Part 18: Days 36-38 - In a Mirror, Darkly

Days 36-38 – In a Mirror, Darkly

Where we last left off, we got tricked by Jawarro in the most convoluted set up of a trap ever to be fathomed. However, someone threw Gallhint’s dagger from within the Shadow Realm Jawarro intended to send us to, stunning her “robot” Lloyd long enough to let us fight back and defeat it. Time then looped, and somehow Ano got Lloyd back to Claire’s place, where he and Claire are now working on it.

Now we…just pot around until they’re done, I guess?

However, we got one clue as to what to do next: Gallhint’s dagger was left stuck into a Pandule Royal Crest at the docks when we looped. Perhaps we should go somewhere Gallhint related?

The only Gallhint related location in the game is his little fortress out in the woods, so let’s go there…




Now Playing – Gallhint’s Theme

Holy shit, Gallhint’s alive! Who could have seen that coming?

It was even obvious from the way he “died”. He got Blueflame’d like Rummy, and she just got sent to a wacky dream. Odds were the same happened to him.

“Gallhint! So you are alive after all. That time…when Lloyd attacked…It was you that saved me, wasn’t it?”



“Yup! It was a greeting I sent to all of you. It was a stupid joke…I said I wanted to skewer this evil villain who masquerades as a King.”



“So, you’ve agreed to help fight Xelpherpolis?! Right alongside us!”



“Even during that time, I myself was struggling to escape from the “dimensional prison” that Xelpherpolis had locked me in.”



“Right then, I was able to step in. I don’t know the theory behind it, but for some reason, from the shock of that moment, I ended up back in this dimension. Most likely because of the explosion at the entry to the other dimension, a number of time-space continuums developed fissures. It saved me!”

This “fissures in time-space continuums” thing sound pretty serious…but I don’t believe it ever gets followed up on.




“OK. I won’t expect too much.”

“You’re rather straight forward about it. Can’t say I blame you.”

Alternatively…

“OK. Don’t overdo it.”

“You really are a pushover, aren’t you. Surprised you’ve managed to make it as a bandit.”

Either way…




”Sorry Gallhint, but I don’t swing that way.”

”Not like that. After coming to the island, neither of us fell under Xelpherpolis’s spells and throughout our time here, we both have had an awareness of the time loops. We’re probably…”



“….KANON?!”



”So I know basically nothing about them, but apparently they do time stuff and there’s different ranks of them and some of them look like weird bull creatures.”




Now Playing – Pandule

”But why did you insist we move outside for this talk?”

”Ambience.”

“If we’re descendants of the “Time Clan” that’s consistent with all the phenomenon that’s happened until now. Give me some time to think about it.”

“Luckily, it’s the one thing the island does have, as much of it as we want.”

Mouse then leaves the fortress.



“While I’m busy trying to figure things out, our opportunity will vanish. I mean, that’s my usual pattern. If I let the same thing happen over again, I’d never be able to show my face again!”

And then the scene ends. If we go back to the fortress, Gallhint won’t be there. We now have nothing to do but wait until the 3rd Day.



“…I got locked out….By Claire! I had worked for quite awhile, but Claire who had been watching by my side, started acting a bit strange. Then, she started repairing parts that were beyond my knowledge and abilities. To make things even worse, she told me to leave because she needed to concentrate. I’m worthless now…No, more than that, I don’t understand what’s going on! How is she able to do that?! I have no idea whatsoever. Why am I….(grumble grumble) Why does she….(grumble grumble)”

(Hmmm…If things continue like this, Professor Ano really is going to lose all his confidence. I wonder what happened to Claire.)

As Pattimo finishes, Claire opens the door and comes out.


Now Playing – Claire’s Theme




“The preparations are complete, Mouse. Everything’s ready for the battle.”

Claire suddenly collapses, and Mouse catches her.



There’s an indescribable shimmering effect.



“As I was looking inside the body of that robot, I couldn’t help but feel that I had seen it somewhere before. For some reason, I knew exactly how it was designed. Techniques developed by the Time Clan were used to create it. And somehow, somewhere long ago, I had seen it! In other words, we’re both the same…”



Once we knew KANON were a thing, this was easy enough to predict: we already knew Claire was semi-cognizant of the time loop from the start, and she had a collection of time-related relics in her basement. There was absolutely more to her than just being a random watchmaker.



“I’ve used my powers to change the shop around a bit. Please, come on in.”

We cut to Claire’s basement.




“No. Because there’s no energy source containing the power of the spirits, it doesn’t move. But I was still able to extract information about our enemy from the circuitry. Oh, by the way, Mouse! Do you think you could show me the 3 treasures?”



Mouse has handed Claire the Flame Saber. I presume it changes depending on which treasures you do and don’t have.



“Probably when all three of the spiritual stones from the treasures are together, Lloyd will be perfectly restored. If you get a hold of the other spiritual stones, give them to me, OK?”

We already have the others, but you have to talk to Claire after this cutscene to actually hand them over.



“It seems that this is my hidden power.”

“In other words, it’s one of the special abilities that all the Time Tribesmen have – the ability to move and produce magical mechanisms. In other words, it’s the same kind of ability as Jawarro’s.”

“Yes, that’s right. By using the power of time, I made the Time Vault more powerful. From now on, you can store up to 20 items. The reason I’ve been able to do this is all because I am a descendant of the Time Tribe.”

“So that’s it! I never imagined that you, Claire, were from the Time Tribe.”

“Well, from now on this store is going to serve as our headquarters more and more, huh?”

“I think that’s incredible, but there’s no need to turn a woman’s house into our “meeting place”.”

“That’s not true. Please feel free to use this place.”




Claire’s mirror suddenly shows us a vision…


Now Playing – Evil



It’s Twinboom. Just like Grantus, he’s a beast under his mask. Or, uh, a bird.

“The wind’s changed direction a little again. In this world where everything is supposed to be constant…”




Apparently literally everyone said this at once. Including Claire, who’s showing us this?



“To be precise, the mirror is the entrance to the World of Darkness. And, if you find and defeat the ones who are hiding somewhere nearby and pulling strings…then this time you should be able to finally end the loop.”

“That reminds me, Jawarro said something like that too…That his role was to control people’s souls, and that Twinboom governs the loop.”

I should mention Jawarro is female, and this is not really a secret.

“I discovered by tinkering with Lloyd…that aside from both sides of the island, there is another underworld as well. That’s where the so-called Time Magic exists. The attack using Xelpherpolis’s magic comes from there. It was summoned by our world where time stands still. Using the mirror to transport everyone makes use of this dimension. You’re taking a shortcut via the World of Darkness. The World of Darkness is overflowing with Time Magic. If there is someone controlling the island’s loop, the only place they could be is there!”

“Can we go there?! To that World?!”

“If I’m with you, you can. What do you want to do Mouse?”



”I oddly enthusiastically agree to enter this hell dimension.”

“Thanks. This all sounds so crazy…I didn’t know if you’d believe me. But I was confident as well that you, Mouse, would believe me.”

”Claire we’ve been through so much bullshit, why would I not believe this?”




“Now that I think of it, even when you were awakened, something was different about you.”





Most satisfying gif I've made so far.



“Just as before, when you want to replace members of your party, go before the mirror. When you want to organize your items, use the Time Vault. And, when you want to go to the “World of Darkness” in the mirror, tell me.”

And the scene ends there.



Claire first reacts to you bringing her the other spirit doohickeys (note that she called it the Terra Crown when it was called the Earth Crown when we picked it up in the Forest of Illusion?). Once you give her both the others, she tells you Lloyd will be fully repaired soon. We have to let a loop happen to see him repaired. It’s very easy to proceed past this point and not realise you missed out on getting Lloyd.



Talking to her once all spirit thingies are delivered prompts the sequence to enter the Dark World. Claire won’t let us go until she’s in the party.

Anyway, let’s let a loop pass and nab Lloyd, shall we?



Oh my goodness, the Princess has freed herself! What a miracle!



Man, that was a more unexpected twist than Gallhint being alive!


Now Playing – Lloyd’s Theme




“Claire, you think it’s all right? It’s not going to act up again, is it?”

“It’s fine. I’ve already extracted all the information. The mental circuitry has been completely cleaned. It’s our new colleague….maybe even a friend. It’s cute, but actually is very strong. It’ll help us, I’m sure….Right, Lloyd!!”

Lloyd klacks in response.



Claire says with “us” but only Lloyd joins you if you say yes.

Let’s talk a bit about Lloyd: he’s a mixed bag. Not all that strong on initially, but he can learn some neat abilities. One of which involves transforming into enemies after using Lloyd’s “Analyze” ability. This enables him to use the same attacks they use. It does mean that you lose control of Lloyd, but as long as he keeps attacking, it’s not all that bad.

Lloyd’s one other quirk is…



He can assume that Loreille form to be used in battle. All “Lloyd-L” has in terms of skills is some goofy shit like slapping people and kicking, but Lloyd-L works on an odd gimmick: every time Lloyd-L gains a level, he will alternate between having 999 strength and 999 magic. A bit too unreliable to be useful, frankly. Lloyd-L also shares magical abilities with Mouse, such as the “Dirge” spell.

Anyway, now that we’ve talked about Lloyd, let’s get back to the plot.



We get prompted to choose, but no matter who we pick…






Now Playing – Kick Off

“So, you’ve decided to come, Gallhint!”



“You need a guide, don’t you?”

“I thought you said you never wanted to go back?”

“Not alone. But this time it’s different. I’ve got my mates. Ha.”

“Ha. Ha. Did you hear that, Mouse? You said the thing to take with you is friends!”

”I didn’t say that! I didn’t say anything!”






Now Playing – World of Darkness

The game does not indicate what Gallhint is gesturing at, but suffice to say the Dark World has residents.

“There’s nothing in this town. Nothing ever happens. I never get hungry. I’m destined to live an eternity with nothing ever changing. This place is a masterpiece of misery. I’d like to give the guy who came up with it an award for the concept.”

“Xelpherpolis uses this place as a prison colony for those who rebelled against him.”

“Mouse, could you show me the watch?”



“10 hours is probably the limit. If we stay any longer, even with my current strength, it’ll be difficult to return to the regular world. Eventually we wouldn’t be able to escape.”

10 in game hours is a pretty long time, so no need to worry about it unless you get really distracted and lost.

“Well, young lady. That’s probably about right. When I was thrown in here, it took about that long before my body stopped working.”

“All right, we have up to 10 hours. We’ve got to keep to this time limit.”

If we do run afoul of the time limit, nothing interesting happens. Claire just says we can’t make it out and we get a game over screen.



As you could probably already tell, the Dark World is just Pandule city, but with black pathways and a constant reddish light.



The enemies here are the same time demons we’ve been dealing with up till now. Woo.

Gallhint is unadulterated from the last time we had him, so he’s basically worthless. We can immediately leave the Dark World and upgrade his weapon levels, but I don’t bother. I won’t need him to win here.




Interacting with buildings just gets you varying batches of goofy dialogue.



The residents similarly have nothing but wacky nonsense to say. One of them makes a Shining reference, word for word saying “ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE JACK A DULL BOY”.

There’s also some treasures to nab, but I don’t end up finding any or bothering to look.

Now, we have no idea what we’re doing here, besides looking for Twinboom. Where is Twinboom? Well, he kind of looks like a bird man, so maybe he’s somewhere with a bird theme?



Like this bird park. Rinna pointed it out to us on her date/tour.


Click here to see Twinboom in the Dark World.




Now Playing – Twinboom’s Theme
(Dude has a dumb name but a cool theme song)

“How dare you disturb this beautiful silence.”



”Claire, he’s a villainous douchebag.”

”Well that doesn’t mean he has to be SCARY!”

“People always think the same way. That’s because the’ve (sic) can’t persevere. Take this opportunity to reflect on your life and you’ll be transformed. Days that look idle and empty, might be brilliant if you didn’t have the discontent in your heart. And in turn, those who have advanced beyond humans start to desire a perfectly “empty” world.”




JRPG villains love to bandy about references to “the Gods”, but none of them like to define what gods they’re talking about.





Now Playing – Rebellion

Cue boss fight. Twinboom goes down in two hits from Mouse.



“And “nothingness” is indeed another way to say immortal.”

”No it isn’t!”



We can click on the statue again to challenge Twinboom to another fight, but we won’t accomplish anything. No, there’s nothing left for us in the Dark World. However, what if we were to return to the real world and click on the same statue? Also, a good opportunity to ditch Gallhint and grab a better character….


Click here to see Twinboom in the real world.



“We already know. We know that the Twinboom controlling the loop in the World of Darkness is in fact an embodiment of “nothingness”, merely the empty body for the ceremony. And that the brain…the primary form is located right here!”



“You’re pretty smart for humans.





Now Playing – Combat

And now we fight the real Twinboom. This time, he’s a lot stronger, and he won’t die so easily. We don’t get far into his fight before…




Now Playing – Fang’s Theme





Mysterious Blue here does a big leap onto the platform.



Indeed, this is Fang, the third and final of Mouse’s old gang of pals.

“Fang!”




“Ha! I believe it!”

“It’s been awhile since we’ve all been together, hasn’t it? The Golden Three…!”

“It makes no difference who shows up. The situation won’t change.”







And thus we begin again, only with Fang in our gang this time. He displaces Claire in our party.

Fang’s not too bad: his physical attacks aren’t much right now cause he has no weapon levels, but his magic attack can do a decent bit of damage.

The problem is that like every character before him, Fang has only 50 reliability. This means he will frequently refuse orders, foregoing his magic in favour of his wimpy physical attacks. Oy.

But Twinboom dies eventually.






Now Playing – Ruins




“Other than my brain, every other part of my body has been bioenhanced with Magic Science. I was trying to be more like a God. Yet I was still defeated. And by the likes of mere mortals like you. Ohhhh…! This path to the Gods has no end!!”





Mouse picks up a “B1 Key” from the ground. We then cut to Claire’s basement once again…



“Whoooa!! We did it!!”

“Well, let’s see if the loop is finally going to stop now.”

“We’ll know tomorrow. We’ll know when we see what version of tomorrow we get.”

But for you guys, you’ll have to wait a while to see what “tomorrow” brings.

One last thing to leave off on: it is entirely possible to defeat Twinboom before Fang shows up. It’s not easy, but it can be done. What happens if you do? Fang never shows up. This will have consequences I will elaborate on much later. And of course if you never sent for the Golden Three, Fang is never involved. Mouse is the one that stomps of Twinboom in that case.

Join me next time, when the loops finally come to an end.