2021 GAMING DIARY

I thought being chased out of Radat was a sign I basically couldn't recruit this chapter until after Luca Blight dies. I was wrong. I'll have to get Simone and Lebrante later. The others (Lorelai, Mondo, Sasuke, Badeux, Feather, Ayda, Sigfried, Gordon, and Tomo) didn't seem to be too much trouble.

I'm over the 20 hour mark, and therefore would be unable to get the last Clive event without hacking the game-clock. This was expected, but, it would be interesting to know what my game-time would be when I can access that event.

As for Luca, ePSXe is crashing during the fight with him. Like, I can get as far as Viktor's party, but, the game crashes on the second round of that combat without fail. I don't specifically recall this happening when I LPed the game, but, it seems other people have had a similar issue. The cause seems to steam from either some interaction with saved states, or playing for too long, from what I can gather. I'm not particularly inclined to try Luca again any time soon, though. ;_;

Liligue City's local "delicacy" of arum root was also nothing of the sort. It has no texture, flavor, or taste at all. Meanwhile, Gadan seems to enjoy a full meal every day.

As it happens, this town, and it's residents, are cursed by the Tounge of Valmar. They had excavated a ruins at the base of the town's pillars, wherein a Seal of Granas was located, and the seal somehow broke, and infected Gadan, along with the other residents. However, it's Ryudo's observation that the people of this town were willing to basically sacrifice their sense of taste if it meant that they could live in otherwise luxury. I don't know how much profit is made from their Skyway transportation service. They are certainly within their power to set whatever price they want for tickets on their end of the Skyway. I don't know how the other end of the Skyway works because, of course, the journey is met with disaster.

The storm tossed Ryudo and company somewhere in Lumir Forest. The snow is thick in some areas, impeding movement. Yet, within this cold forest is this beautiful garden. How could such a thing thrive in a climate such as this? A mysterious girl is there, but, meeting with her only raises more questions. What's more odd is that when we leave the garden, the place we end up at is a few paces from it's supposed entrance. Which we now fail to find. Or, said entrance is behind a conveniently placed fence. Either way, we make a stop in Mirumu Village.

Of course, this village has it's own issues. It's citizens fall asleep at a moment's notice, and some have not awoken in days. Those that do wake up only recall nightmares of a shadowy being watching them. This might not be a simple case of widespread narcolepsy, or extreme fatigue, but something more sinister. When we mention the garden, and the girl, to the innkeeper, she immediately places the blame on Sandra, and her daughter, Aria. Aria once had very poor eyesight. Yet, she was cured almost at the same time the town began to experience it's problems.

The "one person is blessed while the others are cursed" is something we recently experienced with Gadan in Liligue City. It remains to be seen if Mirumu is in a similar situation.

Okay, that "Disable Item Crash" code doesn't work exactly the way I thought it would. Rather go into details and/or theories, let it suffice to say that I can at least hack Stat-Stones into my inventory on the fly, as I have a full set in my warehouse. If I am to be honest, Stat-Stones are what I hack into my inventory 90% of the time. The other 10% is whatever I might need to recruit. XD

Either way, we have a humble request from the Lampdragon Bandits to take care of. The reports of the attackers sound strangely like zombies. If it's Neclord that's leading them, his goal is more likely to be Crom, itself. Viktor has to come, to settle his personal debt, and also to wield the Star Dragon Sword. A certain part of me wants to also bring both Hix and Tengaar along, but, I choose not to worry too much about that. Besides, Khan is going to force himself into the party at some point. Perhaps Sierra might do the same?

In any event, the bandit camp has already been attacked by zombies. The camp was burned, and the bridges were cut to prevent the undead from advancing further, or at least slowing them down. Our next objective is to speak to Gustav is Tinto. Gustav is happy to see us, and seems willing enough to help the Dunan Army, provided we help him deal with Neclord. Which, fair, I guess.

I'm not sure how Jess got here, or where he's been since the fall of Muse. Either way, he's still very much under the impression that Riou assassinated Annabelle. Riou isn't very good at lying, but, telling Jess the truth will merely have him mock Riou for stooping so low as to place blame on an old friend. Of course, saying nothing will merely be an seen as an acquiescence to his assertions, so there really isn't any winning here.

The petty feud Jess has with Riou isn't the battle we came here to win, though. The battle we must win here is against Neclord, and Jess has information as to his hideout. The information proves incorrect, as Riou and Nanami find Neclord in the Tinto mines. Neclord tries to place a curse on Riou, but the Bright Shield protects him, and the pair barely escape with their lives.

The Saint Hiam Papal State lies beyond the Saint Hiem Mountains. It takes us two days to cross the mountains, and arrive at the city, and spend one night at the inn before proceeding to the cathedral.

The Pope gives us a new quest. We are to seek out, and find, the Granasaber. The only clue to be had is it can be found among the People of Darkness. Whatever that means! We don't really have any leads, but, Roan suggests gathering information in the Kingdom of Cyrum. Seems to be as good a place to start as any, given our otherwise lack of direction.

Shu sent Kiba to Viktor's old fort as a distraction, and it seems to be working. While Kiba may have lost his life in the battle, it was enough of a distraction to have the Highland forces in Matilda be on a more manageable level.

The next part of Shu's plan is to send a small party, lead by Lord Riou himself, into Rockaxe to burn the Highland flag that's it is flying, and replace it with the Dunan Army's flag. This should have an effect on the Highland soldiers in the area, given the belief that Rockaxe has fallen to Dunan.

What Shu might not have predicted is that Jowy stands between Riou and the way forward. While Riou would fight any Highland official, or general, he still cannot bring himself to fight Jowy. It's something of a stare-off between the two friends until Gorudo shows up, and fires arrows on their position, showing his true ambition of wanting both Highland and the City-State for himself. Nanami does her best to deflect the arrows, but, it's not enough. The unforgivable crime has Jowy and Riou form a truce, even if only temporary, to mete out justice to the villain. Gorudo, and his men, stand no chance against the bearers of Bright Shield and Black Sword.

While Shu's plan eventually worked, the price that was paid was heavy. Loosing both Nanami and Kiba hurts, but, the Dunan Army has a chance to end this stupid war for good. It would honor their memories to continue the fight, until the end. I will note that doctor Huan wanted to have a talk with Shu, which is a sign that the other half of the 108 Bouns of Destiny is possible. However, it still behooves me to make a new save juuuuuuust in case!

After the skirmish outside L'Renouille, it's high-time the Dunan Army end this war. It's also high-time to see the last of Clive's events. I'm 8 hours over the limit, but, a little UGEing of the game-clock can fix that. I'll admit I was curious to see where this story ends. I suppose it could only end the way it did. I'm glad the option to pursue the story is there, even if there's some hoops to go through. I'm certain I'll never see all the events in a perfectly legit manner, with the way I insist in applying Stat Stones on characters that are in the party for even the briefest of periods. As for seeing it again at all, well, probably not my next play-through.

Either way, game complete, with the full 108% bonus, and it took me somewhere around 29-ish hours? I don't recall the other values on the time-stamp, but, I more or less expected a 30-hour game.

The plant can be rather labyrinthine in it's passages and walkable pipelines. At the bottom is the control room, and the Claws of Valmar. To make a long story short, this facility is a factory for the construction of androids. I'm not sure if the intent here was to have an army so numerous as to take over the world or not, but, what Roan was saying earlier about the door "leading to war" is beginning to make more sense, should the gate be opened by a person of great ambition.

Either way, the Claws had taken over one such soldier, but, with no "soul" to devour, it likely took over immediately. The party, naturally, beats the Claws to a pulp, and Milleina takes the power of the Claws onto herself. Roan gets a little peeved at the truth. That the secret behind the gate wasn't some secret so terrible as to be best left unknown, but merely a mass-production facility for these soldiers. He starts hitting a nearby console, and, purposefully or not, starts up a self-destruct mechanism. Mareg gets it in his head to preserve the soldier, as he feels some kind of strange kinship to her. She may have been a tool for war, but, her life, such as it is, was ruined by Valmar.

The soldier's functionality eventually returns. Mareg no longer senses any ill will towards us, and Roan points out that without commands, the solider can't do anything. Why Roan is of the belief that it was his father that constructed that facility, I'll never know. I'm under the distinct impression that the facility has been locked behind that gate for centuries. Perhaps, even, since the Battle of Good and Evil. If the intent was, rather, to ask why the King wanted it opened, okay, I get that question entirely.

Whatever the case, the android prompts for a command. Mareg tells the soldier she is free, with Ryudo following up that she can do whatever she wants before they chase after Roan and Millenia. Even attempting to process the command to "be free" effectively throws an exception in her programming, with the soldier saying aloud, "What is 'free'? I don't understand" after the party leaves.

So, one might be wondering what the King actually has to say about all this. Alas, when we find the King, he's on the ground, with Melfice standing there, sword in hand. So, of course, the party fights Melfice. The battle is scripted so that the party cannot win. I've played this more than enough times, certainly with more plentiful applications of stat stones than this play-through, and he takes 0 damage every single goddamn time. With enough applications of Stat Stones, it can be quite long and annoying, because he'll eventually not be able to do any damage either!

Anyway, the party gets wiped, and the soldier from before throws a chakram, as if to block Melfice's next blow. He could probably ignore all that, but, chooses instead to run off, telling the party that he could be meet in Ryudo's hometown. Probably not what Ryudo would like to hear, but, what can one do?

Once again, the android prompts Mareg for a command, and once again, Mareg responds that she should decide for herself. That, with her skills, she could live well. No immediate response from the soldier, but, one can gather that this kind of order still throws an exceptional number of errors in her programming.

For being assaulted by Melfice (who is being influenced/controlled by the Horns of Valmar, by the way), the King seems relatively fine? His mind might not be 100% there, but, he might recover. Still, it seems like Roan is going to stay here, and call the shots for a while. Alas, this means he will not be able to travel with Ryudo and company. However, that does not translate to a three-man party. No, the android solider joins them in their journey. Her unit designation is "Tio", which is good enough a name as any.

For full disclosure, I play this every Monday online with one of my brothers, using the platform as a "try before you buy" deal. If a game that has piqued initial interest has a workshop mod, we play in on TTS to see if it could be added to our collection.

However, I want to note a bit of a nostalgia run on my part. There were a lot of workshop mods for Hero Quest, but, I whittled it down to a pretty comprehensive one. While Hero Quest doesn't have a solo mode rules in the box, I made up some rules over the summer some number of years back. I can't remember the exact year(s) I played my custom campaign but, this would be somewhere between 1990 to 1998.

Darigaaz, even with the lowest value on that range, we're still talking over 20 years ago. More probably 25-ish. ;_;

I'm not 100% sure if 9/10 QWERTY parts are what I should have before contacting Thoren. However, as I cannot access any further routes (unless they are further "puzzle bullshit", which is a point of humor in the game's favor), I make an alternate save before proceeding.

I'm not sure what kind of cut-scene is going to come out of talking to Thoren, but, the game grants the player the option to skip it. Which I appreciate. Also, my gut tells me to skip it, as it might be more appreciated by those who had a more intimate knowledge of this world.

So, successfully putting QWERTY together was only possible after the scene with Thoren. I'm more than slightly relived at this revelation. XD

I'm kinda curious what happened in None Pizza with Left Beef: Chapter 1, and the game certainly leaves room open for either more here, or a future one. Good job all around from this effort!

I'm not terribly familiar with Billy Elloit, of which this game takes inspiration from, so I cannot comment on how the two might compare. However, what I can say of this game is that the writing could use some touching up. The sentence structure is off in several places, and is quite noticeable.

I'll note that the game is mostly silent, with bits of music in particular places in the story. The game is short enough that it might not matter, but, I would personally like there to have some BGM a bit more often?

The game does warn that the forest is contaminated, but, I wasn't exactly sure what that meant until I got smacked with a Game Over screen. On further investigation, it appears to be some kind of damage floor effect that takes off 13 damage per step. Definitely not supposed to be here yet!

There was a side-path in town I hadn't quite noticed, and taking it led me to see Victor, and his alchemy shop. Talking to him unblocked the path to the Seamstress. The event there caused an in-game day to pass, and now I'm on the hunt for some silver and a pearl.

There's a mermaid that will to trade a pearl for the Heart of the Forest, but, of course, it's in the center of the corroded forest, and I dare not enter that place again until I have better (or less expensive) mitigation against the corrosion. I have zero leads on the silver as I type this sentence.

I kinda wish I knew what these crafting items in Victor's shop do before going out to try and hunt for their reagents. Though, from my previous run in the forest, a non-zero number of these reagents can be found there.

I still have zero leads on the silver. Seems like the game wants me to find the pearl first. There's a mermaid in town that sells seaweed for 25 gold a unit, and they have a stock of 99 units. Buying out her stock can get me a pearl, or I can go and find the Heart of the Forest to exchange for it. Expense wise, buying the seaweed totals out to 2495 gold. Compare that price to a Red Potion, which is 3000. However, given that I will likely need several Red Potions in order to survive long enough to find the Heart of the Forest, the choice seems pretty clear. Though, I'm not sure how long it will take me to rack up the 2450 gold via the fishing mini-game. If there is another way to make money in this game, I haven't seen it yet.

Okay, I have 99 units of seaweed and a pearl necklace, thanks mostly to my luck at fishing. As for the silver, I'm not 100% sure. The only possibility that comes to mind is a girl with a bell at the town's entrance. I remember her saying that she'd trade the bell for something "neat". That might not have been her exact words, but, it was pretty vague. Or my memory is craptacular. XD

Still, even if that bell is what I'm looking for, I'm not entirely sure what she would want in exchange for it. For what it's worth, my gut is telling me that whatever it is, it's something you can craft with Victor. Which either means more fishing, and/or going out to the forest for a quick run to collect reagents? I suppose it might be possible that the goblin merchant has an item for sale she might want, but, that would still indicate that I would need to fish a bit more.

It is beginning to occur to me that this trade could also mean getting the Heart of the Forest. Again, I'm mostly going on my instincts that the bell the girl has is made out of silver, but, I'm not 100% certain if this is actually the case. Either way, I kinda feel like I'm at a dead end, as I'm not particularly inclined to go back to the forest without something to either get the damage-per-step down, or to ignore it completely. Does something like that even exist in this game?

Mareg relays his news to the Elder, and speaks of their current search for the Granasaber. The Elder permits Mareg to continue the search, but, for now, the village is preparing a feast. Preparations for said feast involve Ryudo and Elena getting some foul-smelling moss on their boots. Well, foul-smelling for humans. For beastmen, the smell is intoxicating.

The night of the festivities, Elena sings for her hosts, as Tio tries to figure out Mareg's order of "be free". While the order is revised to "become your own master", it will still take some time to process. She's making small steps, though.

The following morning, the party makes it's way to the Great Rift. Normally off-limits to the beastfolk of Nanan, the dangers ahead are unknown. As is the precise location of the Granasaber, but, the sense is that the party is getting ever closer to the end of their journey.

The party arrives at the edge of the Great Rift, only to see that it's epicenter is engulfed in a whirlwind. It's power is so great, that they can feel it even from this distance. Elena quotes a verse, and gives reason to believe that the Holy Sword is also in the epicenter. How can they penetrate such a barrier, though? Certainly not by land.

There was, indeed, a path from the sewers into the basement of the royal palace. When Vaan got there, it was being used as a place for the fete's clean-up crew, with guards at the staircase that won't let anybody pass until otherwise ordered. With a small trick, and the help of a Seeq, Vaan sneaks past the guard-post. Now for the hard part. The corridors upstairs, and the guard placements, form a puzzle to solve. Vaan recalls Dalan's words from before, and sets out to distract guards, and have them move from their posts to clear a path to his goal.

Rummaging through the place, Vaan inadvertently flicks a switch, and a statue's face opens, revealing a very large and shiny stone. Now that is a treasure! A duo of thieves catch up to him after he snags it, and prefers Vaan to hand over the bauble without a fight. Though, one gets the impression that they aren't exactly slouches in the combat department. Whereas Vaan very much is. They stare at each other in a stalemate for a while before a clamor is heard. While the thieves are temporarily distracted, Vaan makes his escape.

As Vaan runs onto the battlements up top, he looks down to see that the clamor from before was the sound of sword against sword. The palace is under attack! There is an aerial bombardment from the Ifrit to back up the soldiers on defense. The two thieves catch up with Vaan, kidnap him, and try to use their hoverbike to escape. Either the hoverbike was not designed for three people, or the Ifrit is somehow jamming it's power output. Either way, the hoverbike descends, and eventually crash-lands into the Garmaythe Waterways. That must have been a hell of a hole the Ifrit made.

For the moment, the three are stuck together. To help facilitate cooperation, brief introductions are made between Vaan, Fran, and Balthier. Shortly after this is a tutorial on making Gambits. At this juncture, there's not a whole lot of options. One, because each character only has two slots to work with. Two, slots are limited to what actions/skills characters have unlocked, and the targets are limited to a few basic ones that were either unlocked since the beginning of the game, or were unlocked right now. Action possibilities expand as characters acquire more licenses, with targets expand either by way for randomly finding them in chests, or by buying them from various Gambit shops in the world. Or, you know, we can just UGE all the possible targets. I've kinda set up that code to coincide with the "have all Magicks and Teckniques" code, so, that will wait for a bit longer.

Fran and Baltheir enter the party one level ahead of Vaan. Of course, I have codes to fix that, too, and equalize everyone's experience values. I can also UGE LP, but, I won't do that quite yet, even if I'm sorely tempted to do so just to unlock more actions for Baltheir and Fran.

As they move through the sewers, they witness a pack of guards attacking a woman. She's a fair enough hand with the blade, but, Vaan gets it in his head to help her regardless. She's none too pleased that her some of her companions probably didn't make it, and even less pleased at Vaan's stolen crystal. Still, Vaan has a point in that she might be better off with them than being alone. Thus, Amalia becomes the first guest of the game.

It's very apparent that Vaan does not recognize Her Royal Highness Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca. If one goes by the official account, she's supposed to have committed suicide. That is, of course, false. Meanwhile, Baltheir, does seem to recognize her. Or, at the very least, he has a greater inkling as to her actual identity than Vaan. The game certainly isn't fooling the player, should they have watched the FMV at the beginning of the game. Indeed, one of it's early scenes was that of Lady Ashe's marriage to Rasler Heios Nabradia.

Either way, she isn't with the others for long. There were two boss fights that delayed the party enough that allowed the imperials from behind to catch up. Not to mention that the escape route was also blocked by imperials. The party is apprehended, with "Amalia" going in one direction, and the other three thrown into Nalbina's dungeon.

According to Fran's scouting report, there is a way out, but it's barred with Magiks. An opportunity for that door to be opened comes with the arrival of an Imperial Judge. Or, perhaps, one should say a rather high-ranking general of the Archadian army. Titles aside, what reason such a person could have to visit a place like this is entirely unknown. Either way, if the party is to make an escape, it behooves them to take back their equipment. Which, funnily enough, happens soon after a cut-scene ends.

As the party follows the Archadian convoy from afar, they find themselves being led to where Captain Bosch is being stored. Now, he's also supposed to be dead according to the official report, but, this is a man both Vaan and Baltheir recognize. Vaan makes a bit of a racket, jumping on the hanging cell, and yelling about how he's the source for all of Dalmaca's problems. With the clamor bringing too much attention, Fran pulls a lever to release the cell, and it goes crashing to the ground, with Baltheir and Fran latching onto the chain as it falls. Soon enough, Basch becomes another guest.

Barhiem Passage is where the party ends up. Getting out of this place means opening gates that are operated by levers. Which, in turn, are powered by electricity. The lines are a favored snack of the mimics in this area, so, a bit of a monster hunt. There's a bit of a break room with corpses of fallen soldiers, where Bosch partakes of some armor and a blade. There's also a bit of backstory as to the happenings with Recks, and who it was that killed King Raminas. According to Basch, he has a twin brother that works for Archadia. His uncanny uncanny resemblance was used to set up the captain as the fall guy. It apparently worked, because Vaan believed the lie that Basch killed Reks.

Let me try and go through these political maneuverings that's going on here for a bit. If Archadia admitted to the slaying King Raminas, it would probably only make the tension between itself and Dalmasca worse than it already was. Not that Dalmasca had much of a chance against Archadia, but, it might benefit Archadia for Dalmasca to be an ally, even if it is one that is ill at ease, than a full-on enemy that is hell-bent on vengeance. As for the lie that Lady Ashe committed suicide, I imagine it would likely benefit Archidia a lot if she were actually dead. I don't actually know if Archaida knows if she's actually alive, or not, but, assuming they do, they must consider her a threat. Like, as long as she lives, the hope of Dalmasca, and it's independence from Archadian rule, exists.

Also, there is also the person behind these proclamations of the demise of Basch and Ashe to the greater Dalmascian people, Marquis Ondore of Bhujerba. While he's not exactly a friend to Archadia, himself, it behooves him to perform actions that put him in a good light, and maybe cause Archadia to turn a blind eye to his activities. This proclamation may have been a such concession to Archadia, even if both parties know the truth of the matter. It's about the appearance of allegiance, I guess. Anyway, on to Scene 24 back to the game. XD

At the end of the Barhiem Passage is the Mimic Queen, and a number of her brood. Felling her causes a bit of a quake, and the party makes haste to outside, avoiding being trapped narrowly. They now find themselves in the Estersands of Dalmasca, and make their way to Rabinastre. Upon arriving there, the party goes their separate ways. Basch will find the Resistance, or they will find him. Fran and Baltheir will lay low for a time, then go elsewhere. Vaan wants to show his treasure to Old Dalan, and/or Penelo. As a side-note, Penelo was present when Vaan was arrested, so, she might be none too happy with Vaan. She seems to be out of the shop today, and the proprietor is also elsewhere. So much for Vaan's "grand welcome".

Well, at least there's still Old Dalan, right? He's somewhat impressed by Vaan, and asks a favor of him: to bring a sword of the old order to a Captain Azelas. Vaan agrees, and asks for any information about Penelo he might pick up.

The place Dalan pointed Vaan to was apparently a base for the Resistance. Basch was there, trying to get it's leader, Vossler, to fight with him to free Amalia. Vossler can't entirely trust Basch, so, Basch takes the task upon himself. Vaan seems willing enough to go with him. Though, getting to Amalia might be an issue if they don't have transportation. Which is where Baltheir and Fran might come into play. Who knows if they'll agree to anything, though.