Part 4: The Imperial Capital

All right, let's have a quick intermission.


Video: Bequeathed Puppet







Blue save flowers have the secondary function of being able to teleport you to the church Endmost Bethel, as well as a few other places later. Here, you can spend your TP earned from battles to class up.

Classing up is a huge deal early on in the game for a few reasons.





Classing up does all sorts of stuff.

-It increases the amount of cards you can have in your deck. Since the game automatically reshuffles spent cards back into the deck, I never found this to be very important – balancing out the types of cards your deck has is important, but the actual amount you have is less so.

-It increases the amount of decks you can have. I only ever bother with having two, but it can be useful to have more.

-It increases the amount of cards you can discard in one turn. This is absolutely amazing, especially later on in the game when you have to worry about chain attacks and multiple special attacks and stuff.

-It increases the amount of cards you can have in your hand, giving you more options to choose from at the start of your turn.

-It increases the rate at which you charge MP, and I believe it also sometimes increases you max MP (you start with 2 max MP but can get up to 5). It also has an additional function with MP that I'll cover once it activates.



Needless to say, classing up is awesome. And remember, you class up with TP, and you get TP by unleashing long attack strings, so in a way it's like the game rewarding you for playing well.





This seemed like an appropriate enough deck name.

Okay, enough about that.





I was going to have a big shopping infodump here too, except that the game won't let me do anything interesting with shopping yet so I just took the opportunity to buy some stuff.





All right, where were we? Oh yeah, that guy saved us and we were trying to decide if we ought to trust him. Okay, let's go.





Yeah...we're grasping at straws, here. What else can we do but trust him?

Good. Very sensible of you. Boys like you are so hard to find. Hee hee...Well, listen carefully. The door back there will take you to an underground passage leading to the streets of Mintaka. Once you're inside, stay out of sight for a while. Wait for the heat to die down a little. You could go out into the city, but I wouldn't recommend it. They're watching for you.

Just who are you?

Well! Now this is a surprise! A talking paramachina?

Um, that's right. So? Are you going to tell us who you are or not? What do you want form us?





no no no no no NO


I serve Quaestor Verus, head of the military and also a spiriter – just like you.

You knew I was a spiriter?

Well, that's the word going around the city. But who am I to say if it's true or not? Once things have cooled down, come see Quaestor Verus. He means you no harm. He might even have a thing or two to tell you about this evening's events. Now run along. We'll be waiting for you, my boy.


Geldoblame turns and leaves, and we regain control of Sagi. I have to say, while he was a little pompous and condescending, he doesn't seem to be outright evil. I wonder what his deal is?...





Fate's Cordials are the resurrection items of this game. Considering the harsh difficulty, I think I'll be getting quite a bit of mileage out of this.







Let's wait here for a while, until the dust settles.

Stop worrying. If there are any soldiers, we can shake them with a wing-dash. But we still have to be careful. The city is one thing, but in places crawling with enemies, it's tough to keep up enough courage.





OK. The important thing is that we think alike and work together. Let's go, Meemai!


Thanks for the info, but I already figured out how to wing-dash in the last couple of dungeons. It occurs to me that Guillo theoretically shouldn't be able to wing-dash. I guess it just can move fast enough to keep up anyway.





I recall these cells being important for a sidequest later. I'll have to be sure and make my way back once I have the key.





There's little else of interest down here, so let's move on.





Music: Lord of Pawns


Mmm. And look at that – it's just like the prissy fellow said. We'll have trouble getting past security this tight. Perhaps we should just hide out in the sewers for a while. What better place to spend some quality time than the darkest, dankest, rankest ditch in town?





You're right. We should head out into Mintaka. It's only a matter of time until they find us, whether we're up here or down there. Let's just do whatever it takes to reach the port. There should be a liner leaving for Hassaleh soon.

Hassaleh?

That's right. We're going home.





Yeah. It doesn't see much traffic, and I never told the Service where I'm from, so they'd never think to look in Hassaleh.

I'm surprised you weren't required to tell you where you were from. Actually, I'm surprised they accepted you despite you not being of Imperial birth. This spiriter thing must be a huge deal.

Hassaleh...I don't want to go there...How are we even going to get on the liner? They're sure to spot us!

Staying here isn't any different, is it? We need to do whatever it takes to get out of the Empire. Let's just head for the port. Try to think positive! We'll worry about boarding the ship when we get there.


I guess that's one way to look at it. You might want to work on a disguise or something, though, at least for Guillo. I think people would notice an animated puppet even if they weren't looking for it.





Unfortunately, barricades lie all over the city, so we'll have to find an indirect route to the port. The soldiers are spouting something about a monster form the Nihal Desert attacked and a boy in red is a witness. Interesting that they aren't telling them Sagi allegedly murdered the Emperor – I guess they don't want the public to know that he's dead yet.





If we continue to fight separately, we'll be putting ourselves at a heavy disadvantage. You take command from now on. I'll follow your orders. Are we clear?

Crystal clear! Just make sure you keep up, Guillo!

I know what to do! Make sure you pull your own weight.





All right, Guillo is officially a playable character!





Guillo also adds its own weapon, armor, and the Firewheel finisher into our deck. Perhaps the biggest difference between this game and EW's gameplay is that all characters share one deck in this one. Weapons, armor, and finishers are unique to specific characters (so Guillo can't equip Sagi's swords and Sagi can't use Firewheel, etc), but most items and standard attacks are universal and can be used by anyone.

Oh, and if anyone knows what a sophia is I'd like to hear it.







Housekeeper: Pardon my asking, but what is it that brings you h-


The camera pans left a little, revealing a mother and two kids.


Camilla: Those who would lead the Empire must have a corresponding strength of character. Skeed, Vallye, someday you two will be in the position of guiding this Empire onward. You owe it to your nation to be diligent in your studies, no matter the sacrifice. Understood?

Skeed: Yes, Mother.

Vallye: Yes, I understand, Mother.

Camilla: Of course you do, my dears. I must go check on your father now. You're to finish reading the Imperial Constitution before I return.


Camilla, starts to leave and notices us.


Camilla: And who might you be? I don't recall any engagements scheduled for today. I'm terribly busy at the moment. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave. (turns to the housekeeper) Well then, I must be off. Try to keep a handle on things, hmm? Have the meal ready and the cleaning finished by my return. Do I make myself clear?

Housekeeper: Yes, ma'am. Have a safe trip.


Camilla wanders out.


Housekeeper: Wow, do I hate that woman. The missus is such a tyrant – I can't stand it! Just because the pay is good doesn't mean I plan to stick around and take this every day, you know? Well, all right, now that the tyrant is out, I can get some work done around here. I don't mind if you stay. Just be gone when the missus returns. Don't dally, all right?


Okay. Let's see what we can loot from the house.







I'm guessing this is important. Maybe we can talk the maid into letting us have some.


Housekeeper: Caring about your kids' education is one thing, but what she does to those brats is like torture...Plus she's totally hysterical when her husband's around. All they ever do is argue. The way the two of them go at it, I think I understand why he might not want to come ho-


Camilla suddenly walks back in.


Camilla: Excuse me? Try moving your hands more and your lips less, hmm? I come home with my ears burning and wouldn't you know, it's you. You there, in the red. If your business is done, please leave.


And she walks back out again. I'm not totally sure why she returned other than to be a bitch to her maid.


Housekeeper: She has a sixth sense or something. That big lump on top of her head is like one big ear, I swear. Ah, I just want to go off someplace where no one can hear me and vent until I'm blue in the face.





Uh...I got what now?


Housekeeper: Wow, this is really satisfying! But wait, I've got more!





...What a weird game.





Anyway, letting her vent gets her in a good enough mood that she'll let us steal this Machina Oil. I wonder what we might need it for?





By the way, my Meat Fit for an Emperor has rotted and now decreases everyone's HP, so I threw it away. The Machina Oil also lowers everyone's status resistances, but that won't be a problem.





Out of gas, huh? Hey, I've got some of that.







He gives me the Taunt card, which is another MP charger; more importantly, he gets out of the way so I can go inside this building!





This building has stairs leading to the roof. From there we are supposed to go north, but going south leads to a little boy...







So...um...magnus trading. I'm gonna have to admit I don't know jack shit about this and my basic strategy is basically “flounder about at random”.

Basically, the goal is to add and subtract magnus you're willing to trade until you see one on his side that you want. Then you offer to trade and hope the other person offers to trade the card that you want.





I want that blue glove (a weapon for Guillo) so I offer to trade now.






If they offer to trade the card you want, great! But this kid didn't. So now I'll have to try a little harder by either trying to be persuasive or adding an extra card to my trade. I chose to add a new card hoping he'd go for it.











I decided to try again. Now that we've failed a trade, his tension bar is lowered, which I assume makes him less likely to accept negotiations or some such. I saw a new weapon for Guillo so I decided to go for it...









And he offered it immediately and I got it.

I don't plan to trade much, because...well, seriously, I have no idea what I'm doing...but since I will often have a bunch of trash cards it can be fun to see what you can get out of a trade.









There are also special ways you can combine quest magnus to make new quest magnus. However, this requires a special mixer that I don't have yet, so we'll get back to this later.


Anyway, what I'm supposed to be doing is heading north on the rooftops. Let's stop and view an amusing scene along the way, shall we?





Gonzo: These Imperial aristocrats are probably loaded with cash. Well, now that I've cased the place, I think it's showtime.


Gonzo turns to see Sagi, panics, and proceeds to fall straight through the hole into the house.


Housekeeper: Huh?! Ma'am! Someone just dropped from the ceiling!

Camilla: Huh? What's going on here? You've come to snatch away my precious children, haven't you?!

Gonzo: Y-You're mistaken, ma'am!! I'm but a humble Mintaka city building inspector. My department is currently offering citizens building inspections free of charge. As part of our services, we take a look at the conditions of private residences, and-

Camilla: Oh, hush! GET HIM!

Gonzo: Gnyah?!







All right! The rooftops have carried us past the blockades. Now, let's see if we can reach the dock...