Part 13: Hatoba Gives Us the Runaround

Part 13: Hatoba Gives Us the Runaround


With the impromptu drama play over, it's time to see what town we've reached.


Luckily, it seems that Hatoba also pays stray orphans to tell people which town they've just entered. This is indeed the town Sodina mentioned back at the Sacred Altar.


Hatoba is noticeably smaller than Boyzby, as well as easier to navigate. In fact, since the yellow dot on the right is actually the present shop, there are only two random houses to visit, both on the way to the coastline.


With a new town comes new elemental spirits to grab out of random items. Conveniently, the MP drops have leveled with the party, and what used to be 10-20 now runs from 20-40. A spirit can be found in the bed of this first house,


As well as one in the stove.



Man: Nowadays, the only people who can do those things are from that town behind the closed gate.

Without any clear direction, Thousand Arms clearly expects the player to fall back on the old standby of "talk to everyone." Sure enough, the people of Hatoba seem more than happy to provide rather obvious hints.


Also, there's another Spirit in the brazier of the second house,


As well as one of the barrels.


Now entering the town center.


I'd call that some pretty clear direction.


Behind Hint Man is Hatoba's item shop, and in the item shop is yet another Spirit.


There's also quite the selection of items. Funny how the other kinds of antidotes seem to have disappeared since that very first time in Boyzby's shop.

You all know what "Hi" adds to potions and elixirs, right? Moving on.


Yet another Spirit in the furthest southwest corner of the town. Sure are a lot of them in this town.


Hang on, now who's this?

Look here to see.

Since it was a short series of questions and answers, I figured that only presenting the video would save some time. I would use an embedded YouTube video for this, but since they apparently can't handle it without massive desync, it's Viddler instead.

Still, I'm guessing we'll never hear from her again. After all, she's got green hair in a town full of blue-haired people, and that's just plain weird.



Young Man: That's all I can say. I don't want to be involved with them. If you're curious, look for an old guy.

Talking to the Young Man here is actually very important, since the old man he's speaking of doesn't appear until this conversation. I remember that this odd requirement wound up stumping me for a while my first time through, although I didn't have much trouble this time.



Man: Oops, you didn't hear anything about Langoud from me, OK?

The fact Langoud is directly accessible from Hatoba also threw me for a loop, since I figured all towns had to be found on the world map. But no; it's simply that "Langoud" is the name of the area beyond the big gate the other Man was talking about.


Yeah, that gate. Pretty imposing, huh?


Out on the dock is the town's goddess statue, as well as a polite lady who tells us where the best dating spots are.


The lighthouse being right here next to the statue is also pretty convenient. Since Meis has reached Charisma 4 since the last bit of dating, I went ahead and dated Sodina some more. I won't bother making videos of every single date, but, well...


I did get some insight into Sodina and Meis' relationship.


Still not buying any gifts yet. After all, it's basically trading money for not having to do the dating or girl-specific minigames.


Another Spirit in the water bucket next to the town smithy. Speaking of which...


Level 3 Sodina provides the Geo spell. I went ahead and added it to Muza's weapon as well. He may not be a very good caster, but he might as well put those EP to use somehow.


Level 4 Sodina gets us the always helpful Heal+ spell, as well as the basic Light elemental attack. Meis gets both as a matter of course, and as my primary support, Sodina finally gets her dagger upgraded.


This old man is the guy who only appears after talking to the Young Man by the docks.



Old Shipmate: But I won't tell you for free. You gotta beat me in a chili drinking contest first!



Meis knows very well who the heavy hitters in his party are.



Stop! Posing time.


I strongly suspect that the "chili" drinking contest is one of the things that got cleaned up in translation. Still, if that's what they did, they put some serious thought into it.


The character models even start turning all red as the contest progresses.

Old Shipmate: Hahaha! You're not bad, kiddo. But you've still got a lot to learn. You're not considered a real chili drinker until your blood starts boiling!


But after one more round of drinks...


Hey, old man! Are you OK?! Tell me about the town behind the gate before you pass out!



Old Shipmate: The people there are rumored to be pirates. That's why everyone's afraid of 'em. If anybody can get to the volcanic island, it's them. They don't trust outsiders, though...



Sob...really...?


Well, that ends that encounter. And if we were to return to that steel door, we would find to much surprise...


It's both open and impassible. Come on, what do I have to do to get in there?!


And what's this warrior everybody's talking about all of a sudden? Surely it can't be related.

Next time: another new character gets a flashy introduction.