Part 7: The Man Who Advises

Part VII: The Man Who Advises



So I asked alchargia to come up with an emergency outfit for Leia, and I think something may have gotten lost in communication...



However, in Duval, Leia's informat is not doing a good job of being inconspicuous...


The 411 on Duval

Sorry I'm late!

So, uh...this is your informant?

Yep. Jude, meet Jolyne.



Anyway, you know why we're here.

The train hijacking, right? Maybe I know something. Maybe I don't.

I'm guessing it depends on whether we have money or info to trade, right?

Hey...

Ludger fills her in on the inside scoop...

So that's the real story.



I just love how Elle plays around with Rollo all the time in cutscenes when she's not otherwise speaking. Go ahead! Take a look at the videos and see Elle playing around with the cat while everyone else is talking. It's a fun detail!

I also like how whoever voiced Rollo doesn't even sound 10% like a cat, but there's just something very amusing about the way he meows that makes me happy.

Ryow.

Good stuff. Guess it's my turn to share. Word on the street is Braht's been funneling a certain somethin' somethin' to Exodus.

Braht?

That's the name of the government around these parts--right, Jolyne?

Supposedly.

Meaning?

No dice. I like living.

What're they sending? Weapons?

Nope, guess again. Spirit fossils and boosters.

Say what now?!

That's right, kids. The next-gen stuff that's supposed to replace current spyrix techno-- Whoa, stop the press. This guy looks familiar.

I suppose he does. This is Jude Mathis, the spyrite researcher.

Mom always wanted me to meet a doctor. You make me feel all chatty.

Wow, Jude. You're like a celebrity!

Rumor has it there's a "demon" prowling the alleyways of Duval. He looks just like a regular guy on the outside, but I hear he's hiding some monstrous power. He uses it to stalk his prey.

Like glasses guy.

Word is even some of Braht's heavies have fallen victim. I just wrote it off as an urban legend, but maybe it's connected to the train hijacking after all.



Well, this whole connection is tenuous, but I suppose we might as well follow up on it. A monster's a monster, after all. Right after this skit, though. Warning: this skit is terrifying!



Oh yeah, made another unscheduled debt payment after turning in a few more jobs in Duval. Note that new debt payment values are set after the end of each chapter's story content, so for now it's still 10,000.



Well, doesn't look like anything's off here, but...


Exodus attacks

I really hope it's not.

What, are you scared?

No way! I ain't a 'fraidy cat! Besides, it might help us get to Canaan.



I'm so sorry, Leia. I don't know what happened...

What reason does Exodus have for gathering the materials to make spyrites?

What's that, chief? Did someone say "spyrites"?



You mean to say you're peddling spirit fossils?

You bet. Only lesser spirit class ones, though.

Speaking of that, have you heard anything about people gathering spirit fossils recently?





We're taking you into custody, unless you try something foolish.

In broad daylight?

Doesn't matter.



Some reinforcements arrive, and it looks like trouble...

These men...

Braht agents.



Looks like this could get ugly, unless we have some sort of trump card against this bunch... Thankfully, we do.









Ahhhhhhhhh!!



See, Elle, this is why it might not be the best idea to keep you around...







The demon



Hey, what's the matter, buddy? You look like you've just seen a ghost.



Oi, these guys are trying this ol' gag again?



Luckily Jude's right on top of that. Dr. Mathis is a quick learner.

I get why you and Exodus hate me so much. But if you can't trust us...then at least trust in the spyrites! That's all I ask of you! We're so close to making them work!



Curse that Jolyne. She must've ratted us out.

Show no mercy. They're probably all Rieze Maxians.



Things are getting pretty heady...







Hey, I recognize that...

Spirit artes!

A close one, this.



Who?

An old friend, and traveling buddy.

Rowen's super smart. He knows everything.

So he knows where the Land of Canaan is?

The Land of Canaan, you say?

That's right, old-timer! It's a magical place that grants people's wishes!

Do tell...

Well, I got a wish for that Canaan place to grant...death to all Rieze Maxia scum! Every last one of 'em!

Anybody who looks at you arte-wielding monsters and thinks you're people like us is crazy!

Quite right.



Holy shit! Did Rowen lose his mind?!

Don't look!

Rowen! What did you just do?!

Need you ask? Elize, Gaius, Lady Driselle... I must avenge their deaths. I must atone for dispelling the schism.

Oh man, the coot has totally lost it. Those three are still alive!

No... Not like this...

Those two must perish as well.

This man isn't Rowen!





So whoever this is, he looks like Rowen, sounds like him, but most certainly is NOT the old-timer. Time to waste him.



So, what your first order of business is is to dodge his spirit artes, since his artes are pretty devastating and will quickly chip away at your party. He's pretty fast in throwing them out, and he has a lot of them, so interrupting his casting is paramount to winning this fight. Thankfully, Ludger's hammer does a great job of just that.



But, since this is the first battle we've had with Leia this game, let me introduce her. Her staff uses Strike damage (same as Jude), so she has a natural Power Hit against Rowen here (who is weak to Strike and Fire damage). She's the prototypical battle mage. She has a variety of spells for buffs, some single-target healing (as opposed to Elize, who has mostly group heal spells), and a wide variety of artes that send her airborne or can be used in the air.

On the support side, her Partner skill is Item Steal, which only works on downed enemies. If you knock an enemy to the ground, and Leia is close (or Ludger if you're partnered with her), they'll attempt to steal an item from the enemy. It will be obvious if you're successful or not in the five-finger discount, but there are skills to increase your odds if you're more successful than not stealing from enemies at this point in the game.

On the special ability side, her ability is thus.



If you successfully back step away from an enemy attack (so, much like the Snap Pivot), Leia's staff will grow twice as long, and as you might guess, give you twice as much reach. Not...overly useful. It's just cool when you pull off successful backsteps, is all. Note that if you have trouble with successfully backstepping and growing Leia's staff, a skill down the line will allow you to do the exact same thing by blocking an enemy's attack at the exact right time. For some reason I find this much easier to pull off.

Oh, and if you watch the video, this moment is nowhere in the video, because I took like 3-4 tries to finally beat him. I underestimated him a bit, I admit.



Also in this video is an Over Limit combo of 7 Linked Artes!



Hammer Toss is an especially good arte to stagger Rowen. Ludger throws his hammer like a fire boomerang and happens to be one of my favorite Ludger artes, actually, especially since, again, Rowen is weak to both elements Hammer Toss is.



Another cool thing about partners is that if an enemy stuns you, they can automatically recover you from Stun with a Stun Recovery. Do note, however, you cannot do the same to them.



Damn that was a sweet combo. If Jude and Leia were controlled by humans, we might have done even more damage.



If he starts casting with a red ! above his head, that means he's going to throw out Tidal Wave shortly, which is one of his highest-level spells. The only way to avoid considerable damage from this one is to use Magic Guard. To use Magic Guard, start blocking, then hold down on the control stick. You'll throw up a blue shield and considerably lessen damage from spells.



But a big smack just upside the head brought this demon down for good.









The King

They must be hiding around here somewhere, so find 'em!

What did you monsters do?!

It's more of that spirit arte trickery!

You really are monsters, aren't you!

That's enough.





And who the hell are you?







Why is Exodus so intent on gathering spyrite materials?

Imagine if they unleashed an out-of-control spyrite on the world. Everyone would see the danger in it. Public support would vanish in a flash.

Indeed they would. The plan is a cunning one.

Hold on a sec... Y-You're not gonna kill us?

We're not the monsters you think we are.

The three, however, run off, and good riddance.

Nothing changes overnight. It would appear that hatred of Rieze Maxia runs deep within the veins of this city.

Maybe you could go to the Land of Canaan and wish the hate away.

Beg pardon?

The Land of Canaan is a magical place that grants wishes for people.



Alas...the power to alter men's hearts in the blink of an eye would be frightening, indeed.

We could easily wish away that which makes us human.

It's okay. These two are the real deal.

Rowen, Gaius... Thank you.

Erston.

Huh?

At the moment, I'm just a man about town, much like any other. Please, call me Erston.

His Highness is traveling incognito to get a sense of public opinion in Elympios.

Can you really do that? I mean, you are the King of Rieze Maxia.

King?! I've never gotten to see a real king before!



Gaius, man...I mean, Erston (which is his birth name. Gaius' real name is Erston Outway, which hardly seems intimidating, explaining his want of changing his name when he became King of Auj Oule (which is half of Rieze Maxia).

Anyway, this is the kind of guy who can intimidate a room just by walking into it, so we better play along with Bruce Wayne here.

My pleasure.

He can be as stubborn as a child, this one.

What was that, Rowen?

Nothing.

Hey, I just thought of something! Do you think that "demon" of the alleyways was Gai-- I mean, Erston here?

I mean, it could've been... But the scary Rowen looked like the glasses guy, too.

The "scary" me?

Well, you see...

Jude fills him in on what the hell just happened...

Interesting. It would seem you've gotten yourselves wrapped up in some sort of paranormal phenomenon. Your thoughts, Rowen?

Something's afoot.

Based on?

A hunch.

Good enough for me. Now get to the bottom of it.

As you wish. Would you be so kind as to allow me to accompany you henceforth?



Well, why not?

I'm Rowen Ilbert. A pleasure to make your acquaintances.

Jude.

I know. I can't let Exodus get me down. I'll perfect the spyrite tech and prove them wrong.

*nod*



Check it out, Elize! It's our bearded buddy from before!





What happened?

Aw, he got scratched.

It's a battle-scar. Chicks dig that kind of thing.

The old gang's back together.

Yeah...

Ludger gets another buzz on his cellphone...but it's not Nova this time!

Vera from Spirius Corporation here. A witness has spotted former director Kresnik. He's at Aladhi.

Aladhi Seahaven. It's a port in Rieze Maxia.

Other pursuit agents are on their way to the scene. You must hurry.

Still got bills to pay, huh?





Alright, so, there's a ton of skits that pop up after that last event: The Evil Chancellor?!, Everyone's Clothes (complimenting the beard of a specific man gets you affection points for them), Alvin's first affection skit, and Just What is Teepo, Anyway?. I love Elle's interactions with the Xillia 1 cast.



However, I suppose I must introduce Rowen now. Rowen J. Ilbert (I don't believe the J. is ever identified. Maybe it's Jay) used to be a general in Rashugal's army (Rashugal and Auj Oule were the two countries in Rieze Maxia during the first game), and a close friend to its King Nachtigal. However, events great and small conspired to pit general and king against each other, and Rowen ended his liege and friend's life at the end of Xillia 1's first story arc.

However, knowing all his connections and influence within Rashugal's nobility, King Gaius decided to make Rowen his Prime Minister after their conflict had ended, which Rowen all too happily accepted. Now Rowen is more or less the Lucius Fox to Gaius' Bruce Wayne. While the latter leads a life of celebrity and clandestine ass-kicking, and is the titular power, Rowen more or less handles the government's day-to-day business.



So, there's no new Elite Monster for us to kill, so we're gonna have to do this the hard way. The job board has the usual listing of random jobs ranging from the Alest Highroad to the Tatalian Abyss, but trust me, you're not gonna wanna get near the Abyss for now. The enemies there will eat your team alive. But, there are a couple special jobs, one from Nova, the other from Ludger's landlord, in Trigleph, so we're headed there next.

As it happens, I was sitting on 12,000 gald by the time I defeated Evil Rowen, and the payment to continue the story is 15,000, so the post-chapter stuff will be pretty short on my end. Enemies in Rusalle Highroad, where a lot of jobs are, should be within your skill level after Volt and Evil Rowen.



Oh hey, we do have a new character chapter to complete, so let's start Leia's story, why not?


An unusual errand

Oh, hey, Ludger. What's up? Got some juicy news you're just dying to share?

You'll have to forgive Leia. She's become a raging scoopaholic. I wouldn't be surprised if she mugged me just to get a story in the crime blotter.

Ugh, c'mon, stop it already.



Are you chasing down a hot tip? Reporter Leia Rolando would be happy to help!

Um, no.

Aw, come on! How else will I learn?



Uh... Chief?

I'm sure you're ready for a simple errand. Off with you now. Chop-chop.

Oh! Did you get a chance to look at that story I turned in yesterday?

D minus. The newspaper is not a diary for your rambling opinions. Next time, try having a point. What were you writing about, anyway? Unemployment? The environment? Corruption? Culture? You can't just write about whatever pops into your head. You need to--

I need to do what?

Figure it out for yourself. I'm going for a walk. See you later.

So that's Leia's boss...



Well, a hardass is a hardass, no matter how right they may be...

He's nice enough outside of work, but boy is he a tough editor. Any little flaw in your story and he'll tear it apart. But he's a world-class writer. When you read one of his pieces, it's like the whole story unfolds in your mind. I would kill to have half his skill.

So that's why you were trying to tag along with him?

The man works so quickly, I've never even seen how he does it. I thought this could be my chance. Well, guess I better get this to the station.

Why don't we tag along, shall we?

Thanks. Okay, let's get this done.



Poor Alvin... But I mean, man, emoticons are just how things are done these days. But I have sympathy.

Though, I mostly chose R1 for the sake of balance. Well, maybe halfway.





The creep

I'm from the Daily Trigleph.

Ah, yes. You have it, then? You that new girl they hired?

Yep, that's me!

Huh. And you're from Rieze Maxia, right? So you guys just borrow power from spirits whenever you need anything?

Well, yeah, I guess you could say that.

Like, if you get diarrhea or something, you'd need to pray to the spirits or perform rituals to get better?

From fighting kings and spirits to being asked about bathroom difficulties by a station cop... Such is the misfortune of Leia Rolando.

Um...

You don't have to worry about that here. Our health-care system is second to none. If you ever get the trots or anything, just let us know.



Sorry... That kinda shook me up.



Leia's whole chapter here is kinda weird because none of the choices matter...

Is what I would say, but it turns out that there's an optional scene coming up that the game *kinda* hints at, but is easy to screw yourself out of getting. More on that in a second... Incidentally, though, I'm going with L1 for this choice.

I don't think so, no, but that just makes it that much harder to deal with.

It sounds like stories of Rieze Maxian spirit worship get pretty mangled when they come over.

He was a creep.

If you let every Elympion misconception bug you, you'll grind your teeth down to the gums.

I know. I guess I just get irritable when I'm hungry.

You're hungry?

Let's just get this back to the chief. He said he was going for a walk. He's probably still somewhere around town.



Alright, so... To complete this chapter and proceed normally, just go talk to the chief again. However, if you want a bonus scene and chances to increase Leia's affection more, head to the local inn for some grub (it's next to Trigleph's port, which is the other exit from the market district.)

Trouble is, I had no idea that scene existed when I recorded this part of the game, and after saving over both save files I'm using for this LP, well... Oh well. I'm gonna guess it involves food and Leia cheering up. Aaaaanyway, the chief is very close to where we parted ways from him.


What it means to report

Hmm.

The chief starts to walk away like a jerk...

Researching something? I'll help!

Tell me something. Why do we do extensive research?

Uh... In order to write articles for the newspaper?

Okay then. And what do those newspaper articles require?

Umm... Well... Speed? Wait, no. Maybe... Accuracy?

The station agent you gave the documents to is kind of a creepy fellow, right? Say you were writing an article about him. You think all you'd need is speed and accuracy? If you don't know the answer, you might as well give up.



Going with L1 here, again.

You got me. That his idea of advice, or was he just being a jerk?

I wonder... It's weird to say this, but that was actually the longest conversation he's ever had with me about the job. It's gotta mean something. Anyway, he said I should give up trying to be a reporter if I didn't know the answer. Which means if I learn the answer. I can be a reporter!

That's one way to look at it.



But first, I owe you one Ludger. Whenever you need help with your gig, just lemme know! Thanks for everything today, guys!

Yep, our gig... That's what's going on.



Oh, and I also got Leia's first affection skit after that scene. Aside from choices, completing every character chapter increases a character's affection by a set amount. Of course, you can only take advantage of that five times per character, but regardless of your choices, you can end up with max affection for every character (thanks to Linked Artes. Very boring and slow way to do it, though), or through a late-game consumable, on your first playthrough.

Oh yeah, the item Leia gives you is the Gold Digger book, which gives you a 25% chance of doubling your gald at the end of a battle. Sounds good to me.



Other business in Trigleph includes catching a cat that's squatting in the middle of the 1st floor hallway (as no one else can remove it, you see.). Actually, this is one of three special cats in the game. Even if you carry over all cats from your previous playthrough, Malik is not among them, because he's a special case. So, you really only get 97 at the start of the game if you carry over cat stuff. Another special cat case is Catstantine the Third, who also is not carried over.

However, that is not the only special business we have in Ludger's building.



Up in Ludger's apartment, you can pick up this item for Nova's job report. She is currently in front of Spirius HQ.



Dammit, Spirius. What kind of man do you think Ludger is? And lest you think I'm being unfair, this is only thing you get from the second bonus payment.



Oh yeah, to finish the Malik job, you need to have a pretty boring chat with Ludger's landlord. Really not worth transcribing, trust me.

Instead, let's go chat with Nova.



Thanks so much! You really got me outta a jam. I got you a little something for your troubles... It's not much! Hehe, I bet you're surprised to see me with Aaron! To be honest, I wanted to throw a party for you with all our classmates to give you a little encouragement! And guess who's planning it! Aaron from Chemistry Club and yours truly! We had a meeting today, and we thought we'd take some time to celebrate while we're here.

Hang on, Nova! You didn't tell me this "classmate" of ours was Ludger!

Oh, come on! He deserves a little party, right? Plus, I really wanna hear that duet you guys used to sing!

Huh...so Ludger wasn't always a Silent Protagonist. Guess his dream of fighting Julius scared him into silence... Quite distressing.

Forget it, I'm outta here.

Hang on a minute! Things've been really hard for Ludger lately, and...well...

I know that! Everyone in our whole class knows that! His brother's a terrorist, and you've slapped him with a huge debt! He's bad news, and I don't want anything to do with him!

What...

But...

I used to trust you, Ludger... I don't know I could've been so naive...

Aw, Ludger! Wait, don't take it personal... You know how Aaron is! He always overreacts! Remember when he used to get in fights everyday? He'll cool down! He always does...

Mm hm...

Poor Ludger Well, we might as well turn everything in...



This call opens up Aladhi Seahaven, which happens to be our next destination. However, we have an important question to answer first...



Pants or skits? The ultimate question, but the correct answer is skirts.... I mean, are you kidding me?

Oh, and I guess this update ended just before the start of a big chapter. Good show...





Update 7 alternate scene compilation
Update 7 victory quotes