Part 12: Choral Castle (Part I)
Last time, we were getting ready to raid this lovely little location.
Choral Castle, at least in my opinion, is where Abyss finally takes the training wheels off and lets you just play the damn game. It's the first true “dungeon” that requires actual puzzle solving, we have a full party, and the enemies take a noticeable jump in difficulty. There's even an actual boss here that we fight without the help of a level 45 demigod.
: “Does it bring back any memories? Like from when you were kidnapped?”
: “You can't remember anything from your childhood, can you, Luke?”
: “Well... My memories really only start from the point I got back to the manor seven years ago.”
: “That's so sad... I'll help you get your memories back!”
: “...Something's not right. No one's lived here for ages, but there are signs of recent activity.”
: “Monsters... I can feel them.”
: “The chief engineer must be inside. Let's take a look.”Skit: Who Needs Memories?
: “Man, I still can't remember anything.”: “Oh well. Maybe something will come back to you while we're wandering around.”
: “It's not like it really matters anyway. I'm not missing anything.”: “Really? I'd have thought it would bother you more. I have to admit I'm impressed.”
: “Why? Things were probably just as boring for me when I was a kid.”
: “...Poor Princess Natalia.”
Hidden off of a side path is our first stat booster item. Sage permanently increases a party member's max HP by 10. There are a lot of others too that raise other stats, but honestly I usually forget about them for 10 hours, then peek in my inventory to find a dozen of them that I parse out all at once. They don't give enough of a boost to warrant that much worry.
Skit: Dream Plans
: “Wow... my future country home...”: “Did you say something?”: “Luke! This is your estate, right?”: “Yeah... well, it's my dad's, anyway. That's all I know about it.”: “Actually... I don't think this place has been used in ages. Close to a generation, is what I heard.”: “So why do they still bother to hold on to it?”: “I doubt it's even that... more like they abandoned it. Doesn't cost anything to maintain it that way.”
: “Great! Okay, this is going to be Anise's Private Resort!”: “Huh...? Why're you always talking to yourself all the time, anyway? Weirdo.”
: “Oh, no! My dream plans are in danger!”Fucking hell, Anise.
: “Luke, don't stray too far from the group.”: “I know, I know. Shut up already.”
: “Luke!”
: “Luke, behind you!”
: “Huh?”
Surprise Encounters are a new addition to Tales of the Abyss, and as far as I remember were removed from future games in the series. Basically what happens it that when a monster comes into contact with you from behind in a dungeon or on the map, your party gets scrambled around. May party configuration is Luke, Tear, Jade then Guy. Now it's Luke, Anise, Tear then Jade. It also randomly starts units in different positions on the battle field than they'd normally be as set up by your strategy menu settings.
Honestly, it sounds a lot more terrible than it is. Really surprise encounters are nothing more than a mild irritant because of the party dynamics in abyss. More on that when we get our last party member.
These golems are the main enemy we'll be encountering in Choral Castle, which is a shame because they're annoying as hell!
Once they've taken a decent pounding, the top of the statue jumps off its base and they become two enemies. Both enemies do pretty good damage and absolutely refuse to flinch at all. It's at this point in the game that I remember I'd bumped the difficulty up, because enemies in Choral Castle take a huge leap in terms of damage output, and suddenly Luke is almost dying all the time.
: “Because you were careless, our formation was broken, and we didn't have time to prepare for battle. I hope you learned your lesson.”
: “Shut up! How was I supposed to know that?! And what the hell was that thing, anyway?!”
: “It's a fontech doll designed to eliminate intruders. This is a relatively recent model, though it looks like it has seen better days.”
: “Ohh, Luke! I was so scared!!”: “With monsters like that around, you've got to pay attention.”
: “Okay, okay! I'll be careful! Jeez! Enough!”
At this point a ghost floats past with an ominous red eye. This is a 'hint' for the main puzzle of this area, but it's kind of obtuse.
To the north is this study.
: “It looks like it's been sealed with special fonons. I wonder if there's something important inside.”It's also purple. Again, a hint.
Luke also picks up Steel which gives him a temporary boost to his critical chance. Right now it's pretty lame, but there's a little trick we can work later to turn this into one of Luke's best moves.
Jade also takes a step towards unlocking his fon slots with the arte Stalagmite which, like in every other Tales game, is an earth basted arte that sends up spikes of rock for good consecutive damage.
At the end of this hallway is the red-eyed ghost.
However he has no desire to fight us, and just runs. Okay then.
So we work a little block pushing magic and...
Got ya, punk.
So if you didn't get the hint: the door is blocked by a purple orb, so we need to make our own purple orb. Whatever. We've got the first half.
The blue eye'd ghost also runs, but there's nothing to block him.
The trick is actually to shoot him with Mieu fire, which freezes him in place. This actually applies to most enemies you meet in dungeons, too.
Yoink.
Treasure round up, Chain Mail and Silk Robe are better armor for Luke/Guy and Jade, respectively. Also note the outline of the ghost in the above shot: There's a green eye'd ghost hanging around in this room, and he's the only one that tries to attack you. His green orb is good for nothing, and if he forces you into a fight he breaks one of the orbs you're holding and you get the useless green orb, which forces you to do the whole puzzle over again.
The door takes us to a strange underground cave that looks like it's been carved out of the cliff-side the castle's sitting on. Note the sea water coming in.
: “Is this...?”
: “Colonel, do you know what this machine is?”: “...No. I can't be sure.”
It's subtle, but Jade throws a look towards Luke for a split second.
: “And even if I were...”: “Wh-what? Has it got something to do with me?”: “...I can't be certain yet. Give me a little more time to think about it.”
: “I think this is the first time I've ever heard you sound nervous about something.”
A bat cries out.
: “Uh- I...”
: “I'm sorry. My body just reacted...”: “Sorry about that Anise. Are you all right?”: “Y-yeah.”
: “Did something happen? That didn't look like a mere aversion to females.”: “I'm sorry... I really don't know. I wasn't like this as a kid. But there's a part of my memory that's completely missing. The cause my lie there...”I swear to god, I'm going to start an amnesia counter gag at this rate.
: “Your memory is messed up too?”: “I don't think it's the same thing. I'm only missing the memory from a single moment.”: “How do you know it's just one moment?”: “I know. The only thing that's missing is the memory of when my family died.”: “Enough about me. I want to hear what's on your mind, Colonel...”: “Just as you'd rather not talk about your past, there are somethings I wish not to talk about as well.”
Hmm...
Skit: Guy's Feelings
: “So Guy's parents are dead...”: “You didn't know either?”: “Nope. I might've heard about it when I was a kid, but I can't remember anything from before I was kidnapped. And Guy doesn't talk about the past much, anyway.”
: “Well, like the Colonel said, everyone has things they don't want to talk about. You should probably let him be until he decides to bring it up.”
: “I don't need you tellin me how to deal with Guy! Stop lecturing me!”
Up ahead we briefly get a glimpse of Arietta and a Liger, but they quickly run off. Get back here!
Skit: The Mystery Machine
: *sigh*
: “Colonel, you've been thinking about something ever since we saw that fon machine...”
: “Hmm? It's not like you to pry, Anise.”
: “Well, you looked so serious.”
: “What are you talking about? I'm always serious.”: “Huh?!”: “Hah hah. Don't worry, I'll talk about it once I'm certain of what it is. Until then, let's leave the subject alone. Okay?”: “Okay.”You'll learn quickly that when Jade is unsettled, you should be unsettled too.
There's a healing save circle here, which pretty much screams that a boss is coming up.
The Shakujo it out on a balcony's chest. I must have missed a mace upgrade purchase, because this is giving a huge boost.
: “There's one!”: “Luke, let's follow it!”: “I'm going too!”: “Wait! Please don't hurt Arietta!”
: “My, my. There they go. Impetuous little things, aren't they?”: “They could really stand to use their heads a little.”
All right, that was cathartic.
: “Owww! Not funny, Arietta! That hurt!”
: “You hurt me first! You took Ion away from me!”: “Arietta. That's not true!”
: “It wasn't anything like that. The reason you were distanced from the Fon Master Guardians was-”
: “Honestly... if only he'd been a little more careful.”
: “Oh no!”
: “Dist is involved in this too? Oh brother.”
: “Oh... what are we going to do now?!”: “...Hm? Tear, did you say something?”
: “N-no. It's nothing. Let's hurry up and rescue Luke and the chief.”: “It's my fault... Ohh, I can't believe I let this happen! That stupid Arietta!”: “Now now, calm down. If they're going to this much trouble, I doubt they intend to take his life. And the one they really want, Ion, is still with us.”
: “That's not important. We have to erase the data before they come back.”
: “If the data here is that important, you shouldn't have had Asch use Choral Castle in the first place.”: “That idiot came here on his own. We'll have to have Van punish him later... oh, look. This idiot here is finally coming around.”: “No matter. I've already opened his synchronized fon slots.”
: “What the hell did you do to me?”: “I see no reason to answer that question.”
: “No!”
: “Guy! What is it?!”
: “Damn it, they're here!”
Anise and Tear run up to where Luke and Guy are, while Jade runs directly for the console Dist was sitting at a minute ago.
: “This was an unauthorized mission. It's too bad I can't kill you myself, but I'll leave it in Arietta's capable hands. She's on the roof with the hostage, hope you enjoyed our little game.”
: “What is it, Guy?”
: “Let's have Jade look into it later.”
: “Are you okay, Luke? What in the world did they want to kidnap you for...?”: “How should I know?! Why the hell does this stuff always happen to me?!”: “It's Arietta's fault! She's going to pay!”
Pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter nicely.
Skit: What are the Six God-Generals After?
: “What are the Oracle Knights up to, anyway? There was talk about them starting a war, but...”: “The Oracle Knights aren't trying to start a war!”: “No... it seems more like the Six God-Generals are moving independently under someone else's orders. Perhaps Arietta can tell us more.”: “I doubt Gloomietta knows anything. She doesn't strike me as a secret-orders kind of person anyway.”: “Well, she did say she was following Asch's instructions back in Kaitzur.”: “Asch... you mean Asch the Bloody, of the Six God-Generals? ...Ah well, it's not like we'll figure this out ourselves.”: “Yeah, and besides, if we can just get Ion and the Colonel to Baticul before the war can break out, they won't be able to do anything anyway.”: “Yeah.”
Take two.
: “Heh heh! I'm not falling for that again!”: “Luke, you're amazing!” : “Not bad, for you.”: “Oh give it a rest!”: “You shot fire... at my friend! I'm really going to make you pay now!”: “Shut up already! You've caused enough trouble, you little brat!”: “I don't care! I'm going to kill you all and take back Ion! You killed Mommy! Now, you die!”
: "Come on, Gloomietta! Cut this out!": "No! You cut it out, Anise! Hand over Ion!": "Ion would never approve of someone who went against him.": "Aaaaaaaaah! Shut up, shut up, shut up!": "Geez! You shut up!": "I really don't wanna do this.": "Don't let her get to you.": "She might look like a child but don't discount her ability to use monsters.": "I hate you all! Go away!": "You're the one who should shut up and withdraw already.": "Hmph! Perhaps we should have killed her.": "Damn you're a pain!": "I've had enough of you! Die!"So: our first boss battle. And boy is it a bit of a doozy. Arietta is a squishy spellcaster, but she's accompanied by two friends. Her liger hits like a truck and her bird likes to run to the back row and pick on your spell casters.
Anise also loves to spam Barrier, which sends her physical defense through the roof and makes her immune to staggering.
In an ideal world, you'd want Tear and Jade to focus on Arietta while Luke and Guy lock down the two monsters, but the problem is that Arietta is a problem. Not only does she love to throw offensive artes around, but she can also heal her monsters. So Arietta has to go down first, while all the while her monsters wail on you.
Arietta also has Negative Gate a high level dark arte that Anise won't get until the late game. It fucking hurts.
She goes down, however, and after that the battle is just mopping up.
And there we go.
Over Limit is a skill that all the bosses can use, and all of your party members can learn it too. While in over limit you are completely immune to staggering, take less damage, and can use mystic artes. We haven't learned those just yet.
: “I knew letting her live would come back to haunt us.”
: “So please, don't take her life...”
: “Yes, that would be best.”
: “There was no word of the Fon Master's arrival in Kaitzur, so I came here just in case.”: “I'm sorry, Van...”: “There's no point in dwelling on what's already been done. I'll take Arietta into my custody. Is that all right with you?”: “Yes, please do. And please, treat her wounds.”: “How do you plan to explain her crimes to His Majesty and the military?”: “We will follow proper Order procedure: punish her, then issue a report. That's how lawful society operates.”...Is it just me, or did Ion of all people get an
in?: “I have soldiers and a coach from Count Almandine, the Kaitzur commander. I'll escort the maintenance chief as well. What will you do Ion? I'd prefer you to come with me but...”: “It seems some of us are interested in this castle but...”
Taking the coach would save us the walk back to Kaitzur, and it would also be more in character since Luke would never turn down a chance to be with his precious master. However there's something we want here, so no.
: “I want to walk back. Once we get on the ship, we'll be back in Baticul in no time anyway, right?”: “Well, the route does have us stopping in Chesedonia along the way.”: “It sounds like we'd prefer to walk, so we'll catch up with you later.”: “Understood. Please take care.”
The 'recommended' level for this side-quest is 15, so I think we're in the ballpark. Walking back through the castle nothing seems strange, until-
: ”Have you the power I desire...? The strength to free me?”
: ”If you do, then turn that strength upon me.”
At last we see our mysterious opponent, Sword Dancer. This guy is another Tales tradition. As per usual Sword Dancer is a recurring optional-boss. He's much stronger than other bosses in the area, and he's always hiding in an obscure location that you have to go searching for. Also like Abyss's other side-quests, Sword Dancer is very missable. You don't have to kill him now, exactly, but the only other chance you get before the quest expires most players would never think to come back to Choral Castle.
Jade picks up Splash which is functionally identical to Stalagmite except that it goes down instead of comes up, and is water element.
Sword Dancer is interesting: he's very slow and easy to free run around, and he's not that hard to stagger. The problem is that he has very fast reaction time and almost no cool down, so the moment he has an opening he'll hit you with a deadly combo that will probably drop Guy and leave Luke on very low health. I really should have brought Anise, since she's the only party member at the moment who can use this guy's weakness: Light.
He also loves to go into over limit all the time and spam Storm, where he spins like a top and hits everybody around him a solid four times.
Despite this, he falls pretty easily and I only have to spend two life bottles. Sword Dancer's real problem is that he moves so slowly that he never even comes within spitting range of your casters unless you let him. If you want to know more about the fight, just watch the video. I'm bad at doing play-by-play screenshots of boss battles.
Ahaha, oh wow. I forgot about this.
So the thing is: the devs did not expect you to beat Sword Dancer this early in the game. As a result, his experience award is very high, and that's before multipliers. If you're playing on 2x Experience or, dear god, 10x Experience, your party skyrockets in level from this one fight.
Case in point: everybody has gone up by six levels from one fight. Nice.
Skit: Was that?
: “What was that, exactly?”: “It sure was a lot stronger than the other monsters around here.”: “It's fonons felt odd... different from other monsters.”: “Different...? You don't mean... a ghost or something?”: “A ghost? No, it didn't look ectoplasmic or anything.”: “No, not like a 'normal monster' ghost! Like a 'roaming spirit of the dead' ghost.”: “Hah hah hah! Oh, that kind of ghost. You can't actually believe they exist? Besides, we got rid of it already.”: “I certainly hope we did...”: “D-don't say things like that!That was really the only thing we decided to walk for so...
Next Time: We 'finally' get on the damn boat, I promise this time!
Synopsis:
Or maybe not. Even after we reached Choral Castle, nothing came back to
me. Oh well, that's not important now anyway--we have to go find that
maintenance chief. Let's head inside and look for him.
We found a lock on a door that couldn't have belonged to Father, and on
the other side was a room with a strange machine in it. We were looking
around trying to figure out what it was, when Anise was startled by a mouse
and jumped onto Guy's back. All of a sudden Guy let out a terrible scream and
threw Anise off.
That really took me by surprise. I knew Guy wasn't good with girls, but
I've never seen him so scared like that. He said he lost his family when he
was young, and there was probably something that happened then that made him
afraid of women. I never knew Guy had a past like that... I only ever saw him
in the manor.
Jade was acting weird, too. He looked like he recognized the machine, but
he wouldn't tell us anything about it. We ended up just leaving it behind and
heading on to find the maintenance chief.
We eventually found out that Arietta was on the roof.
But as soon as we reached the roof, one of Arietta's monsters came and
grabbed me. I blacked out, but I thought I heard something about opening my
synchronized fon slots or something... (What the heck are "synchronized fon
slots"?) When I came to, I was lying on that machine we saw earlier. Sync,
one of the Six God-Generals, was there too, but when I was about to ask him
what was up, everybody came back and found me, and Sync fled the scene.
As Sync was leaving, he dropped a fon disc. Guy picked it up and said we
should try and find somewhere to analyze it. I thought I saw Sync's mask fall
off too, but I couldn't see his face. I wonder if Guy did? Not that I
actually care what he looks like.
Anyway, the maintenance chief is on the roof, so we'll have to go back
through all that again to rescue him. What a pain.
Arietta was waiting for us on the roof again, but I wasn't about to fall
for a stupid trick like that twice. We dodged the monsters' attacks and
knocked Arietta out. Jade was about to kill her again, but Ion said he'd take
her back and have her stand before an inquiry.
Then, Master Van arrived, and he agreed with Ion.
Apparently Master Van found out that we hadn't arrived in Kaitzur, so he
came to meet us here. I guess we ended up causing him trouble after all.
We handed Arietta over to Master Van and started back for the Kaitzur
military port.