Part 116: A Mirrored Mission

So, the guy in Florence gave us directions to Bluebeard's castle (no, really).


Karin immediately notices something odd about it.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.



Remember before, when Jovis sent Karin and me on a little trip? This is the place.
Hmm. So that must mean...
Yup, the castle where Amon was.

I'm amazed Yuri was able to figure that out all on his own.


So, this castle is very similar to Mirror Castle which only makes sense, considering that one is a copy of the other. It isn't identical though, and it is a bit longer and a little more complicated. There's a map here (not mine) if you get lost.


We start by leaving the entrance through the door to the north, which opens into a long corridor. Fairly straightforward so far.


The monsters here in Tiffauges are at least different than Mirror Castle: Duergar, Peg O'Nell and our blue buddy here, Muscida.


We keep following the corridor, going through a door on the way, until we reach a chest with the Ronove Crest (Hail Crash, Bright Banish). We also pass some mirrors, but they either do nothing or start a fight with the monsters roaming around here, so we ignore them.


Passing through the next set of doors and continuing north, we soon come to a crossroads. Also a not-so-subtly named gentleman. I'm onto your games, Shadow Hearts.

Beard: This is a mysterious castle that exists between reality and fiction. People around here call it "Mirror Castle." Go wherever you like inside the castle, but if you wander into the Mirror World, you'll find it very hard to get back.

Thanks for the info. And who are you?

Beard: I'm simply a mere guide. That is all...


There's nothing down the corridors to the left and right, so we keep going north to another set of doors.


This leads to a room with a fireplace. There's a chest in the corner with Petrify 3 in it. We leave this room after picking it up, still heading north.


The path here is a straight shot, ending at a mirror. (It's not marked on the map very well, but the north door of the room we left leads to the set of corridors to the right of it.)


Looking in the mirror transports us into the "Mirror World" Beard was talking about. Unfortunately, we're going to have to find another mirror to get back because the mirrors are one-way paths only.



Maivia: I don't know what's on the other side, though.

About halfway down, we run into a little girl. We're going to ignore her for now and continue to the end of the hall


The chest at the end has Lucia's Devil Tarot card.


With that done, we go back and look at Maivia's mirror.


Whee! We'll check out the northern path first.


...Didn't I already make this joke the first time we were here?

Lottery Member 4: Now you're gonna start crying, I suppose! Look, I'll let you do the lottery okay? So don't cry!


We're getting closer to the Chairman!


Alice has an Invisible Ring. We see the prize areas briefly, and they disappear when the indicator starts spinning.


You get the Demon Ward for hitting the red space. Wearing it halves the enemy encounter rate, which is nice for backtracking somewhere you've already been. Too bad they don't give it to you until you're almost done with the game.

You won Demon Ward

Lottery Member 4: come play again sometime, okay? Promise you'll come back!


Going all the way south brings us to another mirror. After going through, we continue south. This is all very riveting, I'm sure.


The monotony is broken by running into another kid.

Mariposa: What does she got to be afraid of?! We're already dead!

Huh. I must say, Yuri is handling being in a haunted castle surprisingly well.


As we keep following the corridor, we pass a mirror on the left (er, Yuri's right). We'll ignore it for now and keep going.


A bit further on, there's a chest with a Daphne Fruit in the corner.


Just past that is the locked door.


Since we can't go through that way, we have to use the mirror.




From here, we can actually go right to the boss fight, but we'd miss a very important event, so we're heading south.


We come to another copy of the red room.


A bit further south is another crossroads. This one has a Crucifix in a chest. These work exactly like Anne's Cross, except they don't have a healing effect.


Straight south, the path dead-ends. The chest here has a Seal of the Urn.


To the left of the crossroad, this mirror leads back to the area with Beard.

Samson: You'd better go back now while you still can. Or else you'll be trapped in here forever like we are...


Going right leads us to another mirror.


We're now back in the section with the locked door.


Following the path leads us to...another intersection.


There's nothing to the east. There's another kid to the south.


If we investigate what the kid heard by continuing south, we eventually come to a room almost identical to the entrance.


Except instead of a Save Point, it has a wolf.



*groan* Don't come any closer!
Grrr... (Something's wrong with him!)


Something is really wrong with him.




Blanca has been hanging around Yuri too much. Friend is acting weird? Hit him until he stops acting weird.



He doesn't even understand me right now. I hate to have to do it, but I can't just leave him when he's like this!




There really isn't much to say about this fight. Wild Henri is much stronger than he was before, but Blanca is still out-hitting him every round. With the Crucifix equipped on Blanca, the battle is quickly over.


We get a Valuable Gem for winning. This...is the only item in the game that isn't actually used for anything. It doesn't do anything, and, unlike the Tissues, it isn't even used in a sidequest. Henri just gave us vendor trash. Oh, and here's the Seventh Key; I forgot to take a screenshot of it when I got it.



I don't feel too good about that one. What use is winning when he isn't even in his right mind?





Awroo? (What happened to you, anyway?)
Well...after you beat me, I traveled the world looking for a way to break my curse. Along the way, I heard that if I saw my reflection in the Mirror of Truth here in Mirror Castle, I would change back. I'm ashamed to admit the result. Not only did I not turn back, I ended up changing into a wild beast!
Who knows? Maybe that's your true character?
Ha ha ha. I guess I deserved that. ...Well, don't want to keep you standing around listening to an old man talk. Here, Blanca. This is for you.


Only two more left, unless Ernest pulls a "Wait, you forgot the insert!" on us.



.........


We'll have to come back later to get the conclusion of Henri's story. For now, we have a Mirror of Truth to check out.


Once Henri is taken care of, the little boy that told us about him has something new to say.


We keep going north until we enter another red room. The little girl in here is the one that locked the door.

Soufflé: ...I get so scared all the time now. That's because I remember... I remember how I got killed...

Oookay... The longer we stay here, the creepier this place gets.


We can leave through this door, but we can't come back this way; we'll have to go the long way around if we need to come back to this section.


We can use the same mirror we did last time to come out near the Save Point.


From the Save Point, we just go north until the hall ends at a mirror. Looking at the mirror however...


Instead of passing us through, it triggers a fight, but it's just with the normal enemies from the area, nothing special.


When the fight is over, the mirror is shattered, revealing another passage.


I think we've all got a pretty good idea of what's through here.


Walking across the room triggers a cut-scene.


Yuri walks up to the mirror. It seems perfectly ordinary.

So, you came back.


Yuri spins around, but there's no one there. He turns to look in the mirror again.


Peek-a-boo.

Uh!


Yuri quickly calms down and Albert steps out of the mirror. That's a pretty neat trick there, gramps.

So...this is where you live now, huh?
Yes, this is Tiffauges Castle. I made my Soul Pact with Amon here. This was once home to Gilles de Rais, a powerful French nobleman.



After his lover was executed as a heretic, he turned to the dark arts.



Rumors of his devil worship spread, and he, too, was executed by the Church. That was almost five hundred years ago. Even love can turn to tragedy.



Time changes nothing. The world today is still filled with madness and rage. ...In any case, you used it well, didn't you? Amon's power?



Yeah! I took out Rasputin!
But a much more powerful enemy appeared.
...!



A vast power lies beyond this mirror... A forbidden power, surpassing Amon's.
A-a forbidden power?!

Well, THAT certainly got Yuri interested.



It is yours if you can but defeat me. Do you wish to try again?
Yeah.



It won't be like before. This time, the gloves are comin' off!
That's fine with me.






So, we get to kick Albert's ass again, this time in form of Neo Amon.


This fight isn't much different than the last time we fought Amon. Neo Amon is stronger, of course, but so is my party.


Since we have a full party of four this time around, Combo Magic is available.


We get Amon Crest for winning, netting us the Red Crest spell.






Albert is back in his mirror.

He he. The ultimate demon. That's a fitting name for you, Godslayer!

You got Neo Amon's Soul!


And with that, he's gone.


Neo Amon is basically the Max Fusion version of Amon. He's got slightly better stats, a higher fusion cost, and, at the higher levels, access to spells that Amon doesn't get.


I already had Amon at level 10, so Neo Amon starts off maxed out. (The only spell not shown in the list is Demon Rays.)

And before I end, I also got Fides and Gaudion to level 10, so here's their completed Skill Lists: