Tales of Xillia 2 Part #19 - The Girl Who Fears

Part 19: The Girl Who Fears

Part XIX: The Girl Who Fears

Just screenshotting for posterity. I got a Full House on this here hand, and I managed to get all the double-or-nothing's right. It was pretty rad. Though, apparently I squandered all my luck on that, because I spent the next 25 minutes or so not making a single chip.

But I finally did it: I crossed 1,000,000 chips. Sadly, though, I didn't get the skit I thought resulted from getting over a million chips. I *think* it's 2 mil (won, not all at once, I believe), but I know one is there. It shall come.

Nova on the ropes

But Nova needs our help, doesn't she?

Thank goodness you're here.

Ludger does a , which I guess means something to Nova.

Honestly? I'm having a bad day. I had to freeze the accounts of one of my clients, and he did not appreciate that one bit, lemme tell ya! He gave me this death-glare! It really freaked me out!

Well, I just can't bring myself to be mean to Nova, so we'll kindly remind her what her job is. But I ain't happy about it. Incidentally, I like how you have to be mean to Nova to progress in this game. The long arc of the universe bends not towards justice, but towards making Nova's life a little harder. Not to say she'll always taking it lying down, you understand.

Give me a break! They don't pay me enough to deal with stuff like death-glares! If your boss told you to sprout wings and fly, wouldn't you tell him to shove it?

Can't say she's wrong. Having a boss sucks.

Is there something amiss?

I think...maybe... I've been here with my daddy before.

Perhaps your home is somewhere nearby?

I dunno...

Do you remember anything memorable near your house? Any landmarks?

Maybe some super rare flowers, that kinda thing?

Well...right in front of my house, there's this gigantic pond! Daddy would catch fish from it and cook 'em up for supper! I like grilled salmon the best. That's my favorite!

Sounds like good eatin' to me.

But a pond wouldn't have salmon. Not naturally. Are you sure it's not a lake?

I'm trying to remember... Are there any lakes like that left in Elympios?

Um, Lake Epsilla used to be nearby, but the last of its water dried up decades ago.

Someone's got a bad memory.

Oh...

There's no reason to give her grief about it.

Maybe it's nothing, but I just remembered they found some really old ruins at the bottom of that lake. They were built by some mysterious civilization that didn't use spyrix. It was the find of the century.

That's intriguing! What else do you know about these ruins?

Zilch... I guess they collapsed before the archaeologists could do their thing.

That's unfortunate...

A phone call from Vera... Can't believe we've gone a couple updates without that.

DODA here. We have detected a fractured dimension with a high likelihood of a Waymarker. Please investigate.

I know that voice... Hey, Vera! How's it hanging?

Nova?! Why are you there?!

Just asking Ludger and company for a favor. So, uh...what's a fractured dimension?

It's Division business. Never you mind.

Aw, how come you're always such a spoilsport? And you wonder why those blind dates never call ya back.

Wh-What are you talking about?! My signal's breaking up-- Gotta go!

Let someone on the B-team handle Nova's problem. Like Elize.

I'm on the B-team?!

B better stand for Best!

Come on! This fractured dimension stuff can't be that important!

Why don't you help her out, Jude? She seems like she's in way over her head with this.

Yeah. The B-team can handle the fractured dimension just fine.

If B is for best, I'm in!

Fine. Her customer does sound like a pretty tough...customer.

Any thug who threatens a young woman deserves a taste of his own scare tactics, at the absolute least.

"Revenge served cold", and all that jazz? Count me in.

Thanks guys! You're the best!

Is everyone in the prime dimension this stupid?

Milla, do you mind helping out Ludger for us?

So, from this chapter on, the plot's really going to kick into high gear. This chapter alone is gonna get pretty heavy, and it's only going to get more interesting from here.

Oh, and Nova's feeling better, I guess, because instantly after that scene, she shook me down for 100,000 gald (I had 158k going into this chapter, so it's understandable). But that's just for bonus stuff back in Trigleph, which...we'll get around to.

Oh, and there's also a skit after this scene. L1 increases Elize's affection, R1 upps Elle's.

Now, you may have been asking in the above scene, "Why couldn't Muzet and / or Gaius help out the A or B for Best team?". The answer is that Muzet will be Muzet, and Gaius is not a man to shirk his obligations. We'll just have to manage.

Here in the fractured dimension, it's apparent there IS a Lake Epsilla here. If Elle recognizes Drellin, and she lived near a lake...

Well, we might have finally stumbled on the lands Elle hails from. But Elle definitely can't remember the lake if it dried up decades before the events of this game. So that means...

It means we have Mystic Artes to demonstrate. Mystic Artes can only be initiated during Over Limit, and only during a Linked. As long as a Linked Arte's animation is playing, just hold X, and the character you are controlling will launch their Mystic Arte. If you want to activate your partner's Mystic Arte instead, just make sure they have the Special skill activated, hold L1 + X, and you'll launch your partner's (truth be told, though, I've never gotten this to work).

Ludger's Mystic is Ritual of Destruction, where he hits the target with his hammer, swords, and launches a barrage of bullets to do a ton of damage against an enemy. Again, if one enemy is really close to another, Ritual will hit both of them, or as many enemies are close to the one you're targeting.

Oooh, a Gold Bacura. Your best bet for quickly getting these guys is just grind them down with regular (non-elemental) sword hits, while your allies slowly, slowly, chip away at it.

Level 2 Chromatus will also rip these guys apart, especially by spamming Dark Projection (up + circle over and over). This is especially good because it keeps you airborne (slowing the timer 50%), and if you have Trance equipped, if you defeat a Bacura using a different transformation level than when you last used it to transform, you earn a 2x more elemental orbs.

With how many Elemental Orbs I got, well...

And that's just part 2 of what Leia alone got. Everyone in the party made out like bandits.

For a little skill advice, get and activate HP / TP Surge 1 / 2 as soon as you can. HP / TP Surge 1 gives you +30% recovery whenever a character is revived from KO, instead of the standard 15%. Surge 2 gives you 100% recovery. These skills are going to be incredibly useful when you start getting to the really tough enemies who can very quickly take down your dudes.

When you start getting close to the ruins, it starts raining. Well, this IS a fractured dimension, after all. Oh yeah, and I ran into another Gold Bacura on my way. You probably get the picture by now, eh?

Aw, another location completed, and in each area, you get a cute gold pawprint to mark your victory. Now a whole hell of a lot more to go.

Also, I'm starting to feel it's belaboring the point to mention cats from Kitty Dispatch. I figure by now all you smart folks have gotten the point. I'll only mention cats that are out in the field.

The sound of thunder

Wow...hard to imagine this was all a lake once.

More blighted nature, courtesy of spyrix.

That's why Jude's trying to create spyrites in the first place. To keep things like this from happening again.

That'll be the day.

You act like this doesn't affect you... How do you think Milla felt when she--

How should I know, huh? I'm not your Milla.

Jude will succeed and save us. Milla sacrificed herself to give us this extra time. There's no way Jude will let us down.

Something's glowing!

Maybe it's those ruins Nova was talking about.

If they haven't collapsed in this dimension, there's a good chance we'll find the divergence catalyst in them.

Let's go!

*crash of lightning*

Afraid of thunder, huh?

What?! Me, afraid of a little thunder?! C'mon. I thought... I saw something on the ground right at that moment and--

There's no reason to be ashamed.

No! You don't get it. When I... When I hear thunder, I... I think about what happened to daddy.

*thunder crash*

Please, just make it stop!

Man...this thunder's pretty intense, huh!

Let's focus on getting to the ruins.

Milla Maxwell. The other one sure has some good friends...

Well, the whole thing with Alt Milla is one of Xillia 2's more interesting plot devices, and it's worth asking her what she thinks about the entire matter. I mean, imagine if you were stuck in a situation like what Alt Milla's going through right now. It might be worth knowing what kind of person the people around you think you should be. L1 raises her affection, because Milla takes this stuff seriously.

I suppose I do... Who knows where she is, but if I got the chance, I would.

This is the first skill I got in Leia's "Item Master" category (a category I made up). Basically, Leia will be your Item Queen when she has all her skills and artes. She can throw them out without having to stand in place for a bit when one is used, she can potentially get back any consumable item she uses, she can have a single-target item applied to the entire party (the power is reduced, however), and, of course, she can steal. It's a very valuable service, I'll have you know.

Well then, the entrance to the ruins is the passage that was blocked by fallen boulders in the prime dimension.

Eeesh, I hope these "ruins" aren't just a series of musty tunnels...

Lost ruins

I...take that back...

Get a load of this place!

Nova wasn't kidding. No sign of spirit artes or spyrix here...

I think it's still alive!

Careful! The security systems might still be online.

It's better than standing out in the thunderstorm and wetting ourselves...

Just so we're clear, I'm not some 'fraidy cat, y'know.

Surprisingly, neither choice matters, but Elle's a brave girl.

And don't you forget it... Okay?

She's pushing herself too hard.

If she needs to cry, she should just let herself. She's just a scared little eight-year-old who's been away from her father far too long.

I was only six when I destroyed the Exodus organization.

You're a special case.

When Elize was eight, crying was all she ever did... Poor Teepo was always sopping wet with tears...

Yeah. I don't see him, either!

Was Rollo with us when we entered the lift? I honestly can't remember.

Um...that's a good question. He was, wasn't he...? We can't have lost Rollo. Such a notion is patently absurd.

All right, Ludger... if you say so.

If he's that sure, then Rollo must be around here somewhere, right?

Okay, guys... We'd better look for the kitty.

Rollo!

Who said that?!

You may refer to me as Odin. I am the system that oversees Thor...the Ark of Time.

Ark of Time...

It's one of the Waymarkers.

Yes, indeed I am.

You're a Waymarker that knows you're a Waymarker?

I know far more than that. I know about you, as well. All your weaknesses, to be exact. I warn you, leave while you can. Unless you wish to face your demise.

Are we heading further in?

This Odin fella sounds like he means business!

There's only one way to find out. Let's go say hello.

That just now? That's the Milla I know.

You're right.

Just after the above scene, a pretty nice skit. R1 increases both Elize and Elle's affections, but...

You want to hear about the dungeon, right? Well, the thing with this dungeon is it's probably the most elaborate (and large) dungeon in the entire game. The primary goal here is to recover three batteries, restore them to the appropriate elevators, and take the final one to where Odin is. There's all kinds of cool "future-y" effects, like the doors becoming wireframes when you get close to them, or the chests being white cubes that also become wireframes when you get close.

And of course, seeing through walls when you get close. While the overall goal of the dungeon is fairly simple, you're going to have to cover a lot of ground, AND there are missable weapons here. One of them, for Milla in particular, is one you are really gonna want to pick up.

That's not to say there aren't a lot of valuable treasures here (this room has all four primary elemental rings in chests), but just those 4 items you can't get elsewhere.

These are the all-important elevators. But, of course, there's no power. So let's find us a battery...

These mooks, hanging out by themselves in certain rooms, are the foes you need to bring down to get those batteries.

Strong, however, does not necessarily mean "invincible against". Aside from some powerful-ish attack and a lot of health to chip away at, another encounter that's barely worth mentioning. Once you receive your Energy Unit from this fight, simply return to the elevator and choose the only option available, 2nd East gate.

Welcome to the above-mentioned. Odin's still trying to scare us, but we aren't gonna listen to him, right? The thing with this dungeon is the elevators will take you to one of three different parts of the dungeon (Blue, Yellow, and Red), but there are a number of cavernous passages leading from one area to the next. Because of blocked off or destroyed walkways, you'll frequently need to do this in order to get where you need to go. The areas themselves are highly symmetrical, so if you find a chest or chests in one half of a room, good chance there's something on the other side. Not always true, of course, but more often than not. Luckily, you can always check if there is something on the other side by just getting close the wall.

Yeah, see, that's gonna be a problem...

The screenshot in the Yellow area had a link to the Underground Cavity. Following that to the end will lead you to the third and final major area.

In here has the next monster you need to defeat for an Energy Unit. One to go.

You know where we're going next. See you on the other side.

This is the southern-west most room in the Red area. Inside is the final Energy Unit enemy. Now, you could go on to finish the dungeon by activating all the elevators (in the Red and Yellow areas), but we don't want to miss out on those weapons.

Problem is...where are they? Well, we're coming from Red, Yellow is on the left, and Blue is at the bottom. The only place we haven't acquired any chests from is the top half of Blue. Trouble is, there's no elevator that goes to that side of Blue, and, obviously the walkway is broken.

But, you may notice a little yellow indentation in Blue's top right. Obviously, that's how we're getting there. Trouble is...there's no obvious place where it connects. Well, in matters such as this, makes the most sense to get as close as we can to it, and look for something we missed. Guess we'll head back to that T-intersection and see if we can find something.

Ah-ha, there we go. Very sneaky, Namco.

At long last, here we are. From top left to bottom right (going in a Z-pattern), we have Ludger's Sage Knives, Milla's Dual Edge, Elize's Fortune Rod, and Leia's Hanuman Shaft. All are considerable upgrades to whatever your dudes currently have, and have some neat passive benefits, like the Rod reducing Elize's casting time, or the Edge increasing Milla's Over Limit build rate from attacking.

Actually, the Shaft has quite a history in the Tales series, going back to, I think, Eternia. I know for a fact it was in as early as Symphonia, though. Anyway, getting those weapons is really the last thing we need to do before finishing the dungeon.

Full map of the dungeon. We've covered a lot of ground. Once you've acquired all three batteries and are ready to head to where Odin is, head to the elevator in Yellow that has a save point next to it. This elevator, and this elevator alone, will lead you to 1st Main gate, which is obviously where you need to go.

But before we go get our Waymarker, we have cats to reassign. Note the Meow Blasters. These are special (though rather weak) firearms for Ludger. Their gimmick (aside from being cat-themed, of course), is that if Ludger defeats an enemy with them, the item drop rate is significantly increased. Not usually worth the effort, especially on Hard, and made rather redundant by the presence of my 2x drop rate carried over from the Grade Shop.

'course, if you are playing this from a new game, they might be right up your alley for a while. Your call. Every character gets one of these kinds of weapons.

And here we are... Jeez, someone's sprung for some nice interior decorating...

The ruin depths

As I feared, you refused to heed my warnings.

What is this place?

It is all that remains of a civilization that collapsed 95,212 years ago by your reckoning. The sole survivors converted their corporeal forms into lifeform data and sealed themselves away. It was their hope that someone in the far future would find and resurrect them.

And this is where they've sealed themselves. It truly is an Ark of Time in every sense.

The lifeform data of 427,086 people, along with the collected works of their civilization, are stored here.

Almost half a million?

Indeed. Lives that have been long lost in other dimensions. This is their last hope. Would you be kind enough to hear the messages they prepared for their saviors in the future?

Well, I mean...if you insist. See, the thing is, we don't really have a choice what has to happen next. Unless Odin's got some bright idea how we get out of here without getting the Waymarker. And that IS why we're here, right?

Well, while we mull that over, let's see what these records have to say. I'm starting in the top right and moving clockwise, finishing off with the one in the center. Oh, and if you talk to Odin, he mentions these ruins are called "Thor". Thor was one of the dungeons in Phantasia, actually. The last of the second act of the game, where you had to return to the present to face Dhaos, picking up where the party left off in the first act.

When it comes to Odin here, indeed there was a boss by that name in Phantasia, but he was a bonus boss, but remarkably, looked kinda similar to this guy. He had a robot-like appearance, carried a spear, and a shield. However, he was mostly grey in color. Phantasia kinda had a thing for Norse mythology references.

Being turned into data sounds really scary, but... Mommy and Daddy will be with me too, so I'll be brave. They said if I can be strong now, then I'll get to play outside again one day!

To you who have discovered this data, please hear our plea! I beg of you, you must find a way to give our children back their future...

The arrogance of humanity has led us to our own destruction. It is this truth that I want to pass on to you, people of the future, so that you can avoid repeating our mistakes.

These hold our poetry, our music, our art... Everything we've managed to preserve of our culture. They're the proof that we lived, and loved, and suffered. Please take good care of them.

Greetings, friends from the distant future! I'm looking forward to the day we can meet for real. And the day we can start living together in harmony.

Ah jeez We're not doing this because we want to, y'know...

That is but a small sampling of the data stored within this Ark. My purpose and only wish, is for the hopes and dreams of this civilization to endure. Scion of Kresnik, I beseech you most humbly. Do not extinguish our final hope.

A world forever lost

Not for nothing, I sympathize. But a course once set upon, must be seen through to the end. We're not doing this because it's our job. The fate of the prime dimension hangs in the balance here.

Too late for second thoughts. It's the only way back to your prime dimension.

You need not worry. I will render you into a digital format and place you under my stewardship.

Digital format?

It means he'll lock us up in here. For the rest of time, probably.

Thanks, but no thanks!

Well, you heard the lady.

I wished to avoid damaging you, but it seems as though it cannot be helped.

You're pretty confident.

I only know because you told me, or rather, a version of you from another world.

Fractured versions of us?!

Just as you have, they condemned this as a false world, and then tried to destroy it.

So, agents from fractured dimensions are going around destroying other ones?! All the while, thinking that they're from the prime dimension.

This is really, really turning into a mess. It doesn't seem like Ludger and pals can do anything resembling keeping a lid on this problem.

The us you met before... What happened to them?

They were defeated and digitized. Like this!

Elle!

The pain is temporary. It will end as soon as your consciousness is digitized and your body disassembled.

No way...

What?!

*angry yell, draws swords*

You adhere to the same pattern as before.

In spite of his formidable countenance, and large stature, Odin's a pretty simple boss. He's pretty slow, without a particular wide range of attacks. Among this attacks are Radiant Cage, which throws up a bunch of light-elemental energy pillars around him, a quick stab with his spear, multiple thrusts with his spear, and a short-range flamethrower that sweeps in a short arc. Among other weaknesses, he's really slow, and is obviously a big target. As far as vulnerabilities, he's weak to Light, but you really should have Power Charge 3 by this point in the game.

If I may make another Tales reference, I have to say I find it amusing this Odin is weak to Light, whereas Phantasia's Odin absorbed Light. I want to say that's just a coincidence, but you never know.

Once he starts hurting, he'll add a few more attacks. This one throws up a fairly damaging wide AoE attack, that I believe is Light-elemental. But, at the cost of using so much of his power at once, apparently, he'll stun himself.

Around the same time, he'll cast Null Field on himself, which automatically increases his resistance to all attacks, and, obviously, gets rid of his Light weakness. The name of the game remains the same, however.

He really does start changing things up quite a bit. Crimson Dusk here involves a short charge up, but will rain semi-powerful meteors down from the sky.

But of course, you can't have a thunder god without a lightning attack, Spark Cascade. With the exception of Thunder Fang and the flamethrower, most of his attacks take a good couple seconds to actually come out, giving you opportunity to run away.