I didn't enjoy BoFIII, but I saw something in it that made me interested in the franchise. Unlike the Tales of games, I'm still curious about Capcom's RPG series, so I'm gonna play the last one made!
Words appear on the screen telling us about the immediate past of one person. They left the castle a few days ago to cross a vast desert on a sandflier. They're looking for the city of Synesta, the last village in the desert. It's also the last known whereabouts of Nina's sister, Elina. A shooting star flashes in the distance as we see the two people on the sandflier. Nina, a woman with wings, is speaking to Cray, a catman, reaffirming their goal.
We jump to midday, and Cray notices that Nina isn't dealing with the heat well. She tries to tell him she's fine, but he's the captain, so they decide to continue during the night. During that night, a dragon raises from the ground to obstruct their advance. It looks like a worm and not a wyrm... Cray doesn't know if the dragon is actually attacking them, but he avoids it anyway. He tries, fails, and they get hit.
They wake up, and both of them are okay. Sadly, their sand jet ski is in ruins. Cray can repair it, but they'll need the parts first. There's a settling nearby named Sarai. But there's another problem: they can't leave the flier. Bandits might make off with the whole thing if no one defends it. Nina is a strong heroine, so she offers to go while Cray protects his stuff after a little bit of second guessing.
Nina ventures off alone, and we get the world map. It's not an overworld but a normal, human map type thing where our character walks a planned route between dots. It's very underwhelming, but at least the music is good. Occasionally, a "?" or "!" pop up, and we can enter a sub-area to fight monsters or find items. Nina had to make a pitstop at a recently formed hole in the ground. There's a merchant yelling for help, but he leaves the crater just fine as Nina climbs down. She ponders what happened, but then an actual dragon appears before her. Despite its look, Nina isn't afraid. The dragon recognizes this, sprouts wings, and flies away. In its place, though, is a naked dude! Nina instructs him to put on some clothes, and we finally meet Ryu. Ryu has no memory, nor does he know why he's here or where he's going. Nina decides to bring him along to Sarai in hopes something will jog his brain. At this point, he becomes our main character, as is tradition.
The two come to a cliffside. It's a simple walk down, but we figure out the basics of combat and exploration. The battle system is a traditional turn based game like any other, and every character can do something specific in the field. Nina can fly to get a better look at the surroundings, and Ryu can swing his sword for some reason. Nina teaches us how to jump across small gaps, but then she falls! Ryu jumps down after her, sticking the landing of several jumps until he catches up to his guide. She has wings, so she's fine, but he biffed the last jump and is face down in the dirt. It's getting late, so the two find a cave to face the night.
We skip to an Aztec temple as a beam of light flashes out the top. A talking lion that speaks with an old English accent calls forth his master. They wonder where the adoring crowd is and if this is the correct time. The man believes no one is here because mortals are a temperamental lot. He orders his lion, Won-qu, to stand guard at the temple, and it turns to stone. We now control Fou-lu, a bring far stronger than Ryu. He marches through a forest until he finds a small ball enshrined in darkness. This is a man who knows who Fou-lu is, but he doesn't care. The current emperor has his loyalty, and the first one shouldn't be here. The man summons a fire creature to attack. You don't have to, but Fou-lu can turn into a dragon.
After, the man knows Fou isn't fully awake yet and chases him into the woods, which he promptly sets on fire. They meet up down the path, and the man knocks Fou into a ravine and orders his men to find the body. Ryu wakes up from a nightmare. In the morning, he and Nina continue to Sarai.
They arrive, and Nina goes off to find flier parts. She asks if we'll be fine on our own, and I think it'll be okay... We now explore the town and can upgrade our gear. There are two, seemingly, important minigames we get introduced to here. At the bar, we can feed a dude to get information. He tells us about the information broker outside the inn. Paying eighty zenni will teach us about a secret passcode to get into the black market. A merchant who just left knows it, so we'll have to reach him. We couldn't find any clues about who we are, so let's help Nina. Leave town, and there's a new area between the cliff and Ryu's crater. The merchant gives us the information, and we return to town. Nina is waiting for us, and she has bad news. She's been bamboozled! Her money was stolen, and she's upset at her naïveté. But Ryu's here!
She rejoins, and they head to the black market behind the tavern. The guy there warns us the empire might be starting a war, and sandfliers are likely to be confiscated, so he doesn't have them. But he promises to construct parts if we bring him materials. There's a sand ski graveyard to the south.
After you move the propeller, head into another boat to drop the anchor. That takes us a prospector who loans us his dog and shovel. Using these allows us to dig in the sand to find various items (a new weapon for Nina) and the flier parts! It took two tries, but I got what I needed. But I'm out of time, so I'll head back to Cray...
...tomorrow!
I noticed how middle eastern everything looks and sounds. I wonder if it's just this area or if the whole game takes inspiration from that region.
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