Souls of Rebirth

Holy HFIL, this was short...

The visage of Minwu appears on our screen, and he utters his final words to our main party. Minwu then wakes up in what looks like the landing port to the Jade Passage. He wonders where he is, and even if he's dead, before walking forward, hearing a commotion. This room also looks like the Jade Passage. Minwu steps forward more and sees a man being attacked by imperial soldiers. Is this Gordon? Minwu notices the man is about to be attacked from both sides and gets involved himself.

We're against some basic mobs, but this fight isn't easy. Minwu and ??? are painfully weak. Attack the guys in the back first as they die quicker, then focus on the guy in front. We're frail, but so are they, so we're just slapping each other for a few minutes. Minwu has good heals, so don't be afraid to use cure. After the fight, ??? introduces himself as Scott, the guy who gave us his ring and Hilda's lover. The two continue to wonder about where they are and why they're here. Are they dead and in Hell? Is this Jade?

From here, we have to struggle our way down. Some of the battles are against early world map mobs, but a few are against new ones that are unfair. Minwu's agility isn't high, so prepare to get ambushed a lot. That gigas, especially, sucks! A floor or two below are more familiar faces. Our old friend, Josef, is fighting his old nemesis, Borghen. They're bickering, and we step in. Zombie Borhjen is one of the easiest fights in this dungeon, so this is now the third time we kill him. Good riddance. Josef joins in on the wondering of what's going on and joins the group.

Once more, we head down. Josef isn't as helpful as I'd wish, but it's more bodies. Another few floors downward is a roundworm guarding a chest. We prepare to fight it until a man in dark armor shows up. Finally, someone good! Ricard is here because this roundworm followed him down here. As you'd guess, Ricard makes quick work of it. As is tradition, he asks what's going on. Ricard makes short work of everything down here, so we now have a way to deal with everything. You can grind if you want to, but I underestimated the amount of content coming up.

With a full team, we keep heading through a mirrored version of the Jade Passage. After the waterfall area, we arrive at a town? Machanon is filled with Wild Rose troops and a few other civilians who don't realize they're dead. It has shops that you should take advantage of to make your character suck less, as well magic shops if you want to emulate Firion and co. In the pub are Cid and his excited underling. Cid continues to beat the drum of wondering why we're all here. But, before we got here, he bothered to do something about his predicament. Monsters have been attacking other souls, so he built a town. Minwu and Scott died before Cid, so time seems odd here. Now that we're here, though, the civilians have a renewed hope in their afterlives.

From here, we can go two ways. The teleporter in the lower left hand corner of town takes us to an area that resembles the Tower of Mysidia. We make our way, peacefully, to the sealed door, which surprises Minwu. Without missing a beat, though, he tries to open the door. He thinks he'll be fine, so he does another Kamehameha and gets blown back. The rest of the party is shocked, but Minwu gets up in perfect health. This room is also mirrored like the Jade Passage. Ultima is in the middle still, but the stat upping crystals are reversed. When we head to grab this Ultima copy, a voice rings out that says Minwu needs to be tested. So we fight Ultima Weapon.

Everyone died except Ricard, who soloed it for the entire fight. I'm suddenly glad I went through the Arcane Labyrinth, or else I'd have thrown this entire run out the window. We get a copy of the tome, which I have to Minwu. I should have given it to Scott since I let Firion learn it, but whatever. Scott is my ancient sword user, so that's more important.
Return to Machanon and use the north portal. It takes us to a reverse Pandemonium. It functions exactly as the one in the overworld. Hang around the entrance until you trust your party to go deeper. I don't know if teleport works here, but warp didn't. If you go far in, you may not be able to get out. Make sure you grind Ultima since that, and Ricard, will be the only damage being done. This dungeon does contain our character's strongest weapons. Make sure you get all six chests in the four doored maze area before heading on. The weapons make their relevant stats rocket to 99. The final boss is immune to curse, so making sure Scott has Wild Rose is a must...sorta. All the mobs are stuff Firion and they killed with ease before or pallet swamps thereof. Once you get to whatever the final floor was, we'll see a vision that looks like the Emperor.

Mateus will tell the party that Firion killed him, and that act split the Emperor into two halves. The ones before then are his good side. He continues and says that all the souls in Machanon were brought here by himself. In order to pass on, human souls need to participate in forgiveness. So Mateus brought these four men here to forgive him. He's not apologizing for his actions, but he wants them to say sorry. We're not buying it. What doesn't help the Emperor's clams is that our friends appear behind him. Elena, Kain, Nelly, Gordon, and Hilda tell us that the Light Emperor is just as evil as his Darkside. I don't know how they do that, but they do. With even more zeal, we start the final battle.

The first time I did this, I died. Mateus has max level magic and high speed. Minwu's shell couldn't handle it with our low HP. On the second run, though, I got lucky. Mateus spammed dispel a lot, which gave me plenty of time to go out. Ultima is the only reliable way to do damage. Even Ricard could barely do 1000 HP. This is the only fight where magic is actually useful/detrimental, so I have mixed feelings about it. However you do it, we'll eventually kill him. We cut away to see Firion and co., defeating the Darkside at the same time, so we know Mateus won't be back.

The ending scenes play out as they did in the main game. The only difference is Elene and Kain are here. They, too, will be working with Hilda. Our SoR party comments on their loved ones' future. Only Ricard's is of note, and he hopes that Kain will be a great dragoon. Apparently, the wyvern has bonded with him. Leon leaves Firion's party, the SoR team seems sure that they will be able to keep the world in a state of peace, and they fade away.

The End.

Yeah...that's really short. I was hoping for a bit more content, and I feel let down. I was hoping to see our fallen comrades grow a little bit. Instead, we get this single path story that I trudged through and beat in three hours. What was the point of it? Did it bring any closure? How did our living allies cheer us on? Whatever...