Tournament of Arms

But we can't play it!

The party walks into Lacour, the titular capital of the largest kingdom on Expel, and they take note of the sheer mass of people. This is what Dias was talking about in Mars; a grand fighting championship is taking place soon. The women are excited, but Claude reminds them they have business to attend to. All the weapon shops are seeking warriors to represent them and won't sell us anything. So just head to the castle and meet with the King.

He's not taking audience requests. The tournament is too important, so he's busy with that. However, an attendant at the counter believes winners can meet with the King! Claude, using that as a guise, registers. Rena brings up Dias, which makes me (the player) realize Claude's looking for him. But we can't find the blue haired boy, so let's finish our registration. We'll need to select one of the four weapon shops on the east side of town to supply us. Each shop is different and has a varying selection pool. The differences in changes between them are attack, defense, and what items we can use in the battle. Since we can't control Claude on Rena's route, the sundries don't matter. And since I over leveled for this (25), I'm not sure the stats do either. Ultimately, I went with Slayer because the sexy propaganda outside the owner's shop. Once you select a shop, the party returns to the commons and prepares for the long haul of this arc. To continue, head to the inn. Once you're there, though, you're stuck. If you need more training, do it now.

Everyone heads to the room and prepares to do nothing for the next few days. There's a bulldozer in Hilton, but television hasn't been invented. After twenty seconds, Rena's already bored and goes for a walk. She winds up on an odd cliff. A small girl is trying to pitch her grandfather's sword to a tournament participant, but the man blows her off, thinking her grandpa is an eccentric old man. Rena, being an overly kind girl, offers to help Suphia. We take her to the bar and speak to a handful of men. None of them care. For some reason, Rena tries to leave. As she does, Dias enters. The Arlians discuss why Rena is here because Dias forgot he said he was coming. Claude's discussed... Three men begin to hound Suphia, so we try to protect her. Dias tells us he's not found a shop to support him because Lacour swords aren't what they used to be. This further angers the men, and they promise Dias will get his comeuppance in the arena. Dias scolds us as we leave the bar but tells Rena to return to Claude. He and Suphia will speak with Grandpa Gamgee.

Days pass, and the tournament begins. Rena is curious how Claude will do. And what about Dias? We head to the castle, and everything is fine with Claude. Dias enters as we finish, but his sword has yet to arrive. He heads out to find Gamgee, and Rena wants to help. She's responsible for finding Dias' blade, so she has a right. Learning this upsets Claude. Who's side is Rena on!? They get into an argument, and Rena goes after Dias.

We head to Gamgee's house, and he's not there. Suphia is, though, and she tells us the two were accosted en route to the castle. Head to the bar, and the three nerds emerge to attack us using Gamgee's sword. They're standard enemies. Dias gets his sword, and we can find Gamgee in the bar. We can also inform Suphia, but the destination is the arena. Fun fact, you can unequip Sharpness and customize it to something else. It's reequipped in a moment, but what would have happened if we had turned it into something else? I didn't, and everything was a go. Dias heads to battle and thanks Rena, who goes to the seating area. Celine is there, as is Claude. He won his first match and is enjoying some downtime. He doesn't relish it long because Dias enters and makes quick work of his round one opponent.

The rest of this section revolves around Rena and Claude having a lover's spat with Dias and Claude having battles as a backdrop. We can see Gamgee and Suphia across the field. She'll ask them to cheer for Dias because she has to root for Claude. Both men deal with round two, and round three is skipped on Rena's route. We jump to the finals.

Claude gets his ass kicked.

We cut to the infirmary and Rena's healing Claude. Claude has no memory of what happened, so Dias gave our male MC CTE... Dias enters and tells Claude that he's actually pretty good. Dias stated that he had to go all out, which I (the player) know is a lie, but whatever. Celine tells us the runner up gets a prize, so visit your shop of choice and get the gear they gave you along with 6500 fol. As they leave Lacour, they make a new plan to go to Linga. A potential linguist also enjoyed the tournament, so maybe we can speak to him now. Alternatively...

Uead to Hilton. If you saw the three eyed man in Cross, you'll see a three eyed woman drinking a guy under the table at the bar. She asks if we've seen anyone else with three eyes, and Rena will say that she has. After a "wait, what?," Opera introduces herself as thanks and heads to Cross. If we speak with the King of Cross now, he'll tell us Opera was just here and went to the Mountain Palace. He also gives us permission to go there, warns us about the boss, and gives us 10000 fol.

The Palace is just before Clik, up a mountain, and near a lake. The red sky is the giveaway. This place is a huge and winding maze that even I've never figured out. Hug the right handed exits to make a b line to Opera. Any exploration should be done with her because she's a bit under leveled. As we approach her, she pulls out a large stick, and Claude has a private chat before the Expelians break it up. Anyway, Opera is looking for her lover, Ernest, who she thinks is here. We now have to head deeper in, fighting new enemies who like status ailments. We'll eventually reach a room filled with futuristic machinery, but Ernest isn't here. Rena suggests Opera join the team, which she does!

Opera has a gun, but she'll choose to smack people with it instead of pulling the trigger. I think that's her killer moves, though. To advance her story, head to the back of the Shingo Forest to find her ruined spaceship that crashed there. She and Claude bond over being trapped here, which Rena and Celine don't understand. With a full, harem party now, we'll go to Linga...

...tomorrow!

Ashton is one of my favorite characters ever, so I kinda hate leaving him behind. But I have so little experience with Opera and Ernest, and I need to know more about them. I'll be doing the same with tomorrow's character too. Ashton's quest has two dungeons all about him, so he feels like a bigger piece. Can the Tetragenesus match him overall? Star Ocean 2 has a 49/50 on my rankings. It's only missing a playable cast tally (by .17 points) so I'm looking for anything I've overlooked. It's been twenty years since I've used Opera, Ernest, Bowman, and Chrisato.