Part 7: Shopping, Chatting, Building, Stabbing

Entry 7: Shopping, Chatting, Building, Stabbing



Tiz shakes his head.

...I take it from your grim countenance our fears were confirmed.



Well spoken, lad. I shall support the effort however I can. Take this. It will serve as a token of your new office as chairman of the restoration effort.



Tiz bows.

It's an honor. Your Highness... Isn't there any way to drive the Eternian military from the borders of your kingdom?



Bah. They've been a curse upon us all of late. And never more than this last week. They're in a lather over this search for the wind vestal.



They've berthed their ships at the lake southwest of us with cannons trained on the city.



It galls me, but there's little I can do.

......



I am Agnès Oblige, the Vestal of Wind.

You!

I shall resolve the matter. I give you my word, I will cause you no further grief.



You need worry on the matter no further, Your Highness. Farewell.



Agnès walks off.





The Sky Knights have occupied the lake. Their boldness is an affront, but they hold my people hostage.

Seems like a pretty one-sided fight. Still, Agnès's decision to stop the Sky Knights is concerning. Let's have a chat.



......

Don't tell me you're thinking of storming the Eternian camp at the southwest lake alone...

Don't be ridiculous. I'm well aware that I am no match for an airship.

Good. It sounds like they have this city in their crosshairs, besides.

As long as these people are held hostage, I have no choice.

They didn't seem the types to talk this out...

......

Wait... You wouldn't. You can't!

......

The party steps out of the castle.



Get captured! Then they'll take you aboard their airship. That's your ticket across the sea!



You can't really mean to-- Agnès, they'll kill you!

I'll not ask you again. Leave us. You are too eager to meddle in the affairs of others. Farewell.



......?



It seems you've need of a guide. At least let me show you the way there.



I think it's a grand idea! It could take weeks with Agnès's sense of direction.

Airy! ...Very well. Then I ask you to serve as our guide. Only as a guide, and only as far as the lake. Is that clear?



Tiz is abnormally enthused about heading into a camp full of enemy soldiers.

Before heading to the lake, there's side stuff to do. I'm going to talk pure gameplay for a while, so those uninterested should skip ahead to the screenshot of Airy talking.



As mentioned earlier, tapping the button on the left of the lower screen opens a small menu. Starting from the top:

• The save option allows saving on the world map.
  
• The second option is for tutorial quests, which teach basic elements of the game to new players with the bait of small rewards. Interestingly, their completion was carried over for New Game+ even with all carry-over options turned off.
  
• The third option is for updating online data.
  
• The fourth was just added after the last scene with the king: the rebuilding Norende minigame.
  

Each of the little icons is either a blockade (the exclamation points) or a shop. In order to finish rebuilding the town, all blockades must be cleared and all shops must be fully upgraded. These two activities are both done by assigning workers to the appropriate icon. The number of workers available are shown in the lower left corner.



The village starts with a small area -- two blockades and two shops -- accessible. Other regions and the shops within can only be accessed after clearing the blockades between the starting area and them. So, why rebuild Norende?



The shops deal in real merchandise. Upgrade a shop, and you get access to new goods sold by the Adventurer.

Any upgraded shops will also routinely give gifts of relevant wares: upgrading the item shop could eventually have you drowning in basic curing items without buying a single one, for example. The trick? The village works in real time. As shown, the first armor shop upgrade takes 30 minutes. Many of the blockades take days. Also, the game must be currently running (sleep mode is encouraged) to count the passage of time.

I'll offer updates on my Norende rebuilding every once in while, but that's about the gist of it. The top shop rewards are fantastic, so if anything it ends up feeling like cheating for throwing so much free junk at the player. You can get more workers using Street Pass, and more workers reduces the amount of time projects take, but I'm not sure I'll bother.

Now, then...



What? Surely it's not so--

How many times did you get lost in that ravine? There was only one path! Then it took you two hours to find me at the top, despite perfect visibility.

Er, the canyon path was... very twisty. I'm certain it's a maze even to the locals...

Ha ha ha... Not really.

......

But at least this way I have an excuse to tag along and... Er, nevermind...

Stay close. The lake we make for is said to be unreachable by any but the most knowledgeable.

R-right! Of course.

Mmm-hmm. I'll bet.

So, um... What do you plan to do once we get there, Agnès?

......

That is no concern of yours, Tiz.

I've no choice...

Not as long as they have the people of Caldisla in their sights.

It will be fine. Enemy or no, they are men, not monsters.

......

A naive vestal and the bloodthirsty shepherd who has a crush on her.



Tiz has made a name for himself in the city.



This is the girl with the obsession over mystery opening cutscene man Ringabel. That said, she's not wrong.



...But talking to the man himself reveals he's busy with more important issues.



I buy one of almost everything in the armory, just missing the rod (basic magic attacker weapon) and bronze helm (useful but oh well). Shopping spree follows:















Now to go test it all out.




Autobattle can be turned on/off during battle using the Y button. It doesn't just make your characters attack, it will try to repeat whatever you did during your last manual turn (characters still can't act if they start their turn below 0 BP). Handy.

With encounter rate set to max and autobattle set to 4x attack for both characters, grinding is a breeze.



The last random encounter in the Caldisla region, currently. Like the zombie, only appears at night.




The goal was to level to 4 and have Tiz reach Freelancer level 2. This gains him the ability Treat, which restores 20% of an ally's HP and can be used while silenced.



Meanwhile, in Norende, upgrading the item shop to start netting free merchandise. Next:



It's time to gracefully surrender.

--

Event Viewer
Main Scenario:
Entering the Palace
Airy's Grand Plan

Party Chat:
Agnès's Intentions
Tiz the Navigator