Part 64: Debrief
Chapter 9 debriefSo yeah, that was quite an emotional roller coaster from the end of Chapter 8 through the end of this one. How many of you were expecting that back when we were introduced to the twins foraging in the forest?
Anyway, for the B Rank exam, you’ve got a 30 day time limit—the one and only time limit you’ll operate under in the entire game. It’s so lenient that you can make all three of the test’s items and screw around a bit more and STILL have tons of time to spare. But what happens if you go over, just for the hell of it? Well… yeah. Game over.
But of course, to get to the B Rank exam, you have to accomplish some ambitions first. So…
You find these (not so) optional bosses by taking red sword requests from the Notice Board. Like this one for the Dark Maiden, or this one for the Super Puni.
CGs, both from the Heavenly Flower Garden!
CGs
Warm Shadow 2
Miracle
Character Art/3D Models
Honnete OA (Yuugen)
Honnete 3D Model
1.03 Scene:
Paean of the Chuunibyou
As promised, Combination Arts!
Combination Arts:
Alchemy of Happiness (Sophie/Firis)
Rules of Chaos (Sue/Lucia)
And yes, I know I unlocked Firis and Ilmeria’s Combination Art sometime in Chapter 8, but wasn’t able to get it in this chapter. It’ll wait for next time.
Location Notes and Memos:
Mysterious Painting
This is a painting Dad made for Mom. Now that I think about it, I may have seen it before? It’s very beautiful, so I absolutely love this world!Bestiary Notes:
Depending on Mathias’ friendship level, you could get this boss battle as early as Chapter 8. And it’s a boss fight where everyone but the twins is removed from the party. Anyway, a high-quality Lightning Crystal with Greatly Slow Movement and Activate Scatter should be able to do keep it at bay long enough that you can just keep using Eisen Lufts to exploit its Air weakness until it falls.
The crazy defense and nigh-immunity to Magic (and multiple elemental resistances) means that the Firis bomb is actually ineffective against the Super Puni. Using a Pure Aroma to temporarily give it elemental weaknesses could speed up this fight.
It’s got tons of HP, but very bad defense and is weak to Magic and Physical attacks (plus Fire and Ice), so it takes tons of damage from everything.
The Thunder weakness means that it’s very vulnerable to Lightning Crystals (and due to how Lightning Crystals work, it might not even get a chance to retaliate before going down.)
Ghost that’s weak to magic means you can blank it with Firis’ follow-ups (and Alt’s to a lesser extent).
Anyway, for bosses you fight for requests, I’m only going to cover them if they’re relevant to an ambition. Now, moving on to music:
Music:
Garden of Memories and Faded Dreams -Lydie-
This tune is played when playing as Lydie in the Heavenly Flower Garden. In order to express the mysteriousness of the situation the twins find themselves in, I chose some more esoteric sounds than usually found in the Atelier tracks. The idea is to produce a light, happy feeling, like waking up in the middle of a dream. Most Atelier tracks have a well-defined melody, so the difficulty here was in balancing that with the ambience I wanted to achieve. (Yano)
Garden of Memories and Faded Dreams -Suelle-
This tune is played when playing as Suelle in the Heavenly Flower Garden. Most tracks in the Atelier series are recorded using live instruments, but in order to suggest the “otherworldliness” of the world within the paintings, we changed policy a little. Specifically, we incorporated synthesizers and drum machines to create the kind of arrangement that cannot be achieved by live instruments alone. (Yano)
To Find That Voice
The soundtrack for the reunion with Honnete is an instrumental medley arrangement of a vocal song. The opening phrase, also used in the “in-atelier” music, is taken from the title’s main theme, imagined as a lullaby that Honnete used to sing for Lydie and Suelle. It’s used in a number of places throughout the title. See if you can spot it. (Yano)
So as mentioned, this track only plays in the Heavenly Flower Garden during Chapter 9, to build anticipation for the reunion with Honnete. As an aside, this track doesn’t even stop for battles.
Who Are You?
Considering the character’s position, I wondered whether I should make this piece a little mystical and emotional, but once I checked the story, I realized that wouldn’t be necessary. She also seems to handle the monologues slipped into the story here and there, and while that may not be significant in terms of her character, I tried to incorporate that into the music as well. (Achiwa)
Who Are You? (Piano Ver.)
This is the emotional version of Honnete’s theme. I thought particularly of the twins’ “promises with Mom,” and how they must have been taught them from a very young age. What a wonderful mother… (Yanagawa)
Happy Alchemist
Sophie and Firis’ combination move. The melody is a mix of tracks related to each of them. It is quite fascinating to have the protagonists of three different titles together. (Yanagawa)
The track for Sophie and Firis’ Combination Art samples from Traveling Atelier from Firis’ game and Phronesis, the title screen opening to Sophie’s game, in that order.
DEBRIEF debrief:
At the end of Chapter 8, the twins saw how Roger was devastated by his failure to save Honnete—and Roger himself goes back to his childhood home of Atelier Borthayre to take it over and run Lucia and his brother out. In this chapter, the twins deal with the fallout, and after defeating him in the race to B Rank, they finally snap him out of his misery by compelling him to restore the Heavenly Flower Garden—and reunite with Honnete therein.
And what a reunion it was! From the twins’ euphoria at meeting their long-lost mother again to Roger finally hearing the words he needed to hear from Honnete to finally move on and be a functional human being again, this was a hell of an end to this story arc. Now, what comes next? The twins can live happily ever after and visit their mother whenever they want, and keep on keeping on to fulfill their promise to her, right? It’s not over until they finally reach S Rank—and hopefully before any of the other alchemists in Merveille do!
Stay tuned for Chapter 10!
Also, since it’s Chapter 9, by request, you might notice something about Ilmeria’s atelier…