Association

It turns out there are two more recent BoF games. Who knew!

Nina and Ryu return to Sarai with the flier parts and head to the black market. But something is there! There's a man in a blue coat accosting a merchant. I think it's the same guy Nina saw in Ryu's crater. The man is from the empire and looking for something. Nina jumps down to the floor to save the poor merchant, and the imperial is annoyed. There's kind of a war going on right now, even if a cease fire has been called. And the princess of Wyndia is right here... The man summons a monster that Ryu lets Nina fight alone. The creature is weak to Wind, which is a spell type Nina has. Don't be afraid to heal, as I'm guessing Flail can do a lot of damage.

The imperial orders his men to arrest Nina, but Ryu finally gets involved. He breaks his sword, which Nina gave him, on the man. It gives the two of them time to leave, and they quickly leave the city. The only place to go is that fork outside of town. Ryu and Nina hide in a crevasse, and a few soldiers run past them. The two hear someone calling them, and it's another merchant. He's thankful they helped him out of that situation, so he tells them about another path. To the north of Sarai is the town of Chamba. The sandflier parts are forgotten about, and Nina thinks returning to Cray is paramount. So that's the new plan.

Nina knows of the place, but she thought it was bigger. There's only a handful of people here, and one of them is a merchant where we can get Ryu a new weapon. But there's another woman who fills us in on the town. Chamba used to be larger, but most of it is infected with hex, a black mist of negative thoughts and emotions that was used during the war. A group of people are cleaning the mess, and they walk through the gate at this moment. If we want to get back to Cray, we need to get through the hex. We talk to the leader, but it's dinner time. We can either wait or explore the town and speak with the cleanup crew. I talked to people and learned about hex. It's rumored to be made out of human sacrifice, and another hex has affected Synesta.
Talking to the boss again relays most of that, but he won't let us go anyway. In order to pass, we'll need special armor, which no one's gonna let us borrow. There might be a clean way through without the armor, but we'll need a guide. If we can find one, the boss will let us go. Walk around the town again to find a guide, but no one bites. Bossman is outside now and tells us why we can't go through. The area is filled with ghosts. As he tells us this, the camera occasionally cuts to the otherside of the gate. Boss suggests the undead can raid Chamba, and the gate shakes! A robot walks through.

This is Ershin. She speaks in the first person, but she also occasionally refers to herself as "she." I wonder if there's a difference between the woman inside the armor and the armor itself. Anyway, she's weird and instantly offers to guide us through the hex mist.

This area is only three screens long, but it's gonna take a while to get through. It's easy to get lost here as we walk across rooftops over the void.
The first area is a figure eight.
The second room has the party split up. Ershin takes the bottom route, which Ryu and Nina stay up. They have to navigate around a very simple weight puzzle and activate two levers at the very end.
The third area is a path where Ershin tells us more about the stuff in the mist. We hear a roar, and our guide tells us sound is nothing to fear. And then a fish skeleton jumps in the air nearby. Ershin starts to laugh, and Nina asks why. Ershin doesn't know why, either. She also refers to herself as "I" here. Finally, it chases Ryu across a rickety bridge. If we fail the minigame, he starts the next battle poisoned. The next battle, of course, is against the Skullfish!

This guy uses Venombreath a lot, so I suggest getting this over with quickly. It turns out that, like Fou-lu, Ryu can also transform. I did so here and spammed Fire Strike. Have Ershin guard so that she can learn the move for future reference. The two girls are supplementary to Ryu, so let them get basic DPS in or have Nina heal. It'll fade back into the mist, and Ershin tells us it'll return. Luckily, we're at the end of the dungeon! We all leave and thank Ershin for the help. She's taken a liking to Ryu and promises to go wherever he goes.

Cray's Crash Site is down the road, and we fill him in the bad news. And also the good news because Nina's found two weirdos. That night, Nina had a dream. She, Cray, and Ryu are in a castle. Elina is in here somewhere. They walk through the halls and overhear someone named Lady Yuna before hiding behind a curtain and waking up. In the morning, everyone says they had the same dream. According to Ershin, that was Ryu's dream. Everyone experienced it because of the Dragon's Eye. But that dream is as good of a clue as we'll get. Cray tells us we'll head to the coast and travel north.

There's a master on the way, and I'm bummed. I didn't like the master system in III... But the team reaches a dam shortly after. Most people are gone because the dragon that attacked Cray is raging here now. There are some people here, and we'll need to talk to them. Climb down to speak to a guy in a hut. He'll send us to a guy wearing an inner tube. The anomia farmer gives us the Sluice Key, which we'll use to close the dam. The first gate is easy, but the second requires some effort. Spin the d-pad (I went clockwise) until an emoticon flashes over the operator's head twice. We'll get a fishing lure for doing it. On the otherside of the dam, we can lower a shortcut and talk to the tube guy again. He'll tell us about the lift that he'll operate. We need to leave so everyone can get back to work. But beforehand that...

The dragon attacks! Everyone tries to flee, and the tuber gives us a crank to operate the lift before running to safety. Place it in and mash the X button. It's not very intuitive, but whatever. Just as a wave of mud washes over the dam, the lift takes us to higher ground. Nina wonders if everyone got to safety, and the tube guy is seen in the mud wave having fun. All's well that ends well. I don't remember where we're going now, but I'll get there...

...tomorrow!

I tried to play Breath of Fire IV a few years ago. I got as far as the Skullfish battle, but I don't remember if I beat it. Nor do I recall why I stopped. Either way, it's a whole new game to me now!