Part 3: Because we didn't desecrate Moonguile Forest enough last time.

Heh. I actually kind of like that idea, but there are some scenes were it would really kill the mood.

...well, okay. For one update!

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Update 3: Because we didn't desecrate Moonguile Forest enough last time.









Well now, I wonder where they went...We should go back to the village first, Legion, and ask around about the battleship. That thing was huge. Someone must have seen it or knows something about it.

Squeak!

Huh? What is it, Meemai? You wanna come with me?

Squeak!

All right, all right. You saved my life, after all.

~Yaaaaay!~







Meemai has the power to alter his size, apparently. I don't recall if this is ever really addressed by the game or not, but I think it could have been a neat mechanic. You know, he could shrink down to crawl through secret passages and then grow to the size of a tank and hop up and down on some enemy soldiers. It'd be a blast!



The game then automatically boots us back to the map screen. There's a bit more to do in Moonguile Forest, but I want to go back to Cebalrai first...

Music: Gentle Breeze



It sounded like trouble was brewing over by the forest. Come talk with the village headman. Everyone's gathered at his place.



A strange monster came up from the spring in the forest. It was saying something about “Malpercio”...

What was that?! Did you say Malpercio?! An evil deity from ancient times...I KNEW something like this would happen! I thought we told you to stay away from that forest!

But wait...

No more buts, young man! You and your lot have unleashed a great evil! Ignorant fools!

I want to complain about how the headman's a jerk some more, but...well, he's completely correct.

I believe the other travelers, a young girl among them, also entered the forest...any news of them?

Oh...that girl...Xelha. She was with me. We were attacked by soldiers from a giant battleship...She was captured...

Hmm...unfavorable circumstances, to say the least...

Doc, do you know anything about that ship? I have to track it down.

...No, I'm afraid not.

You may not have noticed, but there's another guy in here who has one line!

If you're talking about that huge, strange ship, I saw it fly towards the city.

And an important, plot-advancing one, at that! Thanks, nameless NPC!

The city! That must be it! Thanks so much!

Be careful, Kalas. Powerful entities seem to be at work. Stay alert, boy.

Thanks, Doc. I will.



Um, one more thing, Kalas. I have a favor to ask of you. It shouldn't take too long. Could you stop by my place, before you leave?

Your place? Sure. I'll drop by later, then.

So I remembered where some loot is in Larikush's hospital hut that I didn't get before!





Another Shish Kebab. Meh...I guess I'll take it...



A landslide in Nunki Valley has made the road to Pherkad impassable. I've prepared explosives and left them on the bench. I would like you to use them to clear away the landslide rubble.

Explosives? Sweet Jesus, Larikush! What kind of backwoods hospital has access to explosives? What's next, are you going to ask me to defend the hospital with a rocket turret?

Thankfully, I'm not the only one who thinks this is pretty sketchy...

W-wait. Explosives? How did you get them on this remote island? The Empire's the only place I can thank of that has easy access to explosives.

...That's not what's important right now. What's important is the impassable route to Pherkad. If the rubble in Nunki Valley is not cleared away, the people of this village will continue to be inconvenienced. Besides, you're going to Pherkad anyway, aren't you?



But how do you expect me to lug around heavy explosives? I can't carry them by myself!

Why don't you trap their Magna Essence? Here. Take these Blank Magnus. Go ahead and use them.







And so Larikush successfully brushes off the inquiry into how he has access to a bomb, but it's okay because we just got some of the most useful items in the game – Quest Magnus, or Blank Magnus.

You can trap various things in Blank Magnus and then use them elsewhere. Obviously, in this case I am supposed to trap the explosives in the blank magnus (kinda sorta pictured above), take them to Nunki Valley, and blow up some rubble with it. A lot of the fetch quests in this game involve using Quest Magnus to trap things and transport them.

The obvious problem here is that I only have four. We'll get a fifth one quite soon, but it's already going to have something in it that I won't want to get rid of, so...yeah. Essentially four for most of the game. As such, your space is very limited and you have to carefully consider if something's really worth taking if you don't know exactly where you're going to use it down the line, or if where you use it is going to be much later on.







I got you that milk you wanted!

Actually, you may notice in the last screenshot that I actually got two milks; this second milk will be useful both for a quest and for me to demonstrate one of the cruelest game mechanics to you later.





It's another one of those constellation Magnus! We'll be getting to that in this very update. But first...

Music: Amid Butterflies and Moonlight









Is there any greater pleasure than arson?



And I get a decent reward for it, too! Kalas already has one of these, but a second is still a welcome addition to his deck.



And here we have that magnus by where I fought Liquid Snake. Escape is exactly what it sounds like. It's very handy if you don't really want to put up with randoms (which is understandable given how long even trash mob battles can get later on), but you still have to wait for it to pop up in battle before you can use it.

Meanwhile, in the previous screen...





Hey, those sound like neat animals! I hope we can make friends with one.



There's a path through this part of the trees that you have to travel through to progress. At about the halfway point, bluebirds of happiness will start flying away in the same direction you're moving. So all you have to do is pass by once, turn around, and start heading back, trying to more or less move towards the zoologist. It's not very hard, since the path is already more or less moving towards where he is positioned.





But...but...I thought you just wanted to capture them!

I feel evil.

Music: Divine White Bell





Maybe the church can give me an act of contrition to atone for me murdering happiness.



Oh, hey. Leveling up is good, too.





Level ups to about what you would expect; they boost your stats. Like I said before, I only really concern myself with HP and AGL, both of which got a nice boost over those two levels.

As you may have noticed, Kalas had gained enough experience to level twice, and the game presented an option for him to level up, then level up again, or just use both levelups at once. I've heard that if you level up in sets of ten that that gets you better stat boosts than leveling up one individual levelup at a time. I...can't say that I really care about that. When I get another chance, I'll show off leveling several times separately versus using a bunch of levelups all at once to see if it makes any notable difference.

Kalas can also class up...



Class ups are only possible when you get certain items. Kalas needed this Wild Strawberry, dropped by Liquid Snake, to reach Class 2. As you may expect, class ups are essentially locked away until you reach certain points in the plot, making it impossible to class up through grinding.

Now that he is class 2, Kalas can use three attacks/healing/item Magnus per turn (instead of two), and his hand will now have four cards (instead of three). Obviously, this marks a very significant increase in his performance.

While I'm at it...





Kalas also got this Scale Buckle from defeating the previous boss. As these pictures show, it's a generally superior piece of equipment to his Aged Buckle, so let's switch them out.



I have a favor to ask of you. There's something I would like you to look for during your travels. Look at the ceiling above you.



This marks the beginning of game-long sidequest number one. There are a whole bunch of constellation magnus out there (50, as I recall), and for each one we bring to this fellow, we'll get a reward. He also adds in extra rewards every ten that we bring. The rewards come in a fixed order, as opposed to being based on which constellation you return. Most of the rewards are pretty bland, but a couple are rather noteworthy, and there's even a high-level finisher for someone in this sidequest!

Sadly, Overrated Sage Legion Kalas has the attention span of a goldfish and wanders off without giving this old man any of the ones we've collected so far. Sorry, dude.



Time to get on our way to Pherkad!

Music: Limpidly Flow



I really like the water effects here. I was tempted to take a video just to show the water off, but I decided against it. I might change my mind anyway, though, and show it when we come back.





The Frozen Shield is a bit better overall. Both shields are better than a lot of Kalas' current magnus, so they get swapped in.





And here we have an obligatory timing-based waterfall puzzle. You have a decent window of time to jump across, but it's a bit irritating since Kalas doesn't jump immediately when you tell him to.

On the other hand, it's a lot of fun to deliberately screw up a bunch of times just to piss him off.





Larikush' improbable technology to the rescue!



Oh god, the Secret Recipes. There are ten total in the game, a few of which I'm pretty sure are lost forevers (I KNOW at least one is). You can find nine. To get the tenth you have to play the other 9. In order. In one turn.

Do you see why I'm not doing a 100% Magnus Gathering run? Because this isn't even close to the worst of it.

At any rate...there are three standard enemy types in Nunki Valley. We've got the bats and cats from Moonguile, but this place adds in...



Floating demon faces!



They self-destruct!

These are much more dangerous than the bats and cats, but still not a huge problem. They only appear on the last screen and generally you only fight one at a time, although fights with two can be a bit tough since they're relatively powerful.



Oh man, I wish I could lose weight just by standing under a waterfall. Best diet ev-

heywaitaminute





But...but they're not the same guy...?



Music: Purging Light of the Sun





In case you can't see it past the arbitrary lens flare, Kalas is pointing out the giant battleship over the biggest building in the city...



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Decision Time!







If we trust each other, we'll fight better. Do you understand what I mean?






Why do you want to get into the capitol building?




–

Kalas has reached the capital, thanks to Larikush's fondness for blowing shit up...but before we get to that, we have to deal with yet another unfathomably obnoxious voice actor. Spiders may also somehow be involved.