Part 32: A Matter of Perspective

Update 29: A Matter of Perspective



Music: Soft Labyrinth






When we last left our heroes, they had gotten a bit off course. Just a little. No big deal.

This is the Labyrinth of Duhr, and it can be a real doozy. The catch to this dungeon is that when you enter a new screen, the camera always starts behind Kalas, as opposed to there being a fixed angle for every screen. As such, it's possible to go through an area you've already been to and not realize it because you're seeing it from a different angle.

Furthermore, there is some excellent stuff in this dungeon, which means you will want to explore every corner and dead end it has.




A = Starting point, red save flower
B = Metal Knuckles
C = Cinderella Birdie
D = Pristine Water and Fangs of Light
E = Sun Coin
F = Hamelin Cloak
G = Pegasus Constellation
H = White Ash, Battuta (Family Tree quest)
I = Air Slash
J = Bells of Fate (need Pristine Water)
K = Sunflower Barrette
L = Platter of Parting


Once again, I put the proverbial brush to the also proverbial paper in order to bring you a complete map of this place. Much like the mirror maze, it's simple enough once you understand the basic layout, but obviously you won't know that unless you've looked at a guide or played it several times already.




Fangs of Light is Kalas' level 7 Finisher. Sadly, it lacks the HP drain properties that Fangs of Darkness had, but it's a high-level Light attack so I'm still happy with it. You can also get some Pristine Water from a jug here (there are several other water jugs throughout the maze, but this is the only one that is still upright and thus still full of water), and that water will be important later.




These dogs are new...ish. I think we've seen smaller versions but these guys are enormous. They are heavily water based so Savyna can be pretty useful if she decides to draw some fire stuff. Actually, I'd say Savyna shines in this entire area, but more on that later.




I know this labyrinth like the back of my hand. If you want to know something about this place, just ask...Quzman? That's my grandpa! Huh? He's in critical condition? Are you serious? I have to go see him right away! In my family, we're told that if we're not present at the deathbed of the head of our clan, misfortune will fall upon us. I don't wanna be cursed just because I wasn't there. So I write my name here? Let's see.









I should really go check on Quzman again. I haven't actually stopped by his house again since...well, since I left Sadal Suud for the first time back when it was just Kalas and Xelha.





More boozer turtles.








sores.

This is why we needed that Pristine Water.











Hey, we made friends with a monster! Good luck, Mr. or maybe Mrs. Cancerite person!

Anyway, Bells of Fate is Xelha's level 7 finisher. It's my favorite of hers, but since I have her built towards Wind and it's a Chronos attack I probably won't be using it all that much.





If there's one thing in the entire maze that you get, make it this. This is Lyude's class up item. He's been really struggling to do much lately (though fighting a ton of dark based enemies has helped), so it's nice to finally have him caught up with the others.

...Well, he'll be caught up with the others when I finally go to church again.





This neat purple cloud road marks the exit.





Welcome to Duhr's overworld!...er...I think it's called Duhr, anyway. I've forgotten if this region actually gets a proper name or if it's just called something generic like The Earth or something. Anyway, let's head to Mizuti's village of Gemma.





Music: Holoholo

A-ha...So this is Great Mizuti's village.

First, we must talk with the village elder. Everyone follow the Great Mizuti.





Too bad. I guess we could take a look around the village while we wait.

I agree. I'm interested to see how people live their lives here. I'd like to talk to as many as I can.

You be invited to stop by the Great Mizuti's place.


And so we stumble on yet another event flag search. Fortunately, the village is quite small so it's not that big a pain, plus some of the people in town have interesting things to say. Let's visit the house on the right first.





If we're told not to, wouldn't we want to open it? Isn't that what we call “human nature”, Legion?


Agreed, we are so opening this baby. I bet there's a horrible demon or an ancient relic or





...or that. I'm a little disappointed.




Ever since then, we've been paying a great deal of attention to the Nations of the Sky. As the seals of the End Magnus were broken one by one, even down here beneath the Taintclouds, we could feel an evil power brewing. We no longer wield the power held by the great wizards of old. There was little we could do to stop such an evil from resurfacing. Mizuti must have overheard the adults talking about it and set off immediately, trying to save the world alone.


Some NPCs exist to drive the point home that the Great Mizuti is pretty amazing.




Could I have a look at that pendant you're wearing?

Hmm? Of course.

Thank you. Hmm...very interesting. Have you folks ever heard of an ancient artifact called the Earth Sphere?Mizuti's ancestors, the great wizards of old, made it to seal the bodies of the dead gods within the five islands. I believe that pendant of yours is the Earth Sphere itself...yet it seems to have been shattered. So what you have there is actually only a piece of the Earth Sphere. Two hundred years ago, a man named Calbren came down from the Sky. He stole the Earth Sphere from us, and took it back to the Sky with him. It must have been owned by a great many people through the ages, yet here it is again, back in our lands.

Lord Calbren's ancestor? He stole the Earth Sphere?

I guess since Lord Calbren's ancestor stole it, it was stored at the Duke's Manor for quite a while. Then Melodia must have found it there, and secretly passed it on to Geldoblame...

Then you swiped it from him. It all makes sense now.

So the Earth Sphere was used to seal the gods' parts as End Magnus deep underground...which is why it could also be used to awaken them.

Young lady, even though it may be broken, the Sphere is still a very sacred artifact. It may prove useful to you someday. Please keep it safe.







Hey, not bad. Not quite Ocean Mirror awesome, but I'll take it.


There's also a guy in here who mentions that the shop is out of service, and that if I get him some Rubber Mud he can fix it up so we can buy/sell things again. We'll try to keep that in mind in the next dungeon.





The Great Mizuti has just returned. How be you, Kee?

I'm fine! I heard you had a hard time up there...Everything okay?

The Great Mizuti be in tip-top shape. Hehe. As well as Incredible, Indomitable, and Insurmountable!

Yup, that's the Mizuti I know!





Yeah, now you have someone to protect you from the big, bad bullies, sissyboy!

HEY! You watch your mouth!


The two little brats run away.


It's okay Mizuti.

But...

I don't mind.

You don't?

Nope.

Okay, Kee. The Great Mizuti has some important business and must go.

Okay. Tell me about your adventures sometime!


Well, I gotta hand it to him; Kee really takes bullying in stride. Still, it's a shame he wouldn't let Mizuti set those punks on fire. Maybe when/if we get Mizuti's fire finisher we can come back.





Mizuti's parents are Kay (the mom) and Koh (the dad).


Mizuti?! Oh, I don't believe it! How could you go up there all by yourself?! Do you have any idea how worried I was?

Come now, dear. Our child has returned to us safely. Mizuti just couldn't sit still after finding out that something terrible was happening to the world involving the Earth Sphere stolen from our ancestors. Besides, considering what Mizuti has accomplished, I am truly impressed. I'm proud of the kid!

Ditto!

There you go again. You're spoiling our child, you know. Anyway, I am so happy to see you home safe. Welcome back, Mizuti.

Good to be back home, Dear Mother!


Fade out/in to indicate offscreen chatter...





To tell you the truth, Mizuti is the most powerful wizard in this village. Perhaps Mizuti was much more sensitive to the dangers up above than any of us were. About a month ago, Mizuti said someone needs to check on the outside world, and just flat out left. We were so worried...But our child is back home safe and sound again, thanks to all of you. Our apologies for any mischief Mizuti may have caused you.

Oh, no, don't mention it. The Great Mizuti saved the day more than once...

...The Great Mizuti? Mizuti, you're not calling yourself “Great” again, are you?

Hmmm...Well, erm...

Mizuti! How many times do I have to tell you? A truly great person would never show off his importance.

Come now, come now. It's been a while since we last got together as a family. I wouldn't be so picky...On the other hand, Mizuti, your mother is right in a way. I wouldn't feel comfortable calling myself “The Great Koh”. It just wouldn't be appropriate.

...Gotcha. Point has been taken.

Speaking of “Great”, have you had a chance to talk with the Great Kamroh? He was really worried about you. You should let him know you're safe.

But the Great Kamroh, he be having an important discussion.

An important discussion?...Ah, I think I know who he's talking with. I heard Sir Krumly's in town. If it's him, their talk shouldn't last too long. I doubt they have much to discuss.


Phew...I forgot how dialogue intensive this section is. Let's break it up with another quick bout of exploration.







If memory serves, I'll be needing this for a sidequest later. I probably shouldn't have gotten it just yet (I'm going to need a lot of free magnus space in a bit) but I did anyway.





There are several teleporters outside. A couple of NPCs will comments on them, and how sometimes one is flashing, and how if you follow the flashing ones you might reach an otherwise inaccessible goodie. So let's do that!







(wow that red sky is really intimidating) Oh, a new piece of equipment! Now that I think about it, Kalas has another new buckle that I got in Azha. Let's see how they compare with the one he's been wearing since Anuenue.





The one from Azha boasts great stat boosts – even better than his current Ice Crystal Buckle – and doesn't have the Headache side effect...





And the one I just found is...wow, it's terrible. I guess the 50% resistance to freezing and flames is okay, but not at the cost of giving 0 atk/agl/def.

I equip him with Azha's Platinum Buckle.




??? Kamroh, do you intend for us to rot down here in these Taintclouds? Now that the evil god has awakened, what is the point of sitting here doing nothing?! I've waited long enough!





The very grumpy man who is Lord Krumly storms off. I wonder what he and Kamroh were arguing about? Whatever, it's our turn now.








No problem. Any time. Piece of cake.


People of the Sky, I bid you welcome to the village of Gemma. It seems you've taken good care of our Mizuti. Please accept my thanks...

No, no, thank you. Thank you for helping us out of that tight spot the other day.

Mizuti called to us, so we hastily attempted a sealing spell...Yet the power of the evil god was immense...Honestly speaking, I was unsure what would become of us.

Without your help, we'd have been killed by Malpercio for sure. Thank you so much.

It was the least we could do. As you must know from seeing our village, we no longer possess the powers once wielded by the wizards of old. A thousand years have passed since our people started living in these poisonous conditions. Devastated from battles with the gods, our magic has all but withered away. As I'm sure you recall from your confrontation with Malpercio, even the combined power of our villagers did little more than slow the creature down...Many of us collapsed after the effort...Regretfully, we no longer have the power nor the will as a people to leave the Taintclouds and face Malpercio. But Mizuti is a very strong child, with power rivaling that of the ancient wizards. It's almost as if Mizuti were one of our ancestors, reincarnate...





Sh...she?

You...you mean the Great Mizuti is a...she?

Oh, you didn't know?

...Learn something new every day.


And thus Mizuti's greatest spoiler is finally revealed; she is a she.

I have to say, I didn't realize how difficult it would be going into this LP to avoid referring to a character by any gender-specific pronouns until the appropriate point in the game. It's nice to have that over with!

Also, Savyna has no reaction to this development and, in fact, has no lines at all in this entire update.






Artifacts to defeat the gods. The Sword of the Heavens, the Ocean Mirror, and the Earth Sphere. The Ocean Mirror was given to the people of the Ice Lands by our ancestors. It's been shattered, and the Earth Sphere is in pieces...But the third Artifact, the Sword of the Heavens, is still safe here, in our lands. It should prove a great help when you fight Malpercio, as it was against the gods some thousand years ago.

Where can we find this Sword of the Heavens?

It is kept in the Garden of Death, just north of this village. Here. Take this key...




All right. Let's go down there and get the Sword of the -

Kalas...

?

You seem to have a mysterious friend with you. It is a pleasure making your acquaintance. The Children of the Earth welcome you, Brave Spirit.





You run a pretty nice village with cool inhabitants. I salute you!

You have fought courageously with your companions from the Sky. Please strive on, so that the world may not fall into darkness...

Kalas, you and your spirit friend just may be the key to restoring our world...You should go now. Please be careful.


Okay, you would have gotten bonus cool points for explaining what you meant there. Oh well.


At this point you can talk to the five people around the room to get some more backstory, but this has already been very dialogue heavy so I'm going to stick that at the end. Let's just get on to the Garden of Death...


Music: Decay



This is Capella.

Capella sucks.




Much like in the Ice Cliffs, your movement speed is severely hindered. It took me about twenty seconds to get from the entrance to where I am in the above screenshot. Unlike the Ice Cliffs, you always move this slowly; there's no favorable wind to make you move at a normal pace.




Granted, it has great music and the enemies give good EXP and delightful drops, but it's hard to care about any of that when the dungeon itself is just an exercise in tedium.









It doesn't really come across in screenshots, but skeletons actually rise out of the brown muck. This is the first time I ever took this route through, so it was a bit of an unnerving surprise. They move as slowly as I do, though, so they never caught up to fight me.








Hmm. No defense boost but lovely attack and agility boosts. I'll take it!





This picture is awesome.









There's also a barely visible magnus chest behind the building.





Class up item for Savyna! Now I can get everyone up to an even class for a while!





...Well, I don't see it.

On the pedestal, over there...

There's nothing there.

…

It looks like something had been lodged in it. Could someone have taken it?

Let's get outta here.



The game is nice enough to dump you out on the world map again (although if you forgot Savyna's Purple Rose then you have to go back in and get it, ha ha, sucks be to you).

You'd think that you would have to return to Gemma and report to Kamroh, but you don't; he has nothing new to say. Instead we're supposed to press on, but I want to go back to Gemma anyway to open up the shop.





So I give him the Rubber Mud I collected, and





get some cool prizes, but the real reward is opening up the store, which




sells this.

The Forlorn Woman is expensive, and to be honest I've never used her before, but I want to try her out on an upcoming boss to see how things work out. I believe this is the first time we've seen a magnus that can decrease an enemy's combat parameters, so I could see it being useful against heavy hitters. Too bad she shows up after Fadroh.





This was a surprise. I actually had to look up how this wound up in my inventory. Apparently Silkworms (healing magnus) turn into cocoons, which turn into this. It sells for a pretty nice chunk of money.











You mean, I opened the box and now I have to pay for it? This is terrible!

Well, maybe if we ignore it it'll just...you know...go away on it's own. That's how debt works, right?





Yeah...something like that. Nice to see you again.









Hey, not bad at all.

Let's close up the update with some character stats, shall we?






Mizuti is still the King Queen of Everything.





Kalas has understandably fallen behind a bit in level, but is still looking pretty good all around.





Savyna's still pretty ehh.





Lyude's recent equipment change has really screwed with his stats, making him one of the flimsier characters, but finally allowing him to match the others in attack and agility





Conversely, Xelha's stats have really started to fall behind. She's relatively frail and much weaker than the others, with only her crazy good agility going for her. I hope I can find a good new piece of equipment for her...





And Gibari is what he's always been; slow and brutally strong.






All right, that's it for gameplay progression! But what did those storytellers in Kamroh's room have to say?

-




...Having defeated the gods after a long and arduous struggle, they decided to take the dead gods apart, sealing each of them in five separate islands, and magically raising them into the sky. The Earth had been ravaged and poisoned during the war, so any future hope of survival was set afloat in the Sky. Those islands are your homes, now...Sadal Suud, Diadem, Anuenue, Mira, and Alfard...Even after death, a strong power resided in the corpses of the gods. The five floating islands have prospered until today largely due to the power of the gods buried within them.




...Yet about a thousand years ago, a war erupted between them. It is said that the cause of the conflict was man's invasion of the gods' territory in an attempt to expand their lands, but no one knows exactly what happened. Vicious battles ensued between god and man, eventually, the men emerged victorious. The creatures who followed the gods and fought for them were exiled, sent to a dark corner of another dimension, along with their stronghold, Cor Hydrae.




...there lived huge creatures with terrible powers. People were awed by them, and called them gods...The Lord of the Trees, of the Water, of the Clouds...They were sibling gods of Malpercio. The wise and old Great Whale, living in the Ocean, was one of the gods, too...




...They stayed to prevent poison that had engulfed the land form reaching the Sky, and also to purify their lands. That is the purpose of the Taintclouds. For a thousand years, the Taintclouds have covered the Earth, absorbing the poison that had seeped into it.




...so as to prevent them from returning to this world ages later. It is also said that different parts of the gods' bodies were chosen for burial, so that the islands in the Sky would each develop a unique culture, resulting in diversity among the inhabitants of the Sky. Yet, this worked against us. Who could have imagined that, after so many years, someone would attempt to fuse those parts together again?



-

Decision Time!


Hey, a guy's being evil. We should probably do something about it, huh?



> Nah, it's cool.

> Let's go after him!


Also, please note that I am taking Savyna with me to the next dungeon. Which two characters should accompany her?