MARREND PLAYS XENOGEARS!

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Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Xenogears is chock full of NPCs have portraits to go along with their textboxes. Timothy and Alice, who lasts maybe a half-hour into this game before they die. On that note, Dan. Citan's wife and daughter (Yui and Midori, respectively). Big Joe. We could even include Hammer in here. The captain of the Thames also has a portrait, but, he is not known by any other name as far as I can tell, or recall.

That aside, we go up to the bridge and give our thanks to the old salt. Elly can't help but to ask him why they are being so kind to us. The captain says this is because...





..he is..





...a man...





...of the sea! Elly and Fei don't quite get this, but choose against making any further comment. It is, however, a little running gag that I appreciate.

The Thames' mess beer hall is right next to the bridge, and the captain is quite proud of this design. He talks a bit about their job as scavengers, searching the seas for treasure. They haven't found anything super-good lately, but, they at least have a job through the Ethos that's been taking up their time. The captain doesn't know too many details about this job, but, the Thames depends heavily on the Ethos, so, they can't turn them down so easily.

Cut to a cockpit somewhere. The SFX makes it sound underwater. While the game doesn't outright say it, this is the Haishao. This becomes more clear when Dominia speaks but, the other pilot, Kelvena, is not identified with her textboxes in this scene. Which is weird, since we "know" from Miang's earlier comment that Kelvana and Dominia have taken the Haishao, but, whatever.

Anyway, to summarize their conversation (of course they have one): they've picked up the Yggdrasil on their sonar, and Dominia decides to go after it. Much to Kelvena's chagrin.

Cut to the Haishao moving towards it's target. A bit of a side-note in regards to Kelvena. She's also an Element, her attribute being, ironically (conveniently? coincidentally?), Water.

Cut back to the Thames. Fei has eaten well. Of which the captain does his salute for. Elly detects a rumbling, and the captain is called to the bridge. We can barely make out something from the window we're sitting next to, but, Elly seems to think it's a battle. Hrm. Let's visit the bridge too.

Sure enough, there's a fight, and the old salt wants to use his big gun. His first mate doesn't want to involve the Thames, and also points out that the gun in question is a piece of junk that was tacked on by the captain in a drunken stupor. This is the cue for Fei's entrance, wondering what's going on. The captain lets us see through his telescope, and Fei recognizes the ship in the water. It's the Yggdrasil!

Fei makes towards the elevator, but Elly reminds him that their Gears are sorta out of commission. The captain moves to the make-shift comms equipment, and orders that our Gears be ready and on the deck in two minutes. Looks like we might just get Bart to owe us one (another one?) after all.

We launch our Gears, and rendezvous with Citan and Rico on the Yggdrasil, preparing depth charges. Bart's below, buying what time he can, but, his Gear isn't suited for fighting underwater. Not that Weltall or Vierge are either, but, at least they have D Circuits to counter-act some (if not all) of the agility loss. Dominia and Elly have an exchange about the differences between Lambs and Shepherds. Elly protests that there aren't any difference, and Dominia agrees. To an extent. True to her elitist beliefs, Dominia believes in personal ability, and that Lambs lack in that department versus Abel/Shepherds. Which is interesting to note, as Dominia has admitted to being a Lamb, just not the usual run-of-the-mill type that the term "Lamb" seems to imply to Solaran society.

Battle ensues after Dominia and Elly finish their exchange. The fight doesn't take horribly long, and ends on it's own with Haishao taking Vierge back to base. We can't chase down such a machine with our Gears, and Yggdrasil's damaged from the last attack anyway. We'll have to retreat to the Thames for now.

We see the Yggdrasil dock into the Thames. Bart relays how he was beaten by a red Gear, and that the original Yggdrasil was, in fact, sunk. By chance, they sank into an underground cavern that houses the Yggdrasil that we are now using. Somewhere along the line, Bart managed to extract Margie from Nisan, making her a permanent fixture on the Yggdrasil. As it happens, Margie is our party-swapper on board the Yggdrasil, and such a service is quite welcome.

Margie makes a bit of a scene on the bridge, and embarrasses Bart in a few ways. One way in particular is to blurt out that they were responsible for firing at the Goliath. The captain laughs at our hijinks, and borrows Bart for a drink (or five) in the beer hall.

Cut to Ramsus' ship. Dominia slaps Elly hard, demanding she ceases her naive utterances. Elly professes that she's said nothing wrong, and Dominia draws her sword at the lieutenant, saying she has no intention of discussing the matter further. Not with a traitor like Elly. She will beat her right here and now!

Miang comes in from another room, and orders a cease and desist. She helps Elly back up, of which, Dominia takes offense. Miang, however, will not have such acts of violence on Ramsus' ship, no matter what the reason!

She's also examined the record of the battle with Haishao and Vierge. She points out that it was Haishao that attacked first, and also points out that Dominia was supposed to be under Kelvena's command. Was Dominia following orders when she attacked Elly?

Dominia stays silent. Miang finishes by saying she is not to prosecute any soldier for treason without proper authority. She then takes Elly under her supervision, which Dominia also takes offense to, but, eventually backs off. Something about her eyes...

I don't know how much Elly relays to Miang, but, she seems to have gotten the drift of her story. She then asks Elly to rest up, and compliments the lieutenant on her eyes? Elly doesn't quite get it either, but, she's probably too tired to process information.

Miang hands her report to Ramsus concerning Haishao and the enemy Gears. Naturally, he recognizes Weltall and changes course to the Thames. Miang has apparently made some arrangements regarding the Yggdrasil's ability to submerge. What is she up to? We then see the Vierge depart from the ship. Which seems a little odd, doesn't it? Why would they release her? Something's fishy about that.

Either way, we're back on the Yggdrasil's bridge, with Sig wondering where the heck Bart's at. Fei figures that the young master is with the captain of the Thames. Sure enough, Bart's carousing with the Captain in the beer hall, telling some kind of story when word comes that the first mate of the Thames is looking for the captain.

The report is that Elly is back, and looking after her Gear. She comes out of the elevator, asks about the submarine, then goes back to retire. Bart's uneasy about the whole thing. He doesn't think she'll backstab us, but, senses that there's the burden of expectation. Not from her subordinates or superiors in the military, but, her own family.

We go back to the Yggdrasil. There's no reason for us to visit it, but, we visit the engine room to see Elly push some buttons to overheat the engine just in time for both Fei and Bart to see her do so. When Fei calls out to her, she turns, screams, and faints. We rush to the fallen lieutenant with Bart all high-and-mightey with an "I told you so" kind of attitude. Citan thankfully comes by to make the engine stop it's overload, then looks to Elly.

The doc's prognosis is that she was given a strong hypnosis. He noticed that Elly was acting a little funny, and followed her. Bart asks why he didn't step in sooner. Citan admits that he probably should have acted sooner, but, if he acted too soon, there might be damage to her brain. We were lucky in that there were no mental scars from the hypnotism, itself. Doc helps us to get Elly to the ship's doctor.

Elly's a little surprised. When did she even get here? Sig enters with a report that we're being attacked again. Bart asks Fei and Citan go to with him. Elly insists on going too, feeling responsible for the mess she's made. Bart initially declines, but, Citan makes a deal.

Citan: Elly, our trust in you depends on this battle. For your honor, you should fight!
Bart: But Citan! I...!
Citan: Young one, please trust Elly this time. Elly, if you try anything suspicious, I will be the one to shoot you. Is that clear?
Elly: Yes.
Citan: Is that okay with you, young one?
Bart: ...Alright. Fei, Elly, let's go!


We get one more opportunity to set up Weltall, Vierge, and Brigandier before we cut to Dominia in a seething rage, then the Gear battle against her Bladegash. The Bladegash is something of an FF5 Mystic Knight in that it enchants it's sword with various elements to deal extra damage on it's next attack. However, it looses it's enchantment after attacking, or if we have Vierge cast a spell of the opposing element.

I don't know if Bldaegash is set to counter a lot of actions, or it gets it's turn that often. However, I can't help but to notice that it doesn't typically counter Elly when she acts, but, if it's Fei or Bart, it typically counters or enchants, depending on where it is on it's attack-loop.

So, we beat Bladegash back. It is over? Hell no. Ramsus has taken Haishao and Miang's in a Gear of her own, attacking the Yggdrasil from below. We submurge in our Gears, and Ramsus has a few words for Fei. Fei has no idea what Ramsus is talking about concerning another Gear, but, whatever. We've got to take him down.

We beat Haishao silly, but not without taking damage of our own. Ramsus decided to exclusively attack Fei to the point of Weltall's structural integrity being compromised. Just as Ramsus was about to perform a finishing blow, Elly uses her Aerods in defense. He is quite surprised about the Aerods, and the Haishao's condition is now such that he's forced to retreat. Fei ends up in the hospital of the Thames. Geeze, hospital beds are this guys second home, or something.

Citan is speaking with the doctor of the Thames, and the guy makes no promises of Fei's recovery. Elly overhears that there might be hope if we take him to the Ethos headquarters. However, it's not that simple. We'd either have to become a monk, or be introduced by someone already in the Ethos. Somehow, this reminds the doctor that an Etone is coming to the Thames. Etones are people from the Ethos that have devoted their lives to cleansing Reapers, or Wels. This one is apparently on an investigation. I don't know if we can help him with that, but, if so doing will get us an introduction, it's worth a try! However, this is plenty for this session.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
We find Margie on the armor ground of the Thames doing her own search for this Etone. Whoever this person is, they have moved elsewhere. Elly spots a bit of trouble. A pair of tough-looking fellows are doing some kind of funny business with a small girl. They say that if she wasn't resisting so hard, they could sell her for more. Elly confronts them, with Bart joining shortly thereafter. A few warning shots from elsewhere make the pair run off, but, the owner shifts his attention, and readies his rifle's barrel right at Elly's head.

Citan runs up, and explains the situation. Apparently, the two know each other from when Citan was working for Solarus, as the rifle-toting man uses the "Hyuga" moniker. Also because Citan knows every freaking body and every freaking thing in this game. The girl makes a few steps toward this Jesiah, and he finally backs down. We then learn that the man, who prefers the name of "Jessie" over "Jesiah", and the girl, Primera, are father and daughter. Citan asks a few questions, after which, the Etone comes to find us.

This is Billy Lee Black. Jessie's son, and Prim's elder brother. If the game didn't tell you he was 16 (Jessie did so a few moments ago, and it's in the manual), you'd swear he was much older. The game skips over a bit of explanation of why we need an introduction to the Ethos. He eventually agrees, and Jessie has him Primera to "the brat house" along the way. That's Jessie-talk for orphanage, as we'll learn in a bit. At any rate, Citan relays the report from Sig that the Yggdrasil is almost ready to launch. Great timing, isn't it?

Our current task is to get Fei to the Ethos HQ. However, there is an opportunity here to sail at whim...





...and Margie's party-swapping service can be used as well to let everybody get in on the action. I've only got four people to work with at the moment, but, whatever. I'll take it.

We drop Fei off in the Ethos' infirmary. Well, it's more like we let them take him there, then escorted to his room by Billy but, whatever. They let Elly stay behind and watch him for a bit (she still feels responsible), leaving whoever I brought with me. Rico and Bart in this case. I'm not exactly sure if I'm merely supposed to kill time, or if there is a counter that increments after talking to people, but, I can't leave without confirming that Fei's okay.

Elly wants to thank Billy in person, but, he's since moved off to an orphanage. Let's set sail once again...





...posting the actual world map theme this time, and make our way there! Billy runs this place, though, I don't know how often he's here due to his role/position as an Etone.

At any rate, we find Billy in short order, and thank him proper. He speaks a little about why he set up this orphanage, but, the details will come later. For now, Sig and Citan have decided to make a visit to tell Bart about a ship they've picked up on radar. One of Gebler's? We don't know, but, Jessie makes another entrance, and takes Sig drinking with him on the Yggdrasil. Billy's a touch disgusted, and excuses himself. He might be busy with other stuff, but, I kinda feel that's merely an excuse.

On the Yggdrasil, Elly spouts something about the ship not being able to launch, as Sigurd is "busy". Sure enough, he's there, but, I can't seem to advance from here. Must be something else I need to do.

The trigger in question was back in the orphanage. There's a bookcase that serves as a hidden door that I catch Billy walk out of, which triggers a cut-scene that introduces Bishop Stone, and our next dungeon.

There was an Ethos transport ship that was missing, and has recently turned up. However, there is no reply with attempts to communicate. It might have been overtaken by Reapers. The bishop asks Billy to do remove them, which he accepts. He'll need a good ship to get there, and Bart offers the Yggdrasil. Billy is initially against the idea, but, after a bit of convincing by us and the bishop, he relents. Back to the Yggdrasil, we talk to Sig, and get a bunch of scene before we regain control, just so we can go back to the Gun Room so that Billy can do his own story.

The game goes into a cut-scene reviewing Billy's reasoning to become an Etone, but, for the sake of brevity, I'll try to summarize.

Billy learned how to shoot a gun from his father when he was 8 or 9. He disappeared for ages on end, leaving Billy, his mother, and Primera to fend for themselves. Some three years after Jessie left, Reapers attacked, and killed his mother. Bishop Stone arrived late to the scene, but, shot the Reapers, and served as a father figure for Billy. A number of years passed before Jessie returned, and was totally unrecognizable by Billy. Also of note...





...this. There was offer made for 3000 G for a night, but, he still declined. Bart's reaction means well, but, ultimately falls flat on Billy. For what it's worth, Billy has a point. Bart hasn't helped him yet, and is only due appreciation for the use of the Yggdrasil to get to the transport ship.

At any rate, the game auto-sails toward the location, and the party-swap window is called. Billy's locked in, meaning we can freely choose the other two members. Fei's appearance in the window is suspect, but, of course, we can't actually put him in the party.

Billy plays a little differently in combat than the other characters. He still has AP usage and Deathblows as normal, but, each of the button faces for an attack string uses a different kind of gun. With Triangle attacks, he uses a pistol, which consumes ammo. Square attacks are the Ether-guns, and do not consume ammo. Cross attacks are the "big gun" (which I will refer to as "shotgun" from here on), and also consume their own ammo. Also of note is that Deathblows seem to consume one of each type of ammo.

Now for the part that makes me quirk my eyebrows. The pistol and shotgun can hold up to 100 bullets each, and one "ammo" item can reload Billy's bullets to that amount. Ammo tends to be cheap, and with at least this dungeon, we fight critters that drop ammo items. I suppose they make ammo cheap/plentiful so that Billy can use his guns without the player necessarily worrying about running out of ammo. If they were really worried about the player not running out of ammo, then, why have an ammo mechanic in the first place? I dunno. Maybe there were plans that fizzled.

In any event, at the end of this very linear area is a boss that looks like an albino Redrum. It's name is Bloody, and spams the "Murder" attack that outright kills party members for it's first few actions. We take the thing out, it has a few last words. Billy goes up to a nearby console, and has a thought-bubble about calling "his friend" here.

Going out the door triggers a cute cut-scene of Billy's Gear, the Renmazuo, launching from the orphanage. There's a number of mini-scene of kids playing on the see-saw that... might have something to do with the mechanism that opens the doors in the ground, or might not. I have my suspicions. They do make...

Orphan: Today's launch was so-so.


...something of a game of the whole affair. At any rate...





...Billy no longer has doubts as to the infestation. Citan detects something is behind us, but, the thing has dived. Bart shrugs it off, and talks about how much he prefers the sea over the desert. Citan then asks who "buddy" is, and Billy talks about a big creature they wouldn't stand much chance against, though, he's taken precautions anyway, despite how slow they tend to be.

Out comes the thing again. They don't miss it this time. Billy nods, noting that it's faster than he thought, but, not to worry. Just as it is about to attack, Billy's Gear flies by, and they are taken to the conveniently-surfacing-nearby Yggdrasil.

This is one tough critter. Normal attacks do no damage, and even Deathblows are barely scratching the surface. Renmazuo's Ether guns, however, are a different story. Dealing somewhere around 650 damage per attack, the giant Wels falls in due time. On the Yggdrasil's bridge, Billy conveys his thanks to us. Says he couldn't have done it without us. I dunno, I think we were basically meat shields in that particular fight. At any rate, he wants to report to the Ethos HQ, and Bart's willing to take him. Eh, maybe next session.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
There's a small bit of business to take care of at the orphanage concerning the hidden door that we saw Billy come out of before Bishop Stone made his visit. Behind that door houses a better pistol for Billy, but, we don't exactly have ammo for it, nor does the Yggdrasil sell any. Now that I think on it, I don't recall when/if that ammo becomes available, so I might have just wasted my time on this aside.

When we arrive at the Ethos HQ, we can't help but to notice the bodies lying on the floor. Upon closer inspection, Billy notices the shell casings of the bullets used on one of the bodies. It's the same bullets his father uses. Suspicions are naturally high.

We encounter some assassins further in the cathedral. Who sent these guys? Why? We go downstairs and catch them killing off the pontiff. There might still be survivors down here, so, we explore further in. We meet up with a guy that can barely talk, but, he's apparently from Shevat. We contact the Yggdrasil to extract him later. Our priority is to find more survivors, and find out who's responsible for this mess.

Down an elevator, we find a room thank Billy surmises is the Ethos' data bank. Maybe there's some information here that we could use? Well, okay, there's probably tons of information here. The Ethos are the main group that supports Gear repair/maintenance, and are supposed to be the sole keepers of historical records.

Citan is impressed by the setup of the place. Not even in Solaris can you find equipment like this. Elly takes in this comment, gives the place a quick survey, and notes that the equipment is from Solaris! Interesting. Anyway, let's do some digging.

You might think the party would let Elly work the machines, since she probably knows more about Solarian tech than anybody else. But, no, it's Citan. I don't pretend to know how long ago it was that he was supposed to have left Solaris with Sig, but, as far as the party knows, he's not interacted with Solaris since. Granted, it's possible the tech hasn't evolved all that much since then, nor do I know how recent the tech is in this facility in the first place.

Anyway, our hack into the Ethos yields a few notable results. First, Shakan's a bishop. Bart thought he was excommunicated 17 years ago, but, that's not the case. He's been filing reports regularly. We also find that the Ethos has been sending resources to Solaris. With a little help from Elly, we learn that the Ethos is a front for Solarian activity. They report to the Gizel Ministry directly. They also supply Solaris with people. Those that don't become Etones, and therefore folded in the Ethos, are sent to Solaris as 3rd class citizens, and are subject to manual labor for probably the rest of their lives.

Apart from that, we find out the reason that the Ethos is being attacked. The 44th salvage plan. This is the job they hired the Thames for, and the data that we get is about a 4000 city that's been linked to Zeboim. This might be the same thing the Gazel Ministry mentioned last time we had a scene with them, and they mentioned Krelian at the time too. At any rate, Citan surmises that they've taken a number of resources from this ruin, including weapons. He goes on to conclude that they are probably attempting to break away from Solaris, and once that is done, attempt world conquest of it's own. The assassins were probably sent by Solaris, though, we can only speculate as to how Solaris found out about the break attempt in the first place.

Citan says that his conclusions was founded upon circumstantial evidence, but, the effect of this information dive on Billy is clear. His faith is shaken, maybe even shattered. The Ethos he though he knew, the organization he thought set out to help people has probably only been helping themselves, or Solaris. Perhaps it would have been best for him to go to the Yggdrasil to process this information, but, he stays regardless, and trudges on.

More events after we leave the data room. Billy tries to keep himself together, but, two of his former associates decide to drop by and threaten him. Jessie takes one out with a tranquilizer bullet, and through that, we learn that these men aren't from the Ethos, but from Solaris proper. There's a bit more blat here that I feel could have been skipped over, but, let me try to summarize to some degree.

We more or less know how the Ethos came to be, and how it's supposed to function. Solaris entrusted them to control the masses, and the concept of "faith" that they professed was a system by which they did so. It had nothing to do with being holy, helping people in need, or anything like that. The Etones were made by Bishop Stone for two purposes, one of which we know: to kill the Wels wherever and whenever they become uppity. The other purpose was to eliminate those that stray from the original purpose of the Ethos. In other words, to keep the Ethos from being too uppity. Though, Billy was obviously not told of the latter duty. Also, it seems the Wels are also a control system set up by Solaris, but, we don't learn more about that right now.

We see Stone's Gear launch, and we figure it's headed for the Thames. It's a huge Gear, but, we might be able to stand a chance whereas the Gears that the Thames has would probably just be crushed. However, we've more to worry about. Back on the bridge of the Yggdrasil, we've a report of another vessel approaching. They put it "on screen", which means getting another cutscene.





This is the same urn-shaped thingy that was in Noctune. At no point was there an option to take a break, prepare, or whatever. We just go. Or, at least go further into Cutscene Hell with the Gizel Ministry. Darigaaz, shoot me now. ;_;

I've ran the scene a few times (thanks, save-state technology!), and the basic gist is that they're talking about the attack on the Ethos (one mentions that they (the Ethos?) have done what they've set out to do), and have a brief mention of Krelian, and the nanotech. They don't put much stock in the find.

Okay, real talk. Is it just me, or does this whole scene with the Gazel Ministry seem completely unnecessary? All it's doing, as far as I can tell, is rehashing that the Ethos "needed" to be taken care of by Solaris, and that Krelian's super-interested in this 4000-year-old nanotech that they have found. I don't think he's acquired it yet, they just say he's "ecstatic" about it. Whatever. I'm probably slipping up a little.

After the Gazel Ministry finishes their blat, the game cuts to a scene of the urn-ship flying about, then cuts to the bridge of that ship. I swear, this bridge is the same configuration that's on Ramsus' ship. Now, one could argue that they are similar because the two vessels are Solarian in nature, and it would make sense for them to have similar bridge configs. However, it might also be argued that it's a matter of reusing resources to keep costs down. Either way, we, as players, finally meet this Krelian guy. He orders the release of Wels, and makes an aside about how it's been 500 years that they've been looking. Which is probably a reference to the Ethos looking into the nanotech? Sorry, I'm feeling a bit drained, despite taking a break between hitting just before the Gazel Ministry scene and now.

Cut to the Thames. The captain can't believe how the "fishbowl thing" (his words) took out so many ships with one shot. His orders are to engage oppressing fire while trying to rescue survivors from those ships. We'll show them how real men of the sea retreat! Cut to an external shot of the Thames where some Gears submerge, and some Wels float towards the deck. I don't think they are falling, per-say, but, I could be wrong.

Cut back to the bridge of the Yggdrasil. We can't let the Thames fend for itself, and decide to assist. Citan leads a party with Bart and Billy, and we finally have an opportunity to hard-save! Suffice it to say, I use it, and call the session done.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
While the Thames is no longer under attack, we do get some info from the captain. The fishbowl/urn was headed due north, accompanied by a large Gear, probably Stone's. The Thames must focus on repairs, so, we're on our own for this mission.

By all accounts, this place should be barren. Yet, the Ethos had interest, and so, apparently, does Solarus. There's even a cut-scene of Miang talking with Grahf. He knows what's here better than anybody else. Seems like he'll be joining us later to scuffle.

I can't help but to notice that guards are posted in various places, and probably denote the path the story wants us to take. I'm okay with this, though.

I think there might be an extra scene at the bottom if one brings Elly, but, I didn't do that, and am too lazy to go back to the Yggdrasil to switch. Sorry. Either way, Citan fiddles with a computer, and out comes a large test-tube looking object. There appears to be a young girl inside it?

Citan says she's an artificial lifeform created within the reactor, and probably has something to do with the data that was being displayed in the other room. A colony of nanomachines. Stone decides to drop by, saying he'll take her out of our hands. Which he does, without too much interference from us. Then again, he's got men on us, so, I'm not really sure what all we can do. When he leaves, he also leaves us a present. The Elements Tolone and Seraphita, their themes being Wind and Fire respectfully.

We beat the pair, but, their mission was more about buying time than anything else. As we leave the lab, we cut to the Yggdrasil. Fei is having a dream. A man in a labcoat, and the nanomachine colony. A woman on the other side of the lab door, facing down several gunmen. Cut to a black background, the Nisan Cross swinging, a child Fei and the scientist. "See ya later" says the child. When the game returns to normal, it seems Fei isn't in the infirmary. Huh. Wonder where he went.

Back to the dig site. We catch up to Bishop Stone, and he scoffs at the Elements for not buying him enough time. A voice seems to call out, "Give it back". It echos a few times before a Gear flies up.




We weren't necessarily screwed before. But now?



Now we are screwed. Bart's none-to-happy to see either Gear or pilot, and has the audacity (stupidity?) to say that he won't forgive him for what happened to the original Yggdrasil. Bart's not exactly in a position to make any threats, but, the pilot gives us his name. Id. He then proceeds to attack us. Forget the fact that Stone has the nanomachine colony, that he claims is his. Maybe he's just the kind of guy that wishes to inflict a little bit of pain in the morning so he can sleep well at night?

Technically speaking, I beat Id. Story-wise, he beats us. Wiseman comes in a Gear to contain Id, and lets us pursue Stone. Id decides to "play" with Wiseman instead of us. I'm not sure how much of a distraction Wiseman can give, but, we've a Bishop to hunt!

It's too late. The urn/fishbowl is retreating, which probably means Krelian has the girl. What he plans to do with her is up in the air, but, Solarus has attempted to mess with DNA before, and the result was people like Rico and Hammner. Demihumans is what Citan calls them.

Anyway, Sig wants to know where Fei is, as does the doctor on the Yggdrasil. Apparently, he's in the Gear hanger. Is Weltall... smoking? Not sure what's up with that, but, Fei isn't quite sure why he's here. That can wait, though. Stone's Alkanshel is heading straight for us. Oh, great!

Fei seems compelled to fight, but, Citan seems to talk him out of it. Billy's willing to settle the score, and we can choose between Bart, Elly, and Rico to assist.

Billy will need the assist, because you know who's here to crash the party this time? You guessed it! Iiiiiiiiiit's Grahf!



Stone denies that he needs "the power". However, Grahf scoffs at Stone, and proceeds to give it to him anyway. I'm not exactly sure what Grahf did, but, the Alkanshel proves too evasive for us to land any blows against it. For some reason, Stone decides to relay a tale about how him and Jessie were vying for two things in their younger years. One was a position in Gebler. The other was the love of a woman, Racquel. Jessie won both, decided to abandon Solaris, and take Racquel with him. Suffice to say, Stone wasn't pleased with this outcome. He searched for Jessie to no avail, but found Racquel instead.

Stone freely admits that it was under his direction that the Wels attacked Racquel. To Stone, she was "tainted" by Jessie, with Billy and Primera as a constant reminder of that "taint". He didn't take Billy in out of compassion. He did it out of revenge. To pit son against father. Think about it this way. Billy has believed for years that Jessie's a no-good drunk (and maybe he's right on this point, to a degree) while Bishop Stone was his "savior" from the Wels. When, in fact, it was Stone that had the Wels kill off his mom in the first place!

Enter Jessie in his own Gear, Buntline. It's design is such that it fires it's cockpit, pilot and all, as part of a super-charged suicide-attack Ether bullet. Citan tries to point this out, but, of course, Billy is not listening. He's focused on the Gear in front of him, and the guy who's piloting it. Only after the Buntline is fired can Billy hear Citan's warnings. Too little, to late.

We beat the thing, but, it was a hard fight that I ended up relying on CodeBreaker codes. There's just no good response to how often it uses Mass Limit, which halves the HP of all of my Gears. I mean, they have a FrameRepair30 on them, but, with how often the thing seems to pull it off, fuel gets used really really fast. There's only so much a "Charge" command can do to mitigate the fuel-usage. If it was just Seal (~1500 damage), maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but, no it's that and Mass Limit.

Billy fires off some shots as a send-off salute the father he never knew. Of course, Jessie is not dead. Shaken up a little, yes, but certainly not dead. Primera goes up to him and says "Pa..pa" which makes Billy say some silly things...

Billy: Prim, what did you just say? Huh, Prim?

I don't know how old Primera's supposed to be, but, this is the kind of thing you say to, like, a two-year-old. I get that she hasn't spoken a word in... I'm not sure how long, and maybe his reaction makes a certain amount of sense. However, come on. Give the girl a bit more respect than this.

I don't particularly care about what Jessie's was actually doing while he was away from his family, but, Billy does. Perhaps such is right, and maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to skip this blat and close the session and be a terrible person like that. However, blats are unskipable.

In an attempt to summarize, Jessie learned of a secret plan when he was in Solaris. Called the Malakh Plan (or M Plan), it gathered Lambs to be turned into Wels. The lead scientist of this plan moved the actual facts about it into a test-Gear. That Gear escaped Solarius as well as his daughter. Jessie tried to pursue them, but, he lost track of them along the way. However, his current belief is that they escaped to Shevat.

The Shevat agent enters the room with Fei. Hey, that girl Jessie was just talking about. Her name didn't happen to be Maria, would it? Jessie doesn't know about that, but knows the scientist's name was Nicolai. The name doesn't ring a bell to the Shevat agent, but, he's heard about a girl and Gear. Probably the ones Jessie's talking about.

The problem now is how to contact Shevat. The agent was taken captive, and has no way to do it. There might be some equipment in Babel Tower? It's a long shot, but, it's also our best bet. After formulating a party, we get another interlude with the Gazel Ministry. The hell, just let me hard-save already! Godamn it, game.

The only thing I care about in this interlude is the mention of the M plan. They need superior bodies and servants, and have spend far too much time here. I'm not sure what they are referring to as "here". Are they planning on obtaining bodies again (they currently exist as data on a computer), or what? Everything else they say is either fluff or cryptic nonsense that may (or may not) make sense later. We do have an opportunity to save after the interlude, and I do so.

There's an opportunity for some free-roaming here that I will use. While the next session won't necessarily cover that, it will cover the climb in Babel Tower.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Perhaps you might recall this session. Where, in a cutscene, Gears where able to do more than simply jump, but hold their position in the air, while trying to redirect an object several times bigger than them. Only Elly's Gear fell due to having her boosters run out (and to be fair, both Stier and Weltall had their boosters run out too), and even then, she was saved at the last moment.

It was certainly an instance of gameplay and story segregation, as Gears would normally only be able to jump. Now here we have Babel Tower. This has some very vertical areas with a lot of jumps, with a non-zero chance to fall right to the bottom of it all and have to start all over again if players screw up, or misjudge a jump. In other words, an area where even a limited flight capacity might be helpful in not just navigating the place, but, allowing a bit more wiggle room when it comes to mistakes. Alas, that's not how the game works.

Anyway, with a little help from save state technology, we get pretty high up before trouble finds us. We were on board a monorail that climbed the side of the building, and who knows how far it would take us. However, the trouble we ran into was a Gebler battleship with Ramsus coming at us in his Gear along with Miang. Of course it was Ramsus. He simply won't let us climb the easy way, or let us go any further if he can help it. We're backed up against a wall (Fei's words, not mine), so we've no choice but to fight.

Fight we do, and win. Miang has the battleship cover their retreat, but, the ship itself gets attacked from above. Shevat? Probably, but, we've no means to thank them. Thus, the "real" climb of Babel Tower begins.




This is the kind of jump I was talking about before. If I'm not careful and miss this platform, I'll fall right to the bottom. The same thing can happen on the other end of the ride too, of course. I can use save-states to help along, but, if I was playing on a legit console, I wouldn't have that extra buffer.

This particular section is two screens tall, but after it is the top of the tower, where we face Calamity Jane again. Wait a sec. Rewind. That's not Calamity. That's...




...Seibzehn! That's probably Maria piloting it. Either way, she decides to attack us. Seibzehn has a lot of defense and isn't exactly shabby when it comes to attack either. However, it falls in due time. Shevat's saucer comes up into view, and we hear a voice over the comms for Maria to stand aside, and to let us in. As it is Queen Zephyr, she does so.

Cut to our friendly neighborhood Gazel Ministry. They don't seem particularly happy that we've made contact with Shevat, and there's an Anima Relic there that they want to obtain. There is brief talk about how Shevat is also protected by a Gate, but, they have a trick up their sleeves: Achtzehn's gravity cannon. There was a question as to how operational that thing is, but, they don't seem to foresee any problems.

Cut back to our party, now inside Shevat. There's an exchange here where we learn that Maria is old man Bal's granddaughter, and that her father has been captured by Solrais. We'll be called later into the royal presence, but, for now, we can explore the town. It may be a floating city, but, it is not the Magical Kingdom of Zeal...



...but certainly has certain callbacks to it. Anyway, the town...



...probably has shopping opportunities, and all that other stuff. We'll be doing that, but, for now, this seems like a great place to call it an end-of-session.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Now that my errands are done, let's continue with the LP. Going to the palace will do no good, of course. Not without Maria, who can be found in Shevat's Gear Hanger, overseeing the fixes to Seibzehn. She's got her own little "sob story" song...





...as she relays her story. Both Maria and her father were in Solarius, with dad doing research. Maria doesn't specify the nature of this research, but, she does say that Solaris forced him into it, and used her as a hostage/collateral. She managed to escape, but, her father had to stay behind to ensure her escape. That was five or so years ago, and her memories of her father have faded in that time. She swears that she will save him, with the help of Seibzehn.

There's also a scene in a room....





...which is a remnant/reminder of a war some 500 years ago. Maria finds us here, and lets us know that we may now enter the palace. Well, let's see what we can learn from Her Majesty. We've seen a lot of stuff in our adventures so far, but, I'm not sure if we expected to see a child sitting on the throne of Shevat.

By her own words...





...she's really 522 years old. She never really specifies how this is possible, other than vague "life extension procedures" that she, and a few vassals, have underwent. In any event, the Queen desires our assistance in taking down Solaris. Which is all well and good, but, we have no reason to believe that Shevat will not simply replace them. There's also the matter of Elly. Is she really okay with making Solaris an enemy when she could be facing off against her own family?

However, the story won't move forward unless we agree to help Shevat. There is an optional scene on the palace roof with Maria where she speaks about how her grandfather and the Queen advising against getting into Seibzehn and rescuing her father all alone. She doesn't quite understand why they are stopping her, or why nobody seems to want to support her efforts. There's probably a number of reasons for this, though. I mean, Shevat wants to take down Solarius, and maybe they can rescue Maria's dad in that effort, but, Solaris is no pushover. Don't get me wrong, Seibzehn is a good Gear, maybe among the best in the game. However, it, alone, can only do so much, and it's pretty much the only Gear Shevat has right now.

In any event, we go back down to the throne room and agree to help Shevat out. We feel a bit of rumbling, afterwards Maria and a soldier enter the throne room. The report is that an intruder, probably from Gebler, has sabotaged the gate generator, and is attempting to escape via Seibzehn's hanger. Maybe they'll try to steal it while they're here? Maybe, but, either way, Maria won't let this slide, and is pumped to go to the hanger herself. However, the Queen believes it's too dangerous to go alone, and the solder reports that there's nobody to spare to go with her. We volunteer for the excursion. The soldier asks that one of us stays behind to protect the Queen. This is just the game trying to retain the party maximum of three members without calling the party-switch menu. The assumption being that everybody else is still aboard the Yggdrasil, and would have to climb Babel Tower before getting to Shevat proper, and all that rot.

The Queen asked Maria what she's capable of without Seibzehn, and we're about to find out exactly that during the upcoming dungeon. For one, Maria is the first playable character that does not learn/use Deathblows. I will note that despite the pilot's inability to use Deathblows, Seibzehn, can use Gear Deathblows. A bit of disparity there, but, maybe I shouldn't complain too much.

As a fighter, Maria's not really anything to write home about. She's another bare-handed fighter (that makes four bare-handed fighters out of seven currently available), but I wouldn't necessarily call her style of fighting martial arts. I'm not really sure what to call it, but, I suppose I appreciate that her victory dance is a reference/callback to the victory dance of Tifa Lockhart of Final Fantasy 7 fame.

As for the dungeon itself, I'm not sure if this music fits the situation...





...but, there's a chest on the initial screen of the dungeon with a map inside for use later on. I don't recall there being a position indicator on the other dungeon-maps we've been given in this game, but, it's a welcome function.

After some spinning platforms that we have to jump across, and a number of spiral staircases, we get to the bottom, and find our intruder. It's Dominia, and yes, she intends to take Seibzehn. She gets it in her head to tell us (more specifically Maria) a story about an attempt to create "evolved Gears". The purpose behind the project was to eliminate lag and human error when interfacing with Gears. She's not talking about building smarter AIs. No, she's talking about linking a human brain directly into a Gear's systems. Apparently, Wels were used as test subjects for this experiment, and unknown numbers were sacrificed just to make the prototype Gear a possibility. That prototype Gear being Seibzehn, of course.

Dominia blathers on, but is cut off by Jessie, of all people. Dominia makes her escape, leaving Seibzehn behind. After a bit, and alert sounds. Gebler reinforcements, no doubt. The game skips ahead a bit, and we're back in the throne room, with everyone present, even Chu-Chu.

Citan lays out the situation report for us. Solarian forces are headed this way, probably aiming for the 4 gate generators. Shevat forces have been dispatched, but, they are not used to Gear fighting and tactics. Guess it's up to us! Aside from the four generators, there's also a big Gear they are holding back. Zephyr puts an image on-screen, and Maria recognizes it immediately.





A voice over the comms taunt us, and Maria recognizes the voice as that of her father. We do our best to calm her down before Citan gets to how the enemy forces are divided.

At generator 1, there's two small Gears with a compliment of Solarian solders. This feels like a job for Elly. More specifically, the Aerods that Veirge is equipped with. At generator 2, there are three White Knights, which are fast an maneuverable. Might want to send Citan there. At generator 3, there's a White Knight and a large Gear with some kind of special attack. Kinda feels like Billy. The last generator is a different large, powerful Gear and a White Knight. Let's send Fei to this one.

With Elly's fight, there were six solders, and they all got in their attacks before Elly could pull off Aerods. They dealt a surprising amount of damage, but after she wiped the board, the unit basically posed no further threat.

With Citan's fight, the White Knights got in some attacks, but, none of them were doing any damage. However, I didn't feel like playing around too much, so I cycled between a Triangle attack and the Reppu (Triangle Square) Gear Deathblow.

With Billy's fight, I noticed two special attacks. One was a sonic boom that dealt around 1500 and the other was a gel attack from it's tail that dealt around 3000. So, there was a non-zero amount of Frame Restore there, but, Billy more or less held his own.

With Fei's fight, the White Knights dealt no damage, and he was evading the bigger Gear pretty well early. It did land blows later on that hurt, but, Fei served it a proper smack-down.

Now that the gate generators are safe, the only thing left is Achtzehn. Which uses a jammer to muck up the operations of our Gears. It might be possible that Seibzehn might not be affected by the jammer, but, Maria isn't willing to pilot it against Achtzehn. We're running out of options, so, Chu-Chu decides to go. What can Chu-Chu do? Well, how about growing into a Gear-sized version of herself? There is no way I can take this seriously. I mean...





...come on. She's a "mascot" character, after all. For what it's worth, I'm mostly sure Chu-Chu becomes a playable character after this whole thing is said and done.

Chu-Chu brushes off most of Achtzehn's attacks, but takes a cannon to the face in a cut-scene. Maria looks on, calling out to Chu-Chu. Midori has come out of nowhere...


Actually, if memory serves me right, Yui was supposed to have brought her here, as well as the survivors of Lahan. I think you can meet them somewhere in Shevat, but, that wasn't a part of this particular playthrough.


...and says some creepy stuff about Nikolai "calling" to Maria. No, not that scary thing over there. Seibzehn! Maria rushes off, and launches the Gear.

As an interesting side-note, Maria doesn't really go inside of Seibzhen to pilot it. She just kinda sits on top of it's head? Doesn't seem particularly safe to be exposed like that. Perhaps this is a rule of cool thing?

Naturally, a few words are exchanged before the battle begins, but, it falls apart pretty quick. There's some talk in battle too. Probably triggered either by number of turns, or damage dealt. The sequence unlocks Seibzehn's Gaviton Cannon Special Option, but at the cost of Nikolai's "real" consciousness dying. His last words were that he would live on, in spirit, within both Seibzehn and Maria. It's a more touching scene than I'm relaying, to be sure.

With all that out of the way, we are charged with the destruction of the Solarian gates. We know one exists below the Ethos' HQ, but, there's no way to actually reach the thing. The location of the other two are entirely unknown. However, it seems good ol' Shakhan is up to his old tricks again, and has attacked Nisan. It seems he's after the ancient Aveh treasure, which is, as one might have surmised, an Omnigear!

Two more things to note. One, the Yggdrasil has been equipped with an aerial module, and has become a full-fledged airship. Two, it seems Gaspar, the old master of Wiseman and Khan, has shown up. He'll teach us some of his moves, and upgrades our party to have 7 AP, and with it, all the Deathblows that entails for characters that get them. The number of 7AP Deathblows differs between characters, but, Fei has all possible combinations in his repertoire.

This also means we should have access to the "Infinity" attack level with some Gears. Off the top of my head, the only Gears that can obtain it right now is Weltall, Veirge, and Seibzehn. Gear-sized Chu-Chu is an interesting case, as she doesn't use Fuel, or attain Attack Levels, but, I noticed that her Cross attack was tremendously strong (about 1200 damage!) in the fight against Achtzehn. However, it's high-time to close this particular session. Tune in next time, after I've fed Chu-Chu some Drive, and learn god knows how many Deathblows!
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
There's a bunch of solders stationed at Nisan. Bart and Sig figure that either they haven't found what they are looking for, or that this is what they decided to leave behind as a garrison. We can't see any townsfolk, so either they're locked away under martial law, or have escaped elsewhere. Sig moves off to do his own thing, and we set out to deal with the solders.

The game apparently means to jump in and start fighting off said soilders. I think there was around five or six fights. Not necessarily back-to-back, but, they might as well be with how the solders run up to us. However, the Fatima Jasper and the ancient Aveh treasure is still in jeopardy. Before we worry too much more about that, we must know the condition of the people.

We manage to find Sister Agnes, and she lets us know that there's some people hiding out in the mausoleum. Which, apparently, is where the treasure is. As for the Jasper...





...it's a very specific retinal pattern. The sisters learned of this through Margie, and Shahkan learned through them. Shahkan may have used intimidation and hostages, but, whatever. He knows where the treasure is, and what's needed to get in. He seems to intend to use the retinal pattern from Margie's mom for his purpose.

Bart is understandably angered by this, and fully intends to go to the mausoleum to stop Shakhan. Sig advises that this might be a good time to re-take the Aveh capital as well. Well, maybe. It's worth a try. Either way, the party has two slots locked in, so, like in Shevat, they don't give us a party-switch prompt. There is a prompt that asks who else is coming along, which is essentially the same function, but, having the party-switch screen wouldn't hurt too much.

There's a bit of a tussle when we enter the mausoleum proper, but, nothing we can't handle. The townsfolk that are here seem fine, and Margie's mom is still in tact, apparently. Where's Shakhan, though? Nobody's seen him. Has he not arrived yet? I dunno. Something seems fishy. Still, Bart announces that it's time to go home, and that there is going to be an attack to re-gain Bledavik. The hope is to re-gain Aveh from the grips of Shakhan, Gebler, and Solaris in general. I don't know how long they would be able to hold, should Solaris respond (and Solarus has proven to be control freaks), but, they'll give it their all. Or some-such.

At any rate, our goal hasn't really changed. We must claim the Omnigear before Shakhan does. So we delve further into the structure, and come across a door, and a retinal scanner. Bart and Margie do their thing, and the door opens. We find a place that looks like a bridge, or other command center. We can probably activate the lights, and other facilities, from here. There's also a handy-dandy save point that we can use before doing anything that might cause plot to happen. Alas, there's not much else to do right now.

Well, okay, it seems the mini-scene in the bridge isn't what I was looking for after all. Both Bart and Margie want to confirm the safety of the Omnigear first. Fair, I suppose. After another retinal scan, we open a vault door, and we are face to face with the treasure of the Fatima Dynasty Warriors.





There's an inscription at the base that Bart reads, and the power turns itself on after he finishes. Coincidence? Maybe. However, if we are to claim the Onimigear for ourselves, there's a bit of a problem. We're still very deep underground, and there's no way to get it to the Yggdrasil from the way we came in. However, this facility is something of a submerged bunker. If we go back to the bridge, we might be able to surface it, and open the hatch so that we can transport it to the Yggdrasil. Unfortunately, this process will mean that enemies can come in to attempt to claim the Omnigear for themselves, and it is this opportunity that Shakhan has been waiting for.

Shakhan's men quickly infiltrate the base, and will soon secure the Omnigear if we sit and do nothing. The on-foot battles are inconsequential, but, if we run into the Gears, we might have some issues.

At some point, Shakhan's men have us cornered. Margie somehow breaks loose, running towards the Omnigear, and not long after, Sigurd and Citan come to our rescue. Shakhan withdraws, for now. The door forward has been locked on the other side, and opening it on our side will require passing a retinal scan. Bart's only got one good eye, though. Sig offers his good eye... and it works! The lock is cleared. No time to ask questions, though. Margie's in trouble, and, yes, the treasure is still in jeopardy! Alex, I'd like Omnigears for $500!

Bad jokes aside, Margie can barely hold her own, but has managed to get inside the thing. Guards shoot at us as we run toward it. Bart gets inside, has a little talk with Margie, and takes the seat. There's no controls, though! An enemy Gears fires, and the machine moves by itself to block it. Citan has an epiphany. The Gear works on mental waves. He posits that the pilot must imagine the movement of the Omingear, and it will follow through. In theory, at least.

The theory seems to work, as the Andvari boosts forward, with Fei and the other party member not far behind. We fend off the Neo Etones, but, Shakhan gets away. Of course he does. Bart would've pursued, were it not for Citan reminding him about Margie. We retreat to Nisan to recoup and recover.

The intel from Bledavik is that things are going smoothly. They're investigating the castle, and Shakhan's room, specifically. The Yggdrasil detected a unit of Gears heading to the capital, but, the unit has re-routed itself towards Nisan. Sigurd seems to think that it's because there's a Solarian gate nearby. What good that does Shakhan, I don't know, but, if he's headed there, it's not a good thing, and we'll want to stop him if we can.

We can't swap party members through Margie, as she's still in recovery mode. I'm actually pretty okay with my current party anyway. There was a unit of Gears before we got to the Gate, but, they were basically chumps. We meet Shakhan again, and his Gear latches onto the Gate, draining it's power. Something's not quite right, though. The Gear is only able to drain energy for a minute or two before it ceases. There's no way it's tank would would be topped off so soon! This is Grahf's cue to intervene, grant Shakhan "the power", despite Shakhan's insistence that he doesn't need it. Despite Graph's buff, we proceed to trounce on Shakhan anyway. The Gate blows up as part of the aftermath, with us high-tailing it outta there.

The game cuts to Bledavik, where Bart reveals his true form, that of a giant Slor royal linage publicly, and to state that his father's will was that Aveh no longer be a kingdom, but a republic. The clamor of the crowd is enough to make Sigurd think that the people of Aveh desire Bart to be their leader, regardless of what his lineage is. He'll need some capable assistance, of course.

That night, Bart confronts Maison concerning Sigurd. Apparently, a long time ago, a young King Edbart had a tryst with a lady of a religious sect. The religion wasn't Nisan's or Ethos, and no more is spoken about that detail. However, she left him, but left Sig behind. According to what Sig can remember, she was told that she didn't have long to live, as was in constant fear of how long she had left. Which might have been a reason to leave, but, there may have been other factors too.

Either way, Aveh has been finally been restored to the people, and we can move onto other matters. Such as taking out the other two Gates. We only really know of one, though. The one under the Ethos HQ. How to get to it is a problem onto itself. Bart brings up the bunker we found via the mausoleum, which he's dubbed "Fort Jasper", and it's cannon. We have no idea how to move the thing, but, Fei recalls there being a mirror on the side of Babel Tower, and there being a control room for that mirror inside.

Now, call the characters crazy, but, they seem to think that a precise hit from Ft Jasper to the mirror at Babel might, just might, be able to dig into where the Ethos HQ gate is. If we're lucky, the laser will do the work for us, and blow the thing to kingdom come. We'll split up into teams, which are decided for us. The Babel team will consist of Fei, Elly, and Citan while the Ft Jasper team will consist of Bart, Billy, and Chu-Chu. Before we get to that, a cut-scene with the Gazel Ministry.

The Gazel Ministry doesn't hold back in their disdain toward Ramsus, calling him "trash". They give him an opportunity in regards to protecting the Gate. He wants to prove himself to them, but, his wounds from the last battle were pretty severe. Wait, which battle was this, exactly? He was forced to retreat from Babel Tower, yes, but, I was never given the impression that he was in over his head with that fight. At least, he wasn't until Shevat decided to attack his battleship. That absolutely called for a tactical withdrawal.

At any rate, the Elements volunteer their services to regain their commander's honor and the respect he deserves. The game cuts back to the Yggdrasil, and are given an opportunity to save, and prepare for the mission ahead.
Zakariya
Every misdeed has its own punishment, and every good deed has its reward.
1174
I do not mean to take this off topic, but how would you feel about doing a Metroid: Fusion LP?
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
To be honest, it's hard to talk about the next LP, or if there will even be a next one, when this one is still ongoing.


My opinion at this specific time is that there will not be another one, but, that might be because I feel like I've been dragging my feet with this game. For what it's worth, there's 21 game-sessions in this thread, and I've just hit the thirty-hour mark in game-time. Whereas Suikoden 5...

And with that, the fates of the 108 roll, then the credits. After that, the opportunity to create a clear game save for a New Game+. I didn't check it in-game, but, my listed game-time stamped on that save-file was 55 hours and 44 minutes.

...took over 55 game-hours and somehow managed to only have 18 play-sessions. That difference could be an evolution to how I play/approach games, though.

*Edit: I forgot about Suikoden 3. There, I had 28 play-sessions in...

My last save recorded a play-time of 46 hours and 11 minutes. This obviously does not count time when the emulator was paused so that I could write, or any save-state scumming that may have occurred.

...about 46 hours. Huh.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
So, back to Babel Tower. The control room in question is not far from where Ramsus attacked us during our initial ascent. Citan will stay behind while Fei and Elly stay on guard. Which is a good thing, because Dominia and Kelvena are already here to mess up the plan!

Meanwhile, at Fr Jasper, the preparations to fire are go, but, naturally, Tolone and Seraphita are on this end of the deal to mess things up here. Bart and Chu-Chu set out to defend, while Billy focuses on targeting the cannon.

The shot was close, but it did not hit the mirror. Aside from readjusting the cannon, it probably needs to recharge. Which means the Elements get in another round of attacks in an attempt to stop us.

The second shot was good. It tore right through the ground, and into the Gate. Two down, one to go. The question is: where the hell is it?

We know from the Queen, and from Shakhan's papers, that the Gates form a triangle. Given the locations of the Gates we've taken out, we more or less narrow it down to two locations. One in the middle of the ocean in the south-east, and one on a landmass in the north-west. Bart suggest splitting up, and trying both locations. Sigurd doesn't think this is a good idea. Solarus probably didn't think we'd go after the Gate underneath the Ethos HQ, so, they would probably be more vigilant about the last Gate. We need to come at this in full force, because Solaris is probably going to come in full force too.

The Gates are supposed to surround Solarius, so, there is that. If we knew where it physically was, that would make a difference. Sigurd and Citan were too busy trying to escape to notice anything, and Jessie? Who knows if he even remembers. Elly provides our only hint, in that she seems to think that it's over water. She's not 100% certain. The layout of the surface isn't information that Gebler provides to it's solders, and Elly wasn't a high enough ranking to have access to that info. Still, it's the best lead we have. We figure it's gotta be really deep in the ocean, though. We might be able to call in a favor at the Thames to be able to get that deep.

Meanwhile, the Gazel Ministry doesn't seem terribly surprised at the outcome. Once "trash" always "trash", one says. They seem serious about striking back, but, Krelian doesn't seem to care about the gates. He's more interested in the "mother", and the "Antitype". Whoever they are. He seems to want to use the nanomachine colony to confirm his beliefs. If he's wrong, and the colony is destroyed, it's fine. He's got all the data he needs. If he's right, and there is a reaction... I'm not really sure. I don't think he stated what the significance is of the "mother" and the "Antitype" existing at the same time. At least, it's not explained yet. Maybe later if at all.

Back to the Yggdrasil, where we can engage in additional free-roaming, should we so choose to do so, before hitting up the Thames. I take this opportunity to pretty much top off the current roster party-able characters...





...so, off to the Thames it is! The point we're aiming for sounds vaguely familiar to the captain. They call it the Sargasso Point, and it's supposed to house some kind of treasure. Could that be our Gate? The crew equips our Gears for deep underwater diving, so, we can find out for ourselves.

Basically, Sargasso is the one-and-only dungeon allows players to "jump" in mid-air. I wouldn't call it "flying", and the area is certainly more confined in it's verticality to other places we've visited. Still, some players might have a bad taste in their mouths, given the already contentious gameplay versus story segregation between Babel Tower and the Hecht sequence.

At any rate, we do come across the third gate. It's guarded, of course. Not by any of the elements, or a typical member of Gebler, but by...





...this Gear, accompanied by...





...this song. She's not alone, but, the other Gear that's here claims to want to observe. That Gear keeps out of the fight, and we defeat Crescens. It seems the pilot of Crescens had something of a memory overload. Krelian suspected this, and the other Gear goes to report, leaving both Gear and girl behind. She is our "daughter" after all. Whatever that means.

The Gate at Sargasso blows up, and the Yggdrasil flies off. On board the airship, the game has...





...Emeralda finally join our motley crew. She's the last party member to join our ranks, by the way. No more allies to gain/recruit. This is not a Suikoden game. Look elsewhere on-site for that ;)

While she's acting like a ten-year old (which, mentally speaking, she might be), there's an announcement over the comms about a city that might be Solaris appearing. I don't think it's nessessarily immediate, but, there's a very brief scene in Shevat where Citan decides for us (not just the player, but every freaking body in that room) that the best way to proceed is to have Sebizehn use it's particle cannon to make an opening in the Solarian barrier so that we can enter. We split up from there. One infiltration party will consist of Fei, Citan, and Elly. By the sound of things, the others will infiltrate in other groups, while Maria would be on standby on Sebizehn. Another quick scene on the palace roof of Shevat between Yui and Citan where she delivers him his sword. He won't use it quite yet. That's not until Disk 2, if memory serves.

At any rate, there's another break in the story where we can free-roam. Also feels like a good place to end this session. For what it's worth, Emeralda entered the party at Level 56, or thereabouts. I imagine most other folks, if I were leveling normally, would be a few levels higher than that. Fei would probably be 60-ish?
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Preparations are complete. Emeralda is done with Deathblows and levels, and my Gears have the best stuff I can find/buy. Time to attack Solaris.

We can't go to Solaris directly. It's not on the map, despite us having an event where their cloaking technology has sputtered off due to our destruction of the Gates on land. No, we have to go back to the throne room of Shevat, and be prompted by Citan about whither or not we're ready to go. Which, naturally, triggers a chain of cutscenes before we actually get into the place.

The gravity of Solaris is entirely artificial, even on the outside. Elly seems to think that this area we've landed in is a place where materials and goods are shipped in or out. Fei lets curiosity get the better of him, and checks out a container, only for the door to close behind him, and is moved inside the structure. When the container stops moving, Fei finds himself in a beehive-like structure. A man shouts from atop a building about the living conditions, and is summarily picked up by a roving bot and dropped into a gaping abyss. That certainly sends a message, doesn't it?

We need to find a way out of here, and meet back up with Elly and Citan if possible. We meet up with Elly pretty quickly, actually. She's in one of the "houses". Citan is elsewhere, and apparently knows Solarus better than Elly? I dunno. The guy seems to have a penchant to just know crap, and he did work as an agent here a long time ago.

At any rate, we ran across a chump by the name of Sampson (who, according to Fei, looks way to much like Timothy), who has a plan of escape. He has a pass to work in the docks, which he intends to use to escape. He's only supposed to report to the area during his shift, but, he seems to think he's got a way around that. However, before we decide to join him in his effort, we should try a few things. Elly's still in her Gebler uniform, and she was an officer. I doubt it's common knowledge that she even left the military. Then again, her rank has had very little effect in the game. Her subordinates in the Gebler Special Forces have never paid her any respect, that's for sure!

As it happens, the guard at the watchtower says the same thing regardless of Elly's presence in the party, or not. Same story with the guard by the dust chute. So, we have to use Sampson's route. Of course we do.

We briefly split up, but our paths meet again at an ID reader. Sampson thinks he's fine because his ID has been altered, but, the gate fries him up to dust. Fei gives the machine a punch, but, Elly has her own plan. Of sorts. She knows that machine will only allow first-class citizens, or military, through. She might not be military anymore, but, she might still be considered first class. It's a gamble, but, we can't really proceed.

Elly stands on the machine, and it verifies her first-class status. Elly's a little surprised by this, figuring that she'd have been labeled a traitor. Fei reasons that they might not have updated the database to label her as such, as doing so would admit an error, and HEAVENS FORBID THAT SOLARIS MAKES ERRORS. Or some-such. Either way, we can proceed through similar gates at least as long as Elly is with us. We are almost caught by a guard on the other side of a gate, but, with a little quick thinking, Elly decides to use her former position to our advantage, and the solider backs off. Niiiiiiice!

We're now in the heart of Etrenank, which has...





...this odd tune for a theme. I explore the town a bit, checking out the shops, finding an easter egg, maybe two...



Hi, Tifa!

Kinda looks like Elly?


...and using the save point. We learn that there is to be a dedication ceremony very soon. Elly seems to think the purpose of this is to calm the citizenry after the destruction of the Gates. Tickets to this ceremony have been sold out. Somebody I talked to spoke about watching it on television HomeVision instead, but that's not an option for us. However, the same person gave us their tickets, so, all is well in the world.

As it is a ceremony, there's some fanfare to be had. Six ships fly into a configuration above what I presume to be the palace. The Emperor, himself, rises, sitting on is throne, and speaks to his subjects. Fei (and by extension, the player) wouldn't be able to understand a thing, were it not for Elly translating it for him. As for what he says...

Cain: My beloved children, you can be at ease. The Gazel Ministry and I planned the destruction of the gate long ago. The people chosen by god, we, the Gazel, will return to god's paradise. To the sleeping mother god. The time for our immortality has come.
We have opened the door to 'Mahanon', the place where god rests, the source of wisdom and power. The surface dwellers will no doubt use this opportunity to seize it's power. However, there is no need to be concerned. As long as Solaris has this power.
Let's show stupid beasts, the Lambs, our real power.


...it is undoubted a PR move. The ships fire off some fireworks for show. The focus shifts back to Elly and Fei. Elly seems zoned out a bit, and Fei gets her attention just in time for Krelian to ascend to view. He makes his own quip...

Krelian: Children of the Emperor, please open your heart.


...before Fei has another flashback. Excuse the hide-tag.


He stands before the alter in Nissan's temple. His prayer, now done, he descends the stairs, and Krelian greets him.

Krelian: It's been a long time, Lacan.
Lacan: Krelian. You're back?
Krelian: I just got back last night. You came back home to get paints, right? Sophia told me. Allow me to accompany you.
Lacan: Is that okay?
Krelian: Yeah. I'll leave someone else in command of my unit. Because of Solaris, things are a lot more dangerous these days. Anyway, wouldn't you feel more secure if you were with me?
Lacan: ...Thanks.

With that, they leave the church. Another conversation as they walk in town.

Lacan: ...What did you say? What's the name of the teacher you're studying under?
Krelian: Melchior.
Lacan: But still, why are you studying?
Krelian: Sophia told me the best way to calm the heart is to read a book. It's a good opportunity, and, it has sparked my interest in studying. Now I'm reading 3 books a day.
Lacan: If it can change, it will. The art of war. That's all you can think about.
Krelian: Hey, that's mean. You know, I'm the best of all of his students.
Lacan: I see. That's great. It sounds like you found something to put your heart into.
Krelian: What do you mean? You have something. Your pictures are splendid. You should be thankful.

Fade to white. When the game fades back, it kinda looks like they're at Emeralda's tube in the dig site?

Krelian: Lacan, look at this. I finally completed it. This will save people's lives. Isn't that right, Melchior? With this, even Sophia will...

Fade to white, and... back to the present.


When Fei comes back to reality, there's a bit more fluff from Krelian before he drops a bomb on us. Bart, Billy, Emeralda, and Chu-Chu have been captured. He proclaims that these prisoners will be disposed of in the Soylent System. Fei and Elly enter a heated discussion, and are eventually discovered. We make our way to a waterway (could be a sewer, considering that it's Solaris) while running from security drones. We fight a number of them along the way, of course. As to where we end up, it looks like a mansion.

Let me remind you, readers, on this point. Solarian society is very much based on race and class. The kind of person that would live in a place like this would have the best breeding. This is the house of a first-class citizen. The house of a natural-born Solarian. The house of the Van Houtens.

That's right. This is Elly's house.





We're questioned by Elly's mom, Medina, a little. Elly does her best, and makes up a lie about Fei being in the Special Forces, and needing to flie a report. Now in her room, we can relax a little. Which includes the two taking turns in the shower. To Fei's credit, he averts his eyes, and does not try to peek at Elly when it's her turn. Elly, well, not so much.

Apparently, Elly as a poster of herself in her room.





That aside, we need a plan of attack. Elly considers hacking her father's terminal for information. We don't know when he'll be back, and she's hacked into it at least once before. It might be a gamble, but, our options are limited.

Elly succeeds in hacking the machine, and learns that we might be able to reach our friends via the dust chute. Erick comes home early, and naturally finds us in front of his laptop. He berates Elly for tampering with his stuff again, and calls the guards on Fei. Elly does her best to explain the situation, even going so far as to say that the reason he didn't want her in Jugend was because she's a half land-dweller. Erick is none-to-pleased with the mention of the subject in front of Medina, and smacks Elly one. How can Elly even still believe such a thing, he proclaims.

Fei comes forward, and does his own diplomacy. A father and daughter shouldn't fight like this. If his presence here is an issue, he'll leave to free his friends, himself. Elly wants to go with him, of course. However, Fei says that this is a land-dweller problem. It has nothing to do with Elly. Still, he thanks her for her assistance so far, and asks her to leave the military for good this time. He then departs, making his way back to the city.

Maybe he didn't think this through very far. He'll need to find another route to the 3rd class section. Without Elly in tow, the ID-checker is gonna fry us, and that's probably the most direct route.

Still, he moves toward the checkpoint, and is "caught" by Citan, posing as a guard. For inexplicable reasons, we can pass through the ID-checker with Citan. This is a lot more suspicious than Elly going through it. Her infractions were certainly more recent, and may be attributed to saving face. With Citan, it's been almost two decades since he was supposed to have left. The reasoning of "saving face" isn't going to cut it this time, and being straight-up lazy rings a little hollow to me. Still, we can maneuver to the dust chute without too much additional difficulty. However, that dungeon, or series thereof, is going to be for another session.

I figure the next session should cover the game until the end of Disk 1? It's a little difficult to say with more certainty right now. Saying that, I feel like it's becoming harder and harder to just sit down and play this game, much less do the write-up. As such, I think it might behoove me to put this on hiatus.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Okay, enough time off from this. Time to get back to brass tacks. So. Uh. Where the hell was I, and what was I doing?

I'm half-joking about this. So, let me give myself a brief refresher. Fei, Elly, and Citan have infiltrated Solaris. They've found out that the others have been caught, and are going to attempt a rescue. We've left Elly at her house, leaving Fei and Citan to go into the Soylent System, where they are supposedly being held.

We know from Erich's terminal that the dust chute is the best way to reach where the other party members are being held. Apparently, there's a device that's probably our way in, and it needs some kind of keycard. This wasn't something Citan was expecting, and asks aloud what we're going to do. Much to the annoyance of Fei, who probably assumed Citan had a more through plan. However, Elly has rejoined us, and we get a brief sequence where she obtains an Army Keycard that we can use to enter the facility.

The enemies of this dungeon aren't too notable. However, there is a scene pretty early concerning food. Citan excuses himself, but Fei and Elly go at it. The very next area looks like a processing plant for the food we just ate. Now, it might not be a surprise for some gamers, but, the ingredient that the stuff is made out of...





...yeah. Pretty much that. Was the name "Soylent System" done on purpose, or by accident? I don't know. Like a lot of things in this game, this reveal doesn't really go anywhere. I suppose it provides even further evidence how little esteem Solaris holds people. If I were a betting man, I would wager that it's Lambs they are processing, given how racist and classist this nation is. Citan mentions that Wels are also produced in this facility as well as medicine. Take that to mean what you will.

After we get out of the factory proper, we go up an elevator to the labs. The path is fairly straight-forward, though it is a long trek before we hit a door with an audio lock. The d-pad is used for this lock, and there is a hint of what notes will open the door, but, not what button presses are associated with each note without some trial-and-error processes. Thank goodness for walkthroughs, because I would have probably never gotten past this point without getting immensely frustrated.

Further in is a room with holograms and information on each party member. The data for Citan is interesting, insofar as it uses "Hyuga Ricdeau" as his name. One can suppose the name of "Citan Uzuki" has no importance to Solaris, though.

Further in, we bump into another locked door, and Citan opens it with ease. He starts blabbering about the Gazel Ministry, about how they used to be alive, and how they only exist as data in a computer, and that they intend to return to living bodies.

Elly feels something isn't right. How does Citan know all this stuff, anyway? You're telling me! Elly protests that it would take the kind of access that Elly's father has to obtain. There is no way a person would just find information like this lying around. The doctor adjusts his glasses, and the lights are killed. Fei calls out for both Elly and Citan, but there is no response. He managed to find three doors in this hallway, but only one is open. It's a trap, of course.

After being showed images of Id's Gear, Fei is shown images of Bart, Billy, and finally Citan, who stands in front of the SOL-9000 that the Gazel Ministry is installed in. Fei is not interested in speaking to the Gazel Ministry, but to Citan. Which makes two of us, to be sure. Forgive the quote-block.

Citan: Three years.
Fei: ?
Citan: For three years, I have been by your side. I had to determine whether you were going to be our enemy or not.
Fei: Revenge?
Gazel: Yes, the enemy. Your existence is a threat to us. It was necessary to keep an eye on you. The one who orders you to be watched was Cain. We were planning on the maturation of the 'Animus', and your termination. We also send Hyuga to you. However, every attempt to terminate you has failed because of that good-for-nothing trash. Even so, we now possess 'Animus'. Hyuga has fulfilled his duties well.
Fei: Is... that it? You were with these guys? That's why you, everyone... Why? You've had your way all this time with us land dwellers! You already own the world! What more do you want?
Gazel: You must know by now that we plan to resurrect god. God will awaken from his long slumber after man has populated the land. Then, Mahanon, too, will awaken.
Fei: Aerial Paradise Mahanon? The place fell to earth.
Gazel: Paradise. Hah hah hah. That may be a proper description. Our ark. In the center block lord 'Mahanon' is sealed in. That is the source of wisdom. A paradise of knowledge. Using that knowledge, we will resurrect the awakened god and build our 'ark' to take us both into the great universe. The construction of our ark, to reign over god's forces in this great universe, the creation of the angel 'Malakh'. The M Project was for that very purpose.
Fei: What do you mean!?
Gazel: We are orphans in this universe. We were thrown away on this planet in solitude along with god. We humans were not born on this planet. Long ago, wer cam here from another heavenly body. We are beings from an alien planet.
Fei: That's ridiculous!?
Gazel: This is true. You have seen the various regions of this world. Why do you think there are no records of humans before 10,000 years ago?
Fei: ...!?
Gazel: This is the will of god. The god's revival has been fated since before the time before genesis. We will be one with god. Attaining a new 'Animus', we will once again return to the starry skies. That is the meaning of our existence. That is our supreme objective.
Fei: ...So, you're not planning on using Solaris' power to dominate the world?
Gazel: Of course. What meaning is there in having control of a planet as insignificant as this? God has given us the right to rule over the universe. Yes. Only we, who do not carry impure blood, have the right to a pardon. So, we will resurrect god. It's been an eternity since our exile from paradise. If the time of god's revival does not come, we will have to follow the path of destruction. But, having attained 'Animus', our resurrection is near. Next is god's resurrection.


The monitor then displays Krelian, who spouts a line...

Krelian: This one only waits for the awakening.


...which then causes the display to change to Elly, after which, the lights are killed again.

The game switches context to Krelian and Elly, where he talks to her about her incident at Jugend where she was forced to use Drive. However, he believes the incident wasn't merely a case of Elly going berserk thanks to the side-effect of Drive. No, it's because it was a release of the power of her "other self". It takes him a while before he gets back to that subject, because the game loves long blats. However, he mentions that she is the "mother". Which is a term we've heard at least once before when he spoke to the Gazel Ministry. We still don't know exactly what it means for Elly to be the "mother", though. Something important, no doubt, but, the exact nature of that information is still under wraps for now.

Back to Fei, Citan enters the room. He looks up at the still-restrained Fei, who's consciousness seems to be returning. Citan makes for some harsh statements toward Fei. His purpose isn't exactly to make him angry, though he's exceptionally effective at doing so. However, his true purpose is something completely different. I'll get back to this when the game does.

Context switches back to Krelian and Elly. He leaves the room, apparently satisfied. Ramsus decides to drop by, and tried to get Fei's location from Elly. She doesn't know, of course. Ramsus won't accept that Fei is better than him, and has taken to use mental stability drugs. They don't seem to be very effective, given how he's coming off as a raving lunatic.

Cut back to the interrogation room, Fei has been freed by Bart and Billy, with Citan's assistance. Naturally, Fei's none-to-happy to see Citan again, but, it doesn't take too much for Fei to regain his trust in Citan. I dunno. Feels more than a little unlikely, especially because of how much he trusted Citan before, and his apparent treason. However, Elly's still deep in Krelian's lab. We'll need to get her out of there.

Which we do in record time! Citan showed us a path that was directly above Krelian's lab, and we free Elly. There's a cut-scene of Jessie at the Gate inside Solaris, which is summarily destroyed at the end of said scene. Cut back to Fei, we move into a room with a party-switch point and a save point. Which is not at all suggesting that something terribly wrong, or important, could happen soon.

I'm pretty sure this is the first time the game has given us a switch-point cube. It functions pretty much the same way as talking to Margie on the Yggdrasil, only without having her do a blat before the scene call.

It was Hammer that helped Elly's parents get here from their precarious situation from before. I suppose their position doesn't protect them anymore. Erich seems to think he can pull a few strings to get us a way outta this joint. Be that as it may, there's naturally a bit more dungeon between us and where we need to be. However, as one can imagine, it's not so simple as being able to hitch a ride courtesy of Erich. No, Hammer decides to pull a gun on Elly, and ask her to come back with him.

Apparently, he made a deal with Krelian. While I don't, exactly, understand what Krelian promised, I get the distinct impression that if Hammer completed the mission, he would have then outlived his usefulness. They can do a lot worse than simply kill him. Maybe he'd become some kind of research specimen, or tossed into the Soylent System? I don't know, but, using people and throwing out the "trash" seems to be how Solaris, and Krelian, work. While Ramsus is considered "trash", he still has exactly one use left.

Medena frees her daughter from Hammer at the cost of her own life. Elly heard the sound, and turns to see the results of the shot. Hammer, psychologically disarmed, runs away. Elly runs to the fallen body, and cries, but, has no time to morn for her loss. Graph and the Executioner decide to drop in on the party. Oh, boy, that's not a good sign.

The initial fight, we win. However, the cutscenes after that are a different story. Erich tries to distract the pair to allow us to escape, but, his Gear is batted away like a fly by the Executioner. The Executioner has this DBZ-like aura, and soon enough, Elly has one too. The Executioner ramps up a few more notches for good measure, making everybody cry out in pain. Fei's reaction to this is similar, but, something else is happening to him. Cut to the Black Room, the Nisan Cross swinging. A voice chuckles in the dark, then a "Keep on sleeping."

Cut to the bridge of the Yggdrasil. An alarm sounds. The Gear is moving by itself! Which Gear? Give me details!





Weltall has transformed into Id's Gear!? Ramsus is naturally waiting for him in his Gear.

Cut back to where my party was. They aren't there now, of course. The place is a steaming pile of rubble, the Executioner and Krellian speaking among themselves. Turns out the Executioner is Miang. Rather than try and salvage anything from the situation...






...they let Solaris fall from Id's attack. However, before we get to that part of the FMV, the game makes it abundantly clear now, just in case that it wasn't before. Fei and Id are the same person. Or, more accurately speaking, they are separate personalities inhabiting in the same body. The "Red Gear" is actually Weltall in it's true form that only the personality of "Id" can use, and activate.

However, with the destruction of Solaris imminent, the game doesn't go over too many details about that right now. The explosion is calculated to have an energy similar to that of a reactive weapon. We manage to beat the explosion, but, Id has decided to give chase. Talk about getting out of the frying pan, and into the fire!

Elly faces the Demon of Elru alone.





Under normal conditions, I'm sure Id would have no problems tearing an opponent limb from limb. Elly's no normal opponent, though. Remember, she's "the same" as Fei. I don't want to explain this yet, as the game does the job for me later, but, just keep this in mind.

As the music plays...





...Welltal-Id (out of lack of better name) lands a blow on Vierge. Id tries to pull back, but, Elly's grasp prevents it. Vierge digs into Weltall-Id, and an ether overload breaks out soon after. Three was enough to knock out Vierge, with Weltall-Id still standing. However, "Fei" is starting to wake up again.

Cut to the throne room of Shevat, where the game explains in more detail about Fei. Let me summarize, however.

We don't know when the personality we know as "Id" was formed. However, Citan's interrogated "Id" in Solaris. He needed to anger Fei so that "Id" would surface. Citan's time with Id was short, but, he learned two things. One, that the schism was done by Khan in an attempt to suppress "Id". Two, the existence of a third personality, which Id referred to as "the coward". This personality seems to be the personality responsible for allowing the lower-level personality of "Fei" to have priority over the higher-level personality of "Id".

Citan draws the conclusion that when "Fei" is weakened enough, "Id" can take control for a time until "the coward" can take the reigns and give control back to "Fei". Citan does not know of any method to make "the coward" take control, but, believes that Fei can be "Fei" for only as long as his life isn't in danger. He basese this conclusion on the fact that Fei was able to live in peace without an advent of Id for three years in Lahan. Since then, however, is another story, as we've seen.

Citan also apologizes for being a spy for Emperor Cain. He did so before talking about Fei, but, it's worthy of mention. Citan's purpose was to observe Fei, and determine if he was an enemy. Though, I'm not sure what "enemy" means in this context. We pretty much just blew up Solaris, and there was a cut-scene during Citan's blat, where he was expressing to the Emperor that Fei is not an "enemy". Though, who knows when that was in the sequence of events!

It is eventually decided that the risk of a re-awakening of Id is too great. The only one that's defending him is Elly, and her voice falls on deaf ears. Fei is to be contained in carbonite tomorrow.

That night, Elly visits Fei. After a few words concerning Id, she suggests escaping, and going to a place without war. Now that Solaris is gone, she has no place to call "home". Fei, he hasn't had one since Lahan, though, I suppose the Yggdrasil came pretty damn close. Still, Fei refuses. Elly says some interesting things...






...before she releases Fei. Fade to white, and... CRASH!

Yeah, this is the moment where Bleem crashed back in the day. More than a little frustrating, since the last hard-save was back in the hangar, before the event with Hammer. Thankfully, ePSXe lets us continue from this point!

The pair make it as far as the Yggdrasil's hangar before they are intercepted by Citan. He's not stopping them, though. He's merely here to see us off, and to point out that Elly's Veirge is still under repair. He suggests that Elly "borrows" the Omnigear Shevat has. They tried to get her into it before, and Elly objected to doing so. She continues to do so now. Billy, Bart, and Margie drop by to apologize, and Weltall launches in short order. Presumibly with both Fei and Elly inside. It's a little weird how the game points out how Elly doesn't have access (or refuses access) to a Gear of her own to escape with, but completely passes over the detail about how she actually escapes. A cut-scene later has her standing behind Fei, who's sitting in Weltall's pilot seat, but, yeah, it just seems a little weird.

Cut to the Gazel Ministry. Wait, they're still operational? Where are hell are they, then, if not in Etrenank? In any event, they're none to pleased about how Fei's single-handily taking down Etrenank, nor are they amused by Citan making a deal with Cain. Now that I think about it, maybe this deal is what allows Citan to release the other party members, and Fei?

The Ministry certainly underestimated Id's abilities, though. This makes it three times this game they tried to kill Fei, and failed. Even they are starting to feel the pressure. They wonder if they can still manage to use the key in time? Whatever that means!

Ramsus has been sent after Elly. How Krelian knows where she, or Fei, can be found, even after they leave the Yggdrasil, is not entirely known. However, Ramsus is using a different Gear than before. This one is aligned with an Anima Relic. Which makes it an Omnigear on a different level than the one in Shevat, or Bart's Andvari. The fight is 100% cut-scene, and Ramsus tears Weltall into pieces. If it was Weltall-Id, it be a different story, but, "Fei" is still very much in control.

Fei is more or less fine after the crash, but Elly won't stop bleeding. Fei needs to find a way to stop it. He carries her into the woods, with the ghost of Graph looking on. Prompt to save, then, the prompt to insert Disk 2! Which is the best stopping point for this session!
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Looks like I took an unintentional hiatus from this for a bit. I suppose I wasn't necessarily looking forward to what's coming up for reasons that should become apparent shortly.

Disk 2 starts off with Fei sitting in a chair in the Black Room, the Nisan Cross swinging in the background. Forgive the quote-block.





author=Fei
Dreaming. I was dreaming. Perhaps it may have been a long, forgotten memory. A dream. A memory. Things remembered when one is asleep. This forgotten when one is awake. Where the deepest layers of memories become the outmost layers of one's dreams.

Which are reality? Which are illusions? One cannot tell until one awakens. Or, perhaps, they are, at the same tie, both truth and fiction. A vast, nebulous dream, with no boundaries. An emptiness, equivalent to my own existence. I dreamt such a dream. A long, never-ending, dream.






author=Fei
In that dream, I was called "Lacan". I was an artist. I had become recognized as a talented artist, and now painting the portrait of the Nisan Mother, "Sophia".


At this point, we are in the Room of Sophia, with Lacan painting Sophia. Technically speaking, this isn't the first time Lacan has made an appearance, looking exactly like Fei. In this context, it's not simply because it's Fei that is dreaming, but, that might be a thing for later. As for Mother Sophia, recall that Fei thought that she looked like Elly. So, it might be acceptable for, in the context of this dream, for Elly's personality, and mannerisms, stand in for the founder of the Nissan sect. Indeed, Sophia insists that Lacan call her "Elly".

Back to the Black Room.

author=Fei
"Elly". There was a time when she went by such a name. A time when we had met up with one another. A time when nothing mattered between us. It was better that way. Just two people, together. It was better to have left it that way.


Cut back to the Room of Sophia, where Lacan quips about running out of paint, and needing to go back home to get the best/right pigments. Sophia is willing to give him escort, but, Lacan isn't exactly being straight-forward about his reasons.

author=Fei
I lied. I wasn't out of paint. I just feared I would finish the portrait. I wanted to keep on painting. Forever. So, I wanted to buy time. She'd probably despise me for that. No, she'd probably just give me her usual smile. She was that kind of woman.


Cut back to the Black Room.

author=Fei
Dreams. A life of a man named Lacan, and the lives of countless other men. All but dreams. Now that I am awake, those countless numbers of long, heartrending dreams are almost impossible to remember at all. In those dreams, I loved one woman. No matter the day, no matter the era, that did not change. Not did her name.

*background has a portrait of Elly*

That dream changed me. That dream was the catalyst for me to resolve what my purpose was. I think I know now what I have to do. That long, long, memory of a dream. Perhaps it was the memory of my soul.


A bright light, and the context of the Black Room switches to Elly. She says some very similar things to what Fei was saying.





author=Elly
A dream. I was dreaming a dream. Or, perhaps, it was a memory from a distant past. A dream. A memory. Those words I was unable to convey, that day, that time. Those thoughts I was unable to carry out. Words and thoughts, the connection between the two. Without words, thoughts cannot be conveyed. Without thoughts, there are no words. They are both as vital as each other. They can never be divided. Like the wings of an angel. Like a man and a woman.

An unchangeable destiny. Feeling one wishes one could change. Meeting with the person who would change me, and watching myself change. I dreamt such a dream. A long, never-ending, dream.






author=Elly
In that dream, I was called "Sophia". Mother Sophia. A symbolic name. Crowned upon the person who would be the people's hope. A name I was destined to have, whether I wanted it or not.


As before, we are in the Room of Sophia, with Lacan painting Sophia. It's literally the same scene, only in Sophia's POV. Cut back to the Black Room.

author=Elly
"Elhaym". I've always liked that name, because when I first met him, that is what he called me. That is my true name.


Cut back to the Room of Sophia. Lacan quips about the paints, Sophia offering protection, just as before.

author=Elly
I wonder when it started? That he started refusing me? The walls between us. Our positions. Our circumstances. He refused to recognize them. No, maybe it was just me. Therefore, I didn't want them. I wanted the two of us to be ourselves. That is what I wished for. So, I had him paint me. The way I really am.


Cut back to the Black Room.

author=Elly
Dreams. A life of a woman named Sophia, and the lives of countless other women. All but dreams. Now that I am awake, those countless numbers of long, heartrending dreams are almost impossible to remember at all. In those dreams, I loved one man. No matter the day, no matter the era. That did not change. Only his name.

*background has a portrait of Fei*

That dream changed me. That dream was the catalyst for me to resolve what my purpose was. I think I know now what I have to do. That long, long, memory of a dream that, perhaps, was the memory of my soul.


Cut to the interior of a hut, with a song we haven't heard in a while.





Fei is inside tube, filled with liquid. A buzzer sounds, and an old man, Taura, lets Fei out. He tells Fei he's been in the nanoreactor for three weeks. Elly's in a different tube, and still asleep.

The next room over, we rejoin with Citan. He heard the news of Fei's recovery from Taura, and hurried over. A small slice of conversation before the buzzer for Elly sounds, and she comes out in due time.

It's strongly suggested we get some fresh air to help readjust ourselves. They weren't out there terribly long, but, they have a brief discussion where Fei mentions how he feels he's meet Elly before. Thankfully, the game allows us to use the save-point in Tarua's hut before we're hit with more plot.

The next sequence tries to explain that there's a military installation nearby that has a mass driver. We might be able to use it to apply Taura's nanotechnology to remove the Limiters on everybody in the world. Fei is given a bracelet that, in theory, should assist in repressing Id's manifestation. It might even be possible to control Id this way too.

At any rate, a Shevat emissary lets himself in, and asks Fei for his assistance. Shevat was hosting peace talks between Kislev and Aveh, and Solaris has decided to crash the party. Tarua's none-to-pleased with this idea, as he figures Shevat's just learned that the manifestation of Id can be controlled. Still, Fei wants to help, while Elly and Citan will go to the mass driver. Apparently, Citan has his own Omnigear, which will certainly help in that task. As for Fei, Weltall has been redesigned...





...and upgraded. This version of Weltall has a special option called "System Id", which sets it's Attack Level to Infinity at the cost of 1000 Fuel. This system is linked to Fei's ability to manifest Id at will. Weltall-2's transformation isn't as dramatic as the original, but, the effect of System Id does have a cosmetic change, as well as the aforementioned gameplay mechanic.

Citan and Elly talk briefly among themselves. Elly feels she might have conflicting emotions. That maybe she's latching onto Fei because she's lost her parents recently. Spending time apart from one another, finding out what they can do, and how they really feel about each other. Cut back to the hut. Taura's doing whatever to his bookshelves, and the ghost of Graph appears behind him. He's not surprised at all. In fact, he figures it was Graph that brought Fei and Elly to him.

author=Taura
I thought so. So, you were the one who brought Fei and his girl to me. I realized it the minute I saw the two of them. Why, how could I help but to notice? They looked the spitting image of you and her. Yes, just as you yourselves looked way back then. Right, Lacan?


Cut to the Gazel Ministry. Krelian has news that Fei is still alive. Which vexes the Ministry, but, Krelian also notes that he was with Elly, and that he will not have her die. Fei and Elly are currently separated, and it appears Krelian knows that, and wishes to send Ramsus again. The Gazel Ministry is concerned about retrieving "the girl". I'm not exactly sure who this is a reference to, but, the key is starting to resonate, and they are feeling more pressure because of that. Krelian is more calm and composed, saying they can get the girl anytime.

Cut to somewhere else in the forest, where Fei has re-encountered Ramsus. The game uses System Id for you at the offset of the fight, and lasts for three turns. Which is how long the Infinity Attack level usually lasts, by the way. It takes four Kishins (the Cross Deathblow for Infinity level) to fell Ramsus' Vendetta, and we are soon taken once again to the Black Room, with Elly as our context.





author=Elly
In order to disperse the nanomachines, Emeralda and I headed for one of the ruins of the Zeboim civilization, the Mass-driver facility. Fortunately, the facility was still active, which allowed us to proceed on to the central control room with little difficulty. Along the way, we saw various missiles, and giant rockets that were created during the Zeboim era. They stood like tombstones of that ancient civilization. It was a graveyard for a race of people who destroyed each other over pride and arrogance.

Once arriving at the central control room, we met up with Citan, who helped us activate the Mass-driver. We succeeded in launching the capsule containing the nanomachines which would release the seal -Limiter-.


A cut-scene follows, showing the mass driver firing, then a rain (out of lack of better term to use) of nanomachines on various locations. Cut back to the Black Room.

author=Elly
The nanomachines that were scattered into the upper atmosphere began to multiply and spread throughout the whole of the world. The nanomachines glittered in the sunlight, flowing like a large river in the sky.
That glitter would remove the "bonds" restraining everyone. It was to be our light of hope for regaining back our true freedom.


So, if you weren't convinced by now that the content of Disk 2 was rushed, here's your evidence. They skipped over an entire dungeon, and went straight to another boss fight. Speaking of, the context of the Black Room switches back to Fei.





author=Fei
Solaris' Moblie Surfce Supremacy Weapon invaded the area with great force. Shevat and Nisan's standard Gear battalions were no match against it. It was only a matter of time before the Solaris Mobile Weapon arrived in Nisan.
After we pushed back the Solarian Gear units, we headed for Nortune, to the Kislev capital's administrative district. We went there to obtain our one and only means of standing up against the Mobile Weapon.


After this, a prompt to save, then a prompt to continue. Well, okay. Sure. I know there's a boss fight coming up, but, I don't remember where the next save point is. To wit, there's more story the game is going to convey in this fashion, with similar amounts of gameplay/control just ahead. Will it all pay off, though?
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
We start this session with a small blurb about how Noctune's capital is actually an arieal battleship in it's own right, followed by a sequence were it combines and transforms with the Yggdrasil to make...





...a giant Gear. This Gear cannot accumulate attack levels, but, the Special Option "Ygg Cannon" does a pretty good job, dealing 9,999 damage to the thing. So, maybe "boss fight" was something of an overstatement. After it's demise, back to the Black Room.





author=Fei
The Solaris Moble Weapon was destroyed, which brought a sigh of relief to the continent fo Ignas. Peace was signed and after some 500 years of division, the land of Ignas once again became united. Excitement spread throughout Aveh, Nisan, Kislev, and Shevat. The sky shimmered as if to celebrate. Byt the hands of Elly, Citan, Taura, and Emeralda, the nanomachines had been dispersed into the atmosphere.

That was when disaster struck. Our songs of victory were replaced by the sounds of pandemonium. In the beginning, we had no idea what had transpired. We witnessed inexplicable phenomena. People from all parts of the globe began to mutate into abnormal forms. It seemed to be triggered when the nanomachines removed the -Limiter- seal that was placed on humankind by Krelian in the past. The "human" form with it's innate abilities released. That's when I remembered what Hammer said back in Solaris. His words were, "What becomes of the normal humans?"


Cut to Gazel Ministry. Might as well quote-block this too as I've got nothing better to do.

author=Gazel Ministry
So, they are naturally germinating because the resurrection of god is near.
Those who will become the body of our servant. I never knew so many would exist, even without using the key.
But, some of them still have not yet begun to germinate.
Are they not destined to be the flesh of god?
Or, perhaps those are the enemies of god.
Let us reactivate the strategic points of Soylent.
At any rate, they are just incomplete mutants. They are useless now in their half-finished form.
God's apostles. There cannot be any harm in having too many of them.


Cut to a lab, with Krelian facing an empty tube.

Miang: The chains that restrain humankind have been removed because of you.
Krelian: But that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with out plan. Everything is still under control. In the event of the explosion in the capital of Solaris earlier, I had set up a nanomachine virus to diffuse into the atmosphere. I knew they were eventually going to break the seal, but, the timing was a little close for comfort. The current mutations of the humans are an initial response to the virus. Once the virus we spread over the world germinates inside of the humans, they are no longer the same. They change into a controllable form. We need humans that do not depend on the key's invocation in order to awaken. In other words, a being to take the place of the original body of god.
Miang: It's like a trojan horse released at the time of the assimilation with god. A literal virus. But, isn't it different from what they intended?
Krelian: Of course. We can't let them have it their way. The 'Ark of god' is mine.
Miang: Either way is fine by me. I will just side with whichever is the more certain one anyway.


Cut to a hospital-looking locale, and, of course, more exposition.



This one, apparently, was not part of the play-list I've been using either?


The Soylent System. A group of facilities formerly created by Solaris. These facilities existed all over the earth. It is said that, originally, these were used for biological experiments and brainwashing. The people who mutated into what were called Wels, or the true form of humans, gathered at these facilities. Some of the humans turned Wels were attacking healthy humans and devouring their flesh and blood. That is because healthy human flesh and blood eased the pain of their sudden molecular changes and let the live longer. Their lives were so short. Soon after, severely mutated being started to seek the flesh and blood of the less mutated beings. The Soylent System divides and merges those mutated bodies on a molecular level. A set of facilities that recreate a more perfect single lifeform to be use as a 'weapon'. This was the truth behind the Gazel Ministry's M Plan.

"Go to those facilities, and you will be freed from the unbearable agony." So people gathered, seeking a fulfillment of this promise. "There is salvation there." The news spread, although no one actually uttered it. Their mutated blood probably told such people to 'gather' there. We went there to destroy the Soylent System. There, humans fought amongst themselves greedily for limited pardons to live. It was an ugly battle to keep on living. Or, so it may have seemed to the casual passerby. But, to me, they were desperately trying to live. It was each person's 'natural human form'. There were the 'haves' and the 'have-nots', and among them, were some of my former friends from Solaris. They wanted our flesh and blood. They told us, the 'haves' should share with the 'have-nots'. They asked if a 'have' such as myself could understand their pain.
I couldn't answer. No matter what I said, it would have sounded like a conceited 'have' speaking. Even so, I wanted to relieve their anguish. And I decided to do so. Just like the person in the memory of my dreams, in the distant past.






Then, suddenly, the System went out of control! The 'Sufal Mass', a monstrous organism still in the process of amalgamation, broke through the barrier of the life-support facilities, and stood before us.
No longer of human form, that which was once human began eating the people gathered there, seeking relief. We had to fight it, in order to save the people, and in order to save 'him'. The eyes of that which was once human looked at me, pleading for death, to take away the agony.


After this, there is a prompt to enter the menu (and save), switch party members, and continue with the game.

The default members for this fight is Fei, Elly, and Citan. Which seems fine by me. We manage to beat the thing back, but, Elly does something interesting.





She follows this up with a speech.





author=Elly
Please! Listen to me! Stop fighting among yourselves. We are all humans! This facility was muilt by the Solaris Ministry. It was created to implement their "no waste" plan. Such facilities were to convert mutated humans into weapons that serve as tools for their ambitions. Just one part of their overall plan of racial purification.


A hazy, yellow-ish filter appears over the screen, now with Mother Sophia speaking what one presume are the same words Elly is speaking now.

author=Sophia
Of course, once you enter their umbrella of protection, you can avoid absolute death. But, is that human life? Even if you are the only one left, if you're devoid of a heart, what does it all mean?


The filter's gone, but, the ghost-image of Sophia, standing next to Elly, is still visible.

author=Elly/Sophia
All of you want to be loved. Needed by someone. So, we look to others. By ourselves, we are lonely, so we try to draw close together to live. That's what it means to be human. That's how people live. A single hand cannot clap. To relieve your pain, I'll give however much of my flesh you need. Therefore, don't throw way your dignity as humans. Don't let go of your human heart.


Elly falls over after this, with Fei running up to her.

Fei: Elly! Are you okay? What are you doing?
Elly: You think I am doing something foolish?
Fei: No.
Elly: I only did what I could. Maybe I'm a hypocrite. A well-to-do 'have'. Maybe it's only pity for the 'have-nots'. But, if I can know they joy of giving out a little of the life within me, then, maybe, someday, it may just be possible that one human can truly give love to another. People can do it. I truly believe they can. That's why.
Fei: Elly...


Back to the Black Room.

author=Fei
After that, we went from place to place, destroying all the Soylent System facilities locate on the surface of the earth, and freed the people heald at each of the locations. All the people that had been mutated were taken in by Nisan where they received treatment. Those who had mutated only mildly were treated with Taura's nanomachines, which reconstructed and revived them. They were able to return back to their normal bodies. Unfortunately, there were some that had such accelerated symptoms that their treatment was not as promising. Trying to bring them back to a form that resembled a human was the best that could be done. However, mysteriously, they no longer fought each other for survival as they did when there were held by the Soylent System. Of course, their recovery from the physical pian of the mutation may have played a factor, but, it wasn't only that. The majority of the people received by Nisan were those that had been admonised by Elly, and had regained their humanity.

Between her work in destroying the Soylent System facilities, Elly also went around and nursed the people in Nisan. She aided the bodies of the mutate, and lent an ear to those who had no other place to go for help. She was the very image of the woman who created Nisan, Mother Sophia. It became rumored that Elly was a reincarnation, or a second advent of Sophia. "Go to Nisan, and you will receive salvation." The news seemed to spread further about and people came from all over to be save, both physically and spiritually. Freed from the supervision of Solaris, the surface dwellers began to unite in one place.


Cut to the Gazel Ministry.

Gazel: The germinating of those destined to be the body of the servant of god.
Gazel: As before, the humans are gathering in Nisan. At this rate...
Gazel: Not to fear. This might actually be helpful for us.
Gazel: The time is near. Should we not prepare for those who are to become the fleshy body of god, and those who will awaken god?
Gazel: The time has come to activate the 'Gaetia Key'.
*interference*
Gazel: Wha, what?
Gazel: Cain!?
Cain: What mor edo you intend to do? I can not allow you to use the 'Key'!
Gazel: Cain! What are you doing!?
Gazel: Without the resurrection of god, our purpose cannot be fulfilled!
Gazel: Or, are you planning on perishing with god, Cain? Without fulfilling our purpose...
Cain: Your purpose? You were fated to it from your birth. Why haven't you realized that it does not arise from your own free will?
Gazel: I've heard enough.
Gazel: Yes. This is of our own volition.
Gazel: If you still insist on opposing us...
Gazel: Guuaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Cain: Have yo uforgotten? You are my subordinates! I can destroy you if I so desire.
Gazel: Nnnuuuuuuuuuuuuhh...
Cain: We have already done out part. It's time to pass the helm to the next generation. The people will not perish.


Back to the Black Room.





author=Fei
Although the initial impact of being released from the -Limiter- seal caused some momentary chaos, everything slowly began to settle down. We then began to search for the Anima Relics, the catalyst to transform Gears into Onmigears. In the past, ten Relics had been recovered. It is said that about half of those are in the hands of the Ministry. According to Zephyr, there should be several more Relics hidden in the land.

We knew then that Solaris would most certainly be searching for them. There was no way we could allow Solaris to have them. We visited the place where, using archaic records, Zephyr and her people had been able to get clues on the whereabouts of the Relics. Following the information we obtained from there, we head towards the ruins of what seemed to be an ancient civilization.


What? A dungeon we actually get to play through, rather than be skipped over by plot!? Madness! I don't necessarily mean to tease, but, this is a pretty good stopping point.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I'm not sure if I feel comfortable with what I've been doing in regards to this LP since swapping to Disk 2. I kinda feel like I should have been summarizing the blats to get more actual game into the sessions. Might try that next session to see how that goes for me, but, I would like to hear opinions/thoughts on this.


As an additional aside, every so often, I get this yen to do a video LP. I'm not too worried about the software or hardware, or that I don't currently have a YouTube account. However, the thought has occurred to me to maybe set up a Patreon to play/make games? Not sure how well that will pan out!

The main thing that is stopping me from going forward with this plan is that I'm super-embarrassed to watch my own stuff get LPed, not to mention being embarrassed at listening to my own voice. I don't pretend to know how much editing goes into video LPs, but, I imagine that it would inevitably involve listening to one's own voice.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
This dungeon is, for the most part, pretty straight-forward. There's doors tha are locked with the security setup, but, of course, there's various terminals we can use to disable said security.

We break though to the mainframe, and release the Anima Relic. It upgrades Billy's Gear. Then, some fights with the Elements. One on foot, and another in Gears. As far as the on-foot battle goes, the 7AP Deathblows tend to be elemental attacks. Not all characters have all possible combinations that add up to 7AP, but, the ones that have at least four have a pattern of Wind for their basic 7AP attack (T, T, T, X), Earth as the next (T, T, S, X), Fire following that (T, S, T, X), and Ice as the last (S, T, T, X). Knowing this makes that particular fight a lot easier.

The Gear fight is a little goofy, as the Elements have a little cut-scene where they combine their Gears into one. The final form...





...has a certain callback to Voltron, in it's own way. The thing even summons/uses a sword during the fight, which we gain as a reward for defeating it.

Afterwords is a short interlude in the Black Room, where Fei talks about how there is one more Relic to find, and we need to gather intel. Cut to the Gazel Ministry. They're not happy that Cain is stopping them, believing he should be removed. Only "Cain" can defeat "Cain", though. They ask a favor of "Mother", who is apparently Miang, and it involves Ramsus. Dominia overhears their plotting, but, Ramsus has a one-track mind.

Back to the Black Room, with Elly as our context. Fei may be involved in searching for the whereabouts of the other Relic, but, she's returned to Nisan. Taura's nanomachine treatments are getting better by the day, and returning the mutated people to their original form doesn't seem to far off. Elly had something of a premonition before coming here, and of course, it came true. Ramus decides to crash the place, looking for Fei. His Omnigear could not be stopped by anything. Neither the Nisan Milita, nor even Elly's old squad, who have departed from Solarus and have taken refuge in Nisan.

With the firm belief that Fei is there, Ramsus captures Elly, believing this will draw him out. When Fei does not seem to answer, he prepares to squeeze the life out of Elly with his Gear, but, Elly's latent powers come to her rescue. She asks him why it's so damn important for him to be considered superior.

This is a bit of a tale, onto itself, but, suffice it to say, he was designed as a clone of Emperor Cain. As such, he is able to align with all the Anima Relics, and is the apex of human development. However, he was thrown away like trash, because that's what Solaris does to people who are not useful to them. Still, he managed to climb to his position of relative prominence in Solaris, even if his existence was full of misery. He will blame Fei for that misery, as Fei's birth marked the day he was first considered "trash".

Elly has a bit more blattage before we find ourselves, with Ramsus and Miang, before the Gazel Ministry. They must really enjoy ribbing on the guy...





...like, seriously. They've been on his case pretty much since the game started, and they are simply not letting up. Miang and Krelian use his inferiority/superiority complex and point him toward Emperor Cain, saying that if he defeats the "original", his own power will be released. We'll see how their words affect Ramsus later. For now, back to the Black Room, where Fei is in the hot seat. Thankfully, it's a relatively short blurb that takes us to the next dungeon.

This dungeon has regular encounters in very specific places. One is the very first screen. The other being the screen just before the Anima Relic doors. Nowhere else. There's some puzzles to be had, and I confess to consulting a walkthrough to push through them. Of course, we fight a boss afterwards, and it's one that we might not have been expecting. Like, ever.





Hammer mentions that he gained this form via Krelian. So, this is probably another instance of direct man-to-machine interface. Hammer isn't necessarily hard, but, after taking enough damage, he induces a self-destruct mechanism. It is possible to defeat Hammer before his self-destruct ignites, but it does take some set-up on the player's behalf to do so. Or have PEC in the background to have everyone's attack level to be Infinity, like this chump did.

After that, back to the Black Room. Fei talks about how he has never felt how futile fighting was until now, and how Elly cried over her inability to help Hammer. This got Fei to thinking that, maybe, Elly shouldn't be fighting like this? I don't know if that's true. Her sorrow for Hammer doesn't mean she shouldn't fight. Actually, her crying might be more of a physical manifestation of why she fights. Like, her reason to fight has become to remove as much pain and suffering from this world as she can. The source of which seems to stem mostly from the Gazel Ministry and Krelian. The same people Fei is fighting against. Fei's reasons to fight them aren't all that dissimilar to Elly's, really. Though, Fei has other reasons why it might not be a good idea for Elly to fight alongside them anymore.

In any event, jump to Emperor Cain's throne room, where Ramsus kills the Emperor. For good, or ill, his reign of Solaris (or what's left of it) is over. The Gazel Ministry are now the only remnants of First Humans of this world, and even then, they are only a collection of data.

Speaking of, a cut to the Gazel Ministry! They do a few name-drops...

Hyuga's Asher, Ramsus' Zebulun, Krelian's Judah, Sophia's Dinah...
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Issachar were already aligned 500 years ago.
And finally, Graph's Naphtali. All of the 'Anima Relics' have now been activated.


...that I find interesting. Some of these names may be recognizable for those more familiar with Xenosaga. I don't specifically remember this reference being here before, but, yeah, interesting.

In any event, the Ministry uses the Key. This induces a cut back to the Black Room. The effect of the Key is turning people into Wels, even those that weren't previously mutated. There was nothing anybody could do about it. The transformation was applied to those "destined by god". The Gazel Ministry might spout something like this, but, I don't know why Fei is saying something like this. Either way, there's a game-engine cut-scene of Mahanon rising from the ocean

Fei, in the Black Room, relays that the Gazel Ministry has sent forces to the place to obtain "god's wisdom". Of course, we can't allow that. Undoubtedly, this is going to be a Big BattleTM, with no assurances of survival. Fei decides to confront Elly with his belief she should stay behind for her own good. Naturally, she protests. She's been fighting with us a while now, and sees no reason why she can't go now. Fei's reasoning is that the troops Solaris will send will consist of former humans. People like Hammer. Does she really want to go through with hurting those kinds of people, killing them, even? Fei pushes her further, saying she if isn't able to kill one person, she'd just get in the way. Perhaps such commentary was a bit mean-spirited, though. Elly runs off, either crying, or trying to hold back the tears, I would imagine. Looks like Fei's got another job to do. The job of apologizing to Elly.

There is an opportunity to save before chasing after her. I use the opportunity to save, then have Fei meet up with Elly again. He apologizes, and relays how there are so many people that rely on her as a beacon of hope. She knows that, and understands what Fei is trying to do. However, she's also scared. She has this premonition that they will not meet again, and this game has been pretty spot-on with such predictions in the past. Fei promises he'll come back safe, so long as he has a place to return to. They kiss...





...and spend a romantic night together. Daaaaaawwwww!

Fei departs the next morning, the pair saying their farewells, for now. Cut to later in the day, Elly is on the bridge overlooking Nisan. Marge joins her shortly, and they talk a little between each other. How men are sometimes selfish, tend to take on more than they probably should, and sometimes being cute for doing so. That, and what things they can do now for others.

Next, the Yggdrasil makes a drive-by...





...at Mahanon. Yes, Mahanon is the Eldridge. The very same ship from the very first FMV of the game. The game gives us yet another opportunity to save. Is anybody else getting a really, really bad feeling about this? Let's call it a session, then.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
The game allows us an opportunity to swap party members, and otherwise set up, before throwing us at another boss. This is a weird boss to fight. Attacks against it tend to induce a counter-heal worth 16K of damage, effectively negating the action. On offense, it tends to use a Demi-like ability that halves the HP of everyone in the battle, including itself. So, the actual strategy here is to wait it out (so, Charging and/or using Frame Repair) for it to pull off maybe three of it's Demis, then use System ID on Weltall-2 to Kishin it finish the job. It has a final attack that sets HP to 1, but, it's only against the attacker that felled it.

After this we find ourselves in this huge space, containing a computer system that contains all kinds of data. Suffice it to say, this data is the "wisdom of god" that the Gazel Ministry was talking about.

Of course, Krelian drops by to say hello, along with the Seeker of Power himself. Even with System Id, Weltall-2 is no match for Grahf's Gear. Krelian stops Grahf from tearing one into Fei. Fei is more useful to Krelian as bait to draw out Elly, after all.

The "crucifixion" scene that (soon enough) follows is...



Chu-chu? I mean... Chu-chu!?


...an odd one, to be sure. Elly's initial fears of riding Shevat's Omnigear has given way to her desire to save her friends. To save Fei. Of course, Elly riding that Gear is exactly what Krelian wanted, and has her fight some of his minions to "confirm something".

The ensuing fight we have no control over. Elly's Omnigear doesn't seem to be effective against these Gears. At least, initially. Her Gear takes quite a pounding before she outright fells one of her opponents through means I'm not quite certain of. She performs a flurry of attacks on the other, then fires several beams of pure Ether. The opposition was defeated, by, Elly has been knocked unconscious in the process. Krelian abducts her, and the Omnigear, leaving us to rot in our Gears.

I kinda question his intentions. I mean, our Gears are probably only be temporarily disabled, at best. We can eventually strike back at him. Perhaps he thinks that by the time we can do that, it would be too late? Possibly. But why not just get rid of us, then, if we're still a threat to his plans? Actually, are we a threat to his plans?

Questions aside, Krelian stands once again before the SOL-9000, where the Gazel Ministry has installed their collective consciousness. The Ministry declare their intent to become gods, and Krelian basically says "No," then proceeds to delete the data. Even as the Ministry protests, one by one, the panels on the SOL-9000 blank out. Eventually, silence. Krelian turns his attention to "Sophia". Or, perhaps we should say "Elly"!

Cut back to Fei in the Black Room, bemoaning his inability to save Elly from being captured. Wiseman gives him a small pep-talk, reminding him that if it wasn't for Elly's strength of devotion, he wouldn't still be alive. That we have to focus our efforts into getting her back. The search for our leading lady ends in a place called Proto Merkava. We meet the Elements as part of the descent, in their combined Gear form, but do not fight them. They are here for their Commander. To free him from the manipulations of Krelian and Miang. Naturally, we meet up with him, and a fight ensues.

Further in is Elly, Krelian, and Miang. Krelian talks about how we're too late, and we get to fight Miang in a Gear. We soon learn that her Gear is installed with nanomachines, and is impossible to beat. Unless we break it down at the atomic level. Deus, the same thing we fought at the beginning of this write-up, then proceeds to consume the Anima Relics, and make our Omnigears non-functional. Krelian thanks us for bringing the "parts of god" for him to be able to complete Deus. Now, the only thing left is to sacrifice the "Mother" persona, embedded in Elly, for it to awaken.

Of all people, Ramsus comes forward, and questions Krelian and Miang about his own purpose. His own reasons for living. Of course, they relay that Ramsus' only real purpose was to kill Emperor Cain. In order to do that, they needed a focus for his resentment, and Fei was a perfect target for that. In a fit of rage, Ramsus runs both Miang and Krelain through with his sword. We take the opportunity to save Elly, but, something's wrong. Way wrong.





"Elly" isn't "Elly" anymore. Her whole being has been taken over by Miang's. Of course, the characters aren't too bright, and ask Elly/Miang what the hell is going on, and she decides to give a giant wall-of-text-backstory that I'm not inclined to summarize in the least.

Suffice it to say, Elly/Miang is going with Krelian to reawaken Deus. Possibly destroying civilization as we know it in the process. At the very least, Merkava rises from the ground, firing a big-ass laser across the countryside. Fei had perused Elly previously, and is MIA. This makes Citan our narrator for the Black Room.

From Merkava were released Gears that were to eliminate threats to Deus. Since the mutated individuals would eventually become part of Dues, they went after non-mutants. At some point, they found Fei, but he was in a coma. Without an Elly to stop them, Shevat decides to put him into carbonite to prevent a re-awakening of Id.

Queen Zephyr takes a turn at being the Department of Backstory, and relays how the man that was once Lacan turned into Grahf. Which includes a suicide run by Mother Sophia. Eventually, we are lead into Fei's subconsciousness, and then, we witness memories of Lacan from 500 years ago. I'm not sure how long this memory sequence lasts, but, it focuses on Krelian, Lacan, and Sophia, and outlines the events leading up to Sophia's death, and some of the aftermath. I suppose it is touching at places. I'll admit that. However, I also feel like this is a waste of time? Perhaps my own tired state is affecting my opinion.

Eventually, we're back in the present, with Dan and Midori overlooking Fei's cell. Who awakens as Id in short order, taking Weltall towards the Zohar, the source of all energy. The machine takes on a new form, and Id's itching for a fight. After a while (ie: we beat Id's Gear), Wiseman drops in to try to stop Id, with Id revealing that Wiseman is actually Khan Wong, Fei's father.

As Id and Khan fight, we find ourselves back into Fei's subconscious. Fei is in the depths of Id's domain, sensing his hatred, and emptiness. He understands why Id wants to destroy everything, and seems willing to assist, save for Citan's voice somehow being able to reach him. That's right. He wanted to save Elly.

Fei wanders into a room with a child and a projection of a scene from long ago that's on repeat.





This is the room of the Coward. Id has his own memories to share...





...and they are not as pleasant. Karen Wong, Fei's mother, was under Miang's influence. This is undeniable fact. However, it seems that the influence of Miang left Karen momentarily. It was in that moment that she was the mother she needed to be for Fei. To protect her son from his own destructive power, even if it meant her own life. This is the truth the Coward had hidden from Id all this time.

Fei's personalities integrate, and the memories of past lives flood in. The memories of a man name Abel, running with then-Elly, from Emperor Cain. The memories of a doctor named Kim, whose wife was gunned down even as he protects his "daughter" Emeralda from enemy forces. Of course, the memories of a man named Lacan, who painted a portrait of the Holy Mother of Nisan. Each time, then-Elly pleading, with her last breath, for Abel/Kim/Lacan to live.

Afterwards, Fei has a talk with... something. It's hard to define, as the being, itself, is from a higher-dimensional existence. Through it, we are shown the original existence of "Fei" (I don't have a better name to use here) 10,000 years before, and other info that I found a little hard to follow. The jargon and terminology the game throws at me here is certainly over my head, and maybe I should have wrote it down, and maybe try to process it later?

At any event, what I'm taking away from all this is that if we want to save Elly from the grips of Deus and Miang, we must destroy them. Fei's Gear transforms again, one last time.





This, dear readers, is the Xenogears. While it may no longer contain the Special Option of System Id that Weltall-2 had, it's Hyper Mode (chance to attain Infinity Attack level after attaining Attack Level 3) is a constant 99%. Which is still pretty damn good. It sprouts "wings" when it does so, making it even more reminiscent of an angel.

That aside, Fei goes to his father, who seems like he's on his last legs. Except that Khan is also the host-body of the Seeker of Power, himself. Lacan/Grahf learned how to inhabit other people's bodies long ago, and the accident 3 years ago caused him to discard his old body, and take residence in Khan. Now, he aims to take residence in Fei's body, and use it, and the Xenogears, to destroy everything. Fei initially refuses to fight, but, Grahf turns his attention to his friends, intending to use them as bait for Fei to fight him. He absolutely refuses to back down from this.

After the fight, the Zohar calls to Fei, paralyzing him. Grahf, decides to sacrifice himself so that Fei can break the bonds that Deus has on both Elly, and all of humanity. The Zohar swallows Grahf's Gear, and vanishes. At least for now. If we leave things alone, it will seek Fei again.

So, it has come to this. We find the Zohar before it finds Fei, destroy it, and Deus, and the world will be, for perhaps the first time since that fateful landfall 10,000 years ago, be free of all shackles. The Wave Existance will be able to return to whence it came, and the existences of "Fei" and "Elly" will no longer recur. Gears and Ether powers will be non-functional, so, there would be a lot of changes to how the world works.

The main problem is how to get to Merkava. It's beam cannon can cut through just about anything like it was ribbons. There is a very small window when the cannon reloads, and therein could be our opportunity. Bart's plan is to combine the Yggdrasil 4 with Shevat's Excalibur (this is literally the first time we've even heard of it) to make the strike more plausible. The game certainly goes into more detail about this than I care to relay. However, let's break it down to...







...these FMVs. Now, as you can see, things didn't quite turn out the way we planned. Especially with Deus sprouting out of Merkava, transforming into it's final form. The process of terraforming the planet into a weapon has begin. We've no time. We must strike back at Deus.



Or, you know, do other stuff first. That's right, the game is going to let us off the rails, and do as we please! Before I do that, let me tell you something that might be interesting. I have a save-file back on Disk 1 where we had an opportunity to do free-roaming. The time-stamp on that file was 34:43:22. The time-stamp on the save-file I'm making now is 43:46:45. That's almost ten hours of pretty much 100% plot lock-down. Saying that, there honestly isn't all that much stuff I want to do before attacking Deus. However, that is going to be another session!
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
We pick up the game in what remains of the Shevat capital. There's a few scenes to see here, one involving Ramsus and the Elements, which gives his arc in the story some closure.

The inside of the Yggdrasil is pretty much the same as it's ever been. One can find Chu-chu in the space where Elly's Vierge once was, and tries to cheer Fei up. There's a bit of an exchange with Sigurd before we can take the helm.

There's a few things I could have done, if I held onto items from the early game, or even bothered to find them in the first place. I didn't find/retain such items, which limits the number of things that are available to me. There is one thing I know I can do that doesn't depend on that, and that involves going to the lighthouse.

We take an elevator down, were we find a veritable city underground. This ancient city dates back to the Zeboim era, and frankly looks like it could have come from a real-life modern city/town. One of the buildings was a news network, and still had working footage we could access. There's a tidbit about the host body for Miang (at the time), how having children was a legit problem in that era, and how such was a reason Emeralda was made. Big Joe has a shop here for both Gears and characters.

There is also a subway we can use that takes us to get some memories of Kim, during the Zeboim era...



Merry Christams, RMN Zeboim!


...and for Emeralda to "grow up"...





...at least physically. Mentally speaking, she might still need development. Given the exchange between Emeralda and Fei, it certainly sounds like it shouldn't be triggered until now. Before, the memories of Fei's' past lives would have been suppressed. Though, if might be interesting on a future play to come here on Disk 1 to see what (if anything) happens.

Anyway, we're as ready to go as we'll ever be. So, back to the Deus/Mercava abomination-thing! The game gives us a map of the place, and we'll probably need it. I remember this place to be pretty complex. Of course, having a walk-through to help things along doesn't hurt either.

When we get to Deus, we have a choice to either beat four mini-bosses, and make it weaker, or just go for the throat. I've yet to play this game and not beat the mini-bosses first. This play is no exception. I just kinda wish there was some kind of recovery point before getting in the main event if players do that. Saying that, Deus itself...





...isn't that much to write about. Though, to be fair, we did disable some of Deus' moves by defeating said mini-bosses. That, and Deus isn't the final fight. It's...






...the Urubolus. Which is a point I might have glazed over earlier, but, it's a term Miang (after awakening in Elly's body) used to reference the potential in all women to be a host for her consciousness.

We beat Miang senseless, get some more cutscenes. These include three FMVs. One of which that I won't link to here, but is in the usual playlist.






The credits roll, with "Small of Two Pieces" playing, never failing to make me cry. Final time-stamp on my save file reads 45:13:12. So, maybe add on ten minutes to that, and that would probably be an accurate-enough read on my play-time, minus whatever saved-state, or game-pausing shenanigans I may have used to deliver this LP.

While I never bothered with it too much in this LP, I'm pretty sure the M-Disk one could get from Noctune has a "hidden track"...





...that was otherwise cut from the game. I'm not sure what the intention was with this song, but, it's also a really nice piece that, like Small of Two Pieces, can make me cry.



With all that out of the way, though, we can put a lid on this game. I do apologize if there were points of story/lore that I didn't discuss, or otherwise skipped over. As for future LPs, I don't know. It might not be in a written format. I spoke of this earlier in this thread, but, there's time to think this over. I'm certainly ill prepared to do another one any time soon should there be one!
Zakariya
Every misdeed has its own punishment, and every good deed has its reward.
1174
Well done, Marrend. ^_^

If you would like, I can suggest another game to try out whenever you're ready.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
author=Zakariya
Well done, Marrend. ^_^

If you would like, I can suggest another game to try out whenever you're ready.

This kinda reminds me that I should probably get back to my current LP. On one hand, yes, I'm trying to pace my sessions better and not be terribly overwhelmed. On the other hand, things have a particular way of distracting me from it.

*Edit: Though, it's also true that one of those distractions is a re-play of this game! XD
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