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.