Part 24: Spring-Autumn 1993

    




            Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
                    -- Groucho Marx


Welcome back to the adventures of Ken and Linda as they try to collect all 120 animal species, while also helping out the people of Neo Kenya with their errands!

First of all, let's check out our next message!



Hi, my name is Sophia. You know the mansion of the former Green company president in Eterna, right? Now it's just me, Grandpa, Mum and Dad living there. I want to ask you for a favour about my Grandpa. I will wait for you in the courtyard. Please definitely come!

Well, it looks like our next "client" is probably still in elementary school. Nevertheless, we should help them. So we'll make our way to Eterna.



We'll take a walk via Battle Park today. So let's go through our usual tunnel.



Incidentally, it's now Summer 1993. As the game helpfully tells us, we have exactly six years left to finish our task! It also says that we still have 61 species to collect, but of course that's based on the requirement of 100, so for us it's actually still 81 species remaining to the full 120. Still a lot to do, although when you think about it that's about 30 species per two years and we're already making better time than that, so things are not looking super grim!

Anyway, let's be on our way towards Battle Park.





Incidentally, I don't think we've spoken to this lady here before!

Men are such idiots. They should rather make money catching animals instead of fighting each ohter here. They are crazy to risk their lives for a pittance of an award and a prize belt which doesn't even fit their bellies!

This reminds me that we should try out the battle arena here at some point! Anyway, we'll exit the town through the tunnel leading eastwards. Additionally, here's where our characters are at the moment, stats-wise:



We're only a few steps away from Eterna, but while we're here...



...let's get a start on capturing yet another species.



These are tree frogs, but as you can see there is a slight problem: they're all male. Nevertheless, we'll get them for now and will have to figure out how/where to catch the females at a later date.

You can also compare with regular frogs we caught some of last time to verify that they are simply pallete swaps of each other! Quite a rare case in this game, so I guess it was done like that on purpose most likely.



Anyway, a short while later, here we are in Eterna. Before we head to the mansion, there are a couple of new things to hear from people here. For example if we head to the upper floor of the hotel on the left side...



I totally forgot about this one... The Federation's promise was written cheerfully on the cover of the Neo-Kenya brochure for settlers: "The Federation plans to take responsiblity to shoot down the meteorite! Please settle the planet with confidence!"
What a bunch of lies. All lies...

Well, we already know that the Federation is not necessarily trustworthy, so...



Hotel on the opposite side has two guests...

You never know what life has in store for you... If president Elizabeth's husband hadn't died so youug, Green Pharma would not be what it is today.

And the woman on the bed:

With the change at the helm, Green Pharma production departments on all planets are aiming to be completely unmanned, in order to increase efficiency. As a test case, G-Factory has become a town where only robots live.



So now we'll head into this third hotel...



The woman on the sofa has a VERY interesting comment this time:

According to the Beastian legend, only those who have a beastman statue in their hands can descend down into Eden... I'd love to have one those statues, probably would sell for a pretty penny to those who want to go to Eden or whatever it is.

Well, as it turns out, we have several of them, even in different colours. And you say that according to the legend, we can use them to "descend into Eden"? You wouldn't happen to know how we can achieve this? No, didn't think so. Oh, well. In any case, this seems important to remember.



There's also this lady, cleverly hiding behind the building...

Rumour has it that when Dr. Panheim proposed to his wife, he was high on some kind of stimulant... I mean it wouldn't otherwise make sense to propose with something as crazy as "marry me or I'll jump off the building", right?

Yeah, he probably was. He keeps giving them to us too, every time we talk to him!

Heading inside...



...we find an older gentleman and a little girl in this little courtyard with dead trees. Let's talk to the man first.

My late wife and my dog both loved cherry blossoms, didn't they... I'd like nothing less than to be able to sit under the cherry blossoms again, drink some alcohol and laugh at my younger self!

So I guess these are all dead cherry trees, then.

Let's talk to the girl.

Oh, I'm so happy! You came! I am Sophia!
Grandpa says... he'll stay on this planet with the memories of Grandma and Pochi. My mum and dad tried to convince him, but he promised me that when the cherry blossoms bloom again in this garden he will come with me to a new planet!
Soo... can you help me make the cherries bloom again?
[ Of course! ] / Excuse me? / That's impossible!

Of course we'll help! I have no idea how at the moment, but I'm sure we'll figure it out!

Oh, thank you thank you! Thank you so much! If the cherry blossoms bloom again in this garden, I will give you my most precious possession! I have a secret stash! I've saved a lot of money! It's about 300 G! I will give you all of it!

Sure, sure.

Checking our quest screen...



...we can see that we have a new quest "Sophia's Request" with the deadline of 5 years and 2 seasons. So we can pretty much finish this one any time before the end of the game, which makes sense too, since the goal is to get the Grandpa on one of the shuttles, so it's logical that we can do it up until the last minute. The description is "For Sophia, somehow make the cherry threes in Eterna bloom." Which is nice, but it still doesn't tell us how.



On the other side is one more person...

This courtyard was a dumping ground for drugs and the soil is dead at this point. Not even a single weed can grow now, much less a cherry blossom. Although... the botanist in Hospico might know some kind of a magical cure for this. She's kind of a magician.

Ah, so... Flora might be able to help us here, then? We'll see.

Before, we leave, one last word from the grandpa...

I don't know what my granddaughter Sophia has asked you to do, but I don't see how you can make these dead trees bloom again. She was so insistent that I just made that promise to her, but I didn't think she would take it seriously...

Ah, Dr. Flora is able to breed talking flowers, I'm sure this will be very easy for her to solve!



So let's continue for a bit upstairs...



...where we have again this lady in a blue dress.

He wants to remain here, he heeps saying. Then he should do whatever he likes and just get buried together with the grandma... He just pisses me off so much right now.

So looks like this lady is Sophia's mum and she's annoyed that the grandpa (her father) doesn't want to leave the planet!



Continuing further up...



...we run again into that guy who was trying to propose to a woman!

It seems some idiot finally jumped off the tower for real! Luckily he didn't get hurt, and so the marriage proposal succeeded! Well, that's good I guess, but a bit reckless, no? It was that Nek guy...

So, then, the Nek and Sachiko wedding seems to be on?



Anyway, if we go all the way up to the top and walk across to the other tower...



...there we'll find the woman who that guy was trying to propose to.

"If you don't marry me, I'll kill myself", that kind of thing is, to tell the truth, a bit uncool. Kind of unseemly. Still... I think I might like to be told that at least once?

Well, ok, I'm sure we'll catch up with these two later on again, but in the meantime since we're already here up north...



...let's make our way back to G-Factory and see how Yamada is doing.



Welcome! We're Neo-Kenya bank, serving the public for 79 years! What would you like to do?
[ Make a 8-year fixed-term deposit. ] / Talk. / Goodbye.

Ok, let's finally sort this out, so we'll choose to make a deposit. Incidentally, that number of 79 years does change in the dialogue as the years pass in the game!

You are making a new fixed-term deposit. How much would you like to deposit?



I mean, let's not beat around the bush. We'll just give him the full required amount of 60000 G. It will leave our finances a bit depleted, but no worries, it's only termporary.

Customer! Thank you! Thank you so much! Thanks to your deposit, I, Yamada will be able to return to the head office from next season! Thank you so much! Wait for meeeeee, Miss Makiiiiiiiiiii!
Um, also, I know it's not much but please take this as reward.

Ken received a tissue.

As mentioned previously, I guess this might be a reference to a common practice in Japan to hand out tissue packets as form of advertising. Also, it's an entirely useless item, except for the fact that one will get used up each time Ken and Linda spend the night together.

And also this...

Ken received a packet of flower seeds.

This seems like it would be more useful. Although exactly for what, we'll have to figure out.

According to the bank regulations, that's all I'm allowed to give you... but it still makes me feel a bit ungrateful. Let me teach you a trick I learned to help with loneliness after I arrived in this town.

Yamada explained to Ken how to use the "whistle" ability.

Of course, I can only attract small birds by whistling, but you have better lung capacity, customer, so I'm sure you'll be able to get bigger ones too.

Alrighty, that's all the rewards we get here. We've discussed the others, but for the "whistle", I will demonstrate it in just a few minutes.

But before that...



As you might recall, G-Factory is literally two steps away from the Swallowm cave, where we have made sure to get rid of rats some time ago. This should have enabled the actual swallows to finally return to their old nesting ground, so let's go in and have a look!



Inside the cave, we find that yes, they have indeed returned, so let's catch a few.



As you can see, like our swallows, these ones too have two pairs of wings each, as expected.



Also, they are neither particularly strong, nor do they have any kind of special abilities, so this is pretty easily done. The only problem is their tendency to run away at the slightest touch, so you may need a few tries until you manage to capture a pair.



Back outside, let's make a camp with Linda! It's been a while!

Hey Ken... If the ark thing had never happened, do you think you would still have married me?
[ Probably. ] / I have no idea.
I was really hoping you would come on the ark with me... but I wasn't completely sure if you would do it. That's why I was so happy when it happened.
I'm really glad to be married to you these days... even when I have a hard time, it's the one thing that still makes me happy.

Nice. But now is the time to try our new ability, "whistle". It can be activated anywhere on the overworld, simply by choosing it from the ability menu:



These are all the abilities which are not used during the battle, such as the making camp, processing animals into meat or equipment, or the ability to startle awake when attacked during the overnight camp--this last one allows you to not have to leave Ken to keep watch during camping as he'll awake anyway if attacked.

Anyway, by using our new whistle ability...



...it simply summons one of those large birds used for transportation...



...and you get deposited straight back at the ark. To summarise it's basically an instant (and free) return back to the ark from anywhere on the world map. Of course it doesn't work from within towns or dungeons. Even if you have the "air free pass", this is still nice as it saves you even the time to have to walk back to the nearest town with Bird Line facility--this is particularly important in the south area, where there is only one such town, Dogy Figh, so going back to the ark (or anywhere else for that matter) when you're south, could involve a long walk first. This allows you to avoid that. Also, it's entirely free to use any time you want! It also has a weird (and helpful) bug associated with it, but more on that next time.

Anyway, since we're here, let's head into Hardia and talk to a couple of people who are new!



Like this person here, loitering in front of the Ranger HQ buidling!

I'm such a big fan of you! ❤ Can I have your autograph?
[ Sure thing! ] / No way!

Ken makes an unsteady signature on autograph paper.

"Ken"? Ah, what? This is terrible! I thought you were Nekky, are you some kind of an impostor?

Nice callback to the part in scenario A, when Nek was pretending/wanted to be Ken!



Or, this person in front of DOG shop.

This town has the Ranger HQ, so there are usually no issues with crime. But other places are not so fortunate--there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there.

All right, time for more hunting. This time we'll head east of Dogy Figh as there are a few species which can be found there.



Here we can find species such as:



Leopards!



Boars!



Zebras!



Sea slugs!

And so, now we can simply use our "whistle" ability to go straight back to the ark, to hand these in!





With this, we have obtained 44 out of 120 species!



After exiting, we find that it's now Autumn 1993.



Shortly afer, we also get a notification of a new message!



Let's immediately listen to it!

My name is Mario, I work for the Labour Department in Lina Valley. I know I have no right to ask you this, but... I need to you to help me find my mother. When I was a kid, I was told that my mother is dead, but on his death bed, my father has now confessed to me otherwise. When I found out she's alive, I wanted to see her so badly, but I don't know what to do... I feel like an idiot. If you are able to help me find her, please come see me at Lina Valley.

We have actually already met this guy. It's the guy who had a very sick father, whose health was destroyed in years of working in Lina Valley. Apparently, the father has now died and revealed this about Mario's mother.

So, we'll head straight to Lina Valley to talk to him, of course.



Here we are.



And here is our friend Mario, too!

Hey, I'm Mario! I knew you guys would come! You got my call, right?
[ That's right! ] / Um, what call?

Because you can come here without listening to the message, the second option above simply allows you to get the full story regardless.

On his deathbed, my father suddenly told me that my mother is still alive. He said that a friend of his who was drinking at the bar in Paraside saw my mother there performing on stage.
It's probably a mistake by a drunkard, so I'm not going to go there and check, really. It's probably like one in a million chance anyway, so why get your hopes up, right? And I wouldn't know what to say to her, even if it is her.
But you know... if you're there, and you find out anything... I guess, let me know?
[ Should be easy! ] / Can't be bothered...
Great, thank you!
By the way, my mum's name is Angela. So hurry up and... I mean if you're ever in Paraside, give it a look, ok?

All right, looks like we have a new task, so let's check out quest screen.



So, our new task is "Look for Angela" and we only have one year to do it! The description says: "Check about Angela in the bar in Paraside. Inform Mario in Lina Valley."

Since this side quest is clearly a bit more time-sensitive, let's get started on it already (although we'll make a bit of a detour at one point still!). So let's head to Paraside and see what's up there.

Before we do that, I will also (off screen!) go and improve our finances slightly by hunting down and selling a few animals--we're going to need a little bit of money in the upcoming part of the game.

Ok, now on to Paraside!





Here we are. To remind ourselves a bit, let's quickly talk to this hunter standing in front of the hotel.

The construction of this town was abandoned halfway through because of bad soil for building foundations... So now it's kind of a "dropout central" for people who have abandoned their past and their names and who can't afford to live in a proper town.

After this let's head inside the "Junk Palace".



Looking in the bar, Angela doesn't seem to be there. But the person sitting at the table has some info for us.

Angela? I'm pretty sure she said her next gig is at the hotel in Ozport. So... what did she mess up this time? She's got a bit of a bad habit... but really, the men should take some responsibility too!

We'll follow that up in a second, but first, let's have a look around here for a bit.



There's still some tutorial to be had from this guy.

Of all the animal attacks, the ones I really don't like are those which cause effects which last even after the battle is finished. There's all sorts of them, for example... actually, I'm not going to tell you. Better try it out for yourself.

This game is a bit weird in that there are only a few status effects and most of them are indeed related to what happens after the battle. For example (and I will actually tell you), the pheromone status which makes animals chase you on the overworld after the battle, and so on.



Here in the storage area, there is also a chest which is somehow NOT behind a locked door. It contains the "dragonfly cutter" weapon, but it's weaker than what we already have so there's no real need to equip it. If we struggle with overkilling some particular animal species, then we might use it as a backup weapon. But for now we can store it away.



Then we have also this guy here...

The lifespan of the human race is about 20,000 years from the standpoint of evolutionary progress. It seems like a long time, but... if it's like life itself, as soon as we see the end, it starts accellerating, so maybe not that long in the end.

Those two chests, by the way, definitely are behind a locked door. But no matter, we'll definitely get all the keys this time!



Upstairs is the room where all the hunters for hire are. I haven't really been using them, because they aren't really that... useful. You only know an approximate area where they go for hunting, but there's no guarantee what they will bring, so you can't really plan around it (and you have to wait two seasons to find out, too). The only (slight) exception is Gomez, where you definitely might get something a bit more unusual--it was mentioned that he might have some kind of secret place where he goes to hunt. But with him, on the other hand, you have to pay him a lot of money (six digits), so again the whole thing is of questionable worth.

But let's just quickly see what a couple of them have to say (some of these are repeats, so I will omit those)

We hunters for hire are all about information, so we have a whole network of our own. Especially the elder upstairs is a genius hacker and has access to all Federation top secret databases! He's a kind and scary man who knows the kinds of things you're probably better off not knowing!

Hume stopped hunting as soon as his daughter was chosen to join the ark crew. But it's a bit late for that... the animals he's driven to extinction aren't going to be coming back, are they now?

When I went to Lulinas Tower, I saw a monster in a big egg shaped capsule in the basement. If that's also something that remains from Anabis, then I don't think Anabis is a god, but rather some kind of a demon.

This may not immediately ring a bell, but actually we've also seen this, except we got to a couple of those dome shaped enclosures via the secret route in Marblepolis, which we opened up by moving the stone blocks around. However, we were not able to do anything with it, so we'll definitely try again in this scenario!



As mentioned, in the room upstairs is the Beastian Elder.

For now, you should try to walk every bit of this land on your feet. But if you get tired of that, it's also fun to go into a cave and try to go all the way down until you reach hell... or perhaps you might end up surprisingly finding heaven instead, like your father did.

Oh how I wish he would not speak in riddles constantly...



We can also go over to the hotel area and harass people in their rooms!

I'm sorry, but I don't see how you can collect 100 animal species in just eight years if you don't have money to spare for travelling to and from hunting grounds. The best hunters use a combination of shoot service, retrieval beacons and pure intuition to figure out the best spots.

I mean, it's true. It's one of the reasons why it's worth buying the air free pass as soon as you can. There is a lot of travelling back and forth that you have to do in this game!

And the guy in the other room...

Give Gomez a big chunk of money and ask him to go out and bring you something great. Then you can take it over to the BB Ranch in Battle Park and breed them. Then you sell all the young and that's how you make money!

This does actually work. Gomez will often bring you some valuable animals (especially class A protected ones), which you can then breed at BB ranch and sell the offspring. It's essentially free money, if you need it. The only drawback being, as already mentioned, that you do have to pay low six figures to Gomez to start with!



Over here are two equipment shops. They have things to say about each other!

Be careful what you buy from the equipment shop over there! Their workmanship is famously shoddy and I've heard a lot of stories about their equipment breaking on the very first use!

And then the other shop...

The equipmen shop over there is bad! Half of their items for sale are actually stolen and the rest are fakes! They have trouble with the customers on a daily basis, and half the time the equipment you see is a set that belonged to one of their previous customers!

Anyway, going outside and around the back...



...we can talk to this homeless guy.

Master, please give a donation for the less fortunate like me!

You know what, we will. We will donate you a whole 20000 G!

Master, thank you for your generosity! This is something I just picked up, but I'l like to give it to you as a form of thanks! Please accept it!

Ken received the "dressing room key"!

Yep. Give lots of money to the homeless guy and get back a key! I don't really think there are any hints to this anywhere in the game, so in a typical 1990s JRPG style, you just have to try everything. In any case, it also works with a smaller amount, but the probability you will get the key goes down the less you give. With 20000 G it's basically 100%.



On the other side is another homeless person, so let's hear them out too!

There are a lot of people who leave graffiti on the back wall when they leave Neo-Kenya. They think of it as a memorial or something, but the truth is that when the Grim Reaper hits, this too will be wiped out along with everything else. So there's kind of no point to doing it...

Eh, I think you might be taking this a bit too literally, lady. Nevertheless, let's look at a couple of graffiti that are here on the wall!

IT IS FORBIDDEN TO WRITE GRAFFITI!
   ⬆⬆
   It is forbidden to write it is forbidden to write graffiti!

And another.

For as long as I live, I will never forget the name of this planet, even when I go to live on another planet!
Farewell, Neo-Kernia!

All right, that was fun, but now let's keep following Angela's trail to Ozport.



We'll head over into the shopping mall!



Immediately after coming inside, Ken and Linda are approached by someone.

Ah! You're Ken, right?
The Santa who was buying a bridal dress here, asked me to tell you when you get here: "Make sure to come to the wedding!".

So the wedding seems to be definitely happening. Anyway, we can also talk to the lady looking at the dresses.

You should learn to cook at least one specialty while you're at it. It's hard for a woman to break up with a man who can cook at least one delicious dish for her, even when her love goes cold! ❤



Downstairs in the casino/bar area, there is clearly no Angela around, but there are the two people here!

I came all this way to enjoy Angela's song, but her pianist was late again, so she had to cancel! I heard the next show is in a hotel in a shabby town in the west area, but I don't think I want to travel all the way there.

And the other person...

I came here because I've heard this is one of Angela's final appearances on stage. But her partner, the piano player, was late again! Field trip, interview, first date... there is always one person who oversleeps on important days!



A quick chat with the robot lady at the information desk...

The room behind me is the hotel basement storage room, and I have no idea what is there. But the rumour is... that the key to that place has been lost since the last manager went missing!

Well, I can definitely see the two chests, but this is one key we DON'T have yet, so...



...we'll just talk to this guy here in the casino.

People call the ark a "flying coffin". But I see it differently. I think it's just a coffin.

Thanks buddy.

However, you might notice another chest behind a locked door just here.

Turns out, we do have the key for this one! It's the "dressing room key" we just got! So let's see what the chest contains, shall we?



Ah. It's another one of those mysterious rings!

However, I do have some good news. It took me a while, but I've finally managed to figure out what's up with these names. Turns out they are all named after various biblical terms. So for example "yabasade" comes from Hebrew "yabbashah" (יַבָּשָׂה), meaning "dry land". Additionally, if you have played Persona 3, then you will have already encountered all of these names as they also appear in that game, although there they're used as names for dungeons.

Either way, we have no clue what to do with these rings, so that will have to wait just a (little) bit longer.

For now, though, we'll be heading over to Koshikata, as that's the next stop on our tour. Unlike in Scenario A, this time the town is not abandoned after an incident, but instead has been rebuilt. Let's see what it's like!



Arriving in Koshikata, just a short chat with the Bird Line employee!

This is a bit confidential, but I'll tell only you! Soon, the total number of passengers on the Bird Line will reach 100,000! And to celebrate, we're going to offer the 100,000th passenger an air free pass!

Yeah, so this is a thing in the game. As you use the Bird Line flights, you might at some point be told that you're the 100,000th passenger and receive an air free pass without having to pay for it. The probability is quite low, though. I think only like 1/64 or 1/128 or something like that. Anyway, let's head into town!



We're looking for Angela, but of course we'll take the opportunity to do a tour of the town, especially since we haven't had a chance so far--in the first scenario it was abandoned and in the second it was inaccessible along with that whole part of the world. So let's start by talking to this lady here.

Poliska is the man who rebuilt this town when it was abandoned after the tragedy. Not sure if this is true or not, but they say he won the first prize in a lottery four times in a row and invested all the winnings into the reconstruction of the town! He must be some kind of a weirdo...



Then we have this person here, who has the absolute best NPC dialogue in the entire game if you ask me!

They say this planet will be destroyed in a few years...
It kind of gives you a bit of a "fin-de-siècle" sort of vibe, so I came here expecting murderous twin brothers or even beautiful cloned girls, but... absolutely nothing like that happened at all! So I guess I'll have to make do with the Revival Festival that's coming up soon in this town!

NPC, you're amazing and I love you so much!



Here's our next conversation partner...

This empty house behind me... this was the home of the original mayor, the one who caused the Christmas tragedy.

Well, let's have a look...



At first glance it looks empty, but...



Ah-ha! Let's check what's at the bottom of these stairs!



Just a chest... but what's in it?



Ah, another key, fantastic! This one is for the Beastian church here in Koshikata, and not the one in Minago. We'll check that out shortly. I should mention though that in general the game does NOT give you hints about which key is for which door, so that's up to you to figure out! I mean here I guess it's sort of obvious, but mostly it isn't.



In the meantime, let's head into the church for a moment.



For some reason, the church is full of dogs. They are tame, but annoying as they will flock around you and make it difficult to move around. Still, we can talk to the person in white.

I heard that this down's pride and joy, "The Tiger's Claw", is a very rare and valuable weapon. The tigers are pretty scarce nowadays anyway and even if you do find them, you have no chance of catching 10 males in order to make the weapon yourself. Male tigers are said to be so aggressive that even a pack of lions would run away from it.

Wellll... this is a little bit exaggeratted really. The tigers CAN be found and they are not quite THAT strong. (For that matter, neither are lions, but...)

Next, we'll talk to that priest that's standing there.

Right around where you're standing now... there were more than 30 corpses there on that Christmas eve. Their murderer, who was the mayor at the time... he went mad and even killed his pregnant wife, too!



Another priest is over here...

How about it? Aren't my dogs cute? And they like to play tag, too!

Yes, and to block you in!



Upstairs, there is another priest!

The town has decided to celebrate the 10th anniversare of its restoration! The town's talisman, "The Tiger's Claw" was lost in the confusion during the Christmas incident, but has since been found so it's going to be an amazing party!

Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this...

In any case, that room in the top right that has two chests has a locked door, BUT it can be opened with the key we just got!



Ken found a beastman necklace!

Ah, another one of these! The other chest contains just some carrion.

Going further upstairs...





...we find another priest!

They say that we the Beastians and all the animals have been born at the bottom of the earth and came up to the surface through wells. I think some of the elderly still believe that.

People keep talking about this stuff. There's got to be something to it, right?



On the other side is another chest, which you also need the key to be able to get to.

Ken found a golden nugget!

Nothing special, but we can sell it for a few thousand G.

Let's head back outside...



...and behind the church, where we find this person.

Ah! Banana boy! Hey, hey, show me the original banana tumble, will you?
[ Sure thing! ] / Are you stupid?



Ah, what a tense moment! What score will the current champion Ken, the representative of Neo-Kenya, be given by the judges?
First, technical merit: 9.7, 9.7, 9.6, 9.6, 9.4, 9.6!
And now... the artistic impression: 8.4, 9.4, 9.3, 9.2, 8.4, 8.4!
It was so amazing to see this in real life!



Anyway, a bit futher to the east is our next NPC:

According to the Beastian legend, a creator named Annabis brought many animals from many planets on a ship to this planet. Then the creator took the best from all of them, and made us, humans. I guess as far as the creation myths go, this one is fairly unique.

Let's head into the trap shop, helpfully labelled "TRAP".



We won't bother talking to the owner as he just tells us the standard stuff about using traps to capture animals. However, we'll talk briefly to this hunter.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but... the owner of this place is always looking down on people and charging outrageous prices!



On the other side is the owner's wife...

If you don't want to get ripped off by my husband, you better quickly learn to make your own traps. Although the traps my husband makes are first class as no one else can do them! They are such evil works of art that the more you struggle, the more you can't get out!



Next, let's go into this house--the residence of the current mayor.



First the little girl...

My daddy is awesome! He doesn't have wings but he's still the butterfly of this town.

The joke in this sentence only works in Japanese: the words for "butterfly" and "mayor" are pronounced the same, so the little girl confuses them!

Also the pregnant lady...

My husband has been acting strange lately... he always seems to be on edge. On top of that my father in law is sick with a cold but he keeps going outside all the time...



There is one other person in the house, but we won't get much out of them!

Ugh, I'm such an idiot...



Next stop is the meat shop!



First we'll talk to the meat guy.

The used to be a game called "Russian roulette with meat", but in the end it was banned because it was too dangerous. I played it once and ended up covered in hives for a week! The guy I played with was 12 years old and already bald. His name was Hume... I wonder if he's still bald?

It's been a while, but you might recall that eating meat can have both positive and negative effects in this game, hence the game of Russian roulette... but with meat!

And then the animal trader on the left.

If I could find the "storage room key", I could open the door to all kinds of places! There I could find... well, if I knew what and where, I'd have already gone and taken it!

Well, who knows, we might find that key ourselves?



It may or may not be obvious (probably more obvious if you have already played a 1990s JRPG), but... since the church building is on stilts, you can in fact walk under it!



It's full of catfish here, but we'll avoid them for now--they are not really aggressive.



More importantly, we can access these two chests under the church building! Opening the first chest...

Ken found "storage room key"!

Oh. I didn't think it would be so quick to find this!

The second chest:

Ken found "tiger fur".

This is an item of equipment that we can put on our characters for increased defence. It is however not better than what we already have, so we won't be equipping it.



Getting back out into the open, let's continue by heading into the hotel building. Here we also find the bank.

The driving force behind the revival of this town was of course the lottery prize won by Mr. Poliska. But truthfully... an organization named EGF also offered a huge amount of money too, for some reason.



Moving on to the bar area, let's start with the bartenders...

Even here in the sticks, there are many customers who come here just to have a drink with the nurses. At the end of the day, when you get old enough... you get a little heartsick.

So it seems that the waitresses are dressed as nurses in this bar then.

Let's talk to the first customer...

I can't drink any more... if I have any more, instead of just floating I would literally end up in heaven.

And the nurse next to him.

Look, if you don't drink more, you will not get better. I can also give you an injection of you want.

And the other customer...

When a nurse offers you a drink, it's pretty much inexcusable not to become an alcoholic.

And the other nurse:

The only thing that will happen if you drink too much is that you will die. If you don't drink too much, you will end up too old to die and wouldn't that be just terrible?

Uh, what kind of business are these guys running here anyway?

Well, I don't know, but let's continue by talking to the woman in the blue dress, who happens to be Angela's piano accompanist.

If you came here to hear Angela sing, sorry but you missed it--we just finished. If you really want to hear her voice one more time, you'll have to go to Dogy Figh. You should hurry though, because that's really the final final stop on this tour!

Ah, ok I see. I guess we're playing "Where in the world is Angela?".

Next, let's head upstairs!



The hotel rooms are located here. That chest there in the corner is behind a locked door. Luckily, we just got the key! So...



Another piece of clothing we can equip on our characters.



This time, it's actually a lot better than what we've been wearing, so I'll equip it on Ken since he has lower natural defence than Linda.



And then let's talk to this person in their room!

In five years this world will be gone, but that doesn't mean that I lead my life in any different way from before. I still enjoy good food, I still turn around to check out a nice looking woman, I still want lots of money. I guess we humans can be pretty insensitive sometimes...



As we are finishing our tour, we'll make a stop also at the equipment shop.



We'll start with the lady on the left...

This town's most prized possession is the Tiger's claw. Tigers themselves are rare, so of course they are valuable as goods, but... more than that, they are this town's symbol and a source of emotional support for its inhabitants. I don't really think an outsider could understand that...

And the equipment seller...

It's probably just a rumour, but it seems that the reason the original mayor went mad was because he'd lost the town's treasure, the Tiger's claw. Maybe the thing is cursed! That Tiger's claw... if you equip it, perhaps it makes you want to die?

Ugh. So if we ever come into possession of one... uh, should we equip it or not then?



Finally, let's just talk to this boy here.

I'm really looking forward to the town revival festival! They're going to have a parade of girls in swimsuits, right? They have to!



Right, anyway, our next destination as far as Angela's quest is concerned is obviously Dogy Figh, so that's where we'll head next time. In the meantime, take care!




For today, first we have the pencil sketch version of the same illustration we saw last time:



And then, some more unused storyboards for cutscenes:



These ones look particularly nuts and it's a shame they never got made. But, to tell the truth, especially those with Hume, I'm not even sure where they would fit in the story. So it may even seem like they were looking to expand/change the story a bit from the PC Engine original, but in the end decided not to do it for whatever reason. So now the remake version closely follows the same story as the original with only minor differences.