The Way Ep 4

Hello and welcome to the fourth episode of The Way, the famous masterpiece by LunCasari... and MASTERPIECE is what I really think of Episode 4 (my favourite was episode 2, but I had to reconsider after playing this one), anyway let's first start with a recap before learning why.
These are the reviews of the first three episodes, in case you missed them (and I hope I do not have to explain that you must play the series from the first episode since there is the savegames importing system).

The Way Ep 1 - The land beneath the sky
The Way Ep 2 - Echoes of the past decry
The Way Ep 3 - A lost love carried on

Ok, so Rhue could not question Cetsa, the bandit leader because she was arrested by Slade that imprisoned her in Estrana. Rhue follows Traziun to the Matalan fortress (that appears in the background of the menu) of where Kloe is going to be executed by the Lyn warriors for her past.

First part or prologue of Episode 4 sees Rhue escaping with Traziun (that is always wanted by a high ranking Lyn for some reason) and Kloe (that does not wan to be executed, of course) in the forests. This part has a bit of everything, combat, exploration, dialogues, a plunge and also an action minigame where you have to quickly switch between Rhue and Traziun to attack enemies coming from the left or right (and they are fast! Still it's a decent minigame, not bad).
In this part my suggestion is to take your time and explore the woods carefully since 1) there is no time limit despite the mission is to escape/run away from the Lyn warriors, and 2) there are many hidden items among the trees, and if you know The Way you also know that the only items available are the permanent upgrades (there are NO consumables or equipments at all like in other episodes) to Rhue's stats.


Ok, you asked for this. It's murder on the dancefloor! Let's dance, dance, dance...

After this sort of "prologue" (and an intermission cutscene) our heroes arrive in Estrana, the largest city of the world and probably still one of the biggest rpgmaker cities ever made, about 4-5 times the towns seen in other rpgmaker games (just the city of Neo Jado comes close, but that game was made many years after and it's made of several little maps, here it's just a huge one), even if sadly it won't be 100% explorable... at least in this episode! Anyway there were many other devs that tried to create similar locations, and I must say that Estrana with its FFVI chipsets is really unique and charming.

But then here's why I consider Episode 4 the best episode: it's the only one in which *EVERYONE* from the previous adventures appears in this one. Not just the main characters like Gaius and Cetsa, but also secondary ones like Lyrra, Kygar, Slade, Alan and Scatha. But there is ALSO the return of some minor characters you probably forgot like Rhan, a traveller that was present at the tournament of Episode 2 (if you go to the page of review he's the grey dressed man on the lower right corner of the first pic, pursued by the bearded guy with the bandana), Thelin of Nelin, the black&green dressed master of the plunge that introduced Rhue to the world of duels in Episode 1 and was also briefly encountered in Episode 2, Velicia, the high ranking member of the Guided of the optional quest in Episode 2 (that here seems to know Gaius and has a larger role to play) and Rosmar, the blonde man that Rhue scarred in the beginning of Episode 2 (that *can* be fought again in an optional and rather difficult plunge... challenging as all the duels that aren't mandatory!).


We'll see blondie. I'll rearrange your pretty face once again! (anyway I never understood why Rosmar has a huge greatsword strapped on the back if he fights with a normal sword like everyone else!)

And real beauty is not that these characters just BAM appears in front of Rhue, but are seen in the background of some cutscenes, and I admit I realized they were present only on my second playthough! The amount of details of this episode (and of this game series) is really amazing.
But there are also some new entries, like Dirk, a useless but funny old guy that was seen briefly in the ending sequence of the first episode. Or Lexus, and equally useless ally but with an interesting backstory and involvement, Red Zero, another useless temporary helper... and Stoyko that's probably the only decent new companion, and his boss Sorya. And trust me, I left out also many other ones, some extremely important and others not so much, just to avoid spoiling the story.

The adventure is a series of fetch quests, dungeons, minigames and duels of course, that see Rhue working for the crime scene and the government, and taking part once again in a tournament together with his friend Traziun. To tell the truth this is not a spectacular game from a gameplay point of view since it's more of the same: a tournament, duels (the plunge is just a rock-paper-scissor minigame with some added bonus features), combat (that is rather dull even if I like the fact that there are no random encounters, and it's based on clever use of the characters skills and not on spamming the same abilities and/or consumables that aren't even present). Minigames are also just... ok, for example see the dancing (that is rather useless and just a time waster) or the real time combat, still I liked that LunCasari made some effort for them since are some diversions.
No.
The best of the Way (and I mean really the BEST) is the story, the intrigues of the organizations Estrana and exchanges between the actors of this play (where Rhue is just a pawn, a survivor in a grim setting, and not an omnipotent hero that can save the world), this is what happens here it was really made me live inside the world of the Way, and even if Estrana is just one of the stops in Rhue's travels is one of the most important parts in the series.


A pentacle, blood and arcane writings. Yep. This is not good.

But I also liked the environments and mapping, ok Lun isn't really the best mapper (I like other aspects of his games) still he did a good us of the chipsets and also avoided using the ugly still life backgrounds that were used in the wilderness of the previous chapters (and unfortunately will come back on the next episode! WHY? The city of Estrana showed that there was no need for them!). We visit a lot of different parts of the city, from the market to the mines, and each place is believable. Yes, it's a largely linear story with just some minor choices (that sometimes can leave a serious impact, for example depending on your answers a particular character can live or die and it will affect next episodes! And this is a rather unique feature, I think) but it's really well thought and realized. Ok there are some typos and errors, but I'll excuse Lun since english isn't his native tongue (and it's not mine too!)

Music. The music selection is nice in this episode too, and the song that this time was stuck in my memory is... Darude's "Sandstorm"!!! (a real 1999 classic, if you do not remember it please listen to that now!). Seriously. No, really it's used not just once but TWICE! Awesome.


LMAO! That face... jeez, come on, Rhue! Poor Kloe.

Final Verdict
The Way isn't perfect series but the Episode 4 for me is really exceptional: it's not your usual high fantasy jrpg or Final Fantasy inspired adventure. No, it's something that at the time surprised me (also because there is almost no magic involved, no items, not even upgradable equipment) for the complexity of the plot, subplot and interactions between characters and organizations, and I really believe this is the highest point of the series. Next episodes won't be bad at all (uhm we'll talk in detail about these in the next reviews of course!), still it became clear that Lun somehow changed plan, modified the story and reduced the content (originally there was a seventh episode planned, but... sadly things went downhill. Again, we'll talk next time about this sudden change in the series).

After playing the previous episodes, here every single aspect is improved: graphics (the huge number of custom facesets, charsets and characters is absurd!), pacing, story, and it's even longer and more enjoyable. Absolutely a must play. A masterpiece that gets 4,5/5 and no less.

Extras
At a certain point you can enter in this unmarked house (and I found it by chance). The name Cocoa that appears is also see in the credits of the endings of some episodes, and it seems it was the nickname of a member of the forums that made some crazy theories about Rhue. Maybe also one of the playtesters? I guess we'll never know!


Yeah, sure...