When backtracking last night, I stayed around Bale. I gathered up a few Stardust and managed to trade them for an accessory that doubles the user's HP by 50%. For some reason, I’m not using it... I make my way back to Lohan, walk up the arena, and begin today’s story!
Dart enters into a Strongest in Endiness Tournament. Lavitz doesn’t join because being a knight excludes him from entry, and Rose doesn’t because she thinks it wouldn’t be fair. Shana gives her not-boyfriend a hug and wishes him luck as he goes to the waiting room. There he walks in on an argument between a cocksure young warrior and an old, bare fisted martial artist. The older man pinches the younger man, knocking him out, proofing that age means nothing. Dart quickly realizes that he knows the monk. His name is Hasche,l and he met Dart one day while looking for his daughter. They don’t go into detail about how long they knew each other, but they seem like long time friends. He’s a black dude wearing purple, so he really sticks out in this place. After the brawl, an attendant comes down, says nothing about the unconscious man, and tells us the tournament is about to begin.
These fights are all simple, and I’m not sure if you can even lose. Your HP is refilled at the end of each fight, so don’t worry about healing. Lavitz said not to go Dragoon, as it might cause a panic, so that option is off the table. Between battles, you can leave and talk to your teammates, but they never say anything useful. The first battle poisons you. He’s weak, so ignore it and just attack him. The second guy is just a normal fight. The third fighter has a move that takes you down to one HP. I didn’t need to heal (with items) since he went into block mode after doing it. When he blocks, he preemptively attacks us, so just block/heal up. Save before doing this guy, just in case.
After that fight, we see Haschel in the waiting room. He says the two of them won’t be in the finals as he lost. The man named Lloyd is a monster. But can Dart take him down? No. The answer is no. Dart can’t even make contact with him, and the magic items don’t hit either. After enough rounds have passed, Lloyd finishes the fight on his terms. For finishing second place, Dart wins nothing. Cool...? Before leaving, Dart, Haschel, and Lloyd talk amongst each other. They promise to have another battle one day, and each man says they'll get stronger. Lloyd seems unmoved by their claims and has a quiet arrogance about him.
After the tournament, the arena becomes a mini-game center. But, more importantly, we go on a date. Lavitz, the best wingman, tries to set us up with Shana. Dart may see her as a little sister, but Shana wants to be more. At least, that’s what Lavitz thinks. As a date, our wingman gives us three tickets for games and sends us out. He tries to take Rose as a joke, and Haschel tries to take Shana to encourage Dart him to be more decisive. All the games are bad but unique. I didn’t win anything, so I’m sure Shana loves me more now. Lavitz and Dart go outside and have a heart to heart about Shana and love. After giving his advice, Lavitz says Dart owes him a round at the har one day. Regardless, after the “fun”, Haschel joins the group to end the war, and off we go. Our next destination is where we’ve already been: to report to King Albert in Bale. Seriously, I was just there at the start of this episode.
We make it to the city gate of Lohan before a wounded soldier catches up to us. He informs us that Albert has been captured. Dole raided Bale and Albert turned himself in to save the citizens. For his efforts, he was taken to Hellena. With no hesitation, I head to where this all began.
The party storms the gate this time. Lavitz, in a callback to the escape, reaches the drawbridge before it closes. While Dart is on the wrong side, Lavitz fights his way to the controls and lowers it for us, allowing us to continue on. I don’t know if you can take the same path as last time, but I went the way we couldn’t go this time. It’s a series of elevators and rooms. We make our way to a checkpoint type room near the top, fight through the guards, and learn we fell for their trap. The floor from under us collapses, and we fall ALL THE WAY DOWN to the beach. The party is okay but trapped. Shana feels a draft coming from the rock wall on the right. Before investigating further, we’re attacked by a dinosaur!
In this room was an item called Satchet, and it puts enemies to sleep. As the battle against Django starts, Lavitz tells us to put it to sleep, which would make the fight easy. I put the beast to sleep and wail on it for a time. It helps, but the boss wakes up pretty quickly and begins to deal heavy damage to everyone. Once again, use magic on it. Dart was out of MP that I never rehealed, so good job me. Physical damage does pittance, and I hate boss battles.
After the fight, the wall where Shana felt the draft collapses and reveals a path upwards. As Dart and Lavitz bro-out, Shana wishes she could have a friendship like that. Apparently, women can’t have that type of relationship. The party takes the newly seen stairs and fights their way to the very top, where our old pal Flugel is. Albert is tied up in a bonfire looking thing and is told he dies when the Sun rises. Flugel is secretly a nice man for giving the King one more beautiful sunrise. Apparently, Flugel isn't supposed to kill him. What we've got here is a failure to communicate. Despite the Sun clearly being up, Albert still lives just as Lavitz enters the chamber. It’s time to end this.
Flugel shows up with two pets, Gonzales, a bat, and Guttas, a dog looking thing. Flugel only has single target blows that don’t do as much damage as you’d think. The real DPS is in the pets, who are weak to magic. He’s not special, and I hate boss battles.
Lavitz gets the Last Hit Animation, and Flugel is defeated. Before being able to celebrate, the hooded man who overlooked Flugel at the start of the game is seen behind Albert. He is magically extracting a white gem from the King’s back. In a fit of rage, Lavitz transforms and rushes forward to save his liege. Unfortunately, the hooded one takes out an energy sword and pierces the Green Dragoon armor with ease. The hood falls off to reveal that it is Lloyd from the tournament. Lloyd quickly runs away, and Dart runs towards the dying Lavitz. His last words are to protect the King and end the war. Even in the end, he’s a loyal knight and deserved better than this.
The Green Dragoon Gem flies across the room to Albert, who thanks Lavitz and becomes the next Green Dragoon. The party goes to Seles to mourn and consider their next moves. Rose informs us the sword Lloyd used was the Dragon Buster, a blade designed specifically to slice through Dragoon armor. Albert also informs us that the Moon Gem, the white gem Lloyd stole, is the symbol of the rightful ruler of Serdio. I'm uncertain how it got physically in a boy/man's chest, but let's not worry about that. The scene then cuts to Lloyd in the throne room of Emperor Dole. Both men have a discussion that infers they both know they're being used but in a mutually agreed-upon way. Dole gets his kingdom, and Lloyd gets his gems. The party, still in the basement in Seles, decide to end this war and get revenge. The only way to accomplish this goal is to siege the Black Castle at Kazuz...
...which I’ll do tomorrow.
I really liked the bromance between Lavitz and Dart. I really liked Lavitz as a whole. He’s a good man with no clear faults. That’s, maybe, a negative usually, but Lavitz couples himself with a good sense of humor. I wish we could have gotten to know him better, but, if he had one fault, he was too loyal, and we never really got to know the real him. Maybe he was actually really boring? The game is getting heavy now, as character deaths usually mean, so I'm beginning to see why the same is so well liked by players.
Headache update: I woke up with one, but I feel fine now. I think I’m better. ...finally!!!
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