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alcharagia posted:*cracks knuckles* Never change.
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Apr 28, 2016 00:09
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Sylphid posted:Never change. I am much better than him. I still use periods when I post a single sentence, for example!
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Apr 28, 2016 00:48
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Part IX: The Man Who Delves I mean, I like Alvin, but marketing's a dirty business...  One of the special event jobs this chapter is to talk to Elle in Ludger's apartment. Let's see what she wants...  That's it! You found it! Rollo's brush! It's just a brush. Hey, don't look at me like that! This is no ordinary brush! This is the best brush ever! EVER! I've tried 'em all, and this one keeps his fur the softest and shiniest! Isn't that right, Rollo? Meow! I...see... Oh no! There's something else I forgot! This is horrible! I need Rollo's scratching post! .... Hey, come on, this is important! If he doesn't have his favorite scratching post, he gets all stressed out! His fur gets frizzy and he can't sleep. Isn't that right? Meow! Meow! *sigh* Oh, right! I forgot one more thing! Your hair gel and floss! What? Don't you "What?" me! I don't like when people around Rollo don't practice good grooming and hygiene. I don't need those bad habits rubbing off on him! Right, Rollo? Meow! Meow! Meow! Boy, Ludger... You know, some days, you're a real handful! Meow. Me?! Yeah, it's really-- OH WAIT! There's something else we need!Glad that's over... Still, Ludger knew what he was getting into when he adopted Rollo and set his life on the path of dimension destroyer. It's all the cat's fault, when you think about it.  Still, unless you feel like grinding an absurd amount of gald for the next debt payment, we're going to have to put our necks on the line and fight some Elite Monsters. The one in Aladhi Trail is in the western section of the area. However, especially for this next fight, no sense in making things harder on yourself for no reason. Before you get started, eat a valuable recipe (Veggie Sticks, which increases P and A. Defense by 30%, is an excellent choice), fully charge up your Linked Artes gauge, and make sure to have a Chromatus charge ready to go. If you want to make things even easier, you could head on over to Hamil, the nearest town, and get better weapons for the characters you're bringing into the fight (no character is entirely useless, because everyone has a heal arte, but Elize, Alvin, and Jude are who I'm rolling with this time).  To be fair to this sack of crap, he's sure not trying to hide. Let's take this one. Heavy Claw  So this...it's a real tough fight. He simply refuses to be staggered, and get used to that happening a lot with bosses until we get a certain special skill. But, like I talked about with Volt, this defense is not absolute.  Again, it's hard to count on an enemy blocking so that Breaker will stagger him, but just keep attacking, and he will block at some point. Of course, that is your license to kick his rear end, starting with Crossfire or Cerberus Strike, both Earth-elemental.  On the offensive side, Heavy Claw has about what you'd expect from the name and such a large monster. Powerful swiping attacks that hit a wide area around him (even slightly behind him), a powerful overhead swing that knocks the affected to the ground, and an unblockable rolling attack. However, if the final attack does not hit anyone, he hits the side of the arena and will fall on the ground for a few seconds. Unfortunately, you cannot stagger him at all while he's in that situation. However, it is free damage he can't block.  Thanks to some lucky breaks, I managed to bring him down quite a bit faster than I thought I would on my victory. Still, I agree with this assessment. At least we got it. Anyway, the rest of the Aladhi Trail passed uneventfully, so let's just move on to something quite a bit more interesting.  The farming town of Hamil, also known as the first town visited after the prologue of Tales of Xillia 1. In fact, Aladhi Seahaven was the first area visited after Jude got himself in a whole world of trouble (still ongoing) with Milla Maxwell. But, while we're in the neighborhood, let's start Elize's story, why don't we?  The shy girl  C'mon, Bunnykins! Let's go for a stroll! Are you and that stuffed animal ever apart? Bunnykins is my bestest friend! Thank you so much for getting me one! Daddy said they were sold out everywhere! Heh. I can't take all the credit. Mommy got lucky with her raffle tickets, is all. But it's mostly because you were such a good little girl. That's why Bunnykins came to you! Of course! You gotta be good or Bunnykins won't be your buddy! Ah, so that's the "Bunnykins" thing that has everyone in a tizzy. It seems as popular in Elympios as it is in Rieze Maxia! It's so hot right now that it's sold out everywhere. Isn't Bunnykins just the cutest? Eh, I guess. If you like that sorta thing. You don't like Bunnykins? Bunnykins is for babies! It's sold out everywhere anyway, and I'm broke. That's no problem! If you're a good kid, Bunnykins will come to you. How? That's a secret. But it's true! I'm mostly good, and I asked Bunnykins to come to me a million different times...Elle runs off to play with Rollo, presumably... Hey, Ludger? Would you be willing to help me find a Bunnykins? Well, we're involved in destroying dimensions and hunting down our master agent brother who also has the blood of countless dimensions on his hands, might as well look for stuffed animals in the mean time. Thank you! They say Bunnykins are so tough to find that even Spirius agents can't track them down. But with you on the job, I know we'll find a Bunnykins. You want to get one as a present for Elle? Yes. It would make her year!Elize gets a text on her phone. Seems everyone in this universe except Elle, Muzet, and maybe a couple other characters have one... Oh, it's from Luna! One of your schoolmates? No, Luna lives in Elympios. Luna isn't even her real name! She's my pen pal. So you've only communicated via text? Yeah. I sent a message to Luna by accident one day, and we've been pen pals ever since. She knows all sorts of stuff. She always gives me the best advice. Sounds like she's an excellent pen pal. Yeah. She seems so grown up. She's almost like a big sister. And that's why... Elize wants to be a big sister to Elle! Like Luna is to her! Before I met all of you, I was all alone. No mom. No dad... I-I would've given anything for a family. I know Elle feels the same way. Ho ho ho. Sounds like you're well on your way to becoming a big sister. You and Elle are practically sisters already. You can guess which one I'll pick. Incidentally, Elize happens to be one the easiest characters to raise affection for. Basically any goody-two shoes response will raise her affection in character quests or events where she is a party to the discussion and there is a choice to be made. I sure hope so. You're like a little grown-up, Elize! Anyway, if I get a lead on a Bunnykins, I'll let you know. Don't let us down, Ludger! Anyway, those affection points gives us Elize's first affection skit. Other than upgrading weapons, there's not a whole lot to do or see in ol' Hamil, but I suppose we could take a short look around.  Such as this house, where the party first met Elize in the last game. Now that the former occupant has moved on to bigger and better things, we can rummage through the house on our own.  Elize's former bedroom, in the basement of the building. The little crate next to the bed you can check for a porange, which I cannot recall the use of at the moment, but it is used for SOMETHING down the line.  But moving on, we have the Galia Trail. This is the first stop in a long road to Nia Khera, which will be the terminus of our journey in Rieze Maxia at the moment, because it's a town we can prepare for the next story chapter in, and it's good to get a few more locations opened up for Kitty Dispatch. All the enemies here are about what you'd expect for an early-game location, so they should pose no danger whatsoever.  One curiosity a player may have been lucky enough to encounter at this point in the game are these curious foes, the Bacura. Bacura are strange because they randomly take the place of an otherwise normal enemy (but there's only a chance of that happening), but everything about them is curious. First, unless you're using a Dark Bottle, which automatically causes enemies to try and hunt you down, instead of you having to get close to them, they'll run away from you at full speed. Unless they hit smack dab into an area's boundaries, you'll probably have to use the Winged Boots to catch them, but even then they could very well get away. However, Dark Bottles will attract them to you. In-battle, no matter what the power of the Bacura you're facing (there's several tiers, with just "Bacura" being the weakest), they are completely impossible to combo, even with the Chromatus, are resistant to all elements, they all have the same basic attacks, and they all drop tons of elemental orbs. They are a curious bunch, indeed.  On the final screen of the Galia Trail before moving to the next area of the world map, you can find this well-hidden neko behind a large rock. Silly beast.  Speaking of the next area, here it is. The Kijara Seafalls are almost entirely a transition area, with almost nothing of relevance happening here, but to be fair, there's not really any "trail" locations that have anything really important happen in them, at least not for a while. Well, at least it's a pretty chill location. Once again, enemies here are really easy and should not be dangerous at all.  Make sure you check out elemental orb pickups, because you can get up to 20 at a time, and you're gonna need those skills and artes, trust me. Also, don't worry about characters not in-battle (remember, you can only change parties in towns). They'll still gain elemental orbs, you can change their extractors to learn the skills you want even if they're not in the party, and experience leaks like a sinking ship. I believe characters in the party earn slightly more EXP, but the difference, if it exists, is negligible.  Moving on a couple screens, we have our Elite Monster. Like Heavy Claw, this guy is pretty tough. Maybe even harder, but I beat him on my second try, which surprised me. Let's see what Greater Demon has to offer.  Greater Demon has a wide variety of attacks, and a lot of powerful ones, at that. This is Aqua Spit, which launches a few bubbles in front of him, alongside firing a bubble of water that surrounds him and pushes anyone close to him away + damage.  Woo, broke a 100-hit combo for the first time. Now, I should introduce Rowen, since he's been in the party a couple updates but we really haven't had a chance to introduce him. Well, to put it simply, I don't particularly care for Rowen in battle. He's a battle mage, much like Leia, but he just lacks either the killing touch the melee fighters have / support abilities characters like Leia and Elize have. His character skill is Arte Tuning, which, when he casts a spell, he has the opportunity to increase the power / effect of that arte. For example, the arte he's using now, Rock Trine, you can add more hits if you press the arte button more if you're playing as Rowen (the AI is inconsistent about this). For an arte where he summons a giant boulder to roll around the field, you can steer the boulder around via Arte Tuning. It's alright, I guess. His support skill is a bit more useful. Whenever you are partnered with Rowen, and an enemy casts a spirit arte, Rowen will automatically throw up a magic shield for you and him, even if it wasn't targeted at Rowen or his partner, against it. The difference between this support shield and the one you can bring up manually is that you can still move around while Rowen's shield is active. It probably won't tip a single battle in your favor, but it's nice to act with near impunity to enemy spirit artes sometimes. Arte-wise, Rowen has a bunch of spells, as you might expect, but he also has a lot of ranged attacks, including a few possessed by Tear Grants from way back when in Tales of the Abyss.  Getting back to Greater Demon, among other attacks, he has an attack where he tips his head forward, then quickly rushes forward. In addition to doing respectable damage, it also will basically always stun the affected. Finally, he has a move called Aqua Laser where he'll stop, charge up the attack for a bit, and launch a devastating laser that sweeps right in front of him in an arc. Devastating to anyone caught in any part of it, so just stay the hell away from him when you see Aqua Laser flash on the screen.  Strategy-wise, however, there's not a whole lot of daylight between this guy and Heavy Claw. Both are really hard to stagger at this point in the game (without the skills Power Charge 2 and 3, which won't happen for a while, this is going to become a common thing). Basically just keep chipping at him until he blocks, get Breaker in play, take advantage of that crucial opening. Breaker is the one reliable stagger strategy you have, and you'd be a fool not to exploit it.  Speaking of exploitation, Falling Snow is better for a Chromatus usage than the basic attack infinite combo. Falling Snow will do about 2000-2200 damage per hit assuming you have a full, or near full, Power Combo (at this point in the game, anyway). That damage adds up REAL fast. However, I'd still advise using the infinite for enemies smaller than Heavy Claw or Greater Demon, because if Ludger starts in a bad spot (usually right next to, or too far away, from the target), after the first Falling Snow your combo will be broken by Ludger having to circle around to launch the second. And yeah, I'd agree with the assessment my characters had for this battle, but again, I'm finding it hard to complain about how things went in the end.  To the next screen, this kitty cat is just off the beaten path, but not by a whole lot. I feel kinda bad interrupting its drink, though.  Welcome to Nia Khera, Maxwell's former home and all-around chill place. This is a quiet place, and will always remain so. Really, we only came out here to open it up for the Dispatch and pick up an easy-to-find cat, and turn in the Greater Demon job to put us more than over the top to finish paying off this chapter's debt.  Oh yeah, and Nova's calling us up to be weird, which we all love her for. The building to Ludger's left in the back there is the town's meeting hall, which I only note because it has a free inn, and hey, after a couple of Elite Monsters you could afford to hit the sack for once. The building Ludger is looking at is where the next screenshot is.  The cat is basically right in front of you as soon as you enter, so yeah, can't miss it. But, there is another Elite Monster in the next trail area leading to the Nia Khera Hollowmont, which is a huge mountain, and is a place you can bet your rear end we'll be going to at some point. Thing is...this battle is extremely difficult, and one in which your foe is an obnoxious flying enemy that throws out status effects like they're going out of business. I mean, you can try, but I would not advise fighting him, even with the Chromatus. We'll have our day with him, trust me. Instead, let's pay off our debt.   This skit has our old friend Vera call up to inform us what's next. She requests we come to the Spirius Corporation once we're ready, to begin our first dive into a fractured dimension when we know what the hell we're doing. We'll be taking her up on that very shortly, as we can warp!  Well, she did say "prepare", so we better improve our armor situation, since there's really no more weapons worth a drat (when it comes to weapons, prioritize Ludger, of course, but Alvin and Jude could certainly use more, with Leia coming after. Elize and Rowen, not very important to upgrade at all, since AC isn't nearly as much of a factor for them, especially the way the AI controls them).  Here we go. Take care: this is a LONG chapter and a very important one. Wait, Nova and Vera know each other?  The first fractured dimension   But my lips are sealed! You must know what happened to Julius, right? Mr. Kresnik. Ludger, hey. Word around the water cooler is a certain someone just got hired as an agent! Congratulations! Like big bro, like little bro, right? I know how much you wanted the job. Thanks... Why's the loan lady here? Just gossiping with my twin sis. Oh, you do look alike. Hey... Nova, we've got work to do. Yeah, yeah, I know. I should probably get back to bean counting. Oh, almost forgot! Let's all get together to celebrate your new job whenever you're free. I can't believe he told us all about that fractured dimension stuff. Obviously he wants us to come along. No matter what, I chose poorly here. L1 increases Jude's affection, but R1 increases everyone BUT Jude's affection... We're already in it. If the fractured dimensions really are interfering with spyrite technology and endangering this world...then there's no way I'm sitting out of this fight. And that means we need your help. Okay. Very well. You may all assist Mr. Kresnik in this operation. However... Everything must be kept in the strictest confidence, am I correct? I'm glad we have an understanding. Now, allow me to commence the briefing. Cool! Agent talk! The object of each DODA operation is to infiltrate a fractured dimension and destroy its divergence catalyst. All fractured dimensions from around a catalyst. It could be an object, or perhaps an entity.So you remember those purple gears Ludger destroyed with his lance in the three previous times we've destroyed dimensions? All of those came from the divergence catalyst of that dimension (evil Rowen, Volt, and evil Julius). The destruction of those gears (you could call them the "heart" of the divergence catalyst), caused the dimension to collapse. For whatever reason, divergence catalysts are called "Corpse shells" in the Japanese release. Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to a name like that to describe what they are. So how do we find it, then? It's typically the object or entity that differs the most from its original nature in the prime dimension. You'll need to be cautious, particularly when the divergence catalyst attaches itself to a person. ...But considering Julius has the blood of so many dimensions on his hands, clearly he does not give a good goddamn who or what catalysts attach themselves into. Following Ludger's pause, Vera takes out her phone and texts like a pro... I've transmitted the coordinates of the target rift to your GHS. Use it to enter the fractured dimension. You have to view the entire world map from the map menu to enter fractured dimensions, now and in the future. To quote Vera to what those numbers mean: "The "depth" is a number which shows the distance from the prime dimension. The "deviation" shows how different the fractured dimension is from the prime dimension. There also exists something called a rift which is a set entrance point. The depth, deviation, and rift location form the coordinates for the fractured dimension" So yeah, just how the Spirius Corp. does its work, folks. Anyway, we've got nothing more to do in the prime dimension, so let's see how weird things are gonna get this time...   Once more unto the breach It's Trigleph Central Station. I suppose it would follow that this is the rift. But are we really in a whole other world right now?Well...I suppose not *technically* a whole other world. I'd call it more of a branch. The history of this world is the same as the prime dimension up until a point. It's that point we're curious about, actually.  It doesn't look any different to me.Ludger gets a buzz. Hey, GHS' service area cannot be beat. We've confirmed your entry into the fractured dimension. Commence your search for the divergence catalyst. Yeah yeah, that's great and all, but seriously, how is the GHS still working here? You can thank your chromatus for that. It maintains a link to the prime dimension. We need to look for whatever seems most out of place in the dimension, right? Correct. The catalyst should reveal itself when anyone with a chromatus approaches. And if we destroy it, the world will disappear. Exactly, but there's a catch. Only the wielder of a chromatus can destroy the catalyst. Wait, really? So, the only one who can find and destroy these catalysts... ...is Ludger. Well that kinda takes the fun out of it. One last thing. So long as the divergence catalyst exists, you cannot return to the prime dimension. You never told us that!But the game did, Leia. Keep up. I guess there really is no turning back, huh... So much for goofing off on the job. The Oscore train's still running? Maybe in this alternate dimension, the hijacking never took place. We cannot just blithely assume that. We have much to learn about this world. It is fishy that Oscore's still in one piece. Let's investigate in two groups. Okay, Jude and I will ask around town. Ludger, you handle Oscore. We're on it!Alrighty, so... Looks like things might get interesting in this dimension, if the train hijacking never took place...  Pretty nice skit. Ludger's power truly is formidable.  Oscore plant's looking nice. Still, I wonder who would run a place like this.  A man from the past It's a factory that puts out veggies, and stuff like that. Puts out weird vibes, too... It's pretty standard for Elympios.  Well, if it isn't Alfred. Oooooooh boy, it's Gilland... You'd address the heir of the Svent family like that? Or has your mind strayed to a time when you were still the legitimate heir?Yeah, so Alvin's full name is Alfred vin Svent, but no one calls him that except for Balan (who uses his first name only), and he had a very troubled relationship with his uncle, our friend Gilland here. Maybe not here in this fractured dimension, though... Are you telling me you're the heir? You know this guy? Knew him, more like it. It appears he has confused you with the Alvin of this world.Yeah, when fractured dimensions are literally the prime dimension's history up to a point, that point universally includes the fact that Jude, Ludger, Leia, Alvin, Elize, and Rowen were born into them. So we're killing ourselves, when you think about it. That may or may not be important later in the game... He looks like a big-wig to me. If you act all buddy-buddy with him, maybe he'll let us in. They don't really have that kind of relationship. Is it inappropriate? Don't forget, we're in a fractured dimension. It just might work. Right. Forgive me, Uncle. I must've forgotten my place. You are forgiven. I was hoping you'd give my friends a tour of your amazing plant. Why not? You'd better start acting the part. Poor Leticia is quite upset over your lack of decorum. Mom? Indeed. She's had it with your constant gallivanting. She's alive... Who are these people? My entourage. They're quite a bunch, yeah? The world is full of dubious sorts, looking to sponge off of us. You should choose your friends more carefully. They don't get much more dubious than yours truly... Hm? Uh, nothing, Uncle. Thanks for the advice. As you know, the Great Spirit Aska was thought to be nothing more than legend. That is, until I found, captured, and bent it to my will. Aska's spirit power is more than sufficient to operate this facility in its entirety. I've never even heard of that spirit before. I have no doubt spirits will become a crucial resource in Elympios. The very key to its future. Hey...my uncle's not the catalyst, is he? *shakes head* So, uh...do you keep Aska down in the basement here or what? There is no basement. Aska's imprisoned in the central portion of the dome. Well, then...  Alvin! Was that really necessary? Well, if he's not the divergence catalyst, then I'd put my money on that Aska spirit being it. But it's not like he was gonna sit back and let us thwack it, right? Indeed... And after all, we did come here... ...to put this world out of commission. Isn't that right, Ludger?Ludger looks on with a steely gaze, and we begin our next dungeon crawl... I know this has been one of the more uneventful updates so far, but trust, poo poo's gonna get heavy once again next update, believe you me. Update 9 alternate choice compilation Update 9 victory screen compilation
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Apr 29, 2016 08:58
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Bless Nova and her amazingly weird ways of making debt repayments sound fun. Even in an alternate dimension, Gilland has a spirit under his thumb. Not too different then from the usual. Well said, Rolo. 
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Apr 29, 2016 17:34
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Corpse Shell is Chromatus, actually. The Dimensional Catalysts are Time Factors in Japanese, which is why the boss song is "Break the Time Factor".
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Apr 29, 2016 23:11
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McTimmy posted:Corpse Shell is Chromatus, actually. Localizations: making strange Japanese terminology knowable since 1992.
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Apr 29, 2016 23:16
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Huh. An alternate dimension where they manage to capture the Great Spirits and drain them. That's... disquieting.
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Apr 30, 2016 01:01
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Part X: The Man Who Struggles Following Alvin's assault, you need to examine Gilland's body to get a couple of important items: a Guest Keycard, which will allow us access to a nearby elevator, and a memo which has the writing "Cultivation room: 8778, 7654, 8708". I don't think you need the memo, per se, but you get it at the same time as the Keycard, so whatever. Let's get moving.  Generic enemies around here include goons with a combination of regular and spirit artes, as well as the same kind of robots (powered up, however) fought in Helioborg. Neither are much problem at all.  The first password-locked door. Refer to an above paragraph for the code entry.  The love of the Kresniks Wanna see how many I can fit in my mouth?! Honestly, I would, but we've got a choice to make. I went with R1 just to raise Alvin, Elize, and Rowen's affections. L1 increases Elle's, however. Are you a good cook? He's pretty good. Really? I'd love to try your tomato omelettes sometime. Ah, but roasting a tomato retains its juices, and is not to be underestimated. Blech! Tomatoes are gross! I'm with you. I draw the line at ketchup.Alvin: a Bro for Life. Your loss. You two eat like five year olds.I fail to see the problem with this, Teepo. Or should I say Elize? Nuh-uhhh! The room opposite the elevator on this floor has this console right in front of Ludger right as he enters. You need to swipe your guest card to renew it and gain access to the elevator. There's also a Long Coat in a chest in the corner, which is the best armor Rowen can have at this point. Ludger can also wear it, but grandpa can do with a little more armor. Taking the elevator down to the lower floor...  Oooh. Kitty Dispatch only gave me a couple worthless items, so let's see what this skit has to say...   Goddamit, Alvin. Anyway, Rowen mentions a number of spirits in this skit. The Tales classics, first introduced in Phantasia, are Efreet, Sylph, Gnome, Undine, and Maxwell as the spirit who ruled over them all. Less important, introduced in the third act of Phantasia, were Volt (whose power of electricity allowed Phantasia's airships to fly, the same role it filled in Symphonia), Shadow (who was entirely optional), Pluto (who was another entirely optional boss / spirit, and is very rarely mentioned, except in this game, incidentally), and the most powerful of all the spirits, Origin. Since we're currently looking for Aska, Aska was also a Phantasia spirit who had no real connection to the plot, and accordingly has been a pretty rare sight in this series. Luna was the actual spirit of Light in that game, a role they joinly share in Symphonia. Celsius is another pretty rare spirit who was introduced in Tales of Eternia, I believe, and has made only very rare appearances since. However, Celsius was controlled by Gilland in the first Xillia, and they went down together at the end of Xillia's second act.  One of my favorite linked artes in the game is Pow Blade, which you can get by a Linked Art between Alvin and Elize when the former uses Tiger Blade or Elize uses Pow Hammer. Classic move. Also, in this battle, I had an exchange between Rowen, Elle, and Ludger that went thusly. Time for a duet! But Ludger can't sing! Aaaaaargh!Just thought I'd let you all know.  Moving on from that circular area, we have another hallway. The room across from us has a console to stabilize the room environment of Cultivation Rooms 2 and 3, so, y'know, do that.  Not a whole lot going on in Cultivation Room 2, though (refer to paragraph or Memo for code).  And the final Cultivation Room. Again, not a whole lot here, but hey, might as well, for completion's sake.  Oh hey, the cats are back, too. With a new friend! I actually have a friend who had a cat named Trigger, very long ago (actually like six years). The other cat was named Bullet... Trigger is one among many cats you can't get by looking for them; the other cats have to bring them back.  This is the last console you need to stop by to finish this dungeon. This lowers the cage Aska is in, and allows us to clip the bird's wings as soon as we elect to head into the central dome. The dome itself is back before the third Cultivation Room's door, on this floor.  I got this meal from a chest in the atrium area where we got the spirits skit. I don't think I need to tell you we'll be fighting Aska very shortly, and an 80% EXP increase from a boss is hard to say no to.  Here we go...  Wings of light It... It's so bright! Is that Aska? Ludger!Ludger shakes his head. Guess Aska isn't the divergence catalyst either... I got this. It's hard to see with Aska in the back there, but a spark flew off of Alvin's gun. Someone's shooting at us from behind!   Gilland's ridiculous gunblade is not the only gun Gilland has been seen with. In Xillia 1 he had an ornamental pistol taken from Alvin's father, I believe. After his uncle's death, however, Alvin took it back, and if you finish a battle with Gun Ludger and Alvin linked, they'll have a couple victory quotes where Ludger will pose with his two guns, and Alvin will take out the ornamental gun and his regular one, to pose himself. Hey! Knock it off! Such gall! N-No... Aska!   Oh brother. Thanks to Gilland having poo poo accuracy, we gotta fight him. Just great. Aska is a pretty damned annoying boss. First off: it's your first major enemy that's constantly flying. Technically Volt was hovering, but he was always much lower to the ground and without a particularly wonky hitbox like Aska has. Attack-wise, Aska has a swooping attack that is pretty easy to anticipate, as it'll fly off for a bit to swoop back down over the battlefield. While it's easy for you to prepare for, the AI not so much. However, when it does its swooping attack, it'll momentarily stun itself. Aska also has an arc-fired laser like Greater Demon had, except, of course, it's light-elemental. Not that it makes much difference since you probably won't have any item / skill resistances, but still. Pretty easy to dodge. It also has a little eruption of light attack that comes up from the ground, you can only see coming about a split second before it happens, but fortunately, it deals very minor damage. Aside from the laser, actually, none of Aska's attacks are particularly dangerous.  Vulnerability-wise, Aska is weak to regular gun attacks and Darkness, but guns will be your primary means of starting combos. Again, you'll have to use the Breaker trick to stagger him.  When the ol' bird starts hurting, he'll start getting a bit more aggressive and add a dive-bombing attack, that, thankfully, is also pretty easy to see coming. Still, he gets quite a bit harder to get a bead on when he starts flapping around more. He also adds a new laser attack where he'll stop for a second, then stretch his wings out to launch a very powerful laser attack in front of him. This one just hits in a particular area, not the arc of his former attack, which he'll still do occasionally. Overall, your strategy won't change much in the latter part of the fight, but he's still a very dangerous foe.  One thing that very much deserves mention, and I should have mentioned before now, is when you're linked with someone, your destinies are tied together. They get hit with a status effect, you'll get hit with one. You gain TP from a taunt, they gain a small portion, too. When you're linked with someone, you have to take the good with the bad.  I really love this Linked Arte, between Elize and Ludger, Teepo Launcher. Basically Ludger fires a bunch of Teepo-based missiles at a target. It's just comical, is what it is.  It was a rough fight, but we did it...  It would seem Aska wasn't the catalyst, either. What're you gonna do with Aska now? Will you let it go? But without Aska here to power it, they'll shut down the factory. Uh-huh. And a lot of people depend on this place. Man... It's heartless to say, and it certainly wouldn't be becoming of Elize to point it out, the lives of the people of this dimension are meaningless to us... Anyway, in both an in-game and meta sense, neither choice matters. I'm going with R1, however. Edit after alternate choices video was recorded: I was wrong about this, actually. L1 and R1 completely change how the rest of this scene plays out, aside for when Jude and Leia show up. It's actually pretty cool. Elize and I should be able to restrain Aska with spirit artes, given its condition. Seriously, does it matter? Very well... If that is your wish, so be it. It can talk! You would betray your own ancestor's wish, that man exist in harmony with the spirits and reject Origin's all-redeeming mercy?! Origin? The mightiest of all spirits. The Great Spirit of the Void, burdened with purifying humanity's befouled souls. For two millenia, he has toiled. Origin cannot continue purifying souls much longer. Heed my words, humans, and tremble! Your end is nigh!Aska disappears in a flash... The Great Spirit Origin, huh? Interesting. Can't say that name's come up before. Aska, forgive us. We're sorry. Was this truly for the best? You used calculatrics without spyrixes?! Who... Who are you people?! Allow me to explain. We use spirit artes, which-- Spare me your lies, demon!Gilland hits Rowen in the arm with a shot... That's enough! drat it all! Even in a fractured place, we've done enough. Yeah, I know. What happened?! We heard gunshots! You're hurt! Be calm. 'Tis but a scratch. Thank goodness. Sadly, this scratch is all we have to show for our troubles. The catalyst isn't here. Did you have better luck? No, not particularly. But we did overhear a weird rumor. Someone saw a spirit in the wasteland beyond Helioborg. Said it looked like a woman with flowy hair. Wait, that sounds like... It's near the dimensional breach. Let's check it out. You guys go on ahead. Yes. We'll catch up once we've tended to Rowen's injury. I'm sorry for the trouble. Hey! Don't sweat it, Gramps!He might have to sweat the dragon slowly growing out of his head, though...  Looks like we need to hit the bricks to head to Rusalle Highroad. Unfortunately, we can't warp there, because this is not the prime dimension . On the way back, you might stop by the weapon customization shop, because we're fast coming up on another boss fight, and trust me, you're gonna want to be deathly prepared for it.  Currently, I can make only one of these three. Ludger's customization weapons all have Greek mythology themes, and you can get one in each element. Thing is, the next boss is resistant to Darkness, and even though both the Zeus Smasher (Darkness) and Prometheus (Darkness) are decent upgrades to Ludger's current weapons in those categories, while Mourning Edge is a more modest increase to Alvin's attack. I'd go with the Mourning Edge, under the present circumstances. I ended up going with Prometheus, though.  With nothing to do in Trigleph (other than stocking up on consumables, especially Life Bottles, which are priority 1 after Aska and before this next boss), or in Torbalan Highroad (the game advises you new treasures are available, so you have the choice of either dashing through areas like these or exploring a bit. However, nothing in fractured dimensions is permanently missable), let's get a move on. There is one exception to the "Unexciting" rule from Oscore Plant to our destination: the party hitting level 20 and getting the skill Power Charge 2. Read my text lips: you NEED this skill for the next boss. What does it do? Well, if you've been watching battle videos, when I block and keep blocking for a while, a little circle of light will fly around the character I'm controlling, making a unique chime. When you hear that chime, the character I control adds a free AC point to the next combo. That's because I have Power Charge activated on all my characters. Power Charge 2 is MUCH more useful (no matter what extractors you've been using on your characters, everyone gets it when they hit level 20). What this thing does is that if you hold down block for 2 seconds, you'll get a second chime after the first, and the very next attack, regardless of elemental properties or resistances, will be a Power Hit. Your character will also temporarily add a second AC point to the next combo. However, your enemy has to have staggered for the Power Hit to register properly when you attack. Also, be advised that the game very much means that the next attack, regardless of whether it hits or misses, if it's an arte or basic attack, is what counts as the Power Hit. This upcoming boss is the first time you'll be fighting a significant enemy without any weaknesses. Power Charge 2 is the only way you're going to beat him without ridiculously good playing or just wanting a REALLY long fight.  I mean, aside from more powerful enemies, different music, and the fractured dimension filter, there's really nothing worth talking about around here. There is a pretty neat skit, though.  In the wasteland beyond Helioborg, the Rusalle Highroad, there is still no sign of the woman with flowing hair. Not that we have any reason to think this woman is connected to the spirits, or, god forbid, the divergence catalyst, but we really don't have any other leads at the moment. The path Ludger is facing leads to the Dimensional Breach, which seems as good a place as any to look for important things.  'course, with a name like "Dimensional Breach", you better believe something important is going to happen here. As I mentioned, a boss fight is coming up, so I'd advise eating Takoyaki Ramen to prepare for it, as well as maxing out everyone's HP / TP, to get ready for it. The Ramen is a spicy blend, increasing P. and A. Attack by 20%.  Chrono Gale What's the matter with Jude? It might be because of Milla... Milla? She's... Umm... This is where the breach was before, right?Alvin is correct. The breach was where Jude and pals were vomited out into Elympios after the party fought the former Maxwell and finally made it there in the first game. They were discovered by Balan and brought to Trigleph where the third and final arc of the first game's story started. By the way, if there's a few videos you should watch this thread, make this one of them. Did it vanish once the schism got dispersed? Y'know...maybe it was never here at all. After all, Gilland was living here in Elympios. I mean, I'm just sayin'. Yeah... You're right. The schism is still here. The dimensional breach never opened. So... ...Elympios and Rieze Maxia are still divided in this dimension! You're all making no sense to me. That means, Maxwell must still be around.   Is that the spirit with the long hair?!  Casting a gaze in Elle and Ludger's direction...  If the other worlds are like this, then the sacred land should remain safe. The sacred land? Wait, is that...the Land of Canaan?!  Ludger! The Scion of Kresnik, huh? Must you keep insisting on crossing dimensions in search of the key?We were looking for a key? The sound of gunfire comes from Alvin's direction... So, what's your story? I am the Great Spirit Chronos. I'll hurl you into the abyss between dimensions. Maxwell?! I'm with Jude. Anyone doing harm to Milla is DEAD!  So Mr. Eventual Final Boss here is the Great Spirit of Time, and very deserving of that title. Chronos is resistant to Darkness and Guns, strangely, and weak to nothing, like I said, so we're going to have make drat good use of Power Charge 2. Unfortunately, as you might expect, the AI is nowhere near bright enough to use it effectively, so it's up to us. First, a brief overview of Chronos' attacks. He has a simple two-hit slashing attack with his claws, which he's doing with Ludger here (hey, it looked cool).  Because we're fighting the eventual final boss (or is he?), he's taken more than a few moves from Dhaos, who, of course, was Phantasia's main villain, and still one of my favorite Tales villains. Chronos Collider is a direct take on Dhaos Collider, which is simply a move where the bad guy slams his fist into the ground and throws out a huge ball of damage that knocks anyone close to him away.  Another Dhaos classic is Tetra Spell, which launches the four basic elemental spells at a target: Rock Trine for Earth, Splash for Water, Wind Lance for Wind, and Fireball for Fire. Dodging all the spells through free run is near-impossible, but you can sidestep out of the way of them, and that's the only consistent way to dodge such a powerful attack. Spell will hit affected characters with a ton of status effects, so that's another big thing to watch out for. The other spell he'll occasionally throw out is Haste, which simply increases the speed he throws out Tetra Spell. Not a huge problem for you.  Again, the Breaker strategy is your best bet for staggering him and getting some Power Combos in. However, you'll have to wait for Chronos to block / Alvin to Break him. If Ludger attacks him, you'll break your potential Power Combo, and he has no weakness. Of course, it's in your best interest to hit him with the Chromatus as much as possible. It's a pretty tedious way to fight this guy, but it's the least risky. Also, if Alvin has the artes Tornado Drive and / or Demon Inferno, TURN THEM OFF. Drive will launch a staggered Chronos into the air, and that's one thing you definitely don't want to do with him. Demon Inferno will launch him horizontally far away from you, which I should not have to explain why you don't want that.  You can win without Jude or Leia. You cannot win in any reasonable length of time without Alvin. Revive him whenever he goes down.  When he gets within the last 25% of his HP, Chronos will throw out Trinity Bit. Throwing this out means he'll add a few new attacks on top of his old stuff, which he'll throw out occasionally. They're not particularly dangerous. Trinity Bit itself just summons three things to float around him that reduces damage done to him. Nothing to worry about, as they'll go away on their own, even if you don't attack him. What happens AFTER Trinity Bit is a bit more interesting.  Taking one more page from Dhaos (stop ripping him off!), Chronos gains a melee string called Tetra Assault, where he just does a number of hits and slashes forward. The effect is kind of lost if you're not stuck on a 2D plane, however.  His final attack, Chain Strike, is absolutely pathetic. You'll know he's casting it because his incantation is "Arms of Ouroboros..." It has a much smaller hit radius than Tetra Spell, and is just much less threatening.  When Trinity Bit vanishes, Chronos will finally become vulnerable to all base elements, and this is where you revive all your fallen comrades, if any are fallen, and throw everything at him before he causes any more trouble. Once his HP has fallen this low, he's still dangerous, of course, but because he'll stagger so much from Power Hits, once your Chromatus has charged up and you've got a decent combo, one more Chromatus usage should finish him.  Like so. Eat that!  I'm a bit disappointed he never threw out Dhaos' most famous move: the Dhaos Laser. Maybe next time... By the way, another Tales final boss has been given some of Dhaos' moves. Can anyone name who it is?! Couple of final notes: if you lose to Chronos, his victory quote is "The Trial has reached a verdict". If you'll recall Shadow Julius, he also mentioned a trial. Seems this might be important... Also, even though he's a pretty powerful / tough boss, this is not an optional fight. Losing will result in a Game Over. Also, less seriously, if you're lucky enough, you can steal an Hourglass from him with Leia. Not really worth the trouble, though.   He doesn't even have a scratch. None at all. Oh, there's Dhaos Laser!  Julius?! Where did HE come from?! The seeker.  Give it to me! This is NOT the time for a debate! I mean, we COULD refuse, but we wouldn't raise Julius' affection.    Ludger! Time to ditch this party! Don't forget Rollo! Got him! Seems luck was on your side. Wrong side of the tracks Wait, this is Rieze Maxia! Guess the breach must've opened again. Where're the others?Ludger shows a touch of concern that no one other than Leia, Elize, Teepo, and Jude are around. I'd be, too. Don't worry about Elle. Alvin was with her. I'm sure they landed somewhere around here. Yeah, you're right. Our buddy Alvin can be dependable when he wants to be. Heh. Don't be so harsh, Teepo.However, seems Jude has something on his mind... I'm sure she's fine. Oh. I'm not worried. There's a village called Nia Khera at the bottom of this hill. Maybe we'll find out something about the others there. Boy, we've run into more than a little trouble this update. Wonder how much worse it can get... Alternate choices compilation Sylphid fucked around with this message at 02:04 on May 3, 2016 |
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May 3, 2016 01:59
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Tetra Spell is just the biggest bullshit. Normally line-attacking spells like Wind Lance and Fireball shoot out from the front of the caster, but because Rock Trine and Splash are part of it, he'll harrow on where they're targeted and spellcast flip himself backwards to wreck you. Then you're hit by all four ailments if you're not dead. This update is also hilarious for other, far-reaching reasons.
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May 3, 2016 02:16
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I'm pretty sure Chronos was based on Sekundes, a Time Craymel (weird word for SS) from Eternia who was a massive Dhaos reference, down to saying "Sonna... SONNA BAKANA?!" when hit by Indignation (which, sadly, isn't in the game). As for other final bosses with Dhaos's move set... I think it was Yggdrasil from Symphonia? I could be wrong.
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May 3, 2016 02:25
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Junpei posted:I'm pretty sure Chronos was based on Sekundes, a Time Craymel (weird word for SS) from Eternia who was a massive Dhaos reference, down to saying "Sonna... SONNA BAKANA?!" when hit by Indignation (which, sadly, isn't in the game). It was, yes. He gained the Laser in the PS2 version (which hurt like hell), and I think he always had Collider, or at least a move that was basically identical to Collider.
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May 3, 2016 02:35
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Sylphid posted:It was, yes. He gained the Laser in the PS2 version (which hurt like hell), and I think he always had Collider, or at least a move that was basically identical to Collider. It would have been amusing to have Chronos say "This cannot be?!" if he was hit by Indignation. But alas, he cannot, for Indignation isn't in X2.
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May 3, 2016 03:04
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Sylphid posted:However, nothing in fractured dimensions is permanently missable), let's get a move on. Not missable no, but who the hell thought it was a good idea to have some crafting items found in a fractured dimension be unavailable until the postgame after leaving!? 
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May 3, 2016 04:10
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This is pretty elaborate, for a first fractured dimension.
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May 4, 2016 00:39
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By the way, I want a general feeling on the length of the updates. When I look at the word count for an update, it's almost always in the 25,000-29,000 character range, which is fine for me (admittedly short by the standards of my Atelier threads, though) and I was curious if people would like to see longer updates going forward, now that we're just about done with the early-game.
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May 5, 2016 08:28
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Sylphid posted:By the way, I want a general feeling on the length of the updates. When I look at the word count for an update, it's almost always in the 25,000-29,000 character range, which is fine for me (admittedly short by the standards of my Atelier threads, though) and I was curious if people would like to see longer updates going forward, now that we're just about done with the early-game.
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May 5, 2016 22:41
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I prefer this length. They feel plenty long enough.
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May 6, 2016 00:33
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Part XI: The Woman Who Laments Milla's Shrine here has nothing to see (can't even go into the building). But there is an elemental ore point that gave me 30 orbs in the corner of the map, though. However, once you're done recovering from Chronos, time to hit the trails on the way to Nia Khera, this time from the opposite direction.  Hm...there's something off about this screenshot. Oh yeah, it's Leia suspending herself in mid-air while she does basic attacks on that Treant. It looked extremely goofy once I realized what she was doing. Treants, by the way, are gigantic punching bags. It's really fun to just smack them. Anyway, there's not a huge amount to do here out of the ordinary, so upon approaching the area exit...  Struggle  Upon the defeat of the first little goblin enemy, a big one will show up. This is not a real fight, however. Simply defeat all the small ones, and the "battle" will come to an end.  Chromatus! Any time now!  Lousy time to get stage-fright! Another timely intervention...but doesn't she look familiar?   This place is very sacred to us, you know. Outsiders aren't welcome. Wait! That was the version of Milla from this dimension, right?! Let's push on to Nia Khera? Yeah... Okay. But we've got a problem. Isn't Ludger our ticket home to the prime dimension? If he can't transform anymore, then we're stuck.So that's what was off... Well, if there's nothing else, might as well head to town to try to figure out what's different about this dimension's history. That was definitely Milla, though.  And press on I did...  Awkward reunions Ludger! Hey, you big dummy. Don't make me worry like that! Looks like everybody's okay. Before we can get some quality time between siblings... DODA, here. After analyzing coordinate deviation of the fractured dimension...we've determined there's a high probability it contains a Waymarker. If a Waymarker is found, its retrieval will become your top priority.It would help if we knew what we were looking for, but I'll keep that mind, I guess... We risked it all, but it seems things worked out. What's a Waymarker? They're clues to Canaan's location, all hidden in deeply fractured dimensions. Leave the rest to me. I'm taking that pocketwatch. Like hell you are. I guess Julius is just pretending that whole train incident didn't happen or something, or that we're in waaaaaay too deep to back out now. Go on, Ludger, R1 him. Ludger has been worried sick about you this entire time, Julius. He's public enemy number one. He had to sign on with Spirius.Well, Dillinger would probably wear a classy outfit like Ludger's. Checks out. That true? I'm sorry. You leave Spirius to me, Ludger. You understand? You don't have to worry about a thing. This is my daddy's watch! Hand it over. I told you! It's my daddy's! No, it's not. Yes it is! Ludger's watch and Daddy's watch got mashed into a single one!Julius shows a bit of interest in Elle saying that... Is she the one? He looks ready to start something, but something about his left arm is hurting him. Milla! It's Milla! Wait, do I know you? I'd remember such a motley crew. Meow. I'll bet you're always hungry. C'mon. Meeeeeow. Rollo?! Wait up! We should follow them, Ludger! She might be the catalyst!Oh man, having to turn our blades against Milla? Even with an Alternate Milla, that's asking a hell of a lot... Especially since the Milla from Xillia 1 is the ultimate Team Mom in JRPG history. May a thousand plagues descend on the house of any who dislike Milla Maxwell. However, the rest of the team sans Alvin and Rowen take off after Milla, Elle, and Rollo... After you, big bro. I don't need a minder. Yeah, well, you're getting one all the same. You just tried to attack Elle, for cryin' out loud. So now you have the honor of my constant supervision. I feel so trusted. After that scene, our next task is to go look for where those three went. You can talk to some of the folks here in Alt. Nia Khera, but there's no need right now.  At one point in Xillia 1, we had to get Milla her spirit powers back by finding these various elemental orbs around town. Their return here must mean the Milla of this dimension is significantly weaker than the Milla of the prime dimension. Let's just keep that in mind... By the way, the weapon shop in town is carrying new and better weapons for Leia and Alvin. Both are pretty pricy (1990 and 2150 respectively). The choice is yours if you want to upgrade now.  This is the building where we want to go next. Let's see what kind of cook the Milla of this world is. Can't be worse than OG Milla...  The catalyst? Just so it isn't lost to the ether, if you talk to Rollo before starting this scene, he'll say "Meow~". Just for the record, you understand. Hey, it's not our fault you're a speed-demon, kiddo. R1 it is. No reason not to raise Elle's affection if we can help it, and the other choice won't do anything positive for us. I'm sorry. Fancy-looking feast you have there, Rollo. Milla made it for us! It's super tasty! Right Meeeow. Milla's really into cooking, but she says no one in the village will eat her food. I wonder how come? What do you people think you're doing in my home? Hey! The soup wasn't gross at all! Thank you! Meow. Well, you must be eating some pretty terrible stuff if you thought my cooking was good. I eat great stuff! My daddy makes all my food for me, and he's a super-duper good cook! He'll spend hours and hours making his special soup. He's the best cook ever! Yeah. If it's that good, maybe I'll ask him for the recipe. I can ask him for you, y'know, 'cause you fed me and all. I'd like that. My eyesight must be failing as I write this update, since something is off about Muzet today... Or Fractured Muzet, as the case may be.  Eww... You've been concocting that putrid human food again, haven't you? You know full well how much that smell bothers me!Jeez...considering the Prime Muzet's feelings toward Milla, we might have finally found our divergence catalyst. What's going on with her eyes? Forgive me, Muzet... What're you doing?! What in the world?! Yeeeeup, Muzet is the target. Muzet?! What was that?! Quit your stammering! Anyway, it's time for me to be going. Yes, Muzet. Milla... You're done here, aren't you? You'd best leave before we return. Was that the catalyst reacting to Ludger, perhaps? You mean to tell me Muzet is the catalyst? Yes, for a certainty. If we kill Muzet, this world will disappear. I wonder where those two were going? I bet the villagers would know. Let's split up and ask them. Please take care of Jude. I don't want him involved in this. I understand. He is in good hands. Jude. Elize. Why don't you join me? Well, I can take a few guesses where they're headed, but I'll save it for now. Also, this is a good skit, you should watch it.  So the story of Muzet and Milla in this world seems to be that certain Elympions made it over the schism like in the prime dimension, but instead of a persistent nemesis of Rieze Maxia that stayed under the surface, they were gradually wiped out, along with their spyrixes, but at a heavy cost to Rieze Maxia and Milla. Muzet, however, lost the use of her eyes but remains quite a bit more powerful than Milla. Also, it seems the Four Great Spirits, who Maxwell normally lords over, were nearly destroyed by Exodus, but managed to escape back to the Spirit Realm, where Milla made a brief pit stop in the first game but otherwise has not been seen in the Xillia games. Most importantly, one of the old guys near the entrance to Nia Khera we took earlier this update says Muzet is up to something at the Nia Khera Hallowmont that she doesn't tell Milla about. Looks like we need to crash her one-spirit party. The Hallowmont is located next to Milla's Shrine, so we need to do a little backtracking, once you're prepared. One thing I did to prepare was getting Fruit Salad (Medium), which raises P. ATK / DEF, and A. ATK / DEF by 10% for five battles. Pretty good meal, gotta say.  Back at the Spiritway, we have a couple skits. One in the first area and the other in the second. For this skit, both choices will raise an NPC's affection, with L1 increasing Julius' and R1 increasing Elle's. This skit also has a sneak peek into Ludger's love life, or lack thereof. Also, this skit reveals Julius is no match for Elle.  For this skit, L1 increases Julius' and R1 increases Bisley's. I went with L1, however. Upon returning to the shrine...  A woman in trouble I thought I told you to leave.  Yikes! However, Julius blocked the fireball. What're you doing?! She's holding a spyrix! It's our mission to destroy spyrix technology along with anybody who uses it! We've really riled her up. So now what? Fighting her is not going to make this any better, and it's not like anyone in the party has the heart to fight anyone who looks like Milla, even if it isn't the Milla we all know and love. Let's see how far deception takes us... Ludger, don't! I'm the smooth talker. Leave it to me. You'd lie to a friend? Don't forget, she's going to disappear soon anyway. Hey, listen to me. There's something wrong with your sister. You know that, don't you? With Muzet? That's preposterous! Again, while "witch" may be one among many appropriate descriptors, the theme is "diplomatic" here. Y-Yes... But that's my fault. She lost her sight because of me. Alright, making progress with the talks here. The next step is to deflect blame away from her actions, whatever they were, and onto the real problem, even if she doesn't know what a "divergence catalyst" is. The catalyst? You saw it too, right? That thing glowing in her body? There's no way you could've missed it. That light! That's a divergence catalyst. It possesses people and warps reality. It's a bad thing, and we have to get rid of it!...is what the catalysts really are, when you get right down to it. An object that warps reality. It's just like a spyrix. The two of you used to be inseparable, weren't you? Is she really the type of person would would smack her own sister like that? Never! Muzet was always so kind! She lost her sight trying to protect me! The sister I remember... ...was a different person. Good thing Ludger here has the power to smoke out our catalysts and destroy them.Ludger demonstrates the Chromatus for Milla... Is that...the power of the spirits? If this "catalyst" is destroyed, will Muzet go back to normal? I'd rather not blatantly lie, when we know the awful truth coming round the bend, but we should go with the safe, non-committal response. Maybe once she's better, Muzet will finally compliment me on my cooking. All right, I'll help you until the catalyst is destroyed. My sister relies on sound and smell to get around. Eliminate those and she's dead in the water. You sure about this? *nod* Come. She should be at the top of the Nia Khera Hallowmont. Can you do this?Ludger is clearly worried... Stop giving the kid so much grief, Julius. Sometimes you need to get your hands dirty. Don't I know it. That's what worries me. So even if it's just not the same, and can never be thus, Lady Dhaos has finally joined our party, finally reuniting in a gameplay sense, the original cast (however, Jude, Rowen, and Elize are not available). Before continuing on to the mountain, make sure to set an Extractor for Milla (because this world does not have any spyrix-technology based items, so she doesn't have one at all), and all the skills you think she'll need. Milla is fun as hell to play as, so I'll be playing as her for the majority of this brief dungeon. Also, after Milla joined the party I got all of her affection skits at once, because she's at level 10 affection in my alternate playthrough. I'm including all of them here. If you haven't finished this game, you'll understand why soon enough.  Make sure you pick up the Blessed Blade from just inside the shrine, on the back left wall of the place (there's also an improvement to Milla's starting armor and Soda Rice, which is +30% EXP for 3 battles). Other than that, the path to the mountain is exactly where it was in the first game: behind the altar in the middle of the building, there's a tapestry.  Examine it, Ludger will pull it down, and the door will be right in front of you. Also, is that a Japanese character in the middle of the tapestry, and if so, does anyone know what it means?  The dungeon itself is mostly composed of tight mountain trails, as it should. There are a bunch of little openings in the rock walls for you to crawl through and find nice treasures, which you really should (including the Garnet ring, which reduces Fire damage by 50%, and will be an amazing help against this upcoming boss). Other than that, the path to the summit is almost a complete straight shot once you climb up this first vine.  Gameplay-wise, as I said, Milla is a ton of fun to play with. She's one of only three characters (as I was informed in the thread, Alvin also qualifies), that can hit all 9 elements on her own, a ton of her melee artes can hit equally well in the air or on the ground, she's plenty fast (though a touch slower than Swords Ludger), and she has a nice balance between HP and TP. Her special ability is Spirit Shift. How it works is that Milla is technically a battle mage, with a huge emphasis on "battle". She has quite a few spirit artes, including Fireball, Wind Lance, Arrivederci (Wind spell), Rock Trine, and will learn quite a few more. To cast those artes as spells, hold circle when you're using them, and Milla was cast. But, if you just press circle once and don't hold the button down, you'll perform a Spirit Shift, and that spell will become a normal arte. To give you an example from this screenshot, I have Fireball set on tilt left / right + circle. By using it like a normal arte, it became Flare Bomb, which does some nice Fire-damage and pushes enemies away. Another example is Wind Lance, which on its own is pretty useless, but Spirit Shifted becomes Wind Blade, which is a two-hit arte that can be used in air (like a lot of Milla's artes), and is one of a handful of artes that can forcefully get a downed enemy back into a combo. Very handy. Grave (Rock Trine's Spirit Shift) does the same thing. Splash gives Aqua Protection, which just throws out a few water orbs to surround Milla and stagger anyone who gets caught in them. It's eh. Milla's support skill is Bind. When Milla and her partner are on opposite sides of the same enemy, there's a chance Milla could throw out a magical something and freeze the enemy right in their tracks for, let's say, five seconds. The odds are greater on certain types of enemies (flying foes get Binded all the time), but it can work on any type. It's not something that will probably make a difference in a difficult battle, but you never know.  Oh yeah, and she has a couple Dhaos lines for her special victory quotes: "If there is evil, it is in the hearts of men", and another one goes, if I recall correctly, "If you oppose me, you will face total annihilation!" or something very close to that. The first one is a weird case, because unless my memory of Phantasia is particularly foggy (it has been quite a few years since I played it, but I beat the game itself a couple times), the first time the player heard it, another character was saying it, but said character was quoting Dhaos. Basically, I would say Milla's Dhaos costume is far and away the best of the DLC costumes.  Ooh, another skit. However, I must take issue with Leia's characterization of Prime Muzet as being bad in any way. She's awesome.  Ah yes, this feature. When you defeat a certain number of a generic monster (from the humble Alest Plant to the powerful enemies of the bonus dungeon), you'll get free SP points, that you only otherwise get from leveling up / learning new skills. I was actually curious why I had so many SP going into this playthrough. After I got this notification I finally remembered why.  And we've finally made it to the top of the mountain (after a save point. Be prepared, folks), and we've got a spirit to bring down...  Blood sisters Over there... Please... I've carried out my mission beyond your expectations. May I finally return to the spirit realm now? Every night, my sister mutters things like this to herself. Is she talking to your daddy? I don't know. She refuses to tell me. Listen, I'll distract her, but it won't work for long. Hey... What did I say about wandering beyond the shrine?! But I was worried about you. What are you doing here, Muzet? None of your business! Why would you say that to me? You used to tell me everything! I have nothing more to say to you, Milla! Now go home! Tell me why... Tell me the reason you've been acting like this!  What?! Ludger! Now! What they told me was true! You monster! How dare you call me that, human! Milla! Elle! Look out! drat it!   Okay, so...this fight SUCKS. Coming off of Chronos, you might think you're a pretty tough guy, and if you've come this far on Moderate or Hard, you are, don't get me wrong. But the number one reason this fight sucks is because, even though Muzet has a very exploitable weakness (she's weak to Light, which the Blessed Blade always hits for), she's one among a few enemies in this game that can just ignore a combo when they want. In that, when you have a combo going, no matter how long it is, there's a chance she'll just teleport out of it. That's certainly her right, but makes this fight a total pain in the rear end that few other bosses in this game can match. Also, one more important note with Power Combos going forward, just so that it's on the table: enemies don't particularly like getting hit with the same element two times in a row. For example, my Ludger knows the arte Hungry Hunter, which is a Light-elemental Hammer arte. For whatever reason, the AI will nearly always break out a potential Power Combo if you start the combo using this arte, or artes like it (Hammer Toss, for example, which I use a lot). Bosses are more prone to this than normal enemies, so your best bet is to start a Power Combo of with a single-hit attack (Bubble Blast or Crossfire work perfectly. Both are Gun artes, and Water and Earth-elemental respectively), then diversify quickly. Just so you're aware going forward if bosses mysteriously break out of combos in the future. Also, because of the previous cutscene you'll always start this fight in Chromatus mode.  This is an example of Bind in action, by the way.  This is a REALLY dangerous move, Force Mine. Muzet will throw out four mines in each of the four corners around her from when she used it. Considering the power of the move, anyone stepping on those circles will probably get KO'd. They'll go away on their own after 5 or so seconds, though.  The camera will do a quick cut to an enemy and a blue ! will pop up when a boss goes into Over Limit. Muzet is the first enemy in the game who can use a Mystic Arte against you, Black Hole. If she has a red ! pop up over her head, she's casting Gravity Well, and if anyone on your team gets hit by that, she'll probably throw out Black Hole.  Okay, this move, Flame Ring, bites the big one when it comes to this boss, and is by far Muzet's most dangerous spell. Flame Ring has no range whatsoever (it just summons a ring of fire around the caster that will almost certainly cause the Burn status effect to anyone caught in it), and yet the AI. Does. Not. Get that. It will rush right in and just kill itself. On one of my attempts, 3 members of my party were killed by a single Flame Ring. That was one of those, "Alright, we'll try again next time" kind of things.  Again, if Muzet breaks out of your combo, it's not necessarily because you did anything wrong. She just teleports away from combos whenever she feels like. It makes this fight singularly unpleasant.  Muzet is a nightmare on Hard. She's tough, but completely beatable on Moderate. This is only the second fight I've changed the difficulty for, because for god's sake this fight is annoying on Hard and just wasn't worth the completely insubstantial bragging rights I would have for beating her on Hard for the internet. Strangely enough, on a previous attempt, this fight was the first time I successfully stole with Leia on my "real" playthrough. You can nab a Porange from Muzet. Awesome.  I don't need your pity. You putrid, pathetic, pitiful human! Just die! Die! Die! Of course, we're headed down the same road regardless. But if only to make things a modicum of right, we're going to help Milla before taking her sister's life.  Ludger and Muzet briefly face off, with Muzet gaining the upper hand after knocking Ludger's lance away. Don't you dare interfere! You... You made me do this. No human can harm me. I'm not any human. I'm your sister! Milla! Yeah... That's quite enough of this.  It's done. That's the fourth... Muzet. Milla! Well well. What might this be?   So the fractured dimension is kaput?Leia notices the shiny thing Ludger is holding. Looks like it could hold some value, though I've been wrong before. Is that the Waymarker to Canaan? Yeah... Ugh... What just happened? What the hell's that Milla doing in our dimension?! I knew it. What happened to Muzet?! Someone tell me what's going on, already! She's dead, Jim. Very, very dead. And so is everyone else you know... Huh? Then where are we right now? Our world. It's different from yours. Quit talking nonsense. What about my sister?! She's back to normal now, isn't she?Ludger shakes his head, but one *could* make the case she's back to normal. Not existing is normal for something that shouldn't have existed in the first place, is probably what Bisley would tell her in our situation. I'm afraid the Muzet you knew is gone. Along with the rest of your world. Well, I do know one thing... You lied to me, drat it! Quit it! Ludger was just doing his job! His job?! What sort of job involves destroying an entire world?! Well, his. Ludger, are you okay? I guess you destroyed the catalyst, right? So you all made it back, too. Yeah, we're fine. Elize and Rowen are with me. Mission accomplished, guys. Let's regroup. Yeah... Come on.  Milla follows along, but she's not an active party member at the moment...  Ah, so the shiny thing has a name. Finding these things is going to be a major goal of the plot from here on out. But, it's our only way to reveal the location of Canaan, so we'd be fools not to look for them in the first place.  While we're here, there's a chest that has a very respectable 8500 gald in it, which you'd be a drat fool to pass up on. Of course, don't forget this kitty, either. Update 11 alternate choices compilation Update 10 / 11 victory compilation Sylphid fucked around with this message at 04:19 on May 6, 2016 |
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May 6, 2016 03:57
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Skit video is private. I feel like they really undersell how mad Alt-Milla should be.
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May 6, 2016 04:09
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wdarkk posted:Skit video is private. YouTube's video thing strikes again. Incidentally, we're two updates in with alchargia's costumes, so why don't you choose a line-up for the 7 characters who will be soon at our disposal? I recorded a fair bit of Part XII already, so it won't be reflected right away.
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May 6, 2016 04:26
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Thanks Ludger.
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May 6, 2016 05:12
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I wonder what this alterMilla thinks about all this tactical cat deployment?
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May 7, 2016 02:46
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Part XII: The Girl Who Partners So there's not a whole lot to do going back to Nia Khera from the Hallowmont, and you could even warp straight to Nia Khera if you went there before entering the fractured dimension, but we've got treasures and materials to pick up, as well as a few cats.  The first cat is in Milla's Shrine. You'll hear it loudly meowing, but a search of the premises reveals no trace of the animal. So where is it?  Sneaky bastards. It was right under your feet as you entered, but the camera was zoomed out too far for us to see it from that angle. Lousy camera tricks Also, there's a nice Extractor, Starfire Plus, in a nearby chest. Doesn't the prime dimension look so much nicer? Anyway, no sense in fighting this guy with only three party members (Ludger, Leia, and Alvin) right now, especially when we still have one more required boss fight this chapter. I told you chapter 7 was a long chapter.  In the area after the Elite Monster, there's a cat sleeping happily in the shade of some trees, on a side path. Time to press it into a most noble service.  And back to Nia Khera. Feeling some deja vu here.  Hard Choice We took returning to the prime dimension as a sign of your victory. How in the world?There's a fade to black to explain what went down, but as far as bringing things from a fractured dimension to the prime one...well, you got me. Unbelievable... Don't be too hard on Ludger. He had to take out Muzet. That's all there was to it. What's the meaning of this? Just admit it, Ludger. You don't have the stomach for this job. Very interesting... So that's how you made your new friend there. What a fascinating tale.Oh yeah, and Ivar dropped down, too. Hmph. They were waiting for us. Mr. Rideaux! What are you doing here? An odd question for your new Department of Dimensional Affairs Director. Well done, former Director Kresnik. Recovering the Waymarker must've been quite an ordeal. No more so than speaking with you.  Lady Milla... Don't get yourself all worked up. She's not your Milla, you know. drat it, she's still Milla! Watch your mouth! I... I know that's not really her... Ha ha, ah, welcome to the real world, kid. Ah, Julius. You remember what it's like to crush the dreams of the young and foolish, don't you? Drop it! For example, the time you rigged poor Ludger's entrance exam so that he couldn't possibly pass. That... That's not...Oh man... But considering the Spirius Corp's work, he had his reasons, I think. Oh yeah, and there's three different endings to the intro: if you don't fight the monster, Julius scolds you and you fail. If you fight the monster and lose, Julius bails you out and fails you. However, as the thread informed me, you can win that fight, but the employee you're saving pulls out a knife and threatens you or something, and...you fail. Yep, we couldn't win right from the start. Guess we know why now, though...  Heed me, Ludger... As Director, I have new orders for you. Defeat Julius, recover the Waymarker, and give it to me. Please...you have to trust me. Hoooo boy, this is a sticky situation, ain't it... Well, let's think about this carefully. We can't be 100% sure Julius isn't acting in our best interest, and Rideaux is Rideaux, so he's not on anyone's "Cool" list. On the other hand, Rideaux is technically our boss, so as a Spirius employee, he reports to Bisley, who can shitcan us anytime he wants if we disobey his lieutenant. On the other other hand, I'll bet Rideaux doesn't have nearly as much play with the boss man as he thinks he does. We're a member of the Kresnik family who can travel through dimensions with our special power. Which makes us far more important to Bakur's plans than this joker is. Screw him, and let's give our brother a chance to redeem himself. Oh, brother, literally. Are you kidding me? Isn't one rogue Kresnik annoying enough?! The kick knocks him plum out... The employee handbook is quite clear about punishment for insubordination. We'll help! No way! This is their fight.   Rideaux is a pretty annoying fight, but he's nowhere near as bullshit as Muzet was. He sticks to a variety of melee attacks that come out pretty quickly / have good range, from a whip-like thing in his arm or something, and has a few melee attacks. On the weaknesses side, he's vulnerable to Light and Darkness, so that Prometheus (Darkness) from a couple updates ago is gonna come in handy here.  This is a pretty sweet moment. That Bubble Blast shot is slowly traveling toward him, after Alvin foolishly knocked him away and blew my combo...  But he didn't! Elize came out of nowhere to hit him with a basic melee attack to stagger him just long enough for the bubble to catch up to him. Also, notice my multiplier. This is the first time I've got a full Power Combo! The way it happened was Alvin hit him with Guardian Field for Light-elemental damage, then I added Darkness / Slash with a basic Swords hit, then Azure Edge for Wind, Strike next with a basic Hammer hit, Hammer Toss for Fire, basic Gun hit, Crossfire for Earth, then the Bubble Blast. Little sloppy, and I don't have a Chromatus usage to follow it up with, but there you go. You'll know when you have a full Power Combo if your character makes a distinctive noise / comment (Ludger will just loudly yell, of course). Another cool thing about a full combo is that once you've hit that ninth element, the Power Combo meter will go down much slower than normal (of course, it won't go down at all in Chromatus mode, if the combo isn't broken). I actually didn't realize I got that combo while I was playing this. It was only while I watching the video after it finished processing on my computer that I realized it.  Once he's below half health, he'll start casting Dancing Bayonet. Basically the only dangerous part of this move is being close to him after it gets casted. The hitbox for it seems very wonky, in your favor. Oh, and he can go into Over Limit (but won't use a Mystic Arte at any point in this fight), but the best way to deal with this is to hope he aggros against you, the player character, and just have him waste his Over Limit by chasing you around. The AI seems to throw out Over Limit whenever it feels like, so you'll just have to deal with it.  As long as you can anticipate his melee attacks, and dodge appropriately, it's pretty easy to catch him when he's recovering from an attack and hit him with powerful combos. Rideaux is definitely the easiest of Chapter 7's bosses. If you choose L1 in the previous choice, however, you'll fight Julius, which actually, I've never done, but I will shortly (as of this writing, I have yet to record the alternate choices video for this update). If we had Milla instead of Leia, this fight would be easy as poo poo. And yes, this was recorded on Hard, as will Julius. Another edit from the future: Julius is definitely the harder fight. He is really fast, is the main reason he's tough. Rideaux may be a bit more powerful, but he's a slug in comparison. And I mean that in terms of personality, too.  Look at the way you both vex me! Stop it, Rideaux! Are you his brother, or his mommy?! Man, big bro just doesn't have it today.  Ludger! Last chance, Agent. Retrieve the Waymarker and return to headquarters now. *hesitant nod* Smart move. You get to live. I'm so sorry... Ludger... Man, Ivar's such a little putz. Turning a blade against Milla is unforgivable, especially against a woman whose world was just destroyed. Then again, Milla has no particular reaction to being taken prisoner, so whatever. Let's just get this over with. We're returned to Spirius HQ, so just go ahead and talk to Vera when you resume control.  Hey! Say... Have you heard anything from Julius? Nova, I've told you that's classified. I'm off the clock. Just a question between friends. I can't bring myself to lie to Nova, so just can't choose R1, I can't. Incidentally, I'm guessing this means Spirius is dragging him through the back door or something. O-Of course. You're right. He's your big brother, after all. More than that! He practically raised you. ...Everyone leaves the Nova in the dust... But she'll bounce back. You...going to be okay? The cats are closing in! If they've made it as far as the CEO of the Spirius Corporation's floor, we're in trouble.  The Trial (This video also incorporates the above scene with Nova and Vera)  You must be proud of your talented brother. That's enough. Don't go praising him for this. You got that right. Doing a good job meant destroying my world. They told me about you. What was your name, again? Milla. The former Maxwell. You're serious? Pretty skeptical for a destroyer of worlds. Not because we want to. We do it to protect the prime dimension. Also, we do it to reach the Land of Canaan. Canaan. The throne of the Great Spirit of the Void, Origin, guarded by Chronos. You were serious about the Maxwell thing. I can see that now. Just something I heard from my sister. Then your sister is a very well-informed woman. Legend has it, Origin will grant the wish of the first human who comes before him to plead their case. Bisley! That was the pact made eons ago between humanity and spirits. The three Primordial Spirits. The three were Maxwell, Chronos, and the Great Spirit of the Void... Origin. Present yourself to the Spirit of the Void and any wish may be granted. Hm, tough one, but nothing we've seen so far refutes any of this. The presence of Chronos alone, and what he said to us in the fractured dimension, seems to bear this out. R1 it is, and we'll be increasing Bisley's affection along with it. Also, just so I don't repeat myself too much, every choice I make in this scene will increase Bisley's affection. Yes. The Void gave birth to the whole of creation. Its Great Spirit, Origin rules over all of his kind. A being so powerful could surely grant anything and everything. Why did they agree to such a pact? To test us. To test our strength, our will, our ambition. Or so some believe... Perhaps they just find enjoyment in watching humanity struggle and suffer. The Great Spirits wouldn't do that! No? They bear no love for us. He may be right. The scions of Kresnik have waged war amongst themselves for centuries, each one hoping to reach Canaan first. At times, father against son. And occasionally, brother against brother. Somebody get to the point already! Ditto that, guys... I mean, we have the Waymarker, after all. Let's just hightail it to Canaan. Would that it were that simple. But alas, it's not. A single Waymarker won't get you to the Land of Canaan. You'll need five in all. This is but the first: Maxwell's Temporal Blade. The others are the Long Dau's Dust, the Seafall Phantom's Eye, the Ark Sentinel's Heart, and... Oooh, sounds juicy. Can't wait to start looking for that one. Unfortunately, all of these items have fallen through the proverbial cracks in the prime dimension. So we find them in the fractured ones, is that it?! Precisely. If a Waymarker exists in a fractured dimension, it would have to be the entity that differs the most from its original nature in this one. In other words, the Waymarkers will always be divergence catalysts. And bringing the lost Waymarkers back into the prime dimension is the real mission of the agents.Rideaux nods in agreement... Not everyone is suited for a mission of this nature. An agent must have a very specific power to carry matter from a fractured dimension into the prime one. Here at Spirius, we have a title for those who possess that ability. They are the Keys of Kresnik. And by "they", we mean you, Ludger. Hmm...going by L1, seems like Ludger has figured things out regarding Elle. She's clearly not just a normal girl, if her actions allowed Alt Milla to survive the proverbial road trip from the last fractured dimension we destroyed. Things are getting heavy, but Bisley's not wrong about Ludger's power, either. However, that it not the choice I'll be making this day. Yes, the same power that my agents have scoured the fractured dimensions to locate. So why is Spirius trying to get to Canaan? What's your wish? Their numbers increase. We are no longer able to deal with them one by one.However, the tension of this scene is snapped in half as Elle's tummy starts grumbling... Someone's hungry. I can't help if my tummy's rumbly! I'll arrange for refreshments. Why don't you just have Ludger whip us up something? Ohhh? Are you suggesting that Ludger's a good cook? I guess he's okay. Milla, too! Well, someone had better feed this scrappy little thing before she passes out from hunger. Ludger... I have no doubt you will reach the Land of Canaan. Well, the snippy response would be the most interesting, but as I've said... Good luck. Ditto! Ludger... I never wanted this for you.  Our brother's still in custody, and there should be nothing of consequence stopping us from locating all the other Waymarkers. Guess things worked out well... Upon returning to the apartment... drat it feels like it's been a while, huh?  A spicy blend I'll take the special! You don't know what it is yet. If it's the special, it's special! You're in a good mood, huh Elle? Of course! Now we know how to get to the Land of Canaan! By destroying other worlds? It is what it is. Sorry. Is that supposed to make me feel better? Hey... So, what...? You agree with her? Is it spicy? drat, Ludger works FAST. Well, speaking personally, mabo curry is probably something I'll never eat in my life, because I hate spicy food, and it seems Elle agrees, as L1 increases her affection. Who taught you how to make it Elle-style, smarty-pants? Anyway, let's dig in! This is Elle-style! Even to cook, you depend on spyrix.Yeah, Milla...you might want to start getting used to that, at least as long as we're in Elympios throughout this journey. Milla, about what you said before... The Land of Canaan is where the Great Spirit Origin is, right? And he purifies our souls and subjects them to reincarnation? Like I said, that's just what my sister told me. When the spyrite Volt went haywire, it said something about contamination. Spyrite? Jude here is a spyrite genius! If I can perfect spyrite technology, we won't need spyrix anymore. A world without spyrix... Maybe our trouble with spyrites is linked to the soul-purification process. Even if it's not, if Canaan is so important that it will change the course of history...then it's somewhere I have to go. You're coming with us, right? You and me and Jude and everybody. I'll tag along for a while. Long enough to confirm my world's fate, and not a moment more.Milla stalks outside and Jude follows... Sorry, Ludger... I guess they didn't like the special.A few hours later, presumably... Meow!And now Elle starts to leave... Hm?But where would a young girl go this time of night...  The promise But the park outside Ludger's building? What's the holdup? Don't forget you need me. You know the Key thingy? That special power of yours is neat and all, but it needs me around, doesn't it? *nod* I'm not trying to be mean, but it's worthless without me, right? Again, every choice I take in this scene will increase Elle's affection. Fun fact, though: you can't get Elle's special end-game weapon on your first playthrough. Even if you increase her affection level at every opportunity, there's just not enough choices to make to increase her affection all the way. It would be a pretty cool detail if the NPCs changed their responses to you in cutscenes and such depending on their level, but there is no such feature. Anyway, going with R1. A-ha! You need my help. No ifs or buts. So... Maybe, you could come with me to Canaan? ... Well, yeah, I mean, of course we're going to Canaan with her. There's no way she could do it on her own, right? Anyway, after this choice Ludger gives Elle her watch back. The circle is closed. You're giving it back? Oh, I get it! It doesn't matter which one of us carries it, because we're a team now! Gimme your pinky, okay? It's important. Daddy told me a promise isn't really a promise unless you pinky-swear on it. You gotta promise me we're gonna go to the Land of Canaan together.The pinky swear is done. A blood oath has been written this night. Okay. You better! There's no way this could turn out poorly...  GodDAMN that was a long chapter, huh? Anyway, I forgot this world had two moons. Anyone know their names? I want to say Sylvarant / Te'thealla, but...  After that scene, you'll get a whole bunch of skits dumped in your lap at one time. This one, announcing a new seahaven in Rieze Maxia has opened up, as well as A Schismless World, Two Partners, Mysterious Materials, and finally,Old Man Alvin.  However, it does seem that Alt. Milla may not be as much of a sourpuss as she's let on so far (she was asked what she was made of, for context).  So our new debt payment is a healthy 100,000 gald, but the thing is, it is incredibly easy to pay this off. I left the fractured dimension with a little shy of 40,000 gald, and after a free 10,000 gald payment from Bisley after we talked to him put me over halfway. On top of that, I have three outstanding Elite Monsters (Siennabronc being a special case, and thus, I am not counting it henceforth). In spite of how intimidating it looks, Graddic Claw is pretty drat easy, so we'll be going after him first.  And here the big guy is, in the second area of the Rusalle Highroad. Let's school this guy. Graddic Claw.  And less than 30 seconds in, I've already got a full Power Combo. The big problem with this guy is his size really works against him. It's impossible to send him flying any considerable distance, and makes it really easy for the AI to hit him. Weakness-wise, his vulnerability is to Water, so you've either got Milla's Splash or Ludger's Bubble Blast when it comes to exploiting that. I would highly advise the latter.  Of course, he has a ton of power attacks, and in excess of 200,000 HP on Hard, so don't underestimate him. Also, I went into this fight with three Life Bottles. That is unacceptably sloppy.  Chromatus Falling Snow tears this sack of crap apart, with a full Power Combo. I went into the Chromatus with 13,000 something damage. Look at what it is now.  I wish I could say that the rest of the fight was as well-handled as the first minute or so. I would be lying. I defeated him, but it was with only Alvin standing, but I don't particularly care, honestly. Elite Monsters aren't worth *that* much experience, and I got my gald, and that's what matters. Let's move on, because there's a TON to do this chapter. Oh, and here's an alternate take on the fight. Embarrassingly, I forgot to save right after Graddic Claw, after saving just before to make sure I had a good save...ah, don't worry about WHY I forgot. Just enjoy taking this guy down by the books.  Now, as you might expect, the job board is jam-packed with new jobs, and new kitties to capture, especially in the new areas of Rieze Maxia that were opened up by access to Sapstrath Seahaven. But, we've still got a little business in Elymipos. The first job is story-related, and requires going to Bisley's office with Jude in your party.  Ha! What do you think? Did I sound like Vera? Dead-on impersonation, right?Actually, she didn't sound like Vera at all, but how could anyone dislike Nova? This defies my understanding.  I'll get right to the point. Let's view the contents of this data disk, shall we? ...This is my first time activating one-quarter of the chromatus' power. One fractured world has been successfully destroyed. This is the task which befalls all who are born with power. I must end the clan's suffering. Julius Kresnik. End of transmission. What?! That was recorded by Julius?! He kept a log of all his actions and recorded them on data disks. We don't know why, but disks like this one have been found all over the world. Of course, all Department records of this nature are considered highly classified. We must recover this data. Which is exactly why I've brought you here. Can I count on you to handle this? Hm... By retrieving his full log, we may be able to find out Julius' intentions. Is that not incentive enough for you? I say we do it, Ludger. Splendid! From now on, the data disks in question shall be referred to as "Code J". Please use the Spirius job bulletin for this though. You'll still have to fill out the standard paperwork of course. Top-secret isn't an excuse to bypass protocol. ...I have now destroyed seven fractured dimensions. I was able to activate a half-powered chromatus as well. However, it seems I need to inrease the chromatus' power before I can take on more dimensions. Julius recorded this particular log when he was eleven years old. No way! Are you saying he had the power to destroy worlds when he was just a kid?! His abilities are beyond extraordinary, I must say... Abilities which the clan had high hopes for... ... ...There is one person out there who still relies on me. I have to meet their expectations-- No, I WANT to meet those expectations! I need more strength... Just a little more... Apparently the log cut off there, but believe you me, that's not the last of those kind of jobs.  So the new locations in Rieze Maxia are located in Rashugal, with the bright blue dot being the new seahaven. As you can see, we've got a bunch of locales to hit up. Let's get started. To head to that dot, you have to take a ship either from Marksburg or Aladhi Seahaven.  And here we are. Let's hit the trails, because as usual, there's just the standard stuff here in the seahaven.  Said trail is the Sapstrath Highroad. It's a pretty typical trail area, nothing particularly worth mentioning around here. However, the main road leads to the city of Sharilton, but we're going to make a pit stop in the Sapstrath Deepwood for a few kitties first. There's an entrance to the forest in the first area of the trail.  So from the entrance mentioned above, one of the smaller paths leads to this area of the South Region. These two individuals will be useful a VERY long time from now (like, I believe their shop opens in the post-game). So, you probably won't even remember these two are here by that point, but they are here. They'll start selling stat-increasing herbs, for a *very* hefty price, but hey. Also, spot the cat!  The forest is full of twisting, narrow passages that can make navigating around a bit of a pain. But, as long as you follow the map and keep in mind places you've passed, it shouldn't prove a huge nuisance (the small area mentioned above is on the path just behind Ludger).  The Hammer is pretty cool for a few reasons, and one of the big ones is that a lot of the artes have different effects depending on what buttons you press / hold down. Hammer Toss is one of them. If you hold down the prompt for Hammer Toss (such as right + circle), Ludger will charge up the throw, then release after like three seconds or so to do double damage with it. Always remember to check your arte descriptions, folks.  Nice view, eh? Reminds me of Wanderer above the Sea of Fog.  Oh yeah, and there's mushrooms everywhere. They explode and cause a little damage if you step on them. Yeah...  Here's the cat we came to find. We really have no more business here in the Deepwood now that we've found Moon and Chi-Chi, so let's get back on the trail.  Once you're satisfied with your haul in Deepwood and the first area of the trail, keep on going (there's also an exit from the Deepwood to this area). This area has three exits: one leads to a third area, where the only thing of note is a cat, the other leads to Sharilton, and the final one leads back to the forest. We'll be taking the first for right now.  The third area itself is a dead end, but toward the back right of the area from where you enter (or just on the right wall of the area if you want to hug the wall to find it), there's a cave you can crawl through to find the demonic cat. Let's not turn our backs on this one...  And finally, going back to the main route, we make it to Sharilton. But, y'know what? I think that's quite enough for this update. We've still got a lot of work to do... Update 12 alternate choices compilation Update 12 victory compilation Sylphid fucked around with this message at 01:16 on May 10, 2016 |
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May 10, 2016 00:46
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I fought Julius my first playthrough. It's me. I am a lovely brother for a laundry list of reasons.
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May 10, 2016 00:54
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alcharagia posted:I fought Julius my first playthrough. It's me. I am a lovely brother for a laundry list of reasons. Was one reason because you embarrassed the clan with your ridiculous costumes? I can imagine why he wouldn't be thrilled with you going outside dressed like an anime clown (I wish I could say I came up with that, but I believe the Xillia 2 thread in Games had someone use that and I thought it was an amusing way to describe the average player's fashion choices).
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May 10, 2016 01:18
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Sylphid posted:Was one reason because you embarrassed the clan with your ridiculous costumes? I can imagine why he wouldn't be thrilled with you going outside dressed like an anime clown (I wish I could say I came up with that, but I believe the Xillia 2 thread in Games had someone use that and I thought it was an amusing way to describe the average player's fashion choices). No, Ludger was dressed wholly sensibly. I didn't start going crazy until I got Ba'ul back. 
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May 10, 2016 02:01
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So apparently fractured dimensions have always been a thing, no seriously they have shut up?
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May 10, 2016 04:13
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Sylphid posted:YouTube's video thing strikes again. I've been feeling absolutely awful, so I still haven't gotten around to this (or updating my LP). I'll try to get this done tomorrow. Glazius posted:So apparently fractured dimensions have always been a thing, no seriously they have shut up? This game is a lot like Dawn of the New World, but actually OK.
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May 10, 2016 04:16
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One of my favorite lines in the game: Alvin: Ludger, say something to the insolent women folk! Ludger: Something. Yeah, it's an old joke (Alvin's response is to say the joke's older than Rowen) but it's still funny (to me, at least)!
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May 10, 2016 05:11
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OK, costumes. Ludger will be a Shepherd impersonator: No Jacket 2, Hat Style haircut, Ten Gallon Hat, Cress' Longsword, Harpy Feather Hairpin. Leia gets Xillia Outfit 2, Default haircut, Tiara, and Rose Corsage Milla gets Lady Xillia Outfit, Spirit haircut, Elf Ears, and a mini-Milla. I think she's trying to become her sister. Jude gets No Jacket, Default Haircut, Superhero Belt, Bedhead, and Bandage. Alvin gets Color Variation, Xillia Haircut, Chef's Hat, Bushy Eyebrows, and Leather Belt Elize gets Color Variation, Default Haircut, Mystery Mask, Tengu Mask, and Harold Mask moved/rotated to be on the opposite side of her face from the Tengu Mask. Rowen will get No Jacket, Default Haircut, Black Dog's Muzzle, Sideburns, and Rowen's Spectacles.
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May 10, 2016 23:40
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wdarkk posted:OK, costumes. Incidentally, I recorded stuff all the way to start of Chapter 8 (I'm going after Gaius first) with costumes I came up with on the fly, so you'll need to dress up His Highness, too. Also, it's funny you mention Zestiria cosplay because I tried to make Rowen resemble Mikleo. I'm not sure how well it went (probably not very), but I never said Rowen could pull off GOOD Mikleo cosplay.
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May 11, 2016 01:16
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Sylphid posted:Incidentally, I recorded stuff all the way to start of Chapter 8 (I'm going after Gaius first) with costumes I came up with on the fly, so you'll need to dress up His Highness, too. Go full final boss. Final Boss Haircut, Boss Mode costume, Gaius' Crest, Gaius' Headband (although I don't think he actually wore that while he was final-bossed out). Also a mini-Jude if you've got that.
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May 11, 2016 02:15
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Part XIII: The Man Who Helps Welcome to the city of Sharilton. It's a merchant town, which doesn't mean much for you, but we'll still be seeing it a fair bit over the course of the game. This city is also known for a boss fight you had in the town circle in the first game (not this area, but close). There's a skit as soon as you enter involving Rowen telling various stories about the town, and the ghost stories one increases his affection, at everyone's expense (just kidding. You can't make affection go down for any reason). Also, I got Rowen's first affection skit thanks to that decision.  This is a unique vendor. Throughout your adventures, you'll find Win and Lose Sticks. The Lose Sticks are entirely useless, but the Win Sticks get you...  Whoopee... Oh well, let's move on.  As much as I'd like to equip Ludger with a fancy new pistol set, these are required for a certain job that I'll be completing shortly.  But, we can upgrade quite a bit here in Sharilton. I'd advise indulging a bit, and as a note in the future, checking each new location's inventory for any upgrades to equipment. You never know when that one AC can make all the difference, after all.  Making a quick stop at the inn will allow us to find yet another cat. We're making some good progress.  Our client is standing right in front of her manor, simply enough. Let's see what she wants some serious firepower for.  Thank you all for coming! Thanks to you, I finally have a means of evening the odds and fighting back! What's all the kerfuffle about, Milady? When you said a powerful foe, you don't mean... Oh boy, I think she does... Yep. I'm afraid so. And my nemesis is here. Waiting for me inside the manor. That can't be! I thought it was destroyed a year ago! This is no ordinary foe. It's never truly gone... Not completely. You mean it's immortal! We're doomed! Not with this gun. Oh no... No, it ends today.Whahahahahaha! HAHAHAHA! Lady Driselle is quite frightening when she's angry! The time for retribution has come! Ludger and I will lead the charge from the sides of the manor, trapping it in a pincer and forcing the best into the center of the manor! Understood! Yes ma'am! I'm ready to deploy! We meet in the center of the manor as 1200 hours! We only get one shot at this, so don't hold back! I wanna see a flurry of bullets and spirit artes out there, men! A stupendous strategem, Milday, but might I make a few modifications? You may not, soldier! You have your orders! Y-Yessir, Ma'am. Sir! I can't hear you, soldier! YES, MA'AM! I can't guarantee your safety out there, men. Try to watch your back. Our foe may have something up his sleeve... Now then... Roll out! Let's kick some butt! Enemy kill confirmed! Mission complete! That was tense! Vive la resistance! Vive la Teepo! We have won a great victory today, and we kept our casualties to a minimum. As long as we stand together against tyranny, we are unstoppable! Y-Yeah... This blitz might have been just a hair overzealous. So much effort for a single cockroach...Eh, verdict's still out on that, Rowen. Also, we have some furry business in Driselle's manor...  But of course. Now it's time to get to work. We've got quite a few things we could, and should, be doing now, but let's see what Leia wants...after a wardrobe change.  The missing agents Hey, there you are! Are you okay? I saw Driselle while I was out shopping for leads. She said a bunch of Spirius agents have gone missing in action. Mighty Spirius agents MIA? Must be one dangerous job. She thinks a fractured dimension might have something to do with it.Right on cue... Vera here. We've detected a new fractured dimension, but... So you've already heard. Is it that dangerous? All I can tell you is that an agent's ability level determines the level of danger. The last communication I received from an agent indicated that the divergence catalyst was an extremely powerful monster. Wonderful. Stand by for the coordinates of the fractured dimension. The rift is in Bermia Gorge. Do be careful. I'm coming too. I don't like the sound of this one bit. And I owe you one anyway. I'll come too. If I didn't, who knows what horrible things our intrepid reporter here would write about me. Do you have to invent an excuse every time you help someone?So yeah, the same way you went to the previous fractured dimension (and all the ones in the future, as well), is the same way you head into Bermia Gorge. Make sure to stock up on improvements to equipment and consumables. While this upcoming quest isn't particularly hard, never hurts to be prepared. Oh yeah, and as for a fourth character, basically anyone but Rowen is good. Guess who I went with?  That girl certainly looks familiar...  Old flame  You're late, moron!She proceeds to kick Leia... Oww! I've been blowing up your phone all day! And why have you got these men with you? So some of the affection-raising choices in this chapter can be weird, but here, it's R1. Agria is Leia's former friend, after all. Huh. And who is this doofus right here? So Jude dumped you, and this guy's your rebound? Really now? What? No! Whatever. Do you want to write your stupid story about the monster here or what? About ecosystems and poachers or wahtever. Weird to hear you talk about complicated stuff like that. Huh? Umm... Hello, your story? Uh, yeah. And Leia asked us along for backup in case there was any fighting, right, Leia? Not a bad idea. The poachers have stuck that drat beast so many times, it's out of its mind. Uh, r-right! What an airhead. I'm going on ahead. What is wrong with her? Well, we might as well follow her. Yep, got another dungeon to crawl through. Now, Agria's story was that she was one of the Four Chimeriad, and the first one encountered in the prologue of the first game (when Milla had to show up and bail Jude out). She had several encounters with the party after that, until her final appearance after the events following Gilland's death, where she fell off the top of the Nia Khera Hallowmont. Shockingly enough, unlike all other characters who fell off a high ledge to their assumed death in fiction, Agria never returns from the dead in Xillia 2. Remember, death doesn't count unless you have the body. Her death scene, as well as another character's, happened off-screen in Milla's story, and from what I remember, was never even mentioned afterwards except maybe in a skit. It was really weird. Anyhow, the Bermia Gorge. A lot of narrow passages and a lot of climbing. It should usually be fairly obvious where to go. If not, check your map. There is a lot of vertical space, but there's always vines to climb up if you find yourself moving too far in the wrong direction. Oh yeah, and there's a skit called Leia and Agria that'll appear shortly after the above scene.  There's still no sign of her in the second area. But, we'll come upon her soon enough...  As far as enemies go (and this goes with the prime dimension Bermia Gorge as well, since they're basically identical), Sword Bees are your most dangerous foes. Individually they're pretty easy enemies, especially since they have a lot of weaknesses, but in groups, they can be like you running right into a buzz saw. Just be careful.  You'll finally catch up with her shortly in the third area.  What could have been Ludger confirms, of course... This won't be easy. Hmph. It's no surprise the whole ecosystem's out of whack with that thing on the loose. Those drat Elympion poachers really did a number on it. Nothing left to do but put it out of its misery. The poachers are from Elympios? Duh! Isn't that what your stupid story is about? Those bloodthirsty Elympion thrill seekers? How awful... I hate those Elympions. I hate 'em to bits! Massacring spirits with their spyrix like it's no big whup! But Maxwell made it so they can keep using their spyrix for a while, right? It's still a fact that spyrix kill spirits! And they just put it out of their minds... Just 'cause they're too stupid to channel spirits, they think they're entitled to use their drat spyrix. Won't be long before Rieze Maxia's a wasteland just like Elympios! But that's why everyone's working so hard on spyrite technology. What? You're taking their side now?! It's not like that. It's just... I've seen people in Elympios who are trying really hard to solve these problems. And... I want to believe them. That's who you choose to believe? You really are the most gullible person alive. I couldn't tell you why, but L1 increases Leia's affection. However, Ludger is also a reflective guy, so let's choose R1. Whaddaya mean, "we'? Hold on, you're one of 'em?! Get out of my sight, garbage breath!Yeah, the real Agria wasn't much better in the whole "insults" department.  This is no time to be picking fights! We gotta put that beast down, remember? Fine. Then I'll handle this myself. W-Wait! Agria!  So Hangerzamm here is a pretty dangerous target, but it weak to Darkness and Strike, which makes Prometheus (Darkness) useful yet again, and it won't be the last time. One of the big problems with this guy is he's really hard to stagger, but keep smacking him and he'll drop his guard eventually.  He'll also burrow underground frequently and launch leaping attacks at you. Again, the AI just won't deal with this very well. He's completely invulernable between the time he starts burrowing and when he emerges, and starts attacking again. Also, one advantage to Linked Artes is that, unless the enemy is resistant to the element being used, a Linked Arte will knock them to the ground (but if they're a light character like a human enemy, there's a chance they'll do an aerial recovery), then you do a focus hit (L1 + basic attack. It's a cheap way to get a downed enemy up), and start an actual combo.  Just like with Graddic Claw, full Power Combo + Falling Snow Chromatus utterly wrecks this guy, with his prodigious size very much working against him here. Your hits under these circumstances will hit anywhere from 3400-5000 each time.  And down he goes, without too terrible a cost in Life Bottles.   Should be obvious in this case, however, what'll raise Leia's affection. Agria, you okay? Shut up! Ow! Quit freaking out over every little thing! Did you honestly think that would kill me? That's no reason to kick me! Hah! That was payback for earlier... Oh. Th-Thanks. Tell me something. Do you really trust them? Let's be honest now. Huh? Oh. Yeah... I mean, Elympios is in a tough spot, too. I know that some of them look down on Rieze Maxia. But if we really work at it, we can reach a place of mutual trust and respect. Right? Guess it worked out for you and me. And thanks to you, I'm still here. Stop grinning like an idiot! Anyway, we're done here. Now it's time for you to do your job. Go home and write your article, Leia. Well, that was a lot less painful than last time.  And here we thought that would be tough. I barely broke a sweat. Hey... It's necessary to destroy all these fractured dimensions, right? I mean... We did the right thing, didn't we? In addition to all his other positive traits, Ludger is a cautious individual. I mean, it's hard to be convinced by Bisley's doomsaying without concrete proof, right? R1 it is, but L1 raises Leia's affection. Yeah... Ludger, you think it'd be okay if I wrote an article about the fractured dimensions? About the people who lived there, and what they were like, and why they needed to be destroyed? Hmm... If you did that, I suppose they'd live on, in a way. *nod* *nod* Well, I'm beat. Gonna grab some grub and some shut-eye.  So after the bonus gald I got from finishing character quests, I finally got too much gald to avoid paying off the loan for this chapter any longer. Now, this is a special debt payment, for reasons that will soon become clear.  Oh boy. Julius is on the loose again.  Vera also mentioned that a man called Erston has requested our presence in front of the Spirius Building, so we have a choice, and which choice determines which party member will join first. Choosing R1, which I've always done, will lead you to getting Gaius to join very shortly. Who joins if you choose L1? You'll see in 2-3 updates. However, it *really* doesn't matter. It just determines who joins first, and I'm not aware of any other changes whatsoever depending on which choice you make.  Moving on to other business, we're heading to the prime dimension Bermia Gorge next. First, you need to head through the Culmar Trail, which is the trail near Driselle's manor. Also, I got Alvin's second affection skit here, thanks to Linked Artes.  Be sure to look for hidden passages throughout the trail (usually where there's a visible clearing on the map but no apparent way to reach it). You'll be rewarded for your curiosity.  Also, there's another one toward the back of the Trail. Awww   Prime Bermia is...exactly the same. Shocking, eh? Really, the only reason we're here is for felines / Elite Monster. Shortly after arriving, I also got Leia's second affection skit. Making good progress.  This is exactly what I meant when I said be wary of the bees. In groups they can quickly overwhelm you. One exception is the Chromatus. Apocalyptica can push away everyone around Ludger and give you some breathing room. Also, Xillia 2 is one of those RPGs where characters are NOT revived with 1 HP if you leave a battle with a KO'd ally. Make sure to keep a healthy stock of Life Bottles at all times.  In the third area of the Gorge (same place we fought the catalyst), is our resident Elite Monster. Here we go... Moralzamm  This is another terrible fight. First of all, the drat thing spends more time underground, seemingly, than it does fighting. When you're just standing around waiting for the fight to resume after it burrows, it's not a good one. Not to mention it's free damage for him. On the elemental side, he's weak to Earth, but resistant to Wind. So, y'know, don't use that to start a combo.  First of all, turn off the ability of your allies to use Linked Artes. By and large, the AI will almost exclusively waste them, and Linked Artes are your one reliable way to stagger this guy and knock him to the ground. So, leave the use of them to your discretion entirely, because the AI simply cannot be trusted to use them strategically / wisely, and will certainly not use Over Limit at its full potential at any point in the game. Also, this monster's red ! attack will always stun a target who is not blocking, but the thing is, the stun lasts at least twice as long as a normal stun. It's so annoying, especially when the wide-ranging attack hits like 2-3 of your allies.  Also, I'm not sure what it is, but I had a huge amount of success with Rolling Thunder staggering this guy. I'm not entirely sure why. I'm just saying.  I'm not entirely sure why, and I've never been able to explain this, but sometimes the Power Combo multiplier will go up to 600% instead of the usual 420% you get from a full Power Combo. If anyone could shed any light on why this happens (or any Power Combo results that go above 420%), it would be most appreciated.  This assessment of the battle is one I would agree with, but that's one more Elite Monster's head we can deliver to the job board.  On one of area 3's higher platforms, you'll find this kitty, who has clearly gotten very lost. Let's show it the way back to The Crazy Cat Lady's apartment. When we have no further need of its services, of course.  And in the Northeast Region, we're done here, so let's take the scenic way down. See you all back in Sharilton.  So, what's left in the Sharilton area? Heading to the Talys Highroad for, what else, a cat.  Again, nothing really worth commenting on with the enemies here, and you'll forgive me if I gloss over it for now. We'll be back, but again, we're really only after the cat.  In the second area of Talys, there's a big rock platform in the center of the area. This is where the stray cat has wandered. Natalina, huh?  Who else would the cat be based on, but everyone's favorite Tales archer, Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear from Abyss? I guess some people like Chester too, but eh. One more landmark before we head back to Nia Khera.  I speak, of course, of Fort Gandala. There is literally nothing to do here right now. The fort is closed for renovations or something, and our path to Rashugal's capital, Fennmont, is blocked by both land and sea. Funnily enough, Fennmont, despite being the city in the opening of the first game, is one of the last areas visited in this title. Ah well, it'll open eventually.  Back in the area of the Sanctum of Maxwell, we have a few errands to take care of, including Milla's first character chapter. First off, it's settling an old score. Radiant Horn  So, since all RPGs need to have a boss like this, ol' Horn here loves his status effects, and he's also quite fond of delivering them from on high. When it comes to evening the odds with him, Darkness and Guns are his weaknesses, so again, that Prometheus (Darkness) is really paying for itself here. Basically, there's no surefire way to stagger him that I've found (outside of Breaker, of course), but if you keep attacking him, eventually it'll pop.  Rowen was brought along for a very good reason, as he also loves his spells (Wind and Light stuff. As long as you're partnered with Rowen, he'll throw up a magic shield against any and all of his spells).  This is his most dangerous move, Angel Light. Anyone in the light has a very high chance of getting hit with Confusion, and having to dodge your allies / losing complete control of your own character or any number of your allies is the last thing you need. Luckily, Chromatus Ludger is of course, immune to status effects.  Even with all his status effect annoyances, he still doesn't have that much health, and if you are fortunate to enough to do a Falling Snow massacre, you could conceivably finish him off with just one of those. Overall, not that hard a fight, but you do have to be prepared.  The third and final path from Nia Khera leads here, the Xagut Floodmeadows. Again, cat-related business is the only real reason we're here. Said cat happens to be in a small cave in this area of the region. You could proceed all the way to a river, where there is a small boat. If you recall the first game, this boat could be used to go from Xagut to Xian Du, but apparently the boatman is out, and that trip is unavailable at this time. Ah well.  After way too much wandering around, I finally found the cave I was looking in, after looking carefully at the job description. From the above screenshot, if you climb the vines to the upper level, this cave will be on the left. The cat is right inside, so I don't believe a screenshot is necessary.  Our final errand in Nia Khera is Milla's first character quest. This is in the same house we went to in the fractured dimension.  A woman's desire Hey, I've seen this place before... But it's not really mine, is it... Uh, excuse me? If I may be so bold, when did you return from the spirit realm? Actually... I can explain. Oh! I just remembered! Huh? You have to make me some soup! Meooow. I can't... I don't have my ingredients or utensils. .... Lady Milla, if I might venture a suggestion. You could make use of my kitchen. Really? Of course! I would be most honored. Huh... Very well. Just for a little bit. No "little bit" about it. I want to eat a lot! After presumably good soup having been made... That was tasty! You weren't kidding about eating a lot. That's only 'cause your cooking is so good! It's true! What are you smiling about?! Didn't you think it was good? Well, insulting a woman's cooking ability is no way to get on her good side, so... See! C'mon, that's enough. I really like your cooking too. It's good comfort food. Of course, my daddy still makes the number one best soup though. So that makes me second best? No, no. Ludger makes the second best soup. You're a solid third. I rank after him? I don't believe it! Milla... You'd believe it if you tried his soup. The hell I would! I could make a much better soup if I put my mind to it. Really? What kind? The best kind, better than anything your daddy could make. That's impossible! Is not! My daddy's the best cook who ever lived! He can't compete with the Lord of Spirits! Then shut up and prove it! Let's go, Rollo. Oh, you better believe I'll prove it. Hey, Mr. Second-Best. You'll be helping me with this. In retrospect, I'm not sure why Milla let Ludger live on my last playthrough... Thanks. Not that I was giving you a choice in this. I'll help too. We'll all figure it out together. You can cook? A little. Not as well as you, though. Oh... Okay. Well, thanks.It's too bad the cooking system doesn't work the same as it does in the other Tales. Arche from Phantasia was such a terrible cook that she regularly screwed up cooking a Hamburger on one of my playthroughs, eons ago. Though, if I had to give skill rankings to the cooks in this game, I'm guessing Alvin would be the worst. Alas, finishing that chapter got me Milla's first affection skit on my real playthrough, but I believe my position on her affection skits has been stated.  We have a couple more character quests in this chapter, though I'll probably only finish Jude's this update. Here's a skit upon returning to Hamil this chapter. Jude is standing around in the porange tree area of Hamil, so let's skip to there promptly...   Gentle harvest You're into cooking, right? You ever make anything with fruit? Apparently Jude likes peace pie, which is why L1 increases his affection here. However, Ludger just can't stop talking about tomatoes, so I chose R1. However, don't worry, there are quite a few choices this chapter, and many chances to increase Jude's affection. Aren't tomatoes a vegetable? Uh... Well, it doesn't really matter. Ripe tomatoes can be just as sweet and juicy. You really do like 'em, huh? No way! Tomatoes are awful! Whatever you do, remove tomatoes from my dishes, okay?Before we can have another debate on the value of tomatoes as valuable ingredients in food... DODA here. We've detected a new fractured dimension. The rift is near the Tatalian Abyss. We've sent you the coordinates. Please take care of it. An agent's work is never done, is it? I'm happy to help. We can't just ignore a fractured dimension. You really are a do-gooder, aren't you? Yeah, I...I get that a lot. Sounds like a good way to get into trouble. Well, I'm no do-gooder, but I'll give you a hand. More people will make it easier, I'm sure.Elize happened to be in my party after that scene, and she's as good as any, so, let's roll.  Seems things are amiss around here. The Tatalian Abyss, just for reference, was Xillia 1's bonus dungeon. There was never any plot reason to come here in the first, but there were no hassles at all when it came to entering the place. You could then, and you can in this game, just walk right on in. The entrance is near the Dimensional Breach.  As far as enemies I fought on my trip here, the dragons are the most annoying. Without Alvin around to break them, they block way too much and there's just not much you can do about that outside of just chipping away at them until they drop their guard. Riveting business, rest assured. Oh, and they can burrow and attack, because these enemies just don't take long enough to kill.  Gathering some crucial info, we find out there's a doctor named Derrick further in, tending to the considerable numer of wounded further in. Maybe you remember a Derrick from the first game...  A reunion across dimensions  I have my hands full here. We'll talk later.  Ugh... The pain... It's gone? What? What did you just do? Da-- Dr. Mathis! We have more casualties! So even the extermination team can't handle that beast. We'll be next if we don't get outta here! I'm staying. I'm a doctor. I can't turn my back on people in need. But hanging out here is suicide! What if we said we'll take out the threat for you? You... You can't be serious? I am. I don't want to see any more victims. Well, you have to keep in mind Jude is a doctor too, so it only makes sense his Physician Senses are kicking in now. Although we'll be handicapping ourselves not having him around, we can manage just fine with Elize, Milla, and our trusty pal Ludger Kresnik. What? Are you sure? A mere monster is no match for me. We'll be back before you know it. Okay. I'll follow when I can. .... Don't drag your feet now! Our foe (of course, also doubling as the divergence catalyst, because of course it is) is on the floor below where we left Jude and his dad. We're gonna wreck this sucker.  To be a doctor This guy has about what you'd expect from an enemy with this body type. Charging attacks, kicking with its hind legs, ramming with its front, and a burrowing attack where it dives, then jumps back up in an attack, which I believe is a guaranteed guard break. Nothing should really surprise you. Given that one of this enemy's weaknesses is to Light, I'm going to be controlling Milla for that absolute critical chance the Blessed Blade gives her. Note that even with that always-Power Hit, the Power Charges are still useful for giving her that extra 2 AC Power Charge 2 will give her.  His major charging attack, Varied Charge, will lead him on a moderately damaging rampage in a certain direction. But, like Heavy Claw, if he doesn't hit anyone before he hits the edge of the battlefield, he'll be stunned for a bit. Well, technically nothing happens, but he'll just stop and not do anything for a few seconds.  Oh yeah, and don't think Power Combos are limited to just normal attacks / artes. You can very much launch them in Over Limit, but Linked Arte Power Combos are considerably harder to do right. It's very much possible, though, for predictably devastating results.  Isn't it great when plans come together?  Everyone's stabilized back there. Hey, by any chance, did you have me stay back for my sake? I'm not sure what Jude's looking for in a response, but it seems R1 is what he prefers. Young man. Nice healing skills. You saved a lot of lives back there. Here, take this.He hands a medical whats-it over... Thanks. You've got the fundamentals down, but you're still straining too hard. That should help relieve the tension. I'm sorry it's not in better shape. Oh, no need to apologize. I appreciate it.Ludger transforms on Jude's approval... We never formally introduced ourselves. My name is Derrick. Derrick Mathis. What's your name? My name is... Jude. Jude Mathis. Mathis? And we're back! Well, in retrospect, I really should have chosen R1, which would have raised Mr. Mathis' affection. Ah well, really doesn't matter either way. Are you sick or something? No, it's nothing like that. That man was my father. But...it was like I had never been born in that dimension. You haven't seen your daddy in a while either? It's been ages. We've both been so busy. Sometimes, when I have time to think about it, I stop and wonder how she's doing. When both responses are functionally the same (though for L1, I suppose it would depend on how one delivered a line like that), I'm not entirely sure why one raises affection and the other doesn't but hey. At least I chose right this time. Yeah... You're right. Seeing my dad got me thinking... He's a doctor. I'm a scientist. We're both trying to help people. Our jobs might be different, but we both want the same thing. Oh, that's me.Jude answers his cell... Jude? I have to get back to Helioborg. I'd like you all to come with me, if you could. I'm sorry I don't have time to explain.Everyone nods... Thanks. Let's go.Warping right back to the laboratory we've grown so fond of...  Blast from the past What, that's my device! What's going on, Balan?!   Never again shall you try to enslave me with your horrible contraptions! First priority is getting out of here! ...I think.  Get out of my way! Celsius! I promise, we mean you no harm! No harm?! Your machine dominates my will and forces me into slavery. That's not harm? Wait...what? How many times must humanity repeat this? We spirits are not tools for the convenience of humankind!  Mary... I believe you owe us an explanation. But... What else was I supposed to do in this circumstance? We're at a dead end. Experiments on Great Spirits are the only way forward! Dr. Mathis said so himself! And well... It thought that was his device, I would be able to control it. And so you used it with the Celsius fossil? Without discussing your plan with anyone? What were you thinking? I just wanted to help Jude! He's been so upset over our lack of progress. I just wanted to do something to help. But doing something rash only makes things worse, you know. One small miscalculation could lead to disaster. It may already have, now that the Great Spirit Celsius is on the loose. Balan, we need to terminate all of our experiments involving that device. What? What Celsius said really got to you, huh? About being enslaved, and having her will dominated? There must be a defect in my device. Celsius seemed like she was in agony. It filled her with rage. But I'm sure Jude doesn't want things to end this way, and we have to show him the way. But you worked so hard on that thing, Jude. If that's what you really want, Jude, we'll abide by your decision. I ended up making a machine that exploits spirits against their will. It was never my intention, of course, but that's hardly an excuse. I... I'm so sorry... This is all my fault!Oh boy... Well, we've got one more character chapter before we meet with Gaius. Wonder what he'll have us do... Update 13 alternate choices compilation
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May 16, 2016 18:20
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Gaius Gaius Gaius Gaius Gaius Gaius Gaius Gaius Gaius *yells* Gaius.
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May 16, 2016 21:21
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alcharagia posted:Gaius Gaius Gaius Gaius Gaius Gaius Gaius Gaius Gaius *yells* Gaius. After recording the story content for chapter 8 earlier today, he's just as awesome as I remember.
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May 16, 2016 21:28
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After Xillia I wasn't really expecting to feel sorry for Agria but somehow they managed to make that happen.
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May 16, 2016 21:42
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Waiting for Leia to talk with Agria is a ridiculous +900 boost to Leia's affections. But now here we get some of the bizarre double-standard of toothlessness of the writing. Living Agria? Nope, some drat random monster is the Divergence Catalyst. Derrick living in Elympios? Nope, another random drat monster. Destroying an entire planet's worth of children is A-OK to imply but can't be killing "defenseless" people. And then Alt Milla's character episode is about loving cooking instead of dealing with her world being destroyed. God dammit.
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May 16, 2016 23:05
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McTimmy posted:Waiting for Leia to talk with Agria is a ridiculous +900 boost to Leia's affections. Yeah, this is what I hate about this game. It won't fully commit to the most interesting thing going on. On the other hand, if it did this game would make All Quiet on the Western Front look like a Disney movie. The tension between those two points basically makes me wish they'd come up with a slightly different premise for the sequel. Was there a Sliders-esq anime that year?
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May 16, 2016 23:33
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For what it's worth, future fractured dimensions in some of the later chapters considerably raise the metaphorical stakes when it comes to the divergence catalysts. They start getting a lot more personal for the characters (Rowen, Elize, and Alvin come to mind just right now), when people they either knew or know are the catalysts. It would be kinda tedious if a lot of the drama in this game was just repeating the ol' "We just destroyed an entire world" constantly. Xillia 2 does kinda have a problem of it's hard to truly understand the scale of what you're doing for most of the game, but it does get better later in the game, that I do remember. The chapter where you Go into the Epsilla Ruins and have to listen to all those people from fractured dimensions hoping for a better future, but you have to destroy them and the Ark Sentinel anyway to get the next Waymarker" being a really good example of this. It's one of the few moments in the game that really hammers home the point the road Ludger walks is very long, very bloody, and makes it easier to sympathize with Julius quite a bit more. Sylphid fucked around with this message at 23:58 on May 16, 2016 |
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May 16, 2016 23:55
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Another thing that semi-annoys me about the fractured dimensions in the side arcs (and a few times in the main story) is that a lot of the time they're just ways to justify re-fighting bosses in Xillia 1 that we killed before. Chimeriad 4v4 and Maxwell come to mind.
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May 17, 2016 00:52
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