Well, this one sucked

As we’re back in Leá Monde, I thought I’d...nope we’re going back down.

After a scene with Glldernstern and his scantly clad girlfriend, Samantha, where they wonder about the dead and night, as well as, Sydney and if he was the Gran Grimoire, Sydney shows up. He asks them how they know and he insults their religion before Gildernstern shows how his magiks as he teleports behind Sydney. “You’re not the only shepherd”, which gives me a bit of a heretic vibe, which is cool. Sydney then shadow steps into a wall and Ashley chases after them, into the undercity. It’s very blue down here.

The undercity isn’t long, but there is a giant crab I stab in the mouth a lot. Also, a lot of locked doors, so I suspect we’ll be back.

We climb the stairs and enter a forest with, “snowflies”. We get another scene where Ashley meets his stalker, the guy in red, and his name is Rosencrantz. Just before that, Ashley goes clairvoyant again and sees Samantha talking to a female commander discussing how hard it was, and the loss of needed to, successfully take the city (from Müllenkamp, I think). And questions why Sydney summons demons he can’t control. Guildenstern somehow recognizes that Ashley is seeing this and slaps Samantha. Then the talk from the stalker named Rosencrantz.

Rosey is a fellow Riskbreaker. He also knows a lot about what’s going on for...reasons I’m sure are benevolent. As we leave, after being told to leave the city or else we’ll be enemies by Rosey in a big heel turn, a man named Grisson shows up. Grisson is Duane’s brother and he wants revenge. But, for now, we enter the forest. And this forest sucks.

It’s one of those places where paths don’t lead to where you think dungeons and a room exit doesn’t take you to a room entrance where it logically should. A lot of seemingly teleports. The trick is to follow the snowflies. I tried to do that, but it was totally nonsensical. They always come from one direction, which works for the first half, but in many rooms, they just linger. There’s no indication of where to go. And the enemies are quite a doozy. The Fire Element boss from the last night ALREADY is a common mob and there’s another mob that I lacked the proper weapon to kill in a timely fashion. We spent so much time here getting attacked, I almost stopped playing the game. If it weren’t for this blog, I would have.

Onward now, you wander until you fight another dragon. It’s nice fighting dragons so often, but I already feel a bit spoiled. Kill him and another earthquake which also “changes the wind” and we go traipsing off again until we find ol’ Grisson. Grisson is in a fight with Sydney. Grisson tries to summon something, because everyone knows ancient dark arts in the papacy, but fails because he’s tired and “weak”. And then Ashley shows up which causes a rise of anger, or whatever, and he gets up and finishes the incantation which causes a headless samurai to appear.

This battle also sucks since Grissom spams a spell which takes large chunks of hp and a spell which steals your MP. Focus him and s l o w l y dwindle his health until he dies and his summon is easy to take out. Sydney joins you as an ally in this fight, but doesn’t do much due to how the combat works. But it’s an interesting idea none-the-less.

After the fight, Sydney goes back into Ashley’s memories to show him that it was Ashley all along who killed his family. He was tricked into it by his bosses, the VKM, and just forgot about it...? Sydney leaves and we meander to the next save where I rage called it a night.

The music of both places are something you’d find out of a horror movie. Take that as you will. I hate horror movies due to childhood trauma so I wasn't too fond of it and I didn’t listen to it. And I was too upset to listen to the boss battles. I’m terrible, I know.

I’m starting to get the plot. There’s a corrupt holy order secretly pulling the strings of something which is very Ivalice Alliance. But, I’m more curious if Sydney remains the main antagonist. I’d bet we have to kill Gildernstern regardless of plot changes, but how do we side with Sudney? Yeah, he’s probably evil, but does he have a point?