Part 28: What an unreliable servant you are.
Before we get started, there are a few things worth mentioning about the first half of chapter 5.
You can sort-of duplicate an accessory. Before the end of the sewer, place the desired equipment on someone other than Ari (I used the Panther's Fang as an example because I only had one, but it's not the best choice.)
Once everyone leaves the party, their equipment will return to the menu. Now you put that same accessory on Ari.
You'll still only have one, but once everyone rejoins, it will be equipped on both Ari and the other character. Changing out either character's accessory will correct the problem, so you need to choose the accessory and character carefully, since you'll have to leave them equipped for the rest of the game if you want to continue exploiting this.
I'm not the type of person who likes to abuse this sort of thing though, so I just picked the accessory and character at random to show off the glitch.
KT is named after Okage's lead director, Kawano Tadato.
I also want to point out this guy. He refers to Rosalyn as "Rosalie," which is her Japanese name. Ari and Rosalyn were the only characters whose names were changed in localization (from Luka and Rosalie, respectively), and I believe this is the only place an original slipped through.
And now, back to what's currently happening.
Music: Home Sweet Home
It seems that Beiloune is probably hiding on the other side of Triste. Before we set off to look for him, we talk to Ari's family.
Your dad and I decided together. Everything just happened and we accepted it, Ari. But one thing. I don't know the details, but the man... Beiloune? When I think about what he said, I think it is too early to give up on the Princess.
Is anything going on outside? Your dad, and mom, and even Annie all seem upset...
It's better that you don't know.
I see.
Everything's okay, dear. I do not sense that the world has been overcome with sadness...Uh huh, uh huh. That's right, honey.
Don't worry about it.It's ok Annie...
But.....
Oh. Marlene...
It was too sad-looking so I thought, well... we should clean it up. We washed the clothes and mended them. What do you think, son? Ha ha ha ha ha... (sigh)
...
We stop by Tenel before heading for Triste.
Music: Theme of Tenel
Fortune Teller No. 1: There's a reason I can't reveal my name. But "Love Fortune Teller Master No. 1" is what most people call me. Just one look at the crystal and I'll identify exactly who loves you the most. So would you like me to tell your fortune of love?
Yes, please!If you really want to.
Fortune Teller No. 1: Here we go! Hey! Hey! Hey! Show me, my crstal ball! Ah, it's come to me! You are matched best with... Whoa!
Fortune Teller No. 1: ...Oh? It's telling me more.
Fortune Teller No. 1: Hmmmm. I wonder what it means...
There are a couple more places to stop while we're in town. First we swing by the town hall.
Competent Looking Clerk: Errors in the Classification List are keeping us real busy, lately. But your name is still nowhere on the list. This just doesn't make sense. Not at all. I still have no idea. I really want to solve this problem, but I've completely lost all my confidence...
I never would have expected this one NPC's dialog to have so much importance to the plot.
We can also solve Cyphertext 6 now. As I mentioned before, Cyphertext 6 is unsolvable because of how they translated it.
In Japanese, the riddle was
"昨日かい？ 明日かい？ それても。。。" or "Kinoukai? Ashitakai? Soretemo..."
Which they translated completely literally as "Yesterday? Tomorrow? Or..."
This puzzle is a simple Japanese wordplay that doesn't make any sense at all in English. The logical conclusion to the sentence would be "Today?" The Japanese word for "today" is 今日 (kyou). So you would end the sentence with 今日かい (kyoukai). 今日かい is pronounced the same as 協会, which means "church."
So the answer to the puzzle is "church," and the only church in the game is in Tenel village. The woman who gives the Cyphertext to you says "righteous" twice, so if you're really desperate to argue that the translation gives you a hint for where to go, you could mention that. I've also read that Ari's bio on the official site (which is long gone, so I can't confirm this) said he "has trouble remembering when to go to church."
You're my long-lost brother!?
Elder: Yes, it's me alright. The chairman of the World Crypto Organization. Did I surprise you? It's an organization under the name "Church." I thought it would serve as a good cover. I was right. As for the reward for reaching this point, take this. Help is granted to those who are righteous... I think this is quite a useful item. Take good care of it, will you? So long.
Elder: I insist on remaining the cheerful village Elder. I'm counting on you.
Ari has acquired Divine Shoes"!
Divine Shoes increase a character's speed by 10. They're a pretty good accessory capable of bringing Big Bull and Kisling up to the speed of Ari and Linda, or they can bring Ari and Linda up to Rosalyn-like levels of agility.
We're done in Tenel, so we warp away.
Before we go to explore the other side of Triste, there are a few loose ends to tie up. First off, we head to Rashelo.
Music: Theme of Rashelo
The Hero's Club is once again filled with heroes. However, there are no Evil Kings around for them to hunt.
Hero In Trouble: How do I get to the men's room? Tell me now or you'll be a stain on my sword! Uh... Please? Pretty please?
If you need a refresher, the first portion of the story is in Part 13, and the second portion is in Part 18.
Let me hear it.Do I want to?
Easygoing Lady: Okay. Now you know that part, right? Let's go on.
Easygoing Lady: The tortoise had been living with the pebble for a while and one day a red turtle visited the territory. The tortoise welcomed the red turtle and introduced her family. Of course, she calls the pebble her baby. The red turtle was shocked of course. Like "Huh? So you gave birth to a pebble?" You see, at that point no one had said anything to the tortoise about it. But the red turtle was the first to speak up. "Your baby? It's nothing but a pebble." it's such common sense, but it took a lot of guts to say it.
Easygoing Lady: There was a stunned silence for a long while. Then the tortoise finally says something. The tortoise laughs and goes "Excuse me red turtle, what are you talking about, calling my baby a pebble? Look at my baby, red turtle. My baby has listened to our conversation and it's not saying that it is not my baby." The red turtle thought "Of course it doesn't. Because it's a pebble!!" But it gave up and said nothing. The pebble also thought "Of course I don't, I'm a pebble!!" But it couldn't say anything. Because it's a pebble. The red turtle couldn't say anything. "Besides," the tortoise continues, "If that were the case, then I'd be a complete fool!"
Easygoing Lady: The red turtle was in a tough spot. "Uh, because"...Hee... "You are"... Hee hee hee... Sorry. "Well, tortoise, you are!"... Hee hee ha ha ha ha ha! Oh no, I can't stand it anymore. There's only a little left, hee, hee, but I can't, ha ha ha ha ha!
Totally Gloomy Hero: Something sinister and mysterious, beyond the scope of we heroes is taking place. Doom looms thick here. We are all doomed! The world is ending!!!
Music: Plain of Rumille
After Rashelo, we stop in at the circus.
Veteran Clown: Judging from everything that's been going on, lately.
You wouldn't be talking about moi? So people do remember that I was the Great Evil King, at least for a good while.
Trapeze Star: Whatever happened to that fierce battle that was supposed to happen between the Hero and Evil King? People just stopped talking about it after a while. They actually stopped talking about the Great Hero and the Evil King at all.
Excuse me?Trapeze Star: Oh, I'm sorry. I must be mistaken.
Hmm, is it my imagination, or do your faces have shock written all over them? To tell you the truth, I can't believe how well things are going at the circus. I'm starting to think life here isn't all that bad. Guess what, I got paid! Yeah, it was only one day's worth, but still, I got paid! You work, and you get paid. What a great system! Whoever thought of it is a genius! I feel like a little kid, I'm so excited! I made the right choice, dropping evil. This is life, you know. Real life.
Madril is our last stop before we head to Triste.
Music: Theme of Madril
Classifying Officer: "Town Hall Manager loves to sleep. He often has nightmares." I see.
Town Manager in Nightmare: (Mumble, mumble...) Oh, so you have opened it... So now there will be no more 2nd Base hits in the world. What is this world coming to? 2nd Base hits have disappeared. (Mumble, mumble...) Hitting a triple would be really tough. It's not something you can just up and decide to do. I guess I have no choice but to bunt...
Pretty impressive how this guy manages to sleep standing up with his eyes open.
Sensitive Hero: Is there a presence or not?! Which is it?! Could it mean... that I'm an Evil King?
Young Man Who Believes in Justice: I believe the only way to get to truly know justice is to become a hero. I've already started packing for my journey. All I have to do is to use my savings to prepare my outfit. But... I wonder if I'll be good enough...
I think things are gonna work out okay for this Young Man Who Believes in Justice.
What!!! I've never seen your character model before!
Moving Maniac: Sure, I love this town, as I did Tenel and Rashelo. But if I stay in one place for more than six months, I start getting really antsy. I must have moved about 26 times by now. Oh, yes... Why don't you call me "Movaniac" from now on?
Movaniac: First of all, I don't really know much about other towns further away. What about you? Do you? Like, what's really there on the other side of the mountain behind the station, or futher back behind the Tenel Village Hall? Where is the Royal Capital? Where does the Princess go home to? I wonder about these things...
The thing about the research center! Like Maggie! Should I just go with the force and ask her out? Should I? Should I? Hmmmmmmmmm.
Mr. Pi: So why is it that folks in this town like to put rugged edges on it and, as if that's not enough, turn it, too? So stupid. Hey, can you recite pi? Isn't that incredible? 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844...
...what
...what
I don't know if this guy is overshadowed and we can only see him because of what happened to Ari earlier, or if he's just some weird thing the developers put in. The same goes for the Movaniac, another NPC with a unique model who just now appeared.
Hey, let's pretend we have 100,000 sukel right now, instead of waiting until after the next dungeon when I actually came back here to donate.
I can give 100,000 sukel.No way.
Researcher: Thank you, thank you. We can now afford to complete our research. Oh, yes, I may have something for you. This is it. It's only a test product, but I believe it might prove useful.
Ari acquired "Omnibooster"!
The Omnibooster is our reward for fully funding the research center. It's an incredibly good accessory that boosts Attack, defense, Luck and Agility by 5 each. If you can manage to grind up enough sukel for this before the Sewer Dungeon, it's a great candidate for the duplication trick.
We've been everywhere and talked to everyone. Let's rest here in Madril before heading to Triste.
Tsk, it seems that unfortunate servant is sleeping well. An Evil Butler serving an Evil King is a disguise to avoid public notice... My true calling is quite different...
Now, my presents are wrapped in shimmering paper and sparkling bows. Please accept them...
The Santa of the Shadows warps out.
Music: Melody from the Box
What's taking you so long? Come help me, quickly! What an unreliable servant you are.
Ari... Ari...
Ari acquired "Reuinion Outfit"!
The Reunion Outfit is Ari's best armor. It boosts our defense by 16 points. Compare to our current armor, which boosts by 5, and the best armor currently available for purchase, which gives 10 points.
This is our compatibility gift for being the most compatible with Marlene. There are six possible compatibility gifts, and you can only get one per game.
For being affectionate (towards Marlene, specifically. I may have neglected to mention that before), we become compatible with Marlene and get the Reunion Outfit, Ari's best armor which boosts his defense by 16.
For being heroic, we become compatible with Rosalyn and get the Gallant Rapier, Rosalyn's best weapon which boosts her attack by 40, her luck by 5, and her agility by 5.
For being evil, we become compatible with Stan and get a stat boost for Ari. +5 attack and +5 defense.
For being gung-ho, we become compatible with Ari's dad and get the A of Spades, our mysterious sixth party member's best weapon, which boosts his or her attack by 40. (this is not a spoiler if you paid any attention to the menus, especially the shop menu.)
For being wishy-washy, we become compatible with Julia and get the Owl's Amulet, which increases evasion to spells.
For being apathetic, we become compatible with the Mysterious Woman and get the Daymare Ring, which increases evasion to attacks.
On a first playthrough, you're likely to end up with either Rosalyn or Stan, simply because they're with you for most of the game, and a ton of dialog options are either evil or heroic, or flatter either Rosalyn or Stan. Marlene is also pretty easy to end up with, unless you're actively trying to avoid the romance the game starts pushing onto you in Chapter 3. (I did this the first time I played, because I thought Marlene was mean. I got really mad when the game forced me to give her the music box.)
I've never ended up with Ari's dad, but I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult as long as you take care not to compliment Rosalyn or Stan too much. Just being generally positive and agreeing with Kisling whenever possible should keep the scales tipped in his favor.
Julia is a challenge, because it's really easy to accidentally compliment someone and throw everything you've worked for out the window. You've just gotta try and be Julia's ideal man, and also never compliment anyone else.
The Mysterious Woman is pretty much the "default" option that you get by being so boring that you don't manage to woo a single other character. Her compatibility scene is definitely the hardest to get, because you'll often accidentally end up with Julia instead.
As for the gifts, they're all probably useful in their own ways. The stat boost from Stan doesn't seem like much, but Okage is a small numbers game, so those 5 extra points in attack and defense have quite an impact.
The usefulness of Rosalyn's and Dad's depend on whether or not you use the characters whose weapons you get. They are very good weapons though, and are both good to have if you use the characters in question.
The Reunion Armor is definitely useful no matter what, since Ari is always in your party and more defense is always welcome for the guy who gives you a game over when killed. It's not quite as good as Stan's gift though, because Ari's second best armor is a +12 to defense, so Stan's stat boost gets you one more defense point and five more attack points than Marlene's armor does. Ari's second best armor costs 145,000 sukel, though.
The Owl's Amulet and Daymare Rings are mysteries to me. I've never ended up with Julia or the Mysterious Woman, personally, and judging from Google, not a lot of people have. The descriptions make them sound similar to other items that boost evasion against spells and attacks, and those common items are pretty much complete garbage that don't boost your evasion by enough to make a difference. The Owl's Amulet and Daymare Rings are surely the best versions of those items though, so they may actually give you a useful evasion boost.
Regrettably, I cannot show you the other five compatiblity scenes (or rather, I'm not willing to play the game five more times to get screenshots of them). If you're interested in them, GameFAQs user Falconesque has written detailed scripts for each one, including notes on camera work and character actions. It doesn't spoil any future events, so feel free to read through it right away, if you'd like.
Concept art of the Santa of the Shadows.