Whimsy and capricious.

But, so far, devoid of depth.

We march on to chapter two, The Raging Land, but first, we have to solve a mystery. But even before that, we see a scene with Bleublanc on the roofs of the dock house as “Lawrence?” shows up, and they talk about stuff. They hear a noise and go to investigate before the drunk Ravens show up, and they disperse. The camera pans to Papa Kevin as he’s hiding behind a box praising Adios, the goddess of this world.

We then return to the party, and I do a few side missions, realize I missed one, and go to say farewell to Nial and Dorothy. She’s asleep, but he’s busy writing away and tells us we’re, finally, not likely to see him for once in the next chapter. On our way out, a man working for one of the mayoral candidates rushes up to us. He needs help figuring out who assaulted a member of his team. The story is, a member, Dias, was knocked unconscious by an unknown assailant. The assailant also might have stolen something, or at least tidied up the place. To find the culprit, we have to talk to everyone in the hotel. All seven of them, or we just talk to fishermen outback a bunch. We then collaborate his story with the questioned parties, and that's it. Seriously, we talk to him four times for three of the keywords. We talk to the concierge once, and only any of the mayor’s team to make sure we know where they were. It’s an almost fun side quest, but it all comes undone at the end. We find out the bad guy is the mayor’s son! But it was an accident, and all he did was open a door too fast and eat a sandwich. This quest took nearly an hour of randomly walking back and forth between people asking and re-asking about the same few keywords. It all seems like a giant waste of time. I think I could have just skipped it, but that’s lazy. For our efforts, we get 5000 Gold (Mira) and continue with our journey.

The party goes to the airship station only to be interrupted by the orphans. They’re upset they didn’t get to say goodbye, so here they are. Kloe’s friends and Dean also show up, and it takes time away from the game for this sappy stuff that wasn't necessary. Most games skip this, or shorten it, for a reason. We then go about talking to our party members on the ship, which amounts to a lot of nothing. We learn a bit more about the circus and transportation in other countries from Shera and that Sieg, Kloe’s bird, is better than an airship. Pedo does nothing.

We land in Zeiss, only for an earthquake to hit at the same time. No damage, but earthquakes are rare, so it’s shocking nonetheless. We make our way to the Bracer Guild and learn what’s next. There was an earthquake a few days ago, as well, and we’re to look into it. First, we go and see Tita and her grandpa. Pedo says how much he wants to hug her, and I'm seriously considering dropping this game...again. Jokes like this aren’t funny. They don’t lead to interesting characters or twists. There is no point in this, and it not only derails the game but makes a bad game. At least Estelle makes mention of his attacks and threatens to call the cops if he touches the 10-year-old girl, but at this point, don’t threaten and do it! Awful, awful, awful!

We have a quick hello to the Russells and have some tea before carrying on with the quests. I finish a few sides, and accidentally spoil a small upcoming part about a man wearing sunglasses, which are cool and rare. We then head to Wolf Fortress and learn about their earthquake three days ago. We talk to a man who mentions the man in sunglasses. As we leave, we’re interrupted by a soldier informing us about a third earthquake at Shankheim gate, and the game teleports us there. Damn good idea, Falcom. We go around and talk to people in the fort until we come to a maid who mentions the sunglassed man. She fell in love instantly with his low-cut, v-neck shirt. Sadly, before she could talk to him, he disappeared. Estelle and Shera are reminded of Lawrence, from game one, and how he can fly.

I return to the guildhall, where Tita shows up and asks is to track the earthquake by placing three sensors across the province. She joins the party so we can finally remove the pedophile from the active team, and I called it a night there.

I’m not having fun. Not just the pedo, but with everything. Too much exposition and world building, and not enough plot and action. While I have the game on easy mode, this is insultingly easy. I’m also dreading what’s coming up. There’s a hot springs village nearby, and we’re probably going there with the 10-year-old girl and 26-year-old sex offender. It’s Friday morning, and I’m giving this game until Sunday night to change my mind. If it doesn’t pick up, I’m dropping it. Assuming I don’t do it sooner...