Part 17: That Bitter Battlefield of Men

The next day, the storm has cleared, and we're free to explore the town.

Sato: Some of the survivors say they saw some really ghastly monsters down there...

Gee, what else is new?


I love making new friends!



Walter: ...That luxury liner, the Titanic, left from here on its way to New York, you know.

And we all know how well the return trip for that turned out.



Wait, then how is he getting the money to drink?




Outside, it's finally stopped raining. It's not exactly "sunny", but it's a vast improvement.


Really? I hadn't noticed.




Um, shouldn't he be calling it "football"? We didn't get blown off course all the way to the US, did we?



Cane: They say it ripped the sky apart and its light reached up to the heavens. Wish I could've seen it...!

...Trust me, you're lucky you didn't.





Sergeant Upham: I'm on vacation, but I can't find anything to do! I've already read this book... Here, you have it!

You got Nibelung Scene 4

You learned Bullenfogel!

I still don't know how Karin learns actual fighting from reading an opera that she's probably already seen performed before, but what the hell, free power up!


That's nice, dear, but I'm more interested in the statue behind you.


There's a Strike Expand hidden here.


There's also a Lottery Ticket hidden in the posters on the wall.


Speaking of the lottery...

Lottery Member 15: As it happens, I'm one of them! Come on, have a go! You're young. You can afford a few risks!




Maureen's ring can randomly slow down or speed up, but it doesn't have a huge change in speed. Hitting the red earns us the Ring Effect Slow 1. Speaking of Ring Effects, I don't think I've shown you P-Attack Down 1.

Lottery Member 15: Fantastic! Well done! Come again anytime!

You've probably noticed the Magimel Bros. are still stalking us. Well, we've got money burning a hole in our pocket, and two Stud Cards burning a hole in our retinas. Time to shop! (Incidentally, I've also forgotten to show the picture of the Point Card.)


Pfft. The big Chinese guy with the needles was ten times scarier than a pair of French poofters.

Tee hee! If you have a card, then I'll sew a dress for you...



Fabulous! Did you bring me what I want, then? My hot little heart's desire?


We've got two cards, so we pick up Cornelia's Water dress, gaining Aqua Cast...


...and her Darkness dress, gaining Dark Cast.


Gerard here has new weapons for sale.

Yes, I hope our relationship will be long and mutually beneficial. Now please favor me with your kind patronage!


Although he's got new weapons for everyone except Joachim, I only pick up Gepetto's Kite String. I'll be getting free copies of everyone else's new weapons shortly, so no need to waste money here.


You can climb the stairs behind the guard to get to the top of the wall. There's a hidden item up here behind the man in the white suit. Picking it up triggers a scene.

Hey, you dropped something!



What are you carrying dried up straw around for anyway?

Maybe you should read the character names, Yuri.



Himovic: But there are people in the world who'd do anything to get their hands on this.

Are you sure? For this?!

Himovic: It's true. I guess you find it hard to believe. Ten years ago, I was a poor farmer, with only one strand of straw. But I found someone who wanted it, and traded with them. Then I traded what I got for something else, and... Over time, I gained status and property. Almost without realizing it!

That's...amazing! I guess you really wouldn't wanna lose it then, huh? Here you are!

Himovic: ...No, you picked it up. You should keep it. It's probably fate. I'll let you have that bit of straw. With a little luck, that bit of straw will turn you into a millionaire! With a little luck, eh!


Thus begins the Trading mini-quest. Well, "mini" might be a bit of a misnomer - this quest will actually take most of the game to complete, but we should end up with something good. We might even get a house!

You got Dried Straw

Of course, we start with just a crappy bit of straw.


Near the top of the stairs to the street, there's a chest with a Leonardo's Bear. These things stop Instant Death attacks from working. I'm putting it on Joachim right away for...no particular reason.


Speaking of Joachim, we can now look at Joachythms on his Personal page. On that little chart, the thick vertical line represents his current state. The thin line marked "10" represents his state in 10 more battles, the one marked "20" represents his state in 20 more battles, etc. Wherever the Gold line crosses the horizontal line, Joachim will turn into his Golden Bat form for 2 or 3 battles, which greatly increases his physical stats but prevents him from using Special Attacks. Wherever the Rainbow line crosses the horizontal line, Joachim will go into the closet turn Invisible for 2-3 fights, which increases his Special Attack and Defense and makes him hard for enemies to target. If both lines cross the horizontal line at the same time, Joachim turns into Grand Papillon. There are also items you can get to force him to change into one of his three alternate forms.


Anyway, there's one last area to the left of the Magimel Brothers to explore.


...What the hell?


Oh no. No, no no no, no no...


My, what a...coincidence.



Teacher?!


The guy on the wall jumps off and, well, floats down to the ring.



How have you been?! When a man stops moving forward and forgets the struggle, that's when he grows old, my boy.


Well, now we know why Joachim does that fruity little pose all the time.

Ugh. I think I'm gonna need a doctor over here...


You're not fooling anyone, Joachim. We all know you're hot for Teacher.

Your teacher?!
That's right.


Um...'kay...



Teacher! You're alive and well!
No need to worry, Joachim! "Train hard day and night, sharpen your mind and work hard for the good of others..." That's the motto of the Great Gama School of Combative Techniques. Don't tell me you've forgotten, my boy! You walked along a man's arduous path of fight and sweat. Now let me see how much your skill has improved!
Teacher! You mean you'll give me the chance to show you all I've learned? All my spirit and passion?!

Keep your passion in your pants, bub.








These wrestling matches against Gama are how Joachim learns new Muscle Arts. The first match isn't very hard.


The only tricky part is Gama's Grand Slam attack. It only does a little bit more damage than his normal attack, but it has a good chance of causing Instant Death. Unless, of course, Joachim has something like a Leonardo's Bear equipped.


If you do happen to lose the fight, you can train a bit then fight him again. But since you're forced to use Joachim in the Wine Cellar, beating Gama shouldn't be a problem.


I don't know why Gama's item drop is Tissues, and I don't WANT to know.



Whenever you want to test your skills, come back to me, my boy. The open-air ring will always be waiting for you!

We could face Gama for Joachim's next skill right away, but Joachim's probably way too low level to win at this point. We'll be back later.

Oh, thank you, Teacher!

You learned Grand Slam!

And we get the Instant Death attack. Unfortunately, it doesn't usually work on bosses.






Hmm, nice locker...



Look at this old, dented, filthy locker. It's a thing of beauty!




Wait, what are you doing!?

You got Locker



Use it for? As a weapon, of course!

Lockers are good for hitting people, apparently.

A weapon...? What? But don't we usually get weapons from chests or shops or something, or after some big event?
What are you talking about? Those are the old-fashioned ways of getting weapons! Use whatever you can get your hands on! That's the first rule of a hero!
Yeah, maybe for heroes on a budget...

Yuri is an old school hero.

Tsk tsk! I'd rather you called me an "environmentally-friendly" hero!
How about "mentally-challenged" hero instead?

Well, nothing's coming out of my wallet, so I guess I'm fine with it...




Well, that's enough silliness (for now). There's a Seal of Aura in the chest to the right of the ring.



Nokko: And my favorite dirty trick of his is when he rushes the other guy with a key in his hand. Shows his wild side!

I'm gonna back away from you now...



Senam: Lots of students want to train under him, but end up quitting when they find out how harsh the training is. I wonder if anybody will ever be good enough to be his successor...?

I wonder...



Mira: and he told me he wanders from town to town teaching wrestling.



Well, that's it for Southampton for now, and probably not a moment too soon as far as Yuri is concerned. We're off to brave a haunted mine, but first, here's a look at the current score:

Not doing too good on my Perfect rate. Having the Ring Success Rate and Perfect Success Rate over certain percentages gets you a special accessory halfway through the game. I've got a save somewhere with it, so if I don't manage to get my rate up I can show you it anyway.




If I don't get the special item, I blame Yuri.


Right now, Karin has been in the most battles, but fairly soon I'll start rotating the characters I use. Yuri will always be in the battle party, though. You'll notice that on this screen and the previous one, Nicolai's name is still there, though grayed out because we don't control him anymore. Any character you control, no matter how briefly, will have their stats show up on this screen. There will be three more temporary characters added here. If we had the Director's Cut in the US, there'd be FIVE more names. The Director's Cut added a side mission where you control Nicolai, Lenny, and Veronica.