Only a minor waste

Gonna be short tonight due to several reasons so let’s get this over with.

We walk out of the forest and back into the city walls. Trekking through a few lizardmen who are easily dispatched with a sharp spear, we come to what appears to be a city gate; Courtyard, large walls, and two people talking.

Guildenstern and Samantha are having a conversation I skipped over last night about the rune written all over the city. Guildenstern mentions how this entire city is a giant circle of magic, all with a cathedral at its center. He surmises it’s been the case for all 2000 years of its history.

The pair are interrupted by Rosencrantz who pretty much confirms the theory and alludes that the three of them know each other, but not at the same level. He then mentions that the entire city is the Gran Grimoire the couple talked about last night that Sydney had/looking for. Samantha then gets the ability to see through Ashley’s eyes and knows that he is nearby too which the two men seem to ignore and move on.

I then dip into the nearby workshop and, in somewhat confused fashion, upgrade my bladed weapon to a rapier (which is still bladed), upgrade my armor a bit, and remove unwanted junk from my very tiny backpack. It’s almost maddening how little item space we have and the container does little to help due to availability and the tedium of saving each time you shut it.

As I gather up my new armaments, I walk through the gate only to be stopped by Hamlet’s Heros. Here we get to fight a rather interesting boss. It’s a bit pvp-y since Rosencrantz uses similar tactics than you do. He uses break arts, the special attacks I once mentioned in passing, as well as items to heal. The fight isn’t hard, but interesting. Afterward, Rosencrantz confirms that Sydney was correct when he said Ashley killed his family. However, it turns out Ashley never had a family to start with. His memories were...fabricated (I guess) by the VKP. Once upon a time, Ash and Rossey were partners who hunted political dissidents and whomever the state wanted. Ashley’s “family” were just some peasants. His memories seem to the father he killed. I have so many questions I’ll get to later.

After this revelation, Rosey escapes and we wander around Leá Monde finally. There are two paths we can take and one of them, I really shouldn't have. I went down into the undercity and immediately fought a Dark Elemental. I did no damage to him and wreaked my face which, because save points are sparse for the first time all game, lost me an hour of playtime. In an attempt to fill out the map (the game keeps track for some reason at boss fights), I went back just to the point of no return and went the other way...but died again before exploring new rooms. There are too many tedious enemies in this area so I started trying to run through which got me in the end. Tedium isn’t a good game mechanic!

Eventually, I got to where I wanted and killed an Air Elemental, got to a save point, and called it a night there in what I think was the abandoned mine B2.

The music of Leá Monde is just atmospheric, along with the city walls so nothing to report on. So I’ll skip to my rhetorical questions I hope have answers in coming nights:
Why did Ashley get the dad’s memories?
Why is the kid helping Ashley?
Why does Ashley have Tia’s necklace?
Does he have memories prior to this event?
How did they transfer memories?

I suspect several of these have answers, ps1 game plot holes aside, but they’re here and I have a headache so I’m going to bed.