VIDEO GAME DISCUSSION! HERE! NOW!

I picked up play today in the Netherworld as Mercedes. The Netherworld itself posed little problem to me, and Odette surprisingly was hardly an issue at all. I know I'm playing on Easy, but the game is still very difficult at times. There were no such times today!
I took a Painkiller and pummeled away at Odette with many furious bolts. Her health rapidly declined as she suffered from the brunt of my attacks. Then she died. I don't think I had to take any Health Potions.

Then I moved onto the Volkenon Fire Pit. It is easily my second least favorite stage, a little bit behind the Titanian Capital. Fire, fire everywhere. The most common mandragoras spew flames once uprooted, and all the enemies are capable of setting you on fire. What a pain in the ass. You have to deal with enemies that shoot fireballs, enemies that are fireballs, and enemies that are fireballs that explode for MASSIVE DAMAGE once defeated. Plus you have to use Coolers. Which is more a minor inconvenience, but damn I hate that Fire Pit.

The boss, however, was much easier. Leventhan, last of the dragons, was extremely easy. I died against him many times as Gwendolyn, but by the time I fought him as Mercedes, he was a mere stepping stone on my way to the end of the book. His attacks are devastating, but pathetically telegraphed.

Once the final scion of the dragon race was bested, it was time to head to the Raging Battlefields of the Epilogue. I was touched by the scene before the battle. Mercedes was little more than a naive little girl at the beginning of her book, but she has grown into such an inspiring queen. It was enough to make me cry. ;_;
Ok, not really. But it was certainly pleasant to see her mature!

Into the fray I leapt. I had problems with the Berserkers as Gwendolyn and Cornelius, especially when there were two of them (which only happened once for each character, I believe). However, even two Berserkers were doormats to Mercedes. They rarely jumped, so I hit them with my charge shot after flying behind them. They went down like a submarine.

I faced the Demon King Odin with two large bags full of Healing Potions and Painkillers. Although Odin wasn't nearly as easy as Leventhan and Odette, he also didn't prove to be quite as bad as Beldor. His gigantic Balor was definitely the hardest part of the battle. Dodging that, Odin's other attacks, and the enemies on the screen was a bit of a pain. Even with Painkiller, that Balor did a huge amount of damage to me. Still, when openings presented themselves (mostly when Balor wasn't around), I would cast Overload and hit him HARD.

At last, Fairy Land came to an end. Mercedes handled the situation after Odin's defeat well, she proved herself to be a fine queen, and all was well!
Looking back through Mercedes's story, it really does feel like a lot happened over a long period of time. She started out as a naive girl borrowing her mother's crossbow to hunt frogs, witnessed her mother's death, became a queen, ran into Mr. Froggy, dealt with Melvin's betrayal, sought out Beldor (again), returned Ingway to his true form, rescued Brom, obtained a more powerful Psypher, lead a successful war against Odin, defeated Odin, and came into her own as the queen of her people. Cornelius's story seems extremely compact in comparison. Gwendolyn's still holds up favorably in scope, though. But hers is the longest anyway.

Anyway, what happened to Ingway? Looking at the timeline, and using plain old logic, it seems like Velvet's book will answer that question... Or will Oswald's?! No, probably not. I'm really looking forward to finding out what Ingway does after the incident in the Titania sewers. I was very disappointed to not see him again during Mercedes's story. And I'm sure Mercedes was as well, since she so obviously has a crush on him. How sweet.

It's interesting to see that both Oswald's and Velvet's stories end right before Gwendolyn regains consciousness from Odin's spell. I suppose I can understand why Oswald's would, but Velvet? I guess I'll see...

It's a little hard to go back to melee after playing as Mercedes for so long. I miss being able to fly out of enemies' ranges and hitting them from a distance with multiple attacks. I forgot how much I hated having to deal with the POW Meter. Ammo is so much better...
Oswald's special attack (Shadow Form) is totally badass. And totally worthless crap. The POW Meter is a pain to deal with as it is; losing even more POW is not at all worth the extra damage and coolness factor.

Anyway, I've only played to the very beginning of Chapter 1, so I don't have much to say about Oswald's story so far. I do look forward to seeing the gaps of Gwendolyn's (and possibly Mercedes's and Cornelius's) story filled in. Oswald is pretty much a plain old stoic badass teenage dark knight right now. But I'm ok with that! I look forward to seeing what happens to him.