Tonight was a slough, and I’m starting to hate the game.
Still on the mountain tops of Gusthall, I take the surprisingly quick exit and return to the flower field. There, we see two people. I talked to the Amazon waiting for us and had the option to summon Sylph. He did the plan, and the flower spores put the trespassers in the castle to sleep. The Resistance takes their places in and around the castle. We’re told to prepare in case anyone is still awake, and given two barrels of supplies. We’re gonna need them. The areas we had access to in the prologue are clean, but, as we approach the western wing, assassins begin to appear from the shadows. There was an area that was blocked off to us when we first started, but it's wide open now.
We climb the floors and stairs up to the citadel, taking heavy losses along the way. The barrel of candies was used early and often here, but I managed to make my way to the Golden Goddess Statue. Beyond that, however, is exhibit A to the case of why tonight wasn't fun.
First up is an evil chimney. The boss, Zehnoa, can summon various, powered-up mobs we’ve fought a few times before. It is often a three-on-three fight. This seems fair, but when one of the competitors has several thousands of HP and can still attack AND tank just doesn’t seem right. Not only that, but I think my controls began to fade here. Either that or the ring menu sucks more than it did, and there’s a turn order we can’t do anything with. I would often try to switch to Angela’s magic menu, but that was frequently delayed. Healing was also affected by this, and I wound up wasting a chocolate or two on dead characters. Using items is instant, and you can't target the dead. I scream silently... When Angela wasn’t dead, I had her use Holy Bolt often. Every other spell did no damage. Ultimately, Zehnoa is a boss and sure feels like a boss. It draining all of my candies and cup of wishes should be suspected, but what came next is exhibit B.
Bil and Ben show up in the room directly afterwards. They give you no time to restock or even save. Before the fight, they talk about Belladonna, their queen, and how cool she is. Yadda yadda...
Bil and Ben start the game by fusing together. So far, it’s going well. I can hit them, and they’re not too terrible. And then they split up. They have no cooldown on their extremely high damaging, party-wide attacks that knock us away from them. Because we’re knocked backed, getting hits in is hard. Due to the pixel graphics, this entire fight is not only incredibly hard, but chaotic, and I have no idea what’s going on. I randomly heal a character I just healed because the warning klaxon went off. Trying to use magic is just as slow as it was before. I’m still out of everything from Zehnoa, by the way! On my second attempt, only Darren survived with less than 100 HP left. I don’t know if I’m underleveled or missing gear, but I hated this. With the assassins gone, I’m free to talk to Belladonna. She doesn’t stay too long, and I’m too flustered to remember what happened. Something about Elliot, I think. Also, in the middle of the climb, we met Hawkeye, the thief that could have been a character. He’s a Nevarl turncoat who hates Belladonna because she cursed his girlfriend, Jessica, or something. And I think she conquered Nevarl and turned the thieves into assassins. He also tries to kiss Riesz because Square loves rapey thieves.
After this, we’re reminded to return to Valsena. I make our way down from the freed castle, which we’re still locked out from, and down to Palos. The townfolk and merchants have sieged weapons and armor from the fleeing thieves and are selling it to us. At the dock is a new ship that takes us to Beison. I don’t know why we’re going to the Merchant City, but we hop aboard anyway. It takes a long, circulations route, and blah blah, it’s a ghost ship.
It’s inhabited by zombies, who keep poisoning us. I run low on HP early and often. To make matters worse, halfway through the, albeit short, dungeon, Riesz gets taken away from us. She gets turned into a ghost, so she can’t fight. To free her, Durran and Angela have to kill the boss. The boss is on the deck and easy, but it’s still exhibit C. I want to play as Riesz. Why would removing the main character in an already rough dungeon be a good idea? I don’t think she missed out on EXP, so cool, and I think she’s my weakest character, so blessing in disguise? Also, why is she so weak? Durran does more damage and has more HP, and Angela is fragile but does high magic damage to everyone. What’s the point here?
After we beat the boss, Shade, the Mana Spirit of Darkness, shows himself and says his Mana Crystal is gone from this world. The benovoeon it housed is, likewise, MIA. No one knows what’s going on. Also, also, the ghost ship sinks.
We float to a nearby beach on a volcanic island. The volcano is about to erupt, by the way. By the way, again, here’s exhibit D, E, F, and G.
D: The music here is amongst the worst in any video game. It’s repetitive, clangy, and gave me a headache. I had to mute my TV, which lowered my ability to hear the damage delivered and received, as well as the warning klaxon.
E: There are nine and a half million enemies. All of them hit hard, have hundreds of HP, and make my controller feel like it's breaking. It’s the Zehnoa boss strung out for an hour.
F: The place is a maze. And with limited healing options...
G: What was the point of it? Fine, I get the ghost ship for Shade, but there was no great plot here. We met the guy who bought Elliot and may be Belladonna’s boss. We're saved when we ride on the back of a giant turtle. Tomato Village offered no new NPC or memorable moments.
Anyway, the turtle took us back to the Golden Path. I went to the inn in Maia, saved, and called it a night.
I hate this game suddenly. Am I underleveled? The guide I followed might be about the remake, so I don't know. If this game needs that much grinding, I might drop it. I’m at the same level as the mobs... Maybe a good class change will solve everything, so I'll look into that while I wait for my family to wake up and open presents. Merry Christmas. Try to avoid headaches like Tomato Village’s music and suicidal NPCs. I never thought I’d yearn for Gaia's navel...
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