Look into the sins of your past! Love as today were your last!

But before we get to what little plot I did today, let’s talk more about the Job Class Challenge. Final Fantasy VI already does a great job of making characters feel unique with job specific skills. Locke is clearly a thief. Sabin is a monk. Edgar has machinist tendencies. Etc. However, when it comes to magic, everyone often ends up being very samey. If everyone knows Cure, Haste, and Ultima, then that uniqueness is lost. Now, just like VII, this can be player forced into keeping that one unique style, with characters having to personalize spells related to a particular job. There are non-manuel ways to keep everyone different. Mods, for example. Many people know about Brave New World and might be wondering why I’m not using that. For starters, I have the PS version of the game and not the SNES. I’d rather use what I have and not emulate things. I haven't done well in keeping with that preference, but that’s for another day. Secondly, Brave New World is a difficulty mod that I’m not into. I played around with it a few years ago and didn’t like the changes. In reality, all they did was make the bosses bullet/sword sponges. I got to Humbaba before I found it all more tedious than difficult. I also wasn't fond of the re-translation. Relm became vulgar and Edgar sexualizing her in Thamasa was gross.  I know the last one was closer to the original, but that doesn’t make it better. Whoever wrote those lines in the first place should feel ashamed of themselves. I have zero tolerance for pedophilia, as you should, but I’ll give leeway for a better meaning, which the Woosley version does. Hopefully, they keep in for the PS version. With BNW out of the question, to my lack of dismay, I now have to manually force myself to keep the JCC honest.

But what will I be equipping, and to whom, in this run?
Terra and Celes are easy: everyone and everything. I’ll be focusing on magic Espers for them, obviously. I might make them specialize in certain things, Celes with ice and more physical focused, while Terra is big with fire and more like a sage, for example. But right now, they’re not changing much from a conventional playthrough. They're red mages with natural aptitude, so it seems fine.
Edgar will be my Dragoon and Time Mage. I know he’s listed as a Mechanist, but there’s not a lot of magic that would adapt to that job. Break and Stop are the only ones that come to mind. Any Esper la that raises defensive stats work as well. He may end up being a little Paladin-ish.
Sabin is the monk. He’ll have low level while magic and offense stat Espers.
Locke is a thief, so he gets debuff magic and the speed Esper.
Cyan is a Samurai. I’m still not sure how I’m going with this. He’ll be offensive Espered with a few weird spells thrown in.
Strago and Relm get magic focused Espers. I’m uncertain exactly how I’ll build Relm. Full Black Mage, maybe?
Mog is a Dancer/Geomancer. Not sure what Geomancer is like, but he’ll get buff and magic Espers. I might add some offensive too for some Dragoonary.
Shadow, being a ninja, gets low-level black magic and debuffs. Also, the speed Esper.
Umaro gets Strength Espers, as that’s all he can do.
Goto is the wild card that falls out the back of the airship.
I’m probably not using Gau, and I’m definitely not using Setzer.

Equipment will he job specific, so Locke will only be using knives and never swords. Terra will be using light armor, but Celes can get some heavy armor. Relics will follow in line too. Cyan, for example, got my early game gauntlet, while a Gengi Glove can only go to Sabin, Shadow, and Locke.

And that’s the plan. I might edit this later when I get more Espers and have a better idea of what’s going on, but let’s get on to tonight’s playthrough!

Celes, Locke, Cyan, and Edgar left Zozo and headed back to Jidoor. We walked around until we met The Impresario. He’s emotionally distraught because he recently received a letter saying his star Opera Singer, Maria, was going to be kidnapped. A man named Setzer, who has the world's only airship, wants to marry Maria, and he’ll force her to do just that. Do you see why I’m not using him? Fortunately, Maria and Celes are the spitting image of each other, which gives Locke a plan to reach The Imperial Capital.

Heading south to the Opera House, Locke volunteers Celes to play the part of Maria in tonight’s performance. Celes is embarrassed to play the part but runs into her dressing room and practices her singing with no actual force applied to her. While she practices her lines, everyone else goes to box seats in the theater.

This scene is probably the best directed in all of, not just Final Fantasy but all of, video game-dom ever. The music is beautiful, the lyrics are haunting, and the experience is memorable, even to young me. My second play through ever ended here (I only brought Locke and Celes), but I’ll always recall this scene in 2001. The gameplay consists of memorizing three opening lines to the lyrics. You also follow the stage directions with a questionable (due to technical limitations)) dance sequence and being in position for the flower throw at the end. The opera is about an invading army winning a war and separating Maria from her love, Draco. Meanwhile, Prince Ralse tries to take Maria as his own. And here’s where things get fun.

Remember Ultros? Well, he shows up and tries to get revenge against us by ruining the opera. How does he do this? He plans to drop a ten-ton weight on Maria’s head. Like all evil villains, he gives away his plan, which gives us the chance to stop him. Locke and the rest take to the rafters to stop Ultros. After fighting through his sewer rats back-up, everyone falls onto the stage and takes out Draco and Ralse just as they finish their Act 1 climactic fight scene. Winging it, Locke declares that he will win Maria’s heart, and the party does battle.

We have the octopus surrounded, but that doesn’t give us much advantage. Ultros still hits very hard, and we don’t have a healer. He can also poison a row and, worse yet, turn a row into imps, making our attacks do nothing and removing skills and magic. Don't be afraid to use potions or Green Cherubs. Have Edgar spam Chainsaw or Drill, Cyan using Dispatch works, and Locke can be there.

After the battle, Setzer makes his way down and kidnaps our trained soldier. He locks her in the engine room of the airship, and she brings everyone else into the ship. Rather than kill the kidnapper, they talk him into joining the squad. He doesn't want to since the Empire has made him a lot of money. Using Setzer’s gambling addiction and a rigged coin, Celes cons the man into giving them a ride to the Empire’s continent. Rather than go straight to Vector, the capital, I walk around the whole place and visit all three towns, buying new gear and preparing for the raid on the Empire’s headquarters...

...which I’ll do tomorrow!

So Setzer is a rapist, right? There’s no benevolent reason to kidnap someone, especially one not in mortal peril. This thing is my least favorite character in any game. I’ve said e how much I hate Tales of Symphonia, which has Zelos use child grooming as a joke, but at least he’s trying to do good. Setz is straight evil, and I don’t understand why people like him. Regardless, sorry for the short playtime tonight. Walking around Vector, seeing how creepy Locke’s scene in Kohlingen is, and knowing how long the Magitech Research Facility is, gave me a reason to end a little early. Let’s get the band back together tomorrow.

Okay, this is the end of the prologue.

We finished up Sabin’s quest first, as we have to. I explored some around Moblitz and met a lovestruck couple named Duane and Katarin. I’m sure they’ll be important one day... We also met a wounded soldier and mailed a letter to Miranda (a city) for him. After buying some meat, I step back on to the Veldt. After the first battle we “win”, Gau, the boy who pulled Sabin out of the river, shows up and says he’s hungry. Throw him some fresh meat, and he’ll begin to join the party. After he wrestles/dances/somethings with Sabin and mocks Cyan’s accent, he says he wants to show off his “shiny, shiny, shiny” treasure. Cyan speaks with a Ya Old English accent, which is odd since he's a samurai, so the uneducated Gau finds it funny.

I’d like to take a moment and say that Gau sucks. He doesn’t have a  basic attack, but rather, he can imitate an enemy and use their skills. To imitate, or Rage, as the game calls it, he needs to “Leap” on an enemy in the Veldt. After he knows his enemy, he randomly chooses from three or four attacks that mob can do. I don’t trust RNGesus, and I don’t plan to use him. I don’t even think his character arc is interesting.

The three walk to a place called Crescent Cave, named so because it’s in a mountain range that looks like a crescent moon. Gau forgot where he hid his treasure, so the three bumble around trying to find it with a few mildly funny scenes taking place. Eventually, Gau digs up a golden scuba suit. Knowing the only way back to Narshe is through the Serpent’s Trench, an underwater river of sorts, they proceed to jump in a nearby river to travel through it. They never equipped the scuba suit, and I wonder how all three would have fit.

The Serpent’s Trench functions like the Leth River did, except we’re fully submerged. I don’t really know why this exists. Regardless, the party winds up in a place named Nikeh. I don’t really know why this exists, but we take a boat to Narshe, and the team meets up in Arvis’ house.

They slowly trickle in, and things get real. Cyan tries to kill Celes, not believing she’s turned traitor. Terra, who’s about to learn she has a lot in common with Celes, convinces him to stay his blade as Locke tells everyone the Empire is on their way to attack. Arvis wanted to stay away from joining sides in the war, but this gives him no choice. He tells them the Esper was moved and guides them there. As they walk, there are three scenes where Celes meets the team. Cyan says he’s watching her. Edgar tells her to stay wary of Locke because he sucks. Terra asks how she cast magic, with Celes responding through sketchy science.

In position, Kefka attacks. This part is exactly the same as it was when Locke teamed up with the Moogles to protect Terra. This time, though, we’re guarding Bannon for some reason. I think the goal is just to not let anyone past, and he’s the physical embodiment of the line. I feel there are better ways to go about this as we never see Bannon again after this, and the game is making him out to be very important. Kefka is a lot harder than the previous Commander, and the teams aren’t full. I had Celes, Sabin, and Cyan as the boss-kill team. Terra, Edgar, and the corpse of Locke as the add team. Gau was all alone, not getting in the way. Have Celes spam Runic, and Kefka is a walk in the park. Use potions with Sabin or Cyan if you need to heal. Kefka’s magic is no joke. This entire sequence is time consuming and starts out hard but, once you’ve culled the herd, is manageable and simple. It's just getting to him is the rough bit.

After the fight, the party will greet the Esper, Tritoch. Terra begins to resonate again, nearly knocking Locke off the cliff. She continues to be affected until she nearly knocks everyone off the cliff. Suddenly, she begins to transform. She becomes a pure white humanoid with pink hair that flies all over the world. The screen goes black.

Locke is woken-up by Celes as the party plans their next move. Eyewitnesses say they saw a bright light fly off towards the west, so they plan to head there. Leaving behind Gau and Locke, we take the parry to Figaro Castle because it can swim in sand.

But before that, Sabin reconnects with his home. He and Edgar relive their last moments together where their father planned to split the kingdom. Sabin didn’t want to rule and wanted to get revenge on the Empire, blaming them for poisoning his dad. Instead of Gavelkind ruining their Crusader Kings playthrough, the boys decide their fate with a coin flip. The rest, as they say, is history.

On the other side of the mountains lies Kohlingen. Had I brought Locke with me, there’d be a scene where we learn his dead ex-girlfriend is being kept from decomposing by flowers in a basement. It's really creepy. He's storing a dead girl in his basement! Jeffery Dahmer, I mean, Locke sucks, so I didn’t bring him. There's also the option to recruit Shadow, as well, but I forgot and don’t really care much for him, either. He'd leave at the end of tonight's episode anyway, and I'm not paying him 3000 Gil. I don’t like thief characters, it seems. Riku, Yuffie, Locke, Edge are all very meh. Zidane is cool, though.

After the villagers tell us Terra went south, we to go south to Jidoor, a wealthy city known for its Auction House that we'll be spending a lot of money at later. They say something went north, so we go to Zozo. Zozo is fun. Annoying, as there are a lot of random battles just before we gain stat points, but interesting. It’s a seedy place where everyone lies. We climb a few towers, give Edgar a chainsaw, beat-up a monk, and find Terra at the top. As everyone wonders about this pale chick, a voice is heard from the aether before manifesting into an old man with a long beard.

Ramah informs us Terra is an Esper. 1000 years ago, Esper-human relations fell through in the War of Magi. After that, the Espers retreated away from mankind and sealed the exit until twenty years ago when a group of humans raided their homeland. The humans began testing how to give magic to humans, which can only be done by killing them. Celes realizes this is likely how she gained her magical aptitude. Ramuh says he fled the Magitech Research Facility with three others, who have since died. He then tells us to use their powers to save the other Espers and gives himself up. This is how we gain our first four magicties, stones that teach the party magic and give stat boosts upon level. Locke and Gau show up, and we plan the next move.

The Facility is on another continent with no ships going there. So how will they reach it? Celes and Locke team-up to find a way, with Cyan and Edge joining them, which we’ll do tomorrow!

We have our Espers, so the Job Class Challenge has officially begun. The plot is starting to roll too! I’ll talk more about it first thing tomorrow before I collect my least favorite character in video game history.

I can’t wait for Friday, I’m playing now!

But I will take my time and publish this on Friday. Like my FFVII Job Class Challenge, it’s gonna take a few episodes before anything actually happens. In the meantime, I’m gonna build up to it, and, hopefully, on Saturday, we can get right to the nitty-gritty of the heart of this schedule breaking playthrough.

Final Fantasy VI was one of the first games I ever played, in general. Back when it was FFII for the SNES, and I could barely read, I rented the game from my local rental place. I didn’t get far because I was in Kindergarten and just learning how to spell the word “A” which, in a text heavy JRPG, is a bit of a roadblock. Several years later, I would, unbeknownstly, return to the game when I bought a copy of Final Fantasy Anthology for the Playstation. I played it a little but couldn’t really get into it. Dumb kid me was probably turned off by the graphics and the challenge because I hated the battles for no obvious reason. Oddly enough, I last gave the game a replay in 2016, meaning this will probably the “newest” game I play for this blog. I beat it and loved everything second of it, minus a few I’ll rant about later. But that’s later. Let’s get into the now.

Lightning pierces through dark clouds as a loud, ominous, MIDI organ plays in the background. This was cutting edge animation for 1994. The clouds are replaced by various scenes of steampunk cityscapes behind text telling us about the War of Magi. This was a war fought between man and magical creatures called Espers 1000 years ago. After the battles, magic, once common on the planet, began to disappear. Nowadays, we have an empire building up power on the backs of magic. But how? We learn of a frozen Esper to the north and a small group of three, riding mechanical robots called Magitech Armor, march through the frozen cliffs. The opening credits roll as one of the best songs in the game plays while showing off the SNES’ Mode Seven graphics. I “accidentally” skip it because it lasts too long.

The three people show up in the mining town of Narshe. The two men are named Biggs and Wedge, and the green haired woman isn’t named, but her handlers tell themselves that she’ll do whatever they tell her because of the slave crown on her head. They were sent by the Empire to secure the frozen Esper recently found in the mines. As they march through the town, we quickly learn the Empire is not well liked. We’re attacked by various guards and dogs until we reach the mines.

And here is the first boss of the game. I could never defeat in elementary school. You’re not supposed to attack the Whelk’s Shell, which all I did as a kid. They specifically say don't attack the shell, but my illiterate brain didn't understand that. As a functional adult, he’s easier than a random battle, and I hate my younger self.
 
Deeper into the cave, we reach the mission target. As the woman gets closer to it, the Esper begins to resonate with her, and light starts to emit from them. Biggs and Wedge are enveloped and never seen again, and the woman passes out. We see a flashback of a man named Kefka placing the slave crown on her, as she then wakes up in a bed in Narshe. She’s woken up to find an Old Man who asks her her name. We then name, in my opinion, the main character of the main character-less game, Terra. She’s an amnesiac who can, secretly, use magic without the Magitech.

The unnamed Old Man informs the girl of what’s happened before some of the surviving guards try to storm the door. The Old Man tells Terra to leave out the back door and head for the castle of Figaro. She does but is quickly spotted and chased into a nearby cave. She ends up getting cornered before the floor beneath her collapses, where she, once more, faints on landing.

The scene returns to the Old Man's room, and we’re introduced to Locke, the not-a-thief but Treasure Hunter womanizer. Old Man tells him about Terra and how he wants Locke to help her. Locke is reluctant at first, thinking she's a witch of the Empire, before OM tells him it was the Slave Crown's doing. Locke then agrees and finds the unconscious Terra before the villagers do.

We now have to protect the girl. Locke is joined by eleven Moogles, for some reason, and we’re tasked with keeping the guards from getting close to Terra. We do this in a Tower Defense like mini-game where we guide three parties through a few hallways. The enemies advance while we can either wait for them to get close or advance ourselves. The goal is to defeat the Commander all the way at the back. He kills us on the first try, which is embarrassing, but future party member Mog and crew save the day. Mog is on the box art, so of course, he wins.

The Moogles leave, and Locke carries Terra out of town. She wakes up as we exit the cave, and we're a party of two now. We can enter the Tutorial House to heal and learn about the game, but I’m confident in my abilities. Our next stop is Figaro Castle.

Locke has connections to the king and is allowed in. He introduces Terra to King Edgar, who promptly hits on her. Why are so many men womanizers in this game? He wants her to join his cause but won’t force her. She then walks around the castle and learns that Edgar has a brother named Sabin, who left the castle after their father died and created a minor succession crisis. Sabin hasn’t been seen since. She comes back to the throne, and Locke escorts Terra to her room.

And then we meet Kefka. He’s complaining about the sand, seeing as we’re in a desert, and wants his subordinates to dust off the sand from his boots. The three then enter the castle and talk to Edgar, who publicly supports the Empire, and gives them the runaround. Kefka wants Terra back, but Edgar feigns ignorance about who that is. Sometime later, Kefka attacks the castle. As it begins to burn, Edgar, Locke, and Terra jump on some Chocobos, while the castle, in true steampunk nonsense, submerges itself into the desert. The subordinates attack us, we kill them, and Kefka yells his well-known phrase, “Son of a submariner.“ As we plan to go to the city of South Figaro, I called it a night.

Why are these always longer than I’d hoped. Curse day one plot dumps! You’ll see all three parts on Friday, so here’s the end of part one of the JCC prologue.


Day Two:
The party of Terra, Edgar, Vacant, and Locke go through the Figaro Cave. It’s quick because I skip the treasures, as they're better stuff in them if you wait for your third time through. We carry on to the city of South Figaro, where the inhabitants are worried about the potential of an Empire invasion. In the inn is a man who would “slit his own mother’s throat for a nickel.” We have the option to name him, Shadow, but nothing more comes from it. I wander around for a while and loot the place of their miscellaneous tonics and such. Eventually, I leave and head north to a small cottage on the World Map.

Inside, Edgar draws our attention to a bouquet of flowers, tea, and special dishes. They all remind him of someone. Outside the cottage is a lone man who tells us Master Duncan has been slain by his son. Duncan was Sabin’s master, and Edgar thinks we may find something. The man says Vargas, the son, fled to the mountains in the east.

Mt. Kolts is home to various animals and humans called Brawlers. You can steal a better headgear from them with Locke, but Locke sucks, so good luck. I should have talked about this before the cottage, but the backgrounds in this game are legendary. You don’t think of SNES graphics being advanced, but VI made a massive leap in graphical quality over what came before. The mountains and clouds around Figaro give me wanderlust, and the actual mountains themselves are relaxing in this borderline warzone. We chase after a shadowy figure the whole time. Eventually, we find him waiting for us, and the first boss battle tonight begins.

Vargas has us confused for someone else and summons his pet bears to protect him. We have to kill the Ipoohs to attack the man, so we do just that. I have Terra heal most of the time, while Edgar Bio Blasts and Locke attacks because that’s all he can do, and he can barely do that. Eventually, a new ally shows up. It’s the man Vargas thought we were, Sabin. Vargas does his ultimate attack, Blizzard Fist, which kicks everyone but Sabin out of the battle. Despite Sabin telling his former ally he's wrong, The Patricidal maniac doesn’t listen. To end the battle fast, we use a Blitz Command, Sabin's unique skill that functions like a fighting game combo, and quickly kill Sabin's former classmate. I don’t know how new players are supposed to know how to Blitz, but maybe if the battle runs long, he’ll tell us. I also don’t know how often I’ll be able to use them since my controller is bad.

After the brawl, Sabin completely ignores his kill and joins us to go to the Returners hideout in the Sabli Mountains.

The hideout is a short walk from the exit. Inside, we meet a man named Bannon, the leader of the anti-Empire faction the Returners. He knows that Terra can communicate with Espers and has incredible power, being able to kill 50 imperial troops in minutes. Using that power can turn the tide of war against the Empire. Terra doesn’t want to fight, though, as she’s been forced to kill her whole life. Barron can’t force Terra to fight, or else they’re no better than the Empire who did the same, so the party splits up, and Terra talks to everyone who wants to convince her.
Locke says someone he cared for was imprisoned and died.
Edgar just says the Empire is evil.
I don’t remember what Sabin said.

Whenever we’re ready, we can talk to Barron and give him our responsibility. We eventually have to say yes, but we get a Gauntlet if we say do it on the first attempt. We passed over the Genji Glove because I like an upcoming character more than Sabin, who can’t properly use it now anyway. The entire resistance gathers together until an emissary from South Figaro arrives and says the Empire has attacked and is on their way here. Our characters split up, with Locke going to the town to investigate and everyone else going the backway to Narshe via a raft on the Leth River.

We must protect Bannon, who should just spam his Health Command. It fully heals everyone, so why not? We’re given options to change direction while traveling, but I don’t think it matters. Eventually, we reach a beloved reoccurring mid-boss, Ultros! He can blind our characters, but the PS version still has the evasion bug, so it doesn’t matter. Have Barron use Health, while Terra uses Fire, Edgar uses Auto-Crossbow, and Sabin either Pummel or basic attack. In time, Ultros will dive, and Sabin will jump in after him. He’ll try to get back on the raft but overshoots. The two groups are now split up into a total of three, which we’ll do tomorrow. Controlling Mog in a black emptiness is a good place to end.

I’m noticing another peccadillo about the JCC: gear. Swords can be equipped by nearly everyone, so I’m gonna have to figure out who gets what weapons and, probably, armor. I mean, I already have, so now I need to follow through.


Day Three:
Edgar and Terra are up first because they’re the shortest. They keep following the river until it reaches Narshe. They enter the city but are physically repelled by guards. Not even Bannon can talk their way in. Instead, we follow the cave system Locke used to get them out of Narshe. I think I got lost and found the Moogles, but nothing big happens. They reach the Old Man, Arvis, and we go over the plan again because video games! “The Esper will either save us...or doom us...”

Locke is alone in South Figaro. He’s been sabotaging the machinations of the Empire and now needs to leave. To do so, he steals a merchant's and a soldier's clothes and uses them to sneak his way out. Inside the richest man’s house is a back way out. It’s also being used as the Command Center. There’s also a prison, for some reason, but I’m not one to kink shame. Inside, Locke finds a former general turned traitor, Celes Chere. He releases her from prison, using the same words he said to Terra, and they escape. They walk out through the Figaro Caves after learning the Empire is going to destroy a place called Doma and attack Narshe again. En route, we learn Celes can use magic and her unique ability Runic absorbs magic. After they beat the boss, Tunnel Armor, they skip back to Narshe. FYI, I pronounce Celes as “Saras.”

Sabin’s quest is sooooooo long. He beaches near a lone cottage where he meets a crazy man. Outside is Shadow, who guides us back to Narshe via Doma. The two travel south until they find an Imperial Encampment that's laying siege to the Returner Sympathizers, Doma Castle. As the two hide, they overhear a lot of things with their amazing hearing ability. We see two soldiers discussing their fears of Kefka, who interrupts them. We then meet General Leo, who is highly respected and far more merciful than the clown. The scene skips to Doma, and we’re playing as Cyan, our samurai, who’s tasked with killing the enemy commander. He does, and we return to Sabin and Shadow. Suddenly, a carrier pidgin delivers a message saying Leo is to be recalled and Kefka is in charge. While Leo wanted to play the long game and save lives, Kefka pours poison into the river, killing friend and foe alike. Cyan, seeing his king, wife, and child die, becomes overcome with rage and counter-attacks into the heart of the camp. Sabin and Shadow help out, and the three escape.

They then travel south through the Phantom Forest. There they encounter the game's most memorable dungeon, The Phantom Train. Onboard, they get chased by ghosts until they get to the Conductor and stop the train. We also make a new friend named ??????, who’s a nice ghost but leaves before the boss. When we get to said boss, Sabin suplexes a moving train. Afterwards, when the train stops, we see Cyan's family board the train. The two say farewell to their dad/husband, while he wishes they could stay. Cyan grieves, inconsolably, as the Phantom Train carries off the dead of Doma to the other world.

We then jump down the Barron Falls, wave farewell to Shadow, meet an orphan named Gau, and buy some meat in Moblitz. I wanted to finish this portion tonight, but Sabin’s story is long.

And thus ends the preamble of Final Fantasy VI Job Class Challenge. I have my route planned out, and everything is falling into place with equipment and whatnot. I just need to reach the area where I’ll be learning magic and gaining stats. But I’ll talk more about that when the time comes, hopefully, tomorrow! I dread editing this enough as is. I rushed way too much just to get here and I kinda hate it. Sorry.

The Legend of The Legend of Dragoon

Legend of Dragoon is a game that fans loved, but critics found middling. The game has a Metacritic score of 74/100, and user reviews tend to give it overwhelming positive vibes, at least on Ranker, Neoseeker, and Google. It seems a bit contradictory, but it actually makes sense.


The game has its flaws. For starters, whoever localized it sucks, and a proper editor is desperately needed. Throughout the game are spelling mistakes, missing or odd punctuation, inconsistent spellings, and formatting problems. Some of these I have alluded to in my writings. What’s the proper spelling of Flanvell/Flambell? Is the city Fruni or Fanny? Why is Zieg’s name Jeek on the OST? How did you leave out a space before several key nouns!? I, for better or for worse, tried to keep some of these inconsistencies in my writings. Some, I did, point out at the time. Remember when I said the devs mixed up the Rose and Shana dialogue in the Gigantos Village? All of this leads me to believe that was the case, and not some sudden emotional shift in the two women. And yes, for the sake of fairness, some of the misspellings in my blogs are my own mistakes. Tell me how many times I mixed up Zieg and Zeig. In my defense, there's a lot of odd names in this game, man.

The music starts off great, but I don’t think it finishes strong. Some of the early chill tunes are perfect, but the ending tracks are just noise. The OST isn’t MIDI bloops or high orchestral symphonies, but, rather, synthetic pianos and sounds. A part of me likes it, but sometimes it doesn’t connect right. To complicate things, you never hear them for very long. World Map songs are great, but you spend so little time on world maps. Dungeon themes are often interrupted by battles and are short in their own right. The battle song is enjoyable, for what it’s worth. I’ll also note the Final Battle song. It tries to be something Final Fantasy-esq. Sadly, it ends up being a mishmash of compositions thrown into a blender with its lid left open. The blender stayed on until all the pieces spun out and wherever they fell was the order the sections were played in. It lacks any sort of memorable hook. No ominous sounding lyrics, spooky violin segments, or rock guitar to be found. I added several songs to my Spotify playlist, so it’s still a worthwhile listen. There was one track I left off because it didn’t fit the mood of my chill station.

I liked the battle system, but it’s not without problems. You can’t mindlessly grind because you need to be ready to QTE. It also takes so long to gain EXP in LoD. Bosses are the only real way to non-tediously gain levels. When it comes to SP and Dragoon levels, some characters just don’t have good ways to grind for that. When I finished the game, Albert’s best SP Addition was 55. Miru, however, was 200. And poor Kongol’s low speed makes him feel unrewarding. I also hated how little MP we had. It strongly limits what we can do in Dragoon. There are ways to train MP in battle, but I don’t like changing load-outs, so don’t hold that against the game. Dragoons are fun, but are they more limiting than anything? You can’t use items or transform back if you need to, so you’d better hope no one dies or needs healing, stat.

There are also many quality of life things that shouldn't have been a thing, even in 2000. One-hit KOs in Dragoon form don't just die. They transform back into human before dropping dead there. It takes time away from the action and makes me feel more annoyed than worried that I just lost a character. The amount of backtracking through areas is needlessly long. Just let me fast travel through The Valley of Corrupted Gravity, Vilude Volcano, and the Marshlands when I'm done with them. And I hated the 32 item limit. I guess I didn't need all of those magic items at the end, but I'm secretly a dragon and like to horde. At the very least, tell us what's in the treasure chests when I try to open them with a full inventory. What am I leaving behind? Text needs to scroll faster, too.

But what does the game do well? I like all the characters. Kongol doesn’t get enough screen time, and Albert is, clearly, second fiddle for Lavitz. Both have their moments and amusing quirks to make them worthwhile characters on their own, though. Everyone has their place in battle, with their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are good in Dragoon, while others are less so. Magic vs. physical. Tank vs. DPS. Buff vs. straight firepower. Everyone feels connected to the story and together. That’s always a perk compared to when characters feel randomly mixed. Removing someone from the setting would make the game feel less complete. Even minor characters have story. Lavitz' mom, Pete, Fa, and Guahaha all feel like actual people.

The story, mostly, makes sense. Some of the twists are a bit out there, like Shana being the Moon Child, but most of them are passable. I’ve said a few of them, like how did Dart wind up in Seles, but, ultimately, it’s a small qualm. It’s a simple story about seven chosen people saving the world from an evil tyrant. Those seven have traits unique to them, or at least their former counterparts, that make them perfect for the job. They all have their own reasons to join the party and hate the big bad guy. Now, it’s not perfect. I still have many questions, like how did Shana get to Seles? Why do so many people not recognize their offspring like Zior and Theresa? What was the point of the increased aggression in the forest story with Kamuy? For the most part, though, everything connects. A Sea Dragon spoken of earlier causes problems until we defeat it and things get better. Bandits, civil wars, vicious beasts, all addressed. And everything fits in a long, 55-hour epic. That length for a kid who can’t afford to drop money every week on a new game goes a long and rewarding way. And it even leaves some questions that are fun to ask? Was Rose the main character? Is Haschel Dart’s grandpa? Was it Soa or Melbu who wanted to destroy the world? Was Lloyd a good guy? How have the Winglies re-integrated after the game was over? There's a difference between wanting to ask questions and needed to ask questions. LoD makes me want to ask questions.

So it comes down to this: Did SCE make a game for sales or the experience? Ideally, both, but the sum of Legend if Dragoon is greater than the sum of its parts. It's a flawed but incredibly fun experience that I’m glad I replayed and hope I can remember this time.

But now that I’ve finished Legend of Dragoon, where do I go now? I have a few things in mind. Firstly, Trails of Mana for the SNES. The remake came out a few months ago, and it looks fun. While I doubt I’ll be playing that ever, I want to know where it comes from. After that, I planned to play Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Zelda games are great, and I've never beaten this one. However, ever since I played FFVII, I’ve been yearning to play VI with the Job Class Challenge. I planned out the run a while back, so I'm already prepared. So many choices! Find out what I do...Friday...?

If you still believe...

After we killed the Virage, the way to the core of the Moon was wide open. With no way to escape, even if we wanted to, our only option is to march forward.

As we do, we see Shana tied to the core. Dart moves in but is stopped by Zieg, who steals the Red Dragoon Gem. Despite not being the primary user for 18 years, the gem still recognizes its former master as thus. Zieg promises to follow through with Soa’s will, transforms into the Dragoon, and does battle with us.

I’ll be honest, I suspected we’d fight Zieg here. We’ve battled every other Dragoon, other than Shirley, so it just made sense. Because of that suspicion, instead of focusing on Dart, I made Miru my weapon of destruction. Giving her as much magic and MP as I could, I spammed a few of her Dragon summons and made this fight a breeze. If Dart attacks his dad, he does no damage and gets countered. That counter does no damage since Dart’s wearing armor that nullifies fire damage, so it’s a lesson in futility.

After the fight, Zieg collapses. He says he no longer needs this body, as there’s a better one nearby. From out of Papa Feld comes a blue spirit. Rose knows exactly who that spirit belongs to. Melbu Frahma. Melbu floats up to where Shana is, kicks her out of the absorption...pod...thing, and takes her place as the spirit of the God of Destruction. He, once more, tells us his plan to destroy the world, which makes me wonder if Soa really planned this or if it was all just a ploy by the ancient Wingly dictator. He also informs us how he came to possess Zieg. 11000 years ago, he transplanted his spirit into the Red Dragoon Gem. Then, 11000 years later, when The Black Monster attacked Neet, Zieg went Dragoon to protect his town. Rather than transform, however, the Dragoon spirit, couurpted by Melbu, instead was replaced bu the tyrant himself. Just as we’re ready for the final battle, we hear a voice from behind us. Lloyd, still in the Divine Dragon Armor and using the Dragon Buster, shows up and tries to get revenge. He’s still upset about being lied to over his utopia, and probably for the attempted murder, too. The battle between them seems pretty even until Melbu stops playing. Using his magic, a red beam of light shoots from Melbu’s hand and pierces the chest of our former enemy. Lloyd’s last words are encouragement towards Dart, as well as relinquishing the Devine Dragon Gem and Buster. DD recognizes Dart as its new master, and it replaces the Red Dragoon. Rather than jump right into battle, the party talks about stuff.
Meru says she was correct in following Dart.
Albert mentioned when he joined and reminds us of where we came from
Haschel says Dart's determined face looks just like his and that no one has suffered more than Shana.
Miranda says Theresa said the goal of her journey should be to find the meaning of fate. Her response to that meaning is, from her own mouth, “Fate belongs to those who are living. We can destroy the fate that somebody else made up.”
Kongol no longer believes strength alone can make everyone equal but that anyone can. But anyone can destroy the world too. “Kongol doesn’t fear god.”
Rose is simply ready “any time”.
Dart tells the unconscious Shana to wait for us and promises his dad that we’ll end this.

Equip the Dragon Buster to Rose, and, for funsies, give Dart the sword that kills him. We’re then fully healed, and the battle begins.

Melbu Frahma has multiple stages. I guess the caterpillar from last night was foreshadowing. His first form is his "natural" body surrounded by four tentacles. The tentacles are easy to dispatch with the Psyche Bomb and another item. He can summon three Virages to attack us, doing moderate damage to the whole team. This form isn’t too bad. His second form, though, can be rough. At this point, he changes shape based on what generation he’s decided we’re in. The generation represents the age of the planet, starting in space and going to a molten lava planet. The fish, trees, and birds show up before the age of man pops. I think I'm missing one form and I know some gens don't have a form, but I'm close enough. That’s the mechanic, but back to the battle.
Second form Melly can suck a character into his body, making us unable to use them. Eventually, he spits then back out, which does massive damage. Even at full health, Rose wasn't surviving that Meru cannon. The rest of his forms pose no threat, barely even being able to attack before we pushed him to the next generation. His final form, though, is terrifying.

Maybe I was too cocky and near the end, but I ended up dead just before I won. The trick here is to NOT go Dragoon. In a cheap tactic, Melbu can use the Dragon Block staff to remove 99% of our usefulness. Not only that, but he summons monsters to be adds in the battle. When you take them out, they one-hit whoever killed them. I hated this. There was no warning and no way to undo Dragoon transformation. It's cheap, and I have no regrets about what I did. I may have been overconfident, but I did have back-up plans. Finding that strategy lame, I reverted to a save-state (I may or may not have been ready to cheat anyway) from when I was on the ropes. I healed back up, re-survived his Faust spell, and beat him down with regular blows. He’s still pretty scary, being able to hit for massive damage, but I used the remaining of my potions and hit him some more. I wanted to embarrass him, so, when I hoped I had him near death, I went Dragoon again and hit him with a few dragons. After Meru got the final hit, Dart got the last kill steal of the game using one of his new Dragoon abilities. And, just like that, we killed an 11000-year-old Hitler.

CGI fills the screen as it turns out Melbu isn’t done yet. While Rose goes over to Zieg and Dart goes to Shana, Melbu swears he won’t be outsmarted by humans, despite all we did was hit him. He Sith Lightings the party, and Rose and Zieg know what they must do. They say how much they’ve missed each other and that it’s time to end their long journey. Zieg goes Dragoon, and he and Rose bumrush the Wingly, stopping him from killing everyone. Zieg says how proud he is of his son, and Rose is glad to have met him. Dart, knowing what they’re about to do, says that he wants to spend more time with his dad and is mildly upset at what's about to happen. The two ancients collide with Melbu and self-destruct. Everyone else flies away, with only mild resistance on the path.

Outside we see the Virages deteriorating and the Moon blowing up. While Dart & Co. fly out of the Moon, we hear Zieg and Rose say that their time is up. This is their age now, and it doesn’t need them. "Their" being people born in the last, let's say, 80 years.  As everyone reaches a safe distance, light erupts from the Moon, and a mushroom cloud replaces it, destroying it and the Divine Tree, as well. Dart, to no avail, screams out the names of his father and friend, and the closing epilogue begins.

Haschel is in Rouge teaching Kongol about martial arts. Haschel does some cool gymnast stuff, and Kongol, being eight feet tall and 600 pounds, is unable to do the cool gymnast stuff and ends up in the ocean when he attempts it. A bird flies off, and we follow it for the rest of everyone’s ending scenes
Charlie Frahma is tending to the red Venus Flytraps.
Miranda is conversing with the Sacred Sisters and Theresa in a rebuilt Denningrad Throne Room.
Princess Lisa is mingling with the people of Fletz.
Meru and, I assume, Guraha are in Lohan.
Fireworks are shooting over Bale as Albert and Emilie are getting married.
A man resembling Dart leaves a drink in Lavitz’ old room, just as he promised after the tournament.
A man who is definitely Dart returns to Selis to help in the rebuild.

As the credits begin to roll...or should begin to roll, I freaking crash! Why?! This is why patches are a good thing. Because I want to see everything the game has to offer, I load up YouTube, find a video from David Flores, and skip to the credits.

The title track, “If you still believe in love” plays as the credits roll, for real this time. It’s a top tier song. Afterwards, the bird lands in one final place. We're in, what I think is, where the Divine Tree was. As the camera cuts down from the bird and, I assume it's mate, we see the Red and Black Dragoon Gems right next to each other. The words “The End” appear on screen.

Last thoughts for tonight: the ending song isn’t about Dart and Shana. This isn't Dart's love story. I’m not even entirely sure it’s his story. The ending song is about Rose and Zieg. Does this make Rose the main character? Dunno, but if a prequel is ever made, we all know it’s about her. Legend of Dragoon memorandum tomorrow, and then I have a decision to make.

Face to face with our pasts.

Firstly, I’m sorry. I was unable to finish the game tonight. It turns out there was still a lot of plot to contend with that blocked me from getting to the final boss. I’d say I’m ready for it tomorrow, but I wouldn’t trust me at this point either.

What I did manage to do was step into the point of no return and find the last remaining Moon Sigil. Sadly, we're unable to defend it. As we reached the orb of light, Zieg showed up and repelled a transformed Dart with ease. As dad breaks the Sigil, a CGI scene shows the Moon begin to fall. It then cuts to a suddenly appearing Divine Tree. The Moon falls and lands on top of the tree, as though it was always meant to land there. The Moon is not nearly as large as I thought... The parry walks back outside of Mayfill, and our wings, Coolon, catches up with them. The party jumps on his back, and he carries up to the tree.

As we approach, another CGI scene shows us countless amounts of Virages emanating from the craters on the Moon. They spread out across the planet and attack us. One manages to hit poor Coolon, who can only glide to a location somewhere in the middle of the tree. He apologizes that he can no longer fly. As we leave our landing zone, Dart says to/about an unresponsive Coolon, “Poor Coolon.” The savior of the game has died. I say savior because I wouldn't be doing any sidequests without him.

As we walk our way up the tree, we see several pits containing fruits from either former species or never born species. One such creature, disregarding thousands of years of existence, ends up fighting us.

What starts out as a small larva and turns into the Pokémon Metapod before turning into demonic Butterfree. Imago is the only three-stage boss in the game thus far. His first form can poison, which is why I went Dragoon so early. His second form just sorta squirms around, and his third form is annoying. He can make characters Despirited, which keeps them from gaining SP to go Dragoon. Once he’s inflicted someone with that, he’ll straight up kill them with a special spell. He also has an attack that deals massive damage, at least to Rose. After his defeat, the party ponders about fate. It's apt, seeing as we’re going against the will of a god, and enters into the Moon That Never Sets.

We enter a world of blocky techno looking decor that resembles the modern-day parts of Assassins Creed III. It quickly turns into a mishmash of past, current, and future timelines. The music in these places are tunes from past areas with a deep remix over them and the beating heart of the Virage Embryo. The first place we come to is a snowfield that Miranda recognizes.

She runs ahead and finds a lone rose in a small forest clearing. It reminds her of the day her mother left the family. The mom was sick of being in her family with a terrible husband and left her daughter behind to run off with some random guy. Miranda never forgave her mother. Her resentment leads to a giant flower spider forming in front of her.

I don’t think you can lose this fight. Even with Miranda’s terrible stats and unable to go Dragoon, her boss doesn’t do a lot of damage. At certain damage thresholds, the flower opens up and reveals the face of her mom. The two argue about what happened. Miranda feels abandoned, and her mom says she tried to bring her with her. Eventually, to end the fight, Miranda has to forgive her mom. I’m not feeling this. Her mom flat out left. She could have brought her with her from the start but didn’t. She could have fought harder against the alcoholic father but didn’t. Never a letter or anything. Miranda is right to feel how she does and doesn’t owe anyone mercy. I did get her White Dragon spell after the accidental grind, so there's that.

Regardless, Miranda regrets her life choices so far, joining the palace to teach love but being abusive to everyone instead. She joins back with the party, and they discuss how her past could be on the Moon. Unable to answer anything, they carry on.

The next area is an...inn? An establishment selling items and weapons on the Moon? Albert notices the drunk we met on disk one, but when he was a rich man and mentions this is a place in Bale from twenty years ago. Haschel sees a small child that resembles his daughter leave behind a mirror and, since a guard is blocking the normal entrance, we follow after. On the other side is a Minoto village, where the inhabitants say "what we see is based on our psyche" and is "filled with people we NEED to see." We follow the child into a portal. As Dart enters, Haschel says that this is Clare and “she doesn't know you yet”, indicating that Haschel’s Clare is also Dart’s mother. It’s never officially stated, but it’s clear that is the intent of the dev.

Haschel's fight is hard. His child, upset by her father’s strict discipline, rebels against him. At some point, she is possessed by the God of War, causing the two to fight. Clare has an attack that leaves the "poor old man" with one HP. The shop sells potions, and we’ll be back there a lot, so don’t be afraid to use them. Haschel tries to sacrifice himself to exorcise the god but is able to succeed with dying.

As we walk forward later down the road, the party gets split up when Rose’s dragon attacks. She and Dart go one way, and everyone else goes right. We’re in control of everyone else on the day the Gigantos Village was attacked by bandits. We see Dole saving Kongol, who knows what he must do. He goes forward, alone, and sees his brother, Indora. The Gigantos do trial by combat to see who’s strongest, and Kongol needs to know he’s the strongest now to protect his friends. After a flat out brawl between the two, Kongol wins and gets his brother's axe as his beat weapon. Albert wants to know when Dole changed and killed his father.

We then cut to Rose and Dart. Rose tells Dart about her dragon, Michael, and where the dragons come from. At some point, Mike went crazy, and Rose needed to kill him. Is this why he’s asymmetrical when you summon him?

Guard here until the dragon reveals his core. Two hits, and he dies.

The two parties catch back-up at the inn and head out through the door. We’re in Kazas, where we fought Dole to end disk one. Like all others, Albert goes ahead and enters the cypherpunk throne room.

Dole has two swords that can be destroyed. Use the Psyche Bomb to get rid of them at the same time. During the right, Dole says he killed Carlos because he was weak. Dole believes true strength comes from within and not from others. There are some political reasons why, which, honestly, makes me think Dole has a point, assuming he isn’t lying. It's not a good reason to kill your brother, mind you, but maybe try for a democratic approach. In the end, Dole recognizes Albert’s skill and blesses his reign over Sandora.

Next up is Meru in the Palace of the Winglies. A light bridge between the palace and the party drops, leaving the winged Meru alone before being forcibly teleported into a throne room occupied with the Seventh Goddess. We were introduced to her in the Forest as the only known religion of the race.

This fight is Meru overcoming the hate towards humans her race has/had. She wholeheartedly rejects the idea that Winglies need to control the world and even states that she loves humans. Watch out for the spell the Archangel uses that leaves Meru with one HP. Treat it like you did with Haschel's.

Afterwards, the party gets back together, and I make a mistake. Return to the inn first! I didn’t and carried on, leaving me a bit understocked for the end. Eventually, the cyber look returns, and we meet-up with a gatekeeping Super Virage. It’s even weaker than the one we went up against in Kadessa. The usual stat works.

And here’s where I called it. I’ve been playing for four hours and rued having to write all this. Can you imagine how rough this would be had I carried on to the end? It’s gonna be hard not to beat LoD tomorrow, so...actually...nevermind. I won’t get our hopes up.

So tonight, we faced our pasts. Everyone had baggage they needed to drop before facing the future. Some reminded us that tradition isn't good, while others cast off dark shadows. But I have some questions first. How many gods are there? We know of the Creator, Soa, and tonight we learned of the God of War. We may never know... We guess all of this was to answer a few unresolved questions. I still have more, clearly, but they’re probably lighter, and what can ya do a do? Next up are Dart and his dad, Shana, and probably one last twist!

Death City Mayfill

Before going in tonight, I did some grinding. I maxed out Meru’s master addition and tried to get Miranda’s White Dragon. Having no idea how close I am, I gave up and went back to Zenebatos to use the teleporter.

Mayfill is located on a small peninsula south of Ulara. It looks like most of the Wingly Settlements, where most of the walkways are floating and connected via a maze of teleporters. As you would expect, everything has a black paint job instead of Aglis’ purple theme.

As the team ports in, Rose remarks that she thought the Dragoons destroyed this place during the Campaign. Someone had to turn on the soul suckers taking in the dead, but who? Throughout the dungeon, we meet a few bosses, unable to let go of their hatred towards us, we've already defeated. Namely, the three dragons Feyrbrand, Rigole, and Divine Dragon. These guys fight like they did when we first fought and pose no real threat if you take them seriously. Divine was a challenge because I didn’t want to waste MP. I should have. Feyrbrand, I think, is optional, but Meru urges us to save her dragon, and Miranda wants to put DD down again.

After the three dragons, we come to an annoying light puzzle. We’re over an area of light that raises from the ground at us. That light shines a path, in red, where we’re to walk. It’s simple, but the light is random, so you have to wait around for a few seconds to get confirmation. During the puzzle are two side rooms. In the first room is a heal station, headed up by a soul Dart feels is familiar. It’s not expanded upon, but is this his mom? Who else could it be? Someone from Seles? The second room is filled with spirits Rose killed as the Black Monster. They hate her, she understands, and she promises to see this to the end and suffer the consequences later.

Our next point of interest is an old friend. As we reach the penultimate room, a physical entity shows up. Dart immediately knows that it is the best character in the game, Lavitz! Our boy is excited to see his friend and liege one more time. After seeing all the souls who didn’t want to die be brought here, we wonder why Lavitz is here? Suddenly, Lavitz begins to lose control. His skin turns green, and he runs off. The party catches up to him, and our friend tries to kill us.

Physical attacks cause no damage. To make matters worse, Lavitz will counter with an addition of his own. The trick here is to guard for a turn or two. Eventually, Dart will try to talk to his old friend. This causes Lavitz to turn around and reveal a parasite on his back. Attack that until a new boss appears.

Zackwell is a Grim Reaper cosplayer. He, like the dragons, is pretty easy if you treat him like a competent fight. Don’t be afraid to use Dragoons and go all out. I tried to keep it simple, and it nearly went wrong. In the world of sports, this was almost a spoiler game.

After the fight, Zackwell possesses Lavitz again, and he tries to kill Dart. Dart gives himself up, and Lavitz, moved by his best friend, can regain control and push his spear through his chest and into the heart of Zack, killing the mob once and for all. Lavitz, being dead, is totally unfazed by a spear through the heart. The three men say one more fond farewell, doing some strange three-way handshake, and our former Green Dragoon opens the way to the Sigil before fading away.

As we approach the new beam of light teleporter, Rose tells us this is a one-way road. We’ve come to the point of no return, which is where I called it a night.

Real quick, if we return to Lavitz' house, the family we saved on the plains in disk one has moved in, and they’re all one big family. The child calls Lavitz’ mom “grandma” and she’s overjoyed.

As for Mayfill, it makes me wonder about the rest of the dragons. Where do they come from, and how can we summon them? Especially the ones we’ve killed. Meru has summoned Rigole several times, one in the Zackwell battle. Lastly, it’s good to see the devs didn’t forget Lavitz. We’ll end this tomorrow!

Fort Magrad/Faust

Man, do I wish I could have snuck these in last night. They’re both short and straight forward. ...sorta.

First up was Fort Magrad. As we enter, Meru becomes oddly excited. She runs ahead and slips on some snow when Rose tells us some backstory on the place. This was where Emperor Diaz declared his liberation war and, thus, where the end of the Wingly domination started. Meru then throws a snowball at Dart, hitting him square in the face. He lacks emotion as the group joins back together. The next scene has Rose remembering the speech Diaz gave when we declared war. It’s the typical, “Freedom or death! For humans. For Gloriana!” type of stuff we see in movies. The next scene is in front of a dilapidated statue. Rose recalls her engagement to Zieg and how Diaz congratulated them and was glad they looked forward to the future. Suddenly, the blood-red sword stuck in the statue begins to move on its own. Rose says this is the resentment of everyone who died in the war.

Must not be a lot of resentment. Pohler Armor is an easy fight. Psyche Bomb does 2000 damage to all three targets, and physical attacks dwindle the rest of its HP with ease. When the sword dies, it takes a character with it, so have a revive handy. The head can stop a character from doing a random command, but decapitation cures it. When all is said and done, it drops Dart’s beat sword. It’s a great sword but kills the user, acting as a poison effect. It’s niche, and I don’t plan to use it, but will be making it worth the effort soon.

After the boss's defeat, we learn it was a statue of Diaz. And that’s all. There’s treasure about, but no more story. Why was Meru so excited? Also, fun fact, this was the first boss no one leveled up on.

Carrying on, turning in all 50 Stardust to Martel fully cures her daughter that suddenly re-became ill while we were away. We fix her up, for real this time, and Martel gives us the Anti-Apparition Agate, or the Vanishing Stone. AThis stone destroys the illusion that The Magician Faust created to defend his Land of Taboo. Getting rid of the fake, we go deeper into the Tower of Flanvel/Flambell and meet the game’s superboss. Faust was the commander of Flanvell before humans shot the place down. He was so powerful that Melbu Fruama created the Vanishing Stone to weaken him, likely meaning Faust is stronger than his boss. Regardless of the past, Faust is planning to become king of the world, so we need to defeat him. We're given an option to run, but he initiates combat regardless.

And boy, is it not easy. He’s got the best magic in the game, as well as 23000 HP, the second highest in the game. He double/triple counters every attack, with at least one being teamwide. He can even hit for 5500 damage with his HP threshold super spells! He seems to counter with the same element as hit by, so return to Zenebatos and buy a few Dragon Armors from the vendor, which negates that particular element. The Dragoons we saved dropped an item that halves element damage of another element. The key to victory is to only have Dart attack, using that super sword we won from Pohler just now. Somehow, his normal attacks did more damage than his Dragoon attacks, but Dragoon form has some much needed magic defense buffs. Faust may have over 2000 magic defense, but his physical protection is terrible. I had Miranda healing the whole time, with Meru doing the same. I had hoped she’d do some damage but was pretty much just another healer. To be honest, I made liberal usage of savestates for this fight, too. I blame the deadlines for you people (who don’t exist). When Faust dies, he gives 10K gold and experience, enough for a third Ultimate Wargod. I’ll probably buy it just to make my life easier.

With all side quests finished, we have no other options but to go to the moon! Only two more updates, for real this time.

I’m remembering why I liked Meru ten years ago: it's her versatility. She’s fast, has high magic, heals, and even can do a lot of damage if you get her master Addition maxed at 600% damage. She’s fragile, but a Knights Helm doubles HP, and a Stamina Ring restores HP every turn before you reach it. There’s also something I wish the game would go into more, namely how Rose feels traveling around with her lover's son. In another timeline, she’s Dart’s mother and not that random, nameless woman she killed 18 years ago. I also want to know why Meru was so excited to be at the Fort.

Dragoon Tower

My ability to conquer more than one thing at a time is a real bummer.

So, I only managed one side quest tonight. The bosses were stronger than I thought and needed more set-up between them than I guessed. Regardless, I set out to beat the last four Dragoons of the Dragon Campaign.

First up was The Jade Dragoon, Syuveil. He’s Albert to a T, with the same strengths and weaknesses. This means he’s tanky and slow but has bad magic defense. The usual strategy works.

The second was Damia, The Blue Dragoon. She’s supposed to be Miru but didn’t have the speed or magic to resemble her. It was strange.

Thirdly was Belzac, The Golden (not orange) Dragoon. As you’d suspect, he’s Kongol but slightly more conversational.

Lastly, the only guy I had problems with, Kanzas of the Purple Dragon. Now this guy... He’s fast, hits hard, is defensive, and hates Rose. I feel like he focused hard on her until Meri was almost dead and got bloodthirsty. He wiped my team on the first attempt, but I pulled it out in the second despite him nearly killing Rose and Miru. I’d say the usual strategy won out, but I felt like it’s more luck that he didn’t go multiple times in a row. He’s got that Lenus speed hacks.

But there’s more to this than just fighting. All of these heroes are haunting this place for a reason, and Shirley wants us to figure out why. As we return to Veilweb, Shirley’s strength ran out, and she’s nowhere to be found. We can still be healed where we last met her, though, so don't worry about trekking back and forth from the random peddlers. So, unsupervised, we walk into the rooms once occupied by the living. The rooms are immaculate, as though someone's been living here for 11000 years. Syuveil's is filled with science equipment, and Rose asks him how his studies into life and death are going. He says that ever since he saw what happened at Mayfill, he’s been scared. He’s afraid of going to the nothingness that is death. After the battle, Rose says that tribes to the east believe in reincarnation. This eases his mind, and he accepts his death. His room flashes as the dilapidation of the room hits hard. This happens to every room, where the true erosion over the years takes effect after the dead have ceased haunting it. The Dragoons also have much in common with their modern-day associates. Syiveil studied life and death, and, while we’re unsure of what exactly he’s into, Albert is a man interested in several different academic works.

Damia is revealed to be a 15-year old girl and the offspring of a human and a mermaid. Her parentage led to her being bullied and ostracized. Because of that, she’s afraid of being alone. Her room is a small water filled pool with a bed pedestal in the middle. As she accepts her death, she asks if Rose will join them. Rose says that one day, she likely will. She and Miru share qualities in that their both young and of “strange races.” Damia is the only hybrid creature in the game, and Miru was the first friendly Wingly, a long thought extinct race, we met. Both ended up in a state of exile.

Belzac is a giant man whose room is a tribal/log cabin house. I don’t know if he’s a different race, but he’s just as interested in protecting his friends as Kongol is. He didn’t even know he died until Rose told him. He’s been preparing for the final battle this whole time. Unfortunately, we know how he dies. We see him holding up an entire wing of Kadessa while dealing with a terminal wound to protect Shirley, his love. In his last moments, a Virage shoots an eye laser at them, killing both of the Dragoons. We don’t know how the prior two Dragoons died.

Kanzas is an odd one. He was reluctant to join up, just like Haschel, but did so because of the noble light of Shirley. He’s a bit of a reckless man who enjoys killing, even making clay mementos of his acts, which fill his room. While Haschel isn’t as bloodthirsty, he definitely reveals in fighting. He accepts death when we tell him Shirley’s light is in the afterlife. He died, sacrificing himself fighting the Super Virage we fought in Kadessa.

Our reward for all this are four stones that halve the respective element damage (green halves wind, blue halves water, etc.). In case anyone is wondering, the would-be rooms of Rose, Zieg, and Shirley are already destroyed. I wish Shirley would have came back and said one more thing to give this some nice proper closure, but not all stories get that in real life. Death is scary. I’ve been terrified of it for large portions of my life, as has most of you, I’m guessing. It’s okay to be afraid. It’s okay to rely on friends. It’s okay to not be okay.

Hopefully, I can knock out the last two side dungeons tomorrow.

Law City Zenebatos

This place sucks. It represents an 11000-year-old government, meaning it's ripe with bureaucracy and time wastes. There's a reason no one likes politics.

The way to the Sigil is locked off behind a robotic guardsman who won’t allow us passage because it’s against the law. To get anything done and change the law, you first need to stand in line at the Law Legislation Office. When our chance comes up, we answer “no” then select “...yes” and put in the correct law number. Law numbers are stated by various guards throughout the dungeon, so input the one you desire. After that, return to the center and go to the Law Factory. Afterwards, go to the Law Launcher. To make matters annoying, hostile guards are blocking our passage that we need to avoid. They’re easy to do, but since I ended up having to do this twelve times, I got real sick of it. If you’re touched by a guard, you’re thrown in jail. Kongol, who’s too heavy to be teleported, breaks us out, so it’s not a big deal until you’ve done it twenty times because you keep getting stuck on the aide of the paths!

It’s actually an interesting idea for a dungeon...the first time. It quickly becomes tedious when you learn you can’t change more than one law at a time and only need to change two to advance. The following took me two and a half hours:
Initial exploration trying to figure out the layout and gimmick;
Doing it again, making sure I didn’t miss anything;
Looked up a guide;
Changing a law, so I don’t need to wait in line and taking it to correct locations;
Changing a law to allow humans to go to the Sigil and taking it to the correct locations;
Going to the Sigi;
Changing one more law to let us go to tomorrow’s dungeon and taking it to the correct locations.
Red tape is a great idea, and I don’t even think this is poor execution, but I was not having fun.

When we do reach the Sigil, we’re attacked by another Giant Robot Guard who summons three angel looking things to attack us. As I should have guessed by the excessive black enemies in the dungeon, Rose was a bad call here. Miranda probably would have worked the best, seeing as her white magic would lay waste to the three black elemental bosses. Regardless, they never stood a chance. The woman on the right can use status effects and heal, so take her out first. The guy on the left kills a player when he dies, which is why Rose lost out on more boss EXP. I don’t think the guy in the middle does anything.

When the dust settles, the party walks into where the Sigil is. We see that Zieg, now with flight, has already destroyed it, using those guards as a distraction. As he flies off, Rose declares that’s not Zieg but has no idea who else he could be.

We then return to the entrance, get told by our wings that he can’t take us to Mayfil, get told the teleporter can, and change the law to let us use it. And head there I shall...not tomorrow!

I think I’m gonna finish the side quests tomorrow. I got the rest of the Stardusts and do want to help Shirley at her tower, so that’s what I’ll do. I should be able to blast last the final two dungeons in the days after. I didn’t think this playthrough would take so long, which is both a blessing and a curse. I’m glad I’m still enjoying it after 45 hours. It’s a good game with enough to sink your teeth into, but, man, would my readers be annoyed if I had any! If only I wasn't sick the first week...

Magic City Aglis

My plan to knock-out all three of these dungeons in one night was derailed on account of them being long. Oh, dear.

As the party enters, they ponder the amount of magic needed to keep this place from drowning in the sea. I notice that it’s all very purple and alieny. The mobs down here are mostly blue, with the only difference being an orange minotaur. Many of them also like to use the Physical Attack Barrier spell that negates physical attacks. I could just off them with magic, but that’s wasteful, and I still need to grind Additions. I ended up getting Dart to his Master Addition, so there’s progress. Poor Miru is still waiting on her final learned one. In the meantime, I’m grinding Haschel and Kongol because I suck with Albert’s.

As we walk through the abundant teleport pods, we meet several quirky beings. They’re homunculi and run on the magical prowess of their master, Savan. They seem to know who Rose is, indicating Savan an ancient Wingly. They all have the odd/annoying tendency to say a part of their name when they talk. We carry through until we find Savan himself.

Savan has been down here, alone, creating the Ultimate Magic and a back-up to keep the Moon sealed. I’m already sick of hearing the phrase “Psychedelic Bomb, and Moot.” He almost gave up 7000 years ago until he met Rose, who inspired him to work harder. All that hard work will be fulfilled today. Moot is operational, helping LastKraken to protect one of the sigils sealing the Moon, the things Zieg is trying to destroy. And he only needs one more ingredient for the bomb. That ingredient is courage. To harvest that courage, he’s going to test us. Each party member goes into a separate pod and faces a trial from their past. There’s no combat and is only an answer the correct response thing.

Kongol faces against Dole, who says he’s abandoned his cause. Take the hit, and he remains absolute in defending his friends.
Miranda is questioned on who she fights for. Pick Theresa, and she remains unselfish.
Albert chooses between the world over his kingdom, beset by imaginary tribals from the east.
Miru needs to fight to “make amends” and overcome her past.
Haschel keeps the past in the past.
Rose has no choices but says she’s fighting for the future.
Dart must face the fact he may need to kill Shana to save the world. He’s the hero, so promise to save her no matter what.
After these scenes, the party comes back together and follows Savan to the bomb. If you answered all six correctly, you gain a multi-use attack magic item called the Psyche BombX. Otherwise, you get a one-time use attack item.

He then asks us to join him to see the Sigil and Moot. We follow through more telepads and come to the new Sigil, protected by LastKraken. As we prepare to settle down and wait for Zieg to attack, suddenly, LastKraken goes berserk. We hear the voice of Zieg, saying he’s possessed the octopus and intends to destroy the Sigil. Since we’re protecting that, we need to slay the noble beast.

He doesn’t really pose a threat. He lacks attack all spells, and his damage isn’t very good. In Dragoon form, they barely do 150 damage. He can summon adds, but they don't provide much help either. Apparently, Dragoons can crash the game on win, but I got lucky. Summon dragons, use the Psyche Bomb, see physical attacks are better, and hit him with stuff: that’s the go-to strat from now on.

After the battle, Moot begins to have a meltdown. The energy from our Dragoons caused it to malfunction. Savan does what he can but is unable to do anything. In order to save us, he teleports us out as the reactor blows. As we walk back through Aglis, we see the dying homunculi in their last moments. It’s really heartbreaking. We learn that these creatures have a mind of their own, complete with hopes and goals. One wanted to be friends with Miranda, and another just wanted to see the outside world. I’ve never been so close to tears over things I’ve spent so little time around.

We reach the entrance, but it’s blocked by water. The only way to go is through one last teleporter to the Law City Zenebatos. We take that are end up in a foggy/cloudy city far to the north. Albert is excited to see how other civilizations governed but knows there are more pressing matters. A robot flies at us and begins a warning clarion to the dead city, and a new, friendly, creature shows up. He’s a friend of Savan, who was contacted in his dying moments, and its name is Coolon. Coolon is our fast travel system. It’s limited, but so much better than walking.

We’ll tackle Zenebatos tomorrow.

Savan felt like this game's Balthazar, from Chrono Trigger. He’s an eccentric old man from an ancient civilization that has a fondness for magic, creation, and makes strange beings in his free time. I'm happily confused at my fondness for those homunculi. Why did they affect me so much despite finding them kinda annoying and ugly? Maybe I’m just a sucker for sacrifice and heartfelt farewells?

Chapter Four: Moon & Fate

The party is walking through a desert, not of snow, but of sand. How did they get here? No idea.

We’ve entered the Death Frontier, an area of desert on the western front of Endiness that has its own mechanics. Firstly, there are no random encounters. It functions like the Phantom Ship where, to enter combat, touch an enemy. Its second unique trait is it acts like a maze. Every screen is somewhat similar, but there is an exact path to get to the other side. The biggest block in our path is the abundant sand whirlpools that littler the land. If you fall into one, you’re sucked into a cave underneath the sand. There are some decent to good treasures under there, so it’s worth falling into a few times. I got lost but, fortunately, there are a few maps out there to help me. It’s also a very good place to grind, at least for money. There are a few oases about if you need to heal up and save. Occasionally, the party splits up and talks about things. Mostly the end of the world and Rose’s guilt about the last 11000 years, but stuff nonetheless. After what feels like forever, we reach our destination, The Spring Breath Town of Ulara.

We see a teleport pad on the ground, but no place it could go to. Rose then walks in and talks about her choker again. It is the key to not only her immortality but the key to the city, as well. She activates it, and we see a green city in the desert appear. We walk onto the pad and get ported in. This city is filled with people who all know Rose from 11000 years ago. This was the neutral Winglies during the war who have opted to suffer for the sins of their brethren. At least, that’s how I’m interrupting that. Along the Roman Aqueduct looking paths, we learn Miranda hates roses, the flower, and Melbu Frahma had a sister named Charlie. Chuck is in charge around here and tells us about the past and the Moon Objects. Her brother sealed away the Virage Embryo and, rather than do away with the locks on the seal, used them as an immense power to control other races. The Moon Objects Lloyd collected are the key to destroying the seals that have sealed the Moon. If Zieg wishes to go to the Moon, he'll have to destroy the seals, so we'll need to protect them. That’s the plan, and in the morning, we set out to do that.

That night, Dart walks around town and talks to his companions. First is Rose, and we see a flashback with them dueling in the desert after meeting Zieg. Dart wins and goes to kill Rose before he forgives her. The Black Monster is dead, so there’s no need to kill Rose. I really dig this. A lot of games would have some moral coming together about Dart coming to terms with hunting his friend. Instead, Dart recognizes Rose’s guilt and knows what she did was for the best. Yeah, it sucks your mom died, but it’s kinda her fault, to be honest. She could have stayed in the cave with you but didn’t. Rose also questions how Zieg learned of everything...
Albert and Kongol are looking at weapons.
Haschel and Miranda are discussing why she hates Roses. Her abusive mother liked roses more than her. My mom loved the TV more than me, so I wish I felt a better connection with our White Dragoon. We both like the cold, have sketchy parents, and suck in combat.
Meru is sharing Wingly life outside this time distortion bubble. We also learn that Rose has saved the world 107 times, this being the 108, so there’s some nice connection. In case you’re wondering, that means she’s been doing this for ~11500 years.
After we meet Meru, we go over our plan of attack. The gatekeeper will teleport us as far as her weak magic will allow, and we’re to search the globe for the three cities: Aglis, Mayfill, and Zenebatos, where the seals are housed. We’re to start in Rouge. After this, we go to bed and prepare for the journey in the morning.

We wake up and see all the Winglies floating about. They’re giving us a proper sendoff as we’re teleported out of the city. We’re going to Rouge, via Fletz and the Queen’s Fury. But first, we need to walk there. Backtracking in this game sucks. We’re ported behind the Gigantos Home, so we need to walk through there, Gravity Valley, The Barrens, and the world map. I’m suddenly thinking about ignoring the side content. I’ve read there’s a fast travel system before the point of no return, so I'll keep track of it.

We enter the Twin Castle, and we’re given another sendoff. The Wingly gatekeeper sent an envoy to Zior, and he’s ready to send us to Rouge. There, Haschel reconnects with his old friends. It’s been twenty years since he was here, as the town in on an archipelago far away from everything. Nothing has changed, and the townsfolk take pride in their lack of need to change. Sleeping and fishing are all they need. We ask the mayor if he knows of anything that couldn’t have been made by humans. The mayor mentions a “stick” and says you can see it from cliffs. Before heading there, I stumble upon Martel, the Stardust lady. She’s been collecting the dust to save her sick child. I’ve given her 44, so she uses what she has and makes her wish. It works! Her daughter, Lil, wakes up and gets out of bed. Martel was helping people after Deningrad was attacked, so I’m glad something good happened to her. Now, if only Drake had a happy ending...

The stick is an entire tree growing out of the ocean! Rose says it’s the Magic City of Aglis, where Winglies studied magic all those years ago. She then fills us in on the other cities. Zenebatos, the law city, is where they executed other races. Mayfil is where they went to die, and the former Deningrad was where they decided what children were born. Once again, Meru feels guilty about her race. Unable to reach the “stick”, the party walks back down to the only house in town.

The scene shifts to Aglis, where several entities are watching us. Rose knows this, somehow, and the earth begins to shake. Out of a biblical prophecy, the water between the village and Aglis opens up, allowing us to walk the ocean floor to reach it.

And we’ll do that tomorrow!

I’m thinking three more updates, four if you include the memorandum. I want to try to knock out all three cities tomorrow. I doubt it, but I’ll try. As a note, I walked back to Seles to talk to Shana’s parents. They offer nothing of value in answering any of my questions.

“When you drag the past around you cannot go anywhere.”

The Tower of Flavell is a lot shorter than I thought it was, and I wish I had done it last night.

After returning to the random merchants, healing up, and restocking, I walk into tonight’s first dungeon. It’s directly adjacent to the Glacier, so there’s no world map between them. Inside is a strange maze like thing where tubes connect various circular rooms. It’s short and to the point. We eventually reach a tower that looks like a plant. Miranda doesn’t let us go to the right of this tower, demanding we rescue the Queen first. I kinda like the semi time sensitive feeling of this, and upcoming, dungeons. So, we listen to our new friend and climb the tower.

Lloyd, wearing Divine Dragon Dragoon armor, is kneeling before Theresa, thanking her for her compliance. Dart then teleports in, and Lloyd fills us in on the plan. He’s working for Emperor Diaz to lead us to a utopia. He mentions the Soa’s Life Tree and the 108th fruit. He continues, compliance has made human and winglies weak. He created war to advance our lives, the only way for the final fruit/species to bloom. I didn’t understand it, and neither did Dart, so we fight.

Lloyd is pretty easy, oddly enough. Try not to go Dragoon too often, as Lloyd still wields the Dragon Buster and can one-shot a character. I always had Meru ready with revives in case Dart and Rose, who I transformed to summon their dragons, fell. Lloyd also crashed me when he killed Dart once, so another reason to be wary. His physical attacks are single target and don’t do much damage, but his magical attack hits the whole party, doing about half damage to everyone. The merchants sell healing breezes, which heal everyone, in case you're worried about an extended fight. Ultimately, my grind last night was overly sufficient.

As Dart goes to land the killing blow, we’re suddenly joined by another person. Wink, from Deningrad, throws herself in front of Lloyd and absorbs the attack. Despite being groomed by him, she’s taken a liking to our villain. She, and her guards, inform us that Lloyd isn’t the main bad guy. The actual main boss, Emporer Diaz, recently showed up in Deningrad and kidnapped Shana. He’s demanding that we bring Lloyd and the three moon objects to Vellweb. As we see the Sacred Sister off, I return to the tower, wanting to know what’s in that other path. It’s the optional super boss, Magician Faust. We can’t do anything to him without finding the rest of the Stardust, so I get on with the main quest.

We cross the Snow Planes, a small section of frozen landscape. During a blizzard, we duck into a cave. Lloyd tells us even more of what’s going on. He talks about Melbu Frahma, the evil wingly from 11000 years ago. He also insists that the Moon Child is the key to bringing about the next evolution. He genuinely seems like a person who wants everyone to be better. In the morning, the blizzard clears, and we head for Vellweb. We find some more optional disk four stuff here, but we're to return after meeting Diaz.

Vellweb is the human capital of 11000 years ago. In the center of the city is the Seven Dragoon Towers, featuring the throne of Emperor Dole in the center. As we enter, the party compares the city to Kadessa, and Miru says this blog’s title. On the way down, Rose tells us about a large cannon that was used to destroy Flavell. Once again, Dart doesn’t call her out on how she knows that. We walk down the path and get reintroduced to Shirley. Rose thought she went to heaven, but Shirley says that four of her comrades are on the verge of being sucked into Mayfill, the City of the Dead. She’s doing all she can to save them but needs our help in relieving them of their burden. ...but do it later. Once again, Dart doesn’t ask Rose about how she knows these things.

At the bottom of the city is Shana kneeling before a throne. On that throne in the red armor of Emperor Diaz, or at least the person pretending to be him, according to Rose and Shirley. He asks for the Moon objects, we surrender them, and he hands over Shana. When asked about his plan, he says his utopia is to destroy the world. The final species is the Virage Embryo, the God of Destruction, and can only be summoned by the Moon Child. All of this was the Creator Soa’s plan. Lloyd, believing he was actually working towards the greater good, gets upset and prepares to fight his former master. Instead, Diaz easily disposes of him and a portion of the floor. And then the twist happens.

Diaz reveals himself to everyone. Dart calls him father, but Rose calls him Zieg, her lost love. He was petrified by Melbu Frhama, but time wore that magic spell away. He then hid his presence and became a normal man, eventually fathering Dart, awaiting the time of the Moon Child. During his petrification, he came to learn of Soa’s plan. He also says that he’s not the only Dragoon to know of it. Rose knew the plan but, rather than comply, she set out to destroy the Moon Child to save the world. To do so, she became the Black Monster. There’s some minor tension between the three until the final revelation is revealed. Princess Louvia was not the Moon Child. Instead, it was her twin sister. Who was her sister, you ask? Shana. Our Shana. Zieg then re-kidnaps Shana, and we’re asked to insert disk four.

Yeah, that's it. No big fight at the end of the disk. Bit of a wet fart, yeah?

We’ve been wrong the whole time! It was the Moon Child who we were fighting against, not the Black Monster. Are we gonna have to kill Shana? It’s a twist I didn’t see coming, so there’s a point in LoD’s favor. The whole backstory of it all is a bit confusing, though. Apparently, Melbu and the winglies, knowing of the Fruit's goal, split the 108th species into two. The soul is the Moon Child, and the physical form is the Moon That Never Sets. I’m less sure about the twist that Shana is the Moon Child than I am the rest of it. How'd she get to Seles? Why didn’t Miranda or Theresa say she had a second child? Is this why Shana’s parents were so meh about her leaving? Also, why didn’t Rose know it was Zieg when she killed him in Neet? Maybe sue didn’t? Oh...there’s still questions to he asked!

Anyway, we’re in the home stretch now. Gloriana, where we're at on the map, is filled with all the optional/post-game stuff, and I'm not sure how I feel about all of them. I’m having fun, but I’m ready to see this story out. I’ll probably do the Dragoon Towers, but I’m not sure about the Faust or the other one. And, once again, Miru’a quote about abandoning traditions hits. It’s an odd, but welcome, subplot. I wonder how heavy it will get, though.

Grinding against the ice.

I spent three hours maxing out Dart, Rose, and Miru’a Additions. I got some for Albert and whatever it is is you do with Miranda too. I didn’t plan on it being three hours, but what can ya do? I did do some plot advancement, though.

The party enters the Cashua Glacier. It’s an area that, if were in a platformer, everyone would hate. The floor is ice, so every step you take slides you a little further than you planned. Fortunately, there’s no platforming or exact button pressing to navigate, so it’s just a neat eccentricity. It’s filled with a lot of blue and orange mobs, so equip Dart with the Heat Blade, which you can find a copy of in a chest near the entrance.

As we enter, a few characters remark how cold it is. No one is wearing a lot of clothing, so I’m amazed no one’s frozen already. Meru, wearing barely more than a bikini, is most vocal, with Haschel a close second. Miranda reveals that she often comes here to think and deal with loneliness. As someone who appreciates the cold, I can understand this. There was a time when I would only leave the house when it snowed. She also says that Theresa isn’t her real mother. She was abandoned as a child, and the Queen took her in and treated her like a real daughter. After a quick pause, the party goes on.

There’s not much here, other than two shopkeepers for some reason. They’re as shocked to see customers as you’d expect. Restock, upgrade, and advance forward. Soon, you reach an area where the party hears a scream, and Kongol says something bloodthirsty is coming. We’re then attacked by a Wendigo.

This poor, poor, sweet baby never knew what it got into. All the grinding I did made Rose deal 800 damage per attack. Worse still, after killing the Divine Dragon, Dart learned his last magic attack where he summons the red dragon. It does 1800 damage! Dart’s Dragoon attack does 1000, so the poor Wendigo never stood a chance. Numbers in LoD tend to be small, so when you hit 1000, it feels like an accomplishment, To say nothing of hitting nearly 2000 a turn later. It eventually opens up its heart to us, but I couldn’t figure out what it meant.

Killing the beast opens up the way to Tower of Flanvel, an ancient Wingly fort that now houses the Moon Mirror. I’ll climb that tomorrow!

Combat is tun, but I wish our White Dragoons were better in this realm. No Additions, low stats, and healing isn't even a unique skill for them. Rose has been my healer, but Meru recently learned Rainbow Breath, which does a full heal for the whole team. What’s the point of Shana/Miranda? Plot relevancy only takes you so far. Regardless, Dart’s on his last Addition, and Meru has one more. We’re nearly at full power. FEAR US! Some lite skimming of RPGClassics indicates I’m nearing the end of disk three, which I’ll try to do tomorrow.

Lloyd’s Long Boondoggle

Before the party heads to where the Divine Dragon slumbers, The Mountain of the Mortal Dragon, I do some sidequesting. Firstly, let's head to Neet. There’s nothing there but a Stardust. I already have the LoD version of the Ribbon for turning in forty, so this doesn't help. Dart also heads to the gravestone and finds his parents' name on it. The gravestone Luanna was in front of earlier isn't to her mother alone, but to everyone who died that day. It’s mildly disappointing that nothing else is here, considering how pivotal this place is.

To reach the Mortal Dragon Mountain, we, once more, need through the Evergreen Forest. While there, I stumble upon Kamuy and Teo, the second side quest today. The wolf howls, giving us an option to retreat. I don't use that option and press forward. Teo yells at us, and several warriors join the scene, who also yell at us. Kamuy easily fends off their attacks before bearing fangs at us.

Kamuy is a pretty easy boss. He can stun and fear our characters, so be prepared to go Dragoon if you need to. I didn’t need to, and physical attacks were more than enough to fell the beast.

As the poor wolf lies there, dying, and his friend Teo crying, Miranda wonders what Shana would do for some reason. She then pulls out her Dragoon Gem and heals the beast. Not only does he shrink to normal size, but his feral nature dissipates as well. The Knight Commander agrees to let bygones be bygones, and everyone is happy, except the losers who couldn’t beat Kamuy. If we return to Furni, we learn more about the story. Fa can speak again and says Kamuy saved her from other monsters. The ordeal of that and the angry adults scared her to the point she couldn't speak. If we talk to the Commander, he rewards us for solving everything with a grand total of 500G. I know everything is cheap in this game, but 500 feels low for a late game quest. More likely, though, LoD low gold drops and shop prices have broken me. It is about two boss kills worth of gold, so it should be greatly appreciated.

Getting on with saving the world, The Mortal Dragon Mountain is a volcano in the far north of Millie Seseou. It’s filled with tiny dragons that beat us up. It's nice and straight forward, so we quickly come to the top of the mountain. We see light beams and hear sounds signifying a battle is taking place. But between who? As we get closer, we see Lloyd is dueling the Dragon. He says he’s got in the bag, but we have our doubts. Eventually, Lloyd poofs away, and we do battle.

The first thing that automatically happens is Dart uses the Dragon Block Staff. It’s great that it weakens the Dragon, but sucks that it weakens our Dragoons. I didn’t transform, but I’m betting it wouldn’t have ended well for us if we did. The Divine Dragon seems weak to magic. It’s too bad I only brought one item! He tends to use magic more than anything, so prepare for that. His physical attack hists everyone but does negligible damage. Deningrad has a great selection of potions, which I did stock up on, so don’t be afraid to use them. He also has three body parts. I don’t know if it matters, but I cut off his ball first. I have no idea what a Dragon Ball is... For some reason, getting to this legendary beast was harder than actually defeating him.

After the battle, Lloyd reappears and plunges the Dragon Buster into the big eye of the boss. As he does, a ball of light forms and Lloyd catches it. He claims it’s the Divine Dragoon Gem. He can’t use it, not to his surprise, but he then tells us his plan to sack Deningrad. The Dragon wasn’t a part of his plan but was a roadblock that needed to fall. With it now dead, he makes his escape. The party chases after him and manages to catch up, even though he can teleport. As we do so, he reveals himself to he a Wingly and shoots Dart and Rose away with a fireball. This distraction allows him to escape.

As Dart gets to his feet, Rose is still knocked out and loopy. She apologizes to Dart, but in a way that doesn’t seem like it’s to Dart. It's more likely she's talking to the man whom he reminds her of: Zieg. She then mumbles about the Black Monster, which makes Dart recall the night Neet burnt. Miru then picks us up, and we, once more, ask Miranda about their Moon Object. She says it’s the Moon Mirror and mentions the throne. We set off to Deningrad.

As we enter Evergreen, we see a scene where the Sacred Sister Wink is attacked by the upset Wingly from last night. He kills her guards and is about to do the same to her until Lloyd appears. Just as he did when she was beset in the Flower City, he saves her, and she invites him to the palace. Oh, your poor naive child...

When we get Deningrad, we, the player, quickly realize that Lloyd had been marinating Wonk the whole time. We also learn that we beat the Dragon over a week ago, so I have no idea how time works in this game. The other sisters tell us that Wink brought Lloyd here, and Luanna, seeing into his soul, saw that he is an evil man. When confronted, he kidnaps Theresa, taking her to wherever the Moon Mirror is. We learn where the location is and, while I forgot what it's called, I know it’s across the Kashia Glacier.

But I’ll figure out what’s it called tomorrow!

Shana is still sleeping. Which is, ya know, relatable in 2020. I’m thinking about doing a grinding session soon to max out these Additions. I suck with them, and Dart’s current one is terrible in every way, so powering through them will help in two ways. If I don’t update tomorrow, this will be why. Might not be tomorrow, as we’re getting to the snowy area. Snowy areas are always my favorite places. Freakin’ love me some snow.

Dragon Stick

The party exits Deningrad and makes their way to The Forest of the Winglies. To reach that forest, we first need to go through a first forest. We’ve been to Evergreen Forest before, but, as we pass, we see a scene where all the warriors from Furni have cornered Kamuy. He’s a massive wolf, so that cornering is short-lived. Teo is riding on him and tries to convince everyone to stand down. He fails, so the two bust their way out.

We head north and come to what everyone thinks is a dead end. A reluctant Meru unzips the seal and allows everyone in. She was hesitant because she didn’t want her friends to know she was a Wingly. She was worried about how they’d treat her. Everyone, especially Kongo, says they wouldn’t have treated her any differently. A much more relaxed and chipper Meru then leads the party through. On the other side are three guards. One leaves to inform the Ancestor that Meru led enemies to the village, while the other two stay back to fight us. Meru manages to keep them talking long enough for the other to return and say the Ancestor has given his okay to enter, diffusing the situation.

The Forest of the Winglies is pretty much just a tree. It sucks to be a human here since there are three levels only accessible with wings. We’re gonna need help to traverse in the first human-wingly collaboration in 11000 years. As we travel, we meet Meru’s parents, who apologize to her and give her, and us, their blessing to save the world and change the Wingly culture. We also meet a probationary Guaraha. He’s in trouble for letting Meru through. Fun fact, he and Meru and engaged. How cute. Everyone teases them until we leave. A third encounter is from a group who doesn’t want to change and still hates humans, blaming them and Meru for the death of his sister. The Bardel Brothers. or just the older one, tries to attack us with magic that is easily deflected when Dart goes Dragoon. He falls to his knees, gives up, and we walk away. The younger chastises him and swears further revenge. We learn that Wingly magic isn’t what it used to be. They’ve all gotten weaker since the Dragon Campaign, and some barely even have the ability to fly.

We meet with the Ancestor and learn of the Dragon Block Staff. He’s willing to work with humans, seeing the change going on in the world. With the return of dragons, Dragoons, and the weakening of his race, cooperation may be the only way for continual survival. He takes us to the former capital of the Winglies, Kadessa, where the staff is located.

This dungeon looks like the city we saw in Rose’s flashback dream. It’s a giant floating colosseum where Winglies used to watch other races battle to the death. Meru feels an immense shame at this, but everyone reassures her that things have changed in 11000 years. The location is filled with debris and hard to navigate due to erosion and other effects over the millennia. As we travel through the various teleportation circles, we come to a healing pod near a fork in the path. The low road takes us the easy way, so I, unknowingly at the time, take the hard way up. After doing a puzzle where we judge other races by their intelligence, we find another Virage that's in bad shape. Bad shape physically, as it’s still a threat. After Rose says this thing killed her friend, which no one asks about, we fight it.

While you can kill this Virage, but I failed to do so, only “winning” when it self destructs after ten turns, taking Rose with it. Rose is the only character who missed out on boss EXP. I used all my magic and healing on it, so this may have been a mistake. No! Plot is never a mistake. Also, maybe just focus its head. I didn't do that, but you should.

We continue until we see the staff sticking out of the ceiling. After Miranda wonders about its usefulness and questions if we can defeat the Dragon, Rose wonders if Lloyd is involved. They conclude that not even Lloyd can tame the Divine Dragon. The topic of Millie’s Moon object comes up, but Miranda is cagey about it. Meru shows her wings and goes to grab the staff. As she does, we find out the staff is embedded in the back of a monster called the Grand Jewel. And by monster, I mean boss.

It’s an interesting fight. I don’t know if I’d call it hard, but there are several things to note. Firstly, DON’T GO DRAGOON! If you do, it’ll activate the staff and make our Dragoon do dozens of damage, rather than the hundreds we're accustomed to. It doesn’t do huge damage, but it does use solely magic damage. It seems it uses mostly earth magic, too, so gear up for magic defense if you can. At several points, it uses a spell that lowers your levels, weakening all your stats. When it gets low on hp, it’ll restore a portion of it, making this is a real war of attrition. For best results, use Albert for offense and Kongol for defense. Physical attacks do better, so Kongol may be doing double duty. Hopefully, you didn’t use all your potions against the Super Virage.

The jewel tarnished, we grab the staff. As we walk back to the entrance, we see the unmistakable shadow of the Divine Dragon overhead. We quickly return to the Wingly Forest, where the Ancestor says he’s going to teleport us to Deningrad. Sadly, age and weakness have made this task impossible. Meru’s parents then show up to provide an assist, and we’re teleported back to the palace. We’re late, though. A CGI scene happens where the Dragon attacks the city. His wings tear down buildings, but that’s not the worst of it. He launches artillery strikes from his body, destroying even more of the city. Lastly, he perches on a cliff and shoots a massive fireball that destroys the Crystal Palace. As it crumbles, we see a ball of light fall to the ground before shooting back up to the Moon.

The party is teleported to the entrance of the once great town. Rather than search through the rubble, we head straight to the ruins of the palace. Miranda wants to see if Theresa is alive, and we’re worried about Shana. Somehow, the throne room is still safe. As we enter the room, it’s filled with a blinding light. As we reach the epicenter, we see it’s coming from Shana, who’s protecting Theresa. When she sees Dart, she returns to normal before freaking out and passing out again. We take her to the inn to rest and, because we suspect the Dragon will attack again, leave to settle this.

And settle it we will...tomorrow!

Who really is Shana? I’m more interested in what's going on with her than anything else. I see why the Dragoon gem left her since she’s not cut out for action, but there’s something about her that you’d think would make her useful. That light, for example. And why did Dole want her so badly? How are we gonna know if she’s not in the team? I don’t care what critics say, I’m enjoying this game. That being said, I really wish someone would call out Rose for knowingly everything about the Dragon Campaign. Why would everyone just accept that the Super Virage killed her friend since this location has been off-limits for 11000 years? Here's one more example of people seeing fault in tradition. Most of the Winglies have accepted that they need to change and join back into the world. Remaining reticent won't save them from their weakening magical abilities. The one's who wish to remain cooped away in their hole just look foolish, selfish, and are prone to violence. Hell, the guy we fought almost destroyed the healing chamber the Winglies use, but have burnt down the entire village. 

Also, this is now my longest playthrough, beating FFVII. And, for more record keeping, Rose has maxed out all but her master Addition, so I suspect she'll be my best DPS for a while.