The Fall

The point of no return.

The Lacour Front Lines are to the north of the castle, through a narrow cavern near Hilton. There's a nice waterfall on our left, and head that way when you reach a fork in the road. This guy sells the best armor we can get. The general store has worthwhile weapons unless you came here a while ago. The goal is the general commander's room. Inside are three men: two randos and a guy with long, blue hair. Yep, Dias is here. He somehow doesn't see us enter. The guy in charge of the front lines tells us that we're the best of the best and vital to this mission. We're to remain here until further notice, which is when the Lacour Hope will be finished. Dias asks if this means the situation is dire because the kingdom is using mercs. The general abruptly finishes the briefing, and we all leave.

Rena is glad Dias is here, but Claude is less so. She calms him down by using the power of childhood friendship, but Claude asks why Dias is the way he is. She's reluctant to answer, but Dias joins the conversation and gives the okay (I think). Dias states that it seems he and Claude are destined to do this forever, and it's probably Rena's fault. He continues by waning about battle and loneliness before being edgy elsewhere. Claude responds with, "I, too, am an outsider on this planet." No one says anything, but Rena goes off to talk to her "big brother."
 
The Arlians reminisce about the past, and we (the player) see what happened. Dias' family was killed by bandits. He's been blaming himself ever since, and Rena knows it. She tries to get him to open up and even invites him onto the team. Dias is more interested in Claude and his relationship with Rena. Dias recognizes Claude's loneliness and asks Rena to stay with him. She's safer there. Dias is a loner and not a protector. Claude, meanwhile, fights best with someone at his back. Anyway, Dias joins the group, and Claude is, shockingly, down with it!

The next day... After aimlessly walking for a while, the front lines are attacked! Everyone is scared, but it's only one guy, and we're here. Shin is really strong! We can't do damage, so stall for time. Shin teleports away, and everyone thinks we showed them that humans have a counter.

Several days later... The infirmary is starting to fill up. We can only do so much, and attacks are relentless. And Rena doesn't want to heal anymore. After more aimless walking, we're attacked again. This time, though, the whole army is here! Everyone is worried about the approaching mass, but help is on its way. Leon tells everyone we're safe, walks up to the cannon in the background, and another wizard fires off a green blast. The scene is a mix of CGI and anime and is one of my favorites in the genre. The cannon sucks in green lights before launching a ball of energy at the horde. It explodes before contact and turns into a wave of smaller light beams, annihilating everyone across the landmass. From sorrow to hope: humans have a counter! We meet with Leon's parents, and they want us to see the King. The incursion to El will begin!

It goes bad. En route to El, we're attacked by Shin. Leon fires the Hope, but Shin blocks all of it with ease. He and his minions descend on us and wipe us out. There's no stalling for time here. He kicks us into the ocean, and everyone else jumps in, too, because sharks have a higher survival rate.

Everyone wakes up Rena, but someone is missing. Where's Claude? Dias is the one who tries to keep her spirits up and suggests he's simply washed ashore elsewhere. The group gets together and goes off to seek any survivors in El. There's a small set of houses hidden in the forest. The villagers suggest we see the chief, but Rena wants to wait for Claude. After a moment... Claude shows up! Rena runs into his arms, and they hold each other for the next long time. Eventually, our main characters recognize the awkwardness of this situation and talk to the guy in charge. We tell them we're from Lacour, and a maid gets excited. Sadly, we ruin the mood because Lacour has fallen to the horde. Or is about to... We ask about what's happening in El and the Sorcery Globe, and the head guy tells us that the Globe landed in Eluria, wiping it out. In the following days, demons began to emerge from the crayon and wreaked havoc. They wiped out several towns, and this is all that's left. Right now, the Sorcery Globe is in the warped remains of Eluria. And that's all Claude needs to know. We're gonna bust into Eluria and destroy the accursed meteor. The chief gives us access to the weapon stock, which contains a few good pieces of armor and a weapon for Bowman. They're in the barrels, which is neat. As we leave, the general shopkeeper hands us a strange item. Claude knows it's an ID Card, which Rena doesn't understand. Off to the east is Eluria Tower. But that's the game's final dungeon, so I'll climb that...

...tomorrow.

Ignore the odd thing called disk two that's packaged with the game.

I used to like Dias, but like so many other video game characters, he hasn't aged well to me. He's the edgy loner and lacks fun PAs. And his in battle stuff is bugged. He can't make use of accessories that have "attack chances" increased items. It reduces his attack proficiency by about half, so he's kinda bad.