Part 12: It's A Bird, It's A Plane

Update 12: It's A Bird, It's A Plane



The votes are in, and the verdict is clear: we're going to see what happens if Nial marries Laya!



"Our marriage will bring peace to all."

Maybe it's just me, but that seems like sort of a lame reason to get married. Then again, that's probably why I'm not royalty.



... and hatred between the Orakians and the Layans. Laya had twins, Adan, a boy, and Gwyn, a girl. The next 16 years were peaceful and prosperous. But Gwyn began to have dreadful nightmares. Every night she dreamt of falling into a dark hole, a pit from which there was no escape.



Hey, game, make up your mind. Has it been 15 years or 16?

It looks like we've got bigger things to worry about than the date, though, because the screen just started shaking.



I've said this before, but these little splash screens in cutscenes are actually pretty cool, and they remind me of the ones in Phantasy Star IV. I wish there were more of them.



"Be sure to take Mieu and Wren along with you."

Normally I'd complain that looking for the cause behind an isolated natural disaster seems overly paranoid, but we're on a spaceship here. It probably doesn't even have tectonic plates.



Both of Laya's children appear to have inherited her weird forehead dot. Maybe it's some kind of skin condition.



Here's our starting party for generation 3. Adan's a pretty well-rounded character, and like all main characters he uses swords to great effect. He starts the generation decked out in a full set of Laconian equipment, which is not quite the best gear around but close to it. He only learns Heal techniques, but those are the best techniques anyway, and he starts out somewhat better at them than Mieu. The only problem with him is that he levels up very slowly, but he starts out strong enough that this doesn't matter.

Gwyn, unfortunately, isn't quite as good. She starts out weak and gains levels rapidly, but due to a bug her techniques don't actually get stronger as she levels up: she learns Heal and Order techniques, but starts out slightly worse at them than Mieu is right now, and will never get any better. She uses bows like her mother, and in fact she starts with Laya's Bow, but bows still aren't great weapons.

Anyway, we're trying to investigate an earthquake. Maybe Dad has some ideas on where to start.



"He may know what's going on."
"Take care, kids, and mind your manners."

No, I didn't make up that last line from Laya: it's actually in the game.



"Really? A dream of falling into a bottomless pit means that she's worried something bad might happen? I'd never have guessed."

The other townspeople mostly just remind us that we should be going to Dahlia to visit Lune. Now, remember, the last dungeon we visited in Nial's generation was Dahlia. So if we use an Escapipe at the start of this generation, we'll instantly be transported exactly where we need to go to advance the plot, which saves us a fair bit of time.

I'm going to do things the proper way, though, just to show you how tedious the proper way is.



Since our destination is Dahlia, we have to retrace Nial's steps and head to Aerone on the world of Elysium (that's the one in the west). All the worlds from the previous generations are accessible to us now, and this generation's map also reveals a new world in the southeast. I'm sure we'll be visiting there eventually.



Outside of Landen, we run into new enemies. Something strange is going on here: monsters and cyborgs are both attacking us at once! Wolfbots don't hit especially hard (although they can one-shot Gwyn until she survives a battle or two and gains some levels), but they have pretty good HP and defense. Mieu and Wren's crappy second-generation equipment and Gwyn's general crappiness mean that Adan is the only character with a chance of bringing them down in one round right now. Killsats are tough and poisonous and generally a nuisance, and Squawkers are just as much of a joke as the other members of the Chirper family.



If we talk to people in Ilan and Yaata, we learn what we've already noticed: cyborgs are attacking Orakians, monsters are attacking Layans and basically the whole world is going to hell. Somebody seems to be controlling both the monsters and the cyborgs, but neither the Orakians nor the Layans have the power to do that.



Apart from the Escapipe trick, there are two ways to reach Aerone. The first is to go directly from Landen to Elysium, travel through Divisia and its dungeon, and enter the Layan palace to the south of Divisia. The trouble is that walking through Divisia's dungeon is kind of a pain, so we're going to go the other way. We start with the Layan palace in the southeast of Landen.



This brings us to Aridia. In case you're wondering, the cyborgs of Hazatak don't really have anything new to say since last generation.



The next step is to walk all the way to the southwestern end of Aridia and take the Layan palace to Frigidia.



Which is full of more hilariously goofy-looking enemies! I think I've just about run out of things to say about the monsters in this game. Some of them die in one hit, some of them sometimes take two hits, a few of them can damage the whole party with techniques. Phantasy Star 3's ass-backwards difficulty curve means that by the third generation the game is so easy that it doesn't matter what you're fighting.



Remember this palace here? It's the one that takes us to the part of Elysium where Aerone is. We're finally at our destination, so let's see what the people of Aerone have to say!



"We've heard we are aimed toward a black hole. Perhaps your dream is a warning of our fate!"

They've got some alarming news for us: the earthquake we experienced was actually a massive explosion from something hitting the Alisa III, and it sent us off course. If we don't find a way to change course, we're headed straight into a black hole. Maybe Lune and his friends up on Dahlia know more about what's going on.



"Both spaceships beamed lasers at each other and the strange spaceship exploded into fragments!"

Well, I guess now we know exactly what knocked us off course. The other soldiers suggest that we should visit the wise men of Skyhaven on Frigidia and see if they know more about the other spaceship and why it might have attacked us. To get there, we can use the Aero Parts for Wren, found in Dahlia's dungeon.



First, though, let's chat with Lune and his family.



"I am sending Kara to accompany your group. She has my Lune Slicer; I think you'll need it."
"A long time ago, your father rescued me. I'm sure you can protect my niece, Kara."



"It is my duty to find out what happened."



And just like that, we've got our final party member. Kara is another one of those characters who starts out useless but levels up very fast. She uses slicers, and is reasonably good with Heal and Order techniques. The only bad thing about her is that her walking sprite is an ugly palette swap of Maia from the first generation.



With four healers in your party, Dahlia's dungeon should be a breeze. The monsters here are slightly stronger palette swaps of monsters from previous generations and they're all completely unremarkable. You need to walk past where Lune was in the previous generation and head north and east. Eventually you'll reach an area with a Laconian Gear for Wren and a Laconian Band for Kara. From there, head for the southeast corner of the dungeon, then west for a Laconian Crown for Gwyn.



Keep going west and head north when you can, then east. This is what we came here for: a second expansion pack for Wren! But how do we use it?



Hmm. That ancient ruin outside Aerone looks an awful lot like an airstrip, doesn't it?

Next update: we turn Wren into a Goddamned aeroplane. Maybe this game has some redeeming features after all.