[Game Journal] Tales of the Arcaneum (updated)

Arcaneum

Arcaneum

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    Tales of the Arcaneum

    ​

    Prologue

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Hello traveler. Welcome to the Tales of Arcaneum, a re-telling of the events that happen during my progression in both the section events this year as well as other gaming journeys I may embark on during my time here at PokéCommunity, including any games played as part of our section challenges..

    For those unaware - the two events happening are the Game-Along and the Gaming Challenge. In the Game-Along, themes are chosen each month in which you can pick a game that fits and try to complete it before the month is over! In the Gaming Challenge, you set yourself a goal of how many games you plan to play this year.

    Chapter 1

    PokéCommunity Game-Along IV Entry - Bomberman Generation

    This month's theme is Action-Adventure, which thankfully has lots of nice and short games considering I decided to start so late. I have chosen Bomberman Generation for the Nintendo GameCube, which is a very short but refreshing take on the Bomberman games! It adds some very basic RPG elements to a fun adventure, whilst keeping the core mechanics of the Bomberman games close to heart. It's also something I've had on my backlog for a while, so this is a perfect opportunity to cross it off the list.

    Being a Hudson game in 2002, we're not privy to the most groundbreaking storytelling. Essentially we have to go and save the Bomb Elements from the Hige Hige Bandits (lead by recurring villain Mujoe) and also some other team of Bomberman wannabes (the Crush Bombers) also will be trying to stop you. With the very thin foundation now laid, time to get stuck right in!

    Our first stop is the world of Tentasia. The first level is very simple, designed to teach you the basic mechanics of the game, but to summarise:
    • You can place, kick and throw bombs you put down
    • Thrown bombs can be held for a few seconds, turning into Big Bombs
    • You can increase the amount of bombs, their blast radius and how fast you move
    Not too far into the level, we find a weird portal in the floor... which takes us to our first Charabom, Andlar! Charaboms are very similar to Pokémon - little buddies that assist you on your journey, although in this case they give you special abilities. They also have their own types and stats, which can be increased by pickups throughout the world. To obtain new Charaboms moving forward, we will need to beat them in combat. Andlar's ability is the Power Glove, which lets you throw bombs much further.

    We then start the second level - not much to talk about here other than we encounter another portal! This one takes is to a minigame, specifically Leaf Jump. Jump off the leaf and land on the logs below, making sure to slow your fall by pressing A if needed! Upon completing this, we get the Water Balloon. This allows us to create Water Bombs by merging it with our existing Fire Bombs!

    The next level features our first mini-boss battle AND our first Crush Bomber encounter - Crush Bomber. This is a very easy fight, just wait for him to stop spinning his flail and then throw Big Bombs at him. Rinse and repeat until defeated.

    The next point of interest will be the last level, where we fight the boss of Tentasia, Grounder Pounder. A fairly simple fight once more - just wait until it stops to fire at you and retaliate with Big Bombs. With that defeated, we find our first Bomb Element and move straight to the send world, Octo Ocean!
    As perhaps implied, Octo Ocean is allll about water. The first level Octo Shoals nets us another Charabom - Kai-Man! Kai-Man's special ability reduces all damage by 50%, which in a game where you don't have a lot of life is pretty good! The second level once again nets us another Charabom, this time it's Ligon. Ligon's special ability allows us to have the maximum bomb count at all times. Not really useful to be honest as the powerups are easy to find and you only lose them upon a game over (and can be essentially reset by just quitting out and reloading anyway).

    The third level features the second Crush Bomber fight and this time it's Beauty Bomber! This fight takes a little getting used to initially - basically she has lights that will surround her which make your bombs explode upon impact and will not harm her. So you have to wait until the lights disappear, stun her with a Big Bomb and let it detonate. HOWEVER after she takes so much damage, her attacks and pattern change.

    Now instead the lights will start trying to attack you, so you have to avoid them and then attack her. Once she loses even more HP, the lights then surround her and start moving in and out, so you have to find the gap and attack quick enough that the lights don't detonate the bomb first. A fairly OK fight, mostly boring because you have to do a lot of dodging before being able to attack.

    The next thing we obtain - in the fifth level - is another Charabom and probably Bomberman's most famous one, Pommy! Pommy is a very good Electric type, with the Remote Bomb ability. This allows us to detonate our bombs whenever we want. After that it's time for the next boss - the Crush Squid.

    This fight was a NIGHTMARE and mostly because it was quite unintuitive initially. You first face a ship which is firing from its cannons. Destroying the 3 cannons on the side will make the main one start firing and tentacles spawn from where the 3 side cannons were. However the game does not make it clear that the tentacles are not the main enemy, until you realise you have killed them about 5 times over and they are still respawning... so once you figure that out and destroy the main cannon we then enter phase 2.

    Phase 2 is the squid itself, which has some annoying attacks and jank. Firstly it will be invulnerable and spawn up to 10 small squids, which have huge hitboxes and explode on impact with you OR your bombs. Then it will walk around, in which you can stun it with a Big Bomb. It will then attempt to drag you into its mouth, which is when you throw a Big Bomb near it so that it instead eats the Big Bomb and takes damage. Not much changes after this - only that before summoning the squids it will instead fire waves of them at you first.

    After several attempts, we finally defeat the boss, obtain our second Element and move onto Tako Desert, the third world.
    So far we have done the first two levels - obtaining a Charabom in each one. The first one contained Stegodon, who allows you to kick bombs for infinite length and stop them whenever you wish by pressing Y. The next one was Pteradon (which was an AWFUL fight by the way), which lets me Bomb Jump. This means I can place a bomb and then hop onto to it and access somewhere else.

    We have made it to the third level, where I tried Eagle Bomber once and lost, then stopped there!

    We're over halfway through, so I imagine I could be all finished tomorrow!



    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    August - Puzzle
    Kula World - Completed
    September - JRPGs
    Final Fantasy IX - Completed
    December
    Action-Adventure - Bomberman Generation - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Pokémon Emerald (Randomiser) - Completed
    Pokémon Crystal (Randomiser) - Completed
    Pokémon Leaf Green (Randomiser) - Completed
    Borderlands 3 - Completed
    Borderlands 2 (Randomiser) - Completed
    Monster Hunter Rise - Completed
    Kula World - Completed
    Final Fantasy XII - Completed
    Final Fantasy IX (Randomiser) - Completed
    Final Fantasy VI (Randomiser) - Completed
    Final Fantasy VI - Completed
    Ballionaire - Completed
    Tiny Rogues - Completed
    Final Fantasy XIV ARR - Completed
    Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward - Completed
    Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood - Completed
    Terraria (Calamity Mod) - Completed
    Risk of Rain - Completed
    Risk of Rain Returns - Completed
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Vagrant Story (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Pokémon Black 2 - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress

     
    Last edited:


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 2

    PokéCommunity Game-Along IV Entry - Bomberman Generation

    And so the journey continues! We're starting off with our next Crush Bomber fight... the Eagle Bomber...

    ​

    This went a lot better than yesterday's attempt - the fight itself is not too bad, his attacks are quite slow and telegraphed. The biggest problem is the tedium of dodging so much before being able to attack! With the Eagle Bomber defeated, it's time to carry on with the rest of Tako Desert and get that next Bomb Element.

    ​

    Level 3-4

    Now we have to navigate some ruins, and these are some big ruins! First up, the game trolls you by deciding to make you be able to actually access the gate straight away... but you have to get rid of the sandstorm to proceed. Back we go!

    A new feature has been added - platforms which require bombs to be kicked into them to be spun around the right direction. We move our first one to then be able to scale the ruin walls and access more of the level.

    After a small puzzle, we find our way to a chamber which allows us to merge some Charabom! In this one, Pommy and Pteradon combine to make Pommy... Dragon (really? lmao). This allows us to place Remote Bombs and perform Bomb Jump, meaning we can place multiple bombs down with no fear of them detonating and as a result perform multiple jumps. We navigate towards another section of wall to find some secret goodies to power up our Charabom, before then heading down the middle to another minigame: Bomb Marathon.

    Once again, complex instructions to the rescue! Once figured out, the game is quite easy: mash B to outrun a boulder and place a bomb to stop it from rolling. Make a circuit and hit the green switch to be able to place another bomb, then make it to the yellow switch and place a bomb, opening the exit for you. For our efforts we get the Fan, which will allow us to make a new bomb once we get there!

    ​

    We then hit a fork, with two lanterns that can be lit up by the lasers that are being fired along the corridor. I pick the left fork and naturally it's the wrong way - I can't do anything here BUT it looks like something that will require a certain new bomb... noted for later! I make my way back and up at another fork... which is the wrong way again... another dead end. Or so I thought, as the other fork ACTUALLY took me to a dead end! So I go back and realise that the puzzle requires two switches to be pressed and I had missed one, oopsies...

    The last puzzle seems a little confusing, but that quickly dissipates into frustration. Basically two laser beams criss-cross in front of one of the platforms you need to move, but the lasers make it hard. Until I realise I need to swap to Stegodon to kick the bomb from outside the laser's range... apart from then it just becomes annoying as the bomb seems to clip the hole constantly! After a few agonising minutes, we finally do it and then exit the level.

    Level 3-5

    Off the bat this looks confusing! We are climbing up a tower, so the level has introduced a new element, being more than one "floor" to a level. We have to catapult up a floor and then fall through various holes to reach other areas below, as well as rotate parts of the floors to access even more!

    First thing's first, we go and find the portal on the ground floor to obtain a new Charabom, Beast Pommy! This allows us to always have maximum speed up. Then we find the main part of the puzzle, which are platforms which need to be turned until they are flat on the ground so we can access the exit. Switches on each floor turn them a small amount, so we get all of those and access the new areas!

    We find another portal here, which lets us know merge the Fan and Fire Bombs to create the Wind Bomb!

    ​

    With this we can finally move the large leaves we've been seeing on some levels (including in the dead ends we encountered in the last level). Now I did TRY to find a Leaf we did encounter earlier on here... but I instead went the wrong way and ended up instead going to the exit. No bother, if I really want to I can go back to the level. With that, it was time to go to the last level and as a result the next boss - the Mammoth Mummy.

    Level 3-6

    This was... probably the easiest boss fight I had. The first form was a bit annoying - it sits in a ring and you had to throw a bomb into it when it leaves the ring and detonate it. The second form however... I just seemed to infinitely loop in damage before it could even retaliate lmao. Which means a very easy win and our third Bomb Element!

    ​

    Our time on Planet Tentacalls is now over - we're heading straight for the HIGE HIGE Bandits' base, as they have the rest of the Elements! We must stop them! Time for World 4!

    Level 4-1

    So firstly, the best bit is that you get asked if you have the Water/Ice/Wind bombs... which means we'll be having to use all of these here I'm sure. Fun! We start the level being harassed by meteors that fall and fall pretty quickly from the sky. These also explode into bombs on impact, which makes it very annoying to dodge. We encounter some larger meteors which spawn enemies, but the effort between that and the smaller ones isn't worth, so I move on.

    I encounter the first puzzle, which is a small area barred off by electric fences and the exit blocked by a forcefield. Here you have to perform some bomb jumps, blow up the generator and then you can make it through (after getting all the goodies in tucked away areas!). Then it's the next puzzle, which has me taking various train carts to stops and then using switches to backtrack to then access new areas. We then have to use our Ice Bombs to access some more things, including a portal to a new mini-game - Rail Bomber.

    This minigame SUCKS. The aim is to make it to the end, throwing bombs to turn on switches so you don't fall off and to blow up boulders on the way. Apart from there are some really annoying things to contend with:
    1. Bombs are thrown incredibly slowly and if you are in the blast radius, you lose
    2. Switches remain on for a fixed time - if you don't make it to the next segment before they swap back, you lose
    3. The placement of boulders is random. Sometimes you get 0 on the track, sometimes you get 2
    4. These are sometimes placed that you don't have enough time to blow up a boulder and then activate a switch
    5. THE GAME SAYS TILTING DOWN ON THE STICK SLOWS YOU DOWN BUT IT SPEEDS YOU UP. YO HAVE TO USE DOWN ON THE D-PAD TO SLOW DOWN
    So yeah after THAT malarkey, we finally beat it and obtain the Strobe. This will allow us to make a new Bomb type

    ​

    We then find a new switch which takes us to ANOTHER portal, this time allowing us to merge some more Charabom - this time it's Stegodon and Andlar. This gives us the new Charabom Angol which lets us kick infinitely AND increases throwing range. We then - finally - work out that some random rock can be moved onto the railroad and then enter the final puzzle. This is a small maze, which has a mini-boss at the end. This mini-boss will drive around the maze and stop at points, in which you have to throw a bomb into it. Do this three times and you can finally escape, hit the switches and remove the forcefield at the end, which means we finish the level!

    Level 4-2

    Oh no, the order's been changed up! Now we face a Crush Bomber in the SECOND level???? This time, it's the rather eccentric Assault Bomber.

    ​

    Another easy fight (with him saying "go cry to your momma" as I land the last hit lmao) and onto 4-3!

    Level 4-3

    We're right in the heart of the base now. Our mission - destroy it! The level is one giant puzzle, with lots of green switches that stop trapdoors from flipping and opening timed gates you have to get through, with very little margin for error! About halfway through we obtain a new Charabom - Unicornos - which allows us to set up whole rows of bombs with one press.

    We then backtrack nearly all the way to the beginning to then loop back around to a new area full of fire traps - time for the Water Bomb! Before we start however, it's time for a cheeky Bomb Jump to get another Charabom fusion, Fire Horn! This allows us to set up lines of bombs without needing to hold A and... we can remote detonate them despite us not using Pommy? I don't know but I won't complain! This section took quite a long time, but was an overall fun puzzle! At the end they force us to use Ice Bomb for one whole spout and Wind Bomb for one whole leaf, but we make it to the end of the level.

    Level 4-4

    Another... mini-boss? This time we see Bomberman's version of Power Rangers, as two construction vehicles (Big Brother and Little Brother) combine forms to make... Constructor X!

    ​

    This fight is quite easy. He has a series of attacks:
    1. Fires dynamite on the floor in a circle which stuns you on hit. Has a gap behind him
    2. Fires gravel in an arc
    3. Fires his drill hand at you in a long, straight line
    4. Swings a laser sword and causes a huge AoE explosion (once below certain amount of HP)
    After each attack, there is a chance he will stop for a few seconds, which is the opportunity to attack. Once defeated, we gain our fourth Bomb Element!

    ​

    I hope this trend continues, if we have only 4 levels to complete world 4 then maybe I'll be finished with this game even quicker than anticipated! Onwards to world 5!

    Level 5-1

    We're now in the fortress of Majestar, the HIGE HIGE Bandits' spaceship. The first corner... poses some problems. We get told to use a Bomb Barrier to deflect the shots which... I don't have! Unsure on how I've missed that, but manage to make it through and come across a Charabom portal. This time we get Pox, which allows us to move Bombs whilst holding A. In which we're immediately required to use them to send the bombs down some small corridors. Think the Nikita sequences from Metal Gear Solid.

    Our next stop is a Charabom merge portal, this time merging Kai-Man (damage reduction) and Pox (bomb control) to create Shelks. This allows us to take less damage when controlling the bombs with A. I then make it to another corridor full of cannons and unfortunately do die, so I think I'll end the adventure there and perhaps look at getting that Bomb Barrier for next time!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    August - Puzzle
    Kula World - Completed
    September - JRPGs
    Final Fantasy IX - Completed
    December
    Action-Adventure - Bomberman Generation - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Pokémon Emerald (Randomiser) - Completed
    Pokémon Crystal (Randomiser) - Completed
    Pokémon Leaf Green (Randomiser) - Completed
    Borderlands 3 - Completed
    Borderlands 2 (Randomiser) - Completed
    Monster Hunter Rise - Completed
    Kula World - Completed
    Final Fantasy XII - Completed
    Final Fantasy IX (Randomiser) - Completed
    Final Fantasy VI (Randomiser) - Completed
    Final Fantasy VI - Completed
    Ballionaire - Completed
    Tiny Rogues - Completed
    Final Fantasy XIV ARR - Completed
    Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward - Completed
    Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood - Completed
    Terraria (Calamity Mod) - Completed
    Risk of Rain - Completed
    Risk of Rain Returns - Completed
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Vagrant Story (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Pokémon Black 2 - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 3

    PokéCommunity Game-Along IV Entry - Bomberman Generation

    Back to the Bomberman grind!

    Level 5-1

    Feeling a bit more energised, I make my way through the level quite easily (after learning that Bomb Barrier is in fact me just pressing Y when holding a Big Bomb, thank you for explaining that game!!!!!)... however I still need to go back to a previous level anyway lol! Turns out I had forgotten a very important bomb fusion in level 4-3 which I unfortunately need to actually complete the level, as it reveals the half-hidden bridge currently blocking my progress. So back I go...

    Level 4-3

    It turns out I had just completely skipped a section, which so happens to have what I missed! After a series of bomb jumps through the fire section once more, we make our way to the new area... which requires a 6 bomb jump. Yay, that isn't annoying to set up at all! After a few tries, we get it and our latest bomb upgrade, the Light Bomb!

    ​

    This will now allow us to reveal any half-hidden objects in levels, including the bridge in 5-1 we couldn't cross earlier!

    Level 5-1

    Now we've done this enough time to almost speedrun it, I storm through pretty much the entire level until very close to the end, where I'm slowed down by a mini-boss. Booooooooooo. Anyway it's a super easy fight against the two slowest cannons ever. I just have to activate two switches (one buy kicking a bomb into a hole and the other by placing a bomb on another switch) and the forcefields are gone. Four Big Bombs later and it's all over. I then think I'm super smart for catching the leaf at the end, however I get to the 'secret' it's hiding and it's a Charabom fusion... for something I don't have! Turns out they want me to go back to do these things now? Hell no I'm going to see if I can carry on without it. With that done, time to finish the level.

    Level 5-2

    Level 5-2, more affectionately known as...

    ​

    Looks like it's our final Crush Bomber fight, it's time for Bomber Elite!

    ​

    An interesting fight for once! Very cool phases, with thankfully not a huge amount of waiting in between hits. Mostly bullet hell in aspect, which is fun. With the last Crush Bomber down, it's time to move on to the next level!

    Level 5-3

    Oh boy, a maze consisting of lots and lots of warps! The start of the level is not too bad and just introduces you to the idea of warping around. Then we are introduced to another element of the level - floating platforms which need to be lowered via switches. I'm then met with conveyor belts which have locked rooms in the middle, and the switches to unlock them on the belt too. This does seem a little confusing at first, until I realise that I need to equip Fire Horn and then make lines of bombs to go ACROSS the line, hit the switch and bingo! First room is a Charabom battle portal. We win the battle and get Big Ox (they sure are running out of ideas huh...).

    ​

    Big Ox allows us to turn our bombs into remote mines - they can now detonate if I press B OR if an enemy walks over them.

    We move onto the next belt and open up the door again. We are faced with ANOTHER conveyor belt with some and most annoyingly we can't cheese the switch. Once I hit the switch, it lowers the two platforms in here which then lets me across over to... three warps?! Ugh not CHOICES... I choose the middle and I'm immediately faced with a gross-looking mini-boss.

    This is a painful fight! Firstly the boss has 3 segments, each with its own mechanic that you have to beat to then make it to the final switch. The first form fires two lasers which you have to avoid and then bomb the switch to get to the next section. This next section is horrible. It has a mace which slams down on the ground, which stuns you and makes any bombs explode. The aim here is to put a bomb down and have the mace slam it to get stunned, then hit the switch and move on. This final segment is much easier - wait until the floating platform is where it needs to be and hit the switch. This unlocks a green switch which... oh no.

    All the segments are now together and operating at the same time, and you have to get a bomb into some small gaps that open and close on the laser side. Which would be fine but... the boss now moves AND the mace stuns you wherever you are!!!! After managing to stun the mace again, we get the bomb in, beat the boss and obtain our last Bomb Element, oooohhh- or so we thought! Someone's just come and taken it away, noooooooooo!!!!

    Level 5-4

    We catch up to the perpetrator, which is none other than the boss Blazing Hawk!

    ​

    This... wow this was the most dumb fight in this game yet. The boss barely moves, gets hit for free and just kept spamming an attack that made no difference to me. The only thing that it had was the fact it's had the most HP by far... but a bit meaningless when it's so easy! Fire Hawk goes down and we get the last Bomb Element finally! Now it's time for the final level!



    Level 6-1

    So I will preface this by saying that I did go ALL the way back to level 1-4 to get the last Charabom Marine Eel and then go back to that missing Charabom evolution in 5-1, as I feel it wouldn't be in the game if we didn't need it...

    And thank god we did. The Charabom fusion Lai Eel lets us throw homing bombs, which prove to be a huge asset here. The level is filled with otherwise inaccessible flying enemies and cannons which are very hard to approach.

    Our mission here is firstly to destroy the ship we are on, which I make quick work of. First up is destroying all the cannons at the front and then the thrusters on the sides. After that, there's a gauntlet of large cannons (which thankfully can be super cheesed) and then it's final boss time!!!! It seems that all the Bomb Elements - despite us rescuing them - have decided to team up on us, rude! They've fused into this awful looking thing:

    ​

    The fight itself... underwhelming for a final boss fight! It has a few attacks:
    • Bomb Elements that fly around and deal damage on impact
    • Fireballs it shoots, which explode on impact
    • A ring of fire which you have to put out with Water Bombs to be able to attack it
    • Laser beams from its eyes
    The only caveat is having to switch between Water Bombs and Light Bombs (as only the latter damages it). Otherwise the boss moves really slow, the attacks are slow enough that you can if fast enough get it infinitely stuck and the attacks themselves didn't do much damage even without Kai-Man's damage reduction. One quick fight later and we have beaten the final boss and as a result, the game!

    ​

    And with that, we set off into the sun awaiting our next Dodge Battle...

    ​

    So overall, a really fun game! It's a bit simpler than remembered, but I also probably last played this when I was about 13 and I am now 34, so that might have something to do with it. My only gripe really is the fact the boss fights were mostly very tedious and very easy, there were parts of levels that felt way harder than the bosses themselves! I'd also like to have seen some more opportunities to use all of the Charabom - once I got Pommy Dragon that's mostly what I stuck to until the last level or two.

    Otherwise it's a really interesting step for the Bomberman games to take! I'd rate this a 6/10!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    August - Puzzle
    Kula World - Completed
    September - JRPGs
    Final Fantasy IX - Completed
    December - Action-Adventure
    Action-Adventure - Bomberman Generation - Completed
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Pokémon Emerald (Randomiser) - Completed
    Pokémon Crystal (Randomiser) - Completed
    Pokémon Leaf Green (Randomiser) - Completed
    Borderlands 3 - Completed
    Borderlands 2 (Randomiser) - Completed
    Monster Hunter Rise - Completed
    Kula World - Completed
    Final Fantasy XII - Completed
    Final Fantasy IX (Randomiser) - Completed
    Final Fantasy VI (Randomiser) - Completed
    Final Fantasy VI - Completed
    Ballionaire - Completed
    Tiny Rogues - Completed
    Final Fantasy XIV ARR - Completed
    Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward - Completed
    Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood - Completed
    Terraria (Calamity Mod) - Completed
    Risk of Rain - Completed
    Risk of Rain Returns - Completed
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Vagrant Story (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Pokémon Black 2 - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress

     
    Last edited:


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 4

    General update

    Just using this to catalogue what's been going on recently in my gaming world, whilst I make the painful decision of what to play for the Game-Along this month! For small update - I've finished my Pokémon Black 2 challenge run, which was very fun (more details in the Secret Delibird challenge thread!). I've had to stop my Vagrant Story randomiser too, unfortunately. It's put an enemy that is VERY much NG+ endgame in an area I need to beat it to then carry on with the game, and I am basically at the whim of RNG; I have to pray that I can land about 120 hits and it doesn't choose 1 of about 5 abilities to cast on me, as it does about 800 damage and I have ~250 HP. Not very fun! Otherwise, here's some more in-depth updates.

    OpenTTD

    OpenTTD is essentially Rollercoaster Tycoon if it was a transport simulator. You have a region full of towns, cities and industries that you need to use your logistics know-how to create a flourishing transport network for. Or that's how the game is supposed to be played anyway, but more on that shortly. It's a great game that I like to just sit down in sometimes for a few hours and just go with the flow. There is a "goal" - to reach the year 2050 - but it's so easy to obtain that there's never really any pressure to obtain it, so it's nice and chill.

    This time around, I decided to take on a challenge I had seen recently on YouTube. Starting with just one town, how much could I grow the population by in 100 years (2050)? I won't bore you with the details, but with a starting population of 100, I ended up with this behemoth at 2050:

    ​

    With a population of 1,391,708. Not too bad considering I definitely wasn't min-maxing and I think the highest I've seen was only a couple 100k off!

    Borderlands 3

    After talking about it for several months, me and my friend have finally picked up Borderlands 3 again, to tackle one of the DLCs once more. This time we've picked Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck, which is all about trying to free the more corpus mentus Krieg from his bloodthirsty, savage Psycho counterpart. We've done probably about a quarter of the content so far, and we're just currently refining our builds. Or in my case, changing it up! I'm playing FL4K, who is generally about usage of his little summons. I'm aiming to put together a build that utilises the Rakk Attack skill (tldr throw birds at enemies) and a skill which allows them to drop the same grenade I do. Combine that with things such as the Fish Slap (grenade that does huge melee damage) and other items to boost that synergy, and we will be hopefully causing untold levels of carnage!

    Wip3out: Special Edition

    The Wipeout franchise is Sony's answer to F-Zero. Futuristic, high-octane and high speed racing! They've been going for quite a while and the games are ones I love. The aesthetic is incredibly cool (my flair/sig have elements of it!), especially the earlier games where they really tap into that late 90s/early 00s turn of the millennium futurism everyone was going for. The soundtracks are always incredible and the gameplay generally quite clean.

    I was going to pick this for my Game-Along game, however after only a little bit of derusting... I have made quite some progress already. Whoops! I'm planning on completing every Single Race with every vehicle and get the max score (40 - all 1st places) in every Tournament in every difficulty. The difficulties being Vector, Venom, Rapier and Phantom. I won't go through and catalogue every single race with every single vehicle, so probably best to just summarise those things and then post progress.

    Spoiler: Vehicles

    Spoiler: Tracks


    With that out of the way - progress! So I was just trying out a few tracks with the Feisar, see how I do and stuff, when suddenly the muscle memory and obsession crept back in and suddenly, I've done the entirety of Vector in little to no time at all and making my way through Venom. Vector was, as expected, incredibly easy. Very good for people learning the game as there's no insane rubberbanding, the AI generally isn't at max speed/stats and as a result you can learn the tracks a bit better.

    Venom on the other hand is already a crazy rise in challenge. The stats of each craft is already strating to show, as my little Feisar was getting outclassed by the faster Icaras and AG-Systems for example. I suddenly had to acually strategise and race properly, as I wasn't tearing ahead by the beginning of Lap 2. Fun though and can't wait for Raiper/Phantom! I did stop after a little while, making this progress:



    ​

    Hopefully get some more playtime in tomorrow!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Game to be decided!
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress

     
    Last edited:


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 4

    The Wip3out grind continues

    Today I decided to tackle some more Venom class racing. As a whole it has currently been going quite smoothly. Muscle memory is coming back faster than ever, however so is some of the pain.

    the pain, for example, of using Qirex in higher classes. This particular set of races was an absolute nightmare. The low handling + high speed made it a menace to turn most corners properly and if it were not for the high shield, I would've definitely been eliminated due to so much wall damage in some of them. That said, I managed to power through and complete the whole lot with it. That however made using AG-S afterwards troublesome, because I was now so used to dealing with the Qirex's flaws!

    And THEN we get to Icaras. This was actually pretty insane, because it was zooming so much that I was just bouncing off the walls in some races at one point. Rapier looking kinda scary now... I might start with these two crafts just to get the pain out of the way.

    Either way, Venom complete! Here's our current progress:

    ​

    On another note - I got Tales of Graces F remaster. Yay!!!! Time to get that started tonight for the ol' Game Along.

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered)
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 5

    TALES OF GODLY GAMING F[ANTASTIC]

    IT'S HERE YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TALES OF GRACES F TIME WOO!!!! I haven't been this excited for a Tales game in forever. Tales of Graces F is such an amazing game in the series and because I don't have the same level of access as most of the other games, it's been a long time since I've played! It boasts some of the best (imo) combat mechanics in the game, a somewhat good plotline and one - most importantly - some of my favourite Tales characters. We'll get to that last one at some point in this journal ;). But otherwise it's time to play!

    NB: THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE GAME, SO PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND BEFORE CONTINUING!​


    Lhant Hill


    So before I've even started the game itself, we're prompted to set up our settings, which is something I really like games to do personally! I've decided to spice up the challenge a little and have set the difficulty to Hard, which is the hardest I can currently do. We'll see how long that lasts! Another interesting thing is that the GRADE shop has been set up with enough GRADE to get everything. For those new to the Tales games, a lot of them feature a GRADE system where you earn points for doing well (or are docked points for doing badly) in battle. Once you complete the game, said points can be spent in the GRADE shop to unlock features for your next playthrough. This could be anything from 5x experience to 5x GLOBAL damage. To emulate my standard Tales experience I've left this alone; an excuse to do at least one more run!

    Once we're set up, we're thrown immediately into the game!

    We're immediately greeted by these two absolute dorks:



    On the left we have Asbel - the game's protagonist - and Hubert, his brother. It looks like we've become privy to Asbel sneaking off to the gorgeous Lhant Hill and Hubert being dragged along. Not much really of note here, other than our first Skit (skits are essentially in-game cutscenes that will happen throughout the game quite a bit, a defining feature of Tales games). Yay! Nothing like Hubert getting trolled by Asbel, teehee.

    After we get through some of the tutorial battles, we make it to the next section... where we see someone presumably (hopefully) passed out (and not dead) on the floor. Uhoh, we've woken them up! they seem a little weird though... they're talking a bit otherworldly and - OK they almost just walked off a cliff to their death. This is going to be fun. It seems we've been hit with the RPG amnesiac trope - this character has no idea who they are, where they're from etc. Well after a short cutscene, we still don't know the character's name, so welcome to the party Hatsune Pinku (the best part being there was a Hatsune Miku DLC costume for this character)!

    ​

    Back down Lhant we go... but not before another skit in which Asbel tries to explain that he came here to "see the pretty flowers", but Hubert clocks him with this absolute zinger

    ​

    We make it out of Lhant Hill and are faced with the overworld. Oooooooooh. Naturally the games wants to take me towards the next objective, so NATURALLY I'm going to do the opposite and see where I can go. Unfortunately the game is much smarter than I, barring basically any progress. One thing I want to note however, is how completely carefree this guy is about letting kids just run around with all the enemies and even try to run off into the great unknown! Especially as it seems these kids are at least of some high standing?!

    ​

    Disgraceful!!!!!!!!!!!

    As the game won't let me just waltz wherever I please (NPCs be damned), it was time to do the next best thing instead. Grind and grind and grind. Tales of Graces F uses Titles (another prominent Tales feature) in an interesting and probably my favourite way. Titles come with different unlocks - stat increases, artes and abilities to name a few - and each Title has a selection of 5 of these, which you unlock by earning SP. Each title also has a specific bonus that you get only whilst it is your active one, so you have to choose wisely! As an example, here is the title Asbel is currently using:

    ​

    As you can see, I've only unlocked 3 out of the 5 tiers here, so it's time to get this maxed out for the whole party! Whilst we do that, the game throws quite a few small tutorials at us about some of the game's combat mechanics, which seem a little confusing at first but muscle memory is starting to creep back in thankfully! A summary of some key features so far:
    1. Instead of the usual MP you see in RPGs, Artes use CC in this game
    2. Artes generally cost up to 4 CC and can be chained into one another (1CC Arte > 2CC Arte and so on up to 4)
    3. CC can be recovered in a multitude of ways, but the main ones revolve around combos, evading attacks and defeating enemies
    4. CC is generally increased via your weapon, but also some titles will have skills that increase it
    5. Examples of this include sidestepping melee attacks and dashing forward into projectiles
    There is definitely a lot more nuance and a lot more features to come, but already a nice setup and most importantly, so different to a lot of the other games! Now we've picked up some Game Mechanics and have all our titles mastered, it's time to continue the story I guess. Side note: I defeated so many enemies I've already obtained a few Soul Orbs, which you get after defeating so many enemies!

    Lhant

    Before I even get started, god I forgot just how good this game looks! Ahhhhh!!! We enter Lhant and are immediately greeted by Cheria, presumably a friend of the brothers, and she's ANGRY.

    ​

    It seems we went on our little endeavour without telling her and she's not best pleased about it. However something is afoot, as Cheria starts running towards us to kick our ass but stops, it seems she's rather unwell. She still gets mad for not being taken to Lhant Hill, but thankfully Asbel has just the solution - the flower that he picked at Lhant Hill which he totally picked for Cheria. She seems placated for now! Hatsune Pinku sees this and decides that she too must give her flower up for Cheria. How sweet... I think?

    It seems she's still clueless as to who she is though, so Cheria suggests we go see her grandad as he knows everything. He'll be able to fix it! So off we go, but not before we speak to the chickens obviously!

    ​

    Oh and obviously not before we go and speak to every other NPC possible. Otherwise I'd never get the 100 gald reward for guessing the enemies correctly OR be able to upgrade my weapons at the shop (and buy the item that lets me use Manual Mode because apparently this game hates us!!!!!! How criminal!) OR get an Apple Gel from a dog OR some Pork in someone's wardrobe! After all the FUN we finally go to OUR manor, where we see Frederic. Our butler and most importantly Cheria's gramps. It seems he does not know who this mysterious girl is, but that he can ask around town to see. Nay says Asbel, for we can do so on our own!

    However... the manor is right there... I must explore it. After a deep investigation and a hilarious skit that I forgot to take a picture of and now I'm mad, it's back to town to see what we can find out. We find the person we need to speak to, but I have better ideas. Earlier on we were quizzed by a guard nearby about some enemies, who happened to be standing by a peculiar apple tree. My RPG senses were correct, as we now get another cutscene which ends up with us getting the Discovery Book, another cool feature about this game! You can now 'discover' unique locations/landmarks throughout the game, which will yield specific rare items (which can sometimes respawn too). To demonstrate this, let's go ahead and catalogue the apple tree, family portrait in the manor and Lord Windegarde! This earns us 3 Apples and some skits.



    We meet up with Bailey who mentions a traveler, who can be found on West Lhant Road, that might be able to provide some more answers. Now I just want to stress that everyone so far has been saying we SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN OUTSIDE AND NOW WE ARE BEING ENCOURAGED TO DO SO.

    West Lhant Road


    Anyway blatant disregard for our safety aside, of course we're going to now go to our new location and find this person. Not too long into the journey we come across another Discovery Point - some Gel Seeds. We get 3 Gel Seeds for it and a skit which reveals that we can in fact use these and some Apples (HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM) to turn the seeds into Apple Gels!

    ​

    There is also an NPC (conveniently called Traveler), but it seems he just mentions the tree aka exists to make sure players check out the Discovery Point. We bumble along, until we come across a large clearing by the coast with a cottage and more importantly NPCs to interact with! Oh also before I forget: it also had this by the beach:

    ​

    Omg it's Philia from Tales of Destiny! So cool! We then approach the crowd near the hut and enter a funny cutscene where it turns out Hatsune Pinku is in fact either a clown or an assassin (and has glitchy hair)! Progress, I think! The last stop before progression is to the Turtlez NPC near the entrance, where we learn a new mechanic - Dualising! Dualising is this game's version of synthesis. There's not much too it right now, we just pick two items and they will turn into a new one. Sometimes this will produce something useful like an Apple Gel (remember the combo from earlier!), an item which you can sell for money such as the Tanned Leather, or a recipe. These recipes you can cook both in and out of battles (mechanics to follow when relevant) to restore HP and grant special effects. There are more mechanics revolving around weapons and equipment, but we'll cover that another time.

    We head back to Lhant and there's not too much of interest. We see the brothers' mother, who forbids them from playing with Cheria moving forward because of health, which does not go down too well. We now have to go see father (Aston Lhant) as he's requested us, however sidequest time first! By the way, they've included a marker for any sidequests which have some form of time limit which is a GODSEND because Tales games have a nasty habit of putting a lot of things behind timed events with little to no indication! We head over to Cheria's house for a scene where Hatsune Pinku stops Cheria's coughing for a bit and then we get an Apple Gel for our troubles. THEN it's back to the manor to see what's going on. It seems we've got a parent who's fed up of their kid goofing around, but also some important stuff comes up:
    • Someone is coming from the capital (oooooo) and we're to stay away from him (specifically, ASBEL is, lol)
    • Hatsune Pinku is going to be reported to the authorities and taken away
    Both of these things cheese Asbel off and he declares he will look after our new guest, but ALSO she says she wants to stay with Asbel. Aston scoffs at us, 'cause how could a kid possibly look after someone else lmaoooo. Before things kick off, we're interrupted by Frederic and dismissed. We also get a new title for Asbel, "Lord's Heir". I see a marker upstairs so naturally I'mma go there, and it's grave news. We overhear our parents are talking about sending one of the boys away to somewhere "for their own good", which can surely only mean sending Asbel away because he's such a rapscallion. Running along like nothing's happened, we go outside and bump into Cheria, who absolutely loses it when Asbel declares he's gunna stay with Sophie FOREVER. Being 11, Asbel is obviously oblivious to the fact Cheria is upset that her crush has got himself a forever girlfriend, she's devastated...

    But also something good does happen - we finally have a name for Hatsune Pinku! It's Tiger Festival! Wait what Asbel no, what the hell is that. As Cheria rightly says:

    ​

    Hubert bless him comes up with a much more sensible and cute suggestion - naming her after a flower as we found her conked out in a meadow. Awwwhhhhhh. Naturally said flower is the one we picked, being the Sopheria... so her new name is now Sophie! The nice scene is cut when Aston and some soldiers burst out the manor, running off with very clear urgency. Frederic soon follows with about as little urgency as humanely possible, explaining that the convoy carrying our guest from the capital has still not arrived, sparking concerns. Asbel of course decides he simply HAS to go and check it out and where Asbel goes, we all follow! Oh also Sophie got a new title: "Named after a Flower".

    East Lhant Highroad


    Right off the bat, we get a skit at the save point where Sophie says stfu Hubert you talk too much and attacks him:

    ​

    And then another Discovery Point! this time it's some Cryas Shards

    ​

    Otherwise there's not much of note here. I spend way too long trying to get a rare drop from the overworld here (as in long enough to completely master the new Titles I just got) and decide to come back later, instead triggering the next plot point. The convoy was in fact under attack and naturally Asbel runs in and naturally Aston is horrified. We win the fight and Aston berates Asbel for once again ignoring him, which Asbel seems to not understand once again why Aston is so angry at him. However Aston then shows he's not the greatest when he immediately starts grovelling to the knights. Ugh! The convoy is escorted back to Lhant and Asbel is instructed to not talk to Richard (the boy in the convoy) at all.

    Lhant


    So... Asbel obviously decides to break in through the window at the manor to see Richard. Classic. One clumsy entrance later and we're face-to-face with Richard, prince of Windor and son of the King.

    ​

    Naturally he's SUS of us all barging into his room, and Asbel tries his hardest to be friends but Richard is having none of it. Then, this absolutely shady character enters:

    ​

    You think he looks sus? Wait until you hear his voice, it's got evil written all over it. This is Bryce, Richard's sword trainer, and it's time for practice! Richard says he's not well, which naturally gets Sussy McSusserton riled up. So naturally the best course of action... is for Asbel to butt in AGAIN and say he'll take the lesson in Richard's place. Which makes ZERO sense but whatever. Bryce seems content enough, saying he'll meet us outside. So out we go and have a little tussle with Bryce, which hilariously ends with him getting fired because he provoked a child. Asbel strikes again.

    AND AGAIN AND AGAIN, NOW HE'S DECIDED TO TAKE RICHARD TO THE FLOWERS. Ahhhhhhhhhh this is gunna end so poorly ldjkfsdkgjldfgsdfg. Hubert and Cheria nope the hell out whilst Sophie is made to tag along to make sure they don't die. Perfect! Great! Also - Bailey is useless! You'd think being a named character he is probably of some importance here in Lhant and asa result PROBABLY has orders from Aston to make sure Asbel don't mess around, and yet he sees us popping off to North Lhant Road and says this:

    ​

    USELESS MAN. Anyway, guess we're off on our jolly!

    North Lhant Road


    Not much new to report here, other than an Apple Gel from the cards and another Magic Carta. This time it's No. 4 aka Garr from Tales of Destiny!

    ​

    Other than that, onward!

    Lhant Hill


    So now we have the Discovery Points feature, first stop is the Spring of Healing we came across before

    ​

    Then we are back at the meadow, which looks about 1000 times more stunning than it already did in the sunset. All that is marred however when KING OF SUS BRYCE ENTERS THE SCENE, WEAPON DRAWED AND READY TO MURDER. It's time for our first boss fight!

    Boss - Bryce

    This fight was a pain in the rear. Especially when I'm trying to get it done in under a minute in case there's an achievement for it!!!! The most annoying thing really is the fact that he casts Inverse Pressure which is strong and hits multiple times, and with the low CC I have it's very hard to dodge it. That combined with the fact Sophie does basically nothing and the first attempt was a disaster. The second time was not as bad, but it still took 51 seconds!

    With Bryce defeated, it's all good. That is, until Richard falls off the cliff and takes everyone else with him. Oh bloody fantastic we've just killed the Prince of Windor. Thankfully that's not the case, as we've somehow survived the fall. Back up we climb, grabbing an Abandoned Nest as a Discovery Point on the way. We make it back up to the meadow, where it's now morning and everyone is frantically searching for us. The trio make a bestie pact by clawing their names into a tree, and it turns into a Discovery Point - complete with cute selfie!

    ​

    We grab the skits (where Richard has a bit of an existential crsis about never having friends before and Sophie rightfully gets confuse as to why we've specifically left out Hubert and Cheria) and Pact Maker Titles, then make our way back to Lhant.

    Lhant

    Annnd we're bac- oh that's not good. Aston is immediately the first person we see. One slap across the face and an attempt from Richard later and we're now grounded forever and Hubert gets to go on vacation to the capital. Boooooooooooooooo. However this turns out to be far worse - we see their mother in tears which can mean only one thing. Hubert must be STAYING at the capital, as per their conversation earlier! We see them off annnnnd yep Asbel is getting into trouble once more. Now he's trying to pick the lock of his room... well nevermind Sophie just kicked the whole thing off its hinges. Perfect. This is going to be down great. Well literally no one seems to care about the fact we are waltzing around, so I guess we'll progress and go tothe East Lhant Highroad.

    East Lhant Highroad

    First thing first - Asbel might be saying otherwise but we get a skit where Asbel seeks revenge, pinching Sophie's cheek this time

    ​

    And then it's to the capital. Onwards! Oh neat I did actually find the rare drop whilst going through here - Magic Carta No. 1. This one is Stahn, also from Tales of Destiny. We come up to a clearing, where Asbel foolishly challenges Sophie to a race and loses REALLY badly. Otherwise, not too much to see here! We just run along, do some grinding to master our current titles so we can move onto our new Titles. We also get a new Discovery Point, which is... this.

    ​

    We then head to the Port of Barona, find a few bits there and then embark on a cruise to Barona! I will end this segment here because it is getting huge and continue in a new post! See you soon!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 6

    PokéCommunity Game-Along - Tales of Graces F


    So the last segment sapped a LOT more time than I thought it would trying to play and also put this together, so updates will probably be a bit shorter/concise so I stand a chance of getting this finished on time!

    NB: THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE GAME, SO PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND BEFORE CONTINUING!​


    Barona

    We arrive at the capital of Windor, Barona! Our goal is to reach Richard and Hubert, although upon arrival it seems Asbel has other plans also. We run into Cheria, who berates us for being here and asks what we're doing. Visiting Richard naturally, but Asbel also mentions stopping by the Knight Academy. Exciting! After scooting around town and picking everything up, we make our way to the castle and Richard's home. Upon speaking to the guard and flashing our fancy ring Richard gave us back in Lhant, the guard asks us to go to the Valkines Cryas (big crystal, has a lot of energy based on an element, important to story later) - Gloandi - to wait for him. Not long after we make it there, Richard arrives!

    After a short but sweet reunion in which we find out the King is doing OK after all (forgot to mention that they left Lhant because he became unwell), Asbel suggests hanging around town and seeing the sights. Richard says that's probably not likely due to his status, and Asbel comes up with the perfect 'solution' - make Richard the honorary big brother???? Never change Asbel. Cheria points out that it's not going to be a good idea because Asbel will just be shouting his name all the time. I think you can see where this is going...

    ...Asbel acknowledges the problem and decides a nickname is needed for Richard. Unfortunately before anyone sensible can say anything, Sophie chimes in with Tiger Festival. GodDAMMIT Asbel this is your fault!!! Richard says he loves it but I can't help but think he's just being nice. With that out of the way, Richard takes us on a tour of the city, saying he has somewhere "special" to show us. But first we pick up a few silly cutscenes and another Discovery Point - the valkines cryas.

    ​

    We head back to the Inn to get some skits and then head further east to the Knight Academy, where we come across a rather... interesting individual. He's clocked Richard, sorry I mean Tiger Festival, and his subterfuge almost immediately, but thankfully lets it go. We find out this person is called Malik. Make note of that name! Now we're done here, so it's off to the North Barona Road.

    North Barona Road

    Not a huge lot here! Just the standard picking up sparkles on the ground/chests and then a scene where Richard shows us his own scenic spot

    ​

    Things take a dark turn however. Richard goes into a speech about war and stopping conflict, before sharing with us the dark secret that his father (the King) was in fact poisoned. With that over, we get the Magic Carta No. 2 (Rutee - Tales of Destiny) and then head back to Barona.

    Barona

    As we've done everything here, it's straight to progression! And it doesn't seem too good...

    ...as we approach the Inn, none other than Aston, Hubert and another individual (soon revealed as Mr. Oswell) are there. Aston sees us despite our best efforts to 'hide'. Fully prepared to be executed on sight for what we've done, Aston instead brushes it off like it was nothing and says about joining him in the inn. Phew! We're left with Hubert who... to be honest looks pretty broken. As we recall our little adventure, Hubert seems to get upset at the mention of Richard as a brother, asking if Asbel thinks Hubert is still his brother. Well of course he is, duh! Anyway THAT over, Richard decides to sneak everyone into the castle tonight, as a way of making it up to Hubert that he's missed out on all the fun. Definitely not a recipe for disaster I'm sure! We rest at the Inn and then leave once it turns nighttime.

    We meet up with Richard at the Royal Sanctuary, which supposedly has a secret passageway into the castle. However Richard isn't there yet. So after several scenes of REALLY bad dancing (and a cat!), Cheria finally decides to call it quits. But Asbel isn't giving up that easily - he peers down the path they've ALL BEEN STANDING ON this whole time and notices a crawlspace, which we go through.

    Royal Sanctuary

    Firstly, we investigate an altar with running water to find the Water of Absolution Discovery Point and a skit. Importantly though, said skit has Hubert saying he won't always be around to explain things to Asbel, interesting.

    ​

    And then it's straight into the other altar to enter the secret passageway.

    Barona Catacombs

    So there isn't much in here, but boy we have a fun task ahead of us. Remember those Orbs we've been getting for defeating a certain number of enemies? Yeah I need to get those for the enemies in here because things change and they become much harder to get for these particular enemies. Which is fine, apart from the fact they've absolutely catapulted in terms of difficulty? Loads more HP, crazy damage on counterhits and magic is now being involved. After quite a painful 30 minutes, we manage to get this done and move on, where we face our next boss!

    Monarch Bat

    TLDR it's a big bat and has two cronies. It also has two spells and they're really horrible. Dark Sliver is a multihitting single target spell and Photon Strike hits three times, each doing AoE and large damage. Enough damage to kill Hubert during this fight. Once the cronies are down, the boss itself isn't too bad and we clean up quite quickly.

    NOW things go absolutely nuts. We're suddenly greeted with Richard who is knocked out on the floor and... this absolute monstrosity that makes everything else seen so far pale in comparison:

    ​

    Sophie and Asbel take a crack at it, however they're no match. Asbel runs in once more and gets literally stabbed by this thing's claws. Flat out impaled and thrown into the ceiling. Sophie launches herself at it once more, seemingly beating it. As Sophie tends to Asbel however... she's also impaled. But something's not right, she's not bleeding and instead there are sparkles coming out of her. Before we can process that however, she goes berserk and charges the monster once more and then literally explodes. The rest fades to black...

    Lhant


    ...and we're now back in Lhant. Aston comes in and brings grave news, but also confusing news. Richard is reported to have had nothing to do with the incident (?????? he was literally right there), and Sophie has been proclaimed dead. It seems to have not fazed Aston however, he's now back in his old ways. No time for grief, he immediately launches into a lecture about how Asbel's actions have directly caused her death and that he needs to start listening to Aston and become the next Lord of Lhant. Asbel decides he needs to apologise to everyone else for what has happened, however there's some more bad news. The news we've been somewhat expecting at this point.

    Hubert is not here anymore either. Don't worry, he's not dead! Remember Mr. Oswell that we saw outside the Inn in Barona? It seems that Aston had organised for him to adopt Hubert, presumably for some form of political strength/position. Asbel loses it and declares that he is not going to become the Lord of Lhant, and instead will be training to become a knight. Seems like your plan has gone to the dogs Aston, you fool! Asbel storms out and sees that Cheria has been somewhat eavesdropping, which causes another argument and poor Cheria almost loses her only friend. Asbel however calms down and agrees to stay for the time being.

    SIKE. We're transitioned to a letter being read out. A letter from Asbel to Cheria saying that actually he's gone, see ya! He's decided becoming a knight is the only thing that will ease his conscience. Asbel is then seen outside of the Knight Academy.

    And then we undergo a 7-year timeskip, ending the childhood segment of the game! OK fun! Exciting! AND WE'RE THROWN IMMEDIATELY INTO A BATTLE OWIEJRTIFGJELWGE. ALSO IS THAT A FAMILIAR VOICE I HEARD SAYING TO LOOK OUT?

    Timeskip - Orlen Forest

    So we're in a battle and immediately prompted to hit A when attacking. Doing so after I've recovered from whiplash, it seems we have a new attack, oooooh. Welcome to B-Artes! These are more reminiscent of the typical "artes" in other Tales games. It's just... Asbel does it weird. You press A to unsheathe your sword and then can do B-Artes with the same button. However you cannot then go into A-Artes, as using B sheathes the weapon instead, stopping the B-Artes. Right OK got it thanks game I think.

    The battle is over, and my hunch is correct - it seems we're doing a mission with none other than Malik! Our mission is checking out a nearby village called Orlen. Before we head off though, Malik is here to give us another mechanic, yayyyyyyyyyyy. We are handed the Eleth Mixer, which transforms surrounding Eleth into all sorts of magical and wonderful things. You can use it to cook recipes in/after battles with ease, duplicate items and much more. We get a bit more used to our new characters (oh yeah, Malik has joined the party. Fun, our first caster!) and then run through the forest, picking up the Morino Flowers Discovery Point.

    ​

    We get a skit here, in which we kinda see grown-up Asbel properly for the first time and... he seems completely different. Super disciplined, is following the orders of Malik and seems dead inside. Anyway we continue on to the little "village" (just one building but pop off I guess) to see what's going on. You guessed it, time for more mechanics! We chase down an enemy and end up in a 1v1 fight with Asbel. The monster has an odd red aura and seems to take no damage. Behold magical new Arte we just learned which magically disables the aura, neat! After playing around with that mechanic for a little bit, the best is slain and the mission complete.

    We make our way back to Lhant, but on the way we stop off at a familiar point. The same point where we were with Richard 7 years ago and he told us his dad was poisoned. It is here that Malik tells Asbel he's ready to recommend Asbel as a fully-fledged knight. We've done it chaps, we've become a knight!

    Well... sorta anyway. I saved and then turned the game off because I am getting super tired and not really playing much xd. And as a result the journal ends too, until next time!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress

     
    Last edited:


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 7

    PokéCommunity Game-Along - Tales of Graces F


    NB: THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE GAME, SO PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND BEFORE CONTINUING!​

    Barona

    We're back in the capital, 7 years! The first thing we immediately encounter is a Discovery Point - Ice Pops!

    ​

    This is actually quite cute - for reference when we were here last, there was a small girl who said she had a groundbreaking idea. Nothing more is said, however her mother mentions how silly it is because how could someone use Eleth to keep something frozen. It seems that's exactly what this girl went on to do though! Props. Otherwise it's just more exploring before the next progression point. We do pick up Magic Carta No. 30 (Arche from Tales of Phantasia) and another Discovery Point - Headmaster's Bust.



    We finish up collecting everything and in doing so, we get two more game features unlocked - Stamp Cards and Requests. Stamp Cards are basically the same as they are IRL: buy/sell/dualise at the shops in town and you get stamps. 10 stamps = a new item available, with this continuing until you become the VIP and unlock something. Requests are found at Inns in each town and are basically fetch quests. Find X, receive Y reward. Simple enough! We clear all the requests bar one and then continue the plot.

    We head back to the Knight Academy to complete Asbel's promotion and... wait who's that we see by the entrance?

    ​

    It's none other than Cheria all grown up! Does this mean she's better? Or is this something so perilous that she's come here regardless? Unfortunately it's the latter. After a very brief catch-up, Cheria mentions that Asbel's mother has been asking for Asbel to come back for a while now and asks if Asbel received her letter, to which he says he did not as he was on a mission. It turns out that unfortunately Lord Aston - Asbel's father - is dead. After reading the letter, it appears that tensions between Lhant and a neighbouring Fendel have risen to violence and as a result was the cause of death. With Lady Kerri - Asbel's mother - now bedridden with grief, Cheria has been tasked to find Asbel and ask the Knights to aid Lhant in fending off Fendel's tyranny. This suddenly escalated! It's time to head home to Lhant for the first time in 7 years and see what this is all about.

    Barona Port

    Nothing of interest at the actual port, however on taking the boat back to Lhantside, we do have a cutscene in which Cheria reveals her illness has... gone? Supposedly just after the incident seven years ago it mysteriously vanished.

    East Lhant Highroad

    We make it almost back to Lhant and we're then ambushed by some enemies. At this point Cheria still doesn't battle, so it's played as Asbel protecting Cheria. After the battle, it seems Cheria has done more than just gotten over her illness, as she then casts a healing arte on us. The creepy thing is she's using the same light we noticed we were using against the wolf in Orlen Village, and it seems to have been happening at the same time as Asbel's! Also it looks like the last seven years have taken their toll on Cheria, when she coldly dismisses Asbel during the cutscene, brutal...

    Lhant

    Everything is chaos here and made even worse when World's Worst NPC Bailey arrives, telling us that Lhant is being invaded by Fendel and Frederic has been kidnapped. It's time to spring into action and by action, I mean run around all of Lhant and find all the loot! Once we get everything (including a chest where I had to put in Iron Sword's physical attack, which I had to look up online cause I've upgraded mine!), it's time to see what is going on. Oh also we got Magic Carta No. 29, Mint from Tales of Phantasia.

    ​

    North Lhant Road

    We catch up to the Fendel forces and manage to save Frederic. All seems well, until we see TANKS rolling up! It seems we're doomed, but Asbel has gotten intelligent during the timeskip and concocts a plan - drag the tanks to Lhant Hill and force them off the cliff. Asbel gets their attention, and we now have to run back to Lhant Hill without the tank catching us. Naturally I let it catch me and try to fight it. I 100% could've done this fight but the game forces you out of it, boooooo.

    Lhant Hill

    The tanks catch up and we manage to lure one off the edge, however we get outnumbered and it seems like it's all over... until a magical pink light shines down - SOPHIE'S BACK!!!!! She kamehamehas all the tanks into oblivion apart from one, which becomes our next boss battle!

    Helmcrusher

    This is quite an easy fight. The boss hits a little hard and it does manage to kill Cheria in one hit, but that only happened once and other than that one attack it didn't pose much of a threat.

    With the tanks gone and Lhant saved for now, it's time to figure out what the heck is going on. Sophie died seven years ago, why is she here? What's even weirder is that it's apparent that whoever this is has also lost her memory. Asbel tries to jog her memory by showing the pact they made on the tree seven years ago (cue this hilarious bit where Cheria just has to sit there and see the pact Asbel specifically didn't make with her lmaooooo).

    ​

    For now, we head back to Lhant with Mysterious Girl #2 and see how everyone is faring.

    Lhant

    To our relief, it seems the town is safe. Bailey informs us that Fendel have withdrawn for now but have a camp set up. I smell the next plot point... after speaking to everyone Asbel decides to withdraw from the Academy and become the next Lord of Lhant. If only you had done this seven years ago Asbel instead of leaving in a strop.................. bruh. That said, he's also decided the DAY he's done this to go and put himself in danger, as he organises an offensive to remove the Fendel camp once and for all.

    North Lhant Road

    As we get closer to our next destination, two things happen. We unlock the Evil difficulty! This is even harder than what I am on at the moment and is unlocked by fighting in 200 battles on Hard (after the timeskip), so time to switch to that!

    ​

    Cheria then gets mad at Asbel for calling Sophie? Sophie, saying he needs to accept reality. Asbel says that he already does, as well as dropping this casual banger acknowledging he knows Cheria's been off towards him for a while now.

    ​

    Before progressing to the Seafloor Cavern, I decide to do a LOT of grinding - namely to get 3 Shattered Bones for some Requests and also to do some tempering. Tempering is another feature of dualising, where you apply Shards (dropped from enemies) to weapons to increase the stats and give them extra effects. You then use these weapons in combat to temper them. Once tempered, you can then dualise them with other tempered weapons to create Gems. These Gems will take some of the properties of the weapons and combine them, creating an accessory you can equip to boost your stats. With that now out of the way, it's progression time!

    Seafloor Cavern

    Standard dungeon affair. Run around and grab the loot, beat the enemies (the slimes in here are REALLY annoying. they love to duplicate and poison and hit hard on Evil difficulty) and also grab some Discovery Points. It's been a while! We find the Glintsoul Colony and



    After some more swimming, it's time to face the boss!

    Queen Slime

    This boss fight was HORRID. It starts off OK but the boss then spawns in small slimes and they get out of control pretty fast for the AI to deal with. I had to restart this fight on this difficulty several times, but after some good RNG and item management, we finally win!

    After exiting the cavern, we reach Fendel's camp but something seems a little off. As we go further in, we find out that Fendel have also conducted a sneak attack and are heading to Lhant as we speak! Before I rush back though to save Lhant, better pick up the Discovery Point here first!

    ​

    We get back to Lhant on the double and it's not looking good. There's fighting breaking out everywhere and it seems things get even worse when someone sees more troops coming. However, these seem a little different. Lead by an eerily familiar face, these troops from Strahta lay waste to the Fendelian troops. Before we can do much however, we're surrounded and thrown into battle, with none other than Hubert! This fight was actually pretty annoying because of the constant shooting, but we pull through and Fendel is forced to retreat. Hubert then addresses the people of Lhant, advising that he came back from Strahta to save them and that Strahta and Windor have now allied against Fendel. Then he walks off without saying a single word to anyone. Rude!

    The next day Hubert finally decides to talk to us, dunking on Asbel for deciding to abandon his family and now come back to play Lord. I mean, he's not entirely wrong... we meet him in the study. Hubert tells us that due to the Windor-Strahta alliance, Strahta now control Lhant and as a result Hubert has been appointed governer. So basically, Asbel gave up his dream to become Lord and that's now not happening either. Really seems that decision seven years ago is REALLY not playing out for you now, huh. Hubert challenges us to a fight, in which we need to leave Lhant if we lose. Of course I'm gunna w- oh nevermind it's a forced loss. Boooooooo. What's even sadder is the scene after, in which Hubert says to his mother about how she isn't his mother anymore after abandoning him all those years ago. Everything's falling apart and Hubert is turning into quite the villain!!!

    East Lhant Highroad

    With nowhere else to go, Asbel decides it's time to go back to Barona. We don't get very far however, before we come across two knights from Barona. They seem to be out to arrest or something though, but we don't really get to find out because Sophie duffs them up and we have to run away.

    Port to Barona

    It seems there's a commotion here, as the port is busier than usual. We don't have time to investigate though, as the knights are back! We hop onto the ferry and into Barona proper.

    Barona

    The knights catch up again. Here they tell us that both the King and Richard are dead! It seems we are suspects in this, and that's why they're after us. So naturally, we compound that by running away. After a quick detour to deal with any requests and to sort our items, we end up at the Royal Sanctuary and break in. Then we enter the Catacombs.

    Barona Catacombs

    We make our way into the catacombs and not too long in, we come across another familiar face...

    ​

    It seems it's Richard! So he's not dead! The reunion is however cut short, as more knights enter the scene, also surprised that Richard is alive. Although something feels a bit off when they say it. We're on the run once more, Richard advising there is an exit nearby. It appears that said exit is in fact the very same sealed door that Asbel swore revenge on when we were here 7 years ago. And it opened, Asbel wins! There's not much else beyond that, other than the Massive Skeleton Discovery Point.

    ​

    South Barona Highroad

    We finally escape the Catacombs, next stop is some shelter so Richard can rest. OR SO HE THINKS. Exploring time! Firstly we grab the Discovery Point, Puffpetal Down.

    ​

    Before then grabbing all the other items we can. We stop off at the nearby hut, where Richard tells us what happened. His father was murdered by the knights and it seems neither of them were aware of Strahta allying with Windor at all. Something suspicious is afoot. We don't get to speculate for long though, as Sophie warns us of someone coming. More knights, nooooo. After a really annoying fight (constant paralysis very annoying!), Richard then reveals these are knights serving the Archduke Cedric, who has been planning to take the throne for a long time. Richard says we need to get to Gralesyde where he will form an army and avenge his father. Everyone agrees to join Richard and forms a pack just like they did before.

    As Sophie puts her hand in though, something dark comes out of Richard's hand. Not ominous at all. Richard seems fine though, so we carry on our journey to Gralesyde. We end up at Wallbridge, which is basically what its name suggests: a wall on a bridge. Unfortunately more of Cedric's men are stationed there. Whilst Asbel and Richard are deliberating what to do, Sophie wanders off and finds...
    ...
    ...
    ...
    ...
    ...
    THE BEST CHARACTER IN THE GAME YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SAY HI TO PASCAL EVERYONE

    ​

    Pascal makes a crazy entrance, claiming she knows all about Sophie. Could the reincarnation mystery be solved? Just WHO is she? Can we get her memories back????? Pascal runs off, saying it's easier if she shows us, so off we go.

    To the end of this segment that is! Tying it up here so the journal isn't too long again. Until next time!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress

     
    Last edited:


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 8

    PokéCommunity Game-Along - Tales of Graces F


    We're picking up a bit of steam now and most importantly I now have the best character in the game, so it's upwards from here! Time to get right back into it!

    NB: THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE GAME, SO PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND BEFORE CONTINUING!​

    Wallbridge Ruins


    So after WAY too much time trying to steal a Roe from an enemy here (and I guess as a result getting some good title grinding done), let's check out these ruins Pascal has told us about (and yes, my Richard has the Zelos costume on. And what.).

    ​

    Oh this is... this is a weird place. We've not seen anything like this even hinted so far, exciting! Pascal tells us that this was built by the Amarcians, whoever they were. There's not too much to explore right now, although the gimmick of the dungeon seems to be floating platforms that take you from island to island. We do manage to get some chests after taking one of them upwards. Then it's back down to what appears to be some sort of codex, which Pascal says lets her see "illusions". As we investigate, a boss sneaks up on us!

    Mercurius

    Another horrible boss fight. It seemed OK at first, until I realised that it had petrified 3 of my party. Once I figured out THAT mechanic and how telegraphed it was, I thought it would be easy. Apart from the AI is too dumb to realise and get away, so they just kept dying. And then the boss changes things up by instead doing a full-screen attack which poisons you. It doesn't do a lot of damage, however if you're already poisoned and low HP, it's enough to then take you out. We manage to do it first try, but it was a mission and half for sure.

    Battle over, we're back to the slab and Pascal VERY helpfully tells us how to activate it:

    ​

    See? It's a cinch! Or not. Asbel manages to make something get super angry and make angry noises, so he turns it off and Pascal shows us instead. We're then greeted with the "illusion", which seems to be an exact replica of Sophie. Unfortunately the machine seems to break shortly after and Sophie still has no memory of anything. Shucks, how useless! The only thing we garner from it is the word "lambda". Useful for later, remember it! Before we carry on we make sure to grab the Discovery Point here.

    ​

    Some more zooming around on platforms later and we get two things of importance: our first Book and another Discovery Point. Books can be placed into the Eleth Mixer for various effects. We have the Book of Maintenance, which lets us recover up to 5% Eleth after each battle if nothing was cooked.

    ​

    We finally make it to the end, but I spy another way I haven't gone. Thankfully this nets me all the remaining treasure, as well as another portal that seems to lead directly into Wallbridge, interesting. We then use the remaining exit to leave the ruins.

    Gralesyde Highroad

    We've cleared Wallbridge! Nice work Pascal and thank you Amarcians! As we carry on to Gralesyde, this rather funny moment happens:

    ​

    Damn, I didn't know these costumes were that good. We head on until we reach a cutscene in which Richard acts rather oddly, shouting at Sophie when she comes close to him. Something ain't right I'm telling you! Otherwise it's uneventful between here and Gralesyde, apart from some lovely potatoes and Magic Carta No. 6 - Chelsea from Tales of Destiny.



    ​

    Gralesyde

    Oh brother, knights at the ent- oh ok these seem like safe people. Hoorah! Mostly just zipping around to talk to everyone + get loot, we do in turn get the Bells of Glory Discovery Point and also Magic Carta No. 31, Claus from Tales of Phantasia.

    ​

    Now I did notice some of the requests mentioned going to Old Grale Highroad, so I decide to head there before progressing the story.

    Old Grale Highroad

    Seems uneventful at first, but then we come across an NPC seemingly just standing there with a smile on their face. After a few times interacting, it seems they were pretending to not know about bandits, before ambushing us. One painful battle later and the person we are meant to save comes out, giving us no thanks and saying he doesn't need our help. Gee, thanks! I take one step forward and... this is happening?

    ​

    Now for those not in the know, Sylphie and all derivatives tends to be the summon spirit of Wind and normally these spirits play quite an important role in the PLOT of the game. Not just found randomly like this! I wonder if I have perhaps come here earlier than I am "supposed" to. Either way, got a cool title (and a mystic arte!) and a request item from it. After carrying on down the path and seeing this loops back to Lhant (this is the road which at the beginning you're told you can't go down because of bandits), we go back to Gralesyde, picking up some lovely Carrots on the way.

    ​

    As we've now done all the requests I can do right now and some more grinding, it's time to visit Duke Dalen. He seems nice enough and doesn't have any vibes that immediately scream SUS AS HELL, so that's a plus considering the recent goings-on. It seems things are even more dire than expected - Cedric has control of Barona and the surrounding areas whilst Strahta has taken control of other areas and could potentially be able to cut off cryas supply to Windor. No cryas means nothing works, so pretty serious!

    The only way we have any chance of defeating Cedric is to go through the scary fortress we saw earlier, Wallbridge. However this is obviously crazy and will never work... but what if we had another way. Remember the other warp we found in the ruins? Because Pascal does! Our plan is to use this warp to infiltrate Wallbridge and then open it from the inside out, allowing the army to come in unopposed. We have a cute little scene between Asbel and Richard, but Sophie is eavesdropping and seems to not be able to shake the feeling that there's something wrong with Richard. Oh no, that's not good!

    The next morning, we ride on to Wallbridge! Or so they think, hehe. As it's something important to the story, that means it can wait! Time to go back to Duke Dalen's manor and pick up all sorts of wonderful things. Firstly, a new Discovery Point - the Message in a Bottle

    ​

    And then not one, but FOUR Magic Carta cards!




    And last of all, we waltz into the Duke's room and find a Book of Wealth. This grants us extra money at the end of battles. Finally, I might not be so poor! We head to the ruins and activate the teleporter as per these wise words from the GOAT:

    ​

    Wallbridge

    So the plan here is to raise up both sides of the bridge - one to let US in and one to keep THEM out. Therefore firstly we had to raise the north side of the bridge. Thankfully this is super easy - we grab the treasure we can and then find the lever for the north side of the bridge. We pull this, go and find the 300 Year-Old Barrel Discovery Point and then the harder part begins.

    ​

    Now we have to deal with the south side. This however requires a key to do, which is in the central part of the bridge. We waltz through, getting all the loots and shizz, then we finally make it to the key. However it seems someone else also had the same idea, as we get ambushed by a knight who manages to reach Richard and seemingly wound him quite badly. The knight is caught to prevent reinforcements and... uhoh. Richard is getting back up, but something isn't right. Just call it a hunch, but someone who looks like this kinda fails the vibe check...

    ​

    And well, said hunch seems to be correct! Richard goes on a rampage, throwing the knight to the floor and slashing them non-stop, until Asbel finally manages to shake Richard out of his stupor. It seems Sophie's hunch was spot on. One thing of note here is how the game makes a point of properly showing you how Richard seems to have one 'normal' eye and one red one. Another thing is how Richard's wound seems to have healed up completely fine. I'm kinda worried that we're somewhat alone with Richard now, can I swap side?!

    We don't have much choice but to carry on though, so we grab the Fortress Key and make haste for the next lever. With not much fuss we manage to make it to the other lever, letting in Richard's army. And then we decide to leave, however someone has other plans. Someone who happens to throw a boomerang-like blade weapon... no it can't be... oh no it's Captain Malik! Surely he's here to save us right? WRONG. This bozo has decided to serve the new king as per his knightly orders blah blah ew grossssssss. Obviously this means we have to kick his ass.

    Captain Mailk

    DISGUSTING FIGHT. EW. GROSS. I'M STARTING TO THINK I NEED TO ACTUALLY LOOK AT MY PARTY BECAUSE OH MY CHRIST/. First off, even his adds are annoying enough. They do good damage have almost the same HP as the boss and cause bloody paralysis on hit. They were very annoying as they were also constantly targeting Sophie when she was healing or me as Pascal when casting spells. Then comes Malik. Huge range on his A-Artes and his spells hit like a TRUCK and are cast at super fast speed. Basically I had to rely on the AI fending for themselves whilst rushing the adds and then a lucky Eleth Burst (this game's overlimit) meant I could use Pascal's fancy Mystic Arte to take out most of his HP and win the fight. This was after about ten attempts prior to that.

    The fight is over, just in time for Duke Dalen to have taken over Wallbridge. We did it! Malik surrenders himself and Richard starts acting a bit weird again. He's talking about killing Malik for being a traitor, but as he goes to do so, he starts saying about how this isn't him doing it before regaining control it seems and having Malik etc. locked up. As Richard leaves, Sophie notices that Cheria is in the fortress, seemingly tending to the wounded. We catch up with Cheria, who informs us that she is now part of a volunteer relief organisation. She goes around after battles and stuff and tends to the wounded. Sad, but incredibly nice of her! We head off to Duke Dalen and Richard, but not before Cheria tells Pascal off for being a gamer and skipping her baths!

    ​

    We then get a taste of the 'real' Richard it seems. Firstly he's forgotten who Cheria is (there is more as to why this is the case, but nuh-uh not telling yet!) and then asks her to not heal any of the prisoners, as he is going to execute them. Asbel begs him to reconsider, but Richard responds by drawing his weapon at Asbel. Richard has another funny turn and is taken away; Asbel is then suspended from duty until further notice for his "recent behaviour". Poor Asbel can't catch a break! The suspension thankfully is lifted, but now we have to "stay away" from Richard. Guh, at this rate we're going to be exiled to the middle of the ocean!

    Cheria comes back in (to which Pascal asks if she's finished "zapping" the wounded, I don't think it works like that...) and the party decides to stay in the area and continue fighting for Richard as advised. Cheria in turn asks to join us, as people will surely need healing in Barona when the time comes for battle.

    With Richard now gone and Cheria back, I think this is a good time to stop the journal for now. Until next time!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 9

    PokéCommunity Game-Along - Tales of Graces F


    So the nations seem to be on the verge of war, our friends and family are ditching us left and right and we've picked up a crazy scientist! Can it get any wilder? Let's find out!

    NB: THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE GAME, SO PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND BEFORE CONTINUING!​


    Wallbridge Ruins

    Before we go any closer to Barona, there is one more segment we need to do here. Doesn't progress the plot or anything, but gets us a lot of goodies. Now I did have a bit of a scare as I thought I had progressed too far to access this, but it seems that there is just a really short window where you can't access the ruins. We grab everything and head back to Wallbridge, where we are told that Richard wishes for us to be a commando unit (i.e. doesn't want us near him still), which is fine by us! We head off in that case to our designated spot.

    South Barona Highroad

    Suddenly this place is swarming with soldiers, but it's nice to know they're not chasing us for once. After speaking to everyone to get some nice items and getting all the skits, we see that the capital has been closed off and we cannot access it. And more importantly, neither can the army. We head to our spot and are told that Richard and a small unit have come through here recently. Interesting.

    Barona Catacombs

    OMG we're here AGAIN! I wonder what misfortune befalls us this time, groooaaaaannnnn. Not much here in the usual areas, but as we get to The Room, there is another pathway to take. In this pathway is a door leading to a Discovery Point, the Graves of the Unsung.

    ​

    Castle Secret Passage

    We make way down the new corridor and then bump into Richard and a load of dead knights. Richard claims that he was ambushed and his men slain, however I am not so sure about that now... look all I'm going to say is if a room looks like this:

    ​

    And Richard is the only one standing, I'm going to say that he probably killed them all! We carry on until we get another scene where Richard changes from normal Richard to Very Serious And Evil Richard. After that, we solve some block puzzles and get two things of note: a Book of Suppression (double Eleth at the end of a battle if we hit all enemy weak points) and another Discovery Point, the Twin Vases.

    ​

    I've noticed I've been bringing up some combat terms that probably don't make much sense right now, so will take a detour to explain those.

    Eleth Burst

    For existing Tales players, this is essentially this game's Overlimit. For those not, this is a mode where once you fill up a gauge on the left side of the screen, you get a few things:
    1. Infinite CC, including being able to loop back from a 4-CC A-Arte back to a 1-CC A-Arte to start the combo all over again
    2. Mystic Artes can be performed (more on this shortly)
    3. Enemies can't block as easily
    During this period, you can also increase the number of gauges by dealing damage/doing combos. The more bars, the better a Mystic Arte you can do. There is a caveat though - the enemy ALSO has the same gauge and can therefore also go into the same state, including being able to Mystic Arte (applicable only to bosses really).

    Mystic Artes

    These are essentially 'special' artes that can only be used during Eleth Burst, done by holding a button whilst going an attack during it. The game will show a special cut-in screen for your character doing their attack and normally do a lot of damage to at least one, but normally several, enemies.

    Weak Spots

    Enemies will show different attributes in their info (Aquatic, Machine, Insect, etc.), these are their Weak Spots. Your Artes also have these same attributes. Hitting an enemy with one will attack the Weak Spot. Doing so will increase combo damage for a short period of time, which increases with each Weak Spot you hit. Doing this to all Weak Spots in a combo will make the rest of the combo do full bonus damage, as well as contribute to things like bonus SP and stuff at the end of the battle.

    OK back to the game!

    Castle Interior

    Nooooo more knight enemieeeessssss, stoooooooooop. This place is a death trap for me, these enemies are just brutal. We manage to grab everything including the Discovery Point and then we're into our next boss fight (oh brother...).

    ​

    So er this went so terribly I haven't done it and turned the game off, so will cut this entry short until I muster up the patience to try again.

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 10

    PokéCommunity Game-Along - Tales of Graces F


    We ended on a low note, with a boss that posed us a seemingly impossible challenge. After a little break, I now am looking to try again!

    NB: THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE GAME, SO PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND BEFORE CONTINUING!​


    Barona Castle

    I load up the save... time to get this boss battle hopefully done...

    Victoria

    This was probably one of the hardest boss fights on this difficulty I've faced in any Tales game/playthrough. She hits hard, hits fast and prioritises casters, meaning my healers had a really rough time. This coupled with her insane HP meant I couldn't seem to just get her close enough to dying. The one time I managed, she fired off her own Mystic Arte and wiped out half of my party immediately. In the end I have to actually turn down the difficulty, lest I get stuck here. Just a sign I need to grind a bit more at some point!

    After this battle, it's straight into another one, fun!

    Cedric

    We're finally face-to-face with Richard's uncle. Another annoying fight! This isn't AS bad as Victoria, but the fact he gets his Mystic Arte so fast means it potentially becomes an instant kill for at least one person (because the AI is too stupid to just stay away during his Eleth Burst). Again for the sake of time, I actually just turn down the difficulty for this fight.

    With Cedric now defeated, Richard exacts his revenge. Does go a little overboard though, killing him and then making sure to stab him once more. With that now done, Richard takes back the throne, but it seems he now has his eye on ruling the ENTIRE world. This doesn't bode well!

    Now that's all over, Richard wants to see us like right away? What happened to the whole stay away from the King nonsense and being essentially outcast from the main group?! Richard's doing more up and down than a yo-yo right now. We are notified that Richard has decided to not execute the prisoners (yay!) but is now deciding to invade Lhant because of the Strahtan occupation (no!). What's worse, he wants Asbel to lead the invasion on Lhant (no!!!!!). Asbel pleads, asking to be an envoy and see if he can convince Hubert and Strahta to leave. Richard agrees, followed by a really creepy scene about looking after Asbel once he's left the room.

    We bring the news back to Cheria and co. and obviously they're appalled! As we all decide to set off to Lhant, only bloody Malik walks in and asks to join us too. That was a quick release! With Malik in tow, we will now traipse our merry way to Lhant to stop this invasion! But first, we do a lil grinding to try and make up for the deficit we seem to have as highlighted in the last few boss fights. Oh we get some Magic Carta too, being numbers 5, 7 and 41 (Leon, Mary and Presea).

    Lhant

    As we're still in exile somewhat, we have to sneak into our own hometown via the nearby canal. Ewwww. We head to the manor to try and explain the situation to Hubert. He doesn't really let us get a word in though and unfortunately it seems Windor has other plans, as they've decided to attack Lhant anyway. It seems we were used as scapegoats! We go outside to see what's going on and see none other than Richard. It seems Richard is fully embracing his evil side now and attacks Hubert and almost kills him. However, Sophie jumps in to save him, same as seven years ago. Sophie seems to have regained her memory, but also Richard is talking to Sophie as if they've fought previously? Just what DID happen all those years ago? We don't have time to really think about that, as Richard then goes full evil sicko mode and we're thrust right into a boss battle!

    ​

    Richard?

    Firstly, ew gross we have this Nova mechanic again. Nova enemies have a shield which makes them not stagger etc. until it is disabled via a Nova arte of your own. After a while, this aura gets enabled. This fight started off quite easy - his attacks are quite easy to dodge and thankfully everyone has enough Nova tech now that generally his aura gets disabled immediately. I do use an All-Divide which halves all damage dealt, as this allows everyone to survive his Mystic Arte much easier.

    However, as the fight progresses he adds new moves to his arsenal, and these are annoying. His most annoying is the spell Shade Imperial, name because he casts it in the middle of your combo and it hits enough times to kill everyone immediately. He also started spamming the same spells 2/3 times in succession. However after a bit of a slog, we wear him down and defeat him.

    Richard however is having NONE of it. He starts raging once more, threatening to engulf the town with some dark energy. Sophie retaliates with energy of her own and overpowers him, forcing Richard and his army to retreat for now. It also seems that Sophie has regained more of her memory, which is amazing! It also I think humbles everyone - especially Hubert. Things however are still tense in and around Lhant - Windor sits on one border and Fendel still sits on another, and Strahta grow impatient as nothing has been done about their cryas production. That however is a Hubert problem, we're off back to the meadow where we first met with Sophie as we enter the next arc of the game!

    Lhant Hill

    Nothing of real interest here, just a convo between some mates about the good ol' times. Back to Lhant!

    Lhant

    We return to Lhant and find out that Hubert is indeed getting called back to Strahta for being a naughty boy and not doing what he was told. Devastated to hear this, Asbel asks if Hubert wuld instead stay at Lhant and Asbel go to Strahta instead. This in theory would buy Hubert some time to try and get Lhant back on its feet and safe for the future, and also possibly not have him recalled/stripped of his title. Hubert agrees, giving Asbel a letter to give to the President in Yu Liberté. Hubert's Aide comes in afterwards, furious at this proposal. It is revealed that the Aide is in fact Raymond Oswell, a member of the family that took Hubert in seven years ago. It seems he has a HUGE chip on his shoulder about it and we see why. After Hubert leaves the room, Raymond starts cussing about how he was just about to take control of Lhant and needs to stop Asbel. Cheria has been at the door the whole time, but is unfortunately caught by a soldier and Raymond then finds her and takes her away.

    The gang meet up and decide to make haste to Strahta. However Cheria is missing! Where could she be. It's OK, friendly and helpful Raymond lets us know and definitely isn't suspicious at all no ma'am (you can't hear it obviously but the music definitely sets the scene a lot better lmao, if you want to listen along, click here).

    ​

    Hubert steps in and basically says screw you Raymond, don't be dumb and give Cheria back. Raymond's EPIC response is to... stab himself. Yep, his plan fell through and this is the response. Anyway, after a quick trip out of town we find Cheria, save her and Cheria/Asbel finally make up! After that it was time to finally head for Strahta. Well, first I had a LOT of grinding to be done, as I wanted to finish the last request I could do in Lhant. This meant having to walk around until I made an item in the Eleth Mixer, which meant lots of time to fight enemies! In doing so, I unlocked the Chaos difficulty, because things didn't get painful enough as is!

    After doing this finally, we hop on the shift and it's Yu Liberté time! Just before we reach our destination, we cut to a scene where Dalen is scolding Richard for being up and about despite being wounded. Richard seems to be getting worse and worse, and even Dalen has picked up on it. I mean I get it, I'd be worried if my king suddenly started doing this too (reminder this is not his normal costume):

    ​

    Anyway, back to the gang. Our first stop in Strahta is Oul Raye!

    Oul Raye

    Upon arrival, we're advised that something called the Rockgagong is blocking the way to our destination. Naturally. Obviously. With no idea what the hell this thing is, we decide to head to Sable Izolle and see what we can find out. Whilst walking around the town here, we get a note from a Turtlez Tot which seems to have some co-ordinates on, like a treasure map! OMG! Must FIND! We then find Magic Carta No. 32, Suzu from Tales of Phantasia

    ​

    AND a Discovery Point finally! This one is the Stone of Truth.

    ​

    There's not much else here, so progression timmmmmme.

    Strahta Cragland

    Well this is a shock to the system. I'm not sure if it's because I've jumped up a difficulty or not, but some of these enemies are brutal. The humanoid ones in particular are horrendous. Not too much of note here other than a side area that we definitely will visit later on (with some goodies as a result but also really high level enemies), Magic Carta No. 20 (Raven from Tales of Vesperia) and another Discovery Point. Then it's straight on to Sable Izolle.



    ​

    Sable Izolle

    So we get some more Magic Carta - Yuri and Rita from Tales of Vesperia - after we witness the military coming under fire for attempting to take out the Rockgagong. An ominous man walks on-screen to tell us about not being able to please everyone, before waltzing off-screen nonchalantly. Then we find another Magic Carta, this time it's No. 33 aka Chester from Tales of Phantasia. By the Research Tower we find the Daunting Book Discovery Point (which Asbel breaks lol)

    ​

    In the tower itself, we find another Discovery Point in the Somnosphere

    ​

    Annnnnd another unprompted scene in which Pascal suddenly can now summon Undine. Fabulous.

    ​

    After dealing with requests etc. here, it's time to move on to the Rockgagong. However, am tired so this will be a good time to stop. Until next time!
    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 11

    PokéCommunity Game-Along - Tales of Graces F


    Took a bit of a longer break than anticipated, but we're so back! Time to get out of this Rockgagong.

    NB: THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE GAME, SO PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND BEFORE CONTINUING!​


    Inside the Rockgagong

    We've been swallowed by the fabled Rockgagong and ended up in its rather vacuous stomach, so we have to find our way out and preferably through the correct end! Not much goes on here other than exploring the area and clearing out the parasites we find along the way, which are causing the Rockgagong's anger. We do find two Discovery Points though - the Golden Smile and the Enormous Egg.



    Otherwise, it's boss time!

    Entrails Parasite

    This fight went from really easy to really hard really quickly. It starts off with just one enemy that doesn't do much, that then splits into the smaller parasites we've been fighting. This would be OK if there weren't so many and they didn't have so much HP because of the difficulty. They're constantly spamming spells and one of said spells is a huge AoE that hits multiple times and will kill any character that isn't guarding immediately. Fun! We do manage to get there in the end though, so hopefully we've saved the Rockgagong!

    Strahta Desert (East)

    We find our way out and then that same ominous man from earlier happens to be there, thanking us for opening up the roads again. Which means we can go to the capital! On the way there, we find some Bananas for our troubles.

    ​

    Yu Liberté

    This is the capital of Strahta and where Hubert was sent away. Looks very luxurious! Lots of exploring to do, which nets us some Discovery Points (I missed screenshotting one alas) and another Magic Carta - this time it's Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia.



    We then go to see the President, who allows only Asbel. As we enter, I notice two things. Firstly, the President is the man that's been following us around everywhere! Secondly, he has a notice board in his office which... has a note saying to pick up some chicken. Amazing. Before the meeting properly starts, Oswell Senior comes in. The President then explains that Hubert's recall order was in fact to ask him about what is happening in Lhant, as Oswell has been telling the President that Hubert is not fit to be Governor. Now cast your mind back to the situation with Raymond, also of the Oswell family, and wanted to take control of Lhant. It seems there's a little deja vu here. It turns out that to the surprise of noone, Oswell was orchestrating all of this from the very beginning, all the way back to the alliance with Cedric. Then he was planning to use the situation to essentially take over Lhant for himself and presumably doing so under the rule of Cedric. Gross! President Cool however just tells Oswell to do one. Yay!

    However despite this, Hubert still isn't doing what was asked of him and as a result will likely be recalled soon unless something can be done about the cryas shortage. Asbel "thankfully" pipes up and says he reckons he can do something. Asbel noooooooo oh dammit I guess we're going to see what we can do. After reuniting with the party, Pascal suggests seeing if something is off with the region's valkines cryas, Duplemar.

    We find out that Duplemar seems to not be working properly and as a result there isn't enough cryas. We propose to the President about visiting it ourselves and seeing what's up. On the way there, we find a Discovery Point - the Sand People.

    ​

    Strahta Desert Ruins

    After some very annoying battles (loads of enemies and fast spellcasters, yuck!!!) and another Discovery Point (Ancient Embers), we are at Duplemar itself. And something is very obviously wrong with it. Pascal observes that it's actually broken and therefore causing some issues, so naturally the solution is THIS

    ​

    And well... it seems to be working? Not that we have much time to celebrate, because Richard has entered the scene! Still as evil as ever, Richard sends some enemies at us which happen to be iour next bosses.

    Dispater

    This duo is a nightmare, but mostly because there are two of them. They don't have many attacks, but the ones they have are pretty brutal. Thankfully we manage to eliminate one quite quickly and therefore not allow the other one to do much.

    With that out of the way, we see that Richard is draining the entirety of Duplemar! Well that's kinda ruined out whole mission hasn't it. Guess it's time to go back and deliver our fantastic news! But it would be rude to not grab the valkines cryas as a Discovery Point!

    ​

    We come back to deliver our news and it seems Hubert has also arrived at Yu Liberté. The reason is grave - Richard it seems has already absorbed the valkines cryas of Windor and left the caital (presumably to come here). It seems Richard is going for all the valkines cryas for something, so the next logical destination will be Fendel, where the last one is. And that's where we're sent to! But first, it's our first big chunk of sidequests! I won't bore you with all the details of them, but just know that there's a fair few missable things which I decide to take care of before we head into the next arc of the game.

    Although one sidequest was funny - it had us fighting Bryce, the person from WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY back along that almost killed Richard when we first met him. Horrible fight!

    I'm ready to progress with the main story now, but it's been about 8 hours of on and off playing today, so stopping until next time, see ya!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 11

    PokéCommunity Game-Along - Tales of Graces F


    Not many days left to finish this, let's see if I can blast through some of the game today!

    NB: THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE GAME, SO PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND BEFORE CONTINUING!​


    Warrior's Roost

    We make it to Warrior's Roost, which is essentially this game's Switzerland. We're to join up with a spy in the Fendelian forces and then use them to make our way into Fendel itself. However it seems our spy has been caught and Pascal has rather stupidly decided to antagonise some Fendelian soldiers, great! That's the plan down the toilet. Thankfully these soldiers are just as stupid and rather than just turning us in, have decided to challenge us to a fight as is tradition in this place (Warrior's Roost is also this game's Coliseum).

    Whilst here we grab a Discovery Point - the Annals of Victory, a list of all the previous winners here.

    ​

    So we go enter and complete all the fights, including the one against the soldiers. Naturally we win and that means we get to travel to Fendel, yay! But not after some infuriating attempts at trying the challenges here. Oh well, moving on!

    Fendel Borderlands

    The valkines cryas is supposedly VERY far away, so we'll have to just stop by each town! Whilst making our way there, we do find a Peach Tree for our troubles.

    ​

    We come across a huge crater which someone seems to know a little bit too much about, don't they Pascal? Otherwise it's carrying on to Zahvert (we do stop by a town and a but there's not really anything of note here, so just skipping it in the interest of saving time).

    Fendel Mountain Pass & Fendel Highlands

    Again not too much here, but we do get the Frozen Tree and Cabbages Discovery Points. Oh we also get a skit where Hubert casually tells us no one that Strahta has sent to this location has ever made it back. Not what we need right now!!!!



    We arrive at the port and after Hubert shows how sus he is of Captain Malik, we head off to Zahvert.

    Zavhert

    As we arrive, there's already trouble! It seems Fendel is on high alert, which means we're questioned immediately upon entering. Malik manages to save us with a Fendl ID he made "just in case", but perhaps Hubert is right after all. After that we're allowed to move around, and the first stop is a rather sad one. We enter the house of Lyra, a girl whose mother is always working and is too sick to move, so she is lonely as a result. Now we've been collecting a load of plushies throughout this run, and this is why! We give her everything we have, including a very cute Ba'ul plushie that I will miss...

    Otherwise, it's just running around collecting the goodies and such. Then we start learning a thing or two from the locals about work being done on the valkines cryas here. Pascal seems to be REALLY worried about it and explains why. TLDR the cryas here are temperamental and that means if it goes wrong... all of Fendel is going to be wiped off the map. How does Pascal know this? Because Pascal was the one that made the crater we saw earlier! BUT you might ask, surely this is being done on Amarcian research and the Amarcians are considered extinct? WELL HERE'S PASCAL'S SECOND BANGER

    ​

    BOOM. So Hubert WAS right, she has been keeping a secret this whole time! Hubert has been vindicated and he's riding this train ALL the way home! After questioning Pascal on why she's kept that secret, he rounds on Malik once more. Malik caves in, explaining that he too has been sitting on a secret - he is in fact from Fendel as well. We don't get long to process this - the enemy's found out we're lying! Well... kinda? According to them, Malik's been dead for 20 years! Anyway, Pascal mentioned about going to the Amarcian Enclave, so I guess we're on the run to there!

    Oh before we leave actually - we did get two more Discovery Points in Zavhert



    Mt. Zavhert

    We progress to a fork and go one way, where we run into a Fake enemy. Upon defeating it, we have a cutscene where... yep it's another Pascal randomly gains a summon to use. This time it's the fire summon! After investigating the trail some more, it does lead us to a location... but we can't enter it yet. So back we go along the RIGHT path and discover two more foods - Radishes and Pumpkins.



    After clearing everything else out, it's time for something we've not had in a while - a boss battle!

    Bladehorn Boar

    Another annoying fight on Chaos lmao. Boss itself, SUPER easy. It can get petrified for one. However it spawns LOADS of adds and them combined with it just charging around and killing my entire party makes for a really annoying time. It also doesn't help that I have the fight started right next to the enemy getting an Eleth Burst. We power through and eventually win.

    With that done, Hubert gets MASSIVELY humbled and finally accepts that Pascal and Malik aren't complete losers. We carry on to the Amarcian Enclave.

    Amarcian Enclave

    So this is it - Pascal's home! We're due to go to Pascal's house first, but first let's see the sights! We play Shot Cube (think all the ice block puzzles in Pokémon), grab a Book of Acquisition (makes it easier to get Shards from enemies) and find a chocolate fountain! That somehow seems so on brand.

    ​

    We then go to Pascal's room, to which Pascal finds out that someone's taken her notes on cryas. Evidently whoever is helping Fendel right now! As a result, we're off to see the Overseer who should be able to answer all. But first, awhhhhh look at the Robo-Pet!

    ​

    As we get to the Overseer, we bump into this lady:

    ​

    This is Poisson. Poisson explains the Overseer does not speak to anyone directly anymore and can only do so through Poisson. Pascal asks if we can access their Archives of Wisdom and we get told No Thank You Go Away. Great. As a result, we just ask instead who is spearheading the research so we can talk to them. The reason being is that Pascal's research never got finished and doesn't actually work, so whoever is using it is basically going to mess up no matter what and that means essentially a nuclear explosion.

    We find out that it's none other than Pascal's SISTER(?????????????) Fourier and she has a laboratory set up, so off we go.

    Fendel Laboratory

    Hey so remember that place we couldn't access before on the way to the Enclave? Well this is it! First of all this place is unnerving. I don't know if my sound settings are whack but the sounds for all the chemicals going around the pipes is REALLY loud and the music is quite ambient, so it's a very unpleasant experience all around. There's not too much here, some very basic block puzzles to open some doors really (for some reason this lab needs those). Also some Discovery Points: an Eleth Recharger and a Profane Creation.

    Now it's time to face a boss - said Profane Creation we just found!

    Veres

    Nope, not dealing with adds from another otherwise really easy boss. Difficulty turned down, I'll deal with beating this on a higher difficulty some other time. Next!

    With the boss defeated, someone seems to have entered the room. It's none other than Pascal's sister, Fourier!

    ​

    Pascal seems super excited to see her sis again, but that's definitely a one-way thing! Pascal tries explaining the issues with the research and Fourier launches as poor Pascal, saying about how all she does is work hard and Pascal does nothing but is still better than her. Even worse is that we finally think we have the valkines located and we don't! Fourier says she doesn't know as she hasn't been told, but she thinks that the Head of Science, Kurt, might know. She says to look at the research tower in Fendel for him. Great, back to the hostile maniacs we go...

    I'll end this one here. Hopefully next time we can save a valkines cryas before it's too late!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 12

    PokéCommunity Game-Along - Tales of Graces F


    I think we're picking up steam a bit now, I'm sure the end is in sight soon!

    NB: THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE GAME, SO PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND BEFORE CONTINUING!​


    Mt. Zavhert

    As we are just about to enter Zavhert proper, we have a Skit in which Sophie challenges us to a fight. A bit out of nowhere, but OK... we win the fight and then get hit in the feels. Sophie wanted to fight us to see if she could suppress the urge to - and I quote - "obliterate" us, because Asbel is her friend. Thankfully the answer was yes!!!!!!!!!!!!! She now feels a bit better about fighting "Richard" next time. Otherwise nothing of interest, back to Zavhert we go.

    Zavhert

    After a bit of digging around, we find out that we need a Security Pass to get into Fendel Tower to meet Kurt. Bummer. Thankfully, there happens to be ANOTHER Amarcian (why the all suddenly coming out the woodwork) named Fermat who knows Pascal. She gives us her Security Pass to borrow whilst she is not working. Neat! With a few optional cutscenes we see a slice of Malik's youth as well, including seeing Kurt himself.

    Now it's time to see if we can tell Kurt to stop this madness - to Fendel Tower!

    Fendel Tower

    So our Security Pass only allows us to access the first floor. HOWEVER the elevators are down, which means we have to use the maintenance ones instead, which means multiple floors woo! We have some funny and simple puzzles where we move platforms around to access different levels, with all the platforms moving at the same time, and using valves to free up paths blocked by steam. We get to Kurt's Office, finding a Frozen Nest and a Treasure Trove along the way.



    So throughout this whole segment poor Malik has been needing to build himself up about meeting Kurt after all these years (and taken a lot of flack from Hubert about it too!), but he's not even in his office! We use this opportunity however to do some digging around. Unfortunately Sophie hears someone about to enter. It's none other than Kurt himself!

    ​

    The meeting is cut short and sweet. We explain what's about to happen, Kurt says screw you I'm still going ahead with this and then makes us leave (whilst throwing shade at Malik for running away again, poor guy). With Kurt still going ahead with the experiments on the valkines cryas, we have to take matters into our own hands and stop them ourselves! To the valkines!

    Fendel Glacier Ruins

    Well it can't be a cold area of the world without puzzles involving pushing ice blocks around and the such! The mechanics thankfully aren't too crazy - use the blocks and push them down ramps to then break icicles with their momentum, opening up new paths and the such. We pick up the Rainbow Ice Crystal Discovery Point and then make our way further in, where we find the valkines cryas and the Eigen, who Malik had said earlier could be the one person that can stop the experiment. However, Kurt already seems to be there as well AND they've started the experiment! The only chance we have now is to stop Kurt in battle!



    ​

    Kurt

    Yeah this guy was an asshole when I used to play and in this run he's worse than ever. Mega damage plus his insane combos just make for a poor time, especially as the AI really struggles with dealing with it too. Difficulty down to Evil for the sake of time, and it goes a lot smoother!

    We defeat Kurt, however it seems we might be too late! Dumbass Eigen ordered for the experiment to go to full power during our fight and - as Pascal predicted - it's gone berserk. There's only one option and that's to destroy the pipe, which is shooting some er very sus electricity right about now. Pascal gets her Serious Moment and gets all ready to go sacrifice herself (nooooooo), but Kurt steps in and does it himself. The valkines is saved, but at the cost of Kurt's life. Nauuurrrrrrrrr. But we do get the last valkines cryas Forbrannir as a Discovery Point. Yay!

    ​

    We don't get to mourn for long though, as everyone's favourite cryas destroyer is back. Hi Richard! Once again we stand there and attempt to do nothing about Richard tryin- oh wait nevermind Asbel it seems Did try something and got immediately blasted away. Nice OK fair I see why you didn't really do so before. Sophie is now PISSED however and has gone super saiyan. Seems that practice fight from earlier has helped. Not enough however, Sophie gets blasted too and the valkines completely drained.

    Understandably, Chancellor Eigen is more than mad. The experiment failed AND the valkines has completely stopped now. He's about to declare war on Windor and about to arrest us, when an unexpected saviour arrives. Poisson!!!! TLDR Poisson says Amarcia is now involved as this is a threat to the world and also Fendel are going to have no more engineers if Eigen decides to resist in any way. Oh my god, Poisson is scary. Turns out she's here because Fourier appears to have had a chnage of heart and went back and warned Amarcia about this outcome.

    Now that's all well and good... but we have no idea where Richard? is going to be next. Poisson brings even more wisdom, advising that it seems likely Richard? is heading to Lastalia, the centre of the planet and more importantly the source of all cryas.And with that, Poisson gives us the key to the Archives of Wisdom (haha) that we asked for earlier! Malik goes all emo and says about staying at Fendel (absolutely NOT buddy), but Hubert tells him to sort it out so he thankfully stays (yay!). In that case, it's back to the Enclave!

    Amarcian Enclave

    We beeline for the archives and find out some interesting things:
    1. The Lastalia is what produces all of the world's Eleth
    2. The valkines cryas act as a means to stabilise and distribute what is being produced by the Lastalia
    3. A long time ago, something named Lambda attempted to drain the world of Eleth, much like Richard? is doing right now
    4. It seems there is another place called Fodra, from which something evil comes down and tries to destroy our planet, but something called Protos Heis seems to stop it
    This is all becoming a bit much for Sophie, who seems to be remembering/recognising bits of this but it's causing her a lot of suffering, so Cheria takes her away. There's not much else we glean after that, but it seems we have to get to World's Eye and get there ASAP.

    Although with that change of events, time to end this entry here! Until next time amigos.

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 13

    PokéCommunity Game-Along - Tales of Graces F

    The chase is on! Can we get to Richard? before he gets to destroy the world? Only time will tell...

    NB: THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE GAME, SO PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND BEFORE CONTINUING!​


    World's Eye

    This is the place that supposedly leads us to the Lastalia and should be Richard's next stop. We get there before him, but only just. Richard swoops down, but something really doesn't look right with him. Last I checked, human beings shouldn't be doing this:

    ​
    Seems like that eleth buffet is catching up with him. Like the dude is literally struggling to even get near us you can see the eleth moving as if he's being pushed back. We have no other choice but to stop him.

    Richard?

    Oh look, a fight with no annoying adds and as a result a boss fight I can actually clear on Chaos OK! I say OK, because I do have to use Asbel specifically to remove Richard?'s Nova status and manage the party a little because the AI has a really hard time for some reason. Especially when he spams Maelstrom on the spot, as it does big damage but only if you get close and the AI... runs into it every time and dies. I can't completely bash them though, Cheria did an incredible job of healing and Malik/Sophie between them were keeping Richard? pinned down quite nicely.

    With Richard? defeated, it's now incredibly apparent that Richard has been possessed by Lambda. Obviously you can't hear what I can in this journal, but his voice has gone completely whack. It's not Richard?'s voice at all and all it's talking about is how the 'body' is not good enough. It also goes on to call Sophie Protos Heis. Suddenly everything now makes sense. All those years ago Lambda must have been released somehow and that's the scary monster we saw in the Catacombs. When the battle happened, Lambda must have possessed Richard to survive and if Sophie is Protos Heis, that must mean she revived once more to protect the world, because Lambda had not disappeared.

    Now this bit does annoy me a little - we have the chance to perhaps end this by killing Richard and therefore Lambda, however... Asbel does a stupid! And Sophie does a stupid! Asbel decides no he simply has to save Richard and Sophie at the most crucial point of all of this decides to fudge it up and be all like "fweeennnnnnnds". Richard/Lambda lures her in before unleashing all his power at her face and kills her. With Protos Heis dead, Lambda now starts wreaking havoc, starting with this

    ​
    And it ending with Lambda creating a massive coccoon over World's Eye.

    ​

    Zavhert


    You absolute dumbasses you two, ahhh!!!!!! Hope you feel good about yourselves now! We're outside Zavhert and it seems Sophie is still out cold and not moving despite our best efforts. She does finally wake up, but not long after she seems to fall asleep again, but not before saying she can't seem to see anything anymore. As a result we get the worse news possible:

    ​
    This has messed up so much more than you could imagine. Pascal thankfully has a solution: get to Fodra, the place mentioned where Protos Heis (Sophie) comes from. Now how the flip do we get there!!!!! Oh also btw, bearing in mind everything we just saw, the party still think that Richard is just Richard?! Pascal finally connects a dot and says Richard might be connected to Lambda and everyone is shocked by this?! Good heavens, get it together people!

    Poisson and the Overseer then show up and the Overseer explains that there's another Amarcian archive that holds the information we seek, but it's all the way back at Sable Izolle. Thankfully it seems they were prepared, as they have a ship waiting ready to take us back to Strahta. Woo! On the boat and away we go!

    Oul Raye

    As we land, we find out that the President himself is at Sable Izolle. Perfect, we can kill two birds with one stone - give him the letter from Fendel asking to be mates and explore this archive.

    Sable Izolle

    We hand the letter off and all is forgiven hype. Now let's see what these archives have to offer. We learn that Fodra is... not actually on this world. And that this world has an atmosphere made of water. And Fodra is outside of that. And we need to somehow bust through a whole ocean. Riiiiiight. Oh and the shuttle is apparently next to Lhant in the Seaside Cavern? WHERE? Guess that's our next destination! However we receive a report that the coccoon is sending out monsters across the water and they're currently attacking everyone.

    Oul Raye

    We come back to port to find out that the monsters are wreaking more havoc than ever, which causes a quandary. We REALLY need to get to Fodra ASAP, but also like everyone's getting attacked. President goes into President Mode and gets everyone up and moving to fight the monsters whilst we get to Fodra.

    Seaside Cavern

    Okay so apparently THIS was just casually hidden behind some trick wall by the Deathglow Algae we saw last time we were here

    ​
    Well at least it was easy to find I guess. There is a control panel here, which Pascal manages to get working. Pascal explains that there are two cannons - one in Strahta and one in Fendel - which when fired at the same time should focus enough energy at one spot in the Aquasphere to cause a rift and allow us to get through it into Fodra. Pascal then shows her intense genius by slapping the computer really hard and making it make scary noises. Thankfully nothing explodes, but it seems that Fendel's cannon is borked. As we leave to go to Fendel, some of the monsters are seen flying overhead. They're headed to Lhant!

    Lhant

    The town is rife with monsters. I'm kinda itching to fight them all to be honest, as these monsters have now started spawning in the overworld and they're super easy. Unfortunately Sophie gets all the glory as she spirit bombs them all to death. Boooooooooooooooo. Sophie's condition as a result also seems to be worsening, so sorry once more family and friends but we're disappearing again. To Fendel!

    Untrodden Snowfield

    Oh look another part of Fendel everyone was mysteriously warned to never go to because it contains a huge Amarcian thing. Neat. The enemies here are pretty brutal, but there's also a lto of fun exploring to do! After collecting all the goodies we also get something we haven't got in a long whilst actually - a Discovery Point!

    ​

    With that done we trawl back to the Snowshroud Ruins.

    Snowshroud Ruins

    This next dungeon has another little fun mechanic. Essentially you have to keep a link of power running through the place, powering on doors to have them open. There's not too much here until the final door, but we do find some more Discovery Points (the game must be feeling bad for neglecting us for so long).


    The game then steps up the puzzle game a little, having us navigate several paths which we have to link to the door to open. In doing so, we're greeted with this:

    ​

    Something tells me this is the next boss fight. And wow I'm so smart, because it is!

    Polycarpus

    This took a few tries but we managed to get there in the end. Mostly just because once again the AI was getting confused. It has a huge windup attack that is unblockable (as in can't guard it but can avoid it), but the AI just sits there guarding the whole time. Otherwise it's super easy - it has slow attacks and it changes form, which is even easier. It only fires missiles and lasers, which can be easily avoided and the lasers can even just be ignored if you line up with the front of it. With some good attack RNG though, we persevere and beat Polycarpus.

    Boss over and we do a little tonk a tonk and bonky donk and boom the cannon's working now. Back to the cavern!

    Seaside Cavern

    With everything ready to go, Poisson greets us here which means Pascal doesn't have to stay behind, awesome (but also means Fourier still hates Pascal, :[ )! As we fire up the launch sequence and the countdown begins, the enemies from the coccoon attack once more, no!!! We're so close! We go and deal with some of them, but it seems Lambda is onto our plans as they just keep coming. Thankfully Bailey (ew) and crew come along to deal with them instead, so we rush back to the shuttle and hop in. As we launch off into space, we see more of the monsters trying to block the sky... but Fourier comes and saves the day! Awhhhh we knew you weren't a little hater, thanks Fourier! Now with nothing in our way, it's time to zoooooooooooooooooom to Fodra and into the next chapter of the game!

    ​

    Region 13

    So... we made it. However, the ship doesn't really look like it will fly ever again, and what we thought would be a prosperous and flourishing homeland is... this.

    ​

    Is there even anyone here that can heal Sophie? Outlook is looking pretty grim AND we're now not on our world to be able to help there instead. Shiiiiiiit. We spot what looks like a floating city nearby, so we make our way towards that. We find a new Discovery Point and then finally find a teleporter and arrive at Telos Astue.

    ​

    Telos Astue

    Oh brother, even this place is as dead as it was outside! And in ruins! Things are not looking so good... until Pascal spots someone on the floor. Hopes are dashed again though, as Pascal goes to touch them and they disappear! Hopes are back again, as we someone else! Hopes dash again as they run away! We're on the chase. We finally find them, along with some nice Discovery Points and also a station with what looks like two very similar tracks to the ones we used to fly to Fodra.


    ​
    It also seems there is someone else here - we see a person who appears to be sleeping or kept in some form of stasis. The shields come down however and the city starts shaking, followed by this "person" waking up. The scene now kinda infodumps to catch players up, so to summarise:
    1. This person is called Emeraude and she has been asleep for over 1,000 years.
    2. Our world is known as Ephinea.
    3. Emeraude confirms that Sophie is Protos Heis and not a human, and that she is currently malfunctioning, hence why she didn't age during the 7 seven years Sophie was missing.
    4. Sophie's self-healing module has broken, which is what is causing the issues
    5. Sophie can be saved! We need to go to the Humanoid Research Centre, but of course it's overrun with monsters.
    6. The shuttle can also be repaired! emeraude asks the humanoid we followed (Psi) to take it in for repair.
    To the Reserach Centre!

    Humanoid Research Centre

    Just before we reach here, we cut to a scene where it seems Richard is basically completely lost to Lambda now. Firstly, this is how he's ended up in the coccoon (Zelos costume obviously, everyone needs to see peak)

    ​
    And he talks about how basically everything is pointless. Living mostly pointless, hope is pointless, trust is pointless, all beams point to Lambda and the planet. Not looking good... you sure you guys can still save him? We also get an interesting skit where Emeraude explains that Sophie isn't actually really in pain, but just reacting to the fact Lambda exists on Ephinea currently? Anyway, we take the teleporter into the Research Centre.

    Side note: oh my god the music here absolutely slaps! This is probably the first proper Tales "banger" for me in the game. Now that's not me saying the rest of the soundtrack has sucked, it has been amazing so far. What I mean more is that most of the other games have similar songs - Fatalise, Fury Sparks, etc. - and so far Graces F has mostly just had like REALLY powerful atmospheric music. As much as there hasn't been too much that makes me super pumped, the soundtrack has really set the scene pretty much every time without fail. Something I will say it does a lot better than some of the games that's for sure.

    Nothing too interesting going on - this dungeon has us exchanging charged and spent batteries to power the lifts to access where we need to go. We do end up at a machine similar to the one at the Wallbridge Ruins. We learn from Emeraude that Lambda was in fact discovered accidentally in the Lastalia of Fodra, doing the same thing Lambda is doing to Ephinea right now. Hence the destruction here. Sophie was then created to combat and defeat Lambda but failed. As a result, they sealed off Ephinea with the Aquasphere in a hope to contain Lambda. And then SOMEHOW everyone is still confused about how the coccoon is on Ephinea because they seem to still think that Lambda is just Richard? I remember why this plot was annoying at times now. Before we carry on, we grab the Toy Blocks Discovery Point.

    ​
    We take a few steps and then another scene triggers. Sophie starts sparkling and Emeraude explains that this is Sophie "breaking down". She goes on to explain that this is what Protos Heis does to stop itself from being completely destroyed. Asbel, Hubert and Cheria then start sparkling as well, which sparks a new explanation. This is a process where Protos Heis instead distributes the particles into vessels that have synchronised with her in some way (friendship etc.), which also bestows some of its power unto them. Power such as... the weird lights we experienced straight after the timeskip for example? Everyone starts putting two and two together, realising that what must've happened in the fight 7 years ago is that Sophie underwent this process after stopping Lambda to try and save everyone.

    So Sophie never died back then, but instead stayed inside Asbel, Hubert and Cheria until she could recuperate fully. Emeraude compounds this theory by explaining that in donig this, Protos Heis loses all of its memories etc. when it reforms, which explains Sophie's bouts of amnesia when we met her "both" times. We also get a cheeky comment from Emeraude saying this never should have happened in the first place. Now this is cool and all, BUT it triggering now is BAD. If this happens again it would mean Protos Heis potentially being out of action for another 7 years minimum, something we can't really afford right now!

    We get further in and find the machine that should hopefully fix Sophie. Things seem to be not working out too well as Sophie seems to be in terrible discomfort. Suddenly, a memory of Sophie and Pascal is projected in front of everyone. It disappears and is then replaced with holograms of the rest of the current party, which when we intereact with one shows Sophie's feelings/memories about said character. After looking at one, a hologram of Richard then appears as well. We check out the rest and then get to Richard's... and it kicks off into a fight! Sophie shouts out Lambda's name and then FINALLY we get enough of a clue that Richard is perhaps taken over by Lambda and by a clue I mean HE LITERALLY TRANSFORMS INTO LAMBDA IN FRONT OF OUR EYES. Time to kick Lambda's ass!!!!

    Lambda

    So looking at the HP and damage alone this is clearly supposed to be a fight you win fairly easily. There was a bit of an annoying part at the end where he activates Nova status and the AI just... doesn't try to stop it... and Lambda ends up killing nearly everyone but we manage to still win first time after essentially just taking over the members myself.

    Defeating "Lambda" seems to have done the trick. Sophie's back with us! Yay! It does seem there is still a small issue however - when Emeraud mentions Sophie not completing her mission, Sophie seems to get the bad headaches again. Emeraude concludes this must be because the particle reconstruction didn't completely finish. We make it back to the first machine we interacted with and restore this information. However it seems Asbel's not happy and that's probably because Sophie has now pledged to kill Lambda/Richard like an absolute psychopath. Uh-oh...

    Suddenly we hear another voice coming from the machine, talking to Lambda. However Lambda isn't the big scary monster we know... but a humanoid?

    ​
    Presumably this is the professor that Emeraude had mentioned previously, who was studying Lambda and somewhat caused this whole mess. It seems this person is arguing with someone "off-screen" about how Lambda is becoming more and more human. Asbel asks Emeraude if Lambda is in fact that human, to which she responds he isn't and Lambda is instead a parasite that hops from lifeform to lifeform.

    Which means... the penny finally drops and everyone finally realises that perhaps LAMBDA IS POSSESSING RICHARD. FINALLY. Apart from Asbel who is still trying to bloody believe otherwise oh my god can you stop being so stupid. Asbel then pleads with Emeraude to seek another way to destroy Lambda without needing to kill Richard i.e. his vessel. As a result, the party comes to the conclusion that perhaps there is a chance of instead talking to Lambda/Richard and trying to stop Lambda from taking over or leave Richard and defeat him that way.

    Then Sophie, Asbel, Hubert and Cheria start shining once more and Sophie explains that actually it wasn't Sophie who saved them when they were kids, but them who saved Sophie. A twist, huzzah! With renewed vigor, the party decides to make haste back to Ephinea. Emeraude rains on our parade though, explaining that nothing can penetrate the coccoon as is and that we'll need an attachment for the shuttle so it can essentially smash into the coccoon. Said attachment can be found at a place called Balthus Citadel. So we're taking a detour to there instead then. OK off we go!

    Region 66

    Lots of running around and finding things here, including another Discovery Point - the Unsettling Garden. We get a skit that shows what happens when the eleth from a planet's core runs out and is on the pathway to dying. Scary!

    I also realised about 80 hours in that I have been using my Eleth Mixer wrong. Lol. I have been thinking dishes are finite and as a result not using them, when actually the dishes are infinite. Meaning that I am incredibly behind in Mixer eleth AND also have wasted about 20 hours grinding for tempering probably. Anyway revelation at how bad at games I am over and onwards to the citadel.

    Balthus Citadel

    Another place with really cool music! This dungeon's mechanic is about sliding groups of blocks around, which move corresponding platforms elsewhere to create new paths. This was quite a fun set of puzzles, unfortunately the enemies I can not say the same about. Super fast melee attackers paired with super fast ranged attackers is a nightmare. Thankfully we manage to make it to the room where the shuttle part is, grabbing some Discovery Points on the way (including a key to which I am certain I have seen the lock for on Ephinea somewhere!)


    Of course there wouldn't be a dungeon without a boss fight! Here we go!

    Centurioid

    This was quite an easy boss fight. Most of the boss' attacks are very slow and as long as we were attacking in small waves rather than just trying to power through its guard/glory effects it wasn't really doing a lot. We love this level of boss fight!

    With the threat removed, Emeraude explains that this place has Derris Ore (hello recurring Tales references) which is resistant to Lambda as it can absrob Proto Heis' power and transfer it to whatever it is covering. With that in mind, Pascal has an idea and starts zooming around whilst Emeraude continues, saying we are likely going to need to build the part outselves. Suddenly the machines start whirring and cause a panic, but thankfully it's just Pascal being Pascal lmao.

    ​
    And bingo! Pascal has gone ahead and made the part for us. Pascal the GOAT once again. Oh and as a little bonus, she's made some Derris Rings for her and Malik, so they can also share the same powers that Hubert, Asbel and Cheria do with Sophie. Which means some very nice titles for us if nothing else. Now that we're done here though, it's time to head back to Telos Astue to see how Psi is getting on with the repairs.

    Telos Astue

    Just before we speak to Psi, we have another skit and character fight, this time it's with Malik. And boy this was super easy. All I did was spam Infernal Torrent until I ran out of CC, dodged and repeated until he was defeated. Laaaaaame. Anyway we check in with Psi and it seems the repairs are complete, so it's time to attach the new Derris Bit to the shuttle and get ready to go! Here it is looking all cute with its new attachment, d'awwwwww.

    ​

    Lambda's Coccoon

    It's finally time to go deal with Lambda. We catapult straight into the coccoon, the Derris Bit tearing right through the wall. It's a success! However, this doesn't look so good

    ​
    Thankfully Pascal checks it over and everything looks OK (somehow)! Well now we're here, we've no time to waste! Let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. After a little exploring, we cut to a scene where Emeraude is acting SUSPISCIOUS. Emeraude had originally asked to join us as she felt she had to help exact revenge on Lambda. However here she's applauding all the life being created and all the energy being displayed, and then says THIS

    ​
    NUH-UH, WE GOOFED UP REAL BAD. I THINK EMERAUDE PLANTED LAMBDA HERE SO WE'D COME GET HER AND BRING HER HERE, I'M CALLING IT RIGHT NOW. We get a skit right after which restores my faith in the team a little bit, as it seems Malik and Hubert are also potentially aware that something's not right...

    ​

    Now we're faced with this dungeon's puzzle. There are two floers - blue and pink - which when touched cause parts of the area to grow/shrink, which we will be using to move platforms around. After solving these, we end up at a save point and Sophie tells us Lambda is very close. Sophie also however seems to be acting a bit weird, she's talking to everyone as if she's going soon... but nothing of the sort has been mentioned. Well it's too late to worry now, it's Lambda time!

    As we get closer, we can see a figure emanated evil and then we see who it is and damn, Richard got a glow-up! He's really giving Truly Evil energy now, love that for him.

    ​

    Despite seeing this much, Asbel still asks if this is Richard or Lambda... Asbel buddy come on I think at this point it's very obvious what is happening. Asbel tries to console "Richard" but Lambda ain't having none of it and tries firing a blast of energy at Asbel. He dodges it, and the fight begins!

    Richard (Transformed)

    Man, what an annoying boss. Namely because of one attack. He spins in the air doing lots of hits, lots of damage, causes Paralysis half the time, starts up instantly and he can do it basically whenever he pleases including in the middle of your combos. There literally isn't much else that's a problem, just this. We manage to beat him after not many tries though thankfully! Oh also he has Nova status and if he does his Mystic Arte during this, the Nova thing like eats up his face and he looks stupid lmao.

    ​

    Well that's it surely? We beat them, OK time to pack it up everyone yay! Lambda ejects from Richard and Sophie goes in for the kill. This is it guys, we're gunna save the worrrrr- wait Sophie WHAT. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE TO DESTROY YOUR- EMERAUDE I KNEW IT. Emeraude explains that Sophie will no longer be needed to destroy Lambda and therefore doesn't need to self-destruct... because Lambda has evolved far beyond what she thought it would and Emeraude's now taking Lambda all for herself to restore Fodra.

    ​

    And most importantly, I called it! Emeraude had made Lambda take over the valkines so that she could then have the ultimate weapon to take over Ephinea and recreate Fodra. For you see, she's fallen into the trope that as we're the smaller planet, we're the ones that should be bowing down to Fodra and she gets to decide what happens to us. Nuh-uh sis, we're gunna take you down as well!

    Emeraude

    This was an immediate difficulty change because I am NOT dealing with Killing Field. This is a fullscreen attack that hits several times and if you get hit once on this difficulty you are basically dead, so it's just an immediate wipe. Therefore, it was an absolute breeze, screw you Emerfraude :)

    However... the fight is over and Emeraude it seems hasn't even got a scratch! Has Lambda truly become this powerful? Who knows, however it seems Lambda has other plans because suddenly he takes over, telling Emeraude she can't even hope to control the power and starts attacking her.

    ​

    And then Emeraude just casually gets vaporised into nothingness. However we see the child Lambda from earlier, all covered in a very intense dark energy. Richard has woken up it seems and is calling out to Lambda. They fuse together once more and Lambda/Richard then destroys the coccoon, opening a way up to the Lastalia. Sophie tries to pursue, but Asbel stops her as it's way too unsafe with the whole place falling apart. Magically the shuttle falls right next to us, upright AND operational, so we get the heck on outta there!

    So we didn't save the world just yet, buuuuuuut you'll have to wait until the next update to see what our plan is, as this entry has gotten huge! Until next time!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - In Progress

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 14

    PokéCommunity Game-Along - Tales of Graces F


    It's the home stretch! Time to get this game finished!

    NB: THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE GAME, SO PLEASE BEAR THIS IN MIND BEFORE CONTINUING!​


    Lhant

    We regroup at Lhant and decide what to do next. Cheria takes Sophie out for a bit of a chat, trying to explain why Asbel is so angry about Sophie trying to kill Lambda even though it means she would disappear. Asbel comes out because they've taken so long and then it's time for Sophie and Asbel to have a chat and reconcile about how similar they really are. Asbel then continues, saying it's not Sophie's time to go just yet and that she has so much to live for, which is why he's determined to stop Lambda without her needing to die. Awwhhhhh.

    We join back up with everyone and come up with our battle plan. Pascal suggests trying to separate Lambda from Richard again, a bit like when he did after we defeated him initially, and then rescue Richard whilst he isn't possessed. It seems we have a plan somewhat in place! Sophie says it is imperative that we visit the meadow on Lhant Hill, as this is where all three types of Eleth gather.

    Lhant Hill

    We arrive at the meadow and Sophie starts absorbing the eleth here. Her plan is to absorb and redistribute it to all of us, as this will help us combat Lambda's possession. With that done, we head back to Lhant.

    Lhant

    This is the typical part of Tales games where it's the night before the big fight and you can go around and talk to everyone to get some scenes, which is exactly what we do. Much to my frustration, Asbel and Cheria still have not said they love each other just do it already!!!! Meanwhile Bailey the CREEP and Raymond who is now confirmed a CREEP both try it on with blatant disregard. Ugh! After talking to everyone, we rest up and NOW it's time to beat Lambda once and for all!

    Ghardia Shaft

    So this dungeon is essentially a futuristic elevator where we navigate floors to find the lift to go up/down as needed. The first puzzle has you making routes to the exit by stepping over a red/blue/yellow tile in between each platform, however you cannot cross the same colour twice. Doing so will net you a battle and reset the puzzle. After a few floors completed, we come across a funny-looking wall. As we go to pass through it, we enter some form of flashback.

    In this flash back we see the scene where Dr. Cornell is teaching Lambda to smile. However we also see a new part of the scene. Emeraude enters the room, stating that Lambda should not be dabbling in things like emotions and the such. The pair come to a disagreement - Emeraude believes the boy is just a vessel whereas Cornell believes doing this will cause a new and better generation of humanoids to be created. The flashback ends there and we're back in the shaft.

    We carry on until we reach another wall and therefore another flashback. This time, Lambda is in a chamber and Emeraude seems to be operating some console. Cornell barges in, demanding she stops immediately. Emeraude however refuses, explaining that Lambda is the reason the monsters are swarming around Fodra. It seems Lambda's possession works by injecting some of his cells into the target. As a result he was deemed too dangerous to live. Cornell is taken away and Emeraude then kills Lambda. The flashback ends there, but it's left the party in tatters. It seems Emeraude's plan dates back way further than imagine and Lambda in fact wasn't necessarily evil from the start. We carry on and take a warp to the centre of the shaft.

    Ghardia Shaft - Centre

    We're immediately greeted with another flashback. We see Lambda wreaking havoc in the shuttle bay of Fodra, having killed a load of people and is attacking the computers. Cornell intervenes and calms Lambda down. However Emeraude then comes in, Cornell vowing to protect Lambda at all costs. However it seems Emeraude has stolen Cornell's research, as Cornell is attacked by no other than two humanoids that she has created!

    With no other choice, Cornell and Lambda board a shuttle, but Cornell is attacked and killed as the door closes. His last words to Lambda are to go to Ephinea and... find its Lastalia?! We then see the shuttle fly off and crash on Ephinea, before the flashback stops once more.

    This next set of puzzles is really fun. Basically there are platforms with bits missing, which get filled in once you put crystals into pedestals of the same colour. There are also devices which move orbs around the map to open up new paths. The first instance of this is pretty easy, 3 colours and 3 orbs, nothing fancy.

    The last set however is crazy. We have several colours to match and 11 different places we can go to. Fun! After doing this, we beat the mini-boss and then we head into the final fake wall and therefore final flashback.

    We see Lambda in the monstrous form we know being stopped by some villagers. Lambda is trying to tell them they've misunderstood, but it's no use. Suddenly Sophie activates and then defeats Lambda, but not before Lambda begs to be left alone. It seems that with Emeraude creating humanoids, she created Sophie as well to hound Lambda even when he was not on Fodra. We then cut to that fabled scene 7 years ago, where we finally see what was missing from the scene back along. Richard is seen getting up, but about to die to the poison Cedric had given him. Lambda however detaches from the monster and tells Richard to "Live On", before taking refuge in Richard as a vessel. "Live On", just like Cornell told Lambda to do in the previous flashback. The flashback then cuts off promptly after.

    Ghardia Shaft - Depths

    We're getting close now - I can feel it! The whole time we can see a huge glowing core in the not too far distance, that has to be the Lastalia and where Lambda/Richard are! I make sure to just skip everything here, I am now pretty much set up as I want to be so it's just a case of getting to the end. We do have one boss fight on the way though.

    Proserpina

    Honestly the only issue these bosses have are the HUGE HP pools and the fact they fly high enough that half of my attacks just don't work. Which is frustrating but not unwinnable. Easy fight, get dunked on losers.

    And with that, we're finally here. It's time for the final battle. As we approach the Lastalia, we can just about make out our enemy in the middle. Richard goes on about something something revenge spiel the world hates us we hate the world time to murder it all blah blah FINAL FIGHT TIME BITCHES LET'S DO IT.

    ​

    Richard (Final)

    There's not really much else that's changed here, his arsenal is still the same and once the good RNG hits and we get him locked down properly, then we manage to take down Richard.

    Unfortunately it seems that despite beating Richard, Lambda for one reason or another is refusing to initially come out. Sophie thinks it might be because they've been fused together for too long. Cheria and Asbel try to reason with Lambda though, and there's a moment in which Richard himself comes back. He states that he didn't want to trust anyone because he would be betrayed again and that had happened too much already. He confirms what Sophie has said, he's fused with Lambda too much now and even his emotions have gotten mixed with Lambda. Asbel's still trying his best bless him.

    Suddenly, Lambda and Richard are having an internal battle. Richard trying as hard as he can to end himself and Lambda, Lambda trying his hardest to convince Richard otherwise. Unfortunately Lambda isn't taking any of Richard's shit and tries to kill him. Asbel however goes full sicko mode and yanks Richard free of Lambda's control. This is it, the opportunity we were looking for!

    ​

    Lambda is all on his own. Again there's more spiel of humans are evil blah blah all you do is fight blah ur bad i will rid you insects etc. Boss time!!!

    ​

    Lambda Angelus

    So this is quite a slow boss that is super weak to our faster A-Artes. However there is one issue. In Chaos, his Soul Reaper spell heals him enough HP that I literally cannot outheal it, so we're stuck in an infinite loop. So I have no choice but to turn the difficulty down, and the fight is generally easy. The only reason I died was because of him instantly launching his Mystic Arte, which hits all my party and then follows up with an immediate attack on whoever survived. We manage to sort that out though, and we finally beat Lambda once and for all!

    With Lambda now defeated, the Lastalia is now absorbing all the eleth Lambda took away. In time, the world will be back to how it should be. Apart from one thing... Sophie says that Lambda will never actually truly die like this. He will go dormant and rise again in the future, ready to just do it all again. There's gotta be SOMETHING we can do, surely? Uh-oh I see where this is going - Sophie walks over to Lambda, obviously planning to sacrifice herself anyway despite all that talking we did about it!

    ​

    Asbel is LIVID. She tries to justify this by saying it's just the same as before when she distributed herself. APART FROM SHE WON'T COME BACK SOPHIE THAT'S NOT THE SAME IS IT. BRUH. Asbel jumps in between and before Sophie can do anything, starts absorbing Lambda into himself.

    ​

    Naturally everyone's going crazy. Cheria is literally screaming as the love of her life she never confessed to is about to die right in front of her eyes. But Asbel makes a promise that he won't be taken over, that he just wants to see if Lambda wants to live. Is he... planning on co-existing with Lambda?! Well all we know right now is that Asbel just fell to the floor. GGs? Thankfully we pan to another location. A somewhat empty location, but one nevertheless. We see Asbel and Lambda talking to one another. We get a firsthand experience of what Richard must've been going through, as Lambda claims he is going to take over Asbel.

    Richard has now woken up (yay he lives!) and says about how Lambda fed off his negative emotions. However he is not sure if it will be the same with Asbel, because he's so pure uwu. Asbel and Lambda continue their parlay, with Asbel offering to host Lambda and in exchange for not being taken over, he will help Lambda get over the pain of his previous betrayals and make a real difference in the world. Now considering how much of a goofball Asbel has been throughout a lot of the game, you wouldn't guess that based on how mature and profound he is being right now! Asbel then plays the trump card - mentioning Cornell. Lambda TRIGGERED, how can he refuse Asbel now knowing that Cornell wants him to see the world!

    Lambda's attitude does seem to have placated a bit, he seems more concerned now than hostile. His concern being he will take over Asbel anyway, so what's the point? Eventually Lambda caves in, and they merge to become one. Well, kinda. As they go to merge, Lambda starts fading away. We pan back to everyone else who are now panicking because the conversation has stopped. However, Asbel wakes up. He's alive!!!! Although... look what happened to his face lmao.

    ​

    However with this new form of Lambda comes an even better things - because it isn't dangerous anymore, Sophie doesn't need to sacerifice herself anymore either! I don't know how you managed it Asbel, but you really did manage to save Richard, keep Sophie alive AND not destroy Lambda as you intended. Damn.

    And with that, the world of Ephinea is saved! After 100 hours of gameplay (well, more like 75 of actual playing but whatever) we've finally done it chaps!


    I am so glad that I got this remaster and played the game again after not doing so for so long. Granted, squeezing it in for the Game-Along has definitely fried my brain, but man I remembered all over again just why I love this game so goddamn much. IT actually almost felt like I was playing a lot of it for the first time again. The plot is a little silly in how long it takes the party to realise what is going on, but the entire playable cast are just amazing. They develop really well throughout the story, there's a good level of polarising characters and they are all really fun to play as. Even a lot of the NPCs are amazing too. I am getting a little emosh writing this part haha because honestly it's been a long while since I have truly enjoyed playing a game so much!

    A definite 11/10 from me! With that, this journal entry comes to an end. However do not fear, there is a LOT of content for this game I have skipped, so expect to see even more Tales of Graces F content!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - Completed
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - Completed

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 15

    PokéCommunity Game-Along - Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You


    As promised!

    February's theme for the PokéCommunity Game-Along was "Trust Issues", where someone else had to pick the game you played. User gimmepie picked Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You as my game! I was somewhat thankful mostly because it seemed like a very short game, so at least I wasn't going to be pouring over 100 hours into this month's entry!

    As the name suggests, Orwell is a game all about surveillance. You play the role of an 'investigator' working for the government, using their super secret software (named Orwell) to monitor the general public, looking for potential threats and keeping everyone safe. I won't go into the whole plot and stuff here, but the game starts with a bomb explosion and you are tasked with finding the perpetrator alongside your Advisor (i.e. the game's way of steering you in the right direction, tutorials, etc.). Now onto my thoughts of the game!

    Gameplay


    Based on this I was already intrigued - it's certainly unlike any game I have played before and its overarching theme was fascinating. Within about 20 minutes the game had me absolutely hooked. Not sure what that says about me as a person, but in terms of the gameplay and such it was incredible. The interface itself was as a whole nice to use and quite pleasing aesthetically. It was quite easy to navigate all the different nodes and it was very good at giving you pointers if needed.

    I also liked how simplistic the gameplay was made to feel. You're reading through various websites/conversation logs/files and it seems you just pick up anything relevant, but as the game progresses you realise that actually some pieces of information gathered actually changes the outcome. The game does very little in highlighting (other than actual useless bits of info you pick up) this until it is too late i.e. you are seeing the outcome. It makes the whole process feel even more 'real' and once it happened it got me thinking a bit more about everything I was seeing. This was especially crazy towards the end of the game, where you go from having all the freedom in the world to suddenly only being able to pick out 20 bits of information to identify who we needed to capture. Suddenly the intensity of an already intense situation quadrupled!

    Yet despite a gameplay loop that is in theory very basic - click on source, find things, click them - the game manages to keep it somewhat fresh. It introduces some new aspects (listening in to calls/hacking into devices) at key points both in terms of gameplay (so it didn't get too boring) and the plot (it made sense you would start doing these things at the point they're introduced). I think this combined with how short the game was worked really well, there was never a point where I felt it was too much of a drag and it kept me engaged with the story.

    Design


    I appreciated - intentional or not - just how most of the images with people in were like not quite 'fleshed out' so to speak. It just felt a bit like it was like that because as this outside observer, we can never truly know what those people are like. Also the interface looking so clinical made everything feel a little less organic. Kinda like how the advisor and stuff in the game tries to say about removing the more 'human' elements when looking at these things, also the fact you're basically just in a huge program trying to help The Nation.

    They also REALLY nailed like all the web pages, conversations and stuff in this game. A lot of games that feature things like this tend to just really miss the mark, but Orwell really did a good job. Even the smaller details like a conversation on a fishing group page inevitably turning into boomers being homophobic, or the social media posts and how they're put together. Again it just helped compound the fantasy. But it also kinda put things into perspective a bit, as suddenly all these things I saw being picked up from all sorts of posts and stuff made me think about how easy this must be for someone to do IRL as well... scary!

    The sound design was also AMAZING. There isn't much in the way of like a belter soundtrack or whatever, but Orwell had this particular change in music that happened whenever you found like a critical piece of information or a twist/something bad was happening. It immediately changed the atmosphere and again choosing to do it when something is happening was fun. Helped the idea that I fucked up sink in.

    The characters were the cherry on top! Again, they generally seemed believable and real from start to finish. They all interacted with each other really well!


    Overall, I enjoyed this game way more than I thought I was going to and I already thought I was going to have a blast. It's really well put together and it really highlights just how easy this surveillance business really is, but also just how plausible it really is in the real world. Then it goes even further into that, showing both sides of the argument as to why this is good/bad; people's lives both ruined and saved by actions resulting from what you as an individual decided was the 'right' thing to do. It really did have me thinking way more than anticipated. Also shoutout to all the actual Orwellian and relevant references stuffed in for those nerds (me) out there.

    Thanks again GP and will definitely be looking into the other games soon!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - Completed
    February - Trust Issues
    Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You - Completed
    March - Conundrums
    Bust-a-Move 2 - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You - Completed
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - Completed
    Disgaea 5 - Completed
    Monster Hunter Wilds - Completed
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress
    Bust-a-Move 2 - In Progress

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 16

    General Update


    Just chucking in a general update before I start my next Game-Along bit, but also because I was so in the zone I forgot to actually do update posts on what I have been playing!

    Disgaea 5

    So my friend got this and started playing it for the first time, which naturally got me pining to play it again. And well... we're about 170 hours in and very much into the swing of things now. We've completed the whole 'story' which means we're into the real fun that is postgame madness and infinite grinding! So far I'm kinda focusing on one character to be able to then carry some others for a bit, here's our lovely friend:

    ​

    Otherwise not much to really update on that front!

    Monster Hunter Wilds


    I was on the fence for a while about this game - both times I played the beta it was kinda mixed at best. A combination of performance issues and annoying multiplayer integration made me unsure on getting this on release. In the end I decided to grab it and see how the first 2 hours go and refund it if needed. On the whole, I'm glad I did get it! The game definitely is somewhat riddled with performance issues, but I think it is more if you're wanting to hit high-end specs. It's been OK for me, a few hiccups if I try to go towards the high end but nothing crazy.

    But the game as a whole is GREAT. It looks gorgeous, the weapons feel revitalised and the overall experience has been great. I've completed all of the main story and working up towards HR100 now (HR46 at this point in time). I'm glad that the builds feel a little more mixed as opposed to endgame Rise where it was just Nargacuga + Affinity. I will say however the game has felt a little too easy? I'm not 100% sure if it's just because I have been solidly putting a lot of time into Rise and therefore am just generally better, but fights have been going really quickly and with little to almost no upgrades until very late into the story.

    I still have a bit of content left to do, but taking a break as it came out on Friday and I already have about 50 hours oops.

    Oh here's me looking really cool:

    ​

    That's probably it for big updates, next posts will be mostly covering Bust-a-Move 2 as part of my Game-Along!

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - Completed
    February - Trust Issues
    Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You - Completed
    March - Conundrums
    Bust-a-Move 2 - In Progress
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You - Completed
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - Completed
    Disgaea 5 - Completed
    Monster Hunter Wilds - Completed
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress
    Bust-a-Move 2 - In Progress

     


    Tales of the Arcaneum

    Transcending history, and the world...
    a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...    ​

    Chapter 16

    PokéCommunity Game-Along - Bust-A-Move 2!

    I imagine a lot of you know these games as Puzzle Bobble, but for those that don't at all the premise is very simple. Each level will have a formation of coloured orbs - your goal is to clear the board entirely by firing coloured orb of your own. Matching three minimum will remove them from the board! If there are any attached when this happens, they also fall off (and more importantly, score more points). If however an orb reaches the bottom of the stage, you lose! Lose all your credits and it's game over.

    ​

    My objective for the Game-Along is to complete the entirety of Puzzle Mode and get all the endings. The puzzle map is based on the alphabet and looks like this:

    ​

    Each letter contains a few levels and for each letter you beat, you then choose one of two levels to progress to until you reach the last tier (V/W/?/X/Y/Z). Beating one of these will unlock an ending. Fun!

    As a fun little aside due to finishing this so quickly, I decided to tackle the Arcade Mode on the hardest difficulty as well. The objective here is a little different in that you will be facing another player and need to get them to lose by forcing orbs to the bottom of their board. You do this by removing orbs your end and specifically trying to aim for either groups bigger than 3 or causing a lot of orbs to fall as mentioned earlier. This then forces orbs to spawn on the opponent's board.

    This was a bit tougher than expected, but we did still manage to do this on the first try!

    ​

    Overall, this was pretty easy and very fun! There were a few levels where RNG kinda screwed me over a bit, but after a few hours of perseverance we made it to the end and unlocked all our endings.





    Now time to wait for a few weeks for the next theme...

    Current Event Progress:

    PokéCommunity Game-Along
    January - Free Choice
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - Completed
    February - Trust Issues
    Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You - Completed
    March - Conundrums
    Bust-a-Move 2 - Completed
    Games completed/in progress this year
    Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You - Completed
    Tales of Graces F (Remastered) - Completed
    Disgaea 5 - Completed
    Monster Hunter Wilds - Completed
    Bust-a-Move 2 - Completed
    Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (Archipelago) - Completed
    Final Fantasy XII (Archipelago) - Completed
    Final Fantasy VIII (Randomiser) - In Progress
    Tales of Symphonia - In Progress
    Tales of Vesperia - In Progress
    Wip3out: Special Edition - In Progress


     
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