Shape of Many Sides

The salt flats of Sleyheim are our destination. You know what it is, so I won’t try to spell it.

It’s kinda bad. It’s one of the most labyrinthine dungeons I’ve ever been in, and you will get lost. You walk across see through floors, which open up more see through floors, leading to more see through floors. You can tell where you have and have not been by the healing crystals scattered near junctions, but when you’ve gone several layers deep, they’re not gonna help ya. The only random encounters I had were with mobs that can cause instadeath, so consider using Kanon instead of Brad. They have very low HP, so your goal should be to hit first, not hard.

Eventually, we do reach the goal. And what’s there is a boss named Larva. This dude tries to kill you with status effects instead of damage. They’re random and not too accurate, so don’t worry that much. Do be ready to aid Lillia, who, in turn, should cast the game’s Esuna when needed. All in all, a very easy fight.

Larva meant nothing, though, as .0025% isn’t a critical mass of the evil world. The party, somehow, leaves the dungeon as our first real failure. Reconvening at the Chateau, Valeria tries to think of something new. He is unable to at the moment, so he gives everyone time off. That night, he figures it out. If we need a body to trap the world in, then we can find one. If Lord Blazer can be trapped in a body eons ago, and then again in Ashley now, then Irving Valeria knows what to do! He then has a really creepy scene with his sister that, and maybe it’s my dirty mind here, gives me incest vibes. He pushes Altaecia closer and closer to his bed while talking about his body and blood. When the screen goes black, she says that she’s never felt closer to her brother. The gist is, Valeria will use his body as the prison for the encroachment.

The next morning, he tasks ARMS with finding the whereabouts of a horde of demons east of Helmholtz. Landing at the location reveals the Fiery Wreckage. It’s the remains of the Heimdal Gazzo. We need to turn on all the monitors on the ship, which reveals a shocking secret. Valeria was the financial backer of Odessa. This upsets everyone, Brad especially, and we plan to confront our commander over this. As we go to do so, Amy and Kate tells us that both Valerias are gone. They left a note talking about sacrifice and heroes and the plan they came up with before Alabamaing out. Ya know, the same shtick our characters have been fighting against the whole game. With no one else to lead, Ashley makes the first move. He tells everyone to take the day off and find what they’re fighting for. It’s just like the pre final dungeon bit in FFVII.

Brad spends his time in T’Bok with Billy, Millie, and Rassyu. He says how everyone in ARMS doesn’t need a hero because "hero" is just a word synonymous with courage, which everyone has.

Lillia spends her time feuding with Terry, not Teddy. He’s going to take the hardest mage test the school offers and convinces Lillia to take it, as well. She questions why he frustrates her, but he doesn’t give a good answer. In the end, she begins to walk in her sister’s footsteps again, but of her own accord this time. ...I hope.

Tim is spending his day with Colette. They awkwardly confess their love and desire to fight for one another.

Kanon is standing on the water tower in Damzen, talking to herself about blood, body, heroes, etc.

Marivel is talking to Tony, who has a crush on her, it seems. He wants to be a vampire to be her friend, seeing as Marivel is the last Crimson Noble. She tells him no but suggests asking again when he’s pudgy and middle aged.

Ashley gets laid. I’d go into details, but that’s all either of us would take from this scene. He and Marina love each other, and it’s very nice.

Back together, we now head to the Spiral Tower, the penultimate dungeon of Wild Arms 2. I was hoping it would be the last since I like to make the final dungeon the final entry, but what can ya do? We’ll see how I end this blog...

...tomorrow!

I did several side quests tonight, too, that I suddenly wish I had delayed. You can get the final Guardians now, which I did. The Good Luck Zone was a quick walk through once you Pickpocket the key from a mob. You get the last three by talking to certain people.

Brad can talk to Billy, and they’ll talk about their past and courage.
Tim can talk to Colette about love.
Ashley can talk about p Marina again about hope. I feel like these scenes could have happened before.
There was also the Promised Catacombs, a dungeon for Marivel. Inside is her second tool and some backstory. I tried my hand at three other optional bosses, but that ended poorly. The ghost of Vinsfeld messed me up, Liz and Ard’s dungeon wreaked me, and I can’t get into the Pirate's Warren yet. I don’t know how much more optional stuff I’ll be doing, but the space lizards get to live.

Wild Arms: Secret of Mana

First up was Raypoint Wing. It’s floating in the air west of Sylvaland.

The first thing there is a giant wooden slab. Use Tim's Wind Push tool to move it. I’ll be saying that a lot for this bit, and I want you to know I hate it. The animation takes too long for how often we’ll be pushing stuff. Push another slab in the next room and use Pooka on the chest a ways away. It contains Tim’s final Tool, Air Cape. It allows Tim to, more or less, teleport two squares away and pass through chain link fences. Flowing air, which we encounter in the next room, aids us to teleport further. There’s a wind vane outside that controls how the wind blows. It'll blow wherever direction you're facing.

When we’re next outside, we have a boss fight. Tim becomes resolute in his desire to fight alongside and save his friends. The Spriggan, Wing Knight, is easy. It hits hard but only on one target. It’s faster than you, so cast quick on your party and use Brad’s multi target ARMS to widdle down the main guys' HP while destroying his shield.

Behind that is a four way path. Down each path is a tablet that is used to unlock the door to our destination. From the monolith, input the cloud, moon, sun, and star tablet in that order. Behind that is the Mana Crystal. It asks Tim why he fights. Tim, essentially, says the same thing as Ashley did yesterday. He just wants to save the future from them needing to sacrifice another Pillar. He wants to bring everlasting peace to Filgaia. The crystal finds this answer acceptable. The Mana is unlocked, Tim gains a new special, and Pooka gains a sense of self worth. Our pink flying bear isn’t just a puppet now.

Next up, we go to the western bridge. We head there, use Tim’s new Tool to pass through the gate, and raise the bridge. Raising the bridge opens the way for the hovercraft to pass under the bridge and into the southern bay, where Kanon’s dungeon is. Once we get to Raypoint Muse, we need to lower the water level in the central room. To do so, venture into each wing and turn the wheel at the end of the path. There are simple box puzzles in the way but aren't a problem. At the bottom is the new Spriggan, Muse Knight. It’s just as easy as the other one, and it protects Kanon’s new Tool, Jump Boots. These boots, in the bottom doorway, allow Kanon to make massive jumps at designated spots. Return to the save point and climb the stairs this time. Read the terrible clue and return to the second chest in the dungeon. Use the boots, and you’ll be above the terrible clue. The next puzzle is jumping on wooden slabs to make them fall to the room below. Jump on the second and third slabs in the rooms, and we can walk to the crystal. The final puzzle is making all the statues look at each other.

Beyond this is the Mana Crystal. Kanon has a heart-to-heart to clear her confusion with her former self. She answers why she became a cyborg...which I didn’t understand. In the end, she confirms her desire to fight with her friends as that’s what a real hero would do. She also unlocks her level 4 Gat skill. I still can’t use level 2, so who cares?

Reypoint Flam, Lillia’s dungeon, is next, located just north of Palace Village. Inside is her third Tool, the Change Rod. That rod changes large healing crystals into walkable paths and vice versa. Use them to create the needed floors to proceed but don’t worry about changing all of them. Some will block ways to chests, and others may be wanted to heal, so proceed at your leisure. At her crystal, she must confront her past. She accepts the difference between her and her sister, something she’s been struggling with the entire game. Only after hearing her voice say it’s okay to be yourself does she let herself go. She's been in her sister's shadows the whole game, even when joining ARMS. The invite was her the unnamed big sister, but she's trying to fill in. Ultimately, since the Eleniak Witch-Girl is dead, there can't really be a good ending for this, but I think this as good as we could get.

The last dungeon is north of the inner sea, Geo. It seems maze-like but is actually straightforward. You’ll need to cause an earthquake, Brad's new Tool, to make platforms swing and floors fall. Bombs trigger odd walls, and you’ll need to kick down a giant monolith. At the end, Brads confronts his past. It’s more along the lines of what a hero is, but it fits the narrative this subplot is trying to get at. I’ll be honest, I’m super into that plot, and it’s my favorite part of the game.

As we go to exit the dungeon, we call Valeria to inform him we’re done. We then return to the Chateau, where the bossman contacts the other nations asking to use their Life Reflectors. After we get permission, we then, somehow, use them and Mana to trap the approaching purple mass in a Trapezohedron. It only manages to capture 25% of 1%, but we have to squash it anyway. Which I go to do...

...tomorrow!

To finish up, I went to the meteor crater in the south. I found a new guardian and several random artifacts I think work alongside it. I’m not sure, but I think the end of Wild Arms 2 is near. I’m not gonna say it’s overstaying its welcome, but I’m ready to end this. The game does some good things, but...uh...I don’t know...

Side quests and set up.

The first thing I did was enter the Crimson Castle. It’s a nonsensical maze of hallways, stairwells, and switches. Despite its size, there are no rooms for people to live. Not a single kitchen, living room, sex dungeon, or bathroom. A few libraries, though...

Eventually, we get to a stairway down, along with a warning to all who enter. Ignore those three warnings, and you’ll enter a room with a coffin in the middle. Everyone wonders what’s up with the place until it begins to rumble. And out of the dead bed comes Marivel! She's excited to see us and lets us know that she, a Crimson Noble, is the rightful heir to Filgaia. She joins the team to defend her land. I don’t think she’s useful, but I’ll look into teaching her spells later. I’ve read she’s a blue mage, which is super rad.

Next up was the nearby Werewolf Cave. It’s pitch black, and I couldn’t find anything. Reading a guide tells me to blow stuff up with Brad. I couldn’t find anything to bomb, so I just started randomly placing them. After opening up two holes, I stumble upon a lit room with a faint sigil on the floor. Everyone walks onto it and discusses what it could mean. Once everyone’s said their peace, they hear a voice in their head. It asks us for the name of the Guardian of Desire. If you remember the segment with Anastasia, you should know that guardian is Lucinid. Ashley is teleported away to talk with our good boy. Eventually, all goes well, and he grants Ashley his power. All Ashley had to do was answer Lucinid’s question as Anastasia would: he just wants to snuggle with Marina. Ashley can now use the attack Mad Lucinid. I have no idea how to use it.

Next up is something I’m taking out of order. To advance the plot, we need to visit four Layline places throughout the world. Inside are the third tools for Tim, Lillia, Brad, and Kanon. All but Kanon’s is very close to the entrance, so collect your tools and head to the Odd Headquarters near Damzen. Use Marivel’s tool to grant the robot in the basement life, and we will now have access to the Black Market. It's one guy who sells healing items. I bought 99 Heal Berries and Mega Berries. Behind him is a secret treasure. You’ll need to use the new tools for Illia and Tim, Ashley’s Knife Hurl move, and I guess Brad and Kanon weren’t relevant... Regardless, the treasure is a Teddy Dear that stops luck from dropping at inns. I don’t know what luck does, but I do appreciate a good teddy bear!

And that’s all I’m writing tonight. I did finish Tim’s dungeon, as well as most of Kanon’s, but I’ll write up tomorrow about them. I want to keep things connected as such as I did with the Diablo Pillars.

To the skies!

Marina was abducted last night, and now we have to save her!

At the Chateau is a note. It’s yelling at Ashley and brings up The Divine Comedy, a reference to Cocytus and Odessa. Caina is the only person we didn’t see die, so everyone assumes it's him. Also, it turns out he’s a she...at least in the English version.

The Lost Garden is located on a lone island in the Inner Sea. It’s a puzzle dungeon where you need to activate various blocks by standing on them. These blocks will raise or lower similar colored blocks elsewhere through the rooms. Along the way, Caina’s key, Randolf, blocks the way forward. To pass, we need to leave a character behind to mentally block the waves. We need to leave everyone behind, which means a final confrontation and a one-on-one climactic fight between Ashly and Caina is coming. Ashley is a choice, though, but I don't know what happens if we try to leave him behind.

After Caina says s/he loved Vinsfeld and is upset we killed him, they try to take Marina from Ashley. A light forms in front of them, indicating a magic attack on Marina’s life. Ashley jumps in to protect her.

In the fight, Ashley transforms into a new, even more powerful version of KnightBlazer. The armor is golden and has two new attacks. The new form makes Caina a since. But after the fight is where things get interesting.

Caina is thrilled because he's taken Marina from Ashley. This is confusing at first, but we quickly hear that Marina doesn’t recognize Ashley. He’s, clearly, him, but it’s a fear thing. That power isn’t Ashley. It’s not even human. She’s right, of course, and we all return to the Chateau. Marina is shaken up, and Ashley isn’t himself, either. But this scene is about the Nuke. Readings have indicated it’s coming eminently. Another G4 meeting happens to discuss the threat. Guild Galad Master lets everyone know that the Nuke isn’t a nuke but, rather, a summoned dragon. When the dragon lands, it sucks up all the energy until it explodes. GGM, with some significant character development, suggests that Guild Galad can be used as bait. And that is the plan, but Ashley isn’t allowed to participate. Valeria believes his emotions will bring Lord Blazer into the world if something goes wrong.

We see GG preparing things, Ashley and Marina being scared, and ARMS standing by. And we get right into it. Grauswein is pretty easy. His single target moves are pathetic, and his teamwide attacks can be negated with a simple heal. Use a Lucky Card to get 30000 EXP and Gold.

Alas, he isn’t dead. He’s too strong because plot armor sucks on enemies. We cut back to the Chateau, where Ashley is fearing for his comrade's lives. He begins the whole "Power is neither good nor evil" shtick, and it cuts to the cockpit. The two girls who aren't plot relevant tell Valeria that Ashley has left his room, and the scene cuts back to Grauswein. And then, a transformed Ashley shows up. In a fight that is only hard if you’re low on berries, Ashley takes down the Nuke Dragon. Be careful using Banisher and Last Burst. Both will revert Ashley, and the second will heavily damage him.

Once again, the aftermath is where it’s at. Ashley is losing control of his body. Lord Blazer is coming. In his last moments of clarity, he asks Kanon to kill him. She, however, has given into the power of friendship and can’t go through with it. Everyone begins to panic until Marina shows up. She tries to settle Ashley but can only do so much. She, in so many words, says how much she loves him. And then Ashley starts to strangle her. She keeps pleading her love for Ashley...until he drops her. He reverts to himself and collapses into her arms. The world is saved from the Nuke but not from the other world.

Another G4 meeting happens, and GGM mentions the Last Dragon. Most dragons are dead, fossilized in GH or Sieljie, but Lombardia may still exist. The party heads toward the Sleeping Volcano.

The Sleeping Volcano is a legitimate maze, and I got lost. To traverse the place, we need to use Kanon's Rad Blades we got in the Grotto. Otherwise, the lava eats us. It will anyway because the controls are terrible, but, like, let's pretend. To open the path, we need to blow up black smoke to explode open the way. Use Illia's Fire Rod for this. Eventually, Brad needs to blow up a rock, and we can reach Lombardia. There’s more here than meets the eye. Get it? Because he’s a transformer? He lets us in on the fact that he and the dragons came from another world in a way not unlike today. All the other dragons withered away, leaving him alone. He won’t help us, at least not without a fight.

To test our mettle, he loses easily. The volcano begins to churn, ARMS offers him a fight against fate, and we now have a good airship! Valeria brings up the concept of Mana being used to physically conceive the encroaching world, and we now need to open the reserves. We must travel the world to find the four lay line points to free Mana. I'm iffy on late game McGuffins, but this is fine.

And I’ll do that tomorrow!

Now, obliviously, I explore around the world. I find most of the yellow dots on the map and buy new gear at the Palace Village. Everything seems to be open up to us, so make use of it. But first, there’s a secret character to get...

A quick gone.

I load up the aftermath from last night, and the game says we’re in Filgaia Subspace. I don’t know what that is, so let’s continue on.

We see ARMS hanging out. Marina, while not in ARMS, is greeted by Altaecia, Valeria’s seldom relevant sister. Marina says how much she misses Ashley and knows he’ll be back. She thinks her feelings will reach Ashley, and Altaecia supports her. How did these two meet?

We then cut to Ashley, hanging out in the Parathion. He’s shocked that he’s alive, assuming he is. He’s quickly joined by a familiar sounding woman. She introduces herself as the Sword Magess, Anastasia. The two of them walk on the beach and have a fun conversation about heroes, the past, and life. It’s pretty fun.

The next hour or so of the game has Ashley, Anastasia, and her pet/friend/guardian wolf, Lucine, dungeon crawling. The three of them walk through immaculate columns that are randomly blocked and need to be triggered with Ashley’s Knife Throw to open. We do battle with an assortment of mobs, all the while talking to a woman who resembles Marivel. Not-Marivel fought alongside Anastasia during the Blaze of Disaster eons ago. We also learn how Anastasia feels about being a hero. She hates it. She agrees with Marina that heroes are sacrifices.

More importantly, we learn the history of the Blaze. Anastasia was just a girl who wanted to spend time with her friends and family. Nothing more. She only drew Argetheim because she had the strongest will to live, called Desire here. Lord Blazer takes away the human will to live and feeds on despair and hopelessness, but she never lost hers. Her blood, Valeria blood, means nothing. And yes, Valeria. She’s an ancestor of the Chateau owners. We then learn that Lord Blazer couldn’t be killed, but they did manage to seal him somewhere. How he got into Ashley isn’t discussed. As Ashley goes to leave Purgatory, Anastasia wishes that he could either stay or go with him. Neither happens, but she does ask Lunine to protect Ashley.

While this is happening, the rest of ARMS is trying to find Ashley. They get a slight reading from the Sword Cathedral but are unable to locate him, even with the Millennium Puzzle. Illia is unable to properly activate it again, so they return to the Chateau.

After crossing back into our world, Ashley goes to Marina, where they have a nice, touching moment. She wants to know why he’s late but is just happy he’s home. The rest of ARMS knew of his return and runs off to greet him. Illia got there first and is heartbroken. Tim runs onto her sitting on the stairs outside Ashley's room. It turns out she has feelings for Ashley, at least since that scene in Sieljie. Unfortunately for Illia, Ashley is only interested in Marina. Regardless, we all return to Valeria, and he gives us our orders and fills Ashley in on what’s happened. The land has withered, the seas have dried (they've not), and the sky has been eaten. It’s now a sickly dark blue with static over it. Ashley asks Valeria about his ancestor, seems unsure of everything as he’s possessed by Blazer, and gets re-assured by everyone with the power of friendship!

We can go to two places. The first I go is the Grotto of Lourdes. Kanon’s eye is the key to entering, and we learn her backstory. She was once a little girl with no desire to follow her cadet blood. She then learns her blood is the key to getting out of poverty. Next, back when she was a blond, her village was attacked and her mother killed. She also lost the use of her arm. This event spurred her movement to become Kanon. The other scenes here are her, and everyone else, learning the history that Anastasia told Ashley. It unlocks Kanon’s level three special, which I can't use for some reason.

The second place we can go is back to Baskar, to ask them about the Guardians. It leads us to going to the Sacrificial Altar, where Tim was supposed to be sacrificed. Everyone suggests the guardians might know something and think it’s a good idea to ask them. If they had the dream seer see what’s currently happening to the world, as this was prophesied when we met Tim, maybe they know how to fix it.

Heading there and solving the puzzles grants us three stones that aren't useful now. It does give us access to the Guardian Collective, known as Gaia. There's some slight idea of the sacrifice, but Gaia gives in to Tim. It lets everyone know the devouring of the sky is a sign that another world is coming. It's been happing for a long time, as noted by the monsters, but it will eventually eat the whole world, as is this alternate universe's endgame. As Tim refuses to be the sacrifice, Pooka begins to develop his individuality, and we all make our exit. I'm not sure how Tim dying would save the world from the other dimension, but cool. As we leave, Valeria contacts us and informs us that Marina has been kidnapped. But I'll discuss this...

...tomorrow!

I can’t get Illia’s new special. Nor did I get access to Lucine. But we did get a new cinematic that shows up every time you boot up the game, annoyingly. I like the new end scene, though, where Anastasia and Lucine are hanging out. Anyway, we’re back but still missing the plot. How is Lord Blazer affecting the world from inside Ashley? And what of that Nuke?

The fall, and rise, and fall again, and lastly hover of Odessa.

I got Illia’s level two magic before doing anything else. Have I really never used her on the world map? After a mildly tedious request, I got Hi-Heal and the game's version of Esuna. They seem pretty important.

ARMS takes their floating rock house south of the snowfields to the floating clock. Ashley and crew promise to finish this and return to Filgaia together. That together part was of vital importance. Heimdal Gazzo is a straightforward dungeon with the worst security ever. All we have to do is move four rooms, unlocking the doors by traveling through easy mazes. Turning off the lights is not hard, and I’ve beaten Sabrina in Pokémon, so I know my way around teleporting puzzles. In the cockpit is our target, Vinsfeld Rhadamanejdjdjss.

He questions our ideals against his. He’s genuinely upset that Antenora is dead, so I guess her plan worked. After little fluff, a fight breaks out.

Vinsfeld is boringly easy. He can’t muster 1000 damage against us, has no status effect spells, and has no single target massive damaging attack. This was the guy we were supposed to be afraid of?

After the fight, though, he reminds us of several things. Firstly, the monsters. Ashley thought all the mobs invading the planet were from The Demon Summoning. It turns out that was wrong. Most of them are from an unknown source. Vinsfeld surmises there is a greater evil out there somewhere. As the Gazzo shakes, he teleports away.

We now need to find the escape pods. Out the door to our right are those pods. Sadly, we have to split up. For some awful reason, the designers of this ship placed every pod behind a long puzzle. To reach the pods, everyone needs to work together to reach the escape dock. Even worse, one person must stay back to unlock the pods themselves. It doesn’t make any sense from a design sense, but it was fun. Using all of your characters to progress, unlock, and move platforms was a great addition here. It wasn’t too long, either. Just long enough to shine but not overstay the welcome. As everyone reaches their pod, they and Ashley connect with the Emphatite stones. Their hearts connected! Brad talks of heroes, Tim talks of strength, Lillia talks of loneliness, and Kanon knows that we’re actually rising higher into the air rather than sinking. When everyone is in, Vinsfeld reappears! He and Ashley argue and then fight in an even more boring fight than before. He is no threat, and I, while not needing to, transformed for the fun of it. Vinney also reminds Ashley that he has a Nuke. In his dying breath, he activates it.

I’m no nuclear physicist, but I don’t this that’s a nuke. I think that’s a magic seal over Filgaia, from which the end of the world will spew from. Vinsfeld tells us that someday soon, the 'nuke' will strike the planet. He doesn’t know when or where, but it will. In the meantime, we all must live with the sign of our doom over our heads. His final revenge is to unease the world before destroying it.

Ashley knows he can’t reach his escape pod now, as Vinsfeld delayed him too much. His body begins to shine as the camera cuts away. Marivel is talking to Marina about shooting stars and wishes. The shooting stars aren’t meteors but ARMS. Everyone is there except Ashley, and Illia is very upset by this. We then cut to an anime cutscene where a dude moans "yeah" while the remains of the Gazzo float in space. The camera pans over to a disheveled Ashley, floating in a bubble. The screen goes black, and we’re asked to save the game and insert disk 2.

We’re just getting started, aren’t we?

Difficulty Spike

Tonight was a night of four dungeons, eight bosses, twelve-ish puzzles, and one gigantic string of hardships.

I’m gonna try to smash all four Diablo Pillars into one thingy. They all share the same layout, boss and puzzle placements, and general story elements, so I think it can work. Each Pillar is a spiral dungeon, with a puzzle at every other landing. The middle landing is a mid-boss battle. Each Pillar is named after a member of Cocytus, so Liz and Ard don’t get one. My path was Caina, Ptolomea, Antenora, and Judecca.

Caina's puzzles are circus games. There are several shooting gallery places and a maze that goes dark. Light it up to see where to go to.
Ptolomea has boxes that you can blow up, or, what I did, just let them smash you can come out the other side. You take damage this way, but it's a lot less annoying.
Antenora has memory games to test your brain. I learned I'm not good when Simon Says gets more than nine squares in.
Judecca has you standing on a moving platform avoiding spiky balls.

The mid-bosses here were the massive difficulty spikes that tested my mettle.
Drawdo is a three headed turtle. It uses only teamwide attacks that can infect several status effects, confusion being the most likely.

Belleclare is a horned turtle. That horn can one shot Illia. Protect helps but good luck finding a time to use it. I’ll be honest, I think I got lucky here, and I might be able to say that for all of these.

Prisnum is a manageable fight. He doesn’t hit hard, but I had some minor issues here, though I can’t remember why.

Magmalizer is an embarrassingly easy fight. He’s weak to ice, but you’ll only get one shot at him before he casts reflect. He barely does damage, so he’s really out of place here. Once he casts reflect, you become your biggest threat.

And, at the end, you do battle with the namesake of the tower. Each Odessa member discusses some vague concept related to them: Purity, Honor, Love, and Life, respectively.

Caina is the hardest of the four. He has several status effect moves and teamwide attacks. All of which hit hard. When he finally dies, his key/weapon, Randolf, takes him into the Dead Zone.

Ptolomea is exactly the same as he has been. Be careful of his teamwide attack, and prepare for his high damaging single blows. When he loses, he asks us to protect his troops, and we all think he was a good guy.

Antenora was a simple task. No status effects, low teamwide damage, and healable single target moves. When she’s felled, we learn about her love towards Vinsfeld. It was all a ruse. He killed her parents, and this is her revenge. If she made him fall for her, then his heartache would be tremendous when she died. It didn’t make sense, but she explodes (?) after.

Judecca is barely worth talking about. I had Illia buff up Ashley and Brad for fun. He kills himself when he realizes he can’t do whatever childish, sadistic stuff he wants to do to people.

When we exit the final tower, Valeria calls us to say the Heimdal Gazzo is south of Sieljie. And we’ll head there...

...tomorrow.

Man, I gonna have to prepare if everything is going to be this hard. I need to steal more berries. I also need to unlock magic level two for Illia. Apparently, I’ve been able to do this for some time, but only just now learned I could while reminding myself of the boss names. And, while reminding myself of a Caina specific topic, I discovered I can find her second level special move, Extend, as well. Why is her stuff so secret?

A beginning of an end.

I went around to search for more stuff to explore. I didn’t find anything, but I did teach Tim Ice Beam.

Rumor has it that our goal is south of Quartly. Kanon’s eye confirms that to be true, as does our ability to press square. The Coffin of 100 Eyes is eerily quiet, at least according to Ashley. If this was the end of the route for the power plant, it should be more lively. Illia thinks Ashley resembles Brad when he said this.

The dungeon is, kinda, straightforward, with all the offshoots leading to mandatory rooms anyway. It’s a bit labyrinthine, but all roads lead to each other. To navigate, we need to use Kanon’s first Tool, Wire Hook. Wire Hook is a grappling hook that allows us to glide across the map if we hit a designated spot. There are also a few places where Pooka would save time, so use him. Along the way, we see several terminals that inform the party about things called the Diablo Pillars. They provide power for the Heimdal Gazzo, a weapon that Vinsfeld has referred to many times.

We figure out what Heimdal Gazzo is but only after this next part. At the bottom of the 100 Eyes are Liz and Ard. They’re the usual annoying affair, and I hate them. Kanon agrees with me! A fight then happens. It’s the same fight as they always are, but slightly more troublesome. Ard can nearly one shot Kanon, and Liz has a massive bomb that damages everyone on the field, including Liz and Ard. I restarted the fight because my need to Pickpocket useless stuff was my ruination.

But this was only the warm-up. After we win, Liz attacks us with his new creation, Arms Killer. It’s the typical boss fight, now. Illia will be on heal duty the whole time, which is a shame, I think. She used to be my main DPS but is my full time healer now. I have nothing against White Mages, mind you, but I liked the power she once had. Kanon’s Gat does plenty of damage and works great alongside Ashley’s stuff. Liz and Ard retreat, Valeria calls us to mention a doom weapon is above us, and we exit to see the Heimdal Gazzo in the skies above us. It’s a floating clock stuck at 6:45.

Vinsfeld prepares to attack us with it but wants an overkill. He wants to shoot us at 120%. Before it can get that high, another new energy reading is felt. The camera cuts to the new energy: it’s Brad! Despite Brad being nowhere near anyone else, he invites us to experience what really happened in the power plant. The clones attacked him, and they all had a Gigas Neck Bomb. After beating one up, he threw one into the core, and THAT was the mushroom cloud we saw. Brad is now holding an airship laser rifle and accepts he's a hero. And we all know that heroes don't die. To let ARMS know he's a hero, he uses the airship laser rifle on the Gazzo. It hits the fuel chamber, forcing Odessa to retreat and unable to fire. During this, Vinsfield shows up uncharacteristic anger and desire for destruction. I've been wondering if Odessa were secretly good guys, but I guess not. Clearly evil. They've been cagey about their motives, but I see they're just terrible, tiresome villains, after all.

We all then return to the Chateau, where Valeria gives us our next mission. We are to find the Diablo Pillars, destroy them, and the Gazzo along with them. Before we do anything else, Valeria gives us the night off. We're not shown what everyone else does with it, but Ashley returns to Meria to spend time with Merina. He promises that he'll return to her and gives her a big hug. He continues by saying his world is between those arms, and that's what he's fighting for. 

 

The Party returns to the Chateau, where we have a big farewell with everyone giving us a pomp and circumstantial exit. It seems final, so I thought I’d be switching to disk two but nope. We’ve got a lot more to go. If we call Valeria, we learn the general whereabouts of the four pillars. but I’ll get to that...

...tomorrow!

This actually makes sense as a McGuffin. I don’t know why clones exist or why they have the exact same everything as Brad, but this escape makes sense. In some overtime tonight, I accidentally went into the Lost City Arkheim in the salt flats. I found the guardian of death and accidentally found the secret path to the fourth Pillar. The boss there was the toughest fight in the game, but, now knowing it was because I’m not supposed to do that yet, I think it was more annoying than anything.

Let’s make Tim not suck...and then replace him.

Taking the long way around Holtz Island to the Northeast, I found the Abandoned Mine. But before that, I found the Dark Reason. It’s a puzzle dungeon that houses the dark guardian. Don’t fall into the pit and choose the correct door to succeed. After this, I went out in search of the holy guardian. Sleep at the Guild Galad inn four times and speak to the woman out front. She’ll give terrible directions but go to the north island of the inner sea. Enter the right door, the left door, and go back. Then stand on the staircase and look at the wall for the password in the next room.

With these two new guardians, I decided to grind out some Tim spells. The area in front of Meria is the best place, probably, for this. The only mobs that spawn are grenades, which usually come in waves of two and three. Most importantly, even weak Tim can one shot them. I got all of his single target spells before carrying on.

Back to the mines, it’s an empty place. There are only two puzzles of note down here. The first is when you have to turn off leaking water pipes to escort a fuse through the room. Timing is the key here, but it's generous, and I did it on the first try.  Doing so explodes a rock. The second is where you should use Pooka to open two chests. Otherwise, the party will take damage front falling statues. At the bottom, we find Kanon again. She, again, talks of her destiny as the descendant of the Sword Magess. Ashley doesn’t want to fight, and Kanon seems reluctant, as well. If it weren’t for her lineage, she wouldn’t be our enemy. History hasn't changed, so a fight breaks out.

It’s a similar fight to the previous times, but Kanon hits a lot harder now. Poor Tim didn't stand a chance. Like, even reviving him just makes her target the kid. Kanon hates Tim, and I can get behind that. Illia’s protect spell helps so, so much. Keep Illia healing, and Ashley should attack. Use his new move you got earlier in the dungeon from a Pooka chest. I forgot to teach it, so let me know if it’s good. Good luck.

After the fight, Kanon continues to not understand how she’s losing. She should be able to defeat the great demon in Ashley, but she can’t. Judecca shows up and says this whole thing was more buying of time. This is the fourth time an event was just to buy time, so cool. He leaves, blows something up, and we, somehow, return to Holtz to nurse Kanon.

Marivel is waiting for us, and we all go to the inn. Mar says that Kanon overused her bio-implants. We then hear an explosion and run outside. Judecca is setting stuff on fire for some reason. Kanon shows up to stop him, beats him up, and everyone returns to the Valeria Chateau. ...with Holtz still on fire. Kanon joined up after Ashley promised she could kill him if his inner voice ever went crazy. I wasn't aware his inner voice was evil or had the power to gain control, so I'll throw this into the pile of random McGuffins.

Kanon is officially invited into ARMS, and we get our next mission. We found where the power plant was going.

And we'll head there tomorrow!

I totally skipped over this is the ending sentence, but we learn what Kanon's real name is: Aisha Bernadette. Valeria knows it but didn't share it with everyone else. I wonder what they're history is?

 

 Kanon has a passive move that puts a radar on screen on the world map. It signifies a treasure or a new location. With that, I pretty much just went looking for stuff. I stumbled upon another new guardian, the snow one, in the Abandoned Ice Box. Green, Blue, Gold, Red, Black, White. Remind me to fly over the world in the Chateau to find more.

World wide travel corporation.

Northwest of Quarterly is a train tunnel that connects Guild Galad to Slayheim and the rest of the world. Down there, we see a child flanked by six guards. He's our protectorate. Noel is the son of the unnamed leader of Guild Galad. Unlike his father, Noel is a well spoken and caring individual. He invites us on the train, Ashley is amazed by several things, and we get the train a-running.

It’s supposed to be a short ride under the mountain, but something is off. Weren't we supposed to be through by now? Illia looks out the window and sees something out of this world. We stop the train and enter the Emulation Zone. It’s a multi colored maze world, but the maze is pretty simple to learn. Right, Down, Right, Up, Back takes you where you need to be. Have Tim use Pooky to get his second Tool, Air Ballet. It allows Tim to push blocks from afar. Pushing the nearby block into position unlocks the doorway in the room we went back in. But that's not all that's changed in this room. It turns out that we’re not alone in this zone. We meet the last member of Odessa, Caina. He was the one who controlled the Demon Summoning way back when. He and Ashley have a moment over this, where Ashley shows some rage, and a battle takes place.

It’s the usual Cocytus affair.

He, defeated and upset, retreats, and we continue on. It’s another type of maze where we need to push floor switches that open doors forward. Through the three doors is the core of this place. Tim can push away the blocks to destroy the energy majigers. As we try to exit, we meet Kanan again. This time, she’s paid by Odessa to hunt us. A similar fight as last time happens, but this time it’s actually hard. Tim is terrible. Just, just awful. I figured out how to use him after this, so he’s pointless now. Use summons if you have the room, especially with Tim. It really is the same fight, just with 33% of our attack power removed. Once she’s lost again, she tells us this isn’t her destiny. Kanon is a descendant of the Sword Magess, and she's sacrificed her body to kill Ashley. Unable to do so, she falls back, and we get a timer to return to the train. I did it with 4:30 left, how about you? To escape the Emulation Zone, we need to reach a certain speed to blast our way out, which we could only do if we decouple the last car. It’s a cargo train, so it’s a simple sacrifice.

Back in our world, we’re now on our way to Guild Galad. The trek there sucks. There are a lot of ambush battles that always contain three fast mages. Those guys like to use a spell called Water Catastrophe, dealing nearly 1000 damage to us. I didn’t get hit by three of them, but two nearly wiped me. Use Ashley’s Accelerator special to kill one. Eventually, we make it to the town. We’re brought before the leader, who’s upset we lost a car. When Noel confronts him, he admits it contained a nuclear bomb. Noel was just a ruse to get us to protect the nuke. It was only supported to be a deterrent to Osesaa, though, but they have it now. As payment for bringing his son home, which we were paid to do, he upgrades our hovercraft to teleport with us. We can now use it on the whole planet!

And I explored. It was a waste of time since you can’t explore ahead in the game for some reason. It’s the worst part of the game. Let me see what's in the world, game!

The only clue about where to go is Odessa is looking for a mine. Nothing is in Damzen, but people in Holtz say they’re a target and that there’s an abandoned mine to the northeast.

Which I’ll do tomorrow.

Even though I figured out to teach Tim moves (kill things), he’s still bad. He's so fragile. I hope someone better comes soon. Of all the games I’ve played recently, this has been the worst one. That’s not saying it’s a bad, game just that I’m annoyed often. I have no plans to drop it, but there's my mid game feeling.

A Brad episode.

Yesterday, we met Kanon in Quartly, where she told us to help clear out ghosts in the Sleyheim Castle. After scouring the salt flats for...ever, I finally stumble upon the place in the northeast.

Kanon isn’t here yet, so we venture in alone. As we make our way through, we see visions of Brad’s history during the Sleyheim Rebellion. We see him, Billy, presumably, and another man be chased into the castle, have a heroic last stand in the basement, and successful win in the other basement. We learn that it was the Sleyheim leader who turned the area to salt. He broke his countries own treaty, The Iscariot Treaty, by using a forbidden weapon called The Angel Halo. Billy tried to stop him but was unsuccessful. Brad has been holding something of his ever since. There are several secret items hidden around, including an amazing accessory for Illia. You need an Adult Mag to get it, which feels really out of place. After we’ve blown up a floor, fixed a painting, and knocked down many pillars, we finally meet Kanon. We’re out of places to explore, so we return to the entrance. The short story is, Kanon calls Ashley the ghost, and it is her goal to exterminate us. She’s not working with Odessa, so there’s no connection.

She’s pretty hard but manageable. Her attacks can hit for 1300 damage, so Illia will be on heal duty the whole battle. I had her cast Protect on everyone when she had the time, which helps a lot. Kanon also has a team wide move, but that does just over 500. Use Illia’s Mystic Ability with the Heal Berries to negate that damage.

After the fight, she says she let her guard down and promises to see us again. Out of leads ourselves, we return to Quarterly. We contact Valeria, who tells us about a freak reading from the desert. He believes it is tied to Odessa.

We walk around the regular sand flats, and we find the Alchemic Plant. We, the player, see a scene where Valeria and Antenora discuss the future as we begin our stealth assault. They also share some romantic feelings between them. We weave our way through robotic sentries that cause mild annoyance. They’re all faster than Ashley and Brad, and they’re resistant to all magic. They have low HP, so the defense doesn’t matter. I wonder if there’s a reason they look like a transformed Ashley? Eventually, we come to a control panel. I don’t remember why, but Brad stays back to manage it. Ashley wonders, again, if Brad is the spy but decides to trust his friends.

Ashley, Illia, and weak Tim carry on. Our next task is to wander aimlessly, trying to open a voice controlled door. This took me longer than it should have. The plan is to walk the circuit and use the call option in the menu. Doing so allows us toi listen in on Odessa communications. After four circles, for me, we finally unlock the room that contains the recorder. Use it on the first room on the right, and then use it again on the door. Inside is Antenora. She talks about how we’re bad and how Odessa is great. Despite being surrounded by soldiers, she fights us alone.

I had Illia healing for most of the fight, mostly because I entered with low health. Since Tim was around, I might as well as used summons. Tim did 2000 HP, which was the high point for battle, and maybe ever. Ashley should have kept attacking. Ultimately, it’s a regular boss fight.

When the dust settles, Antenora informs us who the spy is. One of the soldiers takes off their armor to reveal himself to be Brad! But not the real Brad. More soldiers reveal themselves to be Brad, telling us they somehow cloned Brad. The real Brad shows up and convinces Ashley to trust him. Ashley throws him the bomb Illia gave him, Eat My Dust, that we planned to use to blow up the Odessa base. Instead, he uses it to blow a hole in the room. Brad then tells everyone he’ll use the bomb implanted in his neck in prison, sacrificing himself to end Odessa. Ashley tells him to survive. Everyone leaves, and we see a massive mushroom cloud in the desert.

Valeria allows us a short time to mourn before he tells us we’re to protect the Guild Gillad Master's son as he returns home.

Character deaths seem like a good place to end.

I have so many questions. Cloning? Why did this come from nowhere again? No side scenes of multiple Brads in odd places? If the Eat My Dust barely blew up a room, how could it blow up a power plant? Why was Brad wearing such a destructive bomb? Did his jailers not think he would likely be in public?

The snowy land of Sieljie

We left off last night in Damzen with all information needed to reach Illia’s home. We head back to the Chug and head right. The new wing is filled with new mobs and new puzzles. The first of which consists of three blue flames blocking our path. Fortunately, just off one aide is a chest filled with Illia’s new tool, The Ice Rod. It shoots ice instead of firs and puts out the flames. The rest of the dungeon is the usual romp: pitfalls, platforms, and box puzzles. Simple stuff, but I did need to use my brain a bit. On the otherside of the mountain is an endless sea of snow. Normally, I love snow, but I had to shovel eight inches of it the day before, so I have mixed feelings.

We walk around to get a view of the land but, to continue, travel right at the mountain fork and come to a vast field. In the middle is the Sieljie Region. It has a cave map sprite, and its innards look the part. In the middle of the cave is what turns out to be a teleporter that takes us to the city. We’re transported to a very bright street that Illia knows well. So well, in fact, that the first person to talk to us is a rival/unrequited love interest of her. I think his name was Teddy, so I'm gonna call him Teddy. Teddy is another kid at the nearby Hogwarts that challenged Illia to a magic battle. She seems to have bailed on it but whether it is out of fear or for other commitments depends on who you ask. The challenge is still on, but it’ll have to wait. In the back of the town is the world renowned, Unnamed Magic School. It’s where we need to go to get the tablets translated. The professor in charge, Mr. McGregor, happily does it. His initial look-see reveals general info about where Odessa’s base is but will need another day to complete the job.

That night, Illia shows Ashley around town, sorta. The only place they go is to her favorite spot: The Dragon Exhibit in the school. There, she reveals her backstory. She and her sister were close and, when she died, Illia stopped trying to be close to people. She demands that Ashley promises he’ll never leave and wishes everyone else in ARMS could say that. She infers she knows how to blow up Odessa’s base and goes to pick something up. That is, until, a warning clarion is heard.

Everyone rushes to McGregor, who informs them the tablets were stolen. But who even knew we were heading this way? Ashley’s head voice suggests a spy, but who could it be? We’ll find out later, as we need to chase the thieves now. Valeria tracks their location, McGreg gives us a Bridge Key, and we go to a giant bridge.

The bridge can be raised or lowered by a computer at each end, and it’s up now. We, the player, can see it’s Liz and Ard’s doing. The party lowers the bridge, and we have five minutes to cross before the bridge has enough energy to raise again. Time doesn’t flow in battles, so the only thing to worry about are the hard-to-see door raising switches on the floor. It’s a straight line with nothing to explore, so it’s an easy gimmick. We fight Liz and Ard again, they escape, and we follow them to Greenhell. Greenhell is where Brad’s story began five years ago.

Nothing has changed, and we get to T’Bok Village. Nothing has changed, but we do notice a dog. Brad, somehow, immediately recognizes it as Rassyu. He also instantly recognizes an older Merrill, who’s thrilled to see him. She takes us to a wounded soldier who can only say Brad’s name. Brad fought alongside him in the Sleyheim Liberation War and knows his name is Billy. He then reveals that that whole operation was the master plan of Vinsfeld, the same guy in charge of Odessa. As we leave the village, we spoke to Rassyu again. Rassyu runs off to find treasure, which happens to be a Teleport Gem and the tablets we were looking for. Alas, the tablets are broken. We’re now told to return to the King, who says we should head to the Sleyheim location, the general area Greg thought Odessa's base is. To get there, we need to cross the desert and then a giant chasm.

There’s a city/bridge there named Quartly. As we cross, we meet a mysterious woman named Kanon, who forcibly hires us to clear out some ghosts in the Sleyheim Castle. We plan to do that tomorrow. That night, though, Ashley sees Brad talking to someone even more mysterious and begins to have questions about Brad. Is he the spy? Maybe we’ll find out...

...tomorrow!

Ya know, it’s for the best that we’re getting Illia and Brad’s story in multiple parts. Unlike Tim, they’re important. I don’t want massive plot dumps that leave them irrelevant to the narrative for large portions of the game. That's the one thing FFVII did wrong, and I'd hate to see it played out again.

So, like, did we end Odessa?

We left off last night on the Odessan airship, Varukisas, so guess where we start tonight? The ship is split into three wings, and we need to shut the power off in each wing to destroy the plane. Each wing functions mostly the same. We need to turn off barriers, drop cranes, bypass dropping platforms, and learn the passcode to turn off the engine. The encounter rate isn’t too bad, and ambush battles are even rarer. The problem is how labyrinthine the place is. For some reason, I got lost often. I hope you like Brad because only his frequent tools will advance the story. After we’ve turned off the power and go to leave, we meet Ptolomea again. He talks above Justice, his vs. ours, and then we fight.

You know how this goes by now, right?

Once defeated, he’ll say he’s bought enough time for everyone to get off the exploding plane and runs off. For some reason, we decide to not go through with our escape plan. Instead, we all go to the cockpit to try a safe water landing. Why? Dunno. Brad can guide the ship onto the water, where the Chateau picks us up.

We return to Meria to talk to the king. The attack convinced Guild Gilad to join up, and they even gave us their hovercraft. It’s beached at the western beach and can be used to navigate the inner sea. Our next mission is to find three tablets that fell off of Varukisas. There are a lot more places we can go, which I do. There’s not much now, but I get the feeling there will be. I did find another Medium dungeon, ao we now have the god of lightning with us.

After we find the tablets, we now need to find a person capable of translating them. The king thinks there’s a person in Siiljie. Lillia gets upset by this as that’s where she’s from. I wonder why she doesn’t want to go back? Regardless, access to the city is hard since there are no landing pads, and it’s off the inner sea. We’re told there is a way through near Damzen City. Heading there and talking to people informs us of a long abandoned shaft in Mt. Chug-Chug that leads us there. The path is blocked behinds a door, but a man in the tavern allows us passage when we tell him the king still cares about Damzen.

And I’ll make my way there tomorrow!

Mondays are always weird for me to start, and I took my sweet time traveling the inner sea. You can’t give me new transportation and not expect me to use it! I’m glad to see Lillka’a arc tomorrow.

The Tim Episode

So, my basement flooded yesterday because the plumbers paid to fix the pipes suck. But, on to today!

We’re going to where Tim was born: Baskar village. It’s a small village nestled in the woods, hidden from the world. The ARMS members head to the village chief while Tim walks around his old home. Everyone seems to already know him and is super pumped to see him. We learn his mom’s name is Sabrina, and she was an important person around town. His dad was an unnamed merc who died shortly after Tim’s birth. Three years after, Sabrina fled the town, taking Tim with, to Meria. Sometime afterwards, she died, and Tim became the lovable orphan we know now. After walking around Baskar, he walks into an empty house and finds an item I couldn’t identify. Suddenly, a strange girl walks in, and he drops it. The only thing we learn here is her name is Collette. She’s a socially awkward girl who doesn’t know how to talk to people. The two have an awkward conversation, it goes nowhere, and we all go to the chief.

There, we learn Tim can become the Pillar, a role Collette had been groomed for since Tim left. The Piller is someone who can draw out and talk to Guardians (I'll be using Guardians and Mediums interchangeably, sorry).To properly fulfill this role, he needs to triumph over the depths of the Hidden Trial Arena. Collete leads the party there and awkwardly suggests she and Tim met-up afterwards at a nearby flower field. She thinks it would weird to just leave us, so that's the only thing she could think to say.

The dungeon is pretty simple, and we find Tim’s first tool, Pooky, shortly after the entrance. Pooky can be used to open chests and activate switches from afar, but only if they’re on the same vertical level. In battle, Tim sucks. He has low power but high magic. However, he doesn’t know any spells. What!? The party remains together until we reach a room called The Wall. From here forth, Tim needs to go alone. Fortunately, it’s a short walk. Eventually, we come to a boss, Gehenna Neros. Pooky teaches us that Tim is, essentially, Wild Arms’ summoner. Depending on what Medium he has equipped, he can summon an incredibly powerful creature to attack or heal. It’s cool that you can change gear on the fly to alter your load-out, but it’s not cool that it takes so long for Tim to build up the needed MP to summon. Lillia can do four times the damage in half the time, so what's the point of Tim? But Gehenna Neros, yes. Build up MP and one shot both ninja monsters. Don't be afraid to use berries to heal Tim. The sleep spell is the scariest thing about Neros, as it leaves our flimsy character defenseless. Fortunately, his attacks aren't a great threat. With the power of Tim recognized, he returns to the party and teaches everyone how to summon. We all return to the entrance, and Tim and Colette have an awkward romantic moment in the flower field. It's kind of adorable.

That night, back in the village, Tim overhears the truth. The Piller exists to be sacrificed to the Guardians. Tim isn’t happy with this, passes out, and we return to the Chateau. The scene here is heartbreaking. It's three adults, desperately, telling Tim to die.

"Please, die."
"Die. Die. Die."
"We need you to die."

Considering Tim is only twelve, this was something out of a psychological horror movie. Hell, it fit in perfectly regardless of whatever age the character is. Everyone was kind to him, only because he was supposed to sacrifice himself for their happiness, or whatever it is is the Piller needs to perish for.

Ashley is furious at the elder, but he can only yell for so long. In the middle of the argument, we’re attacked by Odessa. Judecca and Antenora have broken their way into the airship. We find them quickly and have two easy fights. The ARMS beat up on Antenora, who’s only slightly harder than the average boss. Tim gets some heart-to-heart with the stowaway friends to pep him up and then fights Jusecca. Have him summon a few times, and that’s it.

But we're not out of the woods yet. Odessa left us a giant, explosive surprise on our launcher. The Thunder Toad, Blastodon, awaits. For some reason, we can't launch it off the ship, so we have to fight it. I think it's implied we need to weaken it, or else it'll move off the platform, but whatever. Finally, a hard battle! We're not fully healed, and Blasty can make sure we never are. Evil Quasar hits everyone for huge damage, and he can poison the party. The poison rate isn't very high, but it can. I had Illia healing every turn until I realized she can do more damage than the physical guys. Despite what you'd think, the enemy is weak to fire, so exploit that, either via Tim or Illia. Its' single target, physical attack can hurt, so heal whoever got hit by it last.

Despite weakening it, it still breaks out of the laser bars created to keep it in place. In a last ditch effort to save the day, Ashley is willing to sacrifice himself to hold Blasty in place. After a little second guessing, Valeria launches the two out of the ship before Blastodon blasts. We see a massive explosion in the sky, and the camera cuts of Valeria holding a wounded Ashley on a beach. Everyone else catches up shortly after.

Back at the village, we end this arc. Tie becomes a full member of ARMS, and the villagers encourage Tim to save the world his own way. As everyone leaves, the village chief asks his daughter, Sabrina, to forgive him for what they did to Tim.

We all go to see the King of Meria Boule, where we, once again, discuss the border stuff. Valeria suggests having a G4 summit to discuss Odessa. Despite JUST being attacked, he offers to have it aboard the Chateau. “It’s the most secure place on Filgaea.” Bro, no it’s not.

Everyone gets together to talk Guild Galad’s Master into allowing ARMS free movement. He doesn’t. And then, shockingly, we’re attacked. To counter Odessa, we’re launched into their ship with our giant hook. And that’s where I called it a night.

So, Tim has his night. When do characters I like get theirs?

The flying cliff.

Last night, we were given the task of finding two rare and ancient stones to power up Valeria’s EMMA Engine. What’s an EMMA Engine? No clue! Regardless, the first place I went to tonight was the Raline Observatory.

What were they observing? I imagine it would be stars, but I didn't see any star watching instruments. What we did see were sentient lizards. After we hear a scream in the first room, the party considers if this is a trap and is worth leaving. On the off chance it isn’t, they reluctantly proceed further in. We see two lizardmen, literally, being stomped on by a giant mucus guy from those Mucen X commercials. After tugging on our heartstrings, we jump in. Like most fights, Undines offers no counter to us. As his name would imply, he’s weak to lightning,

Once felled, we meet the funny lizard men, Liz and Ard. Liz speaks in overly flowery poetic metaphors, and Ard can only say his name. They’re fun at first, but they get grading fast. To advance in the dungeon, we deal with their eccentrics to switch levels, open doors, and activate switches. It’s a pretty long dungeon that doesn’t have many battles to distract me, so I hated it. At the bottom of it all, we find the Geranium that we were looking for. And then the twist! Liz and Ard were looking for it, as well, to create Liz’ new monster! Since we saved them at the entrance from his other creation-run-amuck, Liz lets us keep it. It’s nice to see him noble. And then the new twist! Liz and Ard work for Odessa. Another boss fight happens, but we’re just fine. Liz poisons Ard, for some reason, which helps us.

Back out of the observatory, we take the other path in the Life Reflector and end up in more badlands. This planet has a strange climate. We walk around for a while until we come to the town of Holst. It’s a mining town that mines the stuff we’re looking for. If we go down now, we’re stopped by four boulders and can go no deeper in. Return to the town, talk to the people, and we learn a mad bomber visited recently. He left some of his bombs in the inn, so we go pick them up. Brad has his second tool that destroys rocks. Use them to get down into the dungeon. The gimmick here is there are a lot of ambush fights. The most common one contains a monster called a leprechaun. They’re blue, for some reason. The thing to watch out for is they have a move that can make the whole party berserk/confused. It wears off in a turn or two but can leave your party a bit weak at the end. They're not fond of fire, so exploit that if you can. Use the bombs to turn on the drill, use a lot to blow up the bookshelf, use four to activate the switches, and reach the Aguelite at the bottom. There are no bosses down here, so leave and return to the Chateau.

Valeria and Merievl will begin work on the EMMA Engine, and we’re given time off. Ashley, of course, heads home to talk to Marina. Alas, as he enters the walls, he sees the boys being chased by full grown men. Ashley chases them off, and we cut to Odessa in their ship above the town. Valeria calls us, telling us an air battle is about to commence, and we should return! We do so, just in time to see the Chateau turn into a giant airship! It is hideous. It's a giant rock with a house on top of it. Aesthetics aside, it flies us over Meria, and we do battle with Alphael, which is, unsurprising, easy to kill. It’s weak to Break.

Back on the ground, the boys wonder why the men were trying to kidnap them again. Ashley and crew show up and say it’s because Tim has magical powers. His ability to use Mediums, the stone his mom gave him, is indicative of that. This whole thing feels like something that just pops into the story. We saw it in the Life Reflector but never discussed it. Did I miss a scene? How did we know the men were after Tim, especially at this moment?

Valeria invites Tim into ARMS to talk to the Guardians, another new McGuffin, which I’ll do tomorrow!  There's a scene where the other boys have stowed away on the airship, as support!

I spent the next while flying the Chateau around the world. This is an enormous planet! There are more biomes than I’ve seen thus far and what to go exploring. The airship has limited landing spots, so I can only find two right now. One is near the city of Baskar, our destination tomorrow, and the other is in the middle of nowhere. Exploring the Wind Tiger Cavern, with Lillia lighting timed scones, rewards us with a new Guard/Medium that allowed us to steal. Fun stuff!

Tonight wasn’t the best of nights. Liz and Ard are annoying, Tim and the Guardians came from nowhere, and I’ve never longed for a hard mode in a game before tonight. I like my games on the easy side, but even I think this is too much. I wouldn’t mind if the story wasn’t so rushed.

Cocytus

Following Odessa east, we come to Mount Chug-chug. That’s its nickname. Its real name Mt. Elecartia, or something. It houses the mineral needed for Skype calls, so it’s kind of a big deal. It’s also kinda empty. All the elevators are dead now, so travel until you kick a minecart into a hole. Go back a bit to where a fork was, kick the cart again, and you’ll follow it to a control panel. After Ashley dislodges a shiny rock from it, he’ll turn on the elevators. Go back up, fall in a hole, and carry on until you reach the outside. Here we met another member of Odessa.

Ptolomea is a one-eyed giant, and I think we saw him escaping Illviel Prison earlier. I should have mentioned him, but my phone battery issue is making me rush. Regardless, he claims he’s a kind man since he’s not gonna kill us. But he will fight us! It's another easy fight, though. Whale on him until he dies. It turns out he was only buying time for his airplane to fuel up. We see the four members of Odessa board, and we return to Valena Chateau.

Valena gives us a moment of respite, and Ashley uses it to return home. He wants to gift Marina the rock he found in the mines. The three boys distract him for a moment before he gets to his totally-not-girlfriend. Ashley tells her that, with this stone, they’ll be able to emotionally connect from anywhere on the planet. The other ARMS members show up to tell him his orders have come in.

We’re told about the borders between countries. Apparently, nations take border security very seriously on Filgaea. Our next goal is to talk to the leaders of the four nations on Filgaea. Gaining their permission is the only way for ARMS to cross those borders without issue. Our first destination is Sylvaland. To reach the queen, we need to activate the Life Reflector that lies dormant in the nearby forest.

We find it and immediately sense that other people are nearby by. We find them in the next room, and they’re the boys from Meria. The young ARMS members (who are the same age as Lillia) are here exploring. Everyone thinks it’s too dangerous for them to return home now, so they continue with us. It doesn’t last long, as the next room is the engine to the place. The engine doesn’t work, but something is happening, and we’re attacked by the boss. Elebart. He’s the Thunderbolt Monster, so I think that means he’s weak to stone. I didn’t have that spell, but I dispatched him without issues.

After the fight, the engine still doesn’t work. Fortunately, Tim’s medium, the equipable thing I mentioned I needed to learn, activates. It activates the motor, and we all head back down to the teleporter. The boys say farewell, and we head to Sylvaland. The camera then cuts away from the planet as light reflects off of several mirrors around the world. How advanced were the progenitor races on this planet?

The castle is nearby, and we head straight there. The queen is really into border security, ao she doesn’t allow is free passage. What if we become like Odessa? She cares naught for heroes, it seems. And then, a guard rushes in and informs us the town of Halmetz is under attack. With no way of getting her guards together in time, she sends us. We head to the town and find it empty. Oddly enough, freshly cooked food can be smelt throughout the streets. After some investigation, we met another member of Odessa. Judecca blows up the church, hoping we’d have fallen for his trap. We didn't, so he sicks his friend, Trach, on us. Trach is trash. Alas, he has plot armor. Humans can’t kill him, but the inner voice of Ashley begins to echo. They talk until a blinding white light wipes Trach away. It also knocks us out, allowing Judecca to take us to jail.

Golgotha Prison is another jail, as the name would suggest. To exit, fix the tilted bin in the corner, pull it away, and follow the path. Switch between characters when you need to, and you will, until you reach the townsfolk in a giant cell. They were abducted to lure us in! Ashley goes ahead to scout while Lillia and Brad hang back to protect everyone. As he exits the building, we see Judecca waiting for us. Lillia and Brad were captured and are currently being crucified behind us. Trach attacks us again, the inner voice echoes again, but, this time, something odd happens. Ashley turns into a red armored knight. He easily vanquishes Trach and saves the day. Marivel shows up with the citizens behind her and says more strange things. Eventually, she talks about the knight that Ashley turned into. The KnightBlazer is the combination of the Demon Summoning and Argetlahm. One great evil, and one great good.

We all return to Sylvaland, the queen grants us passage, and we return to the chateau. Ashley has a flashback with Marina, who really doesn’t want Ashley to go on dangerous missions and resents him being a hero. Why does he have to sacrifice himself when no one else will? Back, still, in the chateau, we get our next mission. We need something to counter Odessa’s plane, so we’re gonna go find some ancient technology!.

Which I’ll do tomorrow!

A few times throughout tonight, we saw glimpses of Odessa. It mostly showed that they're financially in trouble. I don't think I've ever seen a great evil talk about the economics of being evil before. It's oddly refreshing to see something so relatable out of my big bad guys.

Things slowed down! I dig it. Looking forward to more characters getting story, but I am interested in Ashley. I want to know more about Brad, as well as Lillia's sister.

The enemy approaches.

The team goes south to a tunnel called Under Traffic. It’s the main thoroughfare between the capital, Meria, and the rest of the country. It’s a straightforward path with only a few offshoots, both leading to good treasure. The one in the moving platforms is a new special for Ashley, and the one hidden behind a rock is a Crest Tag. Creat Tags are used to create new magic for Lillia. To get through the tunnel, have Brad kick explosive containers around, and then Lillka can blow them up, as well as the rocks they should be near. At the exit, they find a wounded man. They all agree they can’t leave him here and call up Valeria on the communicator he gave them before they left. They confer to bring him to the nearby town of Damzen.

Damzen is straight out of the American wild west. It’s got saloon doors, desert landscapes, cowboy hats, and is just one road. At the end of that road is the town’s clinic. The doctor patches up the wounded man, and he tells us that he believes the cave in, I neglected to mention, was man-made. We then go around town and see if anyone can confirm his story. In the first building I enter is a family of people who work at the commutation tower. They inform us that evildoers have taken over the tower. We, being the heroes, go to kick them out!

The tower is just south of Damzen and is filled with locked doors. To open the first door, throw three boxes into the magic switches. Climb the stairs until you find a lever. Climb more stairs to drop down onto the lever, then climb back up. Eventually, there will be another switch that activates all the remaining locked doors. Behind those doors is an elevator that we should take everywhere. One of the floors has the Booty Call Tool that signals a treasure is nearby. Keep climbing until we reach the top of the tower and the communication crystal relay. We get there just in time for a worldwide Skype call.

Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus, the leader of Odessa, gives a
L O N G and W I N D I N G
speech about cleansing the land of monsters. It sounds great until he starts talking about overthrowing governments and killing people. It’s long and poetic. It’s also really confusing. I don’t know what I learned, but I sure did learn. After the never ending speech, we’re attacked by an Odessa monster.

Vagesta is easy. Destroy his arms, and gain all the EXP. I don’t know what Disease does, but once you blow his limbs off, he starts healing every turn. If Lillia knows Vortex, he can’t outheal her DPS. I was lucky to find a Lucky Card on the beach east of Damzen, sonI got 2000 EXP AND Geld. Combat seems easy so far, and bosses like the Phantom Being remind me of that.

Afterwards, we return to the house and inform the inhabitants of what happened. As we leave, we meet the girl who stared at the comet yesterday. She knows Ashley and says her name is Marivel. She doesn’t look human. She says more esoteric mumbo-jumbo about Ashley, who should remedy her, but probably that he couldn’t. She finally tells us a plane, probably, from Odessa, went east. Meaning our destination is to the east!

Day one plot dumps are passed, and we’re already in the nitty-gritty. I assume. This is a two disk game, and we’re going fast. What’s the twist?

Also, there’s a picture of Vash the Stampede in the room next to Ashley’s in the bakery. Now I want to watch Trigun.

All Together

I load up the save, and we see a "Mysterious Girl (?)" standing on a cliff looking at a comet. The devs don't know how comets work, but I'll let it slide. She says something mysterious before the sun rises, she puts her hat on, and we skip ahead.

We’re now in the Town of Meria. We follow a girl into the bakery, where she wakes up a blue haired boy. It’s Ashley. He’s been confined to his room as punishment for his disobedience at the Withering Ruins. His friend is Marina, the daughter of the innkeeper. The two of them go way back, but she’s here to tell him that three people are outside looking for him. The three are all young boys looking for help from an older mentor. A stray cat in the village has stolen a treasure from the boys, Tony, Scott, and Tim. Tim has a playable character portrait, so keep an eye on him.

This part sucks. I chase after the cat for 45 minutes, just running around the rooftops. Rather than be an idiot, talk to the man fixing his roof after the cat jumps on the lamppost. He’ll offer to help you catch the cat by scaring it into the hole on his roof on your next lap. You can corner the cat in the room below. After you’ve gotten the boys’ treasure back, they let you keep it, per their wired orphan policy. I don’t remember what it is, but Tim gives you a memento of his mom for saving Tony. It’s an equipable item that boosts stats and provides a new ability, Defender. I'll need to remind myself what the generalized item names for the equip slot is.

Marina shows up and says someone new is looking for Ashley. It turns out Ashley's commander sent a letter saying Ashley has finished his punishment and been promoted to a Special Group. Marina is upset at this, probably because she wants Ashley to be safe and not running off into dangerous missions where he might die.

The next day, Ashley sets off for the Sword Cathedral for the ceremony. There, he and several other men are promoted to ARMS: Agile Remote Missions Squad. They’re to take special missions across the land that most armies could not do. There is also a King Arthur/Sword in the Stone event to see if anyone is the true Hero. Everyone goes to lift the Sword, Argetlahm, from its pedestal to no avail. And then Ashley tries. When he lifts the blade, the screen goes white, and the camera pans up to reveal...

A cutscene. We learn of the history of this world, Filhaia. A famed warrior, The Sword Magess, conquered demons that attacked the land long ago. She appeared from nowhere and disappeared into nowhere.

We’re then brought to a mess hall where everyone is eating. Ashley is swordless, and everyone is joking about his overeagerness in lifting the Argetlahm. And then, suddenly, a black void appears on the nearby stage. The men around Ashley turn into green demons, while those unchanged try to escape. Sadly, our exit is locked, somehow. In his moment of fear, Ashley hears a voice in his head. It tells him to evolve and kill. He tries to fight it but gives in in time. Ashley turns into a mass of bone and muscle. Our goal is to destroy everything in the cathedral, which is easily done. Ashley one shots everything in here, so take the easy EXP and get to level six. When everyone is dead, Ashley walks up the Sword and is able to pull it out.

The Sword Magess speaks to him and grants him a wish: to return home. A man named Valeria walks in behind a re-transformed Ashley and says some stuff about heroes and evil, and, more importantly, that the cathedral was a victim of Demon Summoning. Ashley passes out and wakes up his bed in the bakery. But before that, there was a scene where we see two men end the Demon Summoning and talk menacingly about their plans. Marina tells us it’s been a week since terrorists attacked the cathedral. Ashley knows it wasn't terrorism, but something far worse. His girlfriend tells him to thank Valeria for carrying him home, and he walks out the door.

There he sees our mage, Lillia, hungry and lost. Lillia charms her way into free food from the bakery and, because they share a destination, escorts Ashley to Valeria Chateau. There they meet the man, who fills them in on his plan, and the real meaning of ARMS. They’re gonna fight the evil that inhabits the world and whoever used the Demon Summoning on the cathedral. But to do that, they’ll need their third member.

Valeria inspects Ashley’s gun, shoots it, and, when two guards storm in, says that Ashley was trying to kill him. He tells Lillia to escort Ashley to the Illsveil Prison, where our third member is. This was a long winded way of getting Brad to join the team. By happenstance, a prison breakout happens, and they use this opportunity to break both ARMS men out of jail. Lillia breaks turrets, opens lockers, and the three beat up a robot, Gaonim, and quickly escape. Now back at the Chateau, Valeria wastes no time giving them their next mission, to defend a trade route to the south. Which I’ll do...

...tomorrow.

Things are moving fast, maybe too fast. Made worse by my vague and lazy writing tonight. It reminds me of my terrible phone battery that's drained 50 percent in the 45 minutes it took writing this. I’m hoping for some character interaction soon, but we’re less than four hours in. Plenty of time! Sorry if this all feels rushed. I may need to change how I write for a while.

The Threeturial of Wild Arms 2

Firstly, sorry I didn’t update when I said I was going to. I decided that, since a lot of stuff happens in the first week of February, I’ll just take a break. Two birthdays and an anniversary happen, so I wasn’t sure about my availability.

Secondly, I love you, Lucy.

Thirdly, let’s get on with Wild Arms II! Wild Arms is one of the games I played during my dark ages period. I have even less memory of this than I do of Legend of Dragoon. I remember it being a Japanese version of an American western, something named Odessa, and that I enjoyed it. That’s it. Get hyped, let’s do this.

We’re brought to a character selection screen and asked to pick one of three people. This isn’t a pick your character for the whole game thing, but a who do we want backstory on first thing. I choose the first option, Ashley, and explored the Whithering Ruins. Ashley is a low level mercenary in a troop called the Musketeers. We’re here because a local kid was kidnaped by bandits, and we’re here to save him.

The dungeon introduces us to combat, exploration, and the general basics of our characters. It’s a mix of Zelda exploration and Final Fantasy combat. You use tools to open gates in the dungeon and turn based tactics in battle. It’s all simple at this point, so let’s skip to the bottom. Ashley finds the boy, Tony, surrounded by arguing bandits. Ashley gets his attention, and he runs around and accidentally opens up a gate, revealing the goss, Kalivos. All five people then run through the halls, trying to avoid the dinosaur. When the merc commander shows up, saying he’s going to blow up the dungeon, Ashley jumps into action. Using normal attacks and his special gun, Ashley kills the sealed monster weapon. We then return to the entrance, Ashley is scolded for disobeying orders, and then an ending soliloquy happens. Ashley talks abound being the noble hero, refusing to take such actions that would kill innocent people. He’s the stereotypical JRPG hero.

The second character I played was Lilka, who I'm probably going to refer to as Lillla because the font in this game sucks. She’s a mage trainee who sucks at teleportation. We know this because she interrupts a meeting between a small village discussing something. Rather than leave and return to her journey, she hangs around.

Her dungeon is a flashback to when she was learning magic with her sister. Her magic wasn’t good enough to get out of a puzzle the traditional way, so she had to be verbally escorted by her famous sister to use the failsafe. We learn her tool is her magic, and she uses it to activate switches to move platforms. Her sister seems suspicious during the whole thing, and I think something strange is going on with her. Out of the dungeon, she offers help to the villagers and, after an annoying and unannounced investigation, beats up Oliver. She continues with her journey, and I get the feeling something is very amiss. She calls out for a young girl at two points, despite being a young girl. Tip for her dungeon, guard the first round or two to building up FP (MP from henceforth). Freeze kills most things here, but tMP is build up by being attacked or attacking, so you can't use magic at the start.

Finally, I come to the war hero turned criminal, Brad Evans. Five years ago, he was lost in the woods during a rainstorm and was chased by a group of local mercs. We immediately jump to a flashback (in a flashback) of him disobeying an order during the Sleyheim War. When we gain control, we're tasked with finding an exit from the woods. He punches things to death and, when he reaches level two, is very good at it. The random mobs are all barghests that can be defeated in one shot. Along the way, he befriends a stray puppy and finds the tool, Kick Boots, which knocks stuff around, I guess. The boots do nothing to the boxes Brad can throw around, another Zelda mechanic, so whatever. They do activate the nearby ski lift that he and the puppy ride on over a chasm. On the otherside are two soldiers talking about how they’ll take down this dangerous criminal and what they’ll do with the money.

Then, they hear a monster roar. They’re attacked by Gremalkin, the Parasite. Rather than let them die, Brad jumps to fight the beast. He uses his Bazooka with terrible accuracy to do so. Despite being enemies, Brad saves the soldiers. He and the puppy wander off, and they come to the world map.

It’s very different than what we’re used to in JRPGs. Rather than have every city and cave already there, we have to actually look for stuff. Pressings square can reveal nothing, a signpost pointing us to our destination, or an actual location. Call me intrigued. Eventually, we come to the village of T’Bok, where Brad passes out from injuries sustained in the fight with the parasite. He’s woken up later in the horse stalls by a girl named Merril. She’s not here for long as the soldiers looking for Brad show up. Wanting to avoid a fight, Brad turns himself in. He believes this to be the best as his continued journey would lead to more death. There’s no place for a man whose home is a battlefield when the world is at peace.

With the three dungeons done, I'm getting a picture of how the game is played. Use tools to access new areas of the dungeon map. Battles are random but can be skipped if you press "O" at the right moment, usually. There are occasionally healing orbs on the ground to run over. And defeat mobs in turn based tactics with several skills. I wonder why no one talks about these games?

The three tutorial sections are done, and I’m excited. How are these three going to meet? What’s the main story, and who am I gonna kill? I was skeptical at first, but I’m interested in Brad. He’s not some edgelord like I thought. What happened to the puppy, Rassyu?

Final Fantasy Music Challenge Complete (and honerable mentions)

Day 1:

Day one is the best Final Fantasy Prelude, and I’m going with Final Fantasy VI. I’ve recently noticed I’m not super into high action/BPM video game songs. I think that’s why I’m big on the VI version. Uematsu slowed the arpeggios down to a melodic and relaxing speed that ends up being kinda sorrowful, which fits the tone of the game. He kept the same style for the version I know best, VII. I’m sticking with the Terra version because it came first.

https://youtu.be/ELZfaOQCD4o


Day 2:

Today's 30 Day Final Fantasy Music Challenge is the best Chocobo Theme! The giant, usually, yellow colored ostriches have been a staple of the series since FFII. I think the best way to avoid random battles is on the back of FFIX’s Choco. Maybe it’s because Hot & Cold is my second favorite mini-game, or because Choco has more importance to the story than Amarant, or because he’s more loyal to Zidane than to Fat Chocobo? Or maybe it’s the ukulele?

https://youtu.be/ZCTd-OnrZCU

Honorable Mentions:
FFXIII-2: Crazy Chocobo


Day 3:

Today’s strange reason to post video game music sure is strange and Moogle Themed. I had a hard time remembering what the Moogle song even was, let alone my favorite version. thereof. And considering there’s only, like, seven in total, it was surprisingly easy.

Final Fantasy XIV is a game I’ve never played, but when I heard this straight outta Halloween Town tune, I knew I had to post it. I don’t know the context (boss fight?) but enjoy this Tim Burton-esq song.
 
https://youtu.be/pCcbKY7d0dc
 
 
Day 4:

I take to the skies on day four of the Final Fantasy Music Challenge! FFIV’s The Airship was the first airship theme I ever heard, and it’s been stuck in my head ever since. It’s got that peppy feel that all of its ilk has, but I dig on that drumbeat.

https://youtu.be/2pNnn04Yh-Y


Day 5:

Day 5/30 of me posting Final Fantasy songs may be the hardest one yet. Made even more so because this is actually a fight for second place! Every good game has its list of good characters, otherwise, it’s a bad game. But who has the best theme? Peppy characters need their upbeat tunes. Melancholic characters need a dirge. But, ultimately, there’s only one person who gets an epic guitar part: Final Fantasy X’s Auron.

The wise, old guardian, aged 36, has a slightly sad guitar tune over a melody that can be surprisingly upbeat. It represents all he’s fought for while also telling of the peace he finds at the end of the journey. You might see me type this a few times, but I’ve been meaning to write some lyrics for this song.

https://youtu.be/lyyqKg3wDbg


Day 6:

Today’s FFMC is supposed to make you feel homesick: Favorite Town Theme!

I’m going with the naturally occurring village that shares it’s motif with Red XIII, Cosmo Canyon, from VII. CC is all about the planet, the environment, and protecting it. As a dirty liberal, I’m all about those things. There’s also a giant telescope on top that projects an accurate, real-time model of the solar system. So, bonus points! The music tries to fit the role with, what I think are, native instruments that build and build to a triumphant crescendo. Nanaki is one of my favorite characters in Final Fantasy, despite the developers barely giving him any story relevancy. If the remake blows him off again, I’ll be immensely disappointed. Also, the Super Smash Bros version sucks.

https://youtu.be/bWzoXaY108g

Honorable Mentions:
FFI


Day 7
:
In today’s episode of here’s Final Fantasy music, we talk about the most important song of all: Overworlds.

Final Fantasy VI shares its theme with that of Terra, one of the best characters in the series. She’s a young woman who isn’t an amnesiac but may not even have a past to begin with. It’s incredibly somber and fits the entire mood of the game perfectly. And from a straight musical arrangement, it’s the only possible selection for this. Walking around the world map while this plays gives you plenty of reason to explore the world and maybe find some new things or grind. It’s a win-win. ...and then when they take it away from you in the second half, the game gets worse.

https://youtu.be/cUg8rC9yu6U

Honorable Mentions:
FFII
FFIII


Day 8:

I welcome you to my dungeon on today’s Final Fantasy Music Challenge post.

Every game has the dark and spooky places it takes you to explore. Caves, towers, ruins, forests, sentient trains: all dungeons in the realm of video games. Sometimes they all get one generic song. Oother times, every place gets its own unique theme.

My favorite is the sixth song players in 1988, although I prefer the remastered from Origins/PSP, we're likely to hear: Chaos Shrine. The first evil lair Final Fantasy ever ventured into was also the peak in musical excellence for the theme. You’d expect something actiony to get you pumped for the battle to save Princess Sara, but nope. It’s a super chill with some woodwind instruments playing over a mellow piano piece. Probably some strings too... It’s got just enough creep to give it that first, and last, dungeon feel to it.

https://youtu.be/Pw6mrBRHHVU


Day 9:

So, I know what I said about the Overworld theme being the most important a few days ago, but I lied. Really, it’s all about the battle theme.

Final Fantasy tends to keep what you hear while killing flans, goblins, and lesser gods fairly consistent. There’s a lot Uematsu does to keep things fresh, though, while still keeping to the motif. But, when it comes down to it, I’d rather hear the Final Fantasy V song than any other.

This was actually really hard for me to pick. A part of me wants FFIX, but I’m going to stick with V because that bass line is just so crunchy. I remember moving my cursor to the beat of it many times in the past.

https://youtu.be/COdhV1Sevew

Honorable Mentions:
FFIX
FFII


Day 10:

We’re a third of the way through the Final Fantasy Music Challenge, so let’s celebrate by beating a boss!

But to which song? Easy answer. I’m looking for a Challenge...from Final Fantasy X.

Challenge was the only song that popped into my head when I read what the theme was. It gets you pumped to fight a boss, represents all aspects of a potential battle, and has a nice catchy headbanging part. The build-up may be slightly too long, but when the beat drops, it’s kicked into high gear. Sometimes it takes a while to set-up for a boss fight. That’s fine. There’s a somewhat morose part in the middle that represents that maybe things aren’t going your way. If you’re fighting Seymour or Yunalesca, oftentimes, that happens. But the build up starts again, and you’re back on top in time.

Also, the remaster of this song is the worst song in Final Fantasy history.

https://youtu.be/ySgAB9cIyOU


Day 11:

Two days ago was the battle theme. Yesterday was the boss theme. That can only mean that today is the most iconic theme in all of Final Fantasy: Victory Fanfare. The joyous tones you hear after a well fought battle have started the same since ‘88. The five seconds of DO-do-do-do-do-do-dododo have rung countless times throughout millions of gamers’ speakers and even popped up in pop culture from time to time. But what’s the best?

After the first five seconds, the songs tend to stay the same from game to game. At least, until Final Fantasy VII. There was nothing wrong with the first six games, but there’s something about the arpeggios (?) that are played after the initial fanfare that are permanently stuck in my head as the default sounds that I’ve won. I asked a girl out on a date once and, when I was comfortably away from earshot, began to whistle those notes to myself. There’s probably a reason it didn’t work out (several, actually).

https://youtu.be/udp5MajuKKk

Honorable Mentions::
FFIV
FFXIII-2: 5 Stars


Day 12:

There are really only two possible answers to today’s Final Fantasy Music Challenge.

I-V are great songs, don’t get me wrong, but they just can’t compare.
VIII is a terrible game, and The Extreme is only okay because it borrows from Battle on the Big Bridge.
Necron didn’t need to be in IX.
X is a confusing mess I’ll get to later.
XII sucks.
I don’t know the rest...

So, which is a better final boss theme: One Winged Angel or Dancing Mad?

It’s One Winged Angel, and here’s why. Firstly, it was the first (of the two) that I heard. You’ll always remember your first, right? Secondly, Dancing Mad needs time to warm up. OWA needs no warm up. Jenova is the warm up! Thirdly, DM is tied to the stage of the final battle. It’s a four part epic that changes based on where you’re at in the fight. Sometimes, you may not hear large portions of the song. It may be better outside of the game, but Sephiroth has the best theme in a vacuum, which is where I’m basing this decision off of.

The clown must die so that the confused son may live.

https://youtu.be/qDD-iYkHBhc


Day 13:

It’s time for everyone’s favorite part of the day: when I post video game music. Based on today’s theme, you’d think we’d be done, but I’ll never be done!

What game has the best Ending Theme? Over the course of the last 33 years, how an FF game ends has varied wildly. Sometimes it’s just the prelude. Some of the older games get a unique song underneath the credits. In the middle, the games played the Overture/Theme as we saw the closing moments of our journey. In recent times, it’s a wonderful J-Pop ballad! But my pick is from Final Fantasy VI.

Balance is Restored plays while the party makes their daring escape from the crumbling Tower of Kefka. We see the last heroic, comedic, and edge times that all of these characters are known to be together. It does something no other ending has done, and that’s incorporate every character's unique theme song into the greater melody. And, in the end, plays the Overture that got me a little teary-eyed when I played it last month. Playing it back just now reminded me of everyone’s exploits in the escape. If it had any lyrics, FFVI could say it incorporated every other FF endings into it.

I can’t find the actual song in one part, so here’s the whole ending cutscene. Spoilers, obviously.

https://youtu.be/2v6G2_JLghE


Day 14:

Sometimes, you need a diversion in your plan to kill god. Why are you killing god? Because it’s a JRPG. But what do you listen to in Final Fantasy when you don’t want to kill god?

Vamo Alla Flamenco from FFIX. Many games have a unique track for every side quest, but not IX. Whether you're impressing nobles in your play or giving your Chocobo brain damage, you’ll hear this track a lot. But not when you’re playing cards. I prefer this song to all the others because of how much fun the games it plays over are. Chocobo Hot and Cold is my second favorite mini-game in all of Final Fantasy. I dig that slow windup into that mellow paced melody. I don’t know how a Spanish guitar fits in a game with several allusions to Hawai’i, but I’ll allow it.

https://youtu.be/tQYmHsTPtKY

Honorable Mentions:
FFVII: Crazy Motorcycle
FFX: Blitz Off!


Day 15:

So, I’ll be honest, I don’t think I fully understand today’s Final Fantasy Music Challenge topic. It’s your favorite in game arrangement. An arrangement is a reimagining of a song by another, but there’s also a topic coming up called best remake. I don’t know what the difference is. So, I’m just gonna throw song-ghetti at the wall and hope it sticks by posting a slightly different version of a song from the same game.

Final Fantasy often ties tracks together with similar motives. Aerith’s Theme and Flowers Blooming in the Church, Cosmo Canyon and Red’s Theme, To Zanarkand and Memories of Green are all examples of songs that share some melody between them. Final Fantasy IX’s Rose of May is one of the best tracks ever. Beatrix’s theme also shares a melody with Protecting My Devotion.

The song plays early on in Disk Three when the baddest woman on Gaia becomes temporarily playable. Beatrix and her knight in rusty armor defend their home from a greater evil. The scenes leading up to this moment were triumphant and humorous. They take a sudden serious edge to them now, becoming profound and pivotal to the development of nearly every character and the story. The seriousness is amped up around the time everyone puts their differences aside to stop Alexandria from being destroyed. What plays gets you excited to do battle, defend my favorite hometown, and maybe even kindle a romance.

https://youtu.be/m_LoqQ3QKFc

Honorable Mentions:
FFX: Movement in Green


Day 16:

Day 16 of the Final Fantasy Music Challenge is the best piano arrangement. It’s another reason why I was confused yesterday, but I know exactly what I’m posting today.

Uematsu’s music has been rereleased, rearranged, and transcribed into multiple styles a multitude number of times. Famously, or at least for this topic, each game since IV has had official piano releases, along with sheet music. Out of all of those albums, I think Rydia, of Mist is the best arrangement.

Let me tell you a story. Back in 1996 or so, my next door neighbor had a copy of Final Fantasy IV. I borrowed it a few times because I was enthralled by the whole package: music, story, characters. I didn’t appreciate it all at the time, of course, but looking back, Rydia quickly became my favorite character. Before the word even entered the zeitgeist, she was my first waifu. You first meet her after the tutorial dungeon, and you ruin her life. During the game, she grows unlike any FF character has, or even since. We see a fragile child afraid of fire become a being of pure annihilation, as she’s the first named black mage and summoner in FF history. And her theme represents that. Somber in tone, but it’s also laden with a melody of peace and love. The piano piece for it makes all of those intricacies shine even brighter than the 16-bit MIDI’s we got in 1992.

https://youtu.be/R7FmBjVj1qU


Day 17:

Day 17 of the Final Fantasy Music Challenge involves the innumerable amount of times the various games have been remastered. Pretty much every game has been re-released on several consoles, remade across five decades, and remastered...like, once. Oftentimes, nothing much is changed, graphics are occasionally updated, and music sometimes needs to be redone. So, which song from all of these touched up games is the best?

There are only about seven games that I’d strongly suggest for this topic. The first four games had their music changed from 8-but MIDI blips to full fledged songs, while seven and ten had massive changes. Some have been redone for the MMOs. I prefer my remasters to be similar to the original, as heard at how terrible FFX’s is. It’s hard to pick exactly what song from the first four to choose, but I’m gonna pick my favorite from Final Fantasy III.

Boundless Ocean plays about 2/5th of the way through the game. You hear it after you leave the Floating Continent, a lively place that seems massive until you realize it’s barely noticeable on the greater world map. When you leave, you descend into a dead, lifeless, flooded world. It’s the exact opposite of what you’ve been seeing. There’s only one place to go, and that’s to meet the Water Maiden, Aria. We might be hearing her later... Boundless Ocean is incredibly sobering, somber, and “eye” opening. There’s something strange going on in this world, and we’re the only ones who can do anything.

https://youtu.be/BprpzeWQSzc


Day 18:

Wanna hear a dirty secret about myself? I’m tired of orchestral arrangements in video games. I know, I know, they’re musically impressive from a musician, composer, and listener perspective, but I’m sick of hearing them time after time, in game after game, regardless of importance. Every song doesn’t need to have the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing it. Ya hear me Final Fantasy XII? Plus, the first orchestrated song in Final Fantasy was the best.

That’s right, let’s talk about the Opera Scene from Final Fantasy VI. Draco and Maria. The Dream Oath. Aria di Mezzo Carattere. Whatever it is, it’s amazeballs! A multiple part, twelve minute scene right out of an opera is impressive, let alone for something on the SNES. It’s about a woman, Maria, who’s pulled in two directions because of war. Her love, Draco, is from the west. But she’s to be married to Prince Raise, a nobleman from the east. The eest conquered the wast, and I guess Maria was the prize. Look, we come in halfway. We’re gonna need to fill some gaps. The opening act has Maria, played by our war hardened Celes, singing about how she misses Draco. Beautiful lyrics, although the GBA version is better, about love, longing, and regret. She dances with a spirit of Draco before throwing flowers off a castle wall, reminiscent of her potential suicide later on in the game. Sometime later, a ball is held where Maria dances with her soon-to-be-husband, the Noble Prince Raise. He seems noble, at least. I’m busy fighting an octopus now, so I'm only kinda paying attention. Then, Draco returns! He and Raise duel for Maria’s hand. In the end, Raise yields to Draco and the three part under oddly peaceful circumstances. Assuming the aforementioned, octopus doesn’t ruin it.

It’s parallel to the soldier turned actress’ life. She, too, is being pulled in two directions. Or several opposition ones, depending on how you look at Celes’ story. Her heart, her past, her magic, her humanity.

https://youtu.be/nEuf9ZSJrdg

Honorable Mentions:
All different versions of this song:
Distant Worlds
Swedish Orchestra
Elder Geek's combination of the two
The Impressartio from OcR


Day 19:

Today’s Final Fantasy Music Challenge is specifically designed to highlight someone other than the only FF composer I recognize. What’s the best song not done by Nobuo Uematsu? HASHTAG NotMyMusician

I’m being facetious, as there are plenty of amazing songs in FF’s history not done by Uematsu. He may have done the entire main series from I to X, but the greatness didn’t stop there. The quality may have suffered, but the rare gem is still aplenty. Tactics has some great songs, the best part of Crisis Core is the music, and XIII has no business being as good as it is. However, I’m picking the first song I ever heard, from X-2 by Noriko Matsueda.

Eternity ~ Memory of Lights is the main menu theme from the first direct sequel in FF history. I got the game for Christmas in ‘03, just after I moved to the south side. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t that great. It was fine, not too bad, but X is one of my favorite games I’ve ever played. I don’t really have a story here...

The point is, sad piano songs are just as good as sad guitar songs.

https://youtu.be/A5BzGwUqGzk

Honorable Mentions:
FFX: Besaid
FFXIII: Daddy's Got the Blues


Day 20:

More dirty secrets on day 20 of the Final Fantasy Music Challenge. What’s the best song from a game I’ve never played?

I’ve played many a Final Fantasy in my life. It kept me out of trouble, away from my family, and even further away from girls. Alas, there are many I haven’t played: the entire Crystal Chronicles series, two Tactics spin-offs, the MMOs. And, most embarrassingly, Final Fantasy XV.

I try not to listen to, or know, anything about games I haven’t played, but I occasionally hear something just by being in the fan club. I don’t have any stories about this, but I’ve heard Lunafreya’s Theme a few times and enjoyed it. I don’t know her story, but from what little I do know, I seem to have a type...

https://youtu.be/cK4ttZsU2gI


Day 21:

I’ve said that many Final Fantasy games have been rereleased across multiple platforms. But not all of them. From all of those one console games, what’s the best one.

The correct answer is from Final Fantasy Crisis Core. It stars not-Cloud as we see the rise and fall of Shinra, and we fall in love with a flower girl again. The best song from that game is The Price of Freedom.

It’s a bit of a play-all, and you hear it whenever Zack thinks deeply about something. He ponders the morality of a power company creating super soldiers and all the magic hullabaloo that stems from that. There’s an emotional acoustic guitar that breaks into a solid rock ballad. The drumbeat plays throughout after the sad harmonica gives way. It’s a perfect song for Zack, the game, and the entirety of the FFVII compilation.

https://youtu.be/MOJ91H4mraU


Day 22:

They can’t all be zingers in today’s Final Fantasy Music Challenge. What’s your favorite song from a bad game? I tend to like most things, especially when skewed towards stuff I already like, but there a few Final Fantasies that I think suck. Most agree that II and XIII are bad. The concessions on XV is that it’s mediocre. But there are only two games I actually hate.

Final Fantasy XII is one of the worst games I’ve ever played. The plot is very bare bones, the characters are one dimensional, the battle system is terrible, and the music is all orchestrated. Well, most of it is. I mentioned how bored I am with orchestra music in games a few days ago, so I won’t rehash it again.

The best song in XII is Eruyt Village. It’s a peaceful yet mysterious town hidden from the humes in Ivalice. Only the Wood Wardens of the Viera know how to reach the village. The Viera ate seven feet tall bunny women with Icelandic accents. Honestly, I think that, alone, is compelling me to post this over other songs. But the tune is excellent on its own, I promise.

https://youtu.be/QOAD58HCB-c

Honorable Mentions:
FFVIII: Breezy


Day 23:

I like snow. It reminds me of when we were young when we all longed for snow days. A day off school AND a day to get the sleds out and head to the canal hill? Heaven. And now I’m an old failure... Anyway, why do I say this? To connect the currently falling snow to today’s Final Fantasy Music topic. What’s the most nostalgic song?

It should be obvious that it’s from my first FF. And it should be pretty clear it’s the Overworld theme. You hear this plenty, and it’s enjoyable every time. It a song that’s a little forlorn but, somehow, still determined. It gets me excited to save the world, find your past, and keep your girlfriend from being kidnapped by your best friend...again. And there’s just something about the windup at the start that gets me going. It, like snow, takes me back to sitting in my room with no worry for the happenings of the world, something I’m crushed under now. But that’s for another therapist. :D

https://youtu.be/-75CA9RYGlc


Day 24:

I want to write something profound to open up today's Final Fantasy Music topic but screw it. Here’s the saddest song in Final Fantasy.

I spoke of her a few days ago when I talked about the best remix, and here she is. Aria Bennet, The Water Maiden, is a character from FFIII. She, and the old dude watching over her, are the only two people alive when you leave the Floating Continent. She’s with you for such a short time but left a major impression on me the one time I got to her. She’s a blonde girl in a white dress who saves the world, proving that I have a type. In reality, it’s probably not the saddest song in a vacuum but the combination of her story, Boundless Ocean, and because she’s in a good game is why I’m posting it.

Also, fun fact: Aria has the first character theme in FF history.

https://youtu.be/vfWcHo-RrcY

Honorable Mentions:
FFXIII-2: Noel's Theme
All Game Over themes, specifically FFI

Day 25:

From sadness to madness, it's day 25 of the Final Fantasy Music Challenge. Let's get pumped!

Imagine this: you’re a star Blitzball player for the Zanarkand Abes on your way to the big game against the Zanarkand Duggles (there’s only one city in this world). You’re hitting on pretty ladies and signing balls for young kids enroute. You're sitting in the water, jumping out of the water, and the crowds going crazy. Meanwhile, there’s a badass old dude (aged 36) standing on a precipitous ledge and getting drunk a mile away. And then you see your megacity being destroyed by a giant floating whale. What’s the best song for when this whole thing is happening? Otherworld from Final Fantasy X.

High octane action with a thrash guitar riff and lyrics you think are in English but can’t understand anyway! And that’s how you start a game! And how you end it since it’s the final boss song too.

https://youtu.be/X8C3WyGWiY0


Day 26:

Sadness and madness are both emotions I know well, but my emotional goal is to relax. And what’s the best Final Fantasy song to relax to?

Frontier Village Dali from Final Fantasy IX. It’s the first city you go to in the game, and, boy, is it needed. You kidnapped a princess, got chased by a crazy knight, had the queen try to blow you up, got attacked by evil plants, turned a forest to stone, lost a good friend, and you got frozen! Yeah, it’s time to relax. You don’t rest for long, but it’s well needed, and Dali just seems like the most peaceful place to be. So grab a cup of coffee, and let's listen to some Chocobos while being serenaded by a chill guitar, mellow pianos, and some pleasant woodwinds.

https://youtu.be/elKGnfiwR2E


Day 27:

There are only four more Final Fantasy Music Challenge days left, so let’s get into some of the kinda esoteric parts of it all. Today’s topic is the best mobile exclusive. I assume this is the phone games, of which there are many.

But the clear and obvious choice for this is the menu music from Final Fantasy Brave Exvious. I don’t know what an exvious is, but the game is pretty fun. It’s a gotcha game, but with characters that you know and love. You can get past most missions with auto-battle, but some of the boss battles require more tactics than I’m capable of. The story is its best part, even if it can drag on and on and on. I wish the update a few months ago worked, but now that I need to DL 3 gigs and my phone can’t hold a charge, I won’t be playing it for a while.

But we’re here for the tuneage! The menu music, Moment of Recall, fills me with a deep sadness. It’s got that sad piano playing that I love and drops in some violins for good measure. It eventually picks up the pace but retains the melancholy I’ve come to appreciate. The story gets real deep about friendship, nationalism, war, love, and immortality, so it all fits. All from a free phone game...

https://youtu.be/gJf9wrxcfAk


Day 28:

The handheld Final Fantasy games are something I’ve never really dabbled in, mostly because there are not that many. The Tactics games could fit here, as could Crisis Core. The only others are a few sequels, both of which are terrible. Rather than post the "correct" answer to today’s topic, I’m gonna get a little weird.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is an odd game. I played it when it first came out and is the only game I have for the Game Boy SP. I have no idea where that SP and cartridge are, mind you, but I have them. I was hoping it would be similar to FFT. It wasn’t, and I’ve been bummed my grandma bought it for me one holiday way-back-when ever since. It does do one unusual thing. You see, you’re the bad guy. You’re sucked into the dream world of your friend's creation, and his life kinda sucks. He’s paralyzed, has a dead mom, and his dad is poor, overworked, and drunk. So, he creates this land where he’s in charge, and his family is together again. The whole game consists of you and your other friend trying to get out of this world and drag the poor kid out of his escapism.

Mewt is the most relatable villain I’ve ever encountered, and here’s his sad theme. I don’t know how to describe it other than a little bit mad and a lot bit sad.

https://youtu.be/jSCSReWS_DQ


Day 29:

On the penultimate Final Fantasy Music Challenge day, we’re given a very open ended topic. What’s the most underrated song? I’m gonna give a bit of a cop-out and post one from, mostly, every game. Tomorrow’s post is pretty obvious to anyone who knows me, so let’s have some fun tonight.

However, due to recency bias, I will post what I think could have "won". Corel Prison is, as the name would suggest, a prison. It’s located at the bottom of the world renowned amusement park, Golden Saucer. It’s a tree and not a saucer, so I don’t get the name. Regardless, it’s also the former home of party member Barrett Wallace. I’ll spare you the story spoilers, but suffice to say, it works well as a prison. You’re surrounded by sand for miles, and the only way out is to race Chocobos. The music for it is desolate and something you could find in a gritty western. I never paid attention to the song before my most recent playthrough, so it hit me hard. It's a bleak song for a bleak location.

https://youtu.be/N7GYdFPgoXI

Honorable Mentions:
FFI: Matoya's Cave
FFII: Town
FFIII: The Enterprise Soars to the Spies
FFIV: Kingdom of Baron
FFV: Dear Friends
FFVI: Cyan's Theme
FFT: Title Track
FFVIII: Liberi Fatali
FFXI: The Place I'll Return to Someday
FFX: Spira Unplugged
FFXII: Cerobi Steppe
FFXII: The Promise
Lightning Returns: The Savior's Song
CC: Under the Apple Tree


Day 30:

The final day of the Final Fantasy Music Challenge topic is a track with a special meaning. I'm not sure I'm interrupting this correctly, but I'll use it to post a meaningful song that just so happens to be my favorite. And, If you know anything above me, you should already know I’m posting Aerith’s Theme from Final Fantasy VII.

Let’s skip ahead in VII’s story to that" scene. My next door neighbor had the copy I’d been playing on for dozens of hours, and I remember where each of us were. He was asleep. He always was a lightweight when it came to insomnia. I, however, was wide awake. When the moment happened, though, I felt nothing. If anything, I was upset that I just lost my healer. At the time, it was just an event for me. But as I grew older, it really started to affect me. And I still don’t know why. Aerith is a compilation of polygons who just wants to save her virtual world. It would make sense to feel something as a dumb kid, but I feel something as a dumber adult. I have a nonsensical theory as to why, though. Most happy people have a happy family that loves them. My family life has been somewhat contentious, but I won’t get into that. In college, most of the happy people I knew had Jesus. Jesus was a man who sacrificed himself so that we may live. Do you know who else did that? Exactly! Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu are my happy family, and Aerith Gainsborough is my Jesus. Like I said, completely nonsensical!

Regardless, Aerith’s Theme makes me well up every time I hear it. It also takes me to a place where I feel at peace. It has everything I look for in a good video game song: mellow, somber, and plays on a sad piano. I easily could have posted this for nearly ten other topics, so I had to post it here. Valse Aerith!

I don’t know how many of you cared about anything I’ve posted the last month, but if you did, I hoped you enjoyed.

https://youtu.be/AgOJSU8mp-w

Honorable Mentions:
Other Versions of Aerith's Theme:
Flower Blooming in the Church
Flower Blooming in the Slums
Advent Children Version