Part 13: Scandal at 20,000 Feet

Heeeey guys! Who likes backtracking? No one! But they make you do it anyway!

They don't make you backtrack to get to the Spire in the remakes, but don't worry, they put a different irritation there instead!


"They were headed for the Star Room to take care of some pressing business..."

Huh. So she's not actually alone. That raises a whole new bunch of questions.



But anyway, let's just get this over with. There's no difficulty here, especially since we've got two casters to take down enemies with. Hell, it's not even really hard to navigate, as it's actually easier to go backward through the Cave. But at least we can rub our success in everyone else's failures.


"Just 'cause you finished the Cave of Trial, you think you're somethin' special!"
: "That's not true! You jerk!"





I don't know what this means.


: In the name of the Ausa dynasty, I send you the power of my heritage. Accept it now and release the bands of restraint!

All right, that is a little more impressive than "open sesamee."



And the door is so impressive it just dissolves. How nice.



There's a tiny bit more of the cave. I just felt like I had to mention it, because I always forget it's there.



That was riveting. Anyway, here we are at the Crystal Spire.

Oh hi Nash. Wait, what?

: Mia, I know how stubborn you can be, so I won't even try to stop you. I’ll just go along with you…

I guess Nash could have reasonably guessed that Mia would have come here, but how the hell did he get here, and before her no less? Did he fucking swim?

: Nash! If you enter the tower without my mother’s approval you’ll be put to death!
: I know that, but you’re taking that risk, too! C’mon! You need my help! Besides… I don’t want you guys hogging all the glory when this is done!
: Oh Nash, you crazy fool!

Of course, Mia's too busy swooning over him to question the plot hole/Nash's stalker tendencies.

And naturally he joins the party. At the same level he left at, natch. Although there is one upswing.



That increases his defense from 10 to 32. It is a much needed upgrade, and a free one at that. See, it pays to be patient!

Although maybe I should have bought him a bow...





So we finally get into this damn Crystal Spire. And it's fancy as hell! The remake forces you to unequip your weapons for... some stupid-ass reason. They had to do something to make the Crystal Spire more interesting? Conversely, there's no real gimmick in the original.



Except hoards. This dungeon's enemies are kind of big on hoards. Mia and surprisingly Nash are big help here, as it's a bit impractical for Alex to take them all down himself (and at this point, his Flamer spell is wildly out of date). By the way, relying on magic is necessary if you, say, still had Alex with the Short Sword you bought at Burg. Yeah... I've done that.

The Banshee Fowl is the only new enemy type in the dungeon. Everything else you've seen in the Silver Spire. But these large hoards do give tons of experience, and we get a bunch of new spells!



Flame Bomb is an all-target flame spell; basically it's the upgraded version of Flamer that Alex probably aught to have by now. Thunder Ball is an upgrade to Nash's single-target attack spell. According to the guidebook, he should have gotten it before Thunder Bomb. Weird. Calm Litany we've seen before; it's an all-party heal. (Weirdly, this makes Alex the best healer of the group at the moment) And Psychotron is Mia's oddly named Warp spell.



Also, I can't emphasize enough how pretty this dungeon looks. Especially since most dungeons in this game are quite dull-looking.



Seriously, I just like the aesthetic.

Pretty purpleness aside, design-wise it's not much more complicated than the Silver Spire. The floors are little more detailed in design, and there are more little side rooms, but it's not a long dungeon by any means.



Sadly, there's not a lot of great loot like in the Silver Spire. The Thunder Essence casts a thunder spell on all enemies. And it does it worse than Nash, somehow. Sell it.


"What! You came in by way of the Cave of Trial! Troublemaker!"

If you guys didn't want anyone to ever come in the way, why did they make the passage there in the first place?

Oh, and apparently there a whole bunch of people up here. Interesting.


"It's kinda like a medieval version of Westworld."

There was a medieval version of Westworld! It was called MedievalWorld! And I've never even seen the fucking movie (thanks Wikipedia)!

For those of you who have actually seen the movie, maybe that line makes more sense. Maybe?


"There seems to be no pressing business to attend to..."

Interestingly though, even these guys (whatever they do, exactly) are confused as to why Lemia's there today. Obviously they're too chickenshit to just walk in there and ask, but clearly we're long past giving any fucks.



Sadly you can't see it in screenshots, but the green lights in the room do twinkle. It's not that impressive, but it's a neat touch for what is the "Star Chamber."


: I really don’t mind if you watch, but Lemia will freak out!

Oh, okay, Ghaleon's oddly chill considering the staggering amounts of Vane laws we've broken here. You'd think he'd be at least slightly worried or alarmed, but nope.

I don't think Lemia's going to be so laid-back about it.


: You know that the law of the guild states that you must die now, don’t you?
: That would apply if you really were Lemia, but you’re a fraud! My real mother would never speak to me as you have! Shine, mirror, shine! Show all the true soul of this impostor!

At this point the screen flashes and Lemia starts to change.




Into this chick. Huh, whaddya know? Mia was right.

In the remake, the Mirror does NOT reveal the fake Lemia. Do you remember the masked prisoner that Alex and co decided to bring along? Yeah, instead it removes the mask off the prisoner and reveals her to be the true Lemia. The impostor decides that the jig is up and reveals herself. That seems unnecessarily complicated, but whatever.

Who is this impostor, anyway?




Oh.

Oh shit.

: Our plan to seize control of the Vane Magic Guild almost worked! Now, you’ve destroyed all that we’ve worked for! You’ll pay for this…



Instead of just squishing us with her pinky finger, she teleports away, leaving behind some demonic cronies to do her work.

In the remake, it's not only Xenobia that makes herself known at this point. You see, in the remakes they decided to give her sisters. Do you remember Royce from Black Rose Street and Phacia at Althena's Shrine? No? Well, I mentioned them. You might be surprised to her that the new remake-only characters:



Are in fact Xenobia's sisters. Goddamn Royce. Those breast... strips? cannot be comfortable.

Catty comments about fashion aside, it's boss time!





As you can guess by this screen shot, it's best to slice them with your sword. Their Anti-Magic is on the high side, so even if Alex's sword is shit, it's still better than his spells. If you do in fact have a shit sword, this battle can be a bit on the grueling side as it'll take a while to whittle through both of their HPs. Also, I kept Mia in the front row like a stupid person. Don't do that.

But since I don't have a shit sword, it's over pretty quickly.



Oh, you know something I haven't been mentioning? You really don't get much money for beating monsters, even bosses. In case you've been curious about my frugal tendencies.



: I’m so glad Xenobia was unmasked, but I wonder where my real mother is…

If you're wondering why this transition is so jarring, it's only because it is that way in the game.

Also, since in the remake the question of "where is the real Lemia" was answered right here and now, you might be wondering where the real Lemia in this version. Well, you can probably guess... but there won't be an official answer for a while.

: Oh Mia! I’m sure everything will work out all right. Your mother will be found, and life in Vane will return to normal. So how ‘bout a smile, huh? C’mon cheer up, Mia!

Slick, man.

So we'll just leave these two to sort things out and dance the awkward dance of adolescent infatuation. We should really see what Ghaleon thinks- wait a second.



Dude! You were right there! There was absolutely no reason you couldn't have helped!



Oh fuck you.

: Hmmmm… what should I do now? Ah! I know! You’re from Burg, right? So then, you know where the Dragon’s Cave is? He might be able to help us build a defense against Xenobia?

Well, he did mention he wanted to catch up with Quark. It's a reasonable request, and if Alex had a personality he'd be homesick by this time anyway. So of course we'll choose the dick option first.

: Well, at the very least, please bear my request in mind.
: Geez, Alex, he looks so pathetic! Maybe we should help him out after all.

Hah. Yeah, right. Although I'm trying to imagine Ghaleon doing the puppy-dog eyes, and it's just... distressing.

Yeah, let's just agree and get on with it.

: Okay then, I'll meet you in Meribia. We’ll take a boat from the port there…



And he immediately walks out. Uh... see you later?

: Hey, Alex, if we go back to Burg, that means we can see Luna again!

But, hey, we'll get to revisit Burg and Luna! Remember her? It'll be the first time we've seen her since update 4!

It is strange to compare this to the remake. At this point we've nearly forgotten about Luna, and it's kind of nostalgic to go back and finally see her (and Burg) again. In the remake, however, Luna's been with us the whole time. A return trip doesn't seem quite as exciting, for lack of a better word.

With that settled, I think we can start to wrap this up.


"The real Lemia should have been much stronger than Xenobia! How did this happen?"

I dunno, if Xenobia can kidnap her and assume her identity, she can probably kill her, too. That'd make sense, anyway.


"I can't teach you nothing more than you already know. It seems to me that you have much in common with Dragonmaster Dyne."

Damn skippy We've pretty much abandoned taking classes at Vane. And not just because their leader is missing and the whole place is in an uproar.



Thankfully, this nice person will warp you right to the entrance of Vane. We'll be taking him up and that offer.

Next time we'll be fucking around a bit, and then heading home!