Siege of the Black Castle

The party enters this ominous goth-punk city and takes a look at the political landscape. We can tell that loyalty isn’t as high as a dictator, like Dole, would want it to be. Before searching out any leads, I buy new equipment and fill my painfully limited bag. It’s a good thing because I’ll need the potions soon. We also find most of the Stardust, which I’ll turn in tomorrow. I also realize that Albert probably isn’t very famous since no one recognizes the enemy king walking about openly in the streets.

Having done my exploring, I search out a way to enter the castle. The main entrance isn’t heavily guarded, but Albert suggests not using that door regardless. We go north from the entrance and comes to what appears to be the slums. No one says this, but it looks different from the entrance, so I could just be clicheing this. At the bottom, I find the New Serdio Party’s leader, Popo. He’s the de facto leader of the resistance group against Dole and is a big fan of Albert. After asking us a few questions about our intentions, he invites us in. While here, he tells us what he's been doing as head of the party before leading us to a secret entrance into the castle. The slums used to be a fort, and every good fort leads to the source.

The castle is filled with soldiers and the occasional dog. Otherwise, there are neutral scientists and traders. The scientists inform us that the town runs on magic energy, which is how the city is more steampunk than high fantasy. The researchers don’t want to use this power for evil and aid us in overthrowing Dole by giving us a magical flame that controls various lifts in the castle. Participating in as few battles as possible leads us to a religious leader standing in front of a statue of the goddess. The statue was made to resemble the dead Empress Katarina, the wife of Dole. Dole was a good man until she passed, and he changed into what he is now. The way forward is also in this room. To advance, we need to backtrack (or do it all before coming here) and find three stones.
The first stone I found was from the man we met in the opening cutscene. Great Commander feels remorseful for kidnapping Shana and apologizes. He tried to stop as much killing as he could, but Flugel’s wrath knew no bounds. He asks us to overthrow Dole and bring peace to the land.
The next stone was from a mad scientist who led the way to using magic as electricity.
The last stone is found in the trash. *insert shrug emoji*

Return to the statue and put the stones in the dais above it, near the save point. It opens a door at the base of the goddess that leads to the throne room. Before reaching the throne, another old friend shows up. Kongol from Hoax, in super armor, impedes our path.

I use magic, and he dies. He did 60 damage to Albert before being defeated. I hate boss battles in this game.

Kongol, ashamed of himself for being unable to live up to his brother, asks us to kill him. Rose wants to do it, but Dart and Shana say there’s no point. What is a good point, though, is to go back, heal, and save. I didn’t do this, and it almost cost me.

The party enters the throne room of Emperor Dole, and Albert asks why he killed Carlos to start a war. The evil one responds that he wanted to save the country from a weak leader, implying Carlos and the child Albert are weak. Dart asks why he kidnapped Shana, to which he blames Lloyd, and mentions The Moon That Never Sets and bring up the human leader of the Dragon Campaign, Emporer Diaz. Rose asks how Diaz, who died 11000 years ago as a hero, is to blame but gets no response. Upset at the poor answers, and because he’s evil, a fight breaks out.

Dole has his own battle music, and it's pretty good. Best of the action tracks so far. More importantly, this is the first battle with two phases. The first round is a pushover fight. It’s actually okay to use physical attacks. The second round, though, oh, boy. He yells at us for using Dragoons, despite not using them, and takes on his own Dragoon form. Dole is the Purple Dragoon of Thunder, and he really likes thunder. He loves to spam an attack that hits the whole party, doing about 45% of everyone’s health. Albert died twice, so that’s nice. I used a large portion of my magic items, all of my potions, most of my MP, and even one SP pot. Rose has a Dragoon magic that drains health from an enemy and gives it to the party. I had her using that quite often when she wasn't reviving Not-Lavitz. I felt like physical attacks worked here, at least in Dragoon form, so maybe my hate toward boss fights will subside. After two near defeats, I managed to dethrone the emperor. As he kneels there, bleeding out, he asks us the kill Lloyd, who’s gone to the land of Tiberora in the north.

After the fight, the team thinks about ending the journey, now that the realm is at peace. Dart quickly says he can’t stop as he needs to pursue Lloyd. Shana joins him, and Albert believes it’s for the best to continue fighting as well. Rose was always going to follow Dart. Haschel says he’s leaving, still wanting to find his daughter, until the Purple/Violent Dragoon gem that Dole had chooses him as its next master.

The game asks me to insert disk two, and I called it a night.

The plot finally starts, and the game is really about to begin. I can see why critics found it mediocre, but I side with the players and think the game is really run. I don’t like how Haschel just became a Dragoon, though. Dart has a family heirloom, and Lavitz won it from his fallen uncle. There's some backstory and plot there to give us reason to connect. Shana probably has a similar personality to the previous owner and still has time to explain itself. She's the White Dragoon, and white tends to have an interesting role in RPGs. Rose has always had her powers and is just filled with mystery, so I have no problems with not knowing her backstory yet. With Haschel, it just feels like it's luck of the draw. If Polo followed them in, could he have been the Dragoon? Regardless, disk two is downloaded, and I’m excited to see this new land. I can’t wait for tomorrow night!