Part 119: Wherein the Party Does Everything According to Plan, Apparently?

Entry 110: Wherein the Party Does Everything According to Plan, Apparently?

Good News: We're out of the endless loop!

Bad News: This is probably the most confused version of the party across the multiverse.



If you paid attention last entry, you may have noticed Airy's brooch was still glowing. Despite going through the Holy Pillar, we're still in the world of chapter 8, presumably because we're at the far edge of the multiverse and Airy just needed to do the final ceremony to tie a big bow on her chain of worlds.



If you haven't spoken to the sage yet in this world, he instead starts with this line:

Hm? You four are... No matter. It seems the time is upon us.

There is much I would speak of. At last... At long last...

Sage, we must rely on your wisdom. You are all we have.

Though I fear I am far from all-knowing myself, child.



Now here's an unexpected twist: the sage wasn't holding out on us this time.

No... What are we to do if even you don't know? How do we stop this!?

Patience, child. He will be with us presently. Ah, and here he is.

Our favorite non-vampire, the King of Exposition himself, strides in.



Of all the people who could've helped the party earlier, this guy takes the cake.

All here, I see. No need for pleasantries. I'm more or less aware of the situation.

Then let's begin.

Begin what?

Agnès, take the pendant you received from the sage and raise it aloft.

Despite seeming to know more than everyone, he's treated the situation pretty lightly so far. Is it because he's gone insane from spending millenia lurking in his musty castle? Maybe.



Agnès raises up her pendant.

That will do. Now, for the rest. Line up behind Agnès and join hands, all of you.

Er, right.

May I ask why?

As party to these events, you have the right to know. And the desire as well, I expect. The revelation as spoken by the angel...

Shall we?

Indeed!

As Yulyana begins an incantation, the pendant begins to glow...






Hey, back here again in the Deus Ex Machina zone from the start of the Finale, this time while conscious!

What's happening!?

Shh! Remain silent.

The center of the area shimmers...



The voice is playing out like a recording.

The mark upon the Evil One heralds the beginning. The Bringer of Ruin has risen. His name is Ouroboros!

Ouroboros, Bringer of Ruin, shall devour all worlds linked by his harbinger. You and your world, and the whole of life on myraid other worlds, now face extinction.

If DeRosso had this recording all along, he's the only human who's known about Ouroboros. He also never shared this information with the Sage, for whatever reason. This's a pretty heavy duty problem for one guy to have on his mind.



Let's give the game the benefit of the doubt here and say DeRosso didn't talk to the party about this earlier for good reason.

You must use every ounce of your being to see this scourge contained.

Wise guardians of the Warriors of Light, the time has come. Which of you will do as I have instructed?

Maybe he felt he couldn't risk letting Airy -- and Ouroboros by extension -- onto this angel(?)'s plan. He needed to wait until he was absolutely certain the party was ready and positioned to beat not just Airy, but Ouroboros.



Too early, and the party either kills or is killed by Airy, with Ouroboros remaining safely out of the way. Which means DeRosso was gambling on the party not getting fed up and breaking a crystal. Which means he just might've been secretly ticked off at us in the Finale, but really, he's got only himself to blame for assuming the party would continue awakening crystals like blind morons.

It galls me, but you're the only one for it...

You watch over them, sage.

Warriors of Light. Know that you do not walk alone. There are those who protect you. Those who await your return. Those who have entrusted you with the future.

Anyway, by awakening the crystals and ignoring all warning signs, things are apparently going according to this ancient plan to stop Ouroboros. So that's good? And DeRosso's volunteered for some important role, which...who the hell knows what that's about, nobody's going to bother explaining to us. And apparently the Sage had a heads up on this plan after all but didn't know about Ouroboros?



The angel(?) and DeRosso must have a hell of a lot of faith we won't screw up their plan in our ignorance. If only they knew about the Finale timeline.

Should despair take hold, and your spirits falter, raise me aloft once more.

Now, go. Onward, Warriors of Light... My friends across the bounds of time and place.

Wait, could we maybe get more info on--




Nevermind.



The angel. The one who suddenly appeared and halted our fight eighteen hundred years past.

And if I'm correct--

The Agnès of the world I hail from...

This has been the guess for a while, but only if you did the optional scenes in Vampire Castle.



...Which the game is going to pretend didn't happen.

I failed...to protect her...

She may be, or perhaps not. Airy has interlinked tens of thousands of worlds.

Myself, from a different world... But, why? How could she have...

Made a recording of herself? Teleported to another dimension without Airy in hot pursuit? Known future events?



What is the Celestial Realm, anyway? The Sage supposedly had never even heard of it until a couple minutes ago.

There is no way of knowing now.

......

May I ask, Lord DeRosso, what is it you must do?

...That burden is mine alone. You will know before long, if all goes to plan.

...*sigh*

Now if you'll excuse me. I've preparations to make.

DeRosso exits but we'll see him later? I guess.



I mean, it's pretty safe to assume at this point the party's just going to do what comes naturally: charge to the bad guys and punch them in the face, world-eating demon god or no.

Speaking of, I shall break the final seal upon the Kustra Archipelago, if it be of any use to you.

The Sage has a special treat for us before we go.



You might seek them out, should you think it necessary before you face Ouroboros.

Now that we've reached The End, the final section of the bonus dungeon has been unlocked.



With all that in mind, let's give DeRosso time to prepare for whatever he's going to do and go check out other stuff.



In The End, every town has all new dialogue.



We're going to be doing the final fights after this update, so for now, let's take one last look around the world.



With the Eternians settled down at home, everything's peaceful. We can get a feeling for how Luxendarc can be at its best, and what we're setting out to protect.



You've got to be kidding me, Goodman. Maybe he's secretly a bloodthirsty guy who'll take any excuse to stay at war.



Starting with the events in Chapter 6 and the Finale, the plot has gotten increasingly confused.



The game's story isn't simply bad so much as woefully uneven. The first half is fine.



The second half is not, and it isn't just the ratio of Eternians to main plot, or the repetition.



The party may not have seen the Finale like we did, but they were pretty well set to break a crystal since Chapter 6. So why didn't they in this version of the timeline?



At the end of Chapter 6 in the Holy Pillar, the party states their reason for continuing with Airy's plan:


They don't know about Ouroboros, so they must be talking about Airy. They know she's behind the Great Chasm. They know she's lying to them. They've got at least a solid guess about the countdown on her wings and are waiting for them to reach zero so they can do...something. Yet once that countdown finally ends:


They're shocked by Airy's betrayal. Any semblance of the party having a longterm plan, or understanding the warnings they've been given all game, is washed away in a series of scenes which are good character moments but make little sense in context.



Inconsistencies in a story are common, but the above case is a pretty damn egregious example since it involves changing/ignoring the game's main motivation. It takes the player from thinking "Yeah! We're gonna outwit Airy and save the day!" to "Wait, what's going on? Why are the characters acting clueless? Did I miss something?"



As the party travels north to Kustra Archipelago, Ringabel mutters to himself.

Huh?

Oh, no, I was just thinking back to when I was still the dark knight Alternis Dim.

Barras said something to me back then. He said...

"My Phoenix Flight and your Minus Strike are the ultimate combination."

You sacrifice HP for major damage with Phoenix Flight, then you do as much damage as your HP loss with Minus Strike...

Hmm, that could be interesting! You could even have multiple pairings like that in a party.

It's worth a try! And if there were a way to add some major healing after the Minus Strike, it would be icing on the cake.

Let us try to find something of that sort.

We were both really excited about it back then, even though neither of us had mastered the moves yet.

Holly was there with us too...

I think it was her suggestion to use the freelancer's Stand Ground until she could follow up with healing.

Ringabel...

This would be more useful if the party weren't already hitting the 9999 damage cap all the time.



Our eventual pursuit of Ouroboros may clear the plot's inconsistencies up...or make them worse. But first, let's dip into the last section of the bonus dungeon.




Previously, floor 9 was a dead end. Now, with Yulyana's unlocking the seal, there's a passage open to floor 10.



It contains only one treasure.




Durandal/Durendal is a sword from French myth owned by a paladin of Charlemagne. As appropriate for the Catholic-inspired Orthodoxy, it was said to have been given by an angel and contained the following: a tooth of Saint Peter, the blood of Saint Basil, the hair of Saint Denis, and a piece of cloth from the Virgin Mary, just in case three holy relics wasn't enough.



It's also the final item in D's Journal!



But that's not the main reason we're here. Go behind the treasure chest...



...to find a very special secret passage, containing...



Friends!



If you decline, Adventurer is their usual cheery self:

Ahh, that's a shame. Another time, then. No rush at all.

Let's ask again.



And this time, graciously accept.

Alright, you're on. I'll hold nothing back!



Introducing us to Bravely Default's secret bonus boss.



Outwardly simple, this battle has a rough gimmick if you aren't aware of how your opponents fight.



The fox, also known as Comrade, has a small HP pool and mainly does things like dispel and blind.



They also give BP to the Adventurer, who has more health than any other boss in the main game.



If you do single-target attack to Adventurer while Comrade's alive, Comrade covers the damage instead. But every time Comrade is K.O.'d...



Adventurer brings them back the next turn. Also, if you focus down Adventurer's massive HP pool alone, Comrade will revive them in a similar way.



On top of that, the Adventurer hits the entire party incredibly hard every turn they aren't reviving Comrade.



But if you do lose, don't worry: Adventurer is your friend and would never kill you!



You're free to heal up and try again.



Win by bringing down both Adventurer and Comrade together.



That way neither can revive the other.



Once you've beaten Adventurer and Comrade, you get a unique award!



It's completely useless.



Adventurer is, of course, a gracious loser.

That was the most fun I've had in ages. Any time you'd care to go again, just say the word. Any time at all.

After making our way back to the surface, it's time to head to Caldisla.



Unlike the Finale, this time around, everyone's noticed the Dark Aurora.



Chapter 8's world is more endearing by virtue of being slightly less oblivious.



I pray nothing comes of it.

Not if we can help it.




Next: We're going to fling ourselves into the Dark Aurora and hope for the best.

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Event Viewer
Main Scenario:
The Angel's Revelation
The Bringer of Ruin
Lord DeRosso's Role

Party Chat:
Alternis's Memory