransom here? Are you going to heal Virginia? Make her worse? Hit the rest of the party with this nonsense? Actually, why don’t you just wreak havoc on the whole party, and not even worry about this whole disarming step…

Decisions, decisions…

Yep, not getting better…

But what’s this!? Werner comes out of nowhere, quickly does something or other to help Virginia, and then…

Unlike Melody, Leehalt immediately recognizes Virginia’s dad.

“I told you he was a ghost!”
“I think he’s being metaphorical.”

“Where have you been? We need to go grab a beer at Gunner’s Heaven!”

So has he been following the party that closely, or did his Virginia alarm go off?

Fugging most “enlightened” scientists on the planet never thought to check their opponent’s last name. What’s hilarious here is that this will not be the last time that lack of oversight will be a significant plot point.

“And you are super evil. You know that, right?”

“Nobody in history have ever observed demons as being good, Leehalt.”

“We’re never getting the band back together.”

“You used to be cool, Werner. Then you had a kid!”

“Yes, Leehalt, I still get your stupid newsletter. I know what you’re about.”

“That’s just because I wanted to look more like a smurf. Perfectly normal.”

Leehalt tries for another magical (or something) whammy, but Werner outdraws him.

Just taking a frame here to remind you who taught Virginia.

Leehalt runs away, but he left his buddy behind.

His terrible, terrible buddy.

You know some people have the temerity to compare this creature to Wild Arms 2’s Liz? It doesn’t even talk! That’s like saying a character is supposed to represent Aquaman, but they can’t even have sex with fish.

Balazs has previously been revealed as the shape-changing creature that has been spying on Janus and the party alike since practically the beginning. Neither its stealth nor shapeshifting will be utilized in this bout.

However, its seemingly alien nature will be a factor.

Outer World halves your current HP (ouch), and then makes Balazs invincible for the rest of the round. And when we say “invincible”, we mean impervious to literally everything, whether that be physical attacks, magic, or status debuffs.

Given Balazs’s speed, this means only Virginia or Jet have a hope of doing some damage.

Clive’s rock-like speed means he doesn’t have a chance.

So Balazs’s pattern is that he will use Outer World for two turns, effectively cut your HP down to 25%, and then go for an all-out assault on round 3. Then he’ll repeat. This means that the “real” way to win is to have Gallows and Clive on healing duty for two turns, and then let everyone fight back on that third round. However, Balazs seems to have HP balanced for directly fighting Jet and Virginia, and even on my "normal" level run, Balazs went balls up before he got to the assault round. Bro has all the endurance of a hedgehog.

And that’s it for that creature. Incidentally, the name Balazs is Hungarian, and can be traced back to a Latin word that basically means “stammerer”. Maybe this jerk was supposed to be more talkative at some point…

Note that Virginia didn’t seem to show any symptoms during the battle, but she apparently has a status effect that is represented by a red chess piece. Given “death” gets a white pawn icon…

But no time to think about that now. The daddy train is leaving the station!

“For all sorts of reasons this time!”

Oh. Leehalt inflicted Virginia with corporeal inner-child syndrome.

“Again: all sorts of reasons associated with that ‘why’.”

“A couple times…”

“Got somewhere better to be?”

“Just got some bad vibes off you, kid.”

Virginia, I have seen the size of your home. Dad definitely had something shady going on.

“I am telling you he is secretly a robot.”
“Clive! Not the time!”

BEHOLD THE ANTI-DADDY.

Wow. That really broke him up.

Unfortunately, that outburst knocks out Virginia.

“I will thank you to not call my daughter hot.”

Nanomachines! Always gotta be with the nanomachines…

“There's a lodge that I use up ahead. I can't guarantee its effects, but I can prepare an anti-nanomachine. Right now, that's our only hope....Please help carry my daughter there.”

Oh boy! We’re going to check out daddy’s bachelor pad! We’ll give you a week to clean up the place ahead of time, Werner, but no longer than that!

Next time on Wild Arms: Wait… were we supposed to find a specific tree? Did not expect there to be choices…

 

[SpoonyBard]

You know some people have the temerity to compare this creature to Wild Arms 2’s Liz? It doesn’t even talk!

Come now Gogglebob, just because you can't understand him doesn't mean he can't talk.

 

[gogglebob]

Appropriately enough, today is November 29, Tree Day. It's the day the tree of Agastia and the tree of Sephiroth fought over who's the greatest tree. After a long discussion, the two decided that the tree with the most mushrooms to lure Drifters wins. But since the trees couldn't find edible mushrooms, it ended in a tie.

Chapter 35: Going Green

Previously on Wild Arms 3: The team raced through Nidhogg Pass, but Leehalt nailed Virginia a nanomachine virus at the finish line. Virginia was in dire straits, but her daddy came to the rescue. The whole team then retreated to Werner Maxwell’s home.

But before we get there, it is time for a check-in with the bad guys.

Melody really liked Asgard, and is more than a little suspicious about how Asgard hasn’t been around ever since they went on a fieldtrip with Janus.

… Was that racist?

You “heard”? From, like, who? Granny?

Bosses gonna

Spoiler: get Musk-y all up in here

get Musk-y all up in here.

“Remember that bomb in your head? The one that can dole out random amounts of pain? Have you been accounting for that at all, Janus?”

Looks like a no.

“And you need your body to live!”

“Hey guys, what’s up? Barbecuing Janus for some reason?”

Yeah, things are not going good for the bad guys.

“They found the shitty cave! They made it past our shitty block puzzles!”

“Janus? You want to get promoted? Kill those guys you only killed once.”

Bro just wanted something to do besides getting tortured.

Well, one of you is on their knees and literally falling apart, so I am going to go ahead and predict that Filgaia has a leg up.

“Let’s get you to the one office chair we rescued from our old lab.”

MEANWHILE!

Genuinely do not know if Clive is being protective of Virginia, or he is curious about the science involved in all of this. Or maybe both?

“Are the anti-nanomachines just nanomachines?”
“Yes.”

Virginia will be okay! Eventually!

“Follow up question: are you evil?”

“Yes it is from Hyades. My freaking hat is from Hyades at this point.”

“How did that work out for ya?”
“Shut-up.”

“And lots of monsters. Don't forget that.”
“Shut-up.”

“I haven’t had someone call me on my bullshit in ten years…”

“We were enormously bad at our jobs.”

But what is Virginia thinking about during all of this?! Let’s check in on the coma dreams.

“It was the same day I heard a gigantic explosion off in the distance, and I saw a bunch of severed arms roll by in a tumbleweed. I think my aunt made lasagna that night.”

Mom died of a terminal case of no one wanted to design her model.

“We were fighting a robot in an ancient ruin at the time. Just a whole lot happening at once.”

Is Virginia getting therapy in her coma? … Wait, are there any therapists on this planet?

Guardians, Daddy, dust once in a while.

“Tears left for Daddy” would be a rad band name.

“You took the only bed.”

“Oh Gallows, it's you!... But I did leave you, Jet. That's just the trouble. And I tried to get back for days and days… but it wasn't a dream. It was a place. And you, and you, and you… and you were there. But you couldn't have been, could you?... no, Clive, this was a real, truly, live place. And I remember that some of it wasn't very nice. But most of it was beautiful. But just the same all I kept saying to everybody was I want to go home…”

Great, now Leehalt has a three-day lead on us because somebody needed a good nap.

This is not true. Without Virginia, who would give the guys all those Heal Berries?

Oh, right. Daddy.

“I am sticking around for two days of my daughter’s coma, but after that, I am done.”

"Guess he had somewhere to be... With the people he actually loves..."

Yes, he left you to die. Good deduction.

Convenient! We’ll catch up eventually.

Virginia decides to get going… which does not go well.

I think it is pretty clear she doesn’t, Jet.

“My muscles only atrophied a little bit.”

So we’re going to get some plot/gameplay synergy now. Until the end of this chapter, Virginia will be “sick” thanks to Leehalt’s attack. Excellent gameplay maneuver, but one that is going to make our lives more difficult.

“If I’m going to die, it is going to be beating Leehalt senseless.”

She’s up!

Jet is being a dick like usual, but he’s not exactly wrong.

Here is our gameplay quirk: Virginia (and only Virginia) will not have any VIT for the next dungeon. This means that you will have to manually heal her after every battle. This isn’t the end of the world, but you are definitely going to notice every battle where you forget and she starts with a meager HP total.

Remember when I said you should bring a bunch of heal berries for these dungeons? This is why. Note that the only way to heal this condition is to advance the plot.

There is always a free “inn” here in the shack, though. VIT is restored… for everybody else.

“I’ve been sleeping under that table over there.”

“What? Did I forget to reequip my Guardians or something?”

There better not be an army of daddies out here…

Oh. Oh, this is different.

“Like, what’s all this green stuff under my feet?”

“Yes, it is true. I panic-puked for ten minutes.”

Coma over, magical world beyond imagining now available.

Bro, you’re allowed to be flabbergasted. It is okay.

“Yeah, the fact that he only remembered one tree is kind of pathetic now.”

Just imagine: these four people are going to discover what grass stains are for the first time.

“If such a world of green and blue exists on Filgaia...Then this must be the only place...”

… That we can get a decent glass of water?

This is scenic and amazing and a complete lie. We’ll cover that in a minute or two.

“… Anybody else just want to roll down this hill?”
“Yes.”

So here we are on the map screen for this area. The minor gimmick is that we kind of can’t actually see our location amidst all the trees.

As you can see, we are that little white dot hidden in the circular continent to the northwest. This whole area is surrounded by mountains, so that’s why no one ever got in there. Or why the one guy that did decided to start a cult.

We can return to daddy’s Greenlodge at will.

And why shouldn’t we? We only got to “explore” it during a cutscene.

See? Rewards for being thorough.

Daddy was keeping an ancient evil sealed up on the corner of his property. Remember that for when we are hunting super bosses.

I choose to believe Werner Maxwell purchased and brought his own save doll to Greenlodge.

Free, infinite healing if you need it. Virginia has spent too long in bed, though, so this is no time for a nap.

Okay, off into the wild green yonder. The positioning of the camera deliberately makes this area difficult to navigate.

Don’t think that just because this is Eden, there aren’t monsters.

There are some real fun guys around here.

But be careful, they cause a bit of a ruckus.

Bad neighborhood.

You’ll find the other side of Nidhogg Pass over by the lake. You don’t have to “discover” it, as you technically used this exit during the cutscene. If you absolutely must return to the rest of the world, this would be the (long) way out.

Okay, so this is the deceit I was talking about earlier.

Obviously the one patch of deforested land around here is hiding the Yggdrasil tower. And you can see how its glam shot displays an enormous tower climbing high into the heavens. So…

(Previously on Wild Arms 3)

Why, when we look back at the panorama view of the area, could we not see the tower? We can see the patch of dirt where it is built, but, nope, no tower. This team needs glasses.

Anywho, before we even start this dungeon, I am going to make a recommendation: do absolutely everything you can to protect against poison. A lot of monsters use that status effect here, one boss relies on it, and Virginia is not in a place where you want her losing any more health points than necessary. Even in the “normal” playthrough, I have managed to acquire 4 moonstones (which protect against poison), and the fire guardian guards against poison, too. So get on equipping that poison status ward ASAP.

The party doesn’t know it, but the audience knows this is the right place. We’ve seen those walls before…

“Anyone else feeling weirdly motion sick from looking at this paintjob?”

Who would have thought the bad guys would actually try to enact their plan?

Do it for those trees we just found out exist!

Chapter 2 Finale Dungeon! Settle in! We’re gonna be here a while!

First challenge: big switch.

Additional challenge: more angry birds.

These little golem dudes (Asgard’s progeny?) use earth attacks, and are weak to water attacks. Equip Virginia with earth defense if you want to keep her healthy.

Drown!

Oh you son of a treasure hunter! Kill those birds before they run off with your best items.

Back to switch: just use some height, and you’ll be fine.

This place has the most complicated interior decorating.

Giant chickens are also fond of magic attacks.

And poison! See? Look out for that poison.

The game is being helpful with the drops, though.

Traps are now available.

Going to want to avoid walking in front of those duders.

You can either toss a fire crest to finish these things from afar, or sidle on up with a bomb to get more personal.

Just keep rotating the camera to see all these wily traps.

Blammo.

There are going to be a lot of “stair rooms” during this dungeon. Any of these rooms are basically an excuse for monster attacks, so keep Virginia’s HP up for cardio.

Bah! Stupid blind corners.

Eat fire, laser.

Scoot on up here…

And we can score a little treasure before proceeding.

And speaking of proceeding, we are going to take a break here. Melody is the first of many, many boss fights we are going to encounter in Yggdrasil, and we are going to want to take a focused look at each and every one…

Next time on Wild Arms: Toxic individuals.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Kind of weird that an inexplicably lush valley exists on a conspicuous island and no one else besides Culty McCulterson has stumbled upon it.

Ah well. I'm sure the reason why this biome exists in an otherwise dying world makes perfect sense and isn't convoluted at all.

 

[gogglebob]

A little late this morning on account of a date with cabling (not a euphemism), but now we are ready to go on December 6, Red Sunset Day. A red sunset is caused by the red blood spouting from the Guardian of the Sun getting killed at the end of the day. The guardian then rests for the night and is resurrected the next morning. Someone told me this myth a while back, but I'd hate to be killed everyday.

Chapter 36: Villains x Issues

Previously on Wild Arms 3: We have reached the promised land (little p, little l), and it is lush and green and contains at least one Daddy. Unfortunately, it also contains a tower full of miscreants. So it is time to clean house.

And here is our first opponent.

I did a quick check, and the only person to say the word “unsightly” in the script is Melody. She uses the word seven times over the course of the game. This is number six.

“So you want the planet to feed on nectar?”
“It’s a metaphor!”

If each of the Prophets has a rival, then Clive has been assigned to Melody.

And she is trying to be magnanimous about it.

She had this whole origin story bit prepared, and she is not going to let anyone interrupt.

“We were slugs for a hot second, but we digivolved from there.”

“He’s so uncreative…”

So… uh…

Spoiler: is the implication...

is the implication that Malik is, like, holding himself back by not turning into a blue meanie?

On one hand, it is a bit of a cliché that the one woman on the team opts to forgo other “reborn bonuses” for superficial beauty. On the other hand, this is the entirety of Melody’s tragic flaw in a nutshell, so I’ll allow it.

“And then we all decided to wear loose-fitting robes as uniforms! So you can’t see my great butterfly at all!”

“I value ecological beauty, too!”
“Same thing.”

“I like my crapsack planet just the way it is!”

“You! You and that snazzy red coat!”
“I got it on sale.”

Sick burn!

“In case I am not making myself clear, I would like to reiterate that you are pitiful.”

She got through her speech and origin story, now we’re back to the Melody we all know and love.

Fight time!

Straightforward stats. But something is different this time.

It is difficult to see in these screenshots, but Melody now comes equipped with a weird little “mirage effect” of the camera blurring around her body. This is meant to convey that Melody is now poisonous.

This leads to two issues. One, Melody will use poison attacks continually, and counter nearly everything with that same poison attack…

And two, Melody has permanent protection against any attack that does less than 350 damage. Note that this does not subtract 350 from all damage counts, just that nothing will register if it doesn't clear 350. You must be this tall to ride.

So that makes this our third boss battle that is almost entirely based on managing counters. Melody will always counter with poison attacks, so weigh your characters’ strength against whether it is worth it to eat poison for their troubles.

But! Remember the recommendation to come equipped with poison wards? If you are invulnerable to poison attacks in the first place, you can just go full hog, and Melody will do practically zero damage.

Thus making this a pretty easy boss fight. If you can deal with poison effectively, you are golden.

Thanks for stopping by!

I don’t believe I have noted this yet: you may have already noticed, but when you use an “ability” during battle, you get bonus experience multipliers. Using a lucky card bumps you from x1.0 to x2.0, but from there you can add x0.1 per every usage of an ability. Given everyone had the “poison ward” ability active during the Melody fight, and poison was used a lot, you can see Clive gets x3.5 experience for this fight. The rest of the gang gets bonuses, too, but Gallows gets the least because he was using (not countered) magic the whole time. Get with the program, Gallows!

This will be important during later super boss battles, where a ward against a particular element will save the day and grant bonuses. Not a bad situation when you fight the biggest bad on the planet and they keep adding to your dividends…

Anywho, the party barely notices Melody has left, and is still stunned by Clive’s trash talkin’.

If you can believe it, this is foreshadowing.

I like that there are occasional hints that Clive used to be a very different person before he became a dad/killed his wife’s dad.

Jet is just filing this away for later.

So moving right along.

Melody may be defeated, but recurring staircases remain.

And puzzles! We all love puzzles!

Thanks, dad.

Use Virginia’s fire crest to activate all the red boxes? Don’t activate the blue ones? That sound about good?

So the fire crest always flies in a straight horizontal line, and it will activate all the boxes regardless of whether or not you want everything in between turned on. This could make things complicated, but the solution is a simple four tosses: hit the two vertical columns with all the reds, and then horizontally hit the top and bottom rows. Easy peasy.

And our reward is an elevator ride on up.

Next room has some very inconvenient treasure chests that can only be obtained with the steady doll.

And a room containing boobytrapped treasure.

Mimics are practically slimes at this point, so turn them into pudding.

And the reward is… well, it’s not bad, per se…

Strong winds ahead.

No, the solution is not the Gale Crest. Even if that did work, Virginia would have gone sailing off the platform at the bend anyway.

Ice up those fans.

Colder than a server room in here. Let’s move on.

Before we go any further, let’s go ahead and switch our poison wards over to confusion wards. No big reason why. Just felt like it was time.

And coincidentally enough, here’s Malik.

Oh snap! His amiibo collection has gotten out of control!

“Could you rephrase that in a way that isn’t creepy as hell?”

“Okay. Super. … What?”

There it is! Malik been cloning his mommy.

“Now, Gallows, let’s hear him out. Mr. Malik, sir, have you ever considered cloning my dad?”

Sure! That’s what’s the wrong thing here. Let’s go with that.

Gallows… uh… we just covered that we don’t know what he is going to do with the clones after they are hatched… so… uh… don’t give him any ideas.

I guess Malik officially gets Gallows as his rival for today. Please enjoy each other’s company.

No matter, regular fight for everyone.

Malik is basically the same doof you fought way back at the moon shrine. He has some super speed dodging power going on, so go ahead and slow him down.

Nice. You stand around and let us shoot you like a good boy.

Haha, you have a lead foot now, loser.

If everyone wasn’t confused enough by blondie’s masterplan involving a clone army of his mother, we also have Chaotic Dimension for a multi-hit confusion attack.

And that would be why it is a good idea to protect against confusion for this fight.

Other than that, Malik uses attacks with amazing names that barely do any damage.

So this is Prophet Fight #2 that is a bit of a nonstarter.

Could you let us know when you are going to die? We would put it on the calendar and everything.

See you at the top of the tower!

All Prophets carry potion berries, apparently.

“I, being a man lacking general handsome aesthetics, am perfectly normal.”

Jet has mentally noted that it would be a bad idea to cross Clive, but Gallows is fair game.

“Probably has something to do with all the people being grown in tubes. I do not want to know some weirdo jar-person.”

Guess we’re… just gonna leave these mama bodies to float here? The ethical ramifications of escaping this room are staggering.

Narrator horny, Clive.

Note that the characters have different reactions to the tube, and I would say literally all of them are surprisingly poignant for plot beats either established or soon to come…

“I kinda understand how he feels...But I still think it’s wrong to try and resurrect the dead.”

“The sound of this liquid circulating is driving me nuts! AHHH!”

“I'd hate to see his earlier work”

“This is some formidable technology...How advanced is this wisdom of Hyades?”

I’m not even going to label who said what, because it is all so delightfully obvious.

Enough of that nonsense. Anyone else thinking about how Malik’s “secret” project is in a place that you have to walk through? Like keeping your social security number framed in your living room.

Well, this room seems surprisingly straightforward.

Oh. Crushing wall trap.

You think we’re a couple of five-year-old twins? Use bombs to blow up the wall and move on.

Prophets couldn’t divine a better trap?

And a block puzzle for good measure.

First of all: this bridge is not safe.

So go ahead and zoom with the Gale Crest.

Now we have some blocks to play with.

Use Mighty Gloves to stick the heavy block on the ground, and then push the ice block against that.

And then shove that ice block to the switch, and all you have to do now is remember to use the Gale Crest to zoom back over the bridge.

Though be sure to stop by the treasure room before you leave.

Steppin’ on up.

A few lasers are hiding around corners to ruin our day.

Diagonal angles exist.

Remember when we won one of these off Janus right after he became a fish guy? Do you think this was his spare? … Is this his room?

Because you know who does have a room up ahead?

It’s Leehalt! And he’s talking to Virginia’s dad? Oh man! What an exciting place to have to wait to find out what happens next!

Next time on Wild Arms: Werner bleeds mysteries.

 

[SpoonyBard]

I'd put money on Malik's earlier attempts ending with some Fullmetal Alchemist body horror results. The game is too chicken to show it though, but Malik wouldn't be.

No sir. Not chicken.

 

[gogglebob]

Yes, confusing Malik for a giant man-bird of any kind would be completely out of the question.

 

[gogglebob]

My webserver is now in Day 2 of being down, so no Let's Play until it comes back online. My hosting company is keeping me updated!

 

[SpoonyBard]

I'm not suggesting this is sabotage by Leehalt, but I'm also not NOT suggesting that.

 

[gogglebob]

If he's using his even-counter move... and the Let's Play has been running since March... Okay! The site should only be down for 259 days!

 

[gogglebob]

I haven't gotten the official all-clear, and some functionality isn't there, but the files/images are accessible and seem to be working, so I'm going to post this. If it doesn't work in an hour, I bear no responsibility! I bear no responsibility for anything!

So I guess we'll say my website came back on December 14, Cardboard Day. Cardboard is a good insulator. Try covering up broken windows with cardboard the next time you accidentally ram into one.

Chapter 37: For a Different World

Previously on Wild Arms 3: I want to say that will be the last we will see of Melody and Malik, but there are really good odds we are going to fight them again and again for the rest of the game. However, they have been defeated for the immediate moment, so at least we have those two behind us for the next few screenshots.

And this picture features our good friend Leehalt.

And our even better friend, Werner Maxwell.

Apparently, Werner has revealed his whole deal is atoning for the past, so “standing in the way” of people that represent that past seems right up his alley.

“You know it killed us the last time, right? That was a bad outcome.”

Sidenote: with his gigantic collar and shadow-hat, we don’t usually get a good look at Werner’s face. His “shouting” portrait seems to be the only place we get to confirm the existence of a human face in there.

What? I feel like that would be the kind of thing you should let your family know about.

… See?

This seems to be Werner's

Spoiler: turning point...

turning point of finally internally acknowledging that his daughter and her friends that are actively trying to save the world with the assistance of literal gods are maybe worth a touch of collaboration.

“Did you read my post about evolution? See, there are six types...”
“I stopped following your twitter long ago, Leehalt.”

Leehalt claims that Yggdrasil didn’t work the first time because they didn’t include enough bootleg demons.

“Yes. I just said that. I have said that a lot. Like… practically every time we have spoken. Werner, is your daughter a dummy?”

“I will finally hug a demon!”

At what point in your plan do you acknowledge that “revive legendary demons of destruction” might not be the right path?

Right. You’re crazy. Got it.

“I can’t believe we used to be on the same bowling team.”

Leehalt, he literally stopped you, like, three days ago. He shot you. You ran. You ran here. It was remarkably straightforward.

“Have you noticed there are a lot of ‘random encounters’ every time you try to go to the store?”

“Go! We’ll hold off Leehalt! And not just because no one made a battle model for you!”

“Go do science stuff at it!”

Werner listens to Virginia (which is significant all on its own), and dashes off to save the day.

“You remember I can teleport, right?”
“Yes, but you’re not going to.”
“True enough.”

Oh. Good. He’s back on the creepy “I had a crush on your mom” nonsense.

Virginia is so parent-deprived, she eats it up with a spoon.

“I abhor her and her sexy, abhorrent butt.”

“My vigor is hovering around zero, thank you.”

“Literally!”

Leehalt fight! Melody and Malik hadn’t fought us for a while, but Leehalt was the (or “a”) boss of the last dungeon. Guess someone wanted to squeeze in a rematch quickly.

Nothing new here.

In fact, nothing new about this fight at all.

M&M got new moves/shields for their fights, but Leehalt is exactly the same with his 1:1 counters.

Once again, if you are entertaining any sort of strategy here, use moves that hit multiple times, but have a weaker final hit (like using Gatling to run out of bullets for an unarmed final smack). Leehalt will only counter the final attack, not the cumulative attack.

And he’ll be out of your hair in no time.

Gah! I thought we would get through at least one update without your return.

She’s overclocking the Yggdrasil! She’s been a gamer this whole time!

“Hey! I’m here, too! Want to meet my mom?”

Sunk-cost fallacy of destroying the world.

“That’s right! We have a toady!”

“Up top!”

Have you ever considered using the ability to teleport people for good?

Oh, he comes pre-fishified this time.

Whole party getting sassy this dungeon.

“Sister, I was on the can and I just got poofed here.”

“After acquiring the demon's power, everything just stopped. That's when it hit me. How boring unlimited power and everlasting life can be. Up until now, there was so much I wanted to do...I was so desperate and busy trying to cross everything off my list. But I have all the time in the world now. I can just put off what I could do today until tomorrow. I have attained transcendency. Each time I remind myself of this, everything I've wanted to accomplish all seems insignificant. That's why I've been devising something bigger...Bigger than you can ever imagine...”

Tragic explanation of malicious motives time.

“We’re standing right here, Janus.”

“I don't mean to speak for the other blokes, but Filgaia sure is a stinkin', messed up planet...And who better to fit the role of ruler than me? What do you think of that, Princess!?”

Oh, he wants global domination. Who could have ever guessed.

So the “trick” of the previous Leehalt fight is that this Janus fight starts immediately after Leehalt is defeated. This means you do not get a VIT HP refill (not that Virginia would get one in her current state anyway), and your FP is just where it was when Leehalt went down. This could be good or bad, as if you didn’t use much FP during that fight, you likely have more options than you would otherwise.

Janus is also going to be riding the coattails of the Leehalt fight in other ways, as he doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, either.

In fact, after a couple of difficult Janus fights across this chapter, Janus isn’t much of a threat this time. Like you are fighting a shadow of his former self or something.,

You cannot completely coast through this battle, but it is also not the “always watch your HP count” affair we experienced earlier.

Maybe it is just because he got a laser beam, and doesn’t use his AOE attacks as much?

Let’s not worry about it. Shoot away.

It’s a rarity that a boss gets to talk while they explode. I guess those effects aren’t just for show…

And… guess that’s it for Janus? That is the first time he exploded into nothing. Not even a potion berry for our troubles…

Welp, that’s how it goes in anime town. You reveal your sinister motivations based on the fact that you are going to live forever, and then you die.

Ugh, still more dungeon to go. Haven’t we fought literally everybody in this tower?

I guess we have to catch up with Werner.

… We’re not going to have to fight Daddy, are we?

Plenty of cockatrices on stairs to fight, at least.

Werner, you jerk. Did you leave the puzzle rooms activated in your wake?

I’m not making a GIF for this stupid puzzle…

Look, it’s Simon Says. You enter the room, all the tubes flash in order, and then you must activate the tubes in the same order you just saw them flash. Fail and then whole process repeats.

I hate these dang puzzles. I can do the Simon Says thing when there is a distinct tone difference involved, but my brain just does not hold on to random patterns. I may have gotten frustrated and used my phone to video the sequence after a few failures.

And never mind that I am technically recording this whole playthrough anyway…

Let’s get up and out of here.

The Yggdrasil system is comprised of a lot of hallways. Seems kind of wasteful, but I’ve never designed a planet-reviving/destroying system before.

Treasure rooms containing mimics are also extraneous.

Oh, an even fight? Ho-hum.

Cait’s Boots increase your speed when your HP is low. We actually picked up a pair (in both games) as a random monster drop back in the Luck Shrine, but it doesn’t hurt to have more shoes.

Money doesn’t hurt, either.

Then we have a simple puzzle that involves group block manipulation.

Jet has been sweating like a hog for three floors but everyone is too polite to say something. Virginia spent three days in bed feverish and wearing the same clothes. She figures she has no room to talk.

This room has a bit of a smooshing wall puzzle… Can we get a GIF going here?

There it is. Use the Gale Crest and remember to double back for those treasure chests.

Might need to use a ladder.

Here is one of the four absolutely essential Booster Kits in Wild Arms 3. The first was found in the final dungeon of Chapter 1, and now go ahead and guess how I would label this dungeon. This is arguably the easiest to find Booster Kit in the game (the previous one was easily missed in a non-descript dungeon branch, and the next two are hidden in different ways), and you are going to want to have those extra ECN points.

A whole 30. Remember when we just had ten?

Something is happening here. Another boss fight?

Never mind.

We know.

“I forgot everyone else’s names. Pete? Was there a Pete?”

"It's gone from blow to suck!"

“Yeah… uh… about that? I have been sneezing constantly since we got near all these trees. Is that… is that supposed to happen?”

“About 99% less sand than you’re used to…”

Gasp! They screwed up the entire world!

No, seriously, what? Everybody just forgot the world was supposed to not suck?

“It is true that the great war of ages past has left battle scars from the use of science and magic. However, plenty of verdure did cover the lands, and the oceans were blue. The truth is...it was the Yggdrasil System and the Council of Seven that drove Filgaia to its deathbed.”

So you dinguses took a situation that was “not great” and made it “apocalyptic”.

Like, literally? Seriously? How does this square with a world that no one remembers as anything but a wasteland?

“The Yggdrasil System was out of control. It consumed all the energy it could from Filgaia. The generator couldn't handle the load, and ultimately exploded. I thought all seven of us perished, but...It appears Leehalt, Malik, and Melody miraculously survived and restored the System to its current state in the last ten years.”

All of that squares with what we know, but doesn’t answer the important questions, Werner!

Great! Now he’s distracted!

(Sidenote: it is used here as basic technobabble, but, if that "name" sounds like nonsense, look up the Hermes Trismegistus sometime...)

I like to believe that if I became evil, I would maintain all my computer science skills, too.

Dammit! We’re going to lose our last seventy or so trees.

Time to use our ace in the hole? Come on. I love that phrase. Say it.

And Werner turns his gaze to his last hope…

… that guy?

Seriously?

Guess so.

Convenient that this dork hooked up with Werner’s daughter, the one unambiguously good scientist on this planet, and the dude that talks to gods.

Oh, we’re back to computer science references. Going to confirm here that “squeeze the cable and hope with all your might” is how most technology problems get fixed. Whole reason my website went down was a lack of yearning.

Jet doesn’t know this. Jet didn’t even go to high school.

“Yearn! Damn you!”

“Do I need to put the cable somewhere…”
“Jet, I’m hearing a lot of questions, not a lot of yearning.”

Oh, this does make a bit of Wild Arms 3 canon sense. It has been firmly established that the “guns” of this world somehow mentally synchronize with their users, so there should be other technology that follows a similar template. And Jet’s ARM, Airget-Lamh, has not only been established as unique, but also that Jet cannot sync with any other ARMs…

But I really doubt that everyone is asked to nebulously hope while they are firing their bullets around.

Jet gets to remember a better world? And nobody else does? Unfair world.

Time to crank up the yearning.

“What is going on” indeed. Also: does Jet’s usual level of surly impact the process at all?

You are Lisa Simpson.

What? Jet getting mad at flowers fixed everything? What!?

And he’s all tuckered out.

“I’m good… just a little… Ugh… Is a grass hangover a thing?”
“Depends on who you ask, dude.”

Werner, could you please answer a question we are actually asking for once?

A simple “no” would have worked.

The entire tower is now shaking. I realize it kind of looks like Jet just decked Werner, and, while that would have been justified, that is not what is happening.

Or just the top floor is shaking. Uh… didn’t this exact thing happen at the end of Chapter 1? It didn’t end well then…

You knew we would have to reach the top of this tower eventually.

“Never! Not going to explain anything more until the end of the game! Daddy awaaaaaaay!”

And… here we are. Today has been a lot, so we’ll pick things back up next week.

Next time on Wild Arms: The thrilling conclusion of at least one plot thread!

 

[SpoonyBard]

Oh no! They've unearthed the ancient illicit file-sharing service Kazaa Dingel!

 

[gogglebob]

Look, the next chapter of this Let's Play is titled "You wouldn't download a demon", and I'm only saying that because it is such an obvious joke, I need to make it before it looks like I am stealing it from someone else.

That said, major props for "Kazaa Dingel"

 

[gogglebob]

Welcome to a farewell to Norse Mythology on today, December 20, Ribbon Day. A beautiful waitress in a town called Milama lent her favorite ribbon to a poor boy. The boy took the ribbon and went to the pawn shop. A few weeks later, the boy made a fortune from the pawn money and bought back the ribbon. The ribbon was returned to the waitress and they lived happily ever after. Isn't it a happy story?

(breaking kayfabe moment: completely coincidentally, this date-fact is actually a huge/subtle Wild Arms 1 reference.)

Chapter 38: You Wouldn't Download a Demon

Previously on Wild Arms 3: I am guardiansdamned tired of this tower! We beat Malik! Melody! Leehalt! Janus! We have single (eight) handedly defeated every damn villain we have ever seen in this game! Now there’s some damned rumbling upstairs, so we have to deal with that.

Here we are in the room where Werner and Jet just inexplicably saved the world.

Yeah, I have the same reaction to most computers.

So we are getting out of there.

Puzzles ahoy!

You know this one from every JRPG/adventure game that has ever existed. Press a square and it switches color, but any adjacent squares change color, too. Obviously, you want to change all the colors over (to red, in this case), but it gets complicated when the “wrong” blocks keep flipping.

Or it

Spoiler: it isn't complicated...

isn’t complicated at all.

And moving past there to an elevator, we are officially done with having to do anything more with this dang tower. Welcome to that room from all the cutscenes we have ever seen in this place.

The ponderin’ orb being broken is new.

“What kind of man breaks into a tower and steals another man’s orb!?”

“Could it be that someone else is in our base who understands our technology?”
“Hi guys! Werner here! My kid and her friends are on their way up, too!”

This would be the point that Leehalt distinctly snaps.

I do enjoy the raw desperation on display here. If you really pay attention to what the Prophets have been doing all chapter, they have only marginally eked out a few victories against dying gods, and have returned home after nearly after battle (win or lose) drained and begging for more prophet juice. They did not reformat the world, they did not beautify any rocks, and did not revive a single mommy. Just super-duper failures here that now don’t even have their glowing core.

“Heh heh heh heh...It is all over for us. All our hopes have been severed. There is no future...However, Werner...There is still one duty we must carry out. That is revenge...I was always envious of you. Your work, the fruits of your research--you were always one step ahead of me.”

Also, I always enjoy the trope where the villain that claims they have been trying to do good for the world finally breaks and admits it’s all about jealousy.

In more ways than one!

“Bro, I didn’t get together with Ekatrina to spite you. I did it because she had a sweet can.”
“I am well aware of Ekatrina’s sweet can!”

“No, seriously. I was trying to save the world! For most of our time working together, I could barely remember your name. I always confused you with Pete!”
“And I thought I was the counter-expert...”

“Hey Daddy. Talking about mom?”

Is it better if Melody and Malik always knew Leehalt had a Maxwell fixation, or do you figure they are hearing about all this for the first time?

“My daddy is immaculate and the most important person on the planet! Stop picking on him!”

… I don’t see the resemblance. Virginia, could you put on this ridiculous hat?

Fight time!

The capper for Chapter 2, ladies and gentlemen!

Werner is over in the corner. He... uh... dropped his glasses.

Arguably, this is the polar opposite of the Janus fight that finished Chapter 1. There, Janus was the most dangerous he had ever been in battle, and was fighting alone for the first time. Here we are fighting all three Prophets simultaneously as one complete boss, but…

All of the Prophets have dropped their distinctive special abilities and barriers. Melody does not have her poison blocker, Malik does not have his super speed, and Leehalt even just uses regular attacks (not counters) for the first and only time across Wild Arms.

So, basically, this fight is little more than a formality. The only real danger you might experience is if the Prophets all decide to gang up on one of your weaker party members for a couple consecutive rounds, and even that is statistically unlikely.

Mind you, this is a fun battle for plot/gameplay synergy. The Prophets are at their absolute limit, so there is no more time for calculated counters or complicated tactics. They are about seven seconds away from just trying to hit the party with Pete’s old broom.

See? They’re not doing great.

Yeah! Teleport back home to mama! … Wait, don’t do that.

Maybe getting shot in the face was the true beauty all along?

Best way to end this chapter. Eat it, Leehalt.

I’ve commented before that I really appreciate the distinctive “level” of old school JRPG acting/animation going on in this game. That said, I would be cool with a remake just for a scene where Leehalt starts coughing up his insides mid-cackle. Heh Heh HAWRF.

And that’s the last battle of the chapter, ladies and gentlemen. We have successfully conquered what is easily the longest narrative chunk of Wild Arms 3.

Sure! This was about hope! Not about the fact that we just sniped three shambling zombies.

“This is a teachable moment,” Virginia explains as Leehalt’s arm falls off.

So the bad guys all teleported away, Yggdrasil’s core is missing and presumed to no longer be a threat, and it is time for everybody to head home.

“It came up a couple of times…”

“Seriously! Dad! This is important!”

“Two years before that, I was… mowing lawns? I… cannot recall what ‘mowing a lawn’ entails…”

“Unless we are idiots. We… we’re not idiots… right?”

Well, yes. Duh. But why/how is kind of the question there.

“Because it is stupidly complicated and I don’t feel like getting into it.”

Could you stop sucking for, like, ten seconds, Werner!?

“Is that why I don’t have a memory of a better world?”
“No, I am explaining why you’re falling down. You have multiple problems.”

“That counts as a compliment! You heard him, guys! Daddy praised me!”

You know where he lives now, Virginia. Just camp out at Green Lodge.

So Virginia presumably passes out in the grass as her boys just watch Werner walk away, but we need to check back in on the orb room for a moment.

It is not established where the Prophets went, and it is entirely possible that they just “feint teleported” or turned invisible at the end of the battle. So one would assume this scene takes place about ten seconds after the heroes left the room.

“All hope is lost, but at least no one is shooting at us anymore.”

Eh, it happened to you three once before. Maybe you’ll get better again?

True! Thanks for playing.

What’s this?

A spark of life… or… something?

The main core is missing, but we might get a little juice out of sparkly here.

Shock!

“Never seen a lad fake explode before?”

“During the battle with the Drifters, I pretended I was dead, allowing me time to fission my body. What the Drifters thought they defeated, and what you thought was dead, was just my duplicate figure.”

“Oh, we should have known something was up when there was just a cut log lying where you had been.”

Janus looks out for Janus.

Barely any gas in the tank, but just enough to torture an underling.

Or not.

Love that Janus tells the three scientists that they are out of "magic".

Maybe it was because you kept calling a rebellious malcontent “the sacrifice”?

See?

Hm? Sparkly has something to say?

I cannot imagine this is going to end well for anybody.

The sparkle becomes some barely perceptible pointy dude.

“Look! A slug god worked just fine for Xenogears!”
“It did not!”

Would everybody stop saying that!?

“Don’t you try to sass me, slug.”

Is “slug” or “slug head” more insulting?

So we get an actual battle-battle between Janus and Unknown Slug. No, we do not have any control over the proceedings.

Despite Slug Head being mostly transparent, Janus gets some good hits in.

Until he doesn’t.

Amusingly enough, we have seen Janus with his bayonet-ARM and the Dark Spear, but we have never seen Janus fight barehanded. Unless you count that time he kicked Virginia across the room…

This slug is cruising for a bruising.

Bum bum bum (again).

Oh, and this happens.

He might not explode this time…

But Janus is down for the count.

Dark Spear is still keeping it together, though.

You were never infamous for your intelligence, Janus.

“You might have picked up on this if you listened to literally anything we said.”

So Janus thought he was powering up for himself…

But turns out it was all a trick, and the spear was vaguely sentient in dripping an addiction down Janus way…

Haha! You got played by an inanimate object!

“Like some kind of sacrifice?”

Janus only dies twice.

Janus, after spending an entire chapter routinely fighting gods, opts to die an atheist.

And that is really it for Janus. Going to go ahead and confirm that the big bad of Chapter 1 is now 100% deceased, and never coming back. He may be mentioned again, but he is dead-dead-dead. I’m not kidding!

Because we have a brand-new bad guy.

Well. Sorta new. As we talked about back at Ka Dingel, Siegfried was arguably the number one bad guy of Wild Arms (1). He was kind of working for his Mother (hey, Malik, you guys have something in common!), and Mother was technically responsible for a whole hell of a lot of destruction, but Siegfried is your main antagonist for most of Wild Arms. He was the final boss! That counts for a lot!

So, suffice to say, this is kind of a big deal even without establishing that he killed Janus, was the owner of the Dark Spear/those magical masks of Chapter 1, and is a capital-D Demon. This is like if Sephiroth decided to crash Final Fantasy 9 in the third act. … And now he inexplicably looked a lot like Nightmare of Soulcalibur.

But we will address that bit of plagiarism later. This is the official end of Chapter 2, so we get a save break. Only eight more chapters to go!

… Kidding! Please come back!

But I’ll come back to you later, Wild Arms 3.

This is the closing screen for my Wild Arms 3 on the Playstation 5/“straight” playthrough. Compare it to the previous, PS2/New Game+ shot, and you’ll see actually paying attention to battles has caused me to waste an extra hour. Funny how that works.

Anywho, we will pick back up at Chapter 3 in a couple weeks, as I need a break from capturing screenshots after… 25 weeks?! It took that long to get through Chapter 2? And there are four whole chapters in Wild Arms 3, so we’re at the halfway mark? Dang…

Next time on Wild Arms: An art appreciation interlude.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Siegfried??? Wasn't it Ziekfried? Or, Zeikfried?

....

Ziegfried?

Also Siggy has theme music (Sadly no callback to WA1 that I can tell), which Youtube calls Blue Destiny but the OST I had back in the day titled the track 'Blue Menace'.

So I say we split the difference between Destiny and Menace and refer to him as the Blue Meanie.

 

[gogglebob]

Why don't we ask Granny for a tie-breaker?

...

...

I did not expect her to answer so quickly.

 

[Mogri]

It's not a big deal. Ziggy is just a guy, like Janus was just a guy. I'm sure this is fine.

 

[gogglebob]

Did you think I would let this Let's Play forum languish before the new year? Nope! Gotta post something on December 28, the Day of Light. You often hear heroic tales ending with the hero disappearing into the light. If you think about it, being a hero is a terrible occupation that won't let you go peacefully in your sleep when you die.

Act 2 Complete Interlude: Art Appreciation

Previously on Wild Arms 3: Chapter 2 complete!

And now that all the major players have made their appearances…

Back in the day, I always loved strategy guides. It wasn’t just about knowing what was happening/going to happen in a game, it was also about the fact that strategy guides (and their general gaming magazine cousins) were about the only place you could get “official” art of videogame characters outside of a manual. And this was huge when your protagonist was a 16 x 16 block of smeared pixels! Do you know how many different ways I tried to interpret Celes Chere back in 1994? There was Amano art of her with pants! Did her sprite have pants? Could I see them on my chiclet-sized television? A strategy guide might help!

Now, Wild Arms 3 was released in 2002, and that was well past the point that one needed a magnifying glass and guide to figure out what was going on. In fact, as has been noted before, Wild Arms 3 has some extremely detailed and expressive models. However, it never hurts to see what was “intended” by the art department, so let’s take a quick look at some official Wild Arms 3 art.

(Unlike the rest of the LP, click on any of the images in this post for a larger view)

As was the style of the time, our first decent introduction to our team is available in the manual. I appreciate that everyone looks happy, and even Jet seems to be having a good time. Also of note…

Jet’s age is listed as ????, which is never not a red flag for “mysterious past”
Gallows is 6’ 3” and 220 lbs. He might be the most jacked mage in all of JRPG history
Clive is 5’ 8”, and his gun is nearly as tall as he is
Virginia and Jet are the exact same height. There is something about that that I find adorable

And our villains get a page, too. While the Prophets are clearly implied to be evil, Janus seems to be described as almost heroic. Maybe aspirational? Regardless, he definitely comes off as the bad guy who eventually joins the heroes… But, as we all know now, that is not the fate for this JRPG Janus.

Maya is not mentioned in the manual at all, and that is a crime.

Anywho, that’s it for good stuff in the WA3 manual. Just going to also note that I am not convinced that there are actual screenshots in this manual, but some kind of simulated, labor-intensive art going on. Speaking as someone who has spent the last year taking “real” pictures of Wild Arms 3, these examples do not look actually possible…

Beyond the manual, there was a Wild Arms 3 strategy guide, but I never bought it, because Wild Arms 3 came out at exactly the point in time that I was a poor college student that had to decide between purchasing strategy guides or buffalo wings for the week… And there wasn’t a free website called buffalowingfaqs.com.

There was some free official art released on the Wild Arms website, though.

I have had this nonsense saved as part of my pictures screen saver for the last two decades.

I have always

Spoiler: loved this piece...

loved this piece, as it is the ultimate expression of something that obviously happens in the game, but is never actively seen. It’s the party pigging out! Jet looks embarrassed to be there, Gallows is grabbing everything he can, Virginia is making a show of it, and Clive is concerned about the check. I cannot be the only person that thought this was the best representation of Wild Arms 3 as a whole, as it is now the loading screen when you boot up WA3 on the Playstation 5.

The party menaced by Prophets. Malik looks a lot more central than his actual standing, and Melody is just dancing off in the corner.

Maya and family! Love it, but I find the truncated attempt at a consistent background there a little distracting.

And, of course, Virginia vs. Janus. I’m kind of disappointed we never got a “getting to know you” Virginia and Janus dungeon (like with Virginia and Maya). Seemed like their respective teams kept these Drifters from truly loathing each other.

Okay! That was it for the age of Wild Arms 3’s release, but there was eventually the Wild Arms Million Memories Official Art Book.

Wild Arms Million Memories was a mobile game released in 2018. Like with so many forgotten franchises, it was an attempt to harvest the characters across disparate games and turn them into something that could be sold to gacha addicts. It was the first (and currently last) Wild Arms game released since Wild Arms XF (basically, WA: Tactics) on the PSP in 2007. It was never translated/released in North America, and it was discontinued in February of 2020. That was a rough year….

The plot of the game was basically that Mother of Wild Arms 1 is up to her old tricks, and, for poorly explained reasons, all the Wild Arms protagonists are on the same planet and working together to save the place. As you can see, Virginia is prominently featured.

Though this may just be a side effect of Breath of Fire syndrome wherein main characters are often deliberately designed to echo the original main character, and Virginia breaks that mold in more ways than one.

Oh! And Janus is featured in key art! And Maya! Maybe people just liked Wild Arms 3.

This is a lovely two-page spread that features 66% of the main Wild Arms 2 party, a villain and hero from Wild Arms 1, and Virginia having a rough time. I feel like if Lilka and Virginia ever actually met, the sheer amount of anxiety-based optimism generated by those two could power the Yggdrasil System for decades.

We’ve got some dedicated “character pages” in here, so let’s see official art of characters from 16 years after their conception.

I always like when people remember that Virginia not only dual wields ARMs, but dual wields two different ARMs.

Do you suppose it is deliberate that her dress makes a little upside-down V?

You can see her left gun is drawn and still in the holster in Pose 4 there.

For reasons no one can explain, this book (and presumably game) contains art of Tesla Maxwell, but not Werner Maxwell. Ostensibly, Virginia’s introduction involves her “running away from home”, but they never get around to her finding Daddy.

Here’s some art of Virginia and Luceid. We’ll see this version of our favorite werewolf soon enough in the Let’s Play.

Virginia may have been featured for the ol’ mobile game standby of dressing up your women for holidays. Halloween Virginia is… pretty rad, actually.

Virginia strikes me as the last drifter on Filgaia to flash some leg, but maybe she is going to a ball with Maya. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to try to match an outfit to that woman.

Bare shoulders? In this economy?

Hi Jet! You’re looking very shonen today.

I cannot stop thinking about how those bullets are extremely pointy.

Here’s an action page that contains Jet and Virginia. Jet receives zero unique attacks or abilities in Wild Arms 3 (it is hard to illustrate “moves fast”), so they apparently tossed him a random ARM for this shot. That is probably one of the unique ARMs from Wild Arms 1 or 2… or maybe a powered-up version of his canon cannon? Hard to say.

… Gallows is high as hell here, right? Just blazing it for a meeting between man(ish) and robot (kinda).

And here is Gallows. The ongoing joke that Gallows continually strikes out with the ladies seems ridiculous when you see how this guy is 90% abs by volume.

That one design view in the bottom right with short hair really makes our man look like T. Hawk.

Shane is feminine to the point of parody. I realize he is supposed to be a stark contrast to his older brother, but that bow is not helping matters.

And Granny “Hull” (I’ll save you a search, it should be “Halle”) looks like she is going to eff some ess up. I approve.

Gallows appears about 2,000% more reasonably confident outside of his premiere game.

Presumably because of some kind of oversight, Clive is barely featured in this mobile game/book at all. You might think he was some extraneous character, like Liz & Ard, or Shady Thousand the Schrodinger Cat. Wait! All those characters are super important, too! No wonder this game failed!

Janearth gets more of a feature than Clive.

I can understand why Janus works as a villain here: he is one of the few “plainclothes” Wild Arms villains. Most every other opponent in this franchise dresses like some kind of spiky weirdo.

Or a ninja.

Dario! Zip up that fly!

Action shot of the last thing you see.

Some yokel went ahead and put Janus and Ashley of Wild Arms 2 on the same page. Side by side, you can see how they look vastly different. Janus is generally merely evocative of WA2’s “hero” (loaded word in that game).

“Gimme that spear-sword.”

Maya! It’s best girl!

You would think the patron sainte of Wild Arms costume changes would thrive in a gacha, but she sticks to the default costume here.

Maya is meant to be evocative of “Calamity” Jane Maxwell (no relation) of Wild Arms 1. You can see the resemblance on Jane’s featured page.

Wild Arms 3 begat a Wild Arms 1 remake that used the WA3 engine, Wild Arms Alter Code: F. Here is Jane from that game’s official artbook.

Back to Maya in a scene from Wild Arms 3. It… will make more sense later.

Alfred, I appreciate the goggles, but those socks would be terrible in a desert environment.

Yes, Todd’s official last name is “Dukakis”. And, yes, this is as dark as skin tone gets in this art book.

Worth noting that Wild Arms 1’s Calamity Jane had her own swordsman butler, Magdalen “McDullen” Harts, too. Recolor Todd’s outfit, and you see more of a resemblance.

I like that Shady has a scarf, so he can do that “pull down and breathe fire” thing that is all the rage.

Leehalt Alcaste apparently has a much cooler name in Japan. Maybe it was changed so Americans wouldn’t instantly identify him as a Dick? Also, Alcahest, your robes got ripped.

“Milady” gets a name that is not a name in any conceivable way. Also, unlike the manual art, the Prophets are barefoot(ish) here. Also also: I am not going to try to parse Melody’s chest situation.

Malik mostly looks like some NPC that is going to tell you where to find the magical orb or something.

This art of Asgard is really leaning into the “robot wearing a trenchcoat” motif.

This is a physical representation of Melody’s wishes board.

Heeeere’s Siegfried. Note that this is mostly his Wild Arms 1/Alter Code: F design. His monster arm only existed for one game, and is only revisited in that art above (with Maya) of Wild Arms 3.

Here is Siggy distinctly from the Wild Arms Alter Code: F book. Again, his arm and spear are a lot less SoulCalibur here. What was the real name of Nightmare going back to Soul Edge? Oh yeah, it was Siegfried. Probably just a coincidence.

“Girl in Garden” of Wild Arms 3 is revisited for Million Memories. She is Florina in America, but recall that she was distinctly not named in the Japanese version of Wild Arms 3.

And here is our dear elw from Wild Arms Alter Code: F. Can you see a bit of a resemblance?

Marivel of Wild Arms 2 is featured in Million Memories, too.

We are not just noting this for the fact that she is one of the best characters in Wild Arms 2. She will actually be relevant to WA3, too, eventually.

Also, she doesn't have to dress up for Halloween. She is Halloween.

That is the Guardian Luceid. This design seems to be based on their Wild Arms 2 incarnation, but with WA3 coloring. Also note that after three games of being one of the most important (or at least interesting) guardians, Luceid would not appear again until Wild Arms XF… and even that was an extreme edge case.

Here are some other Guardians, four out of five that we have seen in WA3. Fengalon is balding, apparently.

Gobs! Get Virginia in here!

And some other baddies you may recognize from Wild Arms 3. That green fellow with the arms was pretty memorable in Wild Arms 2…

All of these suckers appear in Wild Arms 3.

And a few environments you may recognize from the Let’s Play. The Prophets were evil entirely because the Yggdrasil interior made them sick.

And what is coming soon in Wild Arms 3? Well, how about we eventually get an airship with a pretty lizard-y motif? That sound good to everybody?

It sounds good to this girl.

Next time on Wild Arms 3: We saved the world! What will we do for income now?!

 

[gogglebob]

Happy New Year! It is January 3rd, the day for words that seem similar, but mean different things. Tidbit and trivia seem similar, but aren't the same. Accent and dialect is also subtly different. Yoke and yolk are, of course, completely different. As I go into deep thoughts, it's a bit sad that I can't remember my earlier thoughts when I come up with newer ones.

Chapter 39: Rise and Grind, Virginia

Previously on Wild Arms 3: The Prophets are defeated! Yggdrasil is deactivated! Janus died! Twice! As far as our intrepid heroes know, they just saved the world, and everything is going to be good forever.

The audience knows better, though, as the anime intro updated to include new threats. Also: there is still a videogame to play, which is a tipoff that there might be more dangers around the corner.

Virginia is trapped in the Daddy Zone.

It is nice that Virginia has gotten some time to spend with Werner recently. I bet her 10-year-old memories of her absent father were starting to degrade.

Hey, this could

Spoiler: this could double as a recap...

double as a recap, too.

Daddy come back. You can blame it all on me. I was wroo~oong, and I just can’t live without you.

“Sorry! Have to go be mysterious somewhere else.”

“Nobody calls me that, Virginia.”

Finally! Hugs!

Look happier!

Virginia! No! That is not how you show affection!

“Ugh… That dream again. Aren’t I supposed to have an Electra complex?”

Gee, I dunno, maybe because you have complicated feelings for the father that has abandoned you, like, four times at this point? Three times in rapid succession?

Or it is foreshadowing for him being the final boss or something? I don’t know. Focus on something else for a while.

BRIEF ASIDE: I mentioned it before, but Virginia has some surprisingly detailed wall decorations for a Playstation 2 game. I am almost certain that round picture in the middle is supposed to be some memorial for her mother, and the large building in the top right looks like Virginia’s home. I have to assume the red plaque at the bottom right is a science fair award from third grade.

“That Jet fellow is chewing on the doorknob. Uncle Tesla is concerned.”

Recall for a moment that Virginia was basically magic (science) poisoned when we last saw her. Remember? She passed out. It wasn’t great.

“Please… just get them out of my house… Now.”

Repress, Virginia! Repress!

Amusingly enough, you do have full control of Virginia for her walk downstairs to grab the rest of the party. Or you can wander out on the balcony, too.

… Man, I want Wild Arms 3 to be popular enough for there to be some glitch/clipping strat here where you finish the rest of the game with only Virginia.

Back to cutscenes.

Please break into a musical number, Virginia. Please.

“Your aunt has been making us supper!”
“Please, Virginia, they keep asking me for spackle. For dinner. It is unsettling.”

Love you, too, Jet.

“Also, Maya came by every day asking when you were going to get back to going to dungeons. She left a list of where she was going…”

“Are we saving the world again?”
“Painting a fence, actually.”

Hey! It’s the only other people in the world who ever hired us for anything!

Virginia isn’t kidding, as her raw optimism is going to power the Sandcraft at double speed.

For a guy that chaffed against his elders, Gallows loves having a leader.

And away we go!

Roykman is afraid of Virginia’s dog. It’s the little things that make me happy.

I believe literally every NPC on Filgaia now has new, quest-based dialogue to clue you into all the places you will go in Chapter 3. We will get into the nitty gritty of this section after our first mission…

Anywho, Janus is too dead to bug us on the way out of town this time, so it is off to the Ark.

All Wild Arms 3 vehicles have been parked by Boot Hill. Clive had a week to get everything back and accessible.

The Ark is a quick drive over from Virginia’s home.

Welcome back to our cult of choice.

We’ll get there eventually!

How did you get here if you need a friggen jet to get there?

“Yes. I have been sketching them on my notebooks since I was five.”

Come to think of it, someone really should tell Lamium that his “tree dream” was 100% real, and the whole party has been there. But nobody is going to do that.

“My Daddy saved me! And then I had a dream about shooting him. How are you doing?”

“Oh, that’s kind of ironic, considering we’re going to be responsible for your death.”
“Oh yes. I forgot how much you enjoy saying that.”

“Remember when you exploded our last site? Well, we need you to do that on purpose this time.”

Basically, monsters are spawning there, and I guess Lamium here thinks that is something that can be stopped.

“Don’t ask me, I just work here. Ha ha ha. But seriously, I have no idea how we do things.”

Virginia already considering how she could, like, unexplode a mine.

“I mean, it’s not like anybody died.”
“Oh, it’s funny you say that, because we are going to be responsible for…”
“Stop it!”

“So we’re only going to charge 96% of our usual fee.”

Does anyone actually give directions like this? Like you have to yank out a map, and check for something that exists on an imaginary line between two places? Fly to Greece! It is halfway between Italy and Turkey.

At least it is a short trip.

Looking for a mine…

Here we go.

And you must be the woman that actually knows what is going on.

Just hanging out in a cave filled with monsters, waiting a week for Drifters to arrive.

“Explode. Mine. Thank you for listening.”

Wouldn’t want anyone else to do that.

So all we have to do is walk to the back of the mine, press the bomb’s on switch, and then dash the heck out of Dodge.

But the place is lousy with monsters, so that’s where our combat-hardened living fodder comes into play.

“We might explode. On purpose!”

Gallows is all about wanton destruction.

Have we seen Jet buy anything… ever?

“Yes, it appears we gots to get paid, son.”

“Once we have confirmed explodies.”

Really appreciate Virginia’s negotiation eyes here. She’s learning!

“We might die!”
“13,001.”

I bet Lamium would have bargained a better fee for the Order. That’s why he’s the cult leader.

Virginia says no, and the game just ends.

Or not.

“Orphans. This is where we get all the orphan hearts that power our sandcrafts.”

“This is a hot dog mine!?”
“Jet, did you steal assorted meats from Virginia’s house?”

Virginia never really thought about where her ARMs came from. I mean… “Daddy”, but not further back than that.

Clive is in professor mode, so we’ll learn more details from him later.

And away we go!

So this time we actually know this dungeon is going to explode, so we know why there will not be any treasure chests.

Just random monsters/puzzles for today.

For instance: did you know you can throw a crate at a switch? We are really easing Virginia back into adventuring here.

These jump plates are all over the place. I wonder if we are due for a new tool…

Babble on the big bridge.

“Remember seven seconds ago when I asked a question and then you said I had to wait? Can I ask that question again now?”

Oh. We’re at the bone store.

This has been lore, in one way or another, for every Wild Arms title at this point. Any machines on Filgaia trace their origins back to partially mechanical creatures generally labeled as dragons.

In the case of WA3, the dragons were distinctly created for the big ol’ demon war that has been looming over the plot from the beginning.

“Do you think they were friendly?”
“The war weapons bred for destruction? Sure.”

And, yes, the ARMs are directly manufactured from dragon bits.

Gallows, have you not noticed that we collect and use "dragon fossils" every time we upgrade the Sandcraft? What's that? You forgot we could upgrade the Sandcraft? Oh.

Just think real hard at it for critical hits.

Thank you for that setup, Virginia. Now we cut to…

Siegfried, a half tissue, half machine creature.

“Are you talking about this planet-this planet, or another planet?”
“Another planet. Now shut up.”

“Probably what happens with a bunch of man-gods running around.”

“With war came rapid advancements in technology, which further escalated the evolution of technology. War was bringing about advancement. It was the neosapiens who began to recreate and improve themselves in order to win the war.”

So you were already at god level, and then war made you, like…. Kirby-Gods?
(Are you talking about “Jack Kirby Gods” or “Kirby the Pink Ball Gods”? Yes.)

But then Siggy stops talking when he’s getting to the good parts.

So that’s how this dungeon is going to go: a complete history of dragons and neosapiens interspersed with some good ol’ JRPG’ing. And we’ll see it all next update!

Next time on Wild Arms 3: The boots that broke the world.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Man, Siggy would have a killer headbutt.

It's amazing that the party has knowledge of this impossibly lush valley, not to mention the fact that the entire world's population's memories were effed with a decade ago and they just... keep it to themselves.

"Ok gotta go to the next job. Bye Auntie, love you! The entire world and everything we know is a lie! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!"

 

[gogglebob]

The only reason I will give them a pass on that one is that they don't know the whole story (thanks, Dad), and even they kind of don't believe it. Hard to explain the big weird secret of the world when you don't have a clue as to why...

Anywho, it is time to pick this up again on January 10, the day we play the word-capping game 'First and Last.' A Drifter once told me that everything in this world is divided into winners and losers... If we go with that theory, would the one capping the 'Last' word be the winner and the one being capped the loser?

Chapter 40: The Bone Zone

Previously on Wild Arms 3: After successfully saving the world, our team took a job blowing up a mine lousy with fossils. And, bonus, Virginia is getting a lesson from Clive as we go on the origin of dragons. Maybe next update is going to be a Unicorn Sanctuary!

Any interesting fauna in this place?

Nah, just lizards.

Stop trying to be mythical! You’re a dang lizard!

Guess it is a good idea to keep those poison blockers active from the last dungeon.

Protection against being turned to stone (well, bronze) is recommended, too.

The average level of the “real” party right now is 36. This means you start every battle with at least 25 FP, so you should be able to use either Virginia’s Mystic or Gallows’s Extension to nail an enemy weakness across the board in the first round. This makes random battles go a lot faster, and is super relevant in a dungeon where you know there is going to be a (literal) ticking time bomb.

In other words: Learn all the monsters’ weaknesses now. It will come in handy when you are under the gun.

Though feel free to be exploded by treasure chests at your leisure.

It’s worth it! We’re going to need all the dragon fossils we can get soon enough. … Hey, aren’t we in a dragon fossil mine?

Whatever.

Spoiler: Any useful bones here?

Lamium probably already picked this place clean.

It was mentioned that there are “gates” in the mine to keep the monsters contained. This is a flimsy excuse for "find the switch” puzzles. Plot/gameplay synergy is always appreciated.

Let’s move along.

Find the literal switch. Honestly, it took me an unhealthy amount of camera rotating to see this sucker.

That activates a door and a wipe that brings us to…

Siegfried and our favorite robed losers. The big guy is continuing his story from last update about the origins of the demon race.

So “demons” are demons not only because they wreck up the place, but because they’ve also replaced their ethics with super armor. Zangief can do the same thing in Street Fighter.

“Check out this rad, blue shine. That doesn’t just happen by accident.”

And coincidentally, Virginia has something similar on her mind.

This is what happens when you let sci-fi authors near your folklore.

Oh, it’s gonna be imaginable all right…

Virginia currently has “first grader who is reckoning with their kindergarten love of dinosaurs” vibes.

Moving on (in more ways than one).

There is a huge “alternate” path in this dungeon that we are constantly seeing, but are currently unable to reach. Shucks, I wonder how this is going to turn out…

Gah! My kingdom to never see these thieving avians again! No you cannot steal my kingdom, you stupid birds!

This switch hasn’t been pulled yet.

Philosophy activate!

“Hey, Lenny, there are a lot of bones here. You ever think about making a train out of those bones?”
“Oh, good idea, Carl.”

I feel like I could get a lot of mileage out of this screenshot…

“Here's an interesting fact. From all the fossils excavated, not a single egg or larva was ever discovered.”

“So...Uhhh...What's that supposed to mean!?”

It means dragons did not burn any of their cash on porn. Or they blew all of their cash on porn. One or the other.

Or that’s another way of looking at it. No need to breed if you are immortal and unstoppable.

“That would ruin so many Dragon Ball Z episodes!”

And another way to interpret it…

Is that no one wanted to have sex with a demon. Too hard to take off that “complete body and spirit” armor.

“I’m not mad you fear me as an unstoppable demon. In fact, I’m laughing right now.”

“However this evolution of power did not continue forever, and eventually came to an end. Realizing their imminent demise, these warriors took their own mother planet down the path of decay..”

“I’m an invincible killing machine!”
“That’s cool. But do you want to recycle?”
“NO!”

Siegfried made it confusing a moment ago, but, to be clear, “the demons” originated on a different planet, Terra. Our current hangout is Filgaia.

Oddly, this is very similar to Final Fantasy 9, where we had “home” planet Gaia and another, “invading” planet named Terra. And, fun fact, FF9 Terra was spearheaded by an armor-clad knight who had appeared in a previous game in the franchise. But! We can let this bit of intellectual thievery slide, as Final Fantasy 9 stole some pretty significant plot beats from Wild Arms 1 in the first place.

On a related note, Cecilia and Dagger should hang out.

But for now, we have a mine to get through.

Watcha doin’, puddin’?

Another fine example of “learn the weakness now”. These suckers are invulnerable to physical attacks, and halve nearly every magical element.

But have a light spell handy, and they are vapor. Remember this for later…

Score! Dark Rings are all but required for a few super bosses, so getting a spare here is ideal. It’s a shame this place won’t exist for farming purposes later.

Don’t have the tool to use it, don’t have the ability to reach it…

Check a few barrels as you go.

A tiny raise in platform height! Every JRPG protagonist’s weakness!

Switch!

Time for talkin’.

This is only true in battle-based universes. Most powerful warriors in reality just retire to making weird posts on Facebook.

Bones and bones. Same answer to both questions.

“Not unlike the noble toddler, they refused nap time.”

“However, the prideful ones did not seek eternal slumber. They abandoned their mother planet, and invaded a world of another dimension, fighting countless battles. There was a time when we battled for control and rulership of ancient Filgaia.”

So there you go: the Demon War way back in Filgaia’s history was when a bunch of demons ruined their own planet, got bored, and flew over to Filgaia to find a new battleground.

Unfortunately, it did not go too well for the “invincible gods”. Probably because Filgaia had its own gods, and the demons were not trained to deal with a giant clam-turtle.

“Look, we were losing, so we decided to leave behind our internet. Figured that was a good way to screw over an entire planet.”

Worked so well the first time!

Let’s toddle on.

If we don’t find a way to get these gems soon…

Ah. Radical.

Jet now has his third and final tool.

We got a jump button! This allows us to “step up” small ledges, and make significant leaps from jump plates. Eventually, we can also use the Radical Sneakers for reaching high climbable surfaces, or use that teensy bit of extra height to activate switches that previously seemed unusable.

Note that these Radical Sneakers are nothing like the Rad Blades of Wild Arms 2, which worked much more like Virginia's Gale Crest. And Wild Arms 1's Skates are right out, too.

OF SIGNFICANT NOTE: This is the first tool of the new chapter, and it unlocks a lot of previously inaccessible content in the Wild Arms 3 world. We’re not going to do this, but the next update could be all the places that are now available with Radical Sneakers. And, if you really want to do the Legend of Zelda “don’t complete the dungeon, but book it with your new boomerang” thing, you could leave the mine right now, and get some additional god-power on your side before progressing the plot. Mind you, I have no idea why you would do that, but you do have the opportunity for the ten seconds between getting the Radical Sneakers and pulling this plunger.

Also: if you don’t have the presence of mind to use a Gimel Coin before activating a time bomb, repeating this dungeon after exploding is all on you.

Even with the cutscenes, there is no way it took anyone 20 minutes to get this far in this dungeon. The return trip has a generous timer, and…

The way back is even easier than the way forward, because this place was intelligently designed for an optimum escape route.

Remember all those inaccessible areas?

Jump plate activate! You can take the same route back for most of this escape (there are a limited few places where you had to jump down to proceed), but there is literally no reason you would ever do that. All sorts of gems are available for the player that takes the Radical Sneakers-based path.

And since you are constantly jumping and moving through doors, even the monster encounters are limited. And the gems keep you awash in ECN points. You really have little to worry about here.

Huge gaps are no match for the radical.

Arguably, the only drawback here is that there is no new treasure on the alternate routes, so going through a previously unexplored door only yields the “reward” of a slightly different path.

Still fun to jump around like a plumber, though.

And we’re already back to the entryway’s big bridge. We have wasted a whole minute in getting here.

Wild Arms 3’s timer dungeons are jokes. Not that I’m complaining…

That’s it for this timer challenge.

Mostly…

You could watch some Aqua Teen Hunger Force before this bomb goes off…

But it seems we were followed.

Could… could we just walk out of the mine, and let whatever followed us explode inside? Or lure the monster outside where we won’t explode?

Okay! The “twist” for this timer dungeon is that, unlike the last one, we have a final boss with a countdown. The previous explode-a-thon did not contain any required battles.

Just a reminder that the timer only ticks during the “activity” of a battle. You can take your sweet time on any menus.

The good news is that Buer does not have much HP. The bad news is that this is a puzzle battle, and you could potentially run out the clock trying to figure out what you’re supposed to do. But the further good news is that this puzzle battle drops some overtly significant hints as to what you are supposed to do.

Even if the scan info doesn’t provide the same hint.

As an eyeball, Buer will use Evil Gaze, which can paralyze a character.

As you can guess, you do not want to have anyone paralyzed during a timed fight.

Beyond that, just watch out for beams in this form.

So we get the obvious hint that Buer is photosensitive. Nail that jerk with a light spell.

GAME DESIGN FUN: There were a number of slime monsters in this dungeon that were exclusively weak to light. As such, you are very likely to have acquired more than a few light gems on your way (items that cast light magic, and are always rewards if you kill a monster with light magic). Thus, even if 75% of your party is paralyzed, you can still have your last remaining party member use a light gem to hit the weakness. Synergy!

Buer turns around and “opens” to reveal a second form after being hit by light.

Its eye (eyespot?) is now facing away from the light-flinging party.

The bad news of this form is that it drops its previous attacks and hits the whole party with a strong ice attack. Be prepared for the cold!

The good news is that this form has dramatically weakened defense, and, even if your party isn’t that strong, it will likely fall to a round or two of ARMsfire.

Bye bye, Buer.

Thanks for the magic key!

And now let’s go back to Seigfried. Not like there is a cool explosion happening or anything.

“So that’s my story. How about you? Got any goals?”

Good plan, Malik. Tell him you are trying to “regain memories”, and not just that you want your mommy.

Are demons big into aesthetics? Signs point to no.

Leehalt, you brownnoser.

Remember the masks from Chapter 1? They’re back!

We covered this back when the masks were first relevant, but Siegfried always seemed to have three underlings back in Wild Arms 1 (they were collectively known as the Quarter Knights after all). There was a little bit of turnover during that adventure, but the masks do not really 1:1 map to any of their depictions here. However, given Wild Arms 1 established that Siegfried was continually cycling in new blood as his demons were defeated, it is entirely possible it is deliberate that these masks/followers are separate from his WA1 contemporary cronies.

(And at least one of the WA1 Quarter Knights was a possessed-by-demonhood human, too.)

So the Prophets are given a choice: die, or wear a demon mask that could potentially revive them, or see them possessed by an ancient demon forever. Technically, you could claim that “this” Siegfried is a Janus that is 100% possessed…

It’s not like these three have any friends anyway…

We now pronounce you losers and demons. You may kiss your asses goodbye.

“Yeah, sure. We’re the best. Whatever.”

And what is the result of the masks syncing to their new hosts?

We’ll find out later.

“Wow, that was some explosion! Really liked seeing it!”

Remember how the screen would go all negative whenever Janus was powering up with the Dark Spear? Well, that’s back.

Okay, so this bugs me: those scenes with Siegfried were presented as happening concurrently with our dungeon journey, but there was nothing that demanded that they be happening in the present. Because that wouldn’t make sense, right? Virginia spent a week recovering, and the Prophets were at death’s door before Virginia even left the tower. If Siegfried was going to sell them on demonhood, he would have had to do that immediately, because those three could barely function well enough to stand up. However, this “disturbance in the Force” establishes that the trio just masked up now, which means… Siegfried took a week to, what, rearrange the furniture in the Yggdrasil, and then decided to address those three weirdos rotting upstairs? Seems like a lot of wasted time, boy blue.

Whatever, at least it gets the party out of the odd job market.

“Why do you think anyone here would have any idea?!”

She is literally the only person on this planet that has a clue what is going on.

And we were having such a nice week.

Thank you, Jet, for remembering that we need money to live.

So that’s it for the boneyard. Dungeon got so exploded, it doesn’t even exist anymore.

Let’s listen to Jet…

And head back to the Ark.

You don’t need to do this to progress the plot, but…

Bro? Our money? Maybe we should check with the woman that technically gave us the job.

But first! Remember that the Ark has rewards for every time we acquire a new tool.

There we go!

And we even have a clue for a future dungeon.

But that is for another day.

Use that autopilot to park at Jolly Roger…

And then it’s a quick trip back to Baskar Colony.

Time to hit up a gramma!

Next time on Wild Arms: Would you care for another dungeon that doubles as a history lesson?

 

[gogglebob]

Took a moment to get over a stomach malady, so we are back on January 18, a day to wish for good fortunes. I hope good things will come your way. Like finding two yokes in your breakfast egg.

Chapter 41: The History of the World Part 1

Previously on Wild Arms 3: Previously on Wild Arms 3: The gang detonated an Ark excavation site (on purpose this time!), but felt a weird energy immediately after their explosive escape. They assume this is demon-related (and they’re right!), so they decided to ask Granny for advice.

You’re not Granny! Shut your flower hole!

Here we go.

Poor old lady doesn’t beat her grandson nearly enough. It gets harder when you’re older.

“Something happened!”
“What?”
“We have no idea.”

Our world is in peril? The Guardians can no longer stand the terrible destruction plaguing our planet?

So there is a silly narrative trick here…

We get a wipe that sort of implies that Granny told the whole story that Siegfried told the Prophets over the last two updates. This way, the player and the playees are all on the same page with the history of the Demon War. However….

Virginia and friends may

Spoiler: not have picked up on some of the finer details...

not have picked up on some of the finer details.

Dammit! It was only a three-and-a-half-hour lecture!

“You could have at least given us four chairs.”

This… might be my favorite joke in the game? It is simultaneously a compliment, an insult, and a reference to Wild Arms lore. I don’t know if something similar was in the original Japanese, but this English localization is gold for nailing that one from all angles.

Also, always happy to see Granny cranky. The world is at stake, but that is no reason to insult your elders.

Clive is the smartest party member for all sorts of reasons.

Granny sending us to get feet pics…

“Shane? You got a boat?”
“No.”
“Then who is taking who?”

Shane is surprised that he is getting pimped out by Granny.

Fun fact: Tim of Wild Arms 2 was a -pillar-, too. That job was… Okay, you ever notice how Shane and Gallows have a grandmother, but no parents? Well, it might be because a -pillar- traditionally has an awful time buying life insurance…

“Do I get some kind of teleportation orb to do that?”
“No! That's later! Now get out of here!”

Shane is the good grandson.

D’aww. You’ve been helping Shane! You can change the names of our spells in a game feature that most people forget about!

Everybody in this world gives the weirdest directions.

Shane uses dark magic in combat, and has a command that lets you… Just kidding. Shane isn’t going to do crap beyond narrate the occasional mural.

And away we go, Shane in tow.

On a sidenote, you can do a bunch of optional quests at this point, including a few that would amaze Shane in more ways than one. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t acknowledge Shane as a member of your party in any real way, so it is a major missed opportunity for Shane to be astounded at the world at large.

So, like Infinitum, World’s Footprint is technically physically close to Baskar, but you have to navigate all around the continent to actually find a strait to get there.

May as well get to it. For reasons that will be explained in the near future, this is one of the last times we will have to motorboat anywhere.

Going to miss you most of all, monster based on a zodiac sign.

That tiny white dot in the top left is us parked at the shore relevant to this dungeon.

This is like the third time we heard about this crater. This is relevant to a mandatory dungeon, but I don’t know why the designers felt the need to clue you into the crater so many times. It’s a crater! It’s a pretty significant and obvious landmark before we know we have to go there!

Local apes all gone.

Here we are. We bump into some kid in a baseball cap on our way in.

Shane will be our tour guide for our adventure today.

The Guardian Lords are a recurring set of Guardians that have been relevant since the original Wild Arms. I would tell you more, but they’re going to be the focus of more than a few updates soon enough…

“Please do not touch the 2,500 year old murals. Brother, I am looking at you.”

“… In another room. Sorry. I started my spiel too early.”

Museum visiting hours are 9-4, and please remember to donate. It is contributions from visitors like you that keep the monsters at bay.

Whoops! No one has been contributing lately!

These book monsters arrive in large groups, and cast spells that ratio down your HP. Really quite annoying when you encounter them early in the dungeon. Or late in the dungeon. Any time, really.

Like the book monsters we encountered way back at the Prophet Laboratory, they are vulnerable to fire. Get Bradbury on their lack of asses.

The mere potential for learning in this dungeon is giving Jet the heebee jeebies.

At least we get some puzzles first.

If we try to walk forward, the door closes on us.

So we can… try to read?

Ice repels mud, apparently.

Fun fact: I misread this command as “proceed quickly”, and spent a solid five minutes trying to move through the area as fast as possible.

Quietly means you should use the ol’ sneak command. Move with all the respect of a Looney Tunes character slinking across the room and you are golden.

“We didn’t have Photoshop then, so please be kind to the artists of this piece.”

“First, let us go back approximately 2,200 years...This is a painting of when the -neosapiens- first came down to this planet.”

“Neosapiens?”

“They are believed to be the progenitors of humans.”

Hey, when was the last time we heard about “neosapiens”? I believe a demon was talking…

“I’ve been there! It’s nice! Lot of treasures in the basement!”

Elws have been briefly mentioned around lore here and there, but this is the first time they are plot-centric. It will also be the last…

“They were elves. Obviously. But we wanted to be different in the first Wild Arms, and now we’re stuck with the inordinately silly term.”

“Elws are mentioned in folklore, just like the demons. They are said to have been a beautiful race, with long, pointy ears. Many traces of their everyday lives are excavated even to this day. This was when the two races...two different cultures came face to face.”

“And given they are only mentioned in folklore, you can guess the conclusion of that meeting. Let’s move on to the war room.”

Please take a moment to stand around and contemplate these ancient stick figures.

A silly little “treasure puzzle” here requires a tool we do not have yet. We’ll be coming back later…

Christine was a car, not a doll! Get it right!

I guess Christine did put people to sleep… with her hood…

Next art showcase.

We had a good thousand years there.

Sweet!

So here’s a bit of a divergence on what we “know”.

Things were good with the two races on Filgaia for a little while, but then things took a turn, and Filgaia turned into a warzone. Remember when Siegfried made it sound like all war on this planet was the fault of cranky demons? And every other myth blamed the demons for everything? Turns out Filgaia had some bad times just because of plain ol’ racism.

“Do you suppose the gigantic turtle god still remembers that? Do you think we should ask?”

Okay, enough of this bummer. We’ll learn more in a room or two.

Wild Arms 3 only gets more and more blatant with its “you should probably fight some monsters here” alternating hallways.

“Visitors to the museum are encouraged to try some of our dumbass puzzles to proceed.”

It’s steps you are supposed to take between the various switches. If you don’t immediately understand that, you can brute force this dungeon by trying every permutation of button order.

You must press the switches in the proper order, and the whole puzzle resets if you step on the wrong switch at the wrong time.

That is generally to your benefit, as at least you don’t have to try every “password”, and only find out you got it wrong at the end.

And your reward is another piece for the gallery.

The Neosapian Hatfields and the Elw McCoys.

2,200 BG (before game) – 1,300 BG: Good times.
1,300 BG – 400 BG: Nothing but war.

Can you imagine the level of destruction that had to happen to see a ceasefire after nearly a thousand years of sunk cost fallacy warring?

“I’ve heard about this one crater…”
“Enough with the crater!”

Yeah, “smart enough” relative to the 900 years of war.

Maybe we’ll find a moral mural in the next room.

We get rock in this battle, and we’ve got a full triangle.

Treasure room!

These are probably ancient Baskar artifacts, and I do not give a damn.

People walk on all fours at some point in Filgaia history?

“This planet was so much better before nine centuries of scorched earth.”

And how did that work out?

“…. They failed. Obviously.”

Guess our ancestors did a genocide!

“The remaining neosapiens repented for all their sins, and vowed to do everything in their power to revitalize the environment. Amidst the fervor of pro-environmental sentiments, the last Elw -Mariel- gave rise to the Baskar creed.”

There she is! Mariel was an Elw from Wild Arms 1, and arguably the most friendly Elw in that version of Filgaia. Here we have confirmation that Mariel at least founded the Baskar religion (which, reminder, was also responsible for finding and utilizing Filgaian leylines).

“It is said she parted company with the Baskar after a bitter disagreement. However, the Elw race are said to have great longevity. That is why to this day, we continue our efforts, and pray that our separated paths will one day cross, yet again...”

And there is the implication that Mariel is still somewhere on Filgaia. So once again going to note that the solitary girl at the Secret Garden, a garden that is a short horse ride away from Baskar, is a dead ringer for Mariel of Wild Arms 1. And she is wearing a hat to hide any potential elw ears. Even if that whole area is optional, this would be another nice place for the party to say something about confirming history…

Anywho, in case you missed the obvious parallels, we are going to get a quick lesson on colonialism here.

“Colonizers are bad and you should feel bad,” is the blatant message of this section. You cannot disagree.

But our whitest party member wants to move on.

I respect Wild Arms 3 for this bit.

This is the second time we discover that the exalted ancestors did some pretty heinous things, but whatever, we just have to live with that, and do our best to make the present better. There is no forgiveness or excusing the ancients, just the drive to do better in the here and now.

We can be better people than our ancestors.

…. And then you can fight a diglett.

These weirdos were potential encounters anywhere in this dungeon, but they only popped up (ha!) recently.

They attack by turning their heads into spikes, and the attack is called “Excellent Thinking”. This is why videogames were invented.

They look like Pokémon, and they have a stupid move that works like a stupid Pokémon game.

Great Booster boosts all of their stats, and it takes forfreakingever for the game to cycle through all the “pow boosted, def boosted, mag boosted, eloquence boosted” messages. And then when you fight a group of six of them? It’s like that stupid bat fight in Final Fantasy 4. And the worst part? Even with their gigantic boosts, they still go down in one or two hits. Complete waste of time!

Otherwise, nothing to write home about here.

This is good! Weather Vane confers an ability that prevents surprise or “just one party member” ambush fights. Unfortunately, you need a full set of four to completely eliminate all surprise encounters, as the surprise randomizer seems to be based on individual party members. One Guardian comes naturally with this skill, so we need another two Weather Vanes. One day…

Now we’re at the… is that a tree? A giant tree? I get that reference!

Took 50 years from the birth of the last Elw for anybody to do anything new about all this devastation.

“We’ve been there. No big.”

“He said you fought a guy trying to make a new mom? That is not mentioned in the mural.”

Virginia is immediately overcompensating for her Daddy being involved in, ya know, worldwide calamity.

Yeah, right? Seems like that whole “demon” thing would get mentioned somewhere.

Just casually throwing that out there while standing in front of the Yggdrasil mural seems beneath Clive, but here we are.

“Within these mural chambers like only facts about the past. It is up to the people of the present to figure out how we want to interpret this. We may still be in the dark now, but I'm sure we will find the truth within them.”

Man, if anyone was paying attention to these murals, they would probably spend the rest of their life crying in the shower. Assuming Filgaia has enough water left for showers…

“'Looking for a shortcut can lead you astray...' That is what my professor always used to say. Yes, I understand now. I am always jumping to conclusions...”

Are you? I feel like somebody needs to put together the Yggdrasil Disaster with the (apparently) human-based “Demon War” and draw the immediate conclusion that neosapians need to be locked in a cage for their own good.

One more mural to go!

One more puzzle to go!

Match the colors to the switches. Also: destroy the Ark.

Mostly just a matter of using the Mighty Gloves to put the square box in the square hole, but you do have to use Virginia’s fire to get a red block.

And what does the last mural contain? Find out next time!

BUT FIRST a quick summary of what we learn if we put our various lore dumps together:
(“Conjecture” is clearly labeled as such, and, to my knowledge, is neither confirmed nor denied over the course of WA3 materials)

• Filgaia was originally inhabited by Elws.
• Terra was originally inhabited by Neosapians.
• Elws had a pretty good time of it living in harmony with the nature and Guardians of Filgaia
• Neosapians were technologically advanced, and discovered ways to “evolve” into stronger forms.
• Some Neosapians continued to be “simple” Neosapians, some evolved into Demons.
• Demons were so named because they dropped their empathy and/or ethics on the way to evolution.
• Demons warred for supremacy for a while.
• This warring completely wrecked Terra.
• Eventually, demons and Neosapians hopped in the Ark to head over to Filgaia.
• Neosapians and Elw got along for a few hundred years.
• Conjecture: Neosapians came over with star-crossing level technology. It is pretty easy to be friendly with the locals when tech is keeping everybody comfortable.
• Eventually, Elw and Neosapians began to fight.
• Conjecture: It is entirely possible Neosapian tech was doing bad things to Filgaia, and Elws wanted that to stop.
• Alternate Conjecture: Or, as Siegfried eluded to, the Neosapian/Demon infighting never stopped, and the Elws just got tired of their noisy, destructive neighbors.
• Whatever the reason, Elws and Neosapians proceeded to fight for 900 years.
• Neosapians had technology on their side, Elws had Guardians and associated arcana (magic).
• Eventually, the war ended.
• Somewhere in the midst of that war, the last demons and dragons died out, leaving behind only Hyades and some scattered artifacts. At the very least, Siegfried was killed sometime after arriving on Filgaia.
• Conjecture: The war ended because the demons died out, and only “regular” Neosapians remained.
• This warring wrecked Filgaia, but it was still generally habitable for Neosapians.
• However, the Elw could not survive, so they mostly left.
• One last Elw, Mariel, founded the Neosapian Baskar Colony.
• In an effort to save Filgaia, the Baskars set up the Guardian Shrines/Chocks to siphon Guardian power, essentially sacrificing the gods of the Elw to extend the planet’s life.
• A few years after that, the Yggdrasil Project was founded to find ways to save the planet without committing deicide.
• The Yggdrasil Project was apparently going pretty well until the Yggdrasil Disaster
• The Yggdrasil Disaster was instigated by… something… and then… something… happens, and now Filgaia is worse than it has ever been.
• Ten years later, Virginia fights some gobs.

And that’s our Filgaia timeline! Please look forward to filling in the last few gaps before the game ends!

Next time on Wild Arms: Finally, we all get to hang out.

 

[Mr Bean]

I feel like the prophets deserve a foot note at the end there on what NOT to do:
After blowing themselves up during the Yggdrasil disaster, 3 goobers decide to make themselves new bodies that can't survive on the planet and instead of trying to fix that, they decide to terraform the planet and kill everyone else because being a demon sounded awesome

 

[SpoonyBard]

The murals leave out the most important characters in Filgaia's history, there's not a single mention of Zed, or Liz and Ard!

They shouldn't have padded out so much stone-carving real estate with all that 'war' stuff. Tsk!

 

[gogglebob]

Welcome back to Filgaia 101 on January 24, Kick Back Day. The king of Meria Boule, Garbeth III, decided to create an official Kick Back Day, believing it will increase productivity as a side effect. On the other hand, it's kind of hard to kick back once you're told to do so from above. It's like when my mom tells me to do my homework and I try to wing it off by saying I'm about to get to it...

Chapter 42: The Meaning of Life

Previously on Wild Arms 3: Shane took us to a local art installation, and taught us all about the history of war, elves, and environmentalism. There is one last mural to see, though…

And here we are… even though apparently the final room of this dungeon can contain random encounters.

The Baskars love their art, history, and cliches.

Really hit a creative wall there, eh?

“Ever hear of a metaphor, Virginia?”

“Also, this mural was Granny’s responsibility, and… it’s been a rough year.”

I love the idea of a dungeon filled with monsters and puzzles ending with a “only who can prevent forest fires” message.

Sorry, Gallows, wasn’t any room in our backpack behind the 99 heal berries for art supplies.

Jet notices something relevant.

Back to

Spoiler: talk of the Guardian Lords...

talk of the Guardian Lords.

Even Gallows remembers their names! They must be important.

This is a fun recurring bit in the first three Wild Arms titles: the four Guardian Lords represent the intrinsic wills of humanity… but #$^& is always so @&*$%ed, nobody can ever find them when one of these games actually starts.

FUN FACT: Just for funsies, on my “second” playthrough on the Playstation 5, I actually went out of my way to find one of the Guardian Lords before this cutscene (you can technically find all of them before entering this dungeon). And, as you can guess, absolutely nothing changes about this dialogue. Boo.

Well, considering your dad is very visibly involved in some of this planet business, I’m going to say this stretches back to before you got off your duff.

“Kind of a bummer place to end the tour. I mean, the Guardian Statues used to be here, and I guess the ancestors thought that whole blank wall thing would work well with the splendor of the gods and… Sorry. Just sorry. Our culture sucks. Please do not leave a Yelp review.”

You have a moment if you would like to stay in this room and ponder.

But once we get going…

Teleporting friends!

“Didn’t we kill you, like, three times!?”

The Prophets return! And now they are in their demon forms! This would be a pretty kickass reveal…

...if you hadn’t already booted up the game at least once before this scene to see their cool, anime-intro-based versions.

You are welcome to interpret the Prophets’ various demonic deformities as you so wish. Leehalt already looked the least human from the get-go (he's blue, da ba dee), so he mostly just has a third eye and horns. Melody has demonically enhanced cleavage, hedgehog hair, gnarly goat antlers, and pelvic tauros horns. Malik is the most dramatically mutated, and is now Bird Person.

I like the implication that Virginia only recognizes Malik by process of elimination.

“Were they always so… obviously evil?”

Puppies?

… It’s never puppies.

Consider this a callback to that fight back at the mine. The Prophets have always had the ability to create/summon monsters, so here is a set of “better” opponents.

Can you deduce the obvious movie reference happening in this fight?

There’s an elemental weakness here, but be careful…

Scarecrow casts reflect on his enemy party pretty quickly, so unleashing an arcana barrage is not recommended until you have bashed his brains.

Leonhardt has the courage to use powerful physical attacks.

And Steamgear’s tin heart inflicts status maladies.

Like all metal men, Steamgear does not appreciate lightning.

Be careful with the unpleasantness of a party member being confused.

Leonhardt is very weak to elemental attacks, but Scarecrow’s reflect magic does add a little risk.

I enjoy any dark magic that includes a question mark.

Anyway, assuming your entire party doesn’t simultaneously catch confusion, this fight goes swiftly. Two out of three of these goobers went down in the same round. Oh! And we get one of Clive’s kid’s books out of the deal.

We now resume our reunion already in progress.

Speaking of which…

Nice that the Blue Menace gets his own blue effects.

“There used to be… more of you? Right? I’m not misremembering?”

We never get any flashbacks to when the Prophets were all working together at the Yggdrasil Project approximately fifteen years back. That said, I would love to know if Leehalt was this much of a suck up then, too. Is this why he now hates Werner so bad?

Malik is definitely a bird person, as he eventually is seen actively flapping/flying. However, his head is… difficult to parse. Hummingbird demon? Would work well with the whole "moving so fast he's vibrating" thing...

“I figured you would be cool with these people that shot you a bunch.”

Didn’t you already do that? I mean… it kind of looks like you already did that…

“We just beat a hay guy. Do your worst.”

Like we haven’t heard that one before…

No fight? Laser beam? Nothing?! All talk with these demons…

“I mean, I could see how he was kind of sexy, but…”
“No! The bad dreams!”

“I thought they would be less… hairy.”

Gallows hastily wrote a “what I learned on my trip to the museum” report on the bus ride back.

Sounds like somebody didn’t learn the lessons of history…

More demon slaying! Less talking!

True!

Halle acknowledges that it was the Elw and “their” Guardians that repelled the demons last time (note: not something that was distinctly acknowledged via mural), so reclaiming the lost Guardian Lords is probably a good idea.

“('Looking for a shortcut can lead you astray...') What we currently know...is that a demon is trying to do something with this planet. Do you remember the words that blue demon knight, Siegfried said to us...?”

Whether because he is the least spiritual of your four god-summoners, or because he is dedicated to not taking shortcuts, Clive wants to explore alternate routes.

Yes. Duh.

Granny got no time for this nonsense. Granny gotta get back to her cave.

“An invasion from another world can only be dealt with by the power that sustains the world, guardians...With such limited options, there's really no use thinking about it. Plus, I'm sure we're all hungry. We can't come up with good ideas on an empty stomach. I'm going to fix some dinner. Join me if you like. In fact, I suggest you spend the night.”

I don’t know if this is Granny sweetly acknowledging everyone needs a rest, or she thinks this will be their last meal…

Granny’s home is like one of three houses where this party ever canonically sleeps.

Last time we stayed here, Gallows came up with his cat-time-magic plan. Now Clive is having trouble sleeping.

We going to finally deal with your trauma, Clive?

Flashback?

Flashback.

“Listen up, young one...There are those who view the work of archaeologists as pointless, but that is untrue. If we are able to investigate and pinpoint the cause and origin of Filgaia's decay, we may be able to find a way to reverse it.”

“And think of all the random treasure chests we have found. That must be worth something.”

“Please fixate on this phrase for the rest of your life. I got it off a cereal box. Captain Crunch had this delightful maze...”

But, as we all know now, there is more than a little magic involved in the archeology of Filgaia (“magic”, or whatever you want to call “everyone lost their memory a few years back”), so Berlitz was more than a little confused by the state of things.

Berlitz can get a lot of information out of a pile of dirt.

So close!

The one guy on this planet that knew he was looking at nanomachines but didn’t get exploded a couple years prior.

They tried!

And now we recall the bad times™.

“Berlitz, if I let you die, we're going to have to change the seating arrangements for the 87th time.”

Clive, somehow, doesn’t remember this part every six seconds.

“If I ever have a granddaughter, please make sure she is as cute as a button.”

“Second regret: maybe start carrying a gigantic ARM so you don’t get killed by security systems like me.”

“I spent too many of my best years perfecting mustache maintenance. Don’t waste your life like I did.”

“Or at least one where they can have water?”

Oh yeah. Guess the fact that there has been a place where we could find nanomachines all this time could be relevant.

Clive seems to have a moment of doubt at visiting his mentor/father in law’s grave, but gets over it.

“Clive, do you ever think about how we choose to sleep in our overly elaborate outfits?”

“Would you like me to narrate…”
“No.”

Clive acknowledges the Guardians would probably be helpful, but he is more interested in the demon’s plans. He is not so much saying the whole Baskar route is wrong as imitating the mighty Vic Viper and keeping his options active.

And maybe we should get some sleep, too.

“Unlike him, we are probably not going to die there. Probably.”

“Do you need a Clive snack?”

Really, really does not want to see dad’s mangled corpse.

In the interest of Clive’s welfare, we are going to take forever to actually visit that dungeon.

For once, we do not get weird directions, but a map to interpret. We can take a look after the cutscenes conclude.

So let’s get into the nitty gritty of Wild Arms 3.

The first full chapter of Wild Arms 3 (which would be parts 1-13 of this Let’s Play) is introductions from top to bottom. There are the four (obvious) introduction dungeons for the main characters, the first “everyone” dungeon that introduces the Guardians, a dungeon to feature Janus ‘n pals, a dungeon to present Maya and her delightful family, and the final dungeon of the chapter confirms the “demon threat” and the Prophets all in one go. Chapter 2 (parts 14-38) is 100% “chasing the Prophets”, with their formal introduction to the party kicking off the chapter, and the finale being decisively storming their base and (partially) reconciling with their benevolent/errant fourth member, Daddy. Every bit of Chapter 2 involves being told where to go next, and the only iota of freedom available is when you must find a pair of statues before the Nidhogg Pass. After all that, we get to Chapter 3… and that is going to be something different.

This is not readily apparent to a new player, but Wild Arms 3 Chapter 3 is heavily inspired by Final Fantasy 6’s World of Ruin. Once you obtain the Radical Sneakers, you can start doing all sorts of things across the world, but now the plot is outright stating it: go do what you want. You’ve got options! And while a lot of these options will eventually become mandatory (the final dungeon of Chapter 3 all but says “you must complete more sidequests” if you haven’t already), the level of “customization” available at this point in your adventure is laudable. If you know where you are going, you can immediately grab an airship, the most powerful gods on the planet, and conquer a few super bosses before the next “plot” dungeon. And even if you do not have a clue where to go, all the NPCs at this point in the game are dropping various hints about locations and potential treasures. So, basically, even if you weren’t following a FAQ (or Let’s Play!), it is right about here that if you hear about a cool dragon in an undiscovered town, you can now go off and find a cool dragon in an undiscovered town.

So you get to enjoy some role-playing in this role-playing game!

What does this mean for the Let’s Play? Well, I have now played through Wild Arms 3 in rapid succession on two different systems, so I am confident in saying I know a thing or two about an “optimum” run on maximizing plot and side content. While this LP will not match exactly what happened in either play through (there was some experimenting going on that… sometimes didn’t work) We are going to take a route through the “optional” content earlier than most people would likely explore these areas, because… well… Because there are more than a few treasures (and vehicles!) we can find along the way that makes the rest of this journey a lot easier. And, yes, this is likely going to skew the difficulty curve, and create a few situations where the “mandatory” plot doesn’t 100% make sense (like the mentioned-this-update bit where you can already have the Guardian Lords while everyone is talking about them like some mystery), but, hey, if a game gives you freedom, you take it.

The “map shred” mentioned during the dialogue is now a usable key item.

That’s where we could go…

But we’re not going to!

Next time on Wild Arms: “It’s a-me, Mario! And I’m-a dead forever!”

 

[gogglebob]

Let's Play Question for the audience! ! !

As mentioned over and over again, this is the point in the game when the sidequests/optional content opens up. Very shortly, some of the side quests will be deliberately "presented", but do not need to be (and are generally not intended to be) completed when initially found. As an easy example, there is a battle coliseum on the horizon, and you MUST complete the easy level of the coliseum, but you can also challenge normal, hard, and very hard at the same point in the game. You will likely get wrecked if you do that without planning... but, of course, I have planning to spare. This happens with a number of sidequests: you have to complete the "lowest" level of the challenge, but the optional portions are completely available, too.

So the question

Would you rather see me simply complete the "easy" part for the update, and then immediately move on, with the idea that I will come back for the optional content later?
Or when I'm at the sidequest anyway, see the whole sidequest, mandatory and optional parts, all as part of one update?

One way or another, this Let's Play will cover the optional content, it is just a matter of now or later.

What do you think?

 

[Mogri]

w/e! I am along for the ride.

I am curious about the "go do more sidequests" dialog, though.