Part 7: Sister Act

Update 7: Sister Act



There are new monsters in the area south of Divisia. Leapliz enemies have a lot of HP, but they don't hit very hard and their Zan technique is weak.



Catwomen only have 58 HP, so one hit from just about anything should kill them.



Our target is this cave here, but it's a pain to get to. You have to head north into a narrow gap in the forest, then west, then south, then east.



The Monitor's minimap isn't really much help at all for this: it doesn't even show the lake to the west of us!



Caves in this generation have a new, somewhat less eye-burning colour scheme.



The blue thing is a Primus, and I guess it's supposed to be a tortured soul or something? I don't know what the hell to think about these monsters any more. Anyway, it can cast Zan for a fair amount of damage. The green things are Clusters and they're basically a joke.



Head all the way into the northwest corner for a Force Helm, which provides a small defense and speed boost over Nial's current helmet.



Deeper into the cave, we start running into rebel guards: fortunately, they're on our side.



There's a Hunting Band in a chest along the main path, which can't be equipped on anyone in our party right now. If you head east from it, though, you can get some Ceramic Gear for Wren.



Finally, we reach the end of the cave and meet this suspicious-looking fellow.



"I know that you rescued Lune's sister Alair. Lune must have sent you three to infiltrate us!"
"Oh, for crying out loud. This is what I get for trying to fix other people's cock-ups? When was the last time you saw a Layan travelling with two cyborgs?"



Fortunately, Lune is just as stupid as every other character in the game, and decides that now would be a good time to teleport in and mock us.

"Lune! How did you get here, you demon?"



"Abandon your revolt or you will all die!"
"Okay, seriously, what's with the hair? Were you about to audition to be a backup singer for The Darkness?"

Lune vanishes as quickly as he appeared.



"I have some parts for your Wren in a chest."



Looks like we've just scored ourselves a new party member -- and a pretty awesome one, at that. He's a lot like Lyle, except instead of Melee techniques he gets Time techniques, which are less useful. We immediately stick that Hunting Band we found on him, and we'll get him some new weapons and armour as soon as we get back to Divisia.



The chests in the room with him contain a Laser Sword (which will more than double Nial's damage output), a Laser Claw (helping Mieu hit even harder)...



... and this.

"Wren, you can turn into a submarine?"
"I can now."



We can also talk to the rebels and find out more about Lune. The rebels want to go to Aridia so they can find whatever Lune's looking for before he does. We also learn that Lune and Alair were banished to Dahlia, the purple moon, by Orakio a thousand years ago. Lune and Alair placed themselves in cryogenic stasis in hopes of taking revenge on the Orakians when the moon returned, but apparently Alair has thought better of it since then. Lune hasn't, though, and if even Orakio had trouble defeating him, he may be a problem for us.



"That's why Lune and Alair woke up!"
"Geez, uh, I can't imagine who would do a thing like that. On a completely unrelated note, I have to go now."



Back in Divisia, I pick up two Laser Staffs and a Laconian Cape for Ryan. He can now bust out about 250 damage per hit against weaker enemies, while Mieu is hitting for a little over 200 and Nial does up to 350 with his two-handed sword. Basically, everyone except Wren can one-shot most of the enemies we're facing right now.



Anyway, our next stop is Aridia. That means we have to go aaalll the way through Divisia, aaalll the way through the cave back to Landen...



... aaalll the way through the cave to Aquatica...



Oh, hey, I guess the Layans in Aquatica allied with Lune and closed off this cave to Orakians. Now what?



We have to head into this cave, in the far southeast of Landen. Thanks to Ryan's gem, it's open to us now.



This isn't a hard dungeon at all: there are only two real wrong turns you can take.



Follow the path for a Force Claw, which is the next step above a Laser Claw for Mieu and can also be used for unlimited castings of Rever in or out of combat. That's right: as long as we hold on to this, we never have to worry about characters dying again.

After you've got that, take the next branch to the north for a Force Knife, which would be useful for Nial if you're using knives instead of swords on him for some insane reason, and can also be used as an item to cast Forsa (instant kill). Then head back to the main path and go east for a Force Sword, which is the weapon you should give to Nial; it can be used as an item to cast Foi, but who cares about that. Keep going east and head south at the end, then take the stairs outta here.



The party emerges in the far northwest of Aridia.



There's one new monster here, the Lasher, which attacks by wiggling the tip of its tail at us. It also has a Gra technique, but it's nowhere near as threatening as it looks.

Let's see what the cyborgs of Hazatak have to say to us!



"We built you to fight the Layans. Can't anyone make a robot that does what it's told?"



A whirlpool, huh? I wonder what would happen if we wandered around the northeastern end of the river?



Whoa, what's happening to Wren?



Could it be...



Looks like we can explore that whirlpool now!



Even Wren's excited!



Whoa, trippy. Are we underground now or what?



The only thing of any interest down here is one of those Layan palaces. They've always kicked us out before for not being Layan, but it's not like we have anywhere else to go...



"Whoa, hey, what are you guys doing down here?"



"Cryogenic sleep has kept her alive during the war."
"Wait, Laya? The Laya? She's down here?"



"Strangely enough, she is also named Laya!"
"Man, that must have made dinner time confusing for their family when they were growing up. 'Laya, pass the salt to Laya. Laya, stop stealing Laya's dessert...'"

This isn't some kind of translation glitch, by the way. Nor is it part of some kind of elaborate subplot in another path where you confuse one Laya with the other. The original designers actually thought it would be a good idea to make two characters who were sisters and happened to have the same name just for the hell of it.



"Return to the desert and go southwest with Laya. The portal to Mystoke awaits you there."



"So you're Laya? Well, uh, her sister, who's also named Laya? You look... younger than I expected."



"She left with a knight who wore a black sword. I must know the truth. Please take me along!"
"Uh, okay, I guess. This is going to be awkward to explain if we run into any other Orakians."



Well, we just got our fifth party member for this generation, and she comes with the gem we need for the next part of the plot. She can only use bows, which do much less damage than a sword but can hit enemies in the back row. She also learns Heal and Order techniques, making her a pretty solid supporting party member -- at least, she will be once she levels up a bit and gets enough HP to not die in one hit.



With nothing left to do in the secret bonus level, the party heads back up to the surface of Aridia. Next time, we go searching for Mystoke!