Swerve!

The Ghoto Woods and its deep fog stands in our way. It sent us back yesterday, but we're determined to get through now!

Ramus is worried again, but Luna has a plan. She walks forward a bit and begins to sing! As she does, the mist clears, revealing paths forward. They're not obvious, but they're there. When asked why she did that, she responds she had no idea she could do that. It was just something telling her to sing. Most of the monsters here are just pallet swamps of stuff in the White Dragon Cave. It really bums me out. The two new mobs, though, have the ability to poison your party, and the flytrappers occasionally do it to Ramus. But scythe spores will only throw up on everyone. And they make sure everyone is sick before continuing on. Fortunately, I saw what Nall does in combat. He wipes away status effects at the end of the battle. I kinda hate Nall so far, but at least he isn't a freeloader.
 
As we make our way through the area, we'll eventually come to an ambush! Before the fight, a man will show up in an attempt to save us, but we can tell him we don't need it. And I didn't need it! I got through wave one with Alex's special move, Zephyr Blade. Round two was a typical fight, but I came out more than okay. But between each fight, he insisted that we needed our help. I figured this would last until I caved, so I just let him help. He's much stronger than us and takes care of three enemies a turn. Afterwards, he keeps saying that we needed help, and the party agrees enough. I feel cheated... But he invites us over to his camp, and we spend the night. This is Laika, and I've forgotten what everyone spoke about, but he's gone in the morning. We continue on to the port city of Saith.

The townsfolk tell us a mage from the wizards guild came through recently and that the ship, The Orce, is stuck at the dock. It's ruining the lives of everyone in the small port, so we take it upon ourselves to figure out why. The gist is: the captain made a bet against a man named Clyde. The wager was for the Sea Chart. Without the water map, the ship won't sail. I don't understand how boats work... We have to exhaust the dialog of about three or four people here, which is really annoying. But we end up at the bar with Clyde. Ramus knows that Clyde is cheating and figures out how. After two games of a coin flip, Ramus has it figured out. The boy somehow takes the coin and reveals Clyde has been flipping a two sided coin. After some finagling, we get our money back and a Fortune Rod. But Clyde sold the map to the old hag in the forest to the north.

Old Hag's Forest is a bit more of a maze than other places. Several paths seem to lead off from behind something on screen. It's a thick forest, so it makes sense and is fine. The mobs are more palette swaps, and some of the treasures are traps. In time, we'll make it to a hut, but there's something off about one of the random orbs between us. It's shaking, and we can hear a voice coming from it. It seems someone has been trapped. We help them get out, and the boy begins to comb his oversized pompadour. This is Nash, a third degree mage from the college. He's very full of himself, and I already hate him. That's a personal gripe that I won't hold against the game (for now). He came here looking for the hag and got caught in one of her traps. It seems he fell for a Loony Tunes-esq, banana under a box, gag. It's healthier than a piece of candy, I guess. He joins the team and makes fighting off the bugs a lot easier with his lightning AoE magic. But we still need the sea chart! Inside the hut is a crazy woman. When we ask her for the charts, she demands Nash's rod in a trade. Nash doesn't want to part with his weapon, so we can ask Ramus or Luna to request his participation. Ramus' golden tongue fails again, but Nash is a simp for Luna. The trade goes through, and I hand him the rod Clyde gave us.

When we get back to Saith, we see it's been invaded, and The Orca is under attack. Make your way to docks and speak to the captain. We convince him to let us defend the town, and he lets us through. After his crew runs away in fear, we jump into action. Saline Slimer is the first boss in the game, but it's pretty simple. Despite what the crew said, physical attacks work well enough. If you want to do some real damage, though, Nash's Riot spell is the way to go. I had Alex using Blade Storm since I think it did more than his Firestrike. It probably wasn't much more, but it is less MP. If it attacks with Mucus, Luna's Esuna (equivalent) spell will remove the de jure paralysis. Our reward for returning the Sea Chart and defeating the assailant is a free ride to Meribia.

But, suddenly, Luna doesn't want to go with us. She believes that she'll slow down Alex and claims she doesn't want to leave their parents alone. The next morning, all the guys are on the ship with Luna on the docks to see them off. As they say their goodbyes, Alex is strangely silent. As the ship leaves port, he yells that he wants Luna to come along. After a quick back-and-forth, he reaches out for her hand, and she grabs on. Ya know, I got real worried that my healer was leaving. It would also throw my plot twist premonition into turmoil.

The ship scenes are pretty quick, but we get a concert by Luna in the middle of the night. If you're into Japanese city pop, this is the game for you. PS: You're into city pop. Clyde's also here, trying to turn his life around. I also bought a bar of soap...

When we get to Mariba, our party goes their separate ways. Nash heads to Black Rose street, a neighborhood filled with mages, and Ramus goes to find a shop to buy our dragon dung. Meanwhile, Alex and Luna go to talk to one of the four heros, Hell Mel. Mel was a pirate before he joined Dyne and saved the world. Ever since, he made this town into the booming metropolis it is now, making it peaceful along the way. His door is open to everyone, and we want advice for our journey. He laughs at us, scaring the kids in the process, and then challenges Alex to a fight. I assumed he couldn't win, so I kinda gave up. But I did hit all my moves on it, so there's that. Mel will tell us that we might be hero worthy one day, and then he goes to talk about his daughter, Jessica. I suspect a love triangle coming up, but who knows? Jessica is off training to be a Priestess of Althena and away right now, so we'll meet her later. For now, go looking for our comrades.

Nash is talking to a totally-not-suspicious fortune teller. Ramus is trying to sell the Dragon Diamond. He's got the price up to 20000 Silver, and we have the option to turn it down. It's a fake option as we have to accept it, though. This is twice today dialog options have been false. Dross will take the Diamond and place it in his safe before going down the count the money. And so, we wait. And we keep waiting... He ran off with the money and the Diamond. The game suggests we talk to Mel, but he's of no help, so go down the steps the Dragon Poop holder went. Nash is gone, so it's just the three of us. This takes us down into the Meriba Sewers. Clyde is here because this place attracts undesirables. But we'll clean this place up...

...tomorrow!

Is Nall the main character? He speaks way too much for being tertiary. Much of the flavor dialog is him, he gets his jokes in before anyone else, and he gets the NPC's attention. I kinda hate him... So far, though, I have no problems with Lunar. I'm enjoying it, and I want to play more. The battle system offers enough variety (in combat) to keep me going, and the auto battle feature lets me speed it up. Ramus really needs some stats, though. He's not looking too good anymore.