Rue’s finale

As prepared as we can be, we walk over to the town’s exit and select Valen’s Fortress. Rue is then seen on the mountaintop where he met Klaus and Mira, and, just as he’s about to leave, Elena shows up. She’s happy she caught up and tells us something very important. She moves closer, the camera zooms in, and she says, “I’m making pumpkin pie tonight.” I thought this was great. She doesn’t confess her love, just tells us what’s for dessert. Gotta love routes of popular tropes. Rue and Elena look forward to seeing each other tonight. Rue jumps off the cliff, transforms into Wylaf, and flies towards the sky fortress. Or, tries to, at least. Mint shows up and demands that he takes her with. She tries to jump up to him and fails. Rue leaves on his own and enters the endgame.

As Rue lands, he sees the tired body of Prima Doll. Prima apologizes that he broke the seal, but Rue understands. Prima says his energy is low and goes to sleep. Before he does, he tells Rue that he's impressed with how dedicated he is. It's the exact opposite of Klaus from yesterday, so I understand Klaus even less now. Regardless, Prima returns into his cube form and lies there as we enter the final dungeon.

This is a very straightforward dungeon that is separated into several arenas. The first three are paths forward, so simply go from exit to exit. Sometimes you need to deviate to a side path to kill a monster, transform into it, and use its ability to open something. There are a few side paths in arena three, but I somehow went the correct way all three times, so I don’t know if anything lies down the optional ways. There is a jumping puzzle between each floor, where either my controller fails me or I'm reminded the jumping mechanics suck.

Arena four mixes it up with a fire puzzle. Light the flames in the correct order across the four rooms. Each time you do, a stone drops. Return the stones to the first room to advance, but you can't attack with the stone, so be careful. The mobs that are fought here allow you to do the puzzles, so there is no chance of being locked out.

At the end of this section, the last Master shows up. Psycho Master tries his hand to stoping us but fails. He has the same gimmick but a few more tricks that don’t help. In the end, he does something in a cutscene and dies. I think I missed something, but let’s carry on.

He was blocking us from entering the Cursed Crossways. This is an area that leads to enemies you’re already seen. Corner rooms are miscellaneous mobs from appropriate dungeons, and directional teleporters lead to sub-bosses. None of them have new tactics and only serve to remind you of where you’ve been and what you’ve done. The gimmick of this floor is supposed to be nightmares from your past. I think being overpowered is the true nightmare.

After the crossways, we see Puppet Master standing before a gateway. He’ll try to get us to join him again, but it doesn’t work, so we do battle! He’s a decent challenge, but the block button is back, so he falls in time. You should try to evade his attacks, though, as they can hurt, even with my defense buffs. Eventually, our mortal enemy is slain. He wonders how and goes on to realize the power of will (Rue) vs. Duty (Handy). Rue abandoned his fate and duty. He wanted to save Clare, a thought and action of his own will. He was made to be a puppet but lives his own way. Mr. Handy regrets remaining just a puppet and dies. Rue goes through the gate to Valens and the Dewprisom, ready for whatever is to come.

Inside, Valens wakes up and asks his son what his wish was. The diamond that was Clare emerges from Rue’s head gem, and her body is revived. Valens, who has no physical body, then says that it will make a perfect physical form for him and takes possession of it. Rue demands he gives back Clare, and Valens becomes mad. He’s upset that his son and puppet would defy him and attempts some casual filicide.

The two, let’s call them, homunculi on Valens' shoulder turn into two aids. The morning dew becomes a shield, and the evening dew becomes a giant monster that attacks us. The monster is easily avoided and can be killed, but respawns in time. The goal here is, ironically, to beat up Clare. He/she flies around the circular battlefield and is untargetable when in the middle. Only when they come to the outer walkway can they be hit. Do it a few times, and they’ll fall. Just remember to jump before the monster lands, and you'll be fine.

Valens laments that Clare’s body is not strong enough for the Aeon, discards it, and then says he’ll take Rue’s. He uses the puppet lock spell that Puppet Master used at the lake ruins and moves towards us. Speaking of Puppet Master, he shows up and saves us. He tries to remove the spell and encourages Rue to use that will of his. Rue is able to break the barrier and, after shoving his crappy dad out of the way, runs over to PM. As Rue kneels over him, Rue calls PM  brother. PM dies, happy that Rue acknowledges him as his sibling. I'm gonna be honest here, I'm a sucker for redemption twists. I'm not sure if this one works, but I'll allow it.

Valens starts to panic as he can’t rind a physical form. He then realizes his Dewprisom is behind him and opts to merge with that. I’m not sure how, since you need a body and he’s just a spirit, but whatever. The two merge into this strange skeletal butterfly thing that can sometimes turn into a strange skeletal lion thing. I have no idea how to describe it.

This leads to the final battle of the game! The trick here is to just run around for a while until he runs out of steam. You can’t attack him most of the time, and you need to wait until he blinks red. He has four attacks: he’ll jump at you, stand in the middle and try to suck you in, chase you around to grab you, or he’ll shoot a laser at you. It’s the fourth that lets you do damage. Block those lasers and go in for the hit. The camera is low, so you need to make sure you get real close. I missed all the time at the start, which gave me a bad taste for this fight. Potions occasionally drop from the sky, so use them if need be. After you hit him a few times (five for me), we kill our crappy dad, who begins to disintegrate. He promises he’ll return with the Dewprisom, but I think this is all banter. The gods are finally dead.

But we're not in the clear yet... Rue runs over to the body of Clare and rues that he failed to save her again. As he leans over to cry, he hears her breathing. He then pips up as the dungeon begins to collapse. As Rue carries Clare in his arms, we see the walls and ceilings fall behind him as he tries to get out. On our way down, we get attacked by monsters. Fortunately, Mint shows up to save us, and the three of us leave together. We’re around until an archway before the final teleporter falls, separating our main characters and trapping Rue. He tries to break it apart but is unable to. Mint is shown with Rod, who now has a flying boat, and demands that Rod break-in. None of the options she manically yells would work, and, as the portal out becomes covered in debris, Rod knocks her out, and they fly away. The camera returns to Rue, who apologizes again to Clare about being unable to save her, but says they’ll at least be together this time. Psycho Master ports in, gets yelled at by Rue, ports them away, and just hangs out with a pleased look on his face. Nobody ever really dies in this game.  

Some time passes, and Rue wakes up in his room. Fancy Mel, who I forgot to say bye to, is there. She says she found Rue and Clare by the lake and brought them here. She’s done all she could for the two but is unsure if Clare will ever wake up. She tells Rue to stay positive and returns home. Rue then walks over to the KME house, where he’s stopped by Prima, alive and well. My favorite scene in the game happens where Prima is adopted by the KME family. Elena has a brother, and Prima is overjoyed. I'm also a sucker for happy families. When Rue asks to see Clare, though, he’s stopped by the boys of the house. Something to do with no boys allowed, so Rue heads around town. Rumor is, everyone is leaving, so let’s go talk to them one last time.

Rod says he’s going on a journey. He’s vague about what he'll do, but he’s sure he and Rue will meat again. As long as Rue’s heart remains true, they’ll run into each other again.

Belle and Duke are in the tavern, about to leave town and look for a new [relic]. Duke “regrets” not being able to settle the score with bis rival, and Bella says she’ll wait for them to fight. Duke, totally not afraid, says it wouldn’t be fair to fight a boy who just woke up.

Maya is in the hotel and says to come to East Kingdom if Clare stays asleep. They have great magicians, it seems. She also says that she relied on the Book of Cosmos too much and declares she’ll become more independent.

In the church, there is nobody. As we leave, though, we see the three remaining Masters port in behind us, appear content, and port away. Secret, secret, secret.

Mint says she’s going home for a while before starting the search for a new [relic]. She also demands Rue help since she helped him and got no reward. It’s only fair.

Blood and Smokey are now being trained by Graham, a townsfolk.
The rest of the randos also state various things, but they meant little to the plot, so I feel nothing.

As we return to the KMEP house, we still can’t see Clare. Rue leaves again, stares at the sky, and is called out for by

...Clare. Clare is awake! She woke up before Rue did but was struck with apprehension. Rue feels the same way, and both are awkward. They had been planning their reunion speech but have forgotten every word they remembered. Eventually, they promise to live together as we see our comrades do their thing and the credits roll.

Rue’s story was fun. I can definitely see the charm and why I, and many others, liked the game. Sure, a lot of it was slightly frustrating, and the platforming could use some work, but the basics are there. I'll chalk it up to it not aging well. I’ll withhold final judgment because this is only half of the story. There’s still Mint’s side! I’m gonna try to be quicker with it, hoping it’s retreading the same ground. Right now, I’m aiming for Thursday or Friday, as I’m gonna go read about Yuffie. Yeah...

Also, a quick disclaimer: I've been mistyping Valens name this whole time. It's just Valen, without the "s". I'm not gonna go back through every instance and change it, but feel to point and laugh at me.