Plot advancement for back-up characters.

We left off locked in a dungeon somewhere. The save data said Jadd, so I guess we’ve returned to where we started from.

We quickly and easily beat up the feral Beastmen and decide to not save the noble in the throne room. He’s just sitting there, asking for help, but we have no option of doing anything. Weird. We then do the same in the town. I wonder what would have happened if I waited until daytime? Regardless, I have no idea what happens if you leave through the front gate, but I went back to the docks where the shipman took us to the Free City of Maia.

Townsfolk references the dwarfs nearby, but the interesting person is in the northeast. A man named Bon Voyage lives with his sister, Van Sour. They have a cannon in their backyard, and he’s looking for an ignition agent, but we’ll get back to that soon. What we’re supposed to do is exit the town and walk on the Golden Road.

This place sucks. Everyone can poison you, and using items is a bit tedious in this game. Because I hate the ring menu, I mostly power through it, getting my butt kicked the whole time. If you stay on the trail, you come to the Merchant Town Beiser. The gate is blocked by people who don’t let us in because we could be spies. I think we can skip this, but there’s a cave shortly before this that we can’t. Deep in the cave is a bridge that usually leads to Valsena, where Durran is from. Today, though, it leads to doom. The bridge is defended by Atena, where Angela is from, and their small army of tiny murder bots. The Altenian mages have labeled Angela for death and try to detain her. Riesz and Durren are guilty by association. To do this, they attack us with two adorable murder robots.

They’re very good at their job! The first time I fought them, they won. The second time was a long hard battle where I, once again, gave my characters diabetes and had to use a Cup of Wishes, this games Phoenix Down, on Angela. I learned how to use magic at the very end, which I wish I knew sooner. Holy Bolt does a lot of damage to every enemy on screen, and I end up spamming it going forward. As we finish off the murder bot, it slowly walks towards us while we casually move to the middle of the bridge. As it reaches us, everyone notices that the murder bot becomes a murder bomb and explodes! Fortunately, it doesn’t do anything to the party, but it does destroy the bridge.

Angela and Durran bond for a moment, as they both declare vengeance on the Crimson Wizard. He’s the one who beat up Durran and tried to change Angela’s mom, telling her to kill her daughter. After learning more backstory on our allies, we return to Gaia. Here’s where we discover Bon Voyage is looking for an igniting agent, which he thinks the dwarfs have. We return to the caves and talk to the Goddess Statue to initiate a conversation. If we select Lumina, s/he (she from henceforth) states the dwarfs use illusionary magics to hide from humans. She will open the way, and we descend to the Dwarf Tunnels. The dwarfs down here are mildly racist, calling us Topsoilsrs, but are friendly enough. They sell us new weapons and armor with no twists and fair prices. One tells us about Watts, who has the agent we need, and where to find him. Another dwarf opens the path, and we go down to the dungeon, The Jewel Valley Daria.

Nothing down here is too dangerous. On one screen, we fight mobs while a dwarf watches on behind bars. He doesn’t talk to us, but it does give us a notice that a room is back there. Behind a secret wall in the next screen is the way to Watts. After we ask him about the igniting agent, he offers to sell it to us. First, he says it's 5000 Gold, and the second offer is 3000. I can’t afford that, so he yells at us, saying he needs to find Gnome, the Earth Mana Spirit and patron deity to the dwarfs, and runs off. We chase after him until we meet the dungeon boss.

The Gem Eater, a legendary beast that wakes up every 1000 years and looks like a mole rat, attacks. It’s...a fight, alright. It mostly stands in the corner and lets us beat upon it. It physically attacks, too, but the main issue is the spells it uses. It can do a lot of damage to one character, so keep your HP above 50. Occasionally, it tries to block physical damage, which it does well. It opens back up when Angela starts casting a spell on it.

When the mole rat dies, Watts gives us the agent and magical ropes us out of the caves, as thanks for saving their god. Walk back to Gaia and deliver it to Bon Voyage, who feigns ignorance of us before launching us to the capital of Valsena. Or tries to, at least. He’s a terrible shot, and he launches us nowhere near the city, but we are close enough to walk to it after a long trek. As we reach the castle, we see Altena attacking! We give chase, beating up mages and chess horses the whole way up to the throne room. There we interrupt the Crimson Mage and the Hero King of Valsema. Mage quickly flees, and we save a city! The Hero King says he knows the True Queen of Altena, the name of Angela’s mom, and wonders what happened to her. He also mentions that we are doing what we once did long ago. His Fairy died during the quest, though. He then informs us that our next goal is in Laurent, where the Mana Spirit of the Wind resides.

A new cannon is made in the courtyard, which we use to get back to Gaia. We walk to Bieser, which is now open for some reason. We get better gear and discover the city has a Night Market that's only open at night. If we go there then, Riesz meets a slaver who she thinks sold Elliot. He said he sold a kid who matched Elliot's description to a man with red eyes. She scares him into changing his life, after the other party members talk her out of killing him, and we hop a ship back to Laurent via the port town of Palos. I should have bought gear here, as it’s the same stuff sold in Beiser, and I support shopping locally. Lastly, I meet with the town’s resistance informer at the bar, who tells is to go to the Heavensway.

Before looking for that place and having our orders down, I called it a night.

I fully support the murder of slavers, so I’m getting into Riesz’s story. It’s about to get dicey for her, and I want to keep playing. So far, I’m really enjoying the game. The combat, while feeling simple, is still fun. The music isn’t as good as Secret of Mana, which is a real bummer...

Also, an edit from last night: Durren and Angela share the main villain. Riesz shares hers with the thief boy I don’t think I’ve found yet. Apparently, everyone but Charlotte is in Jadd, so it wasn’t happenstance.