We begin tonight in a cozy hamlet, unknown to the rest of the world. This village has a secret and needs to keep itself away from normal society. I wonder what it could be? I think it pertains to the person we got to make way back at the beginning of the game, though!
Solo finally makes her debut, and it's early afternoon. Mom has made us lunch, but we can't eat it until we give our elderly father his. He's at the lake in the back of town. Along the way, we can meet some of our townsfolk friends. A poet got lost recently and ended up here. The guy at the front of the town hopes he won't cause trouble. An old man offers to teach us the spell Bang!, but that'll have to wait until after lunch. After we turn in dad's lunch, we can go home. Just as we're about to settle down for some chow, we hear terrible sounds from outside.
Our mom takes us out, and we hear that monsters are attacking the village. Some people say they knew this was going to happen and lament that they didn't have enough time to train us. We're then escorted by several other people into the back of town, and we get to see our dad. But it turns out he's not my dad. In fact, we're not from here, but everyone is fighting to protect us. They say we're the legendary Hero, but we're not ready to fight. We're taken into the training room from the DS prologue, and we can see our friend, Celia. Celia tells us she's always seen us as a little sister while we hear fighting coming from outside. In one last attempt to save us, Celia uses her transformation magic and turns into us. She leaves the room, and we hear sounds of magic before everything goes silent. A voice proclaims, "We killed the Legendary Hero, Solo." After a moment, I leave the safety of this backroom to see the entire town in shambles. The flowers are dead, the water is poisoned, and the buildings are ruined. With nothing else to do, we can go to the world map. That's a heavy way to start a chapter, Enix. Damn.
Encounters seem turned off, or at least lowered, for a while. There's a woodsman hut not far from the village, but he hates us. He'll let us sleep there at night, but he really wants us gone. Check his jars and dressers, though. Further south is the castle of Branca. All the shops have expensive gear that isn't that great, but we can get some details about our previous characters. Taloon came here after he opened the tunnel, and rumors say he's crossed the desert to the east. There are two kids pretending to be Maya in the back of the castle, too. There's also a rumor that an angel fell north of Branca, fell in love with a woodsman, and had a child...
East is certain death for our level one Hero, which I learned first hand, so travel west. We'll be reminded that Endor is the center of the world as we check in. Talk of the town is the wedding between Reed and Mia is going on, but we can't do anything there. Taloon's family confirms he's gone, so his wife has started a vault business. Remind me to Return there to drop off some crap I don't need. But just outside Taloon's shop is his merc, Hardie. He's talking to a familiar fortune teller. She asks to read our future and sees seven lights around us. It's very similar to a fortune she was given in her tale, and it triggers her to know that we're the chosen Hero. Naya joins the party and asks us to get her sister gambling in the casino beneath the inn. Maya's drained their bank account, but both join the party with the same items (minus the Sphere of Silence) and levels they had before. They'll be plenty strong enough to travel east, but we shouldn't do that. We now get to pretend we're Taloon for a while as we level up Solo and get some money for her. It's a lot harder to do this time around, though... I got to level nine and bought a broad sword first.
Past Branca are a series of mountain ranges. Eventually, we'll come to a (second) obvious fork in the road. We might as well head south first. It's a small outpost with an inn, a wagon, and a heartbroken rancher. Long ago, the rancher, Hector, went into the ruins to the northeast with his friend. Down there, his friend turned on him, so Hector had to kill him. He's been a different person ever since. Maybe something in there can change ol' Hank?
There are no random encounters here, which is so refreshing. There's a large rock in our path, but the strength of three people can destroy it, one square at a time. Eventually, though, the floor breaks from beneath us. Maya and Naya are dropped below, and Solo is left all alone. This is why I needed to level up so much. I came down here around level five with a Boomerang, and it went poorly. We need to find our missing sisters, so follow the path. On the floor below, we'll see them up ahead, but they'll run away from us. We catch up to them, and they try to kill us. We're fighting two troglodytes, which the broad sword can kill in two hits. Hope they don't use Surround on you, and you should be fine. Despite that, the floor will open beneath us, and we'll fall into another put. Maya and Naya are being chased by two imps, and I'm sure these are the real ones!
Nope. I could defeat the first fight with terrible gear, but being up against two bats and two more imps was too much. Even if you die here, Maya and Naya will be with you when you wake up back in Branca, ready to fall into the same trap again. You get nearly 1000 EXP for winning the second fight! Climb up the stairs, and we'll see more images of the sisters. We manage to corner them, and they lash out at us. They say they won't fall for the same trick again, but one of the girls thinks this is the real Solo. They ask a question, and the answer is "no." These are, in fact, the real Maya and Naya! They rejoin, and we can cruise through the rest of the dungeon. There are still no mobs, so find the Symbol of Faith at the bottom. Take it to Hector, and its sheer brilliance will make him rethink his entire life. He joins the party as a guest and lends us his horse, Marybell.
We now get to cross the desert but hang around awhile. The exp is nice, as is the gold drops. To the southeast is the resort town of Aneaux. All we learn here is a warrior named Ruves had his Zenithian Armor stolen. Someone thinks it's fake, but it hangs in the church. Sadly, we can't get to it...
Even more south is the port city of Konenber. This used to be a bustling haven, but monsters have taken over the lighthouse. Now, every time a ship sets sail, the lighthouse shines, causing the waters to rile up. The last ship to leave port carried the Santeem Princess, Alena... A merchant named Taloon went to see if he could do anything about the monsters, but he hasn't been seen in some time even though the boat he commissioned is waiting for him. Before leaving, find two Tiny Medals and lament that they take us precious inventory space...
Far, and I mean far, to the east is the lighthouse. In the back of the first floor is Taloon, and he tells us how to fix this place. The Fire of Serenity once lit up the area, but it was taken over by something more sinister. However, a part of FoS should still be in here. He asks us the find us and returns to town, not joining the party. Too bad. So it looks like we'll be saving capitalism...
...tomorrow!
My three favorite party members do make the game more fun. Who'd a thunk it? For some dumb reason, though, we can't control Maya and Naya. I've read there's a cheat code to let us do so, so I'll think about turning it on soon. I don't trust 1990 AI. Either way, we're in the meat of the game now, and it's so much better than it has been. I'm very easy to please and change my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment