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 Tales of Xillia is the thirteenth in the series of Tales JRPGs made by the now-defunct Namco Tales Studio arm of Bandai Namco, made to commemorate the series' fifteenth anniversary. It's also one of the few games in the series with a direct sequel, but I haven't played that game and it's not important right now. If you haven't played a Tales game, here's what I tend to associate them with: melodramatic stories, characters who are Very Anime,  , and tons of plot twists. The games in the series most fans tend to hold up are Symphonia (which is maybe the best game ever when you’re 12 but has aged incredibly poorly and is quite possibly the schmaltziest game in existence), Abyss (which has plenty of detractors but is nevertheless my favorite), and Vesperia (a game that most people seem to love, but that I don't really have much of an opinion on). Those also happen to be the only games in the main series I've actually played besides this one. An expert in the greater series I am not.While the series' core Linear Motion Battle system remains pretty similar between titles, the changes made in each game keep them all fairly distinct. This game uses the Dual Raid Linear Motion Battle System, a complete mess of a phrase that's only slightly less meaningless than it sounds. The important thing is that Xillia is straight-up fun. I'm not great at this game, but I'll probably end up making a video or two showing it off eventually, and the boss fights will be recorded instead of screenshotted. Yes, this is technically going to be a hybrid LP. We're gonna see as much of this game as possible, at least the parts that I deem relevant or interesting. This game has tons of sidequests, most of which I will almost certainly excise because they’re all generic as hell. I’m still going to do them, because I’m an idiot, but there’s no point in showing them. As for this game's gimmick, we'll cover that down below in the first update. It's going to suck for me, I'll tell you that. While it’s overall a solid entry in the series it’s worth noting that Xillia kind of suffers in comparison to some of the others in a few ways. For one, there’s a real dearth of meaningful content, particularly in the endgame. The game’s story is also, uh, something. It’s generic-rear end Tales, sure, but if I was pressed to describe it, I’d have to say it seems… rushed? Even with the series’ requisite jargon abound (though nowhere near as bad as Abyss’, jesus christ), it doesn’t feel very fleshed out, I guess. To say any more would probably end up spoiling something, and while this game isn't as absurd with plot twists as some other entries in the series (again, Abyss, my god), please tag any spoilers. Especially for the sequel. The story in this game isn't amazing or anything, but I do like it for what it is. But what does Xillia mean? Buddy, I’m not even sure how to pronounce it.  Episode 0: Prologue Episode 1: I'm Not Naming This Episode After A Beatles Song Episode 2: She Doesn't Look A Thing Like Jesus Episode 3: Doctor Baby Episode 4: Alvin And The Pipsqueaks Episode 5: The Boss Is As Huge As This Update Episode 6: Anililagnia Episode 7: The Indescribable Ivar Episode 8: Stoned Children Episode 9: Too Many Sidequests Arist fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Dec 12, 2016 |
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Oct 17, 2016 13:51
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 Before we begin, let’s take a quick look at that box art.  I always thought it was neat when JRPGs would just put the whole playable cast on the box. Gave me something to look forward to. Anyway, from this, we can readily categorize these characters into their designated Tales Cliches™: Generically Kind Hero, Bland Female Lead, Small Child, Smug Dude, Guy Who’s Way Older Than Everyone Else, and Secondary Love Interest Who’s Never, Ever Going To Get Any. I’m a little disappointed they didn’t manage to find room for other treasured character archetypes like Dog or Lady Pirate, but I’ll take what I can get. We’ve also got some tertiary characters lurking in the background uninvited, but they’re not gonna show up for a while and that’s probably enough of me dancing around my own rules about spoilers that I literally just explained. Intro Movie (Jude) (progress by Ayumi Hamazaki) Ah, a generic anime intro. This is definitely a Tales game. The song doesn’t really do much for me but it’s somehow been stuck in my head the entire time I’ve been writing this update, which must count for something. We’ll be playing on Normal difficulty; I have a clear save so I could actually jump up to the hardest setting, but there’s pretty much no reason to gently caress around with the difficulty in this game and I don’t hate myself quite bad enough to go for the challenge. Besides, while I do praise this game’s combat, the boss fights are another matter entirely. We’ll get to those in time. For now, let’s just start.      “The spirits… are dying.”    “So, how long has it been, six years? Time sure flies. Come! Fennmont awaits.”      The gist of that was basically just “spirits are everywhere and help humans, Maxwell defends the spirits, humans are gonna gently caress up the spirits because we’re dumb and smell bad.” Which, fair.  This is a med school, right? Why does it have a bell like it’s high schoo-oh, yes, anime. I nearly forgot.    Here we’re introduced to our other main character, running through the halls and knocking people over like a complete rear end in a top hat.    So, here’s this game’s central “gimmick,” as it were. You pick a protagonist at the start of the game and stick with them. And while you might assume that choosing one character over the other will lead to some radical, sweeping changes or different understanding of the game’s narrative, well, you’ll see for yourself.  .jpg) Our first option here is Jude Mathis, “clever medical student.” I’m not exactly sure what “clever” means in this context, I just know that the word choice plus that smirk he’s got makes me think he just dropped a stink bomb in somebody’s locker. That’s a thing med students do, right? Or do they like, vandalize cadavers? Anyway, Jude is voiced by Sam Riegel (Teddie from Persona 4 Golden, Yew from Bravely Second) doing pretty much his bog-standard hero voice.  .png) Option #2 is Milla, a “mysterious young woman accompanied by four unseen beings,” though we just saw them a minute ago. She also apparently “comes across as calm, cool, and collected beyond her years,” a phrase I’m going to take to mean “she’s extremely boring.” And no, I don’t know what’s up with that insane cowlick. Milla is voiced by Minae Noji, who… honestly doesn’t sound great. The constant flat affect is an interesting idea for the character but it’s kind of a chore to actually listen to. So, which do we pick? Well, there are differences, in a few cases even major ones, but we’ll be starting with Jude. That said, we’re going to be seeing both sides anyway, because why not? Oh, right, because it means I’ll have to do two concurrent playthroughs of this game. Nevertheless, we’re going to see all the differences between the stories, and I guarantee you’ll be surprised! By how insubstantial most of it is! With that out of the way, let’s pick Jude. We’ll work our way back around to Milla’s side of things in the near future.   “Okay! Let’s go!”Episode 0 Cutscenes Arist fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Oct 17, 2016 |
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Oct 17, 2016 13:52
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I guess maybe the small child's doll counts as the small dog. If it spoke like a pirate you could make it do double duty.
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Oct 17, 2016 22:29
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 Fennmont – Talim Medical School    Oh, now you feel remorse for your reckless hall-running, eh Jude? Well, it’s too late. Immediately prostrate yourself in front of the nearest hall monitor and you might see the sun again before your next birthday.    “You sure you have time for this? Don’t you have residency training with Professor Haus?”I could make so many jokes about a doctor named “Haus,” but I’ll spare you from them. Mostly because I never watched that show.  “Don’t worry about that. You’re in a rush too, aren’t you?” ”Thanks again! You better get moving, too!” “Crap, I’m gonna be late!”We could head straight there, or we could engage in some thinly veiled plot set-up courtesy of our friendly neighborhood NPCs.   Yep, seems totally logical, no reason for that to not be the case. Maxwell is actually something of a recurring character in the Tales series. For reference, here’s a picture of Maxwell from Tales of Symphonia: .jpg) He’s got more of a Fu Manchu vibe than I remembered but the basic concept is on point.   An ancient sage named Kresnik, eh? Well, whatever. Let’s leave Talim Medical School and head over to where Haus is waiting for us.   But first, let’s do some more talking!  It’s really handy when random people in the starting town seem just as new to the rules of their fantasy universe as you are.  This isn’t foreshadowing or anything, it’s just a detail of the setting I actually find kind of neat even if the jargon is a bit insufferable. But that’s enough of that. Heading into the reception area…  What’re you looking at, punk?     “Well, look who decided to show up.” “Worry not, lad. Now, keep this between us, but I’ve been asked to help down at the lab. Top-secret research, they say!” “A request from Orda Palace? Wow!” “I need you to keep an eye on things until I get back. You can handle it, lad. Only patients with appointments will be coming in today.” “Oh, right. I need you to sign my class-credit form.” “Your graduation thesis is coming along, I presume?” “More or less. I should have the first draft complete by Ignis.”  “After all, I’m planning to make you my top assistant after you graduate.”  “I’ll be back in a few hours.” “So much for an easy day.”Heading over to the next area…  Well, gently caress. Looks like you got the short end of it, eh Jude? Is it too late to just quit med school?  “Okay, you’re good to go. It’s funny, though. There’s been a real epidemic of channeling failures today.” Welp, “mana lobe” might just be the dumbest fantasy term I’ve heard since “fonon,” though this one still has the advantage in that it doesn’t get repeated in every single sentence for the rest of the game.  “I’m not really sure. I was able to draw out mana like usual, but then, it was like the spirits ran off or something.” “Like they were gone, huh?” “Anyway, thanks Doc. At least I can get back to work. It’s my wife’s birthday, too. Now I don’t have to worry about letting her down.”    “Serves you right for agreeing to stand in, if you ask me.” “I guess with the amount of mana at his disposal, treating ten people isn’t any different from treating one.” “He’s spent so much time developing his mana lobe that it’s skewed his perspective.”  “Why? Did something happen? “We’ve just been told he’s been chosen for the Howe Prize!” “What? Wow! Research Honors don’t get any bigger than that!” “They want to see him right away, but he didn’t tell anyone where he was going.”   What is it with Tales protagonists and gaudy coats?  And that’s Jude’s shift done. Not gonna lie, for a brief moment I was hoping this would turn into a new Trauma Center game. Tell me Fantasy Trauma Center wouldn’t own. Heading back outside, we see another brief scene.     Instead of doing that, we’re going to head back to the area where we started.    Jude seems to notice two of his classmates having a conversation.    “But doesn’t he plan to apply for a job here?” “Yeah, on Professor Haus’ recommendation. He’s gonna be the Prof’s number-one assistant. Honestly, I’m kind of jealous.” “I guess that’s what he gets for flaunting the whole nice-guy routine.” “That’s a pretty cynical way to put it.” “But honestly, don’t you agree?” “Well, I guess at times it does kind of seem like he’s just doing a nice-guy act.” “Right? I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, either. But I know exactly what you mean.”   My cruel mockery of Jude aside, that was a Sub Event, an optional cutscene that in many cases expands on the characters or story. A lot of them are also missable. We’ll be seeing as many of them as possible.  Over in the Central Plaza, there’s a store and a save point. We don’t need to buy anything, though, so we’ll continue ahead to the next area, where another event waits.     “I didn’t mess it up! It was working fine, and then it just… stopped.” “Professionals don’t make excuses! You young folk just can’t concentrate right. Here, look. First, you use your arte to stabilize the wind.” “…” “See? Even you can’t get it right now.” “J-Just shut up and get back to work!” “I know, I know.” You didn’t seem to have a problem doing it ten minutes ago. Maybe everyone just sucks.  “I still can’t believe Professor Haus won the Howe Prize. I need to go tell him the good news.”Over by the lab, we see a couple of guards.  “But I’m here to pick up Professor Haus. He’s from the Talim Medical School.”    I’m pretty sure I’m meant to think something about the handwriting is suspicious but those two signatures look exactly the same to me.   “Sorry. Rules are rules.” “Right.”Well, those guys were pretty courteous and reasonable.   Jude, of course, immediately searches for a way to defy them.  Nothing to do but head back the way we came.  Hm?       Jude somehow forgot to actually put the form back in his pocket and has been holding it openly this entire time. Well done. You deserved to lose it.  What’s so important now that it’s distracting you from the important poo poo you just lost?     Oh. Episode 1 Cutscenes
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Oct 18, 2016 13:23
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  Oh, hey, how lucky for you, Jude! Maybe you can go retrieve it!    You know, on second thought maybe you shouldn-  Oh goddammit.   “Uh, hi.” “Just keep quiet, and I won’t need to hurt you.” Jude’s kind of a dipshit.        *nodding vigorously* *coughing up water* “So much noise. Could you try coughing quietly? What are you doing here anyway?” “Can I talk? I dropped something. I was just picking it up. See?” Milla, clearly understanding that Jude is a moron, shows no interest in his dumb form. “What are you up to? The guards will be here any second.”   And then Jude turned around and never saw her again.   Welp. Hope you can swim, my man.  Wait, no-  Goddammit, Jude. Laforte Research Center    That’s debatable.  What? You’re still worried about that? You realize if you get caught in here you’re probably going to prison, right?  For whatever reason, Jude is fixated on this award nonsense. That’s it. He has no solid evidence to suggest Professor Haus is even still here, and even if he is, surely this can wait a few hours?  So here we are, trudging through the sewers.   Over here we can examine a glowing search point for some randomly-generated loot. This has no apparent purpose yet, but Jude shoves it in his pants anyway like a good JRPG protagonist. I’m not going to call out treasure pickups in the future unless they contain something outstanding, but this is for future reference. Further in…     “Hmph. I should be taking you to security, but you seem courteous enough. Come on. I’ll take you to the exit.” “Wait! I’m looking for Professor Haus. I think he’s still here.”Jude, come on, this is pointless. Give up. Go with the nice man. “Oh, so you know the professor, do you? Yeah, he’s still here.”Huh. I guess your idiotic hunch was right.  “My family doesn’t live around here. They’re all back in my hometown.”  “Relax. Come quietly and you won’t get hurt.” “Why are you doing this? Wait, does this mean you’re holding the professor, too?!”  Time for our first taste of combat.   “I guess there’s no choice!”Now, the basic Tales combat system is in place here, use the left stick to change your attack type, backsteps, guarding, free run, yadda yadda, but the thing to note about it is that it just feels really solid and above all else brisk. I know people say Graces has even better combat, but for someone whose last game before this was Vesperia, it’s like night and day. Each character also has their own abilities activated by certain actions, which I’ll go into later.  The only things from these images you really need to know are HUD-related. The orange health bar is self-explanatory, the blue bar is a measure of TP (which drains as we use “artes” and replenishes as we attack), and the number next to both of those is our “Assault Counter,” which limits the number of attacks in our combo. We can increase it as we progress, but for now we’re limited to 4. The yellow target indicator also doubles as a health bar for its enemy, which is pretty neat.  I know I’m in the middle of an explanation of the game mechanics, but I feel this begs acknowledgment: Jude is a doctor who punches and kicks things to death.  I know he had no reason to have any sort of weapon, but he’s clearly been trained in this. He knows enough in the ways of punchmagic to use Demon Fist, which is basically just a ground-based Sonic Boom, and even disregarding that he’d definitely pull a hamstring or something trying to pull off those kicks without past experience. But also, Jude is Level 1. I find this entire scenario wholly implausible.  Furthermore, Jude is a doctor. Why choose to fight with your hands? You need those. What if you break them?  Maybe it’s a personal thing, like maybe Jude’s really into feeling the life drain from something with his own hands. Sick gently caress.  Eh, whatever. If the paltry amount of experience we gained from that didn’t tip you off, those enemies were loving chumps even by “first dungeon” standards. Further down, we see another enemy guarding a ladder. Paging Doctor Fists!   Now, it’s time to find out what makes Jude so much fun to play.  Upon successfully backstepping away from an enemy attack…  Jude can do a teleport-skate around the enemy and attack them from behind. This ability is called Snap Pivot and it’s incredible.  Time to ascend the ladder and head up into the Research Center proper.   Note: Do not do this. They’re all locked.  However, if we head up the stairs…   “Huh?”Nothing to do but follow her.     Awful chatty given the circumstances.   So when you run out of mana you literally just poof into dust? That’s actually pretty hardcore.     “So, you’re the visitor I heard about?”   “Who are you?”      “What’s going on? Why are you doing this?" “Ahahahaha! You’re such an idiot! Let me spell it out for you: You’re gonna die!” “What?”  So, our first boss fight. Let’s see how this goe-    Um, well.   Jude.   One thing that you can’t see from these screenshots are the Girl in Red’s constant wild gesticulations. It’s ridiculous and I love it.             What the gently caress is going on with this character.    Boss Fight: Girl in Red That was something, alright.  Wait, what? Episode 2 Cutscenes (Watch this if only for The Girl in Red. Her constant gesticulating and Kate Higgins’ deliciously hammy performance are amazing) Arist fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Oct 22, 2016 |
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Oct 21, 2016 23:33
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So is it traditional in Tales games to have eccentric villains who clearly just gotta boogie?
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Oct 22, 2016 00:15
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This was the Tales game I never finishers because my PS3 bricked in the middle of playing and I figured that was a sign to finally get a PS4. But one of the first things I did was buy the character customization DLC that lets you get rid of Milla's quail hair.
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Oct 22, 2016 03:41
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This game is great, Tales of Graces isn't also, this game is much better than Tales of Graces. Jude is deeply epic and the best Tales heroine.Anoia posted:But one of the first things I did was buy the character customization DLC that lets you get rid of Milla's quail hair. You are a failure.
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Oct 22, 2016 04:33
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Yeah I actually like this game a lot even outside of the combat, if that wasn't clear. It's got a lot going for it even if there's some glaring flaws later on.JohnOfOrdo3 posted:So is it traditional in Tales games to have eccentric villains who clearly just gotta boogie? Tales games (at least, what I've played) tend to have comically evil miniboss squads, yes, but the Girl in Red is unique in her inability to sit still to my knowledge. On the subject of miniboss squads Abyss' was cool because they kinda did the "each one is a dark mirror of a party member" thing but also silly because they all had incredibly tragic backstories and Symphonia's was just "Grr I'm evil!" because that game wasn't very subtle.
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Oct 22, 2016 04:46
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Arist posted:On the subject of miniboss squads Abyss' was cool because they kinda did the "each one is a dark mirror of a party member" thing but also silly because they all had incredibly tragic backstories and Symphonia's was just "Grr I'm evil!" because that game wasn't very subtle. God I miss ToS (and Abyss...maybe I should buy that for my 3DS one of these days). I bought the double pack thingie that has the PS3 versions of ToS and ToS2 (God why they put that on the Wii of all consoles first I'll never loving know. Maybe because ToS1 was on the Gamecube? gently caress if I know) I should really give it another playthrough one of these days...eh...maybe after I'm done playing Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse first. nearing the end of that, I'm just doing side-quests now...might delve into Twisted Tokyo and the DLCs...after I max out Nanashi.
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Oct 22, 2016 05:57
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Is the 3DS version of Abyss worth picking up? Like how well is it ported?
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Oct 22, 2016 17:04
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Anoia posted:Is the 3DS version of Abyss worth picking up? Like how well is it ported? It's a pretty good port. It's the exact same game with some load times fixed. I personally love Abyss, warts and all. If you think you'll enjoy it then I'd say it's worth it.
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Oct 22, 2016 19:18
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   And so we arrive back here.   “Onward!”Time to see things from Milla’s perspective.        (The rest of this is just the exact same cutscene, it just ends a bit earlier)   Milla heads into the sewers…   “Why do humans persist in seeking power that could destroy the world? They don’t need spyrix to survive.” *...*   *…* *...*   Further down the tunnel…  “Shh. No need to make a scene. Cooperate and I’ll go easy on you.” “Intruder! You’re under arrest!” Is Milla as fun to play as Jude? Well, no. Milla’s exclusive ability of “spirit shifting” lets her charge up spirit artes and change their effect, but Snap Pivot is just unbeatable.  Maybe a bit overkill.  “You’d still be alive, had you minded your own business.”…Well, with that out of the way, let’s head up to the Research Center proper.  *...* “Yes, it’s certainly a big facility, but we’ll find it if we search hard enough.”Thankfully, we already know exactly where to go.  “Honestly, with all of you around, what is there to fear?”In the room from before…     Same deal as before, let’s fight.  It doesn’t go much better for her the second time.   If it wasn’t obvious yet, Milla completely outclasses Jude at this point in all respects, including health and TP.   “Whoa.” “I told you to go home. Don’t tell me you live here?” “No, of course not… I’m sorry… Er, uh… “Is this the work of the spyrix?” “The what-ix?” “Could it be connected to the disappearance of the lesser spirits?” ”Huh? You’re losing me. Disappearing spirits?” “You really need to go home. Someone might not swoop to your rescue next time you’re in trouble.”  “Hey, wait. I’m kinda trapped here. If the professor were with me, they might’ve let me leave, but… Can I come with you?”Why would they let you leave if you’re with a person they just tried to murder?  “Ha, I see. If you stick with the person who saved you, then you won’t need any more saving. Clever boy.” Wait, how old are you, Jude? Realistically I’d say at the very least early 20s, but this is a JRPG so I’ll lowball it and say 18. Hold on, let me check. 15?! What? You’re a 15-year-old med student? And you’ve apparently almost graduated? This might take the cake for absurd age bullshit in a JRPG.     Okay, now that we’ve caught up with each other, most of the footage is going to be from Jude’s side. If you see me playing as Milla, it’s something exclusive to her route. Or I hosed something up and had to rerecord it.    “I’ve been wondering what this thing is since I set off. My handmaid told me I had to carry it with me.” “Well, it comes in handy if you face monsters. It gives you the power to fight them. I got one myself when I left home. Just in case.”This is the tutorial for the leveling system, which we probably won’t be seeing much of due to the format. But I’ll explain it anyway so that you all have a frame of reference.  This is the Lillium Orb, and yes, it is just a twist on the Sphere Grid. Each of these nodes represents a stat.  Capturing nodes will raise any stats associated with the node. It’s dirt simple. We got 4 GP from leveling up in that last fight, so let’s spend one on this STR node.  Now, we can also form connections between nodes by capturing nodes that are next to each other. We also cannot capture any node that is not next to a node we have already captured. Why do we want to connect nodes? Well…   Because surrounding a segment of the Lillium Orb will reward us with whatever arte or skill is in that segment. This is the real meat of the system and what you generally want to be building around.  Finally, expansion. To access more of the Lillium Orb, we need to activate three of the outermost segments of the orb, including the Key Area. These Orbs are going to grow to incredible size by the end of this game. We’ll get 3 GP every time we level up from now on to spend as we see fit here. As we level up, that number will increase (and eventually decrease again), as will the number of nodes needed to surround an area of the Lillium Orb. It’s a neat system even if it’s not terribly original.  “I see. So it’s a tool that taps into inherent abilities. I imagine that powerless humans never leave home without them.” “You talk as if you’re not human yourself.”Skit: One and the Same          And now it’s time for everyone’s favorite recurring Tales feature, skits. These are brief, often comedic scenes between the party. I’m not going to be transcribing all of them, because there’s hundreds and a lot of them are really inconsequential or incorporate motion in ways that would be really annoying for me to try to capture, but I will be transcribing any I find sufficiently important or funny. I’ll also be putting every one I see in a given update in a video, just like with the cutscenes.  Now that Milla has that key, we can head deeper inside the facility.  Deeper still, we see another door.          C’mon Jude. Haven’t you been watching those skits? You know this, and have already seen her use those spirits. Try to keep up.            “Aha! Aha ha ha! Your suffering… It’s— It’s worth it!” *passes out*  “Are you gonna try and stop it? Do you know what you’re doing?”       “Stop! Or you’ll be dragged in with it!”   *crackle*                    Milla tries to summon Sylph…  …to no avail.     A mysterious stranger looks on.   If you’re going to ask me exactly what just happened, I’ve actually beaten this game and I’m still not entirely sure I could tell you. About eight different things happen and their relationships with one another are kind of unclear. The important parts the game is rather explicit about, thankfully. Anyway, next the game decides to replay the intro cutscene for whatever reason. We’ve already seen Jude’s, so let’s take the opportunity to view Milla’s. Intro (Milla) It’s not very different.     “What are you going to do now? There’s no way you could destroy that device without their power.” “You have a point.”     *Milla Exclusive*   *Milla Exclusive* Yes, that’s really it for the differences in that cutscene.            Milla wasn’t kidding about the sword thing, huh. She’s swinging that thing like it’s a loving hammer. “Listen, you’d better get out of Fennmont while you still can.” “Right. You have my gratitude.” “The city entrance is always crawling with police. You’d be safer heading to the seahaven.” “Hmm, the seahaven.” “You don’t know where it is, do you?”    The goal here is to get through the plaza while avoiding the guards. This isn’t particularly difficult; they don’t walk around and are positioned such that they’re very easy to avoid.  “If Efreet were here, I’d never have to be drenched like this.”      Oh, hey. It’s the man we healed earlier.      “I’m authorized to use force if necessary, but I don’t want to hurt you.”Ingrate. “But wait, just hold on a minute. We may have done a little breaking-and-entering, but that hardly makes us public enemy number one!”Hey, alleged breaking-and-entering. Don’t admit to nothing, Jude!    Milla doesn’t give a gently caress.         As funny as it would be if these two dudes actually died there, they leap out of the way at the last second. I apologize for ruining the moment in the name of accuracy.      “Think your next move carefully, Doc. The more trouble you give us, the harder your sentence.”               What.    Oh, okay? This is just happening?   This character is just a superhero, apparently?   I was wondering how he jumped that far but maybe the wind caught on his massive loving tie.     God, what a hilarious rear end in a top hat this guy is shaping out to be.   “Huh?”Interesting first reaction, kid. Mine would probably be, “Hey Alvin, how did you pull that insane poo poo back there, holy gently caress?”  “Uh, yes sir. And this is Milla.” .jpg) And here we meet our newest party member, Alvin. Alvin is an… interesting character, for reasons I won’t spoil. I’ll just say that he alternates between being my favorite and least favorite character in this game the more I think about him. He’s voiced by Matthew Mercer (new Kanji in the P4 spinoffs, Jotaro Kujo, McCree in Overwatch). If you’re unfamiliar with him, he’s basically low-rent Troy Baker, and if you think that’s me insulting Matt Mercer you have no idea how much I love him. Anyway, Alvin’s neat because he falls into the group of fantasy JRPG characters who use loving guns, though he also uses a giant fuckoff sword too which dulls the excitement a bit. That said, he can get you a great deal on pictures of Spider-Man. Episode 3 Cutscenes Episode 3 Skits (These are generally worth watching)
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Oct 23, 2016 19:40
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          “You said you’re a med student? Didn’t expect that.” “Hey, can I ask you something? Why did you save us? What’s in it for you?” “Well, cash, of course.” “How does saving us make you money?” “Simple. I figure you must be in serious trouble if the military’s after you. Now that I’ve swung to your rescue and impressed you with my derring-do, I can charge you for my services.” “Charge us what? I’m nearly broke.” “Same goes for me, I’m afraid.” “Seriously? I take more than just cash, you know. Don’t you have any precious metals? Jewels? Rich relatives about to croak?” “Nothing on me. It all happened so fast.” “I doubt I have anything that would sell for a high price either.” “What exactly do you do, Alvin? You look like a soldier, but you sure don’t act like one.” “Heh! You’re on the right track, kid. I’m a mercenary. It’s better than being a soldier. We don’t have to follow orders. We set our own hours. And we help people… for a price.”You seem really terrible at your job then, dude. “Well, it would seem like you helped us for free.” “Ah, well. It’s a risk of the trade. Maybe I’ll find some paying customers in Auj Oule.” What? Risk of the trade? You’re saying this is a regular occurrence for you, then? Saving people and then demanding payment seems like a great way to get your rear end kicked, for one, but you’re clearly the last son of a dying planet so I’ll ignore that possibility. “Sorry about that.” “Charity work… Wonderful. Are we there yet?” “…”Aladhi Seahaven      “Decided to make the best of it, has he? He’s not as immature as he looks.” “Would it kill you to show a little concern? You dragged him into this, right?” “He insisted on helping me. I told him again and again to go home, but he wouldn’t listen. He’s here of his own accord.” “Heh, I see. He believes he got himself into this mess, so now he has to put on a brave face.”  “Hmm… So? You leaving now?” “No… Alvin, you must be well versed with a sword. Mercenaries like you must have some battle chops.” “Well, yeah, of course.” “Could you teach me how to use one? I don’t have the Four to back me up anymore. If I can’t wield a sword, what’s left?” “The Four? Not sure I follow. But I’d be more than happy to teach you, if only you had some cash.”Oh, now you need payment, eh? “So you won’t help?” “Here, how about we make some moolah while I train you?” “What do you mean?” “Well… There’s got to be some paying customers here in the seahaven, right? Let’s take a look around.” This is our real introduction into Sub Events, though this one isn’t optional. Walking around we’ll see people with exclamation marks above their heads, and talking to them will give us a sidequest or brief scene. There’s tons of these, and again, I won’t bother showing all of them unless there’s a scene or the reward is aces.  Our first Sub Event is right next to where we start.   “Oh, you’re mercenaries? Perfect timing.” “What kind of request?” “Someone’s got a problem with monsters, and we get paid to solve their problem.” “Ah. So by taking on these jobs, you get the reward and I get the practice.” “Right. Everybody wins. Except the monsters. Okay, hit us with the details.” “Some monsters we’ve never seen before are lurking near a lake west of this seahaven. A lot of people depend on that lake for water, so those monsters have become a real nuisance. I’m looking for someone to exterminate the beasts.” “What’s the reward?” ”Cash, of course.” “You heard the woman. Thoughts?” “Sounds fine to me. Fighting monsters will be good training.” “Excellent. Now, these beasts are no pushovers, so please watch yourselves.” “About your sword training… The monsters aren’t just going to stand there like training dummies, you know. We should go over some basics first.” “I appreciate it.”   “You have my gratitude.” “Shall we go?” “Wait, Jude. Take a moment to consider your situation. You don’t have to stay with me anymore, you know.” “R-Right…” “Now that we’ve crossed the border, it’ll be a while before any pursuers from Rashugal get here.” “What are you suggesting?” “Just that he still has some time to think things over.” “Sorry. I’ll make up my mind by the time you set off.” “Okay, very well.”   “That’s a pretty tough lesson for a kid your age.” “Yeah, but I brought it upon myself.”That’s rough, buddy. Anyway, we’re now free to roam the rather limited reaches of the seahaven or just go out to Aladhi Trail and fulfill the request. But there’s one or two things here I want to show off first. The first is this skit: Skit: The Calamity Key      “Can’t a mercenary have a friendly chat with his client?” “That much is fine. But when you want to chat, you needn’t hold your breath and sneak up behind me.” “Yeesh, you make me sound so unsavory.” “Do you berate poor Jude like this too?” “I don’t intend to berate anyone. That was never my intention.” “Do try to be gentle with him. Boys can be so vulnerable.” “That’s a surprisingly tender sentiment.” “That’s what it says on my business card. ‘The mercenary with a heart of gold.’” “Those are good words to live by. Although with a motto like that, I can’t imagine you’d live very long.” “Heh. Not the type to sugarcoat things, are you?”Just to remind you all that Milla grabbed that weird hourglass key from the Lance, and also to get a bit of a better read on Alvin. The second thing is Shop Expansion. Upon heading to any of the nearby shops, we’re treated to this message:   Instead of the usual JRPG system where shops have different wares, in Xillia all shops carry the same supply game-wide, and have their stock expanded and cheapened by how much money or material you’re willing to donate to them. Donating to one will lower the prices and make more available in every store of that type through the entire game. Let’s not think about the insane logistics of this setup. Instead, let’s demonstrate.     By donating to the item shop…  The store will level up…  …And we’ll get discounts on some important items. Apple Gels and Orange Gels restore 30% of HP and TP respectively and Life Bottles revive downed teammates, for the record. We don’t have enough materials currently to unlock any new items, but we’ll get more from defeating monsters and checking random search points (those shining spots and random sacks we saw littered about in the sewers). I generally prioritize the Weapon and Armor Shops, then Item, with Accessories and then Food taking the bottom. Food can give you important benefits like experience growth, but you can’t carry many of each meal, and I also rarely remember to eat them anyway. We can finally head outside now, but it’s time for another scene. Aladhi Trail      “What’s that?” “Lillium Orbs are handy things. They let you sense your companions’ intent. That’s a huge advantage in battle. You can coordinate your thoughts to pull off combination attacks. We call this Linking.” “Sounds great, but how do we do it?” “Try it and see for yourself. Focus your consciousness into the Lillium Orb!”  Here we get the tutorial for a crucial feature of Xillia’s combat: Linking. This is where the Dual Raid part of Dual Raid Linear Motion Battle comes from.  “Alright. Try Linking up!” Upon hitting a directional button, a blue beam forms between our lead character and the corresponding character. This is a Link, and being Linked has a number of positive effects on both characters. The most major involve the AI for the partner character changing its patterns. “So this is Linking…”   The character you’re linked with will automatically move behind an enemy you’re near, allowing for easier critical hits.  “I can sense Jude’s next movement.” They will also attack in sync with you, allowing for more extended combos. This comes in especially handy with your launcher combo, which will now further juggle the enemy.   “Hey! Watch your back!” “I’ll help!”    Your partner will also move to defend you from getting flanked yourself. Something else that doesn’t get mentioned here is that if you’re getting comboed your partner may also move in and shield you.    Support skills like Milla’s Bind are AI-exclusive and are the main reason you want to be switching Link partners based on enemy types. Speed-type enemies like these wolves are susceptible to Bind, Milla’s skill, which holds the enemy in place. For the record, Jude’s skill, which we won’t be seeing, is Restore, which lets him give you back a small portion of HP when you get knocked down. It’s best used against Power-type enemies like the scorpions in this fight. It’s possible for it to even revive fallen teammates.  “I think you’re ready to learn some Linked Artes.” Linked Artes are simple, but one of the more fun parts of the whole system. By using a normal arte and pressing R2…   We can combine two artes into a Linked Arte that does more damage and allows us to further charge the blue meter on the left.     Those are the just the basics. We’ll learn more in the near future. Some of it in the very near future. For instance:     Let’s break this down. The first tip is just reiterating information we just learned. The second is about Alvin’s skill, Breaker, which is a guard break that makes him useful against Guard-type enemies who block often. Partners will also help each other with TP management. Not only will partners share in the TP recovery for combos following artes, they will also help pay the cost for artes as part of a combo. Partners can also share in the effects of certain skills gained from the Lillium Orb and set from the menu. All this put together means that there’s pretty much no reason not to be Linked whenever possible. Now, the monsters we’re looking for are to the west, but if we head east we come across this skit, served to us automatically: Skit: There’s a Town Around Here  “Wanna take a peek?” “But we haven’t completed our job yet.” “Come on, school’s out. Your homework doesn’t have a due date anymore.” “Is that the way it works?” “That’s the way it works. The whole reason you took the request was to pay my fee, right?” “I had been planning to get you paid in Nia Khera.” “That so? Well, you’re the client! At the end of the day, it’s your call.”If we do end up heading north, however…    So no sequence breaking for us, I’m afraid. The age-old JRPG trope of “there’s some poo poo in the way” triumphs once more. Let’s actually go tackle those monsters, then.           So, Over Limit is something of a staple in the Tales series, but like the battle system itself here it’s a bit different. It shares the traits of infinite combos and no stagger with its predecessors, but it also affects your Linked artes. Instead of TP, linked artes will consume a small portion of the meter on the left, which constantly drains while Over Limit is active. Despite the warnings, this fight isn’t meaningfully tougher than any other fight in the area, besides Guard-type enemies that encourage you to switch your Link to Alvin.    “You got that right. Let’s head back to Aladhi Seahaven and make a report.”Back at the seahaven…    “More where that came from, too. Lots of people with problems out there, and gald to make ‘em go away.” “You’re a real pro at this, Alvin.”           “Ever?” “Through Sylph, I drew life from the air. With Undine’s power, I received sustenance from the water.” “I guess the spirits gave her all the energy she needed. Well, now you’re going to have to nourish yourself the old-fashioned way.”  “So, should we rest at the inn?”  For whatever reason, this is when the game decides to introduce us to the Auto-Item system, which allows allies to automatically use certain items when it’s beneficial. It’s really handy.    We’re immediately going to turn it off. Why? Well, it’s a surprise. It’s really stupid and not worth it but I’m going to show it to you anyway. Unrelated to everything else, here’s a skit: Skit: Intelligence Work  “That was quite a sigh.” “So seriously, you guys are spying for Auj Oule, right?” “What? Of course not.” “I’ve never heard of the Military Powers Act being used against anyone other than Auj Oule spies.” “Y-You’re thinking too much into this!” “Why are you so concerned about this? Unless you’re spying for Rashugal.” No, no. I was just thinking that if you were spying for Auj Oule… Maybe you could use your connections to score me some high-paying intelligence work.” “Sorry to disappoint you. But I assure you, I will pay your fee. You just have to wait a little bit longer.” “Fair enough. But even with your “special friend” discount, the interest is piling up.”Sounds like there’s some strife between Rashugal and Auj Oule. Those are… countries? I think?  Well, it’s time to head over to the inn so Milla doesn’t die.          “My stomach. It really is growling.”       Okay, I take it back, Milla’s definitely not boring. I apologize for being so clearly wrong.  *Jude Exclusive*     “Yeah. She’s apparently a spirit in physical form.” “Not just any spirit. The Lord of Spirits, Wielder of the Four Elements, the Eldest Spirit… Maxwell has many names. And now we add Milla to that list? She’s supposed to be the Spirit Maxwell? You gotta be kidding me.” “Is Maxwell really that mighty?” “Of course. That’s why this is so hard to swallow. I grew up hearing bedtime stories about Maxwell.” “What in the world would a spirit like that be trying to destroy?” “Trying to destroy? What’re you referring to?” “She called it a spyrix, I think. The device from the laboratory.” “Hmm.” “Maybe I should just ask Milla about it.” I don’t know. You have a nasty habit of poking your nose where it doesn’t belong. Your accursed curiosity made me a wanted man, too, you know.”Don’t blame Jude for your own bad decisions, Alvin. “…..” “Well, think hard before asking, okay?” “Yeah, you’re right.”*Jude Exclusive End* *Milla Exclusive*   “Don’t worry about it. Just part of the job.” “Oh?” “Heh. So now what’re you gonna do?” “Well…”*Milla Exclusive End*   “What is it?” “I’m thinking of returning to Nia Khera.” “Is that your hometown?”  God, I love Jude’s slack-jawed stare here. ”If I go back, I might be able to re-summon the Four.” “So, she really is Maxwell.” “This is where you come in, Jude. Will you accompany me to Nia Khera?” “What?” “Wow, you’ve put a lot of thought into this.” “Yes. Remember when you told me I seemed unconcerned? I decided to take that to heart.” “Milla, you don’t need to practice your swordplay anymore?” “No need to concern yourself with my martial abilities.” “Well, if nothing else, you know how to swing the pointy end.” “Okay, I’ll come with you.” “Good. You needn’t worry.” “A little more practice wouldn’t hurt, though.” “You think so?” “Better safe than sorry. Come find me once you’re ready to go.” “Wait, you’re coming with us, Alvin?”     A neat detail about this cutscene that changes based on the selected protagonist is that when Jude thanks Milla, on his route it shows his own face. Milla’s reaction here is only in her route. If there’s more details like this I probably won’t be able to catch all of them, but I’ll point out what I do notice.   Alvin’s still waiting for us by the gate.  “Milla, you said it’s north of here?” “How far?” “Less than half a day’s flight time, if we could fly using Sylph’s power.” “Oh, well, I’m afraid my wings are, you know, nonexistent. I hope we can find a place to rest along the way.” “The map showed a village in that direction, so we should be okay.” “Either way, we can’t just stay here. We must press forward.” And so we head north. Episode 4 Cutscenes Episode 4 Skits
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Oct 26, 2016 17:01
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Alvin is The Man but the man's default colors just look wrong to me, he was made for that coat in green.
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Oct 26, 2016 17:26
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 Before we actually leave the seahaven, a few new Sub Events have shown up. Most of them give us nothing interesting, but one of them is completable without leaving the area and lets us play around with a cosmetic feature.     Our petitioner here is some weird apprentice chef who prefers to figure out how to make a dish by eating it instead of using a loving recipe.  We can just buy one from the shop and give it to him, though.      Not much of a secret ingredient if it’s strong enough that you can identify it by taste, is it?  We got Bushy Eyebrows for that. Let’s try them on.    Hah, that’s good for a laugh. “A.” There’s a bunch of other cosmetic features available, some from Sub Events, some from exploring the world. I might show some of them off later, there’s some great ones. Alright, time to head back to Aladhi Trail. The tree’s conveniently been cleared, so we can continue north. Skit: Partners in Clime  “That’s true. The spirit climes here are much more stable.” “What are you talking about? What do you intend to climb?” “C-l-i-m-e. Surely the great Lady Maxwell knows all about the subject?” “Don’t flatter yourself by assuming I recognize every arbitrary word you humans create. Human arrogance can be so trying.” “Milla, do you know what Rieze Maxia is made of?” “As if I wouldn’t know? The power of spirits composes the entire natural world.” “Right. The term ‘spirit clime’ refers to the balance of spirit power. When that power is out of balance, nature can become polarized in one direction. That’s why there are unusual spirit climes, like the perpetual night of Fennmont.” “I see.”  “My pleasure.” “Oh I see how it is. I guess I’m just an arrogant human compared to lil’ ol’ innocent Jude."More naturebabble about Hamil     “Do you live here, ma’am?” “I would hope so. I’m the mayor!” “Is this the right road to Nia Khera?” “Nia Khera? Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in ages.” “What do you mean?” “It’s what people called a long forgotten village. I don’t even know if it still exists. I heard tales of the village as a child. People claimed it lies beyond the Kijara Seafalls.” “Where can we find it?” “You’ll need to cross some seriously rugged terrain to get there. It won’t be an easy journey.” “In that case, we should probably rest here before heading on.” “Agreed.” “I’m afraid our little village doesn’t have an inn. Not much call for one. But I’ve got an extra room in my house. You’re welcome to use it if you like.” “Thank you for your hospitality, ma’am.” So, here’s Hamil. It’s a sleepy little village without much happening on the way to Nia Khera. Skit: The Perfect Catalyst  “Spirits are really just masses of mana. They can’t interact with the temporal world in that state. For a spirit to take physical form, it needs a catalyst of a corresponding element.” “And as Maxwell, you can be any element, right?” “The human body contains all four elements, so it’s the perfect catalyst for me to take a physical form.” “What would happen if you lost your catalyst?” “I would gather elements to make a new one. But I’d have to wait for it to grow up.” “Grow up? You mean, you start as a baby?” “It’s time-consuming, but if you want to use a human form as a catalyst, you have to wait for the body to develop.” “So even the Lord of Spirits isn’t omnipotent.” “Not in this human realm, anyway.” “Let’s just be grateful she didn’t go with the male model, eh?” “Wouldn’t bother me.” “Oh? You swing both ways?” “That’s not what I meant.”Shut up, Alvin. So, Maxwell literally created a human body for herself, to be able to summon the Four freely. But due to the process, she was forced to start as a baby. That seems kinda hosed, especially in the early years. What if the spirits needed protecting during that time?   Now, if we head over to the side, we see a kid inspecting a tree.      “It’s my shiny object! Finders, keepers!” “Hmm. Looks like a puzzle. A difficult one at that. “How about this?” “Whoa! What’s happening?” “This looks like our letters, but different. More like ancient writing.” “Yada, yada, yada. More self promotion… Ah, here we go… ‘At last, I have reached terra incognita. But alas, I am unable to return home. I shall take my many treasures, seal them in arks, and scatter them about this land. It is my hope that they shall serve as beacons to those explorers who follow in my footsteps.’” “I’m impressed, Alvin.” “But I still don’t know what it means.” “I’ve heard of this Aifread. He’s a legendary pirate. He raided cities all throughout Rieze Maxia ages ago. He set off to find the end of the world and never returned, or so the legend goes.” “Nice of him to put his treasures in these boxes for us.” “The pirate Aifread’s treasures?! Ooh! Ooh! I wanna find them, too!” “Maybe you should learn to read first, young man.” “Yeah… Good idea. You’ll all wait for me, right? And keep this Aifread treasure stuff between us!”Yeah, sure thing, kid. I definitely won’t go pilfering every one of these I find for the rest of the game. Aifread’s Treasures are just another form of treasure chest that provide things like cosmetic items or even just more gald.  Or, in this case, a Mysterious Jewel. Wonder what that does. In the absence of any more new scenes, we’re left with no option but to head back to the mayor’s house and rest for the night.         “Hmm?” “What’s a spyrix? Why were you trying to destroy that device in Fennmont?” “Spyrix technology is something humans were never meant to have. So, I must take it away from them.” “Why?” “That is none of your concern.” “So you don’t trust me.” “Look, if you saw a toddler playing with a knife, what would you do?” “I’d probably snatch it away.”Sounds like a great way to get cut. Babies stab first, ask questions never. “And what would be your reason?” “Because it’s dangerous. The baby doesn’t know how to use a knife. He could cut himself, or worse.” “There’s your answer.” “What? But we’re not babies! If we understand what we’re dealing with, and if we see the dangers, we can learn how to use it safely.” “So you say. But to me, you’re no different than infants.”  “I will do what I must to protect this world. If that means destroying the Lance of Kresnik, so be it. It’s my mission.”  “What’s going on?”   “So they did follow us.” “I dunno, kid. They found us awfully fast considering this isn’t their home turf.” “Well, it’s not like we can ask them about it. Let’s go before they find us.” “There’s an exit in the western part of town. That must be the way to the Kijara Seafalls.”    “We force our way through.” “Right, and fast, before any more arrive!” “So that’s your plan? Just charge through? I thought I was reckless.”  “What is it?” “Um… What are you doing?” “We’re trying to figure out how to get past those soldiers.” “Way to cut to the chase.” “So those people… They’re in your way?”             “Toward the square.” “What? No! She mustn’t! You all must be outsiders. You should hurry and leave this place.”   But before we leave, let’s explore this area a tad. Not much around, but if we climb…     Oh, Alvin, you charmer, you.  Now let’s just climb back dow—   Oh god the blood   Wait, what? Galia Trail  You may notice that I’m cutting out a lot of the between-travel except for skits. Well, there’s a good reason for that. A lot of the areas in this game, in particular the trails that break up the villages and the more interesting regions, are boring and lifeless as poo poo. They contain a bunch of search points, a few treasure chests, maybe an Aifread’s Treasure or two, and that’s it. Even the battle screens are boring. I don’t know why they dispensed with the world map if they were going to replace it with featureless canyons everywhere. Skit: Rashugal and Auj Oule  “Why are you so interested in them?” ”Because they say the Auj Oule military hires based on ability, regardless of status.” “That’s certainly not how it works in Rashugal.” “Is that right?” “Yeah. All of Rashugal’s officials are descended from nobility.” “Traditions are lovely and all, but that doesn’t leave a lot of juicy gigs for mercenaries like myself.” “But I wouldn’t want to live in Auj Oule. The clans are always fighting amongst themselves. There’s no way I’d be able to concentrate on my studies.” “And here you sit, above it all.” “Correct. I don’t intervene in the affairs of human society.”Finally, some actual information on the differences between Rashugal and Auj Oule. For a while now they’d just been discussed in vague generalities. While exploring the (limited) reaches of Galia Trail, Alvin has been developing his Lillium Orb nicely.   Again, this is nothing compared to how big these things are going to get.  Kijara Seafalls   “At least the soldiers didn’t come after us.” “I hope we didn’t make trouble for those villagers. They were so kind to us, too.” “What else could we do but run? Rashugal’s troops showed up.” “The villagers picked the fight, not us.” “How can you talk like that? Maybe they were trying to protect us?” “If you’re worried about them, then maybe you should go back. It was a pleasure knowing you, Jude. Thank you for all of your help.”Milla emphasizes the word “help” here in a super-catty way and I kind of love it. “How can you be so cold?” “You’d rather I get emotional? I’m afraid I don’t have that luxury. What is it you humans say… ‘I’ve no time for waxing sentimental.’”Actually, no human has ever said that. “Because of your mission?” “Precisely.” “So you think your emotions would prevent you from doing what you have to do?” “Can a person still fulfill their duty if they become emotional?” “Only one way to find out. You’d have to try and see.” “Well then, you should take your own advice.”  “Maybe then you’ll have your answer.” “I suppose.”  “Hey, are you on a mission, too?”          So, the Kijara Seafalls are really just a beach with a lot of weird rock formations.  We at least get some new enemy types, including these Ribbits who are Unknown-type and have no recommended Link partner. The Coastal Mandragoras here we don’t have the correct party member for, either.   It’s not a good sign that I’m already getting a little sick of the phrase “spirit clime,” is it? Okay, before we go here, I’m going to offer a peek behind the curtain: the following cutscene is a combination of two unique scenes between the two protagonists. I’ve combined them to the best of my ability, and if you want to view the different scenes untampered for whatever reason I’ve put the unique parts of both in sequence in the cutscene video.     “It has a certain kind of serenity. When I meditate there, it feels like my power is concentrated.”  “We can rest once we reach the village.” “Right? Rest a while.” “Oh, sure. Hey, I won’t argue with that.”                      Um.  Good loving question.  Parts of this scene are really gross and it’s only made worse by the villain Foxlady here, who is played by Ali Hillis giving an absolutely raunchy performance.         “Oh, have I found your limit?” “You should know… Maybe I just don’t have it with me anymore.” “I see. Are you sure about that?”           “Who are you? Who was it that hired you to do this?” “Do you really expect me to just tell you? What do you take me for? Do I honestly look that easy to you? We’re going to have a lot of fun together later. Just you wait and see.”      “Hmm?”                 Boss: Greater Demon Okay, so I have to say something about this: I’ve never loved Tales bosses, and while I admittedly get tossed around in this video, the boss fights in this game are rather unfun. They’re massive HP sacks that basically require guarding, which doesn’t feel great and breaks up the pace of the fight, which is a killer in this game particularly. This actually a rather easy one, which is to say it’s the tip of the iceberg. You’re going to see a lot of me getting my rear end kicked, is what I’m saying. We also get a brief tutorial on Linked Arte chaining, which is a technique accessible in Over Limit that lets you chain together multiple Linked Artes by inputting the command for one at the end of another. You can even switch partners during this, it's pretty neat.   “It wouldn’t have mattered either way. Alvin still would’ve gotten into that woman’s blind spot.” “You thought of all the angles that quickly? What are you, a tactical genius?” “Genius is a good word. Not many people can think that fast.” “Hey, it was nothing.”   “Hey, where’d that woman go?” “Hold your horses, Mr. Honors Student. We’re not gonna get anywhere if we spend all day worrying about the bad guys. Come on, let’s get moving.”Skit: A Monster That Size  “Monsters who experience a mutation in their mana lobes expand to massive sizes.” “You read that in a book?” “Yep.” “Sheesh. Not much gets a rise out of you, does it? You’re no fun at all.” “You didn’t seem particularly surprised yourself.” “Well, that wasn’t anything I haven’t seen before.” “You’ve traveled around the world and seen all sorts of things, huh?” “All true, but I’ve never seen anyone pick a fight with a monster that big before.” “Well, I’m glad that we were able to show you a new experience.” “Mmm. Lucky me!”Blah blah mana lobe blah blah big monster. Next time, we’re finally going to make it to Nia Khera! I’ll try to keep that update from ballooning as much as this one did. Episode 5 Cutscenes Episode 5 Skits (I had to cut out some really great comedic skits because this update was already way too long, but know that there’s some good ones in here. Echo in particular is worth checking out) Arist fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Nov 2, 2016 |
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Nov 2, 2016 02:21
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This is about the point where my PS3 blew up, so all this... including that chick's outfit... is new to me.
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Nov 2, 2016 13:37
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   “No clue, although she did seem to know me.” “I imagine you mercenaries make a lot of enemies in your line of work.” “Although, I have to admit, she was really pretty.” “I never pegged you for the bad-girl type, kid. Or maybe you just like older women.” Don’t joke, Jude. We just got through watching that lady grope Milla and I’d rather she be kept away from the 15-year-old. Nia Khera             “I-I can’t believe you deign to speak to me! I am unworthy!” “I guess she’s the real deal.”This is like the third time you’ve realized she’s Maxwell, Alvin. Try to keep up. “She’s something, all right.” Not everyone gets to road-trip with a major deity. I had my doubts.” “Please, relax. No need for formalities. You say Ivar isn’t here?” “Yes, but he should have returned by now. We’re worried about him.” “I see. He always did have a short temper. Please return to your work.” Time for a bit of the old Aaron Sorkin walk-and-talk.   “I’m not exactly a religious scholar.” “The village has four altars, each with a temporal stone.” “So you want us to bring those to the shrine you mentioned?” “Precisely.” “Why not just ask the villagers for help?” “You saw what just happened.”  “Ah, the trials of godhood. Well, I guess a little physical labor won’t kill us. Right, kid?” “We can handle it.” “Please be patient for just a while longer.” “Ah, sure. Okay, let’s get hunting for those temporal stones. You said they were in the village?” “Yes. Gather the stones and bring them to the shrine. It lies beyond the village.”     There’s wind.    Earth.    A neat thing about this area is that while playing as Milla all the villagers will bow whenever you get close. Let’s talk to the elder again.  “I’m glad to see you’re all well.” “All thanks to you, Lord Maxwell.” “Wow, so people really do worship Milla!” “It’s pretty rare to find Maxwell worshipers these days. But apparently they used to be quite common.” “Faith in the spirits seems to have fallen pretty dramatically, although I couldn’t tell that from here.” “The more spirit artes progress, the more spirits are seen as simply another facet of nature.”A facet to be exploited, of course. “So they used to be a bigger deal back then?” “Yeah. Legends say that it was the Spirit Maxwell who created Rieze Maxia to begin with. And the first human to follow him, Kresnik, came to be known as the Genesis Sage.” “Correct. And the people of this village are Kresnik’s descendants.” “Heh heh. Yeah, you get crazy origin stories like that in all these rustic towns.” “How dare you! Twenty years ago I personally witnessed the advent of Lord Maxwell and the Four Great Spirits!”  Man, Alvin’s the fuckin’ best. What a troll.    “Come to think of it, the Six Ruling Houses of Rashugal are all a part of that legend too. Their founders were supposed to be the six disciples of Maxwell and Kresnik, right?” “Now that is the truly absurd origin story. Those fools have no clue about the true secrets of this world!”    Whatever. Back to picking up those magic rocks.  Here’s water, tucked away over on some stones in the creek.  And over here’s fire.   Skit: The Silencing  “Yeah, not since the Silencing twenty years ago. The power of the Four disappeared overnight, causing a worldwide panic.” “And when did Milla take human form again?” “Twenty years ago.” “Wait, are the two related?” “Yes. That was me. I reserved the Four for my personal use.” “Seriously?” “I have no reason to deceive you.” So Milla’s been hoarding the power of the Four Great Spirits all this time, ha.  We have to cut through the Nia Khera Spiritway to get to Milla’s shrine. There are a few new enemy types, including some butterflies that are surprisingly annoying for being loving butterflies, but it’s not much worth pointing out. We could also have headed out the northwest exit of Nia Khera to the Xagut Floodmeadow, but that would have just resulted in us getting our asses kicked by high-level enemies for little reward.    “Is this your house?” “My house? I’ve never really thought about it like that, but I suppose so.” “Boy, you’re really in the sticks. What do you do for fun around here?” “My mission is not to entertain myself. I do spend time reading books written by humans, if you must know.” “Sounds fun.” Episode 6 Cutscenes Episode 6 Skits
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Nov 7, 2016 19:43
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FYI, The video for Episode 6 skits is still set to private
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Nov 8, 2016 00:38
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JohnOfOrdo3 posted:FYI, The video for Episode 6 skits is still set to private Should be fixed now!
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Nov 8, 2016 00:45
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Arist posted:Should be fixed now! Thank you!
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Nov 8, 2016 00:53
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 When we left off, Milla was attempting to re-summon the Four Great Spirits. Let’s see how that goes.              The temporal stones begin to crack…    Well, that’s not good.      Meet Ivar. Ivar is… something of a character.        One offscreen recap later…  “I cannot believe it.”  “Was I supposed to know that?”  “At least, that’s what they say. Nobody’s ever seen it happen.” “Ah, so I’ve heard.” “That’s blasphemy! Spirits are undying beings that dwell in the spirit world! It’s beyond your understanding!”    “But, the Four Great Spirits aren’t answering their lord’s summons.” “If you leave an egg in a box, and somehow that egg should get crushed, the cause must lie within the egg itself. Good ol’ Howe’s Egg Principle. You really are an honors student.”I feel like it’s a little more complex than that, Alvin. Surely that can’t be the whole thing.  Ivar is excellent.    “Milla.”  Look at this loving ham.      Ivar’s great because for the most part, the main party’s relatively chill and level-headed. Alvin might make fun of Jude a bunch, but that’s so far the worst it’s gotten, and he makes up for it by being the overall pragmatist. But then you have this idiot constantly flipping his poo poo. It’s amazing.  *Milla Exclusive*    “The woman at Kijara Seafalls and the Rashugal soldiers at Hamil. This must be what they’re all after.”  *Milla Exclusive End* *Jude Exclusive* Outside…    This loving guy.  “Milla wasn’t kidding about his short fuse.” “Uh, yeah. I mean… Huh?” “Hmph!”         *Jude Exclusive End*  “I would say the same to you. You didn’t go back to the village?” “No.” “Well then, let’s go set you up with the villagers.”  “No, that’s not it. So, what are you going to do now? Will you return to Fennmont to destroy the Lance of Kresnik?” “Yes.” “We can assume the mana serves as some kind of fuel. The Lance must gather mana before it can be used as a weapon. I doubt it will be ready immediately. I suspect their mana-gathering activities will continue.” “Are you planning to go alone?” “Stop beating around the bush. If you want to tell me something, just say it.” “I want to know, how come you’re so brave?”  “Bravery. That’s not really it. I have a task to perform. And I do whatever it takes to complete the task. It’s that simple.” “But you’re only human now. Isn’t this mission too big for just one person? I mean, you could die!” “You really are brave.” “Any other questions? Then let’s go back.” “Hey!” “Yes?” “Could I come, too? With you?” “Your whole life was turned upside down because you got involved with me. You don’t regret it?” “Well, sure… A little bit…”   “Y-You think so?” “I didn’t stay behind in the shrine to rest; I was hoping to sneak off without dragging you into things again.” “Really?” “Yes. Consideration for others was something I learned on our little journey together. It’s not as easy as I thought. Anyway, let’s head to the village. Now that you found me, I suppose I’m in no rush to leave anymore.” Okay, so the idea is to go find the Lance again by ourselves and somehow destroy it without the power of the Four, which we’d earlier decided was pretty much impossible. I’d say this plan was flawed but by the end of any decent JRPG your characters are strong enough to kick a tank into low orbit so I’m not too worried about our odds. Besides, it’s not really a Tales game unless your party occasionally does the most brick-headed thing possible. Back at the village…  “So you’ve made up your mind.” “Yeah. I’m going with Milla.” “True, but, I’ve made my decision to help her, and I’m sticking to it.” “Is that right?” “Alvin, thanks for all your help. Oh, I almost forgot. We still need to pay you.” “Ah, yes. My fee. I ran into some hayseed. He said he’d pay it.” “One of the villagers?” “Yep. He was all ‘Thank you for looking after Lord Maxwell!’ And ‘You saved our spirit!’” “Hmm. That sounds like the elder. He shouldn’t have offered. Alvin, I’ll pay you myself.”Now, hold on Milla. I’m not sure we can afford that. I spent all our gald on new weapons and pudding. “You need to learn how to read people, Milla. That old man was tickled pink to pay your debt. You’d crush him if you refused.” “You think so?” “I know so. Anyway, he told me to wait here for him. That was ages ago, though. Not sure what’s holding him up.” “He’s still in the village, right?” “Most likely. We should find him.” “Don’t forget to take care of anything you want while I’m still around.” This is Alvin’s screaming neon  I AM LEAVING THE PARTY warning, but there’s not much we can actually do right now with him, so let’s just go find the elder. “Worry not. I hear you’ve prepared payment for Alvin.” “Yes, yes. The villagers all pitched in and collected a small fund ages ago. It’s the least we can do to help you, Lord Maxwell. We’re farmers, not fighters, after all.” “I see.” “Told you.” “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”The elder pays Alvin. “So my debt is paid. Thank you for everything.” “Yeah, thanks!” “It was fun. See you around.”  And with that, Alvin’s gone. It’s a real shame, of the main trio here he was the most fun.    “Will you be departing again?” “But I would rather accompany you!” “Ivar! Tell me again of your duty.” “My duty? Why, it is to serve you, Lady Milla.” “And what of your other duty?” “Uhh, to protect the people of Nia Khera. Those who can’t protect themselves.” “Exactly. And now you see why Jude shall accompany me on this journey.” “While you fulfill your second duty.” “No, the fault was mine and mine alone. Indeed, if Jude hadn’t been there… I might never have returned safely to Nia Khera.”  “But Lady Milla!” “The matter is not open to debate. Will you abandon your duty to this village?” “No.” “Then let’s be off, Jude. I hope they haven’t closed off the seahaven.” “So does that mean we’ll be passing through Hamil again on the way?” “Hmm. Yes, that’s not a bad idea.” “Really? Is that okay?” “It will give us a chance to check up on Rashugal’s activity here in Auj Oule. If we’re lucky, we might even find a way to sneak into Fennmont.” “Gotcha, we’ll stop by Hamil then.” “Safe travels to you, Lord Maxwell.” “Thank you.” Ivar sends us off the only way he knows how. Unfortunately, Ivar is not a party member, not even in the “I won’t fight but I’ll travel with the party and appear in skits” capacity like Ion or Mithos. It’s a shame, though I imagine I’d probably get sick of him very quickly if he was in much more of this game than he already was.    “Yes.”   “If I’d only known that woman was Maxwell, I would have forced her to reveal the key’s whereabouts.” The game decides to keep the faces of the people we haven’t met hidden for some reason. I don’t know why, we haven’t met them yet and by the time we do it will be completely obvious because their character designs will be the same, but whatever. It just means that I had to get really lovely portrait images for them.  “Yes. Let her attract the attention of Rashugal while we quietly put all the pieces in place.” “Any word from Agria?” “She says they appear to have decided to construct a new key to replace the one they lost.” The back of this dude’s head is very serious about this situation. “Jiao, you no longer need to watch over the girl. Join the search for the key.” “But, sir…” “If the Rashugal soldiers have withdrawn, you need not monitor her personally.” “It only makes sense for priorities to change. The data is safe, after all.” “As you say…” How does someone dressed like that “infiltrate” anything? “Oh, so it’s truly safe to leave Maxwell alone?” And there’s our proper introduction to this game’s miniboss squad. Not quite as colorful as Abyss’, but they’ve got their own secrets.   “What is it?” “I was mulling over our options. What if we can’t take a boat straight to Fennmont?” “Well…” “I vote against taking the land route from Auj Oule. Crossing the mountains would be a real pain.” Oh, hey Alvin. How’s it going, man? “We could head to Sharilton from Sapstrath Seahaven.” “We? What do you mean, ‘we’?” “That handmaid of yours offered me a little job. He wasn’t so crazy about his exalted Spirit traveling with a pipsqueak for a protector.” “Hehe, very well. Good to have you back.” “Yeah, thanks for coming along.” “Thank Ivar and the villagers, not me. So, what’s the plan?” “First, we head to Hamil to investigate Rashugal’s movements.” “If they’re still there, that is.” “Then you’d better take this. Keep it handy, just in case.”Alvin hands Jude a map. “Shall we go?”…And with that, Alvin rejoins the party. God, what a jerk. I love this guy.  Sweet, now we can warp anywhere we’ve been before (as long as there’s not a story reason we can’t). This game doesn’t have as much constant senseless world-crossing as some other Tales games but it’s handy nonetheless. Episode 7 Cutscenes No skits this time.
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Nov 14, 2016 19:47
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One reason why this thread probably isn't getting a lot of replies might be that a Tales of Xillia LP recently ended just 2-3 months ago.
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Nov 15, 2016 01:28
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 that would have been good to know a while agoBut I probably won't drop this either way.
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Nov 15, 2016 01:48
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 Despite our recent acquirement of the World Map, we’re actually going to head back to Nia Khera for a brief moment. Skit: Storing Mana  “Fundamentally, the Four are masses of mana.” “I never thought that was even possible.” “Apparently it is.” “We have to go rescue the Four then!” “A pissed-off med student’s probably not a tall order for the group that bagged the Four Great Spirits.” “……”drat, that’s pretty bleak, Alvin.  Let’s go see what’s new with Ivar in the five minutes since we’ve last seen him.  “What are you doing?” “Can’t you tell? I was giving this chicken advice about its problems.” “You were what?” “Ivar can speak with monsters and animals.”Sure, why not? “Lady Milla entrusted me with the sacred duty of protecting all who live in this village. And be it man or chicken, that’s exactly what I’ll do!” “Another chicken stole your territory and now you’re too stressed to lay eggs? I know exactly how you feel!” “He’s actually talking with it.” “It’s some kind of fancy spirit arte. I think they call it beastcraft or something. Lots of people in Auj Oule can command monsters, but even here, conversing with them is a rare skill.” “Hmph. It’s not merely conversing, mind you. With this power, I can control monsters and animals like the back of my hand!” “Wow, that’s really impressive.” “drat it, why aren’t you more jealous?” “Come to think of it, Ivar, you were the one who asked Alvin to accompany us. I wanted to thank you for that.” “I did? I asked Alvin to do what now?” “Hm?” “Hey, handmaid! I think this chicken’s about to lay an egg!” “Curses! Lady Milla, I’m afraid I must hurry to intervene before the chicken turf war escalates further! Rest assured, no disturbance to the peace of Nia Khera will be tolerated so long as Ivar is here!”Ahhh, this game’s pretty stupid in a really endearing way. “He certainly takes his work seriously.”  Spoiler alert, Alvin might not be entirely on the level, you guys.  Well, here’s the World Map. From here, we can warp to any destination we choose, story willing of course. Time to head back to Hamil.      Oh no, the villagers were secretly assholes! If it wasn’t yet obvious, Tales games are generally about as subtle as one of the rocks currently being hurled at this little girl.   “Stop it! Sticks and stones can break bones, you know!” Jude walks over to the girl.    “Is this Rashugal’s doing?” “They couldn’t find us, so they took it out on the village.” “Leave here at once! You outsiders are nothing but trouble!”  “Let’s see if the villagers know anything about Rashugal’s activities. Don’t forget, we’ll be leaving soon.” “Gotcha. Thank you.”   For now, the party’s splitting up briefly to check on different tasks here in Hamil. Jude’s going to be following the girl, while Milla and Alvin will try to get some information out of the villagers. *Jude Exclusive*    Rude Jude With the Crude ‘Tude just enters this house uninvited.         “Whoops! Clumsy little guy, aren’t you?” “This is Teepo. He won’t hurt you.” Teepo’s dead eyes fill me with an eldritch terror that haunts me to the very core of my soul. Also the voice actor is overdoing it a tad.  “Ah, heh. Nice to meet you, too… Er, both of you.” “Um… Are you okay?” “Sure, just thrown for a loop. My name’s Jude.” “Wah-hey, Jude! Thanks for helping us out before!” “Thank you.” “Well, first, all these meanie men showed up from who knows where. Some place far away! Then the big man whupped ‘em all!” “Ah, yeah, that guy.” “But then he wandered away somewhere.” “Right! That’s when the meanie men started bullying the villagers!” “Is the big guy a buddy of yours, Elize?” “No…” “He’s a bad guy! He locked Elly up!” “We arrived here together in Amnis.”(Amnis is the name of a month, for the record, and using supplementary information and Jude’s statement about the draft of his thesis being finished by Ignis we can reason that this happened somewhere between 1-3 months ago. Seems a little short but eh) “But they started chucking rocks at us the second we stepped outside! Those meanies!”And they do this because? I’m legitimately unsure if this ever gets explained or if it’s just requisite Tales Casual Dickishness causing the villagers to ostracize this young child and pelt her with rocks.  “Jude?” “Oh, sorry. Are the two of you waiting for friends here or something?” “Friends? We don’t have any.” “Well, you do now.”       “Why?” “I don’t like the way the villagers here treat you. I want to ask my friends if there’s anything we can do.” “Sure, why not? Jude’s our pal! We can trust him! Right, Elly?” “Thanks, Elize. You just wait right here.”    *Jude Exclusive End* Let’s see how Milla and Alvin are faring on the other side of town. *Milla Exclusive*  About as well as could be expected. “Scram? What happened to the down-home hospitality you showed us when we got here?” “Hmph.” “Worry not. We’ll soon be on our way.” “But if you keep acting like that, we just might have to stay here longer.” “What do you want from me?” “I want to know what happened to Rashugal’s forces. Have they left?” “Hmph. Chief Jiao drove them off.” “Chief Jiao?” “Lemme guess. Big guy? Funky beard?” “Yes. Things could’ve gotten a lot worse if not for him.” “Huh. So what happened to this Chief Jiao of yours?” “Don’t ask me. We’ve been living a nightmare here ever since he brought that accursed girl with him.”In what way? Please quantify your issues with Elize. I’m legitimately asking. Is it just that you’re annoyed that there’s another child character in a JRPG? I understand your perspective, but it’s no justification for violence. Give her a chance, she can’t possibly be as bad as Anise. Boy, am I gonna eat loving crow when it turns out they totally explain this in a single line of dialogue I completely forgot about fifteen hours from now. “He should have taken her with him when he left. In any case, we’re through with outsiders here.” *Milla Exclusive End*     Oh my god Teepo what are you doing you are the stuff of nightmares “We’re finished here. We didn’t learn anything useful. It’s time to go.” “Wait. We need to talk. It’s about the girl.” Milla’s got no time for this bullshit. Jude explains the situation.  “Until that big fellow Jiao returns, I don’t see her situation improving.” “But Elize insists Jiao isn’t her friend.” “He locks her up when he’s around, and the villagers treat her horribly when he’s away. Sounds like she’s stuck between a jerk and a hard place.” “Unless we bring her with us.”People are trying to murder you, Jude. This isn’t the best environment for a child, even if she’s only like three years younger than you are. “Bring her with us? And then what? Have you given this any thought? You do remember my mission.” “Yeah. …... …….”Huh, the rare and coveted double ellipses. Jude’s breaking barriers in impotent angst. “Very well. She can come.” “Really?” “Jude. Do you remember what I told you at the falls?” “Huh?” “Be yourself, and do what you have to do. That’s what I said to you. “Yeah, I remember.” “Those words still apply. Can I assume your decision to bring the girl is just another step in your path? That it will help you find the answers you seek?” “Y-Yes.” “Then tell Elize she’s coming.” “You got it.” “That was nice of you.” “She won’t affect my mission. If she slows me down or gets herself in trouble, I’ll just leave her behind. My intent from the beginning was to do this alone, after all.” Alvin’s starting to run up the score on pensive looks when no one in the party is watching. I’m sure it’s nothing.  Alright, new party member ti-hey, wait a second.  Unfortunately, as denoted by the green leaf and lack of any stats, Elize isn’t a full party member, which means she can’t fight. drat 12-year-olds, never pulling their weight. Let’s not let that stop us from giving her an introduction, though. .jpg) Elize is probably in the upper tier of Tales’ Random Child character archetype, which isn’t an incredibly high bar but still worth noting. She’s voiced by *coughs*uncredited*coughs*, while Teepo is voiced by Erin Fitzgerald taking her Chie voice to its logical extreme. My reaction to Teepo is… mixed, shall we say. Part of it’s the voice acting, I think. Fitzgerald is just trying a little too hard. I will say that while he’s not great, if these games are going to keep having at least one character who annoys me occasionally I’d gladly pick Teepo over most of the others I’ve seen. He’s not Edna, at least. gently caress, I’d pick Mieu over Edna. Episode 8 Cutscenes Episode 8 Skits
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Dec 7, 2016 08:27
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What is a Teepo?
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Dec 8, 2016 06:26
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Nissin Cup Nudist posted:What is a Teepo? If it wasn't clear, Teepo is a stuffed animal. We'll pursue some leads that will tell us more about him, one in the very next update, but I'm not sure he's really supposed to resemble anything at all. He just looks weird.
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Dec 8, 2016 16:02
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 Strap in folks, because this one’s gonna be a beast. Skit: Howe’s Egg Principle   “500 years ago, Professor Howe used that principle to deduce how spirit channeling works.” “Although, people still channeled beforehand, right? They just didn’t know what they were doing.” “Yeah. Since spirits have no apparent physical form, people weren’t aware they existed at all. But Professor Howe surmised that something had to be converting the mana from our mana lobes into artes.” “And that turned out to be spirits.” “Yep. His hypothesis was proved with the discovery of spirits that had taken physical forms.” “And ‘cause he figured out what was inside the egg, the age of spirit artes was born.” “Exactly. Although there’s a lot we don’t understand about spirits.” “Like Maxwell being a busty twenty-year-old. Bet even Professor Howe didn’t see that one coming.”Howe’s Egg Principle isn’t exactly hard science. I’m also not sure what any of that had to do with eggs but whatever.  Time to leave Hamil.        And no one cared she was gone  Alright, we’ve rescued Elize from the awful, no-good villagers of Hamil, time to…  …turn right back around and re-enter Hamil! It’s Sub Event Time!    “I knew we should have never kept that strange girl here!” Unfortunately, this man does not turn around during this scene. Please accept this crude artist’s rendering of his face in place of an actual portrait. We apologize for the inconvenience.  “No child that age should be able to use spirit artes like that. It’s not normal!”Ah, so it’s because she can use spirit artes that you’re ostracizing her? But that doesn’t explain why you’re blaming her for the soldiers. “It doesn’t matter. We couldn’t refuse Chief Jiao’s requests after he forgave our tribute debts during the famine.” “That may be, but he’s an outsider too! They’re nothing but trouble.” “Don’t you remember when they stole our prized napples and poranges? And to add insult to injury, we found out they were growing them outside without our permission. “Our ancestors built this village from nothing, without help from anybody else. The only people we can trust are each other.” “Exactly right.”  “Why? Those were their true feelings.” “……” “But, that lady used to add an egg in my porridge.” “And that man patched up the holes in the shed that we stayed in.” “I think you could count those as their true feelings too.” “Agreed. If they didn’t truly believe in helping others, it would be difficult for them to survive way out here.” “Then why did they chase Elize out?” “Sometimes you have to cut off outsiders to protect the people on the inside. Staying alive isn’t always pretty.” “It’s a matter of priorities, I suppose.” “……” “……”Well this was a depressing side note. Now for a lighter scene all the way back in Nia Khera.   “Aw!” “They’re so cute!” “Mmm, rappigs. These things are good eatin’!” “You eat them?!” “Absolutely! Their ears are the best part. Just pluck out the hairs, give the ears a quick boil, slice ‘em up nice and thin, and serve with a sweet-and-sour dipping sauce. A bit of an acquired taste, perhaps.” “Sounds good to me.” “Try one for yourself. I’m sure that between the two of them, they can spare at least one ear.” “Hold it. One of these is a rappig, but the other is a piggit.” “A piggit?” “It’s a rabbit-like pig that looks like a rappig.” “Oink, oink.” “They may look alike, but biologically speaking, they’re completely different. Rappigs are rabbits that look like pigs. Piggits are pigs that look like rabbits.” “They seem to be colored a little differently.” “Yeah. One’s pig-pink, the other’s bunny-pink.” “Good eye, Elize! That’s it exactly.” “Is that true? I still can’t see any difference.” “There are several distinguishing features. You can tell if you’ve studied their biology.” “Intriguing.” “Honestly, who cares? As long as they both taste good, right?” “You should care. Piggit ears are highly poisonous.” “Seriously?!” “Every year people die from eating piggit ears that they thought came from rappigs.” “How awful!” “I had no idea. No more rappig ears for me, I guess.” “Oink, oink.”Now that we’ve learned about Jude’s minor in animal husbandry, we can finally head back to Aladhi Seahaven and set sail.   “I’m afraid the Rashugal government has blockaded the capital and its surrounding regions.”This seems like kind of an important development to just shove into this brief scene, doesn’t it? “That means all scheduled voyages to Fennmont have been canceled. We apologize for the inconvenience.” “Are any ships sailing?” “Sorry, ma’am. Ah, but the route to Sapstrath Seahaven is still open. Would you like a ticket to Sapstrath Seahaven?” “Very well. Please board the ship and await departure.”     “Something like that. It’s how I keep in touch with someone special from afar. I told her a beautiful woman has appeared in my life.” “Hey, I didn’t know you were married.” “Heh. Do I look like the marrying type to you, Mr. Honors Student?” “Huh? You mean you’re not?” “Who knows?” “Oh, looks like we’re about to depart.” “Yeah.”  “I’ve never seen the sea before.” “Impressive, huh?” “Wasn’t she being held captive?” “Maybe it was the other way around. Maybe she was being protected.”  “Haha. Teepo, look!” “Wah-hey! Check out that water! You’d die if you fell in!”Teepo is a rather morbid creature. I don’t trust him, I tells ya. If he had arms to do it with I’d put down a twenty on him trying to murder us in our sleep. “She’s not a bad girl.” “It doesn’t seem that way.” “I wonder if we’ll find someone who’ll take her in.” “That’s your responsibility. You’ll have to find someone on your own.” “Right.”*Jude Exclusive*  “Hmm. Isn’t she always like that? To be honest, I thought for sure she was gonna shoot down your idea to bring the girl along.” “Why?” “She’s just so single-minded. I bet she’d kick a puppy if it got in the way of her mission.” “Come on, Milla isn’t that cold-blooded.” “I wonder.”  “She must’ve swiped something big from there, huh, kid? Some juicy national secret that got the army all riled up?” “I don’t know. You’d have to ask her.” “Don’t play coy, kid. I’ll find out eventually. Why not just tell me now? It’ll be our little secret.” “I’m sorry. I really don’t know.” “Wow, I guess she really doesn’t trust us.” “No, that’s not true. Wait here. I’ll go ask her.” “No, no. If you really don’t know about it, then forget I asked. I mean that. I’m not trying to give you a hard time.” “But...” “I doubt she’d take kindly to me poking my nose in her business. So don’t tell her I asked, okay?” “All right. Got it.”*Jude Exclusive End* While that conversation was happening, Milla was in her own conversation with Elize and Teepo. *Milla Exclusive*  “Milla?” “You see something?” “No, I was just thinking. Elize, what are you going to do now?” “I… I don’t know.” “Hmm, what exactly do you know?” “We know Jude and Milla and Alvin are our pals!” “That’s not the sort of thing I meant. What is Teepo, for instance? How can a doll talk?” “What do you mean, what’s Teepo?! You’re lookin’ at him! I’m Teepo! I’m Elly’s pal!” “Having a conversation with you is quite difficult. We don’t seem to be on the same page.”*Milla Exclusive End*   “You’re right. Looks like we’re almost there.” “I wonder how tight Rashugal’s security is right now.” Well, aren’t you two suddenly chummy?  Milla reacts like a robot failing to understand the concept of love. FRIENDSHIP DOES NOT COMPUTE. To be fair to her, though, I just watched the last scene and I’m not sure where this sudden bonding actually came from either. “Milla! Milla’s our pal!”Or this sudden bonding, for that matter.  “……” “Hahaha… Looks like everyone’s getting along, at least.” Sapstrath Seahaven Finally, we arrive at Sapstrath Seahaven, land of…  …copious model reuse! Yes, this place does look just like the last two seahavens we visited! Can you guess what the next one will look like? Eh, at least this one isn’t out in the middle of loving nowhere, so there’s actually more than two people here. Of course, we’ll eventually regret that from the incoming glut of Sub Events. “Looks like security’s not so tight after all.” “Soldiers are still patrolling though. We’ll have to be careful.” “Strange, what changed? They were deploying soldiers across the border to find us before.” “Maybe they found something more important to do than chase after us.” “I’m not complaining. Let’s avoid the soldiers and head to Fennmont.” “Hang in there, Elize. It’ll be just a little while longer till we reach the city. Then I’m sure we’ll find the perfect person to take you in.” “What? But, I—” “Take us in?! What the hay are you talking about?!" “That’s news to her. No wonder she looks surprised.” “And he thinks I’m inconsiderate.” “He’s just a kid.”  Over by the bulletin board…    “Wow, you both look so evil!” “That’s supposed to be Jude and I? “Well this is lucky. If that’s what they’re looking for, there’s no way they’ll ever catch us.” “These are awful!” “Oh, I’m sure this can’t be fun at your age. Kids can be so self-conscious.” “No! I don’t care about me, but Milla looks terrible. “He’s right. This is quite unfortunate. The whole reason I assumed this form is because its appearance is effective against men. Half the human population. But if I’m as ugly as I appear in that poster, I need to fundamentally reevaluate my strategy.” “Wow, that is diabolical. I had no idea.” “Jude, be honest with me. Am I attractive from a male perspective?”Oh god. “Uh, well… You’re beautiful in my opinion.” “And sexy! Elly says she wants to look just like you!” “Teepo!” “You have nothing to worry about, Milla.” “So, what would you say are her finest features?” “Oh, maybe how good she smells or those amazing curves…”Maybe stop talking, Jude, you goddamn creep. “Yes, I see. Thank you for your invaluable opinion.” “My my, our little Jude is becoming a man.” “I-I was just speaking objectively!”On the other side of the seahaven, a strange sailor is staring at Elize…   “Oh, sorry. I just couldn’t help but notice that stuffed doll she’s got.” “You want a piece of Teepo, pal?” “Aha, I knew it! This one talks too!” “You mean you’ve seen a talking doll like this before?” “Oh yeah, they looked just like that one.” “That might be Teepo’s family!” “Where did you see it?” “A traveling merchant was selling them here a little while ago. He said he was heading west.” “That must be Sharilton.” “So there might be other Teepos besides Teepo?” “That is a possibility.” “I want to meet my family!” “Wow, these new toys are so impressive. Now I wish I’d bought one for my daughter!”So Teepo has a family, eh? How terrifying. For Elize, though, I suppose we should investigate the possibility when we make it to Sharilton.  For now, though, let’s head to the inn. It’s been a long trip.   “Hm?” “What is it?” “That woman… Quite a looker, eh? What do you think?” “Ugh, this again?”      “Alvin?” I refuse to add sound effects for these dudes beating up this woman.       “Mind your own business! You don’t know what she’s done!” “……” “drat it, he’s got friends. Let’s get out of here.” “Katte, was it? That’s an unusual name.” “Why did you help me?! You don’t know what they’ll do to you!” “Well, how do I put this?” “He can’t help it. Alvin’s always had a weakness for pretty faces.” “Ha ha ha. That’s my Jude! Always kidding around! Now, how about you take her back to the inn and tend to her wounds?” “As you command, sir.”  The next morning…   “Hey! Over here!” “What’s going on?” “Katte?!” “Did you know her? I’m sorry, but she’s already gone.” “What happened? Was it those two men from yesterday?” “No, it wasn’t them.” “Do you know who did this? “Hey, could you give us a moment here? It won’t take long.”Sure, just mess with this fresh corpse all you like, charming stranger.  “The Rats?” “That’s what they call the female spy organization that works for the Aktau clan. They’re one of the shadier tribes in Auj Oule. The Rats use women to gather intelligence. As their name implies, they sneak in anywhere, like rodents. They’re pretty well known in Auj Oule.” “I can’t believe it.” “I don’t think those thugs from yesterday had caught on to her real identity. They must have been from the group she was spying on. They wouldn’t have gone this far.” “Then who?” “Other Rats. With her cover blown, she became a liability. I had a hunch that she might have been a spy, but this might be my fault.” “No, this isn’t your fault.” “Are you guys done?” “Yeah. Thanks for that.” “You okay?”  “You can’t save everyone, kid.” Now that Alvin’s gotten someone killed, it’s about time we moseyed on.  What’s this? Yet another person wants our goddamn attention?    “Come now, don’t be like that. Linger a moment, and bring an old man some joy.” “What kind of story?” “You don’t want to go there, Jude. Give this guy an inch and he’ll take a mile.” “Don’t worry, young man. I promise this story will be worth your time. Why, it might even save your life!” “Sounds interesting. Tell us your story.” “That’s more like it. Now, hear my tale of monsters. Many years ago, a young man named Trille lived among a northern tribe. Trille had a talent for controlling monsters. An unusual gift that gave him the ability to draw out a monster’s hidden powers. But Trille’s genius was not easily sated, and he began to dabble in forbidden artes. By tampering with monsters’ mana lobes, he sought to create a monster that would grow stronger with every battle.” “Tampering with mana lobes? But that’s not—” “Possible? No. But Trille did it all the same. After over twenty years of research, he successfully created six new monsters. These creatures, with their hyper-enlarged mana lobes, could cast new spirit artes out of pure instinct. Each of the six monsters has a weapon growing out of its body, as if each was a living incarnation of the weapon itself. These weapons were dubbed ‘Devil’s Arms,’ and the monsters themselves, ‘Devil’s Beasts’.”Christ, this is a long story. “In all my years as a mercenary, I’ve never heard a story like that.” “Twenty years ago, Trille took his six Devil’s Beasts and led them into a great war. But a huge tsunami hit the battlefield, and washed everything away, including Trille. And this the secret knowledge needed to create these monsters was lost.” “That’s it? Thanks for wasting our time, old fella.” “Ah, but the story’s not over yet. You see, the Devil’s Beats didn’t die that day. Trille’s death released them, and to this day, they still roam free somewhere in the world.” “And you said these Devil’s Beasts get stronger with every fight?” “I did. And now that they’ve been fighting for over twenty years, I can’t even imagine how strong they must’ve become. So listen well: If you see a monster with a weapon growing out of its body, do not attempt to fight it! That, my friends, is the moral of my little story, and the secret to a long life.”The Devil’s Arms are yet another relic of Symphonia, though the bit about them being attached to monsters is new. Despite all the hype, the weapons are relatively weak on their own, but after finding them all and fulfilling a bonus requirement their true power is activated. We won’t be going into that for a long time, though. He’s right about one thing; we don’t want to gently caress with the Devil’s Beasts just yet.   “I knew things were too easy.” “What’ll we do?” “Wah-hey! What’s over yonder?” “That’s the Deepwood.” “If we can hike our way through there, we’ll come out right near Sharilton.” “Then our path is clear.” “It won’t be easy going. What about Elize?” “You knew she’d face risks on this journey.” “……” “I’m fine. Really. I can go with you.” “Don’t argue, you guys. You’re pals, remember?” “Elize…” “The girl has agreed, so this matter is no longer up for debate.” “……”Sapstrath Deepwood  “Let’s try to stick together, okay?”    “What was that?” “Was it warning us, maybe?” “Well, Milla certainly seems unfazed.” “I see a way through! Hurry up, you two!” Pff. We don’t need a warning.  It’s just a forest, what, are the loving trees going t—oh goddammit    “That thing’s got reach. It can hit all of us with ease.” ”This could pose a problem.” “Elize, keep your distance.” “We can’t look after you and fight at the same time. Stay back!”   “Urgh…” “drat it.”    “Heh! Glad you brought us along now, huh?!”Elize is Xillia’s resident primary healer, which means she’s more-or-less going to stay fixed in the active party while she’s around. She hasn’t learned any yet, but she’s also a good source of damage via her Shadow-type spells. In that respect, she’s a combination of your generic Tales healer and Anise from Abyss, especially in the sense that Teepo plays a large part in her playstyle, which we’ll go into later. Her Link Skill, Teepo Drain, lets her steal HP and TP from the enemy and give them to her partner when they’re low on TP, more frequently if the enemy is a Technical-type or currently being air juggled.  Now that we’ve finally got four party members, our AI partners can also form a second Link! They get the usual benefits of Linking, and will even occasionally use a Linked Arte. They can’t go into Over Limit or use Linked Arte Chains, unfortunately, and they’ll also occasionally break the Link for no discernable reason, but it’s still nifty.  “Imagine, a little girl wielding artes like that.” “Elize, you saved us.” “It’s okay, Elize. There’s nothing to be scared of anymore.” “That’s not it…” “You two need to make up! Pals need to stick together!” “I promise I won’t get in your way again. Honest!” “You heard the little lady. Now make nice with Jude here, for Elize’s sake.” “Make nice? It’s not like I’m angry or anything.” “That’s not how it looks to me. You were getting along better before!” “I’ll do my best, okay?” “Why do I suddenly feel like the villain here? Heh. Fine. All is forgiven.” “Sorry for making you worry. And thank you.” “This is some serious friendship stuff right here! Level 99 on the friendship meter!” “Elize’s artes could really help us in a pinch, don’t you think so?” “Agreed. Thank you Elize. I’m counting on you.” “Sally forth, pals!” Alright, Elize has finally officially joined the party. Things are looking up.     why     “I bet these are smokeshroom spores. Once the spores get in your eyes or nose… You can’t stop crying.” “It doesn’t bother me. What a bunch of crybabies!”gently caress, he’s like a libertarian Elmo. Anyway, the gimmick here is that stepping on these mushrooms will reduce your health. Not even by a lot, but that’s it. The annoying part is that they’re placed in front of tunnel exits and in pretty inconvenient places where camera changes are common and you might step on them just because you can’t see them anymore. Still, not worth really getting upset over.   “We meet again.” “They don’t look ready to turn tail and run this time.” “Get along, little doggies!” “I sure wasn’t expecting him.” “What are you doing here?" “Good dogs. Thank you for telling me of these intruders.” “I thought Ivar was the only one who could talk with animals.” “You’re Jiao, right?” “Hmm? I don’t remember introducing myself.” “We heard your name from the people of Hamil. What do you want?” “Is that not obvious? Come, child. We’re returning to the village. You had me worried sick. I never thought you would leave the village while I was away.” “No! No! No! Don’t let him take us, Jude!” “Urgh…” “Do you have any idea how the villagers treated Elize when you left her alone?” “I am truly sorry about that.” “What exactly is Elize to you?” “Let’s just say, I know where she used to live. Where she grew up.” “So will you take her back to her home? Or, are you planning to lock her up in Hamil again?" “That is my business, and mine alone! You will hand the girl over.”    Boss: Jiao Jiao’s pretty simple and a good example of why I prefer human bosses in Tales games, because they can’t just gently caress up half the arena on a whim due to being totally gigantic. So, that went pretty well, let’s try it again as M—OH BARF  Episode 9 Skits (This one’s worth watching, there’s an entire skit about Milla’s weird hair thing in here) Episode 9 Cutscenes Episode 9 Sub Events In the past I’ve just combined them but for updates like this with tons of both I decided to split cutscenes and Sub Events into two videos. Arist fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Dec 12, 2016 |
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  Alvin’s being awful sarcastic considering how many times we wiped to this bastard.  “I want to stay with them because they made me their friend!” “And friends don’t leave friends alone!” “Elize.”  Aha! This dungeon’s gimmick finally pays off. (whispering) “Milla! Alvin!” “If it were up to me… I would not bring her back. I’m not doing this by choice.”               Jude the Tactician’s time-honored plan of “yo Alvin, shoot that” succeeds yet again!   And we’re out of the Deepwoods. I’d ask why any of that was necessary to bypass a checkpoint of like, four guards, but whatever. Sharilton  “We sure took the scenic route.” “And that big bearded meanie didn’t follow us, did he?” “Don’t worry. He’d never follow us into a place like this.” “Hey, check out this shop. It looks pretty interesting.” “Looks like antiques. They’re very nice.” “Why do all the folks around here look so nervous?” “Word is foreign spies broke into a military laboratory in the capital. The king sent his personal guards here. They’re interrogating anyone who even looks at them funny. Not very good for business, that’s for sure.”Haha, oops. Sorry, guy. (Starts eyeing Jude and Milla suspiciously) “Uh, right, um…” “Yeah, it’s pretty all right. Pretty expensive! That’s for sure.” “You have a good eye, young lady. That’s a genuine Efreet-fired cup.”Wait, so people would summon the master of flame, one of the Four Great Spirits, for ceramics? It seems like he’d have better things to do.  “Is that right? So this was hand made by Efreet?”  It’s moments like this, with Milla idly spinning this cup on her finger and ready to dunk on this idiot, that make me realize I probably underrated her character the first time I played. “It looks like these patterns are far too wild. Efreet values order over all else.”   “Yes, what about it?” “That’s quite peculiar. If I’m not mistaken, mankind lost the ability to summon Efreet around 20 years ago.” “Efreet didn’t make it? What a shame, that’s so disappointing.” “O-Of course. I’ll even be happy to offer you a nice discount.” I mean, the old guy did most of it. I’m not really sure why you’re thanking us here. “I’m Driselle Sharil. Pleased to meet you.” “And I am the young madam’s butler, Rowen. I’m happy to be at your service.” “Thanks again. You simply must join me for tea at my manor.” “Well, who are we to turn down a free lunch? Shall we swing by later?” “I live just south of the central plaza. I look forward to seeing you.” “Do we really have time for that?” “Well, I can think of several reasons we might want to take advantage of her hospitality.” “He’s right actually. Staying at an inn could be risky with all these guards everywhere.” “Hm, very well then. We’ll take time for some tea after we traverse the town.”Able alliteration, associate.  If it’s information we’re after, we need only accost the nearest small child with an exclamation point above their head.   “Whoa, a talking doll! It’s just like the other ones I saw!” “Where did you see them?” “A toy merchant was selling them here not too long ago.” “Where can we see this person?” “I don’t think he’s here anymore. He said he was going to some seahaven next.” “Do you remember which one?” “Hmm… Uhh…”   “Hey, have you ever seen anyone who looks like me?” “Oh, that’s it! It was Alotta Seahaven!” “Can’t say I recognize that. Oh wait, you mean Alashi Seahaven.” “Wah-hey! Nice work, me!” “Gosh, I’m so jealous. I wish my parents had bought me one of those.” “Teepo’s not for sale!”Alright, time to cross the loving ocean on a quest for this stuffed animal.  Back at Aladhi Seahaven, we see something of a crowd.       “Not at all. As you can see…” “We can talk at the same time!”  “That’s amazing! I want one!” “Mommy, I want one too!” “I’m sorry, we can’t. It’s just too expensive!” “Don’t say that! Go one and buy me! I’ll get you a discount!” “Hey, you’re not authorized to do that! But I guess it’s too late to take it back now. All right everyone, I’ll be selling the dolls at a special price, today only!” “Oh really? Then maybe I will take one.” “Over here! I’ll take two!” “Thank you!” “I think I’ll get one too.” “Look, they’re just like Teepo!” “They might really be my family!” “I’m not so sure about this.” “Let’s wait and see what happens.” “Come on, the boat’s leaving soon!” “Yeah, you’ll probably want to get onboard before those people find out you duped them.” “What do you all want?” “Duped? What do you mean?” “You’re using echore to make the dolls talk, aren’t you?” “Record the script ahead of time so you can play it back and reel in your customers.”This doesn’t explain why they looked and sounded like the real Teepo, though I’m willing to chalk that one up to laziness. “Simple and effective, and also quite underhanded.” “But that means…” “They’re not really my family.” “Hey, they still make sound. We’re not duping anybody!” “Spoken like a true con man.” “We know echore can only be used once, and that it loses its sound in a few hours.” “So what if it does! Does it make you feel heroic to hassle merchants over stupid trifles like this?” “Stupid trifles? Those kids trusted you, and you cheated them! Even Elize.” “It’s okay.”Yeah, but shouldn’t we at least report them or— “Please just stop!”No? We’re just gonna let these assholes get away and keep doing this? Okay. “Elize…”  “No, I’m just glad you cared that much about me.” “Everyone, thank you for trying to find my family.”  That’s so nice. And so unlike you!” “It wasn’t all bad. I was happy to see how much everyone wanted dolls like Teepo. It just goes to show how cute he really is!” “Uh… Well...” “Y-Yeah, that must be it.”For that little diversion, we get a piece of echore, an extremely rare Shop Expansion item. One wonders why these con artists weren’t just selling the echore they found if it’s so rare. Also, yes, that’s the end of that questline. Those guys never get caught. Now, if we head all the way back to Elize’s shack in Hamil, we get yet another scene.  “How long were you in here?” “Um… I’m not sure.” “Really long! Or kinda short… It was a blur!” “What would have happened to you if we hadn’t come along?” “The big man always used to say that I should try and get along with the villagers. So that maybe I could live here one day.” “I’m sure he meant well by that. But you can’t just ask a kid to live alone in some strange town.”  “Don’t drink from those! They’re full of strange juice that makes you dizzy!” “This is porange wine. It’s a type of liquor that glows in the dark. The longer it ferments, the mellower the taste and glow. After ten years, it’ll shimmer like the moon. That’s why they call the top-shelf version ‘Moonlight.’”So it’s implied Elize has been drunk before. Huh. “You sure know a lot about it.” “Naturally.” (drunkenly) “Mmm. This flavor certainly is deep and rich. This may be one of the best things I’ve had.” “Hey, that’s stealing!” “Don’t worry! Something like this won’t faze me.”  “But it just did.” “I just said it makes you dizzy!” “It went straight to her legs.” “I never would have guessed that was Maxwell’s weakness.”It’s nice to think sometimes God gets totally plastered just like the rest of us. Just completely loving hammered, you know?  Back in Sharilton, this young boy has something to say to us.   “Hm? Can we help you?” “Uh… N-Never mind.” “If you have something to say, you should say it loud and clear.” “You, uh… Uh…” “I can’t hear you. You need to speak more clearly!” “Wait! He might be—” “Okay! You look just like the criminals from the wanted posters!” “I was afraid of that.” “You actually recognized us from those awful posters?!” “I can’t believe it.” “You can get over it later! Run!”That little boy actually chases us out into the next zone of the city, though we can turn right back around with no consequence. Back in the same area…  It’s been sunny the entire time you’ve been in both countries, Jude.  “Did you come here from Auj Oule?” “We did. We came in through Sapstrath Seahaven.” “Well, good on you for making it all this way. I bet going through that checkpoint wasn’t much fun.” “Ah, it wasn’t that bad.”What are you talking about, Jude? You had poison spit into your eyes. We had to fight a bear disguised as a man. He had a big hammer and he killed Milla eight times. “We used to be able to trade with Auj Oule freely. But now with all these new regulations, it’s almost impossible to do business.” “I’ve heard things are getting weird at Fort Gandala too. I hear they’re working on some kind of big-time spirit arte.” “You think it’s for war?” “It could well be.” “Between Rashugal and Auj Oule? But why?” “I’m sure you’ve seen how the King of Rashugal has been consolidating power around himself. While on the other hand, the King of Auj Oule is some great hero who united all of the tribes by force. Two strong rulers in two neighboring countries. It’s only natural they’d start bumping against each other.” “There have been skirmishes, but we haven’t had open war since the Battle of Fezebel twenty years ago.” “Hey, this could be the business opportunity of a lifetime!” “I’m sure it’s possible.” “But, the people who got greedy during the last war were the first ones to die.” “Yeah, you’re right. These new inspections have been pretty devastating to our business already.” “Hey, don’t let it get you down. War isn’t a certainty yet.” “War, huh…”Seems like pressure’s building for a return to hostilities between the two nations.  But enough of that side nonsense. Time to finally meet Driselle and Rowen.   Yeah, sorry about that, we had to cross the ocean twice. Why? Good question.   “Rashugal soldiers!” “Wait.”  “Have our guests departed?”   “Welcome back. Brought your friends, I see.” “Cline! Let me introduce you. Oh. Um. I never got their names.” “I hear you came to my sister’s aid. I’m Cline Sharil. I’m Driselle’s older brother, as you’ve no doubt guessed.” “Lord Cline is the governor here in Sharilton.” “Really?” “How rude of us to keep you waiting outside. Please, let’s continue our conversation in comfort.” “I see. So you protected my sister from wasting her money on worthless trinkets again.” “It’s not worthless! Besides, I got a good deal and made some new friends in the bargain!” “Hahaha…” “Rowen, please look after our guests.” “It would be my pleasure, sir.” “I have some matters to attend to. If you will excuse me.” “I’ve gotta run, too.” “Huh?”  “Well… Um…” “I’ve never even been out of this town. I want to hear all about the faraway places you’ve been.” “I’ve never been outside either… But then…” “Elly became pals with Jude and everyone! We crossed mighty oceans and explored forbidden forests! We saw giant waves and toadstools that made everyone cry!” “You actually sailed across the sea, Elly? I’ve never even seen the sea before! What was it like?” “It’s vast and wild, teeming with dangerous creatures. There are giant octopuses pretending to be rocks.” “Rock octopuses?! You don’t say!”Sidenote: The Google Image search results for “rock octopus” are overall pretty disappointing. “And fish and eels and clams.” “Oh. I’ve seen clams! The shells, anyway. They sell shell jewelry in the shops in the plaza! It’s all so gorgeous!” “That sounds really nice.” “I’ll give you one of my favorite pieces as a present next time. As a token of our friendship.” “Icky clams turned into pretty jewelry? This I gotta see!” “So giving presents is a way to establish friendship?” “Uh, why, yes. To the giver, a present is a symbol of trust. To the receiver, a present serves as a warm reminder of our friendship.” “And getting stuff for free doesn’t stink, either!” “I see.” “Hoho! It would appear my young mistress has made some very good friends. Make yourself at home. Help yourself to tea and treats.”We’re now free to roam the manor. Both Rowen and the other protagonist have things to say to us.    What are you, his résumé? *Jude Exclusive*  “No, not particularly. I’m simply fascinated by the illogical proclivity of humans to apply an abstract concept like beauty to everyday objects.” “That’s, uh… pretty deep.” “I’ve also been thinking about our current predicament. There’s something to be said for hiding in plain sight, but we should not tarry here for long.” “Yeah, we shouldn’t overextend our stay. They’ve been so good to us already.”*Jude Exclusive End* *Milla Exclusive*  “I am. Look how happy Elize is. It’s a real relief. She’s been through so much lately.” “So have you, especially considering how much you obsess over the well-being of others.” I’m feeling pretty good. We’ve finally gotten a little downtime. And the refreshments were great.” “I see. I’m glad to hear it.” “But we can’t get too comfortable, I suppose.” “Correct. If he’s the governor, that makes him nobility. His manor isn’t the smartest place to relax.” “I feel sorry for Elize, but we can’t stay here long.”*Milla Exclusive End*  On that note, let’s leave the manor.    Or not.    “Spare your denials. Alvin told me everything.”Alvin betrayed us? What a dick! How could he?! “He did what?!” “Now what? Will you hand us over to the military?” “No. I want to know what you saw in that facility. Rashugal has undergone dramatic changes, ever since Nachtigal acceded the throne. Even those of us in the Six Ruling Houses are not told of his activities.” “The military is holding people captive and draining their mana to develop a new weapon.” “Human experimentation? He would go that far?! I’d like to believe you’re lying, but all the pieces fit.” “So Nachtigal is the man behind the experiments? The King of Rashugal?” “He would have to be.” “……” “It’s hardly hospitable to keep Driselle’s friends captive in our home. But you must leave this city at once.” “Thank you, Lord Cline.”So, we got kicked out of the manor. But before we head out of Sharilton, we’ve got yet another Sub Event that I almost didn’t include but decided to anyway because I find it really weird for some reason.   “Super cute!” “I’ve never seen anything so pink before! “Super never!” “I was just wondering…” “What the heck are they talking about?” “You don’t have to be scared. They’re just children. Go on and ask them.” “You were spying on us! We have nothing to say to spies!” “Super nothing.” “Just give us a quick peek!” “Whoa! That weird thing talked! What is it?!” “Like, super weird!” “He’s not weird. He’s Teepo.” “Teepo? Well, whatever. I’m still not going to show the cute pink thing to someone like you.” “Fine…” “Ah, phooey…” “But, if you can show us that you love the color pink… And probe you’re a true pinkist, I may consider it.” “Prove I’m a pinkist? How?” “By bringing us super rare things that are pink! For example, start with a Peachberry Blossom. Bring us one of those, then we’ll talk.” “We’ll super talk!”And that’s the story of how we got roped into finding pink things for two little girls. I don’t know about this quest, guys. I’m not entirely sure pink isn’t just these girls’ gang color. The Peachberry Blossom, for the record, can be found randomly from gathering points in an area coming up. “Randomly” being the key word here, unfortunately.  Now that that’s done, let’s make haste out of the city.    Oh hey, Alvin, what’s new? “Don’t ‘hey’ us!”  Teepo attempts to rush Alvin and is swatted by Milla.  “Sell you out? Such an ugly phrase. Money isn’t the only currency, you know. It’s no secret that Lord Cline is unhappy with the current government. If we want info, we have to give some in return. It’s called a trade. I told him what I know, and he gave you some juicy info in return, right?”Sounds like as reasonable an excuse as any to completely betray our trust, Alvin. Glad you’re still aboard! “King Nachtigal of Rashugal is the man behind everything. So long as he remains alive, he could construct a second or a third Lance of Kresnik.” “You’re going to assassinate the king?” “What choice do I have? I can’t allow him to continue, even if his death throws your country into chaos.” “I suppose it’s the lesser of two evils. We can’t let him keep sacrificing innocent people for their mana.”  Goddammit, this is the third time today someone has recognized us from those wanted posters. So much for them being awful, eh? “Whoops. I suppose strolling about wasn’t the smartest idea.” “What are you doing here?” “Please, allow me to handle this.”    “Oh, dear me. What a fearsome trio.”       “There’s a good soldier.” The knives land.      “Dear me. You misuse the word ‘awesome.’ It was merely a delay tactic.” “Whatever it was, you saved us, uh, Mr. Rowen.” “Just Rowen is fine.” “What do you need from us?” “My, you get right to the point. Indeed, I have a favor to ask of you.” “Of us notorious criminals? This can’t be good.” “The King of Rashugal came to the manor earlier and ordered our citizens be drafted into service. “What? Nachtigal was here?” “Yes. The man you saw leaving by carriage earlier was King Nachtigal himself.” “So he’s the King of Rashugal.” “Why’s he forcing people into his service? “Maybe he needed more experimental subjects?" “My master couldn’t abide seeing his people in danger. He set off to rescue them. But Nachtigal is not one who takes disobedience lightly.” “Is Driselle’s brother in danger?” “Undoubtedly, and I wish to rescue him. Will you assist me?” “Any brother of a pal is a brother of mine! Right, Elly?” “We can’t turn a blind eye at this point. We should help!” “Here we go again. For an honors student, you sure are lousy at learning lessons.” “It’s settled. We cannot allow Nachtigal to proceed with any plan that involves using that weapon.” “There’s your answer.” “You have my thanks. The people were taken to Bermia Gorge. We must make haste!”.jpg) And so, our next party member is this 62-year-old butler. Certainly an eclectic group we’re building. Rowen is voiced by Todd Haberkorn playing wildly against type, to the point I honestly didn’t recognize him. We’ll get to more with him next time. Episode 10 Cutscenes Episode 10 Skits Episode 10 Sub Events
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Dec 23, 2016 16:17
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