Part 66: The Real Deal: Part 11: Lost and Found

THE REAL DEAL: PART 11

Okay! Main updates are all finished, Yumil's tale has ended, nothing left now but to finish up the Real Deal. Let the shit times roll.



When we last left our silent hero, he was still reeling from Ellie's atomic exposition bomb. Among many other things she had no right to know, she told him that Ur was being held at the top of Rhoan's castle tower. Off we go, then.



Whoa! Ah! Yumil! What's the matter? The town's in a panic! Lightning bolts are falling one after another! The townspeople still think you caused the incident.


Including him, so I don't know why he's being so helpful. You might think this scene proves that he hasn't bought the bullshit, but no, he does think we did it. I'll provide proof of this later.


Be careful if going that way. Plus, more disasters have been happening all over! Volcanoes erupting, spring hail, swarms of insects...and now, the lightning.


None of which we actually see. Except the swarm of insects, but that was like four chapters ago. Is this all Duran's here for? To tell us about all these disasters that aren't happening and affect nothing? (The answer is yes.)



Oh god! Why is this guy repeating himself? Does he even know? Should I tell him?

No. No. Keep it together, man. Just roll with it. Pretend you're shocked about the lightning bolts. Even though you weren't the first time he told you.



H-hey! Wait! You can't go that way!



The townspeople don't have a very good opinion of you. They're convinced you were the one who caused it. Doesn't matter what's true. You'd better watch your back.


Yeah, Yumil. If you set foot in Rhoan now...



Well, okay, you can't set foot in Rhoan now. This guy stops you. Or at least he says "Hmm, you kind of look like that kid convicted of the worst thing that has ever happened to this town. Do I know you?" and you run away before he decides to stop being a fucking tool.

But once you get Ur back, you can. And we will cover that at some point. For now, let's skip to the defeat of Perkele.



Yumil...you came for me. Thank you. In any case, I'm impressed you got this far on your own. When everything was lost...I was worried you wouldn't be able to do anything. You're very strong, Yumil. You have an even stronger heart than us Spirits. All I can say is you really are the Book's Chosen One.
Now, the dragon you defeated had the power to seal Spirits. The Book's scattered pages were the source of its evil power. The other Spirits must be sealed in the same way.
Defeating the dragon got back the missing pages!



Oh.

See, until now, I thought the pages just got scattered around Rhoan, and now Rex is trying to find them all again like he said. That made sense. I guess that's why they didn't go with it.

No no. Rex only gets back some of the pages. The rest you receive by beating the four dragons, because somehow they ended up at the top of a skyscraper, indoors. And in the deepest recess of an underground cavern. And in a volcano that's so far away, you can only reach it by teleporting.



An ice plague? It must be connected to Neaki somehow. The first place you saw Neaki was at the Fortress, right? Let's head there.


"Yeah. Sure. Why not." <-- The developers.


...? What is it, Yumil?



That page...I see. In the chaos, you lost someone you care about. Normally, when you Code Scan, you only absorb its information. But in the chaos, they were sucked in alive! This has never happened before. I'm sorry, but I don't know what to do about it.
But don't give up hope. If you get back its original power, a miracle may happen. To do that, first focus on getting back all the Spirits. Then, you'll have to go to a certain place. That place is...Sunny Hill. That's where you first found the Book of Prophecy. Even hope lies in darkness. I'm sure...I'm sure of it. Now let's go. First to the Fortress!



At this point in the narrative, I went straight to Sunny Hill, and you can do that if you want. Nothing happens. You don't even get told that it won't work yet. That scene was mine.

I also did one of Lauca's sidequests here. Let's see how that went down.



Yumil, Lauca's hungry. It's time to go hunting. Lauca nursed you back to health! Now it's your turn to go hunting for Lauca today!



Good! Now go catch some prey!





Ooh! Impressive, Yumil! Lauca's so happy! But it's too much to eat! Let's go hunting together next time!


Hey. Remember this girl?



Her name was Sylphy? She was in that one scene? No? Well, whatever. I need to talk about her, so humour me.

Here's a rundown of Sylphy's sidequests. First, she tells you that she thinks her father Georg has been stressed lately, and asks you to make some medicine. We took a brief look at that one already.

Next, we find out the reason for the stress; Georg is being blackmailed by one of the castle maids, who is threatening to tell Sylphy that her mother was human. And apparently Georg doesn't think she's ready to know that. Or something. Probably wouldn't have been an issue if he'd never hidden it from her in the first place, but okay.

So Sylphy pours out her woes, and then finally, the two of you confront Georg at his wife's grave. He explains everything, and she learns not to be a horrible racist. Sorta.

Now I've made it clear that I don't like Sylphy. She's a pointless character with an awful romance path. But you know what? That's a decent set of quests. It's a clear arc that progresses naturally into a satisfying resolution.

Lauca, meanwhile, asks you to go hunting because she's hungry. You bring her some Pog meat and she thanks you. The end.

Then she gets into a fight with Rudrud, whom she doesn't like for some reason. Until now, we didn't even know they'd met. This is resolved on the spot, and is never brought up before or again.




After that, you're allowed to remove her locked "Lonely" code. Don't know why, and as usual, it changes absolutely nothing.

Lastly, she says "What? You wanna hear Lauca's background? Okay. (exposition)"

You think I'm paraphrasing, don't you?



We'll get to that, though. Let's look at this Rudrud mess first.



Ah! It's--
Are you ruining the forest again?! Rudrud will maintain the peace!
Lauca's just having lunch! Not doing anything wrong!
*shake head*
What now, human? You dare interfere?



What? We mustn't fight?
We should make up?
*nod*
But he's getting in the way of Lauca's lunch! He always jumps down from the sky and ruins her meal! Plus, he stinks! He stinks so much it hurts!



Yeah, we're not here to discover the power of diplomacy, folks. Can't convince enemies to reconcile? Fuck it! Kill everyone! Fuck it



And they all died. Game over.

It's not a playable fight. The screen just flashes white and then you're all laid flat.



...you're pretty strong. Lauca's shocked!
Lauca loves strong guys. Lauca'll listen to what you say. Sorry for before.
Rudrud is also sorry. He shouldn't have lost my temper.
Yumil, you don't like fighting?
*nod*
But sometimes fighting is important.



If you refuse to step in, they duke it out, by which I mean the screen flashes white and yadda yadda. Rudrud loses, Lauca says "I AM THE STRONGEST", the quest ends, and you can still remove her locked code even though nobody has learned anything from this, least of all the player.

I don't even get what Rudrud's problem is. Seems like he's just being a jerk and she's rightfully angry about it. Can't I pick a side? 'Cause between Mr. Psycho Racist Stink Dwarf and the nice lady letting us crash at her place, I'm kind of with Lauca here!



Aaand yeah. I hope you do, because here it is.



Lauca used to love fighting. This is way back, remember. She joined all sorts of wars. She was happy just fighting. But that changed when she met Heath. He always used to tell her...nothing comes from fighting. Things are only lost, he'd say. Lauca didn't understand what he meant by that. But she started to understand after fighting alongside him.
What was left after fighting? Why did Lauca fight at all? Lauca thought long and hard, but the answer never came. Fighting to survive soon felt empty for Lauca. And that's why she quit fighting, and came to live in the forest. She even threw her favourite weapon Stone Tusk...over the waterfall. To never fight again.
But she realised that it was wrong to throw it away. It carried all the pain that comes from fighting. Lauca only ran away from it. Now Lauca will take responsibility and bear it forever.



Guess how this gets sorted out.



Yep! We're going to find/make Stone Tusk and bring it back to her. Because...it's wrong to move on from your turbulent past? Because violence really is the answer? I'm having trouble seeing the lesson here. Or rather, I do see the lessons, and they're all bad ones.

And hang on a sec. She joined all sorts of wars? "Way back"? Isn't she, like, Yumil's age? How old is she supposed to be, exactly?



Oh FUCK ME. Character ruined.



!! This is Lauca's weapon! You found it for her?! You're wonderful, Yumil!! Lauca'll live in the forest with Stone Tusk in hand! You're a good guy, Yumil. Come play with me again anytime!


And there you go! Good to know that next time Rudrud starts some shit, he's not getting away with a bruising. Dude is fucking filleted.

No, really. That's good to know.

Anyway, back to the plot. We go to the Ice Cavern, rescue Neaki, thank you for saving me Yumil, oh look some more pages came back blah blah blah TO THE SWAMP. I forgot to keep a save before this point, and I'm not going through that whole dungeon again just to show you three or four lines.

And then this happens!



I think they made Ur blind because it was the only remaining disability they could represent through obvious metal restraints. Except maybe deafness, which would be tricky to write.

Because let's face it, they didn't actually want a blind character. He's not blind. Maybe light doesn't hit his retinae, but he can still basically see. He still turns his head to look at things. He can still "sense" exactly what's going on at all times.

Kind of like Neaki's muteness. Yeah, she can't form actual syllables, but she speaks regardless. And I know I didn't handle this much better, but at least Yumil couldn't understand her in my version. The real script has her talking directly to him on several occasions, and he does indicate comprehension.

You know, I take it back. Deafness wouldn't be difficult for Matrix Software to write. All they need is a dude with giant steel earplugs who says "I can't hear!" once, then forgets about it.

Point being, why give the spirits their own unique handicaps if none of them ever come up? It doesn't even seem to bother them, let alone limit them in any way, except in the general "We're not as powerful with these things on" sense. They might as well be generic genie cuffs.


---



I knew you'd come! Thank you, Yumil! Oh! The Book of Prophecy...



"Volcano"...that must be Rempo!
(That must be it...)
Yes, now let's hurry! Use the "Volcano" page to Map Warp!


This is more or less the scene you missed when we rescued Neaki. You can see why I'm not scrambling to get a full transcription. In fact, I only bothered showing this one in case you hadn't guessed that they don't even try to explain where the new page came from.


---



Uwoooooh!

Any other anime noises you want to make for us, Rempo? Come on! Give us your best NUWAAAAAH!



Heh heh! Thanks!
That makes all four of us! Let's work hard together!
Now, then...let's leave the volcano.


Lovely.

Next up is the big one, people. The return to Rhoan.



And maybe some other stuff.