Chapter Five: A Hairy Situation

We start in the Divine Mother Church as a hooded man tells Noir about his concerns with La Pucelle. Noir is unphased by our actions because he has the populace, but he settles his assistant down by reminding him the plans are already in motion. All they need now is the Dark Prince.

We then cut to Father Salade's office, where everyone but Prier is. After the team complains that she slept in again, Colette runs to wake her up. As he gets to the door, it's thrown open as our tardy MC finally hits the scene. She then wonders where Colette is before seeing him cowering near the door, rubbing his hurt head from an unknown collision. She's upset and confused as her allies continue to chastise her for the sleep schedule, so Salade punches her in the back of the head... Child abuse by a religious figure is always funny.

Presumably, after Prier wakes up from her attack, Salade informs everyone that he's received reports of odd activity coming from the Menure Forest. He doesn't know if they're monsters of demons but warns us of the growing dark energies caused by the Divine Mother. A quasi-anime cutscene shows that informs us that the Dark Prince is to Calamity as the Main of Light is to Poitenne, which Colette narrates. The party heads off to investigate the issue at the fish forest, so there we head.

It's infested with hairballs. Alouette senses no soul in them and assumes they're homunculus like creatures. Prier decides the best course of action now is to simply eradicate the furballs. There's a lot of them, but they don't pose a real threat yet. They have an annoying ability to turn a character into one of them, but it can be cured and wears off in time. Their physical attacks are pathetic, but they can use a move called Static. I didn't see it used here, but it'll get used in the future. I did get one to join the team for the sake of having one. After the fight, the party has a decision to make. Alouette reminds Prier that she's in charge, for some reason, and we can now choose where to go. Do we venture into the forest to find the source or return to the city? Colette has antics with the furballs in the background.

I chose to go into the forest. We saw a scene with a bald dude complaining about losing his hair a few nights ago. Barson's House starts off with us seeing the lumberjack still bald. As we approach him, though. he drinks something the Divine Mother gave him, and his hair regrows in an instant! The long, flowing mane of black hair has raised his confidence, and he's asked his dream girl to be in a relationship. Suzette said yes! We try to inform him what he's drinking is bad for the world, but he doesn't care. Croix and Colette understand what Barson is going through, so they don't really help Prier. A battle takes place with more furballs, but it isn't necessary to do.

Return to the city, and we'll bump into Suzette. Prier tries to convince her to tell Barson to stop drinking his potion, but she doesn't want him to. She's a shallow woman and only dates handsome guys, which she thinks Barson is because of his hair. It is pretty good hair, I will say. She said Prier could never understand because "you're just a kid." This stuns the kid, and Suzette walks away, ending the conversation. We return to Barson, who has company. It's a member of the Divine Mother. As it always happens with these guys, we get into a fight.

It's not with a Gargoyle, but a new demon type named Belial. He's accompanied by a lot more furballs, and he lets them do all the work. Even the horde of furs can't stop us, so it quickly leaves him one-on-eight. Along with a few Miracles, we make short work of him. The demon is still alive but just to lament his weakness of being killed by humans. As a final act, he threatens to blow up the entire forest! As he's about to, Noir teleports in. He uses a spell to complexity wipe him from the world. Prier asks why he didn't allow his underling to follow through, and Noir says he's not in the business of indiscriminate killing. As he starts to walk away, Croix points his guns at his back and questions why he isn't going to kill us. Noir finds us weak and pathetic; not worth the time. Croix shoots him, but it does nothing as he ports away. Alouette senses a power far beyond our reasoning in him and is happy to see him go without further trouble.

Barson is upset that his hair supplier is gone and even more worried his dream girl will leave him. We don't know the outcome of the relationship, but the party starts talking about love. The men still understand where our lumberjack is coming from, but Prier begins to wonder what love feels like. She's been so preoccupied with becoming the Maiden of Light that she's never even thought about the emotion. Her thoughts turn to complimenting Croix, which shocks her a little bit. When he wakes her from her stupor, she suddenly sees him in a different light. I've forgotten why, but Alouette ends up hitting Prier with a book, and that's how we end the chapter. Colette warns us that no one knew how things were about to turn out. Has this entire game been an FFX flashback?

I forgot what it ended up because I got the bad ending. Bunch of bologna! The good ending ends the same as the bad ending, but it's just different in how we get there. Besides, even if Barson and Susy break up, it's best for him. No one should date a stuck up girl like that. Regardless, I got jack nothing for rewards, but we can at least see where the common RPG love interest is going. How old is Crois, thought?

Chapter Four: A Gigantic Problem

A short chapter that took me two days to get through...

Loud stomping sounds are heard as Colette wakes up in the middle of the night. He's curious about what's going on, so he walks over to his window. Before we can get there, a giant eyeball stares into his room. The next day, Colette is telling everyone in Salade's office about what he saw. As you'd expect, no one believes him. He'd expect this from Prier, but he's a bit heartbroken that Alouette doesn't. Suddenly, Salade's medieval phone begins to ring. There's a monster attacking the Mayonnaise Harbor...

All seems quiet when we first get there. But it's too quiet. As if on cue, we hear the same loud footsteps we heard last night. The party looks over and sees a massive blue whale stamping around the city. Alouette suggests we lure Monster to Mt. Tarte.
It's not stage one, but battle one has us walking our characters over to a designated spot where the battle ends and the plot continues. Along the way, we'll have to kill bats and meet two new monster types. There's a single square whale and two mermaids. Good luck getting to them/purifying them. There are also three treasure chests in the water that only bats can reach. There are two more chests along the wall that are easier to get but are filled with trash. Sadly, it's all missable since we don't return to this map. All the while, we're being chased by Monster. It looks like Lapras but significantly larger. Despite its size, it doesn't hit that hard. It can still kill a character in one hit, but some tougher ones might be able to take in on the chin. Regardless, it's at level forty, so we probably can't defeat it in eight turns. I did what the pious one wanted and lured it to Mt. Tarte.

When we reach the area, the graphical fidelity of the game took a big turn. The party sees Monster still walking towards them, but then they hear a strange whirring sound from above. The camera cuts to a pirate crew and their well detailed airship. This is Captain Homard, his fairy girlfriend, Papillion, and his cat pirate crew. La Pucelle is shocked at how 3D modeled it is, and I can understand. Everything else is a flat 2D plane, but now that there's an airship, who knows what's next? The pirates are more than just pirates though, they're monster hunters. And they set their sights on our Lapras. They begin to shoot their cannons at it, and Prier hears a strange sound. She hears a young boy crying in pain. Monster begins to cry tears as well. After a while, Monster retreats into the forest, but the pirates give chase. We decide we're going to save the Monster.

Battle two is at the foot of Mt. Tarte. We have to defeat Homard before he and his crew defeat Monster. Colette gets a one-on-one conversation if he attacks the cats as a call back to when he saw one last episode, but it's just a thing. It's pretty easy since the cats aren't very strong. Monster is only at level twelve now, but he still has a lot of HP. Afterwards, La Pucelle and Escargot get into an argument. Homard wants to know why they were attacked, which makes sense. After Prier asks why he attacked Monster, Homard gets chivalrous. He confused her for a boy in the heat of battle but now sees Prier is a girl. He becomes more cordial and introduces himself and the crew in a slightly flamboyant fashion. Prier does the same in a more sensible manner. Homard goes to hug her "as a token of our new friendship," but gets uppercuted for the trouble. As this is happening, Alouette points out Monster just in time for it to turn into a ball of energy. It leaves the forest and heads to Pot af Fou City.

We chase it to the church infirmary and discover a little boy, Rocini, has taken a turn for the worst. Rocini's mother has been an NPC since episode one, but this is the first time her dialogue has changed. Sadly, it comes with bad news. While we're speaking to Rocini's mom, Colette looks at a picture on the wall that looks exactly like the whale beast we lured from the Harbor. Rocini's mom tells us her son likes to draw monsters and pretend to be them. It helps him to feel strong. Colette thinks that Rocini has the ability to think up something and then put his mind into it. The Escargot crew just bombed a sick boy. Priers asks for details on Rocini's illness, and she's told it's called Jujube Disease, and the only cure is Kinoku Jiro. Jiro can only be found on Mt. Chapingon. Our party decides to get some, but how do we climb such a large mountain?

Outside, we see Homard and crew, and they admit to eavesdropping. They feel guilty about what they've done, so they offer to take us to Chapingon on their airship. We accept, and it's off to the ship. A quick, exciting scene plays out, and we fly off to the giant mushroom shaped mountain covered in ice. When we land, Homard defends the ship to make sure we have an escape route. And we meet the locals. There's a small Eringa Villiage up here, and the residents warn us of dragonshrooms in the upcoming area. They suggest we run away from them, but I'm not gonna. They tell us someone from the Divine Mother came here, and they think he's causing all the ruckus. If we figure out what's going on, they'll give us some Kinori Jiro.

Stage One has us fighting a slightly different type of mushroom than we fought earlier. They're a lot stronger and pose a bit of a risk. What's more worrisome is the spirit in the center of the map. Mega Fire isn't fun. They're a bit fragile, though, so take them down before they hit three people with a big fire attack. I managed to win, but in the far corner is the dreaded dragonshoom. It's a dragon with mushrooms growing out of its back. This guy is higher leveled than us and has high defense. I managed to get killed by him two nights ago, which is why I skipped an update. I put in some overtime today, gained about two levels, and made sure to gang up on him as best I could. You can't get him to join the team, so just attack.
Stage Two has two spirits and two dragonshrooms. Use a similar tactic and make sure your bear is prepared to use a lot of Bear Rush. I also used a few sleep attacks from my hippo and gremlin to buy me time. Despite this one being harder, I finished it much better off. The NPC's said we should have just ran to the exit square, but I don't think that would have gone over well in the long term.
Stage Three has us meeting the Divine Mother baddie. He turns into another Gargoyle and is accompanied by two wind spirits and three mushrooms. I took out half of his front line on round one and finished it on round two. By round three, I had the boss dead. By now, these guys aren't anything to fear, even if they have slightly higher stats than the one before.
We return to the village and tell the mushroom elder the good news. As promised, he gives us the Kiro, and we return to church. Rocini is slightly better, but he's still a kid who doesn't want to take his medicine. After some tough but loving words from Prier about how it's wimpy to be afraid of what's good for you, the boy downs his gross smelling drink. Homard says his farewell to the party but offers Prier a spot on the crew. He thinks his life is the perfect thing for a man like Prier. "Um...I'm a girl." It doesn't phase him, and he leaves to venture forth and sky pirate away. Croix pulls a mug filled with a "tasty beverage" from his pants and offers it to Prier. She drinks it and remarks on the terrible taste. Croix says it's Kioku Jiro, and everyone laughs.

The drawing of the Monster appears on screen, and Colette says, "maybe the monster will appear in your town next." What a weird way to finish a chapter... I got the good ending, a bunch of money, and a long scissors. There's also a special ending you could have gotten had you defeated Monster in the Harbor. I don't know what it details, but the rewards are rad. You could also have bought the Jiro from Elizabeth for 50000 gold if you didn't want to do the hard work. I don't know if that changes anything. The bad ending is letting Homard kill the kid.

Chapter Three; Prier and Alouette

We open up on a dark haired preacher giving a sermon in a large cathedral. He speaks of how glorious suffering is and that we should accept it. Living sucks, though, so humans find a way to "escape." But, inevitably, people die and dreams end; it's just a part of life. We should accept it, and we should come home to the Divine Mother.

Later, when the congregation is gone, the man tells the aether of his disdain toward humans. A hooded man enters, called the preacher Noir, and tells him of Alan. Noir doesn't know who Alan is. The hooded man reminds him was, and it rings a bell. He remains unmoved. He even thanks La Pucelle for killing him to save them the time. The preacher turns around, stares up, and calls out to his "mother." Guys, I think we found the villain.

We return to our party in Father Salade's office. We're giving him the report of the last chapter, including the involvement of the Church of the Divine Mother. Prier thinks we should raid the church, but Alouette hits her with a book and says how terrible that is. Over seventy percent of Paprika are adherents, so any attack might lead to a civil war or the very end of the Church of the Holy Maiden. Croix enters the room, and the Saladman seems worried. He keeps it together, and no one notices, but the player can tell. Prier introduces the two men, and Croix talks business. His former employer is involved with demons, so he can't really go back. Instead, he offers us his services...at a price. At the behest of everyone, especially Alouette, Salade accepts the freelancer into the group. Croix then takes Alouette's hand to thank her further, and Colette starts thinking he's hitting on her. I suppose Colette has a crush on Alouette. The bossman gives us our next mission, which is to report this to the Queen of Paprika. So it's off to Cresson Castle. I hate food puns.

The castle is to the north of Pot au Feu City. The party is already in the throne room when the camera catches up with them, and two guards beckon us. Prier hates it here because everyone is so "pompous." Croix wonders how he was allowed in since he's an unknown actor. Alouette just wants everyone to behave themselves. Prier and Croix have that "Don't call me mister" speech that comes off strange in English. I'm sure it's meaningful in Japanese, but it just falls flat here. For some reason, they re-introduce themselves, and Prier tells him she's going to be the Maiden of Light. Colette doesn't believe it. She insults Alouette, but Alouette remains solemn. At some point, Prier's image flashes before Croix' eyes, and she turns into someone else. He stares at her, and now Colette thinks he's gonna hit on his sister. Before long, a guard comes in and tells us that Her Royal Highness, Princess Eclair, will see us.

In walks a purple haired girl, younger than everyone else in the room. Princess Eclair tells us the Queen is elsewhere, and we give her our report. She, too, is suspicious of the Divine Mother. For all of our hard work, Prier asks for a reward, which upsets Alouette. The two bicker until Eclair laughs and calls Prier "big sister." This makes the two adults in the party confused, and Colette informs the group of how the two of them are friends with a Princess. Four years ago, when they were still initiates, they came to the castle for a show. Prier was busy practicing when Eclair came in. She was shy and a bit scared, but Colette sensed that she was lonely and wanted friends. The three became fast friends, but Prier wanted the heir to the kingdom to call her "big sister" because Prier is strange. Colette remakes that, even though they're from vastly different castes, they're still friends and even have the same goals: become the next Maiden of Light. The Princess and the Pucelle reconnect for the first time in a while before we need to return to the church.

As we approach the church, we hear a commotion from the infirmary. Inside we see the Padre, a few nurses, and two hurt men. The two men were walking in the Meuniere Forest when they were attacked. Salade asks us to investigate further. Prier doesn't want to and assumes they were up to something. Them getting attacks was the will of Piotenne, and they got what they deserved. Alouette finds that statement blasphemous, believing the wrath of the boob goddess to be used for the clenching of souls only. Colette calms them down, and we head to the fish forest.

As we approach, Croix asks why demon hunters are looking for a beast? Alouette tells him that anything that harms Poitenne's children must be dealt with via holy weaponry. Prier brings up Croix's amnesia, asking how he knows so much despite it. Croix says it's strange that he only forgot his own past. Alouette notices the similarities between them, and Croix makes a joke that amnesia must be contagious. Prier hates it and asks why he'd work with us if being solo might be faster for his goals. Croix says he joined because of Prier. She resembles someone our gunslinger faintly remembers. Colette thinks he's hitting on her again. A loud roar is heard in the forest, and we finally get on to battles.

Stage One is the Forest Entrance. It contains two new mobs, a hippo and a box. The hippo is alright and has better stats than our bats, but it has less movement. It can put enemies to sleep. The gremlin, though, is great! It has terrible, crippling movement rates, but its defense is off the charts. And it has more than enough attack to have a place on the team. This was another mob I remember using until the end back in high school. I need to put some shoes on it one day.
Stage Two is the Forest of Grief. It's a battle, but there's an event square here. Stepping on it reveals a sentient mushroom. Everyone is shocked. It's crying because it's wounded, but mostly because it lost its mushroom essence, which means it can't return home. Prier promises to get it back.
My stage Three was Barsom's House. When we arrive, we see the master of the forest walking away. We think about putting it down, as we were told, but Croix stops us. He points out that it's wounded, and it isn't an accident. The two men in the church infirmary said they were taking a walk, but standard walking gear couldn't have issued those wounds. This convinces Prier to go home, which enrages Alouette. Anything that harms the Goddess' children needs to be put down at all costs. Prier thinks that's a load of junk and doesn't care what the "Holy Book" says. The master is innocent, so it should be left alive. Alouette is adamant, though, and the two women's argument starts to get heated. Alouette has so much religious fervor that she refuses to see that her book can be incorrect, and Prier doesn't want to harm anything that was just defending itself. Croix manages to settle them down, and we go to the battle. There's an event square in front of the house. All it is is a man losing the last piece of his hair. He laments that he'll never be able to tell a girl that he loves her now, and we just casually leave. I'm sure it'll mean something later...
I went back to Stage Four, the Forest of Judgement. It's a massive battlefield with two event squares. The one closest to spawn contains the mushroom essence. The one next to the box is something for Colette to experience. He walks to a lone cat and asks if it's lost. The cat speaks and tells him that he is. Colette is stunned because cats, apparently, don't usually talk in this world. The feline leaves to keep doing his thing, and the rest of the group enters the scene. Colette tries to tell him what he saw, but no one believes him. Finish the battle and return to where we met the mushroom. Prier will hand over the essence and then ask for a reward. Alouette will scold her, but Prier thinks it's reasonable. It's just business, right, even though we're priest/esses. The shroom doesn't have anything, but it does tell us her name is Elizabeth. She warns us not to kill the master of the forest or else the whole area will wither and die, leading to cataclysmic events. She tells us about Eringa Village and leaves. We can visit her home, but she's not there. It's another peaceful city that serves as a single Rozenqueen shop populated by mushrooms. Visit if you want, but you should return home now, anyway.

Head to the church infirmary and report what we just learned about our "prey." Salade did his own investigation and found out that the two men are working for the Divine Mother. They were sent to kill the Lord of the Forest to make the area unstable, creating more darkness and evil. We're to return to the forest and protect the Lord, I guess. It's just a vague "go back" in the game...

Stage Five, Endless Forest, is just a battle map. Enemies are in a 3x3 pattern, and a few guides suggest this location as a grind spot.
Stage Six, the final stage, is the Shrine of Beasts. We see a hooded man from the Divine Mother strike down the Forest Lord and turn into another Gargoyle. This one is harder than Alan, and it even has stronger sidekicks. The boxes here seem a lot stronger than mine, but I managed to put them to sleep to keep them from inferring. A few Miracles put them down. The boss couldn't defend itself against six of us, but it did get two of our guys. But the Lord was still dead. Not wanting to see the forest die, Prier prayed for guidance from the Goddess. Even though she tried twice, nothing happened. Reluctantly, Alouette stepped in, prayed, and the Lord got back to its feet before walking off. Alouette was winded, though. Croix said she could have died performing such a miracle, but she'll pull through. Alouette blames herself for wounding the Lord, for some reason, so she thinks it's the least she could do.

We return to the Saladman's office, where Prier and Alouette get back on the same page. Alouette holds the church's teaching to a high standard because that's all she knows. Her only belonging was the Holy Book when she lost her memory and doesn't want it sullied. But, as she saw today, maybe it's not always correct. Sometimes you need to listen to your own heart. Prier tells us that she follows her gut because, otherwise, she might have regrets. At least this way, she won't double think stuff. I'm sure that's a perfectly fine rationale... Croix and Colette remark that they're glad everything is okay again, but...

Just as the two have their "Don't call me by a formal name" conversation, Alouette tells her young ward that she should dress more modestly. A sister shouldn't wear such tight a revealing outfits. A bowl of leafy greens turns around. Prier defends herself by saying this is what Salad wanted her to wear. She then calls out Alouette for wearing a micro-mini. Blah blah blah Father Salade is a pervert.

By not killing the Lord of the Forest, I got my third straight Good Ending, 5000 Gold, and a Handshake weapon. Prier is still hitting her brother, and now there's mild pedophilia...

Chapter Two: A Child's Promise

The scene opens on a group of churchgoers, Prier and Colette included, practicing for some religious thing. They're La Pucelle, but they're still members of their church, so they need to fulfill those duties when called upon. Colette, as he often does, soliloquies his way through he and his sister's history. Seven years ago, their parents died in a carriage accident returning home from work. The two of them lived at the orphanage for three years before joining the church, which explains their close connection with the people there. A scene of their parents' funeral is shown where Colette, being five at the time, doesn't fully understand what happened. All he wants is his mommy and daddy. Prier tries to console him and assures him that they'll be fine, even if they'll be on their own for a while., but you can tell she's fighting back her tears. She promises to protect her brother and does the same with her parents to always be strong. Before we return to the present, she asks them, "let me be weak today." It's heartwrenching, man. Colette ends by saying that Prier never talks about their parents, and he wants to meet them one day. He asks the Goddess, Poitreene, for assistance in that.

Back in the chapel, Prier rejoices that she gets to sing. Colette tells her that he had a dream about their parents, but Prier gets annoyed, as she always does, and he remarks that she always treats him like a child.

Prier, Colette, and Alouette are in their boss, Father Salade's, office. Well, Alouette is, but Prier barges in and gets yelled at for not knocking. Prier is open with her rudeness when, suddenly, a giant bear enters the room. It sneaks up behind our heroine to attack her, but just as he goes in, Prier gives it her full frontal assault kick! It does nothing! The bear takes off its head to reveal the face (with a secondary hat) of Father Salade! Padre is a world renowned demon slayer, and all the years of hard work have built up a defense that not even Prier's kick can get passed. Saladman reveals he has to entertain the orphanage later. Some things are said that make me think Salade is married to the orphanage matron.

Father Salade sits down and informs the group of their next task. There has been a rash of grizzly murders, which is a terrible pun. The police have investigated, and it seems the culprit maybe something more than human. The clues that connect this to demons are:
1.) Every victim has had their heart ripped out.
2.) A family member has gone missing around the time of the attack.
3.) Each room was locked from the inside.
4.) The missing family member ranges from young boys to old women.
5.) There has been the exact same message written in blood at every scene. Fingerprint analysis indicates it's from the missing family, but handwriting experts say it's from the same person.
Alouette immediately thinks it's a shame shifting demon, and the bowl of leafy greens concurs. He also thinks the real missing people are dead. He then tells us to start our investigation alongside Sister Olive.

After we finish with the stuff in town, we head to the scene of the latest murder. We read the letter in blood, and it details how upset someone is that their love died. But he's not sad because she'll come back. We're stumped, so it's off to Mt. Tarte. Yes, more food puns. As we get there, Colette stops walking. He tells Alouette that this is where he and Prier grew up. Prier gets mad because Colette brought up the past and scolds him. She yells at him to grow up and get back to carrying the luggage, the only thing he's good at. This infuriates our young mage, and he storms off. Colette is a demon hunter, too, and not a servant. Alouette tells her young apprentice that she was too hard on him. It then hits Prier that her younger brother has gotten himself lost in the woods with a killer about. There are now two mysteries.

Stage one is Mt. Tarte (foot). It contains two new units we can recruit. The mushrooms are...whatever, but the bear in the middle is amazing. They have high HP, Attack, and Defense. If I remember right, the bear I got was probably my best unit twenty years ago. Take time out of your schedule to purify one for your team. After the fight, head to the Spring of Mercy on the left side of the map.
Stage two should be the Spring. Before the fight, we see a wounded Sister Olive. Alouette calls Father Salade on her medieval phone. She then gives Olive a blessing, but we need to move on. Olive knew the risks she took coming here, so we shouldn't feel sympathy and need to focus on the killer. It feels gross, but I get where she's coming from. The battle has us against more shrooms and bears, but there's a blue flame standing on a treasure chest. I got it because I think I'm going for a giant party I can ignore later on. I also learned that eight is the limit on the characters per map in La Pucelle.
Stage three is the Mysterious Path. When we get there, we see Father Salade waiting for us. But Alouette is suspicious. She tells Prier that the bossman said he'd send someone else to help Olive. Prier knows what to do and feigns trust until she can close enough to kick him. The kick turns Salade into a regular dude, giving merit to the shape shifting demon idea. He hops away, holding his junk, somehow, and we have to fight the usual monsters. I didn't get the chest in the far corner, though, because the last shroom died to my bear.
Stage four is Mt. Tarte (side). We see Colette doing well, scaring off a few monsters. He has the feeling he's in over his head, though, but he recognizes this as the place his parents are buried. A woman walks on screen and talks to him, seemingly knowing who he is. She shares a warm memory of the two of them before telling him that he's his mother. Colette is thrilled, but we hear the voice of Prier from off screen. She and Alouette join and yell at him to get away from the woman. Colette doesn't get it and just wants to spend time with his mom. When the boy turns his back, the woman raises a grotesque hand and is prepared to kill him. Prier tries to warn him, but we hear the sound of a gunshot as a bullet hits the demon's hand. She turns back into the guy Prier kicked, and a man in a blue coat and sunglasses joins everyone.
The man is annoyed at such tactics, shapeshifting, and is super edgy. He talks in a low whisper and likes to show off his gun. This is Croix. Croix Roual. He's a freelance demon hunter working for the Church of the Divine Mother. The demon says he too is working the Divine Mother, but Croix doesn't care. The demon's body blinks, but nothing happens. Croix deduces that he tried to read his mind, but, like Alouette, he has no memories of his youth. He goes to shoot the demon again, but the killer takes Collete hostage and runs off. Our Vash wannabe asks what's going on before he starts talking business. Prier doesn't care, and we all give chase.
The battle is a battle, alright. Croix's gun range, which he can use to bring in more allies from his position for the team attack. He also has access to Purify, but his is pretty weak.
The fifth and final stage is at the Peak. It takes place at the graveyard where "our" parents lay. But dad is here. Not being stupid, Prier gives him a massive uppercut, and he reveals himself to the demon. I'm glad she didn't fall for the obvious trap. She screams, "The Dead don't come back to life," and she reminds herself of the promise to be strong. The quote enrages Alan, the demon, and he transforms into the next boss.
Gargoyle has two skeletons with him behind six mushrooms. The victory condition is to kill the boss, though, so do what you will. I cleared the map. Gargoyle is no slouch since he has 300 HP, high defense, and enough attack to kill Alouette. Colette got the cool one-on-one speech, and it was about how playing with one's emotions like that are terrible. With his entourage gone, though, he can't survive a seven-on-one surround attack. Colette is back on the team for his, but he has no items. Make sure to bring some spares.
Alan is sitting against the gravestone and tells us about his wife. Palmier. She's mentioned in the blood message. She was a wonderful person but always sickly. Shortly after the two of them got married, she fell ill and never recovered. Three days later, a man from the Church of the Divine Mother appeared and said that they can bring her back. All Alan had to do was bring a heart just as pure as Palmier's. But the quote Prier said before the fight got him thinking that no two hearts can be the same. All his actions were for naught and only served to sully his soul. Now he'll never see his love in heaven. Prier isn't without sympathy for him and remarks on how sad it all is. Alouette asks her to say a prayer from him, and Prier asks the Goddess to cleanse the man's sin with her judgement, "Or at least allow him to rest in peace." A halo of flame erupts from Alan, turning the screen white. When we come back, he's gone.

Prier turns around the hugs her brother, choking him in the process. She asks why he ran off, and Colette apologizes. Alouette puts his emotions into words and says that Colette is growing up. He wants to be independent and his own man. Prier says that he shouldn't want that, so Croix steps in. He says that men need to be men. Colette is able to say that he wants to protect his sister and Alouette. Prier does some soul searching and realizes that she's doesn't know her brother as much as she thought. Or, maybe, she just didn't want to be alone without him? She apologizes and says he'll get some time to be himself, but, for now, she's still gonna boss him around. Colette is mildly annoyed, but Croix talks to Alouette and says how nice they are as a family. Alouette agrees but tells herself that she's kinda jealous. She wishes she had a family like that.

The chapter ends with the sun setting. Colette, who gets all the soliloquies, says he saw Prier crying alone, probably thinking of their parents. It hits him that Prier always tries to be tough. She doesn't like talking about her past because it'll stir up emotions that will ruin that facade. He doesn't know what to do, so he keeps starring at the sky. A shooting star goes by, and the chapter ends. I got the good ending, 3000 gold, and a power jacket.

I'm not fond of slightly abusive brother/sister relationships. It was a point of contention for me in Tales of Symphonia with Raine and Genos, so I'm hoping it's over here. I'm all for picking on your younger sibling, but there's no reason to get physical. I used to be close to my sister but going to college made us drift apart. When I came back, she grew up, and I got boring, so we just kinda lost it. And I don't have a good relationship with anyone now, so I don't like seeing "family" hurt. I'm an emotional/snugly type of guy, so stuff like that in situations like this is a big deal breaker.

Chapter One: On the Job Training

We finished the training last night, so let's finish this chapter and figure out where all the zombies are coming from.

Before the first real fight starts, Colette and Alouette remind Prier that she's in charge. She shouldn't be in charge, but she's the main character, so she gets to be in charge. They suggest heading back to town to stock up on new items, as well as to heal. I'm a wuss and have been doing this the whole time, though.

Our first fight is in the Hall of Justice. It's a narrow hallway with the usual assortment of bats and a zombie.
The second fight takes place in the Birdcage. It's a wide open area that once served as an entrance foyer. There is a new enemy here that I managed to convince to join the team. The Will o Wisp is a sentient flame. Its attack doesn't seem high, but it has good fire magic. Don't kill everyone just yet. Behind the wisp is an event point. Sending anyone, even allied monsters, onto it will trigger a new scene. The three humans notice a heavily locked door that they can't open. Prier wonders about treasure, but Alouette senses sorrow behind it. Alouette believes if they work together, they can beat down the withered door. Prier bemoans needing to do manual labor, but she joins in with no negotiation. Colette throws himself into the door but is unable to nudge it. His big sister, being the full frontal assault that she is, performs one swift kick that utterly destroys the wall. There's no treasure inside, to Prier's chagrin, but there are two skeletons holding each other. Alouette prays to the Goddess, Poitreen, and the souls of the two skeletons will appear before them. Their names are incredibly French, so I've already forgotten them, but they've been trapped in this safe room for over 400 years. Long ago, before the Kingdom of Paprika, there was another country that was at war. The invaders breached the estate, so the Count of Montblanc protected his family here. The doors never opened again, though, and the lead lining made it impossible for even ghosts to travel through. But now they're free. Prier begins to feel sad at the skeleton's predicament as one was a young boy who never got to grow up. We return to the battle and finish it to advance.
The third fight is the Hall of Courage. It's another standard affair, but there are two exits we can take.
Battle four should be the Hall of Truth. It's a room filled with six bats that I accidentally killed. There's another event square here. The orphaned kids have come here to make sure Prier was doing her job. I thought Alouette had that role, but okay. They also found a secret passageway to another room. Alouette calls the Church to pick up the children, and we explore further in. Inside is a lone skeleton and his dairy. The diary tells of the writer being in love with his brother's wife. He was jealous of him, so he poisoned everyone's food. But he made sure the wife and child were in the safe room. All he wanted was his "caged songbird," which is as creepy as it sounds. Prier is visibly upset at the whole affair, and I dig the voice work her VA did for this scene. We finish the battle after this.
The fifth and final fight is in the Throne Room. Before anything happens, we see a large bull demon spirit enter the room. It calls us invaders and threatens to kill us before the two spirits we saved earlier show up. The demon turns in the Count, and the family sees each other for the first time in 400 years. But we're not done yet. A second demon, brother Oseille, appears, and it's the guy who killed and trapped everyone. This is our first boss fight in the game, but it's pretty easy. Take out the bats and purify all the portals to make sure we get him alone. Oseille doesn't have much attack power, and even my weak Bat Bit survived multiple attacks. Each human character has a unique dialogue before the one-on-one/many attack phase, but I only saw Alouette's. She feels no remorse for what she's about to do, and I'm behind that. He's harder than anything else we've killed but isn't too challenging. When the dust settles, Oseille reiterates that's he's jealous of his brother and claims he took his true love. Prier isn't having any of that and goes off on him. She calls him a lot of names before giving a patented thrust kick. Oseille disappears into nothing. Colette thinks his sister was too harsh, but Alouette says nothing. The Montblanc family gather together, finally at peace, and Alouette says a prayer to Poitreen. They all head to, presumably, heaven or whatever the afterlife is here.

This is the end of Chapter One, and I got the good ending. had I not seen both of those extra scenes, I'd have, presumably, fought the Count and gotten the bad ending. Being moral gets you an additional 1600 gold.

I am not good with foreign names. I can't spell, remember, or pronounce the abundant French in the game. Fortunately, the random monsters we get have stupid names that don't mean anything. "Legendary Bones" on a basic zombie... What do I hate more? I tried to do something with the item fusion, and I got lost. I might end up ignoring that. Also, fun fact, the goddess' name translates into chest/breast. Isn't that fun? Praying to boobs?

The Girl: tactics: Chapter .5 - Tutorial!

Or, what it's actually called, La Pucelle: Tactics, is a game I only bought because of how much I liked Disgaea. LP was Nippon Ichi's next game, and I wanted to play it. I don't think it's as good, but I enjoyed it, nonetheless. It had fun characters, a wildly different storyline, and the battle system had similar basics, but it was different enough to keep me engrossed. I never beat it, though. I don't remember how many times I've tried, but it's at least once. I remember reaching the final dungeon, being underleveled, and trudging my way through the item world like area. It wasn't fun, and I didn't have the strength to beat the final boss. I don't even remember who the final boss is! So this means I'm replaying a game from high school AND getting a new game experience at the same time. Call me excited!

The camera descends from the spire of a large church and onto three people. A red haired girl is upset because she has to fight zombies. They might dirty her clothes. A young boy asks her to stop being negative and reminds her they're new to do this. He also jogs her memory of a recent failure. Besides, he has to do the laundry! In response, the girl smacks him on the head. The adult of the group tells Sister Prier that Colette is correct. They're servants of the Holy Goddess and should remember that.

Colette, the boy, then soliloquies about him and his sister. Four years ago, they joined the church and recently joined the demon hunting group, La Pucelle. The adult is Sister Alouette. She's only been here two years but is so much more mature and better at their job, so she watches over them. She's also really nice. Sadly, she has no memory of before joining the church. Alouette asks Prier to pray for forgiveness, so she does so in the least respectful way. Alouette wants her to do it better, and she does. Alouette then smacks Prier on the head but feigns ignorance. "I guess your prayer reached the Goddess, afterall." Prier then thinks to herself that one day she'll be the Maiden of Light. All she has to do is keep on the right path. Alouette asks Colette what the basis of every mission is, and he responds with, "gathering information." We now gain control of Prier as we walk through the town.

This portion of the game is a sidescroller through a few screens in Pot a Feu City. We can enter the church, an udon noodle shop, the Rozenshop, and an orphanage. We're supposed to use this to find our next mission, but we also learn about the world.
Fifty years ago, the Prince of Darkness and the Maiden of Light fought. This seems to be the basis for a lot of religion in the game, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be something we learn more about as it progresses.
Thirty-five years ago, Father Salad built this church, The Church of the Holy Maiden. It's actually pretty small, compared to another church in a different city.
We're in the Kingdom of Paprika, and, already, I get a feeling there's going to be a lot of food puns.
Inside the weapons/armor shop is a man with links to the Dark World, a place in constant war. We can send him a character to help in the fight, which, somehow, gets us stronger items.
But the main point, right now, is the zombie invasion. A woman outside the church, or the orphans, can tell us about the Devil's Stomach. It's an old sewer system the kids used to play in before they joined the church, but it seems it houses some undead these days. We leave the city and come to an overhead world map. There's a blinking red dot indicating where the Devi's Throat is. A short scene re-describing what I just said happens, and the team enters.

These first few battles tutorialize the game. The combat takes place on an isometric grid, like Disgaea, and the turn order style is the same. The difference is it functions like an old school tactics game, ala Shining Force. Each inner battle takes place in its own dimension and consists of everyone attacking the target joining in. Everyone around said attacker and target are also incorporated in an automatic team attack. Special attacks don't get the same treatment, and they function outside the team attack stuff.
Battle two teaches us about purification and Dark World Portals. Small gems on the floors function as a gateway that allows new mobs to spawn in. But our human characters can purify them to stop that. Not only that, but the energy from the gems can be guided around the room. When purified, the portal stream will harm any mobs in the way. Purifying them is also how we get most of our money.
Battle three teaches us how to make new friends. Use purify on a mob a few times. There will be an indication of how likely they are to join near their name. When you're ready, kill them. They'll be usable from our spawn point with half HP. Return to the world map to regain HP/MP. Right now, though, we get a small bat as our fourth member.
Battle four has a treasure chest and a zombie that Prier wants to get to join the team. This is optional.
Battle six teaches us about Miracle Attacks. If the energy from the dark portals is fifteen squares long and circles back onto itself, it'll summon a powerful monster to attack mobs on, or inside, the circle.
Battle seven informs us about trigger points. Step on red, blinking floor panels to activate something. The one in this room unlocks a door in the previous map. I wanted to get a massive Miracle but ending having my first character death. Sorry, Alouette.
The whole adventure has us learning how much more mature Colette is than his sister. Prier has her sights set on something grander than what we're doing now and can't see that she needs to master the basics before she gets to her end goal. Colette has his nose in the books, which is, probably, why he seems to be more focused on magic. Prier is a full frontal assault in the body of a sixteen-year-old girl. Word's still out on Alouette, but she's a very devout person who only attacks because it's her gods' will.

Triggering the floor square in battle seven allows us to advance to Montblanc Manor. The three of them wonder how such a large manor is down in these caves, but Alouette senses something sinister inside it. Prier tries to walk away, but Alouette doesn't let her. Prier may not like fighting zombies, even though she asked us to convert one, but the adult in the room demands that she fulfills her job. With much disdain, Prier accepts, and the team enters Montblanc Manor. But we'll figure out what's inside...

...tomorrow!

Monday and day one plot dumps, ya know? We've already got a good basis here, and I think it keeps up through the rest of the game. I'm not a big fan of not non-intelligent party members, so I don't know how often I'll be using the bats and zombies going forward. Will I even try to get them? How will I deal with the Dark World? I'm also curious how much I'll try to force Miracle attacks in. They're fun but not all that efficient sometimes. There are so many mechanics, most of which don't seem too tedious, so let's see how I fare!

Final Fantasy III: My friends and I save the world

Final Fantasy III was the last mainline FF game to reach the states when it finally got to us. It came out in 1990, but North America never saw it until 2006 as a DS game. I nearly bought a DS just to play it, but I lacked funds then because...ya know, teenagers... It wasn't until 2014 when I finally got a hold of it on the Humble Bundle Store and added it to my Steam library. I can't compare the NES or Pixel Remasters to the Steam version since I've never played them. But I think I know most of the differences, which I'll get to throughout the review.
 
On the first go around, I found the game middling. I was enjoying it, but I didn't feel any connection. When I got to Hein, I stopped playing and didn't pick it up for nearly a year. I can't say I enjoyed my first playthrough, but I was pretty into it on my second. At the time, it was one of the only games in the franchise I didn't beat. All three NES games were beyond me, despite having FF Origins since it came out in 2002. I and II were dead to me at the time, but I really wanted to get through III. I'm one of the few people who liked the graphics, so that wasn't in my way. It was just a minor boss with difficulty ambitions above his station. Why shouldn't I want to beat him? Once I did, I cruised through the game. Despite being a remaster of an NES game with very little new content added, I liked everything it had to offer. The characters were fun and entertaining, the twists were out of nowhere but, usually, made some sense, and the music was top notch. But, of course, what sucks?

At its heart, it's still an NES game. The story is threadbare, characterizations are lacking, and the world is pretty empty. I don't know if this is a knock against it since Square could have updated it for modern sensibilities. It was a design choice they choose to make, and I don't really fault them for it. I and II didn't get a lot of new stuff on their re-releases, just a few extra dungeons. V and VI got new jobs and espers. I don't think IV got anything of note. Keeping the old school, bare bones, qualities of the original are in line and consistent. And I dig me some consistency! Plus, there's only so much you can do with a DS in 2006. It was a new console for Square, and the engine was fresh off the floor as well. And I'm pretty sure it was a third party who did most of the development (Matrix). Probably. But because of the true-to-the-source remake, I never felt super attached to anyone or anywhere. Again, that's not bad. It's just a design that, while understandable, I wouldn't have done myself. Nothing wrong with it; nothing bad about it.

And that's not to say it's a total wash. I liked what we got. In the NES version, our four heros are four nobodies. They're orphans, and that's all the backstory we get. In this version, they have unique personalities. Ingus (Triton) is a loyal knight of Sasune who's in love with the Princess. Refia (Cid) is a beleaguered blacksmith's daughter with her own ambitions. Arc (Xander) is fragile and easily bullied, and Lunneth (Drew) is a brave adventurer! From there, they grow as people (mostly), learn about the world, and we get a glimpse of the happily-ever-afters. Lunneth is a lot boring, but Arc becomes more sure of himself. Refia realizes it's alright to be something boring if it's peaceful. Ingus gets the Princess every knight strives for in books. It's all incredibly basic, but it works for this. A new game couldn't pull this off, but if you're shooting for the retro thing, there's more than plenty here.

Secondary characters get to shine, too. Cid is a lovable old man who has enough comedic staying power. Alus is a young King, unsure if what he's doing is correct. The Old Men are just kind old dudes who aren't ready to retire the heroics and want to help out. We learn of Desch's backstory in books in the Saronia library, and Unei and Doga are some of the first sages in the franchise. Who else is before them? Minwu? Lastly, it's impossible to forget about Aria. Despite being with the party for such a short time, she somehow has the heaviest effect. Her death beckons in a new world: a living world. She sacrifices herself for our main character so that we don't lose him for the world. It's an Aerith level play, right there. It's aided when they show up in battle, as well. In the NES version, they're just there. But here, they help out in combat. They actually function like a fifth party member. I'll always have a soft spot for Sara because, otherwise, her dungeon would have been a menace to get through. I wonder if Cid has battle AI? Finally, Mognet goes a long way to revealing more characteristics, especially with Alus. I feel like the secondary characters get more shine than our playable characters, which is rather odd. It does make that final scene in the Crystal Tower really feel emotion, though, so that's cool.

Since this section became the wishy-washy portion, let's keep talking about things I kinda didn't like but also didn't mind. FFIII is hard. All the bosses killed me at least once. The old school difficulty level is here, which is exemplified that there are no Save Points in dungeons. If you die at the boss, you're redoing the whole cave. It's slightly salvageable if you soft restart the game when you know you're about to lose. If you do it right, you load in the boss room or just before the battle. I'm not interested in difficult games, but it's just how the industry was in the 80s, so I'm not gonna be too upset. They kept it consistent.

There are some minor mechanics that I'm against, such as the stat drops when you switch classes. You might want to try a lot of different things, but you're temporally punished for doing so. Sometimes it's minimal, but occasionally you need ten battles to get to normal. It's not in favor of switching roles often. And on that topic, there are a lot of areas where you need to have a specific setup to win. The only way to beat Hein, my mortal enemy, is to use magic classes and a scholar. It's painfully limiting! You need a white mage to reach Tozus, which is, normally, doable, but what if you're shooting for a challenge run? It cheapens a potential second playthrough if you need exceptions. I didn't mind the Garuda fight, but it's brain dead simple if you make your whole team a dragoon.
And some of the job skills seem pretty iffy. I ran with a thief for the whole game, but there isn't anything worth stealing outside of two guys. The dark knight's Darkness ability did less damage than his basic attacks, so why throw away your own HP? Bards were too limited because you can't change gear mid battle. So maybe that's not terrible. Three jobs out of the sixteen isn't a terrible ratio. I can go either way on the upgraded classes type (monk to black belt), but I do wish you got the Earth Crystal jobs way sooner than the penultimate dungeon. I found the black belt job to underleveled compared to the monk I've been running since level eight, which seems a bit wrong. I also would have loved a FFV approach, where you get to use abilities learned from a previous job into another. I wanted a dark knight on my team, but I couldn't afford to not have a knight guarding us. Imagine if Triton and his katana could have acted like I've been using him. Let me be a dragoon with red magic! Being a sage and losing physical power is a real bummer. But it was how it was in the NES, so I shouldn't want it now. I can't have it be both traditional and new age, can I?

Something I can be annoyed about is the FF trope of character deaths. FFIV gets yelled at for this, but III is just as guilty. In between death laden II (Minwu, Josef, Ricard, Scott) and IV (Tellah, Anna, Edward, Rydia, Yang twice), FFIII has its share of deaths and false reports. It's not as bad as the ones around it, but there are enough to be mentioned. Some keep showing up after they kick the bucket, another comes back twenty hours later, and Aria deserved better.


Those are my gripes. It looks like a lot, but I really enjoyed the game. Those are minor nitpicks, I promise, mixed with dreamscapes. So what's good about FFIII?

The music is top notch! The World of Light might have two of the three best overworld themes in the franchise. "Eternal Wind" might be fighting with "Terra's Theme" as the best in the topic, and "Boundless Ocean" deserves more praise than I could give it. All of the town themes are nice and relaxing, and there are even a few of them. Earlier games only had one to go around, but I counted at least four here. I stated that "Aria's Theme," the first character theme in the franchise, is the saddest song Uematsu wrote, and I stand by that.

Each location feels unique. Much of it is based on the music and type of setting the devs were going for. Falgabrand feels a lot different from Salonia, which is miles away from what Ur feels like. Despite being nearby, Tozuz feels nothing like the City of Ancients. The world has so many fun, unique qualities about it, which I'll attribute to diving headlong into fantasy races. And this being a 3D game, the ability to go up and down helps a lot. How's the City of Ancients work on the NES? Now that I think about it, why are there no unique races on the surface? I guess they're replaced by a few job specific places like that bard town, the summoners haven, and Falgabrand.

I mentioned this before, but I liked the characters. There wasn't much there, but there's enough to satisfy my old heart.


I think the negatives outweigh the positives... Okay! The good parts of Final Fantasy III and amazing, but the bad parts of it are so-so. I really enjoyed the game, and I hope I'm not giving off a negative impression.

I just played through Final Fantasy III with my friends by my side. I haven't seen them since January, and we haven't really spoken since the world ended. I don't know if they hate me or what, but I know even less when we'll see each other again. I miss them, and this is the closest I can get to them. I've come to terms with the fact we'll never play D&D to go on a fantastical adventure, but this is the next best thing. Final Fantasy III allows me to spend time with loved ones for the first time in a long time and, even if that's fake, I appreciate the thought. Playing the Pixel Remasters would have made more sense since I wouldn't have had to pretend to be a fifteen-year-old red headed girl, but what can ya do? Thank you, Square, for the opportunity to hang with my friends again and feel like the world isn't against us, even if it totally was, and we had to save it!

Attack of the 50 foot naked ladies...

Dear, Diary,

"We walk up to the immaculate Tower, climbed those ironically shining staircases, and passed through the mirrored doors of the Crystal Tower. We did battle with creatures who resembled enemas from the past: from Djinn to Medusa and even Unei and Doga. They all fell before us on our path up these seven long flights. Up we went until we reached a room with five dragon statues and a mirror...

As we approached the mirror, we became paralyzed. The voice of Xande spoke to us. He said that whoever looks into the mirror would be afflicted with the Curse of the Five Wyverns. Not even dragons, but lesser drakes...how embarrassing? Fortunately for us, we're reciprocals of random voices! The voice of Doga spoke to us from the afterlife and assured us that he could save us. He and Unei did say that their spirits would live on. A pure heart can break the curse and free us, so Doga went to find five such people. I don't know how, but he did it. In no time at all, five of our friends came to save us. Princess Sara, Cid, King Alus, one of the Old Men, and even Desch teleported in front of the statues. With them by our side, we could move again. But this was no time for a reunion! We could celebrate later, but we need to stop Xande.

Beyond the mirror is a dimly lit room, similar to the rest of the Tower. But it's clearly been warped by the power of darkness. And there stood the enemy in question. Xande informed us that we were too late, and his immortality was at hand! Nothing we could do would stop that. But he wanted to leave nothing to chance, and we did battle.

Xande was tricky but nothing to worry about. Climbing the Tower taught me that sage me had no business being on the front line. I took a step back and let my allies take the hits. And good thing, too. Xande hits fast but for manageable damage to anyone who could, theoretically, take it. All I had to do was sit back and keep my friends alive, which I did wonderfully. The twins went all out, and Triton did too, only stopping to guard when need be. Xande can unleash some devastating magic attacks, but he usually targeted all of us, which greatly diminished the damage. Like most of his underlings, I feel we fought him a few times, but I don't recall ever being overwhelmed. How sad, this great evil could up being so forgettable...

But peace wasn't fully restored. Xande stood before a warp in space time, which something far, far darker came through. The Cloud of Darkness appeared and attempted to return the world back to the void. We refused to let it, but we stood no chance. She used one move and wiped us all out. For reasons unknown, she retreated back into the whirlwind. Was she returning to gain more power for the coming Armageddon? Our friends watched on in horror until the spirits of Doga and Unei appeared. Before they went to the Great Spirit in the Sky, they granted us their remaining life force. With them and our friends' encouragement, we went into the same warp the CoD came through.

The World of Darkness, which I'll refer to as the void, is a dark and eerie place. It's a series of straight paths over nothingness. Some are even shrouded in a black cloud. The first room we come to leads to five rooms, and we'll need to go into all of them. We took the four paths on the outside and wound up before a Dark Crystal. Before each one was a monster of cataclysmic power. They each guarded a Dark World Warrior from 1000 years ago. The Warriors informs us that the Cloud of Darkness had been controlling Xande, using him as a way to create an imbalance and return the worlds to the void. Light, our world, and Dark, their world, are in a constant struggle. They made it seems as though they wanted to form into one world, but their differing powers made them unable to. A similar event happened 1000 years ago, and it wasn't the first time. Sadly, nor will it be the last. Both worlds came from the void, and both worlds shall return to the void.

The monsters were:
Echidna, another naked lady who clung to the ceiling. Her physical attacks weren't very strong, and we had ribbons or Aegis Shields, so death never struck us.
Cerberus, a three headed dog. Each head attacked as its own separate entity, meaning the bad boy could get three turns in a row. It was usually a physical attack, but his magic shouldn't be ignored. Drew didn't like the black belt job and returned to being a basic monk. He got the opportunity to counter a lot here. Xander was unable to survive.
Two headed Dragon was a sinch. All they did was physical attacks if I recall.
Lastly, there was Ahriman. The flying eyeball held no quarter for us. He unleashed devastating magic at every opportunity, and I could barely keep up healing. By now, that's all I could ever do, sadly. Spamming Cureaga is great and all, but I want to dish out some pain, ya know? But even when it came down to just Triton and myself, we still barely won.

With all four Crystals open and the way towards the Cloud of Darkness before us, we went in for a rematch. She laughed and paid us no mind. She knew we couldn't harm her. But then the Warriors of Darkness appeared! They had a plan of their own and threw themselves at our shared enemy. They had to have done something? They upset her, at the very least. Maybe we could use that blinding rage against her?

The Cloud of Darkness is flanked by two tentacles. One spams Lightning, which I'm immune to, but Xander and Drew are not. Her right arm needed to be destroyed first. Triton used a Bacchus Wine on Drew, and he went to town. Xander was just so weak here that we couldn't afford to do anything with him. All I did was heal. Always thank your healers, by the way! Through trial and tribulation, though, it fell, and I felt comfortable buffing Xander. And with that, the worst was over...
For a while, we had the upper hand. The left tentacle is immune to physical blows, but I didn't dare stop healing. The best I could muster was removing the buffs it applied to CoD. It went well until she stopping toying with us. Particle Beam nearly wiped up out! Drew had just enough strength to withstand it, and his twin fell to a knee. I healed him, but it might have been too much as a wayward slap took him out next turn. But, again, I didn't dare change strategy. Triton and Drew continued their assault, and I keep making sure all was well. Cloud of Darkness kept up the Particle Beam, but we were able to withstand it. Triton saw an opening and revived our ninja. On the next turn, with one glorious crit, Drew finished the job! I think I went into a trance at one point because another voice spoke to me.

It told me of the creation of the universe, the role of the Light and Dark worlds, the Cloud of Darkness, and the Crystals. The Crystals keep the world in balance while everything else tries to change that. But what gives the Crystals their power? Hope. Our hope. When CoD, using Xande, stopped the light of two of our Crystals from shining, it started the path to destruction. All the hope on the planet froze. But we saved it... Us and our friends who saved us. There is peace at last...

We appeared in the room where we felled Xande and rejoiced with our friends! We caught up but quickly decided it was time to go home. Who wants to hang out here, anyway? We took Gramps home to be with the rest of the Old Guys, but we'll always know that they really did help to save the world, just as they wanted.
Alus returned to Saronia, and he vowed to never forget us. He and Xander are going to be good friends, I feel.
We then returned to the Floating Continent. First up was Canaan to drop of Cid. Desch also took this time to leave us. Cid and the missus got a little too PDA'y for us, and her, but then Salina showed up. I'm glad to see her up and well. She and Desh seemed pretty happy and almost tried to out gross the old couple. Speaking of romance, we planned to drop Sara off, but she wanted to be with Triton some more. I wasn't quite ready to settle down and learn the blacksmithing craft, so we headed to Ur first.
There, Drew and Xander hung out with their mom and the Elder. The whole town congratulated us and even thanked Xander. I think he was bullied before I joined, but I see a bright future for him. That's not the only bright thing I saw, as the Crystal in Alter Cave began to shine as brightly as ever! It lit up the sky, signifying peace and a new dawn. All is well in the world, and I'm looking forward to some R&R.

Doga, Unei, I'm sorry we couldn't save Xande like you asked us to, but I hope protecting the rest of the world is good enough."

-Cidolfus

The credits roll as we see our characters in various other jobs, as well as a trip down memory lane with all the NPCs we met and bosses we killed. The words "The End" appear, and we're asked to save and set our useless clear data. The is no NG+, but we can keep playing with all the levels we got in the Tower. So this really is...

The End.

The day I die...alot

Dear, Diary,

"Cid had trouble in his basement, so we went over to deal with it. We were in Sasune to return Sara's pendent, so it was on the way. In the cellar was something called Aeon. He wasn't hard, so we smashed him with ease, but it's something Cid would have trouble with. I'm glad he asked is to do it. Aeon dropped a very shiny rock that Cid said was the orichalcum the Legendary Smith asked. What a coincidence! Also, how'd Aeon get down there?

We returned to Saronia, but US wasn't there. We traveled around for a while until we got to Falgabrand and found her. She was excited and got to work on tempering it right away. We hung around the river for a while until she came back with the Ultima Weapon. It's an immaculate blade of blue that is massive compared to what we've been using. Triton can wield with ease, though. US thanked us for letting her smith the orichalcum and continued with her journey. I wonder if we'll see her again?

But we were still in new jobs. Triton was trying to learn more about the dark knights, Drew evolved into the black belt and got a cool cape, Xander kept trying to be a bard with a varying success rate, and I dropped the sword and started using more magic. I dropped my cool red hat to pick up an alright white hat and became a sage. It allows me access to more powerful spells, but I can't wield a sword or good armor. The loss of a good weapon had little effect, but the armor, man. I kept dying a lot during the next few moments. From here, we went to learn more about these mythical summons.

First up, we returned to the Saronia Cave. When we last went through here, we had to teleport out. Had we kept going a little further, we'd have found Odin! Odin was a bit of a pushover. I expected my new magic to be a lot more powerful, though. At least Curaja was worth it.
After that, we went to the isolated lake of Lake Dore near the Living Woods. It was filled with watery mobs, but he didn't have much problem getting to the bottom. When there, we saw the beast Leviathan. Tsunami hurt. I got knocked out in the middle of the fight, so I don't have any idea how my teammates won. They seemed really shook up.
After this was a rematch. Back when we met Desch, we were attacked by a dragon! He wasn't where we last saw him, but we did find a strange cave in the middle of the mountains to the south. Crossing a range, we ventured into the caverns. After fighting our way through hordes of small fry, we exited to the world again. And then we were attacked again! Mega Flare will haunt my dreams until the end of my days. But the twins might not ever sleep again. Triton and I have high magic defense, but Drew and Xander didn't stand so well. Towards the end, it was just the two of us. I kept healing, and he kept using his own soul to do damage. Drew's early DPS allowed us to get the win, and Xander is starting to rethink the bard life. I can understand.
Lastly, we ventured back into the Forbidden Land of Eureka. I knew we missed something, and I'm glad we went down. We found a hidden ribbon protected by a ninja. It killed me, but Drew took revenge. Being the healer, I got to wear it because it protects the user from all status effects and gives resistance to most elemental types. We also found a new vendor at the bottom, near the other two we saw before. It sold crystal armor and a new harp for Xander. I might wear the armor later, but maybe we regret buying the Harp.
 
Something in the back of our heads told us we weren't strong enough to climb the tower yet, so we hung around there for a while. We defeated so many mobs, and Xander decided that the bard life isn't a good life. His DPS is more needed than his not-reliable buffs. Triton also stopped being a dark knight. His basic attacks as a knight deal more damage than sacrificing his own HP, and we all appreciate his ability to take damage for us. Plus, the Ultima Weapon and Crystal Shield really clash with the black aesthetic. Drew and I are gonna stick with our new roles for now. I definitely appreciate the new powers at my fingertips, and Drew thinks learning the black belt will allow him to surpass the basic monk. But we stayed down there for a while. Xander thinks he learned all he could as a thief and became a ninja. I don't know how they connect, but whatever. I think it'll work for him. Something also told him to seek out the Legendary Smith again. We found her north of Tozuz, and she gave us a Gladius. She said it's the strongest knife she's ever made, so let's make use of it!

The voice in our heads telling us we're weak is gone. I think it's time to climb the Crystal Tower and save the world."

The Last Crystal

Dear, Diary,

"We took the Invincible to the statues north of Amur. We had been here before and knocked down two of them without even knowing what they were. If you remember, something stopped us from breaking the third seal. Now, though, with the elemental Fangs, we can march right on by. I say march because we have to leave the airship and do it on foot...

We take the Invincible past another set of small mountains and see a towering crystalline structure in the distance. It seems to climb forever. There's a large building that surrounds it, but we can't fly over it. I have no idea why! But inside is our target! Walking straight up to the room on the otherside of the grand gate is the Earth Crystal room. Goldor didn't have the real one, so I wonder what that was? Regardless, like every other Crystal we've seen, a minion of Xande threatens us.

Titan appears before us. I try to Protect everyone as best as the Defender allows, while Triton does the same with his body. It works pretty well, but we have no way to counter his Quake spell. Drew is finally learning to make full use of his monk abilities and begs to be hit. Whenever Titan, who does physical damage more often than not, hits him, Drew counters with an undefendable attack. It's really strong! Despite what you'd think, Titan doesn't have much HP. We now have the power of all four crystals! The Earth asks us to stop Xande from using their powers, and the power of the Crystal Tower, to destroy the world.

We now have to get through the Ancient's Maze. For being a maze, it sure is straightforward! There's a lot of great treasure here, and you don't even need to go far off the beaten path. I get the feeling, though, it's going to be really annoying! We make our way to the open field between the Maze and dizzying tall Tower and heard right on it. No one is here to greet us, so I'm a little bummed. Before us lies a shining floor, walls, and ceiling of reflective material. There are also two paths. Off to the left is a locked door that leads upwards. Unei's key opened it up, but I get the feeling we don't want to head there just yet. Instead, return to the center of the room. There's a smaller closet there that takes us to Eureka. Doga died for this key, so we're going to use it! We break the seal, enter the teleportation circle, and cross to this legendary locale.
 
Down here are some of the strongest enemies, weapons, and spells known to man. Rather than take it on as we go, we decided to go to the bottom to make camp. We weren't exactly combat ready for a lot of this stuff. The Maze and some of the Tower took it out of us, and we knew getting to the bottom would be hard enough. We got there and saw two beings. They sold us spells. We have no use for the Summon magic, but I took a few level eight White and Black magics. I can't use them, but ya never know... There is also a healing spring down here, which was the best water I've ever had. And I know water. Hydro Homies for life! From here, we went back up the cave defeating the monsters that defended the legendary weapons. I feel like we did battle with these guys are a lot, but I only remember one fight?

First up was Ragnarok. Let me just start by saying Quake isn't fun. Drew made more use of his countering. I like that he's become so defensive minded. I wonder if that's because Xander is consistently doing more damage than he is now?
Next was Scylla, the dog hydra. I wish we had a good way to not die to magic. Oh man, we had a Shining Curtain! AAAAHHHHHHH!! Anyway, the Elder Staff is something we might somehow use one day, maybe.
The third fight was against the General. The Excalibur isn't as good as the Ragnarok, but I'm looking forward to using it one day. The Aegis Shield prevents Death, so I'm glad we have two.
Next was Amon. He looks like Hine, but I couldn't figure out his Barrier Shift move. We didn't try to use any magic, did we? I'm glad Triton was here to guard all of us fragile party members. I'm only here to use Protect, so maybe I won't be able to wield Excalibur? He dropped a sword we can't use! But I think it's actually good if you get another thrown weapon.
Next was Kunoichi. She was there, and she dropped a dark knight sword...
I feel like we forgot something down here...

But we exited the forbidden land and returns to the airship. We wanted to see some of the Earth Crystal powers, so we did some chores while helping Sara. We still had her pendant from a few days ago. I think I mentioned it, but if not, Sara sent us Mognet Mail, telling us she broke her pendent. Triton picked it up to see if my dad could fix it. He couldn't, but he told us about the Legendary Smith. He also sent us a letter talking about orichalcum, so rad? We're legendary warriors, so we should be able to find some legendary blacksmith, right? Yep. She was in Sarona, just hanging out. We asked her to fix the pendant, which she did because she liked the look in Triton's eyes. I guess the sad puppy dog eyes work. Legendary Smith asked for no money, but she did request us to bring her orichalcum if we found it. She promised to give us whatever she made out of it, so I feel like we win twice with this deal! Is there a catch? We hurried back to Sasune, and Sara was thrilled. The pendant is a memento from her long lost mother, so she's excited to have it back. I'd say it's time to get on to saving the world, but Cid seems to be having problems in his basement..."

Shadows and Death

Dear, Diary,
 
"The Ancient Ruins is a long but, mostly, straightforward dungeon. The biggest thing to note is that enemies multiple why you attack them. Every time Triton and I swung our swords, most of our opponents would just blob into a copy of it. Xander and Drew didn't have such problems, though. I guess if you destroy them at the atomic level, they just up and die. Unei occasionally casts hate or holy, but it wasn't really needed.

When we first arrived, the adamantite was still blocking our path. Unei, though, told us that dream stones destroy anything they touch in the real world. It's a multi dimensional thing... She shattered all three boulders in our way with ease! On the other side, and down a ways, was a small city all the survivors had built up, waiting for rescue to arrive. There's an inn, weapons shops, armor peddlers, and a bazaar. How bizarre? Oddly enough, you can just buy a Defender Sword here... But, like I said, nothing down here is scary. Odd, yes, but quickly dispatched with a little more effort than we usually put in. I'm really starting to feel like legends now! In time, we reached the bottom and climbed a long rope ladder. We arrived at the Invincible! Unei, somehow, knows her way around. She told us about the ghost people selling us magic, weapons, armor, and sundries. Fat Chocobo was summoned, and there's even an inn here. Most importantly, there are two moogles. One has our mail, and the other is an artist of two varieties.

Before she left, Unei told us to go to a cave far to the north of Amor. That is where the Earth Fang lies. She then went off to speak to Doga, who we're supposed to talk to after this. The cave, in question, is located in a very annoying spot. We need to navigate the Invincible across several mountain ranges and through the valleys. A part of me wonders if this is natural? Anyway, we make it through the maze and come to the Cave of Shadows. There's a dark knight near the entrance, who tells us about his home, Falgabrand. Apparently, this is a training place for them! But how'd he get here!? Inside the cave are more monsters similar to ones in the Ancient Cave. They're quite a bit stronger, though, and we run into a minor issue. Drew and Xander, usually, take care of their target, but Triton and I have problems. Nothing overwhelming, but it sure was mildly tedious. A little ways down the place, we run into another dark knight. This one isn't doing so hot. They hand Triton their blade and informs us that this sword is strong against enemies down here. Dark knight was a job granted to us by the Water Crystal, but we couldn't figure out how to make it work. It seems they're uniquely set up for a task like this. Triton wanted to test it out. It seemed to work for him, but I kinda prefer him as a knight. I really like knowing he can defend us and even cast cure if we need it. Dark knights sacrifice themselves to do damage. I just feel more vulnerable now. But that's for a therapist!

The Cave of Shadows is a maze that shouldn't be very hard. However, many areas contain no light. We're walking into pitch black and can't see a thing. Any time a wall might change direction means we're knocking our face into the rock. It's seven floors deep, too. The only treasure along the way makes a dark knight insanely defensibly strong. Maybe knights aren't that tanky after all? But, in time, we make it to the bottom! We cross a bridge and see the Earth Fangs just chilling. We pick it up with no hassle until yet another voice from nowhere yells at us. Something about eternal sleep or something...

Hecatoncheir is a tall, lean dude. He's also kinda weak. We just kinda wailed away on him. I had to cast Cura/ga a few times because he hits pretty hard. Honestly, he was just kinda there. Who was the guy? We teleport out and return to Doga's Manor, which means we need to travel back across the mountain maze, to the Ancient Ruins, pick up the Nautalis, and fly to the otherside of the world. I miss the Floating Continent!

Inside the house, the voices of our old friends talk to us. They tell us they've found the Key to Eureka, but we need to enter this magic circle to get it. Inside is a peaceful grotto. Even the weak mobs can't interrupt the flow of the water down here. There's not much to talk about, but I really didn't like what was at the bottom.
 
Unei and Doga tell us about the Forbidden Land of Eureka and how to get there. The problem is, their lifeforce is to go into the key to make it work. That means we have to kill our friends?! I couldn't! I wouldn't! Or, at least, if I had a choice. Doga attacked us first. He turned himself into a terrible monster. Is this another power of Noah!? His magic hurt, but he was pretty fragile. Afterwards, Unei did the same with a similar outcome. Did they let us win? Both of them told us that, while their bodies may die, the spirits will live on. Doga gifted us the Eureka key and faded away. I don't know what to say; I'm dumbfounded. Why did it have to be like this? And what did they mean by "save Xande"?

The only place else to go was the Syrcus Tower..."

Ocean Floor

(Windows updates, amirite?)
 

Dear, Diary,

"This is the Kingdom of Saronia, a sprawling metropolis that consists of four separate districts. Each town has its own little eccentricities, but they're, ultimately, definitely a part of the same place. For some reason, most of the shops are locked up. More annoyingly, the famous, or so I'm told, library is also sealed. I'll leave out what makes each location unique and skip to the good bits. There's a tower in this city called Dragon Spire. It's infested with mobs, and we wanted to get some aggression out for being shot down. We climbed it and found a good assortment of items for a dragoon, one of the jobs the Water Crystal granted us. I've always thought Dragoons was rad, so I put down my fancy hat and picked up a spear. Triton, wanting to try out as many tank type classes as he could, also choose one. We had an extra spear, so even Xander joined us. Not wanting to be left out, Drew learned how to wield a weapon. The spears, themselves, though, were lacking. The only open weapons shop in the towns sells something better, so we sold the spoils and bought new stuff.

The last of the four towns contains a pretty large tavern. Inside, we heard a commotion between a regal looking kid and three gold knights. The kid was about to get roughed up, but Xander came to his rescue. Drew thinks he took a liking to him because he's smaller than he is. Xander dragged us into a fight, but it was a piece of cake. Afterwards, the kid introduced himself as Prince Alus, the heir to Sarona. His dad exiled him a while back, and he's been trying to get through to him ever since. The knights guarding the castle, though, are on order not to let him return. For some reason, we think we can make this reunion work, so we head to the castle, still dressed as noble dragoons.

Surprisingly, the knights let us in! They inform us the King is busy until tomorrow, but they let us stay the night there. All five of us find a place to sleep, but something unfortunate happened. In the middle of the night, King Gorn came down to us. We were all asleep, though, I woke up when I heard Gorn scream, and I saw Alus kneeling beside his dad. Gorn had stabbed himself. Nearby was Gilgameth, the advisor of the King, who was upset. He said that his plan was for Alus to die, not Gorn, but it didn't matter as he'd finish the job. Not wanting any more tragedy, we lept into battle.

And then we lept out of battle, and then we lept back into battle. It's because we're dragoons, remember? It's kinda what we do. Our falling spear attack did pretty well. But with only four of us, it was hard to heal. Even if I stayed a healer, I'd just leave me toast and unable to restore my party members in the air. Garuda died in a few rounds, so I'm told, but he took me out with him. Why did Triton and I have to switch places for this fight! Party slot three remains unbeaten!

A dying Gorn informed us that Gilgameth placed a spell on him and has been controlling him ever since. It was Gilgameth who called for the civil war just to destabilize the nation. Gilgameth even brainwashed Gorn to kill his own son, hence the dagger, but seeing his only child managed to bring some sense back to him. Some soldiers, later on, tell us the giant bird often spoke about the power of darkness. Gorn's last words were to his son, "I love you." I don't fully understand the Crystals, multiple worlds, or the power of darkness, but anything that causes this needs to be stopped.

Alus immediately took over as King and stabilized the nation. Soldiers on both sides accepted him and were happy to no longer need to kill their brothers. All of the shops were reopened, as was the library. But there was something new in the castle. As an apology for destroying the Enterprise, the four engineers gave us the Nautilus, a super fast ship capable of flying headlong into the strongest of high winds. Winds like we'd find on the southern continent of Dalv. This was what the old dream lady told us about. We stopped by the library for a moment and learned some things about Noah, airships, and that 1000 years ago, four adventurers from another universe went on the same journey as we are now. Also, I think Cid's from here...

There wasn't much new to be reached with this new airship, so we made our way to the south. We easily bypassed the winds on this thing and came to Doga's Manor. After being ambushed by moogles, Doga appeared before us. He's a friend of our dream old lady, which sounds weird to write, and fills us in on what's going on. Long ago, the great sage, Noah, died. He left his three followers with his power: Unei, the dream lady, got the power of the Dream World, Doga got domain over magic the third guy, Xande, became mortal. I'd feel screwed if I were him. And, wouldn't you know it, he got mad. The power to die sounds dumb! Not wanting to die, Xande froze time ten years ago, which explains the state of the planet when we got down here. I can kinda understand, honestly. Regardless, Doga asks us to follow him to the Circle, whatever that is. We walk through a moogle infested mansion, which is adorable, and reach a rat's hole. We Mini ourselves and walk through a small garden. Doga knows Flare. Why he didn't come here before because Flare makes short work of everything. When we finally reach The Circle, Doga prays, and the Nautilus can now become a submarine. He floats off into space to find the entrance to Eureka, home of the strongest weapons in the world, while he teleports us out. He says our goal is to find Noah's Lute in the Temple of Time. It's the only thing that can wake up Unei!

But, look, we're adventurers. Who knows what's under the sea? A lot of good stuff, for starters. To the east of Doga's house is a cave. Inside are monsters that can easily taken care of with a strong knight and a monk. There's also some really good loot! Like, hot mama, an Aegis Shield! Some really rad weapons for people who aren't me, as well! Not only that, but under Sarona is another cave! It's a long tube filled with slightly stronger mobs but with slightly worse rewards. We had to Teleport out before we got the end, so remind me to return soon. We did get me an Aegis Shield down there.

South of the western continent is a bay. In that bay is the Temple of Time. It's a pretty place that our new weapons wreak havoc in. I think Drew can punch the air and kill fragile things in a two mile radius of us now. Watch out for the behemoths, though. Those guys are terrifying! A lot of the rooms are locked, but Xander went back to being a thief and bypassed them with ease. It's mostly new armor, but anything diamond is nice! We also got a new sword for me! The Defender is a bit large, but since it can be used to cast Protect (on one person), we decided I should get it. The moogles at Doga's sell new magic I can use. They're really tiring to cast, though... With little to nothing standing in our way, we got the Lute. Disembodied fingers started playing it, and it sounds pretty good. I think it's making Xander want to try being a bard again!

We went to Unei's Cave as fast as we could and placed the auto playing Lute near her. It began to strum until she woke up. After she stretched her legs, we finally spoke in person. Formal introductions weren't important because she knows everything. Being able to navigate the Dream World will do that, I suppose. She next told us we should head to the Cave of the Ancients. The Invincible is there, and it's so big and powerful that we can fly over any mountain with it!

Is now a bad time to tell everyone I get motion sick?"


Drew hit for max damage tonight, but I have a good chunk of the game still to go. Oh boy!

I love goooooollld!

Dear, Diary,

"On the eastern side of Amor, there lives an old man in the biggest not-a-castle house I've ever seen. He has the key to sewers. We had to talk him into it, but we convinced him to let us in. Despite knowing where the gate was, he insisted on walking us to it. I think the old guy was just lonely.

Why does this small village have such an expansive sewer system? At least it was well designed by a master architect! Nothing down here is scary but expect a few status effects. Poison, for sure, but I assume we could have been turned to toads. About halfway to our destination were those four old guys I mentioned last night. Proving once and for all that they're not the legend, they got cornered by four frogs. We, being the actual heros, made quick work of the assailants. The old guys wizened up and accepted defeat. They hung out for a bit, and we carried on. Reaching the bottom was a breeze. The only person down here was the owner of the Levigrass Boots, Delilah. Like the sewer old guy, this old woman didn't want to hand over the boots at first. She seemed pretty obstinate but came around alarmingly quickly. She threw us the boots, but then we heard a voice telling us to move. Triton was ready to catch the shipment, but he moved out of the way. Just in time, too, because those weren't boots. That was a bomb! Old Delilah plays hardball. The voice came from one of the old guys who made their way down here with us. They wanted to make sure we got what we came for, so they convinced the old woman to let us have the boots. With the word from her Warriors of Light, she abided. The old guys teleported us out, wished us luck, and we set off to Goldor's Manor.

We walked around the continent for a while first, though. Nothing is there except the Water Temple and four gates far to the north. We could break two of them, but I don't remember why we stopped at the third. Taking a chocobo back, we entered the manor.

It sure is gaudy. Gold as far as the eye can see, and it's filled with gold plated monsters and knights. You'd expect there to be treasure inside, but all we found were eleven useless gold swords. But then we got lost. The swords were at a dead end, and we couldn't find anyplace else to go. We split up and started knocking on walls in the four rooms near the entrance hall. Triton found a secret door, and we proceeded through it. Surely there must be good stuff down here? Nope! Still nothing. We casually made our way down until we found a Crystal Room. I didn't expect to see a Crystal, but I probably should have. If Goldor thinks we're the Legendary Warriors, that would mean he's got someone talking to him. Speaking of Goldor, he was in front of his golden Crystal. He told us we'd never have it and fought us.

I'll give him this, he was harder than the other knights in his house. He swings his fists twice a round but isn't likely to kill anyone. Triton took a lot of it like the champ he is. Except for that one time he hit me in the eye, and I...sorta...collapsed, it was all manageable. It would have gone smooth if Xander didn't get confused. I always got the feeling that thief was a bit scummy and out for himself. I felt like we were finally coming into our own here because Goldor put up only a little fight. But...

He broke it. Goldor broke the Crystal! He made sure only he could have it and destroyed it. I didn't think the Crystal could be broken, let alone were so fragile! We were dumbfounded and scared. Does this mean we can't save the world? What's going to happen to us now? We still had the old woman who spoke to us in our dreams last night to find, so we figured we should look for her. Goldor did drop the key to our ship, which means we can take to the skies again! The world hasn't ended yet, so we might as well keep trying to save it.

We probably shouldn't have, but we took our time to explore this new world. It's so large but feels so empty. There's nothing else on the eastern continent, but there was a small island in the middle. It's a place filled with bards who tell us about legendary beasts. They even know about Bahamut, the dragon that attacked us when we met Desch. Desch... It inspired Xander to try his hand at being a bard. No one was sold on it, but I hope he keeps trying. There was another island south of that, but we couldn't reach it because of strong winds.
 
On the western continent is a cave. Inside that cave is the old woman who spoke to us in our dreams! Her parrot told us this is Unei, the guardian of the Dream World. She's sleeping now, and she may never wake up. North of her cave is another cavern filled with researches. A cave in happened recently, which blocked the path with adamantine. I hope everyone on the otherside is alright. Far to the north is another isolated village filled with summoners. It's not really for us.

But on the eastern edge was the biggest city I've ever seen! We couldn't even see it all from the air. We landed to try to get in, but the massive gate was blocked. We took to the skies once more to find a place to land in the city limits, but... poor Enterprise.

We heard a cannon burst in the distance. Before we could make out where it came from, the Enterprise was engulfed in flames. We were hit! We crashed, but all four of us made it out alive. Before we could try to surmise why we were targeted, two armies surrounded us. Both were in the same color uniform, but one side on yellow helmets. Many seemed reluctant to fight, and that's because I think we stumbled into a civil war.

We're in a pickle now, aren't we? I guess we need to find a way out of this place soon..."


Seriously, why were the sewers of this small village so massive? Four floors? Why? There isn't even a toilet, sink, or shower to be seen!

Aria Benett

Dear, Diary,

"We found land. We found land, and we found life! Maybe I shouldn't be too excited?

On a ship washed aground are two people. An old man stands guard over a young girl in bed. He tells us that they've been here ever since the world became how it is now, doing their hardest to keep it from fully freezing over. I get the impression that the girl is the only thing keeping us alive. The old man informs us that the girl behind is Aria, a priestess of the Water Crystal. But she's sick. Drew rushes to give her a Hi-potion, which brings the girl back to life. As though it is second nature, she knows that we're the Warriors of Light. She gets out of bed and asks us to take her to the Temple of Water, far to the south. She's not recovered, but we felt like we had no choice.

South of their ship is the Water Temple, located on the biggest island we've seen. In the far back is a Crystal Fragment. Aria informs us that the priestesses prevented the darkness from swallowing the Crystal when the world was covered in darkness. I don't know how breaking a piece of it off did that, but I can't argue with the results. But I am curious where these other priestesses are? To restore the Water Crystal, we'll need to go to the Cave of Tides behind the temple. The door to the second floor is locked, but Aria prays, and it opens up. We now need to make our way down, past the various mobs in our way. Aria occasionally casts Cura and Protect on us, so she's an amazing white mage! I look forward to having a full time healer on the team. Maybe I'll give up my fancy hat and get a pointy one? We had to teleport out a few times because we are not good with item management! Like, so, so bad.

We're bad at items, but we're great at pushing on. We made it to the very bottom! Aria placed the shard before the full sized Crystal, and it regained its light. Even when in stasis, it seemed pretty shiny. Aria asked us to speak to the Crystal, so we have to get into position now.

Why did we have to walk away? Why were we so oblivious? When we had our backs turned, we got attacked. Drew...Drew almost died. The only thing that saved him was Aria pushing him out of the way. But...but that means she just took the attack herself. Why did someone so sickly take the full force that a good Monk might have survived? Kraken...I don't even remember what he said to us. I doubt any of us do. All we saw was an octopus that needed to die. But, like all the other monsters aiming for the Crystals, he put up a fight. Like last night, we kept reliving the scene over and over again. But this time, I think we all did. We tried to delay going back to the Crystal a few times. We went home for a moment to restock and buy Flame Mails. We even got a new Thundara spell, which is partly Xander's fault. He had an extra the whole time but didn't want to share. We walked our water priestess around the Floating Continent, but she wanted to get to the temple, so we always followed through. I don't know how many times we saw die, but it never got easier.

Xander wanted to see if remaining a scholar would aid in saving her. I don't know if it did, but he used a lot of Zeus Wraiths on Kraken. I summoned as much lightning and Blizzaga as I could while Drew begged to get attacked. He never was. I think even Kraken knew hitting the enraged would end badly for him. But we did it. He defeated him, but he got the last laugh. Aria lay there, barely moving. She asks us to promise that we'll banish the darkness. We will, Aria. She then granted us the power of the Water Crystal and passed. As she did, the Earth began to shake. 

A Dream? I dreamt a strange old woman told us seek someone named Doga, who lives on a continent I've never heard of before.

It's been nearly three days now, and Drew is still asleep. An old man found the four of us in the cave and brought up back to the town of Amor. Aria brought back this world to its rightful place. No one even knows they were gone...no one even knows about Aria. While we slept, a rich missr named Gondar locked our ship with a chain because he thinks we're the Warriors of Light. The only way to reach his gold encased house is to find some boots that make us float over the swamps around it. The person who has such a thing lives in the sewers...

Also, there are four old, balding men who think they're the true warriors, so something tells me something is going to be annoying."


The problem with writing a diary style update is I can't talk about the music in FFIII. "Eternal Wind," the overworld OST for the Floating Continent, is one the greatest pieces of music ever written. It's always stuck in my head, and I'm never down when I hear it. Then compare that to "Boundless Ocean," the theme of the world before Aria dies, and feel how crushing it is. And "Aria's Theme," itself, is amazing. It's gentle and calming but has a foreboding effect on it. It fits her perfectly. And it makes me wonder why Aria's death feels so heavy. She's with the party for an hour, barely showing any personality. Even in the extra 3D skits they add, she's pretty one dimensional. Maybe it's because of her song? The combo between that and "Boundless Ocean," as well as the shift from "Eternal Wind"? Maybe I just have a type? I dunno.