Part 57: Episode 56: Sweet Child of Mine

With that bug properly stomped we are now free to get into the Moon That Never Sets without further delay. Just ahead we can see the whole thing looming above. Be prepared for pretty much peak weirdness in just about all upcoming updates.


Dart: "Moon That Never Sets.... It is spreading poison all over the world."

Rose: "In order to stop the poison, we have to reach the core of the Moon before it is too late."

Albert: "Unless Shana and the 'core', as Rose says, are wedded, the God of Destruction won't be born. Right? It is a dilemma for us because we want to take Shana back. If we don't meet Shana, and if we can destroy only the core of the moon, the world will be saved."

Of all people Albert sideways talks about the possibility of having to murder the shit out of Shana to save the world.

Miranda: "But, Zieg is here for sure. With Shana."

Haschel: "That is the only chance to save her."

Meru: "We will save both the world and Shana."


Dart: "We won't let Soa decide the fate of the world! That goes for Shana's fate as well!! We will decide our own fate!!"

Dart’s theme starts rocking out so you know we are serious and going to finally wreck faces! Once we are free to move there is another of those lifeforce channels to pull us into the Moon.


Rose: "Yes. It has been long. Very.... Let's get going."

This is kind of weird. Because as far as I know Rose has never been here? So it’s not like its been a long time since she visited. The Winglies had sealed the Virage Embryo before the Dragon Campaign kicked off, so I got nothin’.


Dart: "The moon is shaking!?”


Dart: “Dont tell me...the God of Destruction is about to be born!?"


A series of pulses start going off and after each one a little more...something appears at the terminus of all those weird tendrils. Whatever is happening, it can’t be good. To add to the fun the whole time there is a deep, throbbing heartbeat that keeps us company for a good chunk of the rest of the game.

Rose: "It cannot be...! The birth of the God of Destruction is our death!"


Dart: "That's right! We are still alive!


Dart: “Let's go! Must stop my father! Wow!?"


I guess its time to go deeper into the moon and into a...what the hell?

Dart: "Is this a forest?"

Albert: "I thought we stepped into the moon."

Haschel: "But, indeed this tree is a true tree."

Miranda: "Oh no, we were sent to the ground!?"

Rose: "No. Listen. It's the heartbeat of the Virage Embryo, the God of Destruction. An empty body that is the living corpse from which the soul was taken out by ancient Winglies on the day it was conceived in the Divine Tree.... We must be in the moon."

Dart: "Then no matter what it looks like, we gotta keep going!"

Yeeeah. Reality is kind of what you make of it on the Moon. And you’ll never quite make anything normal.


And about thirty feet to our right it suddenly goes from sun dappled plain to a dark forest.


Miranda: "I know this place."

Dart: "Does it look like the forest of your home?"

Miranda: "Not only that.... It is the forest of Mille Seseau where I grew up. I'll be back soon. Sorry, but wait for me here. There is something I have to check...alone."

Dart: "Miranda!?"

And then in a great leap of common sense and wisdom Miranda dashes off on her own in the body of a god, while we are all about to die. It’s ok though, everyone else does it too.


Miranda: "This rose is...."


Flashback time!

Miranda's Mother: "Go home Miranda!"

Man: "Huh? You have a kid!?"

That would totally ruin the mood for me too if I was picking up a lady in the forest

Miranda's Mother: "Um, yeah."


Man: "What are you gonna do?"

Miranda's Mother: "Because I married that man my life has been completely ruined. He hardly works, and drinks all the time with the money I earned! I don't even have enough food and am starving everyday! I cannot stand it anymore!!"

Man: "..."

Mysterious man suddenly realizes he’s dealing with a woman with some serious emotional baggage and questions his wisdom.


Miranda's Mother: "Yes, I can say farewell to this miserable life! Now, let's go!"


Well, that certainly goes a long way in explaining why Miranda is loaded down with issues. Nothing like your mom leaving you for a random guy to whatever your nearly worthless dad can provide!


Back in what I’ll loosely call the present in the real world the rose in front of Miranda starts sparkling.

Miranda: "Wh, what!?"


And we have a fight with Miranda’s mot--WHAT THE CHRIST.

Meet the Death Rose! This fight is a lot like the first half of the Lavitz/Zackwell fight. It’s really not important how much damage you do. Wait long enough and some conversations will pop up that let you get through it. Because I’m psychic and/or have played this before I knew this was coming and gave Miranda the Dragon Shield to halve all damage so I had no worries.


Death Rose’s only attack is a forward charge into Miranda. She takes a shattering 54 damage.


Because I can, I slam it with a Psychadelic Bomb. This immediately drops Death Rose into the red and I think makes her scripting a bit wonky. Miranda arrows it and it’s theoretically in negative HP before she starts talking.


This is not exactly how I’d want a reunion with my estranged mother to go. But that’s just me.


Miranda's Mother: "Ah, Miranda. I had no choice...."

Miranda: "Shut up! Dad fell ill and I became an orphan. You can never imagine how I have lived since then!"

Miranda's Mother: "...Ahhh.... It hurts.”


Miranda resumes her arrowing until dear old mum wants to talk again.


Miranda’s Mother: “But, I want you to understand."

Miranda: "What do you want me to understand!!"

Miranda's Mother: "I worked because I didn't want you, a newborn baby, to starve. But he didn't even try to work."


Miranda: "My father may not have been a respected man. But at least he was with me all the time, unlike you!!"

Miranda's Mother: "...Ahhh... It hurts.”


And as a random note, you can’t actually use your Dragoon form in this fight or any of the similar upcoming ones because ???


Miranda’s Mother: “you, even for a moment."


Miranda's Mother: "It's not a lie. I visited him so many times to take you with me. But every time, he just kicked me out."

Miranda: "What...? My mother was thinking about me."

Miranda's Mother: "You have the same name as the goddess of Mille. She is pure and loved by everybody. I named you that because it was my wish for you. ...Ahhh.... It hurts.”

And we still aren’t quite done yet. For those keeping track at home I think Death Rose is now at about -1000 HP.


We can of course be a dick but it doesn’t get us anywhere other than standing around for her mom wanting to talk to us again.

Miranda: “No! I cannot forgive you!”

Miranda’s Mother: "Ah, Miranda. It's painful. As long as you hate me, I can't return to normal."

So we’ll go with the real way.

Miranda: “I’ll forgive you!”

Miranda’s Mother: "Oh, you can forgive me? Thank you, Miranda."


And then Death Rose vanishes in a golden glow.


It really looks like Miranda is giving the finger in her victory pose.

So...uh...that was certainly a thing. On one hand Miranda has learned to live with her past and be cool with her mom. So that’s good. Which is kind of an odd thing for the God of Destruction to do for us. But probably did just waste a lot of time while it marched towards getting born.


Miranda: "I entered the palace in order to preach love, and to build a world where everybody can live happily, but my heart was filled with sorrow and hatred. And without knowing, I was absorbed in fighting in order to ease my loneliness. I didn't even try to understand my mother's pain and agony, just accumulate hatred, and hurt many people. I don't deserve to be a Sacred Sister."

She probably doesn’t from that angle. But she also seems to be by far the most competent of that group. Maybe the blind one could compete.


Meru: "Are you really okay!? Your eyes are kind of watery."

Miranda: "Sorry. Please leave me alone now. Let's go. That's the only thing we can do now."


I’m just posting this because the game is a god damn jerk and after every one of these scenes it tries to shove Haschel into my party though he clearly wasn’t the vote winner Also you can check on everyone’s levels. Poor Albert has been basically unused and is not yet a level 5 Dragoon.


Further into the forest we go through a portal into an area that looks more like the area we came in on. FAR more in keeping with the end of the world final dungeon!

Dart: “We gotta go forward anyway.”

That we do! So into another portal on the other end.


...and into an Inn filled with people. Sure. Why not.

Dart: "What's going on? Why are people living in the moon?"

Rose: "I still don't know. But...."


Rose decides now is a good time to pull her sword out and give Dart a friendly cut.

Dart: "Rose!? What are you doing?"

Rose: "You feel pain, it is certain this is not just an illusion. This world is 'reality.'"

I’m not really sure that proves anything, Rose. Hell, the whole of the party could be an illusion to her and just faking the pain! Clearly she should have cut herself.

Albert: "Indeed. I've never visited the moon before. But, I cannot help but feel I know this place. People's faces, clothes.... It's not a mistake. This is a building in Serdio."

Haschel: "I have traveled all over Endiness and they all have typical Serdian faces.”


Haschel: “Look, the girl over there.... Looks Serdian. No.... She is...not." (It cannot be!?)


While the party watches she walks through a mirror...or portal...or something. Either way she vanishes.

Dart: "Disappeared...!?"

Rose: "It looks like that is reality here too."


Conveniently we also have the last weapon and item shops, an inn, and a clinic.

Contrary to what I previously thought we can actually buy Albert’s final weapon, Halberd here. We can also get a Basher for Kongol and Destroyer Mace for Haschel. A full set of DG armor is available too so you can gear up everyone to tip top shape. If you didn’t get a Red DG armor back in Zenebatos you definitely want to grab one now.


????: “Come on, I’ll treat you to Spirits.”

Karma! It took three discs but Dart will finally got the spirits back to make up for the ones that damn hobo took back in Bale.

????: “Well, don’t worry about money. It’s on me. I am a rich man. *hiccup*”

Albert: “You are...Dran, aren’t you!?”

Dran the Rich: “Indeed.”

Dart: “Do you know him?”

Albert: “If he is my old acquaintance this must be Bale 20 years ago.”

Albert has a listed age of 26. Which meant he was hanging out with drunks in bars at the age of 6.

Dart: “What!?”

Dart is properly shocked by this revelation. Well, enough hanging out with old drinking buddies. Onwards and...upwards? Inwards? We follow our mysterious purple hair girl through the portal.


We see her briefly but she walks deeper into wherever the hell we are.

Dart: "I understand...that this place is not what it appears to be, but where are we now?"

Albert: "A world behind the wall.... It seems as if the labyrinth of the moon is not refusing us."

Haschel: "No, almost as if it's maybe inviting us."

Oh god we are in a horror movie.

Rose: "Minitos.... It seems this place belongs to them."

Albert: "I think they were the 99th species."

Dart: "Maybe they can tell us something about this place."

I’m fairly sure this is the only other place you can properly run into Minitos other than that random one in the bar back in Donau in disc 2. And while usually I don’t get any interesting words out of NPCs, let’s see what they have to say this time.


That was very enlightening. No wonder why they don’t come out in public. They’d get punched for being vague.


Slightly more informative. But still leaving a big blank in the why category. What does us seeing people from the parties past do for the Virage Embryo?


We run into the purple hair girl again and Haschel still feels something is up with her. I guess he gets to be our next person to struggle with his past. I think you can make a solid guess who we are trailing.

Dart: "You don't seem to be one of the Minitos."

Haschel: "Look at her closely. It's the girl in the room we came from."

Dart: "Oh. She's the girl who disappeared into the wall, isn't she!? Hi, what are you doing here?"


Dart walks up to try to talk to her but she yells “STRANGER DANGER” and leaps into the portal.

Haschel: "Dart!”


Dart: "What are you talking about?"

Haschel: "Let me go now. She is...Claire. She is inviting me. Sorry...but please wait for me here."

Dart: "Haschel!?"

Rose: "Haschel was right. The girl was inviting Haschel, not you. We can only wait for him."

Dart: "Okay, but, as with Miranda, what's going on in the moon?”


Haschel: "Claire.... Is it you, Claire? It's me. Your father."

Claire: "Don't come here! I hate you dad!!"

Haschel: "Claire."

Claire: "Always, always strict discipline.... What can I use such a thing for!? The power to destroy!? The power to hurt people!? I don't need such power!!"

Haschel: "I strictly disciplined you since you were little. I only had you. I had to hand my art, my ancestral art, down to the next generation."

Claire: "It's not fair! I just want to sing songs, chitchat with my friends, pick flowers and fall in love!"

Haschel: "Our art was never meant to hurt people. It is a martial art to give life to people.”

Except when you screw up during a sparring match and accidentally kill one of your classmates. Then it is an art for destruction.

Haschel: “Please understand."

Claire: "I don't understand!!”


Plot Fight!


Haschel: "blink, and went on the offensive with swiftness. It was an innate art."


I dunno. I just find this line really funny.

Haschel: "No! You can surpass me. Nobody has been charmed by the War God as much as you. Your hidden power..."


...they could really work on the phrasing.

Claire: "Somebody is taking me."

Haschel: "!! C, Claire, what's wrong!?"

Claire: "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"


Then in a poof of black smoke Claire transforms into a more hardcore, face painted form.


Like Miranda’s battle this isn’t actually a fight to knock the enemy down to zero HP. We need to knock her around a bit and survive through some conversations.


Claire attacks with a might chest punch.


Followed by a sweet kick flip off her dad’s face. I can’t argue with that.


After a bit more back and forth Claire freaks the fuck out before returning to her normal form.

Claire: "I hate you, dad!! You did this to my body!! It's your fault, dad!!"

This continues to be a really awkward converation.

Haschel: "No, its impossible. The transmigration of the War God.... Is she demonized!!"


Haschel: "Incredible. Nobody has ever reached that level except the founder!"

Haschel’s worries of possession are swiftly overridden by “Holy shit my daughter is a BAD ASS”


Which she swiftly aims to prove.


She transforms into her dark form again and launches forward in an attack. Before Haschel can counter she vanishes leaving an after image.


Then drops down from the ceiling to do it again.


Then makes four copies of herself.


Then beats the shit out of Haschel while yelling “Destroy the poor guy!” This attack instantly drops Haschel down to 1 HP.


Haschel: “How did Claire learn...?”


Haschel takes a second to heal himself up, though honestly just guarding would have done fine. He has the Dragon Shield on and a bucket of base HP. However I am fucking rolling in cash so whatever.


Haschel keeps on trying to show up his twelve year old daughter.


He fails and gets punched down to 1 HP again.

Haschel: “UGH.... There is nothing I can do."


Claire: "It was your desire to awaken me. I am the answer to your long quest."

Haschel: "No! You are my Claire! You are not the War God! Leave from the body of my Claire!!”


Not quite time to end this nonsense and show who the real master is. Luckily she just normal attacks for now.


Haschel: “Hang in there, I'm coming to save you!! I feel your art down to my very core."

We once again get a choice where one just sets us to waiting again and another actually ends this shit.

Bad chocie:

Haschel: “Claire, please forgive me. How can I exorcise this? Being obsessed with martial arts has made my precious daughter endure this suffering. Forgive me."

Wallowing in our failure does nothing though! so:

Haschel: “Mind’s eye awaken! I don't care about myself. I have to save my daughter, Claire! I'll focus all my body and soul into this, and kill the devil that possesses my Claire!!"


Claire rushes in for her super attack, but this time when she goes for a blow Haschel dodges backwards.


And counters, launching her across the room.





This whole scene is in a god embryo, so is in fact pretty fucking weird. I also think it would have worked better if we had the older Claire from the flashback in reality. Still proves that Dart is genetically 120% badass. Original Dragoon Dad, highest potential martial arts fighter mom, awesome martial arts grandpa.


Dart: "Haschel, is it over?"

Miranda: "Haschel, you also saw the past?"

Haschel: "Yes, I did. But...the past wasn't as bitter as I imagined."

Rose: "It seems everything, both the future and past, are filled in this moon.”


Rose: “And our past...."

Dart: "Both Miranda and Haschel were made to see the past by the Moon, right?"

Rose: "They 'see'. As I told you, were are in reality. It's not illusion. Maybe they can do it because they are the 108th species and gods."

Haschel: "Let's move on. We wasted lots of time."


On my way out I run into a Lucky Jar. Lucky Jars are one of the several weird enemy encounters you usually only run into on paths on the world map like the bird that can only take damage from confusion. This one only takes poison damage. The only way to do that is a poison needle. Also it has 6hp and only takes one per turn. It runs away in 3 or so turns. So you ALSO have to signet stone it. If you do bother to kill it you get 1000xp, 300g, and a Moon Serenade that can heal everyone’s MP up.


After dealing with Haschel’s past we head back into the Inn. If we check on the woman playing the piano the lullaby from Claire starts playing.

Haschel: “This tune is...”

Dart: “...”

So I’m not really sure if Dart has any suspicion over the whole “Haschel is my grandfather” deal between this and the Claire Haschel fought not knowing Dart yet.


We are finally free to head out to the south into...what is probably Bale or some acid trip version of it. If we try to go into the castle the guards block us. It might also be Kazas because this doesn’t line up right with the castle at Bale.



Peasant: “King Carlo couldn’t subdue those bandits! God bless Emperor Doel!”

As if we needed any further proof we were in the past! Having expended our conversations options we jump into the gaping hole in reality to the left.


And pop out miles above wherever we just were. Most of our party is cowering in fear, Meru hovers, Rose gives no fucks.

Albert: "Are we floating in the air!?"

Rose: "You can stand up. It seems there is an invisible floor."


Dart and Albert cautiously stand up like they are on a balance beam.

Dart: "Are we really in the sky?"

Meru: "It looks like it. 'Cuz, this is a cloud! Even I've never been in such a high place...."

Rose: "Really, anything can happen. Don't just look at the view forever, we are moving on."


It’s also got a really cool battle screen. Also, Unicorns.


Just ahead we see a shadow flash over the ground as we cross over this bridge.

Rose: “No! I couldn't have been mistaken! I was with him for more than 10,000 years!"

Dart: "Is that your dragon, Rose?"

Rose: "It was the Vassal Dragon, my Dragon!"


In the We DIdn’t Bother To Render This zone Michael zooms around and shoots lasers.


Which fly by our party in the more solid part of the universe.

Rose: "Run!!


Rose and Dart leap into one portal on the left and the rest of the party drops down on the right.,


For now we’ll be following the rightward party!

Meru: "They're not around here."

Haschel: "It's Dart and Rose. They should be fine like us."

Miranda: "Of course. It's impossible for them to die from just an attack of a dragon."



Albert: "She called it 'MIchael'. Why did Rose's Vassal Dragon attack us?"

Also: Who names such an awesome dragon Michael?

Miranda: "This is just my guess, but in the moon, I think some sort of feeling that exists in our heart materializes itself."

Haschel: "You mean Rose had some caring feelings for her Vassal Dragon?"

Meru: "I flew around here and don't you think this place seems like the Home of Gigantos?"


I think Kongol has as many words in this chunk as about the rest of the game.


Voice: "There is one hiding down here! Don't miss even one! Annihilate all Gigantos!"

????: "ARRRGGGGHHHH!"

????: "Hey!! Doel's coming!! Run!!"


A trio of riders comes around the corner on their mighty lizard steeds, the lead one cuts down the slowest of the Giganto killers while the other two flee.

Doel: "There will be no one to devastate the Holy Land of the Gigantos ever."

Knight of Serdio: "But Your Majesty Doel, we may be too late. Only if His Majesty Carlo gives us permission to dispatch."



Knight of Serdio: "Your Majesty Doel! There is something in here!"

Doel: "Come out."


From the cave a giganto child walks out alone.

Doel: "A Giganto child!? I am the new King of Serdio, Doel. There are no more people to persecute you. You can live in peace from now on. What's your name?"

Kongol: "Human! Get out!"

After what happened, that is clearly a respectable name for the last Giganto.

Knight of Serdio: "Don't be so disrespectful! His Majesty Doel tried to help Gigantos fight against Humans!!"

Doel: "I am a Human, but before that, I am a man who wishes the coexistence of all species. Don't you like peace?"




Doel: "Then come with us?"

Meru: "Is this something in Kongol's heart?"

Albert: "Then is that the truth of my Uncle Doel?"


Kongol: "I have something to do! I go now!"

We get control now and Albert is the leader of the party. Pretty much solidifies him as #3 in the group and proper as our final end game companion!


Kongol: "Kongol will get strongest power. Dart needs Kongol, so Kongol go."

Meru: "Kongol, what are you talking about?"

But she’s pretty much talking to thin air cause Kongol is already headed into the temple ahead.

Haschel: "Wait for him here."


Kongol: "Brother. I became stronger."

Indora: "I see."

Kongol: "Brother the strongest. Kongol admire brother. Brother Kongol's pride.

Indora: "I see."

Kongol: "Brother, Kongol needs power. To help Dart. To save world."

Indora: "I see."

...Kongol and Indora are not exactly men of many words.

Kongol: "Brother, Kongol overcomes now. Kongol overcomes brother!"

Indora: "Come!"




Indora is wearing some badass armor along the lines of what Kongol had before we kicked his ass in Doel’s castle. Also he has two gigantic axes chained together for his weapon. How can I not respect this guy?



His normal attack he rushes forward with his axes.


Then slams them together in a blow that should cleave just about anything in two. However Kongol is made of pure awesome and takes 42 damage.


Kongol shows Indora how it’s really done with a Bone Crush for 934 damage.


I think they clearly got their lines messed up. Because one brother is doing 20x the damage of the other, and it sure is fuck isn’t Indora.


Remember how Kongol would make a mess out of you if you screwed up an addition? His big bro will do that to you as well.


his special attack is also a close cousin of little brother. First comes the dramatic gesturing.


Then a surprisingly detailed pillar comes up from out of the ground.


Indora ties Kongol to it with his chain axes.


Picks the whole goddamn thing up.


And heaves it into the wall for entirely too little damage for the amount of flair.


After that its pretty short order until only the most awesome Giganto still reigns. For our efforts we get Indora’s Axe, Kongol’s ultimate weapon which has a chance to instant kill. And if 40 hours ago we didn’t bother to buy Kongol a Dragoon Stone he’d get it from his brother. Apparently he had it before betting murdered by humans?


Kongol: "Brother...."

Indora: "Go, to the people who need your power."

Kongol: "Brother, Kongol is...."

Indora: "To fulfill desire is the power of destruction. To care for others is the power of truth. You...received the power to overcome Indora.... The strongest power.... Kongol, the pride of Indora.... Well done...."

Haha damn is he full of himself. Most powerful thing in the world: Him thinking you are pretty good.

Kongol: "Brother!"


So we got a mother, daughter, and brother confronted now. Just keeping it in the family.

Haschel: "You conquered it, didn't you?"

Kongol: "Brother...praised Kongol. First time for Kongol to praise. Kongol happy."

Haschel: "But, what does the moon want to show us?"

Miranda: "It's not a moon anymore. It's the flesh of the God of Destruction."

Albert: "And.... What the God of Destruction wants to show us is annihilation.

Meru: "Let's go! We gotta look for Dart and Rose!"


Also downstairs is a set of Kongol’s final exclusive armor! Except I had already bought one so he’d have it this fight. Oh well, what’s money worth at the end of the world?