Today in the world of Grandia, let's start the plot!
We don't get too far into the Sult Ruins before we see a large army of troops. They stand behind their commanders, who stand before their leader, Mullen! He informs his army of their tasks down here, which is to find anything and everything. It's an ancient ruin, so it all has value. Alongside him is commander Leen, but she's just kinda there until all the troops leave. Once they're gone, Mullen says how he's looking forward to making Leen the Aide-de-Comp soon. I don't know what that is.
The rest of the Sult Mines are a maze of empty stuff filled by soldiers we can't interact with. We can overhear them talking about various things that don't really matter, but it does build on the world, and the army I'm expecting will be our reoccurring bosses. I would suggest listening in on the three commanders, Saki, Mio, and Nana. They really don't like Leen and openly discuss all the pranks they've pulled in an attempt to get her away from Mullen.
The monsters are slightly more powerful stuff we fought in the roads to reach here, but there are a few bats that even Sue can one-shot. The second floor is filled with, what I think are, puzzles. It's just more maze like things that are only hard to navigate because the camera is so high and the lack of a good map. I'm pretty sure I reached every nook and cranny and got some good stuff. I got new armor and ad ax for Justin and almost enough money to fully upgrade my equipment later on.
Eventually, we'll stumble upon Mullen and Leen in front of a head. They can't figure out what to do with it, so they leave, nearly seeing us in the process. With them gone, Justin walks up to the head. As he and Sue think about what the head means, his pants begin to glow. He takes out the Spirit Stone the curator just gave back to him, and we see it's burning green. The curator didn't know if it was real or not, but since it's splitting the head in two, opening the path forward, Justin thinks it's a good bet that it's legit!
Justin and Sue now descend into the hidden inner sanctum. It's a clean metallic hallway that looks like we stepped into another dimension. This isn't something Parm build recently. The team comes to a path, but both forks lead the same way. There's a green switch on the floor that turns the door in front of us. After spinning forever, we can enter the room. There's a red switch that spins the room again. We have to reach the north exit, which I did by leaving the other path and spinning it again from there. Re-enter and toggle the red switch one last time. That doesn't make sense, but I don't think the puzzle is difficult and is, hopefully, understandable if you see it. Beyond the door is a dais and a voice.
The voice we hear comes from nowhere. A bright light begins to shine in the center of the room, and scenes of the opening cinematic play again. There are voice lines this time, though. The female voice talks about the relationship between spirits and the ancient civilization, the Angelou. It's not subtitled, so I missed a bit turning off my podcast. When we come back, we see a shadowy woman, Liete, ask us, the bearer of the Spirit Stone, our wish. Justin can't answer, so she eventually tells us to travel east, across the ocean, to the New World. Justin, the great adventurer, happily agrees.
As they try to exit, Captain Mullen and Leen have entered through the now open door. They stop us from escaping the spinning room, and Mullen asks us who we are and why we're down here. We can answer correctly, but I don't think it matters. If we're cagey, Mullen threatens to kill Sue. Leen tries to talk him out of it, so maybe she's cool? In time, he gets what he wants, but he still won't let us leave. He plans to make us informants, meaning we'll never return home. Rather than comply, Justin and Sue step on the red switch, spinning the room and trapping Mullen and Leen on an isolated platform across from the exit. The two use this time to escape, but there's more to this story. As we exit the head, we see the first boss in the game. The Rock Bird blocks our path, but it's pretty easy. It has 300 HP but seems to have a terrible defense stat. It took me three rounds: the first was using special attacks, and I finished it off with three combos. The Special attacks knocked it out of its first attack, so we got four free hits. Rock Bird only manages to do mild damage to Sue before it died. With that dead, the two kids leave the ruins and return home. Mullen exits the head just after us and starts laughing. Leen is happily surprised as Mullen changes his mind. He deems us a worthy rival and gives up the chase. What can two children do to change his plans anyway?
The Sun is down when we get back, so Lilla abuses her son again because he's late and had her worried. The three sit down for a nice meal, where they discuss the two kids going across the ocean. If Lilla was worried before, why is she so cool with letting the two of them travel to a new world. They make plans to figure out how to traverse the ocean in the morning.
The next day they go to ask the dock workers how to travel across the ocean. We need a Pass. Word is there's a guy who frequents the cafe in North Parm who has a Pass. When we find the cafe's key, back at the docks, the owner lets us talk to the customers later that night. That night, he's not there, but the other clientele tell us his name is Java, and he lives at the mines to the south. The next day, we take the train down there, have an awkward first encounter, and we begin our task of getting a Transcontinental Travelling Pass!
But that comes tomorrow.
There was also a scene with Mullen and Baal where Mullen is annoyed at himself for failing in the Sult Ruins. Baal tells him not to worry because there's no one else in the world who can do what he does regardless.
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