RPG Reviews: Tales Of Symphonia, Part 5: I BELIEVE I CAN FLY!!

Last time, we begun our journey through a brand new world and captured a prisoner. This in turn grants us our final Party Member.

Regal Bryant:

CV: Otsuka Akio/Crispin Freeman

Regal... well he's a bit of an odd one. His manner of playing is more among the line of a fighting game character, with his whole deal being based around chaining many of his Artes together. It's hard to pull off, but he can dish out some of the highest amounts of Damage in the game. He's also part of that Side Party alongside Presea I mentioned earlier. Oh, and all his skills should be kept to the T Branch. Eagle Rage in particular is borderline broken.

The Fighting Game analogy even works with the way his Artes are split: Ground, Anti-Air, Air, and one Special called Force (Also some healing spells). Force needs to be used a 100 times to activate his Limit Break, which even has its own combo besides you having to be in Overlimit: You need to throw a each type or Arte in quick succession before finishing it off with Force, and to be fair Fanged Finality is a pretty good finisher. Oh and I forgot to mention, in Japan Force is written as 発. Does that Kanji look familiar? Take a look at this:

Regal is a Nen User Confirmed!

Actually being a Nen User really does explain why he's so fucking awesome...

Anyhow, we finally make our way to Ozette, though not before I did some grinding for Regal. Once we get there, she has a small talk with a certain Half-Elf that just screams bad news, and we learn exactly how bad her whole condition is: Her house is a wreck and there's a guy in a bed... who's dead. Has been for a while, likely. And she doesn't even realize it.

Anyhow, the Party decides to leave her alone for now, going to Altessa's house instead. And inside it we find... a blonde girl who speaks in a weirdly robotic way?

Atlus, did you copy someone's homework?

Anyhow, this girl, Tabatha (Played by Fujishima Kousuke and Kim Mai Guest) introduces us to her Master, Altessa... and he's a grumpy old asshole who wants nothing to do with Presea. Tabatha explains that it's probably out of guilt or something among those lines, but the gang is ultimately forced out of the house.

Anyhow, we need to go get an Inhibitor Ore for that Key Crest. Notably, in spite of seeming quite concerned for her, Regal continues to express there is no relationship between him and Presea. And Zelos' comments on having probably met him before do not help matters at all. But whatever, time for a new dungeon:

Toize Valley Mine:

Indiana Jones would like to have a look at this.

Unfortunately, to go in, we must bust through the gate in a fight. Oh well, not too difficult. However Regal has formed an opinion on the group that can best be summarized in the following Clip.

Anyhow, there are only two noteworthy things about this place. First is its gimmick, with lets you drop bombs on some rocks to make them break, which is pretty darn satisfying. The second is that you should probably bring a Mizuho Potion here, as you'll find a Gnome that will ask you for a potion. You should give it to him, it's important for a dungeon later on.

What does matter though is a sequence towards the end. A man named Vharley pops up, and it's clear he and Regal share a past, though the specifics are not stated. What we can infer, however, is that Regal made some kind of deal with the Pope to have this man imprisoned (He's an Exsphere Dealer) and he would give himself in for the authorities because, well, he did actually kill someone. This being the Pope, however, he did not go through with this.

That said, Vharley leaves, with Regal deciding to leave the story of his imprisonment for some other day. Whatever the case may be, I decided to grind for Colette a bit after neglecting her for so long... and as soon as they walk into Ozette, some random NPC sells them out.

But yeah, the Pope's three knights aren't much of a challenge anyways. Sadly, once this is all over, Colette gets a really heavy feaver, but it's okay, Presea is around!... Except not as, well, she knocks Colette out and hands it to the guy she was talking to earlier. Jesus Christ, there are already a bunch of traitors, and now one of them was a Party Member!?

Mind you, she is ultimately tossed aside, as the Evil Desian introduces himself as Rodyle, the most cunning of the Evil Desian Generals... yeah, how long will it be until we kick his ass, anyways?

So yeah, he takes off with Colette. That said, Lloyd still ultimately gives Presea her new charm... and naturally she is more than a bit disgusted with what she's done, ultimately finally laying her father's corpse to rest. It also turns out she has no other family left. She apparently has a little sister, but no one knows where she is. Thus, she decides to stick around in order to atone, and Regal also decides to join in as it's clear there's a relationship between Vahrley and the Evil Desians (Vharley was the one who took her to the Imperial Research Academy in the first place).

And then Kratos pops up to admit this isn't actually part of his plan. Oh no, Rodyle is acting outside of it right now, and sadly right now the Chosen One is useless to them so it's not as if they're in any need of an alliance of any sort. Still though, guys at Mizuho should have located the Rheairds by now, so at least they have that. Also, Genis tries to be cool in front of Presea but since he's taking too long Lloyd decides they should get out already. 

Oh come on, this one totally isn't his fault!

I should mention that at this point you can finally make progress on obtaining Presea's Limit Breaks. But yeah, Kratos is right, the Rheairds have been found, but there's a slight problem: They still need to make a pact with Volt... and Sheena isn't exactly okay with this.

See, a few years prior to the game's start, Sheena actually tried to make a contract with Volt... and it failed miserably. In fact, that whole incident is why the actual Village Chief is in a coma. Hell, a whole fourth of the population had died... though surprisingly no one seems to hold it against her besides her. I dunno, I kinda would've expected at least some villagers to hold a grudge against her.

See? Something like that.

Anyhow, Lloyd manages to cheer her up, and the Vice-Chief then tells us to go to the Temple Of Lightning. Oh and in a Skit we learn that all members of Mizuho basically have two names: Their real Names (Only known by their parents, village chief and whoever they marry) and a second name of sorts, so no, Sheena is not her actual name. What is her actual name then? Who knows... except Zelos.

Well, I mean, who knows? Maybe he's right.

Unfortunately this leads us to... a less than enjoyable Dungeon.

Temple Of Lightning:

Oh, if only the opposite was so easy...

This place sucks. Setting aside the multiple lightningbolt related puzzles, there are some very badly lit rooms that you need to walk on tight corridors on so as to not fall and wait for the lightning to come down to light things up a bit. Apparently the re-releases actually made it worse: In the Gamecube Version, you could at least brighten up your TV so that you could somewhat tell where you were going. All other Versions? Yeah, I still can't see a damn thing!

Anyhow, eventually Volt comes down... and for some reason he's speaking the Language of the Ancients. And Mithos was here too. Damn that troll... anyhow, he has no real plans to make another pact, so he decides to deal some divine retribution which... yeah gives Sheena a bit of a panic attack. Now I can't help but wonder how it could get worse...

Well... goodbye Corrine... too bad I didn't give too much of a damn about you.

Thankfully, Lloyd makes sure she doesn't get killed in the middle of that, and that gives her enough time to build up her resolve and face the wannabe Thunder God.

Volt:

Volt is not an easy enemy. Most of his attacks hit multiple people, and more than a few of them can inflict Paralysis on your Party Members. That said, I never really found him frustrating. He's a fair challenge that's ultimately fun to fight, and that's all that matters. And hey, once you beat him, you have all the right to say this.

That said, once the pact is made, something weird happens. Undine pops up and claims that due to two opposing forces merging from the two worlds, part of the Mana Flow has been severed. No one really knows what this will mean in the long run... but for now it seems as if there really is a way to sever the whole system the two worlds are built upon.

Still though, there are other news: They have found the Rheairds!... And they're in another Renegade base. Here we go again...

Tethe'Alla Base:

I hope you get used to seeing this place...

This dungeon is a giant maze. The main gimmick here is trying to get three Passwords and then putting them on a computer. Not too bad if you know what you're doing but don't be surprised if you get lost for a bit. Still though, eventually you will reach the Rheairds... and not just Botta waiting you for a fight but also...

Yuan Ka-Fai:

CV: Morikawa Toshiyuki/Chris Edgerly

As you might expect, this fight is a bit of a pain. While they have less health than most other bosses, these two are relentless in their assault. I better have Zelos have Healing Wind or Healing Stream by this point, as they'll save your life more often than not.

Still though eventually they'll go down, with Yuan noting something's off about Lloyd's Exsphere... but before he can say anything else there's an Earthuake, which gives our heroes the perfect chance to run off. And thus Noishe and that stupid boat are now useless, as the skies are us to travel through. Truly, a feeling that is hard to surpass.

And you know what else makes it fun? The music!

Yeah, I haven't mentioned it all that much, but the soundtrack in this game is really great. Anyhow, Colette's in some flying rock in the sky, but before that I took a small detour towards Altamira... that for some reason Regal refuses to enter. Huh... anyhow, got some new weapons and gear plus restocking on items so it's time to save our damsel.

She's in some sort of energy cage, and Rodyle is so much of a coward he isn't even there in person, instead deciding to send his pets at us. Thus, it's time to go Dragon Slaying!

Meat...

NOT THAT DRAGON!!

But yeah, it's three dragons for the price of one, and we murder them all. Yippie!

Well, in this case we killed the children as well, so we're directly guilty.

But yeah, through some Magitek jumbo-mumbo Colette's Mana is used to trap us all in place, but Presea manages to push foward just enough to save her. Good job Presea!

And thus, the day is saved, although now our heroes are aware of the fact that Rodyle is making some Mana Canon and for some reason Colette's crystal is useless for it. And hey, once she wakes up, Presea finally smiles!

PROTECT THAT SMILE!!!

So yeah, time to separate the worlds... but we're living that for another day. At long last, the Fellowship has finally united, and it is thus time to save these worlds. How that will turn out however, will be shown next time...

RPG Review: Tales Of Symphonia, Part 4: The Dawn Of The New World... NOT THAT ONE!!

Last time, our heroes left Sylvarant and headed off towards a new world, and their journey continues... by crash landing because they ran out of fuel.

Hey, they couldn't have seen that coming.

Mind you Sheena could just Summon Volt and refuel them... but she kinda doesn't have Volt so that's out of the question. Also, apparently the two worlds share the same ancient history and a Tower Of Salvation. Wonder what that's all about...

Anyhow, after leaving the mountain, now the question becomes where to go. Sheena says to go to the Imperial Capital, Meltokio, which seems like their best bet for now. That said as soon as they get there, Sheena admits she's gonna have to leave. She is part of a group of Ninjas after all, so she has to admit that she has failed to her chief, though she does give the group a letter they should give to the king.

Oh, and on the way there, they come across one of the Evil Desian generals who basically comes in to say hi before leaving.

But whatever, they make their way up the stairs... and come across the best character in the game.

Indeed, such amount of swag could not be contained. So after flirting with Raine for a bit, he leaves with all his other hunnies, but not before she notices he has an Exsphere. Now, this guy may seem like an arrogant jerk... because he is, but hey, anyone who shares a voice with this idiot can't be too bad.

Anyhow, back to the plot. We are currently banned from seeing the King as apparently he's ill, so he's not seeing anyone. Stupid Nobles with too much free time... anyhow, we head to the Church... where we see some little girl calmly carrying some big lump of wood. Genis' reaction?

This is actually a running gag, so get used to it.

As Genis is off on wonderland, we find out  that this girl, Presea, has an Exsphere, and also that the wood she's carrying is going to be used to do some prayers for the king. So naturally the gang decides to just ask Presea for help, a plan Genis is all too okay with...

As they get out she's talking to someone, but after that's done with, our heroes ask for her help... and surprisingly she agrees. And even the guards are easily fooled. Man, Tethe'alla's security really sucks, huh?

Oh come on, this is an JRPG, of course children are doing all the work!

But whatever, they're inside now. And since they can't really do anything else now, Presea is tagging along with them. Speaking of her...

Presea Combatir:

CV: Kuwashima Houko/Tara Strong

Presea is a freaking tank. She moves slowly for sure, but if she lands a hit, it'll hit like a goddamn truck. She wasn't part of my Endgame Party, but she was part of a sort of Side Party alongside another Party Member I'll be talking about later on. As for general Type Recommendations, I'd say T for everything but the Devastation line, as its final evolution, Eternal Devastation, is locked to the S Type for some reason.

Her Limit Breaks are ridiculous though, in both the best and worst ways you could imagine. Infernal Ruin is pretty normal by the standards of the PS2 Exclusive Limit Breaks, all you need to do is to have used Beast 100 Times, be in Over Limit, have the P Charge EX Skill and that's it, but then there is the almighty mess that is Crimson Devastation. Get ready folks this is gonna be a doozy. Not only do you need to have used Beast 200 Times, have the Overcharge EX Skill (Basically P Charge but stronger and doesn't work half the time), be in Over Limit and must have 10% or less health but she must also be the last Party Member standing!

I mean, to be fair it can probably one-shot the Final Boss and do some massive damage to the Secret Bosses but... Jesus Christ, talk about overkill! Although it must be said, in order for her to actually be able to use either of her Limit Breaks, a certain story event must happen first. I'll point it out when we get there.

Anyhow, we get into the King's chamber... and Zelos is there. Why? He's the Chosen of Tethe'Alla of course!

Oh I wish I was kidding. Thankfully the moment the king learns they have a letter from Sheena he agrees to listen in spite of his less than stellar health right now. The Pope does try to have Colette killed but he's not exactly successful. Thus Raine strikes a deal:  They want to turn Colette back into a human. The Pope wants Tethe'Alla to remain flourishing. The two goals actually go together to and alliance is simply logical.

So the Pope agrees, though under the condition Zelos must watch over the group 24/7, which they agree with.

Although he is a massive asshole. Anyways, we have to leave Presea in her hometown, but since the Imperial Research Academy is around the same place anyways, they might as well go there first. And thus, Best Boy joins the Party.

Zelos Wilder:

CV: Onosaka Masaya/Shiloh Strong

Zelos is functionally identical to Kratos and that's not an exaggeration. He learns many of the same Skills, has similar stats, hell, they even share a Limit Break. He does however have one Limit Break Kratos doesn't have (Divine Judgement) so technically speaking he's the better of the two. Naturally, he was part of my Endgame Party. Oh and he too can learn Judgement.

Otherwise, same type recommendation as Kratos.

As said before, he shares a Limit Break with Kratos, Shinning Bind (I refuse to call it Holy Binds) and it has much less lax activation conditions, as not only must you be in Over Limit, but you must have used Demon Thrust (A pretty high Level Arte for him) at least 100 times. Thankfully his second Limit Break, Divine Judgement, onl-

... Okay, I had that one coming. Anyhow, all you need is to be in Over Limit and have used the Arte That Shall Not Be Named 20 times. I guess the low number is because you only get it once you use Shinning Bind for the first time, and you can't use Shinning Bind until right after one of the last dungeons.

Also, his Personal EX Skill makes it so whenever he talks to a woman for the first time, he gets an Item.

Whatever the case may be, we need to cross a long, long bridge first. Like... really long. Like... MGS3 Stairs Long!

As we arrive in Sybak however, Presea makes it clear she doesn't like this place, but I'm sure that won't be in any way relevant... Anyhow, over at a lab, we find out exactly what's happening. Basically Exspheres and Cruxis Crystals are basically parasytes; if you don't contain them, their energy will go out of control and affect one's body, which is basically what's happening to Colette. Thankfully the actual process of fixing this is just getting a Key Crest.

And wouldn't you know, a junk dealer has one! And Zelos nabs it for free. There's just one problem: It doesn't work. So yeah, to Sylvarant it is, and while Zelos protests against it, they then point out he can just come with them, so he relents. Unfortunately the Papal Knights then kidnap the gang.

Yeah, the pope is an asshole, in case you couldn't tell. That said, due to some technology stuff Tethe'Alla has, Genis and Raine being Half-Elves is exposed. Lloyd doesn't seem to really care, but the problem is that over in this world, Half-Elves are treated as the lowest of the low, and if guilty of crime are immediately executed.

The Human Members of the party are taken to some random lab, and we also learn that Half-Elves that work here aren't even allowed to leave. No wonder the atmosphere is so damn moody! That said, one of the researchers, Katem does recognize Presea as... well... she kinda was the subject for an experiment to fuse a Cruxis Crystal into a human body.

Said scientist is intially perplexed by his behavior, but Best Girl has come to the rescue. How did she get there? 'Cause Ninja Magic, shut up!

Still more of a ninja than these idiots...

Whatever the case may be, they escape and are able to figure out that the Pope was behind the experiments on Presea. Unfortunately, after crossing the long ass bridge, they are too late...

Then again when you can Summon a Water Elemental, that does take care of most of the issues.

So yeah, our heroes beat the guards up and save the day. Quite the happy ending huh? And hey! Lloyd and the rest admit they don't really care whether or not Genis and Raine were Half-Elves anyways!

Although Presea does know how to ruin the mood...

Anyhow, we need to fix Rheairds, so Sheena has to make a pact with Volt... which she doesn't seem to happy about. Still though, Zelos does point out that they need to get them first, and he has just enough resources for that, so off to the mountains it is! That said, on the way there, he does say this:

Needless to say, there's more to him that meets the eye...

But yeah, time to make our way up the mountain... and... well...

Yeah, the Renegades saw this coming. So naturally they prepared themselves for this situation.

Presea is in charge of most of the game's snark, by the way.

However, things go from bad to worse, as Pronyma (One of Yggdrasil's generals) pops up... and it turns out she and Yuan are working together. She says she's been sent her for Colette, something Yuan doesn't mind because, well, he's more interested in Lloyd right now. Nontheless she goes for her... and suddenly the Key Crest starts working and Colette's back to normal!

She thus saves the rest of the gang by being clumsy as usual, thus it's time to settle the score.

Pronyma:

CV: Makishima Yuki/Masasa Moyo

She would be a threat... except she's weak to light, so as long as Raine or Colette are in your party, it's not gonna be too hard. Needless to say, spamming Photon Tempest will be useful for this fight.

Naturally Lloyd then moves in to finish Yuan afterwards, but a new challanger appears!

Not a fan of this outfit, I must say.

Yeah, Kratos is here too. And Yuan's working for Cruxis as well. He leaves with his shiny angel wings, and Kratos then tells the group to stop wasting their time, because Yggdrasil's fine with the way the world is so they should stop bothering to change it. Thus Lloyd makes a statement: If Yggdrasil doesn't change the world, he will.

Kratos leaves alongside the chick we just beat up, and we cut to Colette, who's better than ever! All of the effects of Angel Toxiocis are gone, and she gets to keep her Angel powers! Mind you, they still need to take Presea home, but they kinda can't cross the bridge. But it's okay, Sheena has some contacts in Meltokio that could help them out, and Zelos has a secret entrance there!

Thus leading to... the second worst dungeon in the game.

Meltokio Sewers:

Because every videogame needs a sewer level!

Ugh, this place sucks. Dull environments,  bad music (Which is weird because most of the music in this game is really great), and boring, time consuming puzzles, not helped at all by an annoying shrinking gimmick. It's not even a hard dungeon, just an annoying one.

Anyhow, plotwise, someone has been here before, so they need to open doors that were previously opened up. In the end it turns out it was a bunch of prisioners nabbed by the pope, who promised them their freedom if they killed the party. They fail, obviously... and then some new guy knocks Zelos out.

Needless to say, this blue haired master of Tactical Espionage Action kicks Zelos' ass, although he does fall back when he sees Presea, the rest the retreating. And thankfully with that we're out of that nightmare, and we even unlock a fast travel option so we never have to go through that nightmare of a dungeon ever again.

Over at the research facility (In which there's also some dude named Kuchinawa) the gang finds out they'll have to use an Elemental Cargo (EC for short) to pass, basically being treated as package, and the scientist want to use that for some Mana experiment or something like that. Not too big a deal but a bit cumbersome, especially for Raine.

Oh and from now on Zelos will sometimes introduce Lloyd as his Bud. Which as I now know from some research, in the original Japanese Version it was "Hunnie" instead.

Bu yeah, the next morning they set off, though Colette's shoulder is feeling a bit stiff but it's probably not that big a deal. So they go to the bridge and Kuchinawa shows them what we're stuck with for now, as well as seeing the country bumpkins who are those Sylvarant Brats messing around with Tethe'alla's amazing shrinking technology, so it's time to go!

Did I mention Sheena is Best Girl?

Yeah, the guy gives her a charm or something before leaving but whatever. Sadly the EC is a pain to control, with its strange, momentum based physics and awkward acceleration. Although sadly in Sybak they come across Kratos (In his old outfit, thankfully) although he's not here to fight. He does however warn Colette to remove that Key Crest if she wants to live.

Anyhow, Kate confirms, what happened to Presea was part of the Angelus Project, and explains that should something not be done soon, she'll flat out die. Thus they need to go to a dwarf named Atlessa so that he can make a special Key Crest for her. Oh and for some reason she tells the Party not to insult the Pope. Weird... anyhow, onto the next Dungeon!

Gaoracchia Forest:

Because of course there's a forrest level.

Well, I call it a dungeon, but that's technically a lie. It's more like one really big passageway. It's honestly not too bad and even somewhat enjoyable, all things considered. Whatever the case may be, the moment you get there, you face off against some of the Pope's Knights, who aren't too much of a biggie.

However, as we reach the end, Solid Snake appears once more. He claims he's just here to talk to Presea and that he doesn't mean to kill anyone, but they don't buy it and thus a fight ensues. He's not too hard, but be careful when he attacks, as often he'll just chain his Artes together. Thankfully he'll eventually fall.

Shut up Campbell! But yeah, that happened. Anyhow, unfortunately more Papal Knights are coming, so Sheena's taking us to her village. And no, it's not Konohagakure, it's Mizuho (And by extension, no, it's not Kirigakure). Anyhow, our dear prisoner wakes up, and has enough common sense to not start a fight given his condition.

The Vice Chief then confronts our heroes (The actual Chief is in a coma, as we later learn), and while initially pessimistic, Lloyd's idealism ultimately wins him over, agreeing to help so long as they help to move the people of Mizuho to Sylvarant, with Sheena having her profession changed from being an observer to a representative of the village.

As for our beloved prisoner, whose name is actually Regal, well, they realize they need all the help they can get so they're gonna have him stick around. And besides, so long as Presea is around, he won't try anything fishy.

Thankfully, he is a man of honor.

And thus this is when we're gonna take a break for now. A new world has opened up to us, and our search for a way to solve this conflict has finally begun. But for now, the conclusion to this will be a story for another day...

RPG Review: Tales Of Symphonia, Part 3: Summons, Relationships and Other Delusions.

Last time, we recruited Best Girl. Now that we have a decent amount of the Party assembled, we need to discuss an important matter: Love.

Not like that!... Kinda.

See, Tales of Symphonia has a hidden relationship system that basically dictates a select few points in the plot. Mostly this comes into play in the final stretch of the game, in which some plot events will be dictated by who Lloyd is closer to. Characters can lose or gain points based on stuff like dialogue options, optional events and so on. Whoever is the winner will become Lloyd's Closest Ally.

So what's the problem? One word: Colette!

She starts out with an astronomically high amount of points, so shaking her off is not an easy task. Worse, she is absurdly easy to please, so often times you may want to give someone else points, but you'll also be giving her points as well. This is even worse if you're not careful, so you could have stuff like wanting to get all the stuff with, I dunno, Raine, but you get Colette instead. Even worse, there's a character later on that has the opposite issue in that he's a pain in the butt to get points, but he's like, the best character in the whole game so more than a few people would like to get all the stuff exclusive to him!

The good news is that most of the main plot stuff this depends on is reliant on one choice in one scene, so there's that, and that scene just needs the character you want to be in the Top 3. So even if Colette is Number 1, it is possible to get someone else to get all those extra moments with Lloyd. However there are still some optional scenes that are often unobtainable in your first playthrough (New Game + carries over the previous relationship values). Overall, this is one of those cases in which they probably should've thought things through a bit better.

As for who I got... well, the answer is obvious by this point, isn't it?

These two are adorable together and you know it.

Whatever the case may be, I did some grinding before heading off to my next destination... and then found out I needed 100000 Gald to pass.

Okay then, guess we're taking the long way around. First of all we need to get to Lake Umacy, in which we find, of all things, an unicorn stuck under some rubble in the middle of the sea.

Remember that, it'll be important later.

Whatever the case may be, our heroes need to do something to get its horn, but what exactly can they do to get it? They can't just swim there, Genis's Water magic isn't powerful enough, and they just don't have anything that could conceivably let them get to it. Sheena does propose just making a pact with a Summon Spirit, but it's not like they have a Summoner anyways so that's a big no.

Well... Sheena is a Summoner.

Well, okay, not exactly. She's primarily an user of Seals, but she is completely capable of use Summons should the need arise. Hell, she already has a Summon, her little pet Corrine, though she is actually an artificial Summon Spirit and not a proper one. Kratos also recommends we Obtain the Spirits of Wind and Fire as, well, since we're here already we might as well do so.

However, getting Undine, the Spirit of Water, comes first. Thus we must make our way to Izoold, which will let us go to Palmacosta. After some hijinks, our heroes do get a ride there, and are dropped off. Sadly Colette's clumsiness makes her break some assholes' potion, so now we gotta get a new one.

Surprisingly the one person who does have one is a girl in a shop who's having a scuffle with the Evil Desians, with her rightfully angry that her grandmother was taken away by them. Yeah, turns out Palmacosta really fucking hate the Evil Desians and their Governor, Dorr, is one of the few people willing to stand up against them. Anyhow, her mum offers the Party the Potion for 1000 bucks.

Although speaking of him, as we give our freshly bought potion to that group of assholes, they claim that he "Sure was trusting" and gave them his family treasure. I agree with Lloyd: They piss me off!

On a nicer note however, we see a bit of Dorr himself, comforting a young child about his father being taken away, and promising that when the chance comes, he'll go and rescue him and all others captured by the Evil Desians. For some reason I imagine this is his thought process:

We also find out he regularly looks for people to help him fight the Evil Desians, and that he has been raising his daughter all by himself since his wife died all those years ago. Truly a wonderful man.

So naturally when Colette claims she's the Chosen One, she tries to kill her.

Okay, not exactly, as Colette shows her wings he realizes she really is the Chosen One and orders his men to stand back. See, a bunch of people claiming to be the Chosen's group came a few minutes ago and he gave them the Book Of Regeneration, records of the events from previous Journey's like the current one, including the locations of all the Seals.

Genis naturally calls him naive, once more showing off his less than stellar views on humans, but Raine stops him from saying anything else, for now they're gonna  just have to go to the church to see if they know of at least some of the book's contents. They don't. Well, we're screwed.

Well, not entirely. Before, the impostors said they were planning to sell off the book, so it's off to Hakonesia Peak! And guess what, the guy with it is totally working with the guys who asked for 100000 to pass the thing in the first place. Thankfully, we do manage to convince him to let us read it, but he wants a Spiritua Statue first. But there's no time for that, as Palmacosta is being attacked by one of its generals!

Who are you and what's up with your hair!?

To be exact, the woman who sold us the potion is about to be executed, and the militia is off doing training exercises so they ain't helping this time. The angry girl from the shop tries to help her mum, but gets in trouble. Then a sassy little kid throws a rock at him and since this is not gonna end well, Lloyd finally intervenes.

In fact the whole Party intervenes, deciding enough is enough and it's time to end this insanity. Magnius leaves, and his grunts are nothing too special, if I may say so myself. The young girl thanks us, and she shows herself as a non-believer, but she is very much grateful that Colette saved her mum.

However, as we head off to the House Of Salvation to get the Spiritua Statue, a soldier comes in and tells us that our sassy young girl whose name I won't even bother to remember for reasons that will soon become clear has been kidnapped. As if that wasn't enough, turns out the Spiritua Statue got lost in the middle of a geyser of all things. We naturally agree to go get it in spite of, you know, boiling water.

Did I mention Sheena is Best Girl?

However before we go get that thing however, it's off to...

Palmacosta Human Ranch:

Get used to seeing rooms like this a lot

Before we reach there however, Neil, one of Dorr's assistants, comes out of some bushes to tell us some bad news.

Yeah, Dorr has actually been collaborating with the Evil Desians. Neil doesn't know since when, but it's probably a recent thing. Raine considers abandoning this mess, but Colette insists on going, claiming saving people and regenerating the world are not and should not exclude each other, something Lloyd agrees with.

As for the Dungeon itself, it's mostly a maze that requires you to use the Ring to change the game's color scheme to that of the OG Game Boy. It's kind of a mess. Either way, wer eventually save our sassy kidnapped girl, but before we can fight the boss... this happens.

I believe you now all understand why I hate this girl. Anyhow, onto the boss. I need to blow off some frustration.

Magnius:

CV: Kawada Shinji/Chris Edgerly

He's easy as hell as he's meant to be fought earlier in the game so... yeah, he didn't put up much of a fight.

At the end of it, Raine notices our Stupid Young Girl is gone from this place, much to my pleasure. Whatever the case may be, Raine once more decides to blow up the base... though as they leave, Magnius receives a call from his superior telling him that, well, there was no order to kill Colette. It was all a lie. Naturally, his time in hell will be one spent with many regrets.

Naturally, it's time for Dorr to give us some explanations, with Neil insisting on coming along. Naturally, he's in the underground of his little building, talking to one of the Evil Desians. And we soon find out why he's been doing this. See, remember his wife who died some years ago? Yeah, she never died. She just got turned into the same Monster Marble did.

To put it bluntly, the guy's been reduced to a self-pitying idiot, something Lloyd calls him out on, basically telling him what he truly is: A Coward. Oh and I forgot to mention, his daughter isn't actually his daughter. She had been killed and replaced by a Half-Elf impostor who stabs him in the back.

She's technically a boss but frankly she's so easy I won't even give her the usual treatment. After dying she lets loose Dorr's wife... but strangely she just leaves instead of attacking the heroes. Lloyd lies to him about his daughter being fine, but at the same time tells her he can't save her because Dorr's sacrificed so many people that saving her should be his job, not anyone else's. He ultimately dies leaving Lloyd a pass.

RIP, I guess

Neil decides that the first step to take will be to reorganize everything, with the heroes wishing him good luck before leaving... but not before Raine lamenting that even as a healer, she wasn't able to save anyone...

But who cares about that!? It's time for some hijinks!

Ah, fear of water will never not be funny in an RPG... well, something else also happens.

Again, keep this in mind for later. Anyhow, we get a pretty easy mini-game after that... and right next to it there is one of those hand-print things meaning that we didn't even need the stone for the next seal.

Ugh, whatever, NEXT DUNGEON!

Thoda Geyser:

Did you know this is the water dungeon?

This one is pretty straightforward. The gimmick here is some balances you need to move using the Ring. That's it. That said, given that this would be the second Dungeon for most people, I can understand why they may have made it this way. Overall a bit bland but not too bad. As for the boss...

Adulocia:

Again, apologies for the lack of images
of better quality

This one's pretty easy. By this point Kratos or Genis should know Thunder Blade, and this Boss is weak to Lightning. Do the math and see the light show as she dies in an instant.

Afterwards Assho-Lord Ramiel reappears, telling Colette that the only Seal left is the one at the Tower Of Salvation. And once it is all done, Colette will become an Angel. Yay...

But who cares, it's time for a Summoning Pact with Sheena! Everyone is quite excited about this, even Kratos of all people. And naturally everyone has 100% Trust on her even though they have no idea what this will entail. And indeed, trouble arises, as this Summon Spirit already has a pact with some dude named Mithos, who is totally not the Great Hero Mithos.

Mein Kaiser's expression says it all.

Kratos suggests that she just request for Undine to null his pact with this Mithos that is totally not important to this game's plot, which surprisingly enough works... with the condition that we must prove our strength first.

Undine:

CV: Sumitomo Yuko/Nika Futterman

Undine is a pain to fight, namely due to her signature spell, Spread. Unlike Genis' version, which takes some time to cast, hers can be cast almost immediately, not helped by her catastrophically high amount of HP! Patience will pay off eventually, but don't let your guard down. And for the record, you need Sheena for all of the Summon fights, so that's another reason she's almost always part of my Party.

I did however ultimately beat her, and thus Sheena fulfilled her pact and unlocked her true power: The first are her elemental Seals, which can change your characters' attack attribute to any of the elements, which can help you exploit weaknesses and sometimes even find new moves (It's the only reliable way to get all of the Elemental/Physical Hybrid Artes for certain characters, of which only a select few like Rising Phoenix and arguably Storm Dance are of any use for all the effort you need to put into getting them) however her second mechanic lies in a certain aspect of the game: Mystique Artes. Or as they should really be called and I will call them...

The conditions vary from attack to attack, but after fulfilling certain conditions your characters will be able to use a Super Move that deals a massive amount of damage. Sheena has one of the easiest ones to trigger, all she needs is to be in Over Limit mode and she can use one of her many Summons, and best of all most of them are mandatory for the story. The difficulty for the others vary, Lloyd gets his (Falcon's Crest) after a certain point in the story and by equipping a specific title and weapon, Genis' Indignation Judgement i-

... Yes, thank you very much, anyhow, it has some pretty lenient conditions of you just having to have used Indignation 50 Times and be in Over Limit,  Colette's Holy Judgement requi-

... Goddammit Shirai... anyhow, it requires her to use Holy Song and Judgement 50 ti-

For the love of-STOP INTERRUPTING ME!!

Anyways you need to use Holy Song and... the Skill That Shall Not Be Named (She'll be getting that one in a bit) 50 times each, but the chances of it activating are completely random. Don't get me wrong, it hits like a goddamn truck, but it's a bit too luck based for my liking. Raine's are kinda ridiculous however, probably due to the fact they were introduced in the PS2 Version of the game. To wit, her first Limit Break, Sacred Light, needs you to be in Over Limit and have used either Photon evolution (Ray or Holy Lance) 100 TIMES!!!

Her second one isn't much better, with you needing to be in Over Limit and used Revitalize (Raine's best Multi-Target Healing Arte) 100 Times as well, but to be fair it gives some of the most powerful buffs in the game alongside a massive Party-Wide heal.

Finally there is Kratos' Shinning Bind (For some reason localized as Holy Binds in this game even though every other game uses Shinning Bind, including the game's sequel, and it is very clearly written as シャイニング・バインド) which is pretty cool and has relatively lax activation conditions (All you need to do is unequip a specific Weapon from Lloyd or not have him in the Party and be in Over Limit), but due to reasons that will soon become apparent he never used it in my playthrough... or most playthroughs really.

Anyhow, back to the plot. As you'd expect, as we leave the temple, Colette ain't feeling so good, but this time she has been given a far bigger punishment: She has become Kenny!

Not in that way! No, what I meant is that she can't speak anymore. She is completely mute now...

At night, Sheena realizes it'd probably be a good time to explain what her deal is, though by this point Raine has figured out she's not from Sylvarant. Indeed, she is from another world named Tethe'alla, basically a world that somehow exist in the same yet different planes of existence, kinda like light and darkness... and indeed that's how it works: If one world's better off, the other one's going to hell. The world regeneration if basically just a glorified way to reverse each world's mana flow. If the journey succeeds, Tethe'alla is screwed. If they fail, Sylvarant is screwed.

Nobody is really happy about this, Lloyd and Sheena especially, but there's really nothing else they can do. As they are now, if they wanna save someone... someone else will have to suffer because of it. Colette will try asking her "Father" for help... but the chances of this working are... well...

Anyhow, at the very least we should go get that unicorn. Unfortunately, there's an extra condition: An Unicorn can only be touched by a pure maiden.

Err... Raine, what did you do? I mean, yeah, maybe it's just her masking her fear of water, but isn't the wording just a tad too specific?

Anyhow, the unicorn confuses Colette for Martel (The reasons are explained later) but ultimately recognizes her as the Chosen of Regeneration and gives her the horn... and then it dies. Okay then... anyhow, they could use it to fix Angel Toxiocis, but it's a one-use item so Colette ultimately decides to let Pietro have it. To be fair, we did go here to save him. At the very least, with this Unicorn's death, another one is born. Hopefully said Unicorn doesn't have to face Christopher Lee and a Flaming Bull-thing.

And hey, now Raine knows Resurrection which... yeah, what it does is pretty self explanatory. And indeed she uses it on Pietro, saving him at last. He tells us also about the Angelus Project, though not the details, and that the Evil Desians are building a Mana Canon which... yeah, what it does is self-explanatory too.

Before proceeding with the main story, I chose to take a small detour and go back some previous dungeons to get some extra Summons, each of them located in a previous dungeon. Starting with:

Sylph:

CV: Shioyama Yuka, Matsuoka Mika and Mizushiro Rena/Debi Mae West, Nika Futterman and Hunter Austin

If you thought Undine was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet. This sucker is three mini-bosses in one and it's as annoying as you'd expect it to be. I hope you brought some gels and Life Bottles, 'cause this will most certainly take some time.

But hey, the next one can't be too hard... right?

Efreet:

CV: Inada Tetsu/Keith Szarabajka

Yeah, he's a bit easier. He's basically just the fire version of Undine, so if you can bet her, you can beat him. Hell, he's arguably easier by value of having a bigger hit box than Undine! So overall, not too hard.

However there are two more things to do. Firstly I went back to Lloyd's house so that Dirk can give him an Exsphere shard along with some other goodies. The second was go to that tunnel in the Ossa Trail. Not just to get some treasure... but also for this ugly asshole.

Sword Dancer:

Doesn't seem too threatening...

Well, you'd be wrong. There are three encounters with him, and while this one is the easiest, he will take you down if you aren't prepared. As his name implies, he is purely into CQC, and so he will decimate you if you enter his range and you aren't careful. I did ultimately take him down, but it was not by any means an easy fight.

Anyhow, back to the main plot. Our heroes manage to convince some dude to let them use his dragons to get to the tower, but before that its time to rest and talk to the rest. In particular, Sheena mentions that there's a Chosen in Tethe'alla too and that he's not a particularly trustworthy fellow.

Have I mentioned Sheena is Best Girl?

But yeah, the time to end it all is coming. Colette and Lloyd talk for a bit, her admitting she's a bit scared, but that from her point of view, even if it dies, her life will be spread towards the rest of the world. Which really just summarizes her whole deal of coping with this, to just become a martyr and accept all the suffering in the world for the sake of others... even if it means sacrificing her own happiness.

At night, Kratos suddenly wakes up and goes out, with Lloyd following him. And then Kratos asks Noshie to take care of Lloyd for a bit longer. You know, people whine that the OVA made this twist way more obvious than in the game, but the game wasn't exactly subtle about it either, but more on that later.

What does matter is that the blue haired dude who doesn't have a mustache shows up and tries to sneak attack Kratos, but Lloyd stops this.

The assassin retreats, with Kratos then telling Lloyd one simple thing: Don't die. Naturally he's really confused, but whatever. That said the Assassin did drop some weird ring for some reason. I bet this will not be important at all unless you do a specific side quest.

But alas, the time for the finale has come: Cue the epic music!

Huh, that's weird, my "Epic Music For The Finale" Generator is not working correctly. I wonder why that is... eh, I'll just have to fix it.

But yeah, they set off in their dragons. Kratos goes with Colette (He is the one getting paid for this, after all) but Lloyd gets to choose who he goes with. You all know who I picked. Lloyd even assures Sheena that they will find a way to save both worlds. Daww...

Also Kratos and Colette went in early.

Will you press it?

Oh and there are a bunch of floating graves in the tower. This doesn't seem fishy at all...

And so, Lord Ass-Ramiel reveals the last thing Colette must sacrifice: Her heart and memories. Yeah in case you couldn't tell already, THIS JOURNEY WAS A REALLY BAD IDEA!! And Colette knew about that too and flat out asked Raine not to tell anyone. Now, Lord Asshole (Yeah I'm not even gonna bothering censoring that even more) claims it's not really dying, just giving her body to the Goddess Martel, but fuck if Lloyd cares about that shit! Oh sure, maybe both worlds will be saved, but if there's one thing this game enforces above all else, it is this: The ends do not, and shall never justify the means.

Oh and Asshole isn't even Colette's father. Everyone thought that and he just went "Sure, let's go with it". After all, they are nothing but... inferior beings. You know, the same thing the Evil Desians call everyone else.

And so, after a pretty tear-jerking goodbye... Colette sacrifices herself.

A scene that would work a heck of a lot better if that little thing down there wasn't there to tell us Colette has learned Judgement. Oh and speaking of that:

But yeah, Colette is now gone... so... who's up for some payback?

Lord Asshole:

CV: Sakaguchi Tetsuo/Wally Wingert

Nothing too special, but make sure your Spellcasters have some solid defenses, as he can snipe them. Otherwise though? Yeah, punching this asshole in the face hits really good.

Yet in the end it's a bittersweet end... for as, as Kratos points out, Colette is still lacking her soul. Oh yeah, Kratos is here, I guess. He's an angel too, by the way, and Lord Asshole's superior. Time to beat his ass, I guess.

Well, easier said than done. Thankfully you don't have to win this fight, but if possible try to do so, as he leaves some very good items if you beat him. Though as it ends Lloyd can tell he was holding back. However... let's just say Kratos has a superior of his own.

Yes my friends, this is the leader of Cruxis this game's true antagonist and one behind the Evil Desians: Lord Yggdrasil. And as I mentioned in Part 1, the Dub for some reason mispronounced his name as "Ygg-DRA-sil" instead of "Ygg-dra-SIL". I know the former is the Japanese spelling, but that's Japanese, this is English. Still better than calling him "King Drasil" though...

He is a hopeless boss fight, so don't even bother with him, especially since Kratos likely made you waste a lot of your resources. He will spam the hell Light Artes though, so there's that...

But yeah, the Party is wasted, with Lloyd even thrown to a pillar with some... random magical sword. However reinforcements arrive in the form of... Botta!?

Okay, shit just got interesting.

Botta takes them out of there, though loses some men in the process. Yggdrasil refers to them as Renegades, and then leaves, and so does Kratos... but not before this:

If you haven't figured out the twist already, shame on you for not doing so.

Sometime later, Lloyd wakes up in the Triet base. Colette is still a soulless husk, but she's thankfully fine otherwise. They also start to think of what to do, given that by this point they know two things: 1) The Evil Desians are probably Cruxis' pawns, and 2) Kratos was using them all along. So yeah, such a happy day alright.

Their leader, whom I shall from now on call by his actual name of Yuan, explains that basically Cruxis is the one that controls everything from behind the scenes, even the church. Most of Cruxis member's are also actually Half-Elves who have evolved with something called the Cruxis Crystal. Oh, and Tethe'alla? Yggdrasil himself created that world.

As for why they wanted to kill Colette, that's simple: They couldn't let Martel gain a vessel, so they had to kill her. Sadly now Colette is stuck in self-defense mode, so even touching her is a bad idea. So what are they gonna do? Capture Lloyd of course!

Thankfully the gang manages to escape, mostly because Yuan hasn't healed from the injury he got from Kratos over at Hima. After some puzzles, the gang just wonders what the hell they should do now. However Raine has an idea. She asks Sheena from where she got her Exsphere, and she tells her she got it from some institute... and also that the Renegades were the ones that told them to kill Colette.

However, this does give them a chance. Since Angels are Half-Elves evolved through Cruxis Crystal... maybe those guys can do something about Colette's own Cruxis Crystal. I mean, they're already researching the other Chosen's Cruxis Crystal, so Colette's should be more of the same thing. Mind you they need some machines called Rheairds, but so long as they can find them, they're set to go. And wouldn't you know, the Renegades have a few of them.

And thus, it's off to a brand new world... which we will cover next time.