So, yeah, it’s the exact same game.

The first thing we see is the final dungeon of game one. But why is Kevin here? He’s being led to the final boss fight by Julia, a high ranking military member from the first game. There he says some stuff that’s probably foreshadowing about a litany of proper nouns. It all goes over my head for now.

So we jump back to Estelle and Anelace as they return to Grancel, the Liberl Capital City. They head to the Bracer Guild, where they’re paid for training and learn of their next mission. Shera and Agate walk into the room and tell them the four of them are going to investigate Ouroboros. They will split into two groups, each going to a different part of the country. While there’s unlikely to any overt signs of the secret group, they’re to inspect anything even remotely suspicious. We get to pick who Estelle travels with, and I choose Agate. I regret this as I learn he’s going to Ruan, his home, while Shera is going to Rolent, the home of both Shera and Estelle. So I reset the game and pick Shera only to learn the plot forces us to Ruan. While I wish I would’ve gone back to Agate, I decided I’m going to stay as is to punish the game (somehow) for questionable railroading. Before Agate and Anelace leave, there’s a scene where Anelace wants to take her and Estelle’s relationship further. This makes everyone excited/embarrassed until she states she wants to be rivals. Lesbian jokes!

While Estelle is on the airship to Ruan, she meets people who she saved during act two of game one. They act like it’s been forever since they last met, but it’s only been a month. Due to lockdown, I haven't seen my friends in four months, so this means nothing to me.

The same happens in Ruan. Before the shortly awaited reunions, The Bracers learn that a mysterious ghost has been sighted, and they’re to get to the bottom of it. The guild suspects it is a harmless story but, the fact that there were three separate calls, from three types of people, across three regions proves something is strange. We go to each of the three people and get their story, as well as do minor guild missions along the way. I start by killing two sub bosses, collect ingredients, and take a picture.

The first person we're forced to talk to (before even leaving the city to side quest) is a dockhand. Belden says it appeared above the docks at 2 AM and scared him away from the Ravens, the gang who inhabit the warehouses, who we had issues with in this city during game one. After his ordeal, the ghost went to the northeast.
The second person was a soldier/guard along the south gate. We take notice of how scared Estelle as she even refuses to say the ghost is a ghost and just calls it by various other pronouns. Talking to the guard, he says he shot the ghost, and the bullet did nothing. It then left traveling to the north.
The third is an orphan girl who we met in game one. Before talking to her, we stop by the orphanage, and we drink some tea made by the Matron and catch-up. Estelle cries over Joshua again, and then we head to the village of Manoria, where the kids are. It’s Sunday, apparently, and this kingdom is very religious. We see Kevin, from the prologue, not as he's teaching Sunday School to the kids, but telling them a story called the Doll Knight. We get there at the end, so miss the whole story. All 22 chapters of it...

We return to the orphanage and have a nice reunion with the kids in their rebuilt home. Polly, with a few accomplices, tell us the ghost was a nice and courteous man in a mask. As it is getting late, Estelle and Shera offer to escort Father Kevin back to the city, and I called it a night there.

Does it feel like I did very little? I feel like I did very little. However, this took four hours to play through because of all the talking. It’s the start of a JRPG, so this should be expected, and I’ll keep on keeping on. Not much action yet, no plot advancement, but it’s just six hours. When the game gets dark, it’s gonna get reaL dark, ain’t it? At the very least, I’m enjoying not writing for an hour the last few nights. Right now, I feel like it’s the exact same game as the first one. Am I gonna tour the country doing subplot after subplot again?