Enter the pedophile.

A teenage girl and a seductive dominatrix walk Papa Kev through a scenic beach...you finish the joke.

Anyway, after Kevin shoots things with his crossbow, doing negligible damage, we reach Ruan, where Shera says how good a shot he was. He humbly accepts the compliment and returns to the church in town. The Bracers follow suit and return to their HQ to fill the receptionist in on the details.

As we walk in, we see Nial and Dorothy, Liberl’s top news team we were always running into in game one. They’re in town trying to get the scoop on the upcoming city/province election. Suddenly, a man rushes into the guildhall and tells everyone that a fight is fixing to break out on the bridge between the two political sides. This game hits real close to home, ya? The news team rushes out first to get the headline (and, somehow, a better view), while the Bracers straggle behind just in case something does happen. The two politicians yell and bicker until the worst character in the franchise shows up and confuses everyone with his worthlessness. Oliver, the true main antagonist from game one, rows a boat up to the bridge and sings everyone a song about love or something. There was no music accompanying, and I couldn’t find the rhythm and just gave up. Dumbfounded, yet calmed, everyone goes their separate ways while, The Bracers, the mainstream media, and the bard return to the guildhall.

Estelle and Shere tell the guild of their findings, and everyone comes up with a plan. All the stories indicate the problem is coming from the nearby high school, The Jenis Royal Academy. Dorothy comes along to take pictures for the news, and, knowing Oliver is gonna force his way into the party anyway, Shera invites the Erebonian along.

Once at the academy, we quickly find Kloe, another character from game one (I need a shorthand version of this sentence) and her pet bird Sieg. There’s also Juli and Hans, who also performed in the play alongside Kloe and the Brights I mentioned in the game one blog. We showed up just in time for exams to end, meaning everyone is free to enjoy come what may. Our party informs the high school kids about the ghost, and everyone volunteers to help. They break into four groups, and Estelle and Kloe ask the students if they’ve found anything.

While asking around, we find Oliver, a 26-year-old man, wishing he could get into the girl's dorms at a high school. There’s another dialogue that reminds me how much he hit on both Joshua and Estelle in game one, both teenagers, as well as why he’s even in Ruan, to begin with. This guy is a pedophile. Oliver shouldn’t be allowed near the party because of his sexual harassment, let alone an entire high school. Shera, no Virgin Mary herself, just invited him along. Does this kingdom not have sex offender laws?

It’s at this point where I feel like dropping the game, but I’ll, foolishly, continue for now despite everything telling me to stop. The short of it is, three people tell us to go to the old school building, and there we go. We solve a simple riddle, which leads us down to a secret basement, and we explore that. In the end, we come to a masked man, who’s just as annoying as Pedophile.

He’s a part of the Ouroboros organization, and his name is Blueblanc, Enforcer X. He’s in possession of a Gospel, a McGuffin of last game, which has the power to astral project himself across space. He can also make flame sconces grow, thus causing shadows to grow. What a lame ability you say, not so! An enlarged shadow is more prone to being struck with a magic knife, which stops our characters from moving. So, he has ninjitsu Shadow Parayalis. Sadly, the character's mouths can still move, so Bleu and Pedo wane philosophical about beauty and other creepy stuff that makes me hate them more. If you’re similar to the enemy, you might be the enemy. We’re saved when Dorothy shows up and takes a picture. She has her flash on, which temporarily removes our shadows and frees us.

Rather than fight us himself, Bleu summons a giant centaur robot to attack us. I’m reminded that I’m playing on easy mode, so we manage to take out his 11000 HP before he takes out 150 of ours. We do away with his adds, and Shadow Thief B gets away.

We all return to the guild to turn in our report. Guild business happens, and all four people decide to carry on together to the next adventure. But that adventure will have to wait until tomorrow.

So, I’ll start with the good things. I like Kloe. Not only does she start as a white mage-esq build, but she has an interesting arc. She’s not actually named Kloe but is Klaudia van Aulesse, the de-facto hair to the Liberl Kingdom. She’s the only grandchild/descendent of the current queen, Alicia. She’s a kind, but just girl who’s unsure of her place in the world. She’s not even sure if she wants, or deserves the crown.

There was character growth today. Estelle saw the ghost, and it scared her so much sue fainted. When she woke up, she was furious and just wanted to,= “polish her staff on the ghost”. I don’t know what that means, but it sounds fun. I know it’s not much, but I’m easy to please right now.

And the negatives, Oliver is a pedophile. He’s a sexual deviant, and I hate it. Even without his illegal lusts, he exemplifies my least favorite trope in any form of entertainment. The overconfident, shameless troubadour, who is only here for comic relief is awful. It's not funny. It's doesn't help the plot. It's not relatable. Maybe there’s something cool about him we’ll learn later, but his creepiness has ruined him already. I don't care about getting to that later. There’s no reason to hit on teenagers. There’s no reason to want to sneak into the girl's dorms at a high school. You’re 26, bud, go die.

My rope here is getting flayed, and it’s running out of time. I don’t see the hype, and I’m only barely enjoying my time. I'm sure it gets, undoubtedly interesting eventually, but will I get there? Will I be able to suffer through the entire backstory of no named NPCs? I kinda want to skip and go to the next game, which you better believe I know is great. But, if I do, will be able to listen to mu podcasts?

Oh, and also, the Aurelian Causeway music is really, really amazing. The beach stuff is okay-ish in comparison.