Part 7: Forcing the Guardians

Update 7 - Killing God for Fun and Profit

Remember back in the first update when I said Pearl was the kind who would go dramatically sing about her need for her wings to take flight?

Here's your proof.

VIDEO - Opening Intro version 2.

Now that we're out of the prologue, there's no new animation but the opening theme has lyrics!

Anyway, when we left our heroes last time, they had just foiled a train robbery and were heading for Baskar Colony to deliver the Ark Scepter.




The train dropped us off by the railroad tracks just southeast of Baskar colony. The valley in the distance will lead us right there if we follow it.
There's a train station right about here, but since nobody's told us it's here we are completely incapable of finding it.



Also known as Baskar Colony, where the people believe in the powers that sustain the world, the guardians.
(to Billy) You sure don't react much...


Billy almost makes a point of ignoring her

Well, I must go finish my assignment. Would you mind introducing me to a lady named Halle? She is the one who assigned me to the task of delivering the Ark Scepter.
Who, me!? Introduce you to Granny!? I ran away from here three months ago! Everyone thinks I'm dead!


"Ahh damnit! Maybe he'll leave me alone if I convince him I'm a zombie."

You're home! This is like a dream come true! I did not even foresee this in my dream sight! Although Grandmother did say you would be home soon. She was absolutely right!


Pearl: That's the prettiest girl I've ever seen...

He is family? As well as Halle?
Oh, man...



Yes, that's the Ark Scepter all right. A job well done. Here is your reward, and a little extra--just to show my appreciation. Go on, take it.

We get 1200 Gella!

Looks like I caused you more trouble than you bargained for. Not only did you deliver the Ark Scepter, but you also brought home my incompetent grandson.
Hey, leave me outta this. It was just a coincidence that I came home.
Not necessarily. She did mention I may also have to deliver a troublesome package. I had no idea that package would be you until now.
I figured robbers and thugs would jump at the Ark Scepter if I released information about its transport. And that this boy would go after it, too. I never imagined it would be this easy.



But tell me this...If you just wanted me back here, does that mean that I've had the real Ark Scepter all along? And the one we delivered fake?
...
I'm back.


Eh? Another two Ark Scepters?

Oh, you are so pitiful...Listen well. The Ark Scepter you took, the one transported by train, and the two over there... All four of these are genuine Ark Scepters. Boone... Don't tell me you thought there was only one Ark Scepter in this world. Your lack of discipline for your studies is atrocious. I thought I had taught that to you and Shane...
Is that true?

Shane silently nods.

The Ark Scepter is a staff, which can transmit and receive willpower. In other words, it is a sacred artifact used to communicate with guardians. There are a total of four Ark Scepters in this world. They were enshrined at various places that worship guardians, but are gathered here now.



The bearer of an Ark Scepter is capable of sensing the presence of the spiritual guardians. Which means he or she is capable of materializing and utilizing the power of guardians in this world. The bearer of the Ark Scepter has the right to use the power of the guardian. But the bearer also has the right to kill the guardian...
Huh?
Shall we go for a walk? I'll continue my story then.



Thanks to all of you, that is. But I do have a new mission I would like to ask of you.
You want us to kill the guardians?
Not exactly...
I have been training hard to become a priest, and in the past year or so... I developed a special ability where I can foresee future events through my dreams. It is called [dream sight]. Through this legendary supernatural power, I was forewarned of the following apocalypse...

He seems rather proud of his legendary power. Where's that priestly humility, boy?



A blue shadow will rise from the ancient dead on our planet, Filgaia. The resurrected blue shadow will wield a sharp, cold sparkle that will eat away the planet. People, animals and all other life-forms will be devoured, and eventually Filgaia itself...
But there's no absolute proof or evidence to back it up. It's just a...
... dream. But this is my kid brother's dream. Trust me, his dreams always come true.
Thank you, Brother...
I call it... the [Blue Menace].



???

But this threat is not all that the dream speaks. It also tells of how the blue shadow will be defeated.
The blue shadow shall be expelled by releasing the chains which bind the guardians. Filgaia will eventually rejuvenate, and a little girl will bring about peace and tranquility...
My next mission to you is to release the guardians.
This may be a job for your grandson. But we're not Baskars.
You can do it. When I said that the bearer of the Ark Scepter has the right to kill a guardian, I meant... You must face it in battle. It proves that you are worthy to face these intangible, invisible beings. And by fighting and proving your strength, the guardian will be released from the earth, transferring itself into a medium.
What's a medium?


Boone brings out his medium, the metal plate that lets him use Arcana

It can be considered a passport that allows mankind to shape the planet, and manipulate various powers. But this one is an imitation, made from Baskar technology by extracting the breath of the planet like water and wind, and refining it. This mission requires you to create a high density, pure medium from the bare bones of the planet's breath, the guardians.



Please return to the planet.


The medium flares brightly for a moment, and then vanishes



A pure medium is much more powerful. All you have to do now is get one... You wield the Ark Scepter, do you not? Prove your strength to the guardian.
Arghhhh...
Pardon me...



However, you did call this a mission. Would you mind explaining what our reward would be should we accept this assignment?
A reward? Ah yes, a reward. Your reward will be the mediums, transformed from guardians. Take it.
Excuse me?
Wipe that stern look off your face. Your good looks will go to waste. There are four Ark Scepters, and there are four of you. Each one of you is worthy to face a guardian. What you all do with the mediums afterwards is none of my concern.

Stick them up your nose for all I care.

Wait just a minute, Granny! Guardians and their mediums are valuable assets to us Baskars! We turn to them for guidance! But you would just give away these mediums to complete strangers!? I always thought you were a little slow, but now I just think you're completely senile!
My, my... Now that's a surprise. I never realized you were so passionate about our old traditions... Perhaps you are more conservative than I thought. Even if we Baskars were to face the guardians and receive the mediums, all we would do is enshrine them at this altar and leave them there. And what good would that do? I believe that entrusting mediums to Drifters who traverse the vast wasteland is the true meaning behind releasing the guardians. In a sense, it may be a long shot. But I believe this gamble is necessary based on the dream Shane had... I know this sounds like a crazy mission, but please consider...

Halle is pretty genre savvy. She's basically betting here that if she gives supernatural powers to a few random strangers, they will go poke their nose in places until they uncover an opportunity to save the world. This is what happens in most RPGs, so it's a good strategy.



I'm in... I want my medium back. I can't back down now.
I am more drawn in by her story than anything else. Guardians...The power that sustains the world...To come into contact with a mysterious entity means...
I don't care either way. If we get it, we can always sell it. I'm in if the money's there.
I... I'm... not sure... But I do feel excited... It's like an adventure for Drifters. I've always dreamed about that.

Greed and thrillseeking. These guys have the best motivations.
And by best I mean it's pretty cynically realistic.



We all have our own reasons, but our goal is the same. The four of us would like to accept the mission to release the guardians.
You made a wise decision. Not the fact that you accepted the mission, but the fact that all four of you will carry out this mission together. The guardians have sealed their bodies in a distant time, but still exist today in intangible forms. Their strength far exceeds those of humans, so you should all watch out for each other. There is no need to rush. Prepare all you want before you prove your strength to the guardians. It may be wise to brush up on your skills and learn more about the guardians here at Baskar.

The game now takes a moment to explain the ASK system. ASK is a horrible backronym for

Activate
Selected
Keyword

Basically it means that sometimes green text will appear in the dialogue. Pressing square and selecting this text lets you ask for more on that topic.

The guardians are sealed at the base of the <<southern foothills>>. This sealed land later became known as the sanctuary, and used as a ground to worship guardians. Do you have any questions?

ASKing about <<Southern Foothills>>

On the foothills of the ranges of Zenom lies the presence of guardians who <<represent the elements of all things>>.

ASKing about <<represent the elements of all things>>

The great elements were necessary to make the world what it is. But there are four that exist in everything. They are earth, wind, water, and fire. The guardians of these elements are worshipped as the four great guardians.

Knowledge is power. Do not forget.


Lets see what some of these people have to say

You can hear different things when you change the party leader. Make my brother the party leader to learn about the guardians from a different perspective.

Baskars seem to like giving game explanations in character. Fine, if you're going to snub Pearl, I'll put Boone in the lead.

(to Boone) You're going to release the guardians, right? I suggest you further hone your skills before you try. After all, the guardians aren't going anywhere. And I'm not just saying that so you'll stay here in the village with me.

Yes you are.

Head out and face the Southern Sanctuary, and you can see an ocean of sand. You know, right? The dunes are all that's left now, but in the days of our ancestors, it was a blue sea, full of life.

Nobody seems to be very useful around here. Lets go see Halle one last time.

Even I showed my strength to the guardians when I became a priestess. I just followed our <<village verse>>. You may think our verse is just a ridiculous, old-fashioned myth... But so many of our traditions become handy knowledge once you have obtained the power to comprehend them.

ASKing about <<village verse>>

Follow the sun to the east. So I faced the monolith of Gurdiev, just to the east of me. It was such a long time ago, I don't remember what happened then, except how tough a trial it was. But I braved the trial of Gurdiev. And once I had the power of earth, I faced the guardians of wind, water, and lastly, fire.

(to Boone) If it is dedicated to guardians, then it might be inscribed with <<runes>>, the writing of ancient Baskars. Stand as the party leader to get a good look. I've tried hard to teach you, so don't let me down.

ASKing about <<runes>>

It seems they were originally an Elw script. As caretakers of the guardian shrines, they passed on the writing to us. You will probably have to interpret the writing in the Fallen Sanctuary, too.

I think that's about all the useful people here... hey, who's that guy? He's not a Baskar.



I think I've heard of this guy. Hey, does he sell Breath Mints?



He does! It's that travelling salesman they had, like, five storys about in the newspaper.

Roykman is one of the few shops in the game where you can actually buy basic goods. Most inns and shops will only let you sell.
His selection is pretty good. Everything down to Magicleanser are items you need to fix the various status ailments in the game.
Call Whistle is useless for now though.
The World Screen is a map. Yep. Out of three "pro" drifters, not one thought to bring a MAP. Come on guys. Pearl's a naive greenhorn, what's your excuse?

Something of note is that you can't buy Heal Berries, Mini Carrots or Revive Fruits. NONE of the shops in the game sell them. This makes it even more important that you conserve your stock of them, as they're not trivial to come by at this point.

Roykman normally moves between the towns in the game, so there's no guarantee he'll be in town when you are.

I used to like travelling, so that interest blossomed into my current business, I suppose. But ever since I sprained my ankle here, I've been a travelling salesman only in name.

Having got all the info we need, lets head back to the...



We head upstairs to the large open area.



It's different than I imagined. It's hard to explain, but...



You thought it'd be a lot more beautiful and glorious? Does that explain it?
With a sanctuary housing guardians, the power that sustains the world, you do have certain expectations...
Suits me just fine... This place is just like Filgaia - empty and barren with only the dry winds blowing through... Is Filgaia the way it is because this is how the guardians are, or is it the other way around? Ah, who cares...



Huh? I think it's trying to tell us something...
Yo, what do we do?
I dunno! Don't ask me!
Wouldn't you be the one to know? We were a little unprepared... We should have inquired as to its proper handling.



Something's beginning to swell up! I don't think I can hold it any longer!!

... please don't quote that line out of context.





Wh-Where's the Ark Scepter!?
Perhaps this phosphorescence is a ritual meant for the bearer of the Ark Scepter...
Does that mean we've officially been deemed bearers?


Suddenly, everyone gets a splitting headache!

A-A-Ahhhhh...! What was that?
Argh, my head! My hangovers were never this bad! Is this a migraine?
The pressure inside our heads does indeed feel like one... However, this feels as if...
... something is calling to us from deep within our hearts... It's soft, but very loud at the same time... If this really is the shrine where the guardians are worshipped, then this voice must be...



Let's go...

We can now tackle the monoliths in any order, though like a Megaman game there is an ideal one that will make things much easier. Halle dropped us some hints back in Baskar - start with Earth in the east.


> The monolith is decorated with a strange symbol whose meaning is beyond you. One can cause the guardian to materialize by focusing everyone's willpower together with the Ark Scepter.

> Will you show your will to the guardian? Yes / No

> The visions in your minds are bound together. The ground sends waves of quakes into the distance. You feel a presence bigger and heavier than anything. The power of earth crushes all with its howl. The bearer of the Ark Scepter must have the strength to fight that which has no form. Fight, and show your strength to Grudiev!



Grudiev is an excellent first choice to fight. He only has three moves...



Megasmash, a fairly damaging physical attack. He'll sometimes use it by himself, but most of the time he'll do this as a counterattack to any physical attacks.
That might seem like a bad thing, but its accuracy is terrible. Even Boone, whose evasion is pretty bad, has no problem dodging this - and dodging an attack means 12 juicy FP.
It's very easy to quickly build FP in this battle thanks to this move.



Shield, an Arcana that lowers the damage he takes from physical attacks.
It's pretty effective, but he tends to use it too late in the battle for it to really matter.



And the big one, Planet Breaker.



The ground explodes and Grudiev emerges!



Absorbing the mist around him, (for some reason?) he unleashes a massive earthquake directly under the drifters!
This is his big hitter, giving all four characters a fair whack of damage, but it's easily countered with a Mysticed Heal Berry. He'll always use this on the first turn. He can use it again after a few turns, but you really should have beat him before that.

As we don't currently have any arcana, our tactics basically boil down to "shoot and use heal berries." Do that for a couple of minutes and he'll fall easily.



Our reward is a medium! Boone takes this opportunity to continue the grand Baskar tradition of explaining game menus in-character.

A medium doesn't exhibit its power just by holding on to it. You have to go to the Menu's Invoke command, where you invoke the medium and become one with the guardian power. Each of us can invoke up to three mediums. Anything above that will overload our consciousness, and may result in terrible consequences. Once a medium is invoked, the Arcana command becomes available during battle. Arcana is... an extension of the guardian's power. Think of it as magic, if you will... It can be said that Arcana is also the key to winning. But one thing you have to watch out for it the enemy's elemental property. The effectiveness of an Arcana attack can differ greatly depending on the enemy's elemental properties.

Looks like Halle taught him well. As a reward, I give the medium to Boone. He's the best magic user, so the most qualified to hang on to it for now. It grants him four Arcana to use.

Petrify - One enemy is turned to stone and exploded. (?!?) Earth damage.
Shield - An ally is protected against physical attacks.
Protect - An ally is protected against magical attacks.
Decelerate - One enemy has their Reflex halved

Time for another monolith. Halle suggested Wind next, which is on the western side of the area.

> The visions in your mind are bound together. The breeze turns to a blade that cuts away the clouds. You feel a presence sharper and swifter than anything. The power of wind shakes the vast wasteland. The bearer of the Ark Scepter must have the strength to fight that which has no form. Fight, and show your strength to Fengalon!



Fengalon is some kind of winged wolf tiger thing. His fight is quite similar to Grudiev.



Sonic Scratch is like an upgraded Megasmash, but it's more accurate. He also won't counter every attack like Grudiev did. Much harder to build FP off of this move.



Turbulence doubles his evasion, making it much more difficult for anyone to land a shot.



Vortex is a Wind-based attack arcana. Fortunately for me he decided to use it against a guarding Doc.



His big attack is Hi-Speed Ripper. Like Grudiev, he'll use this on his first turn, so it may be a good idea to have Pearl and Billy block this one.



Mightly winds blow as Fengalon charges into view.



He leaps into the air and comes down with a mighty slash, pouring massive gusts of wind on the party.

Fengalon is also fairly easy, especially since he is weak to earth damage and you now have access to Petrify.



Have Boone spam it as soon as he can. Since it's Arcana, Petrify completely ignores the effects of Turbulence. (Lock On is also effective for this.) Fengalon doesn't last long under those circumstances.



I gave this to Pearl. It gives her the following Arcana...

Vortex - Wind damage VS one enemy
Inspire - Thunder damage VS one enemy
Turbulence - Double an ally's Evasion
Quicken - Increase an ally's Reflex

The next monolith to try is to the North.

> The visions in your mind are bound together. The currents flow softly yet, strongly and never stop. You feel a presence kinder and more passionate than anything. The power of water engulfs you in its grasp. The bearer of the Ark Scepter must have the strength to fight that which has no form. Fight, and show your strength to Schturdark!



Schturdark? I got no idea. Some kind of tortoise wearing scuba gear, if those pipes extend to an oxygen supply hidden in his shell.

You'll probably see a pattern in the Guardian's attacks by now. He has one regular attack/counterattack, one defensive magic, some attack magic and a super attack, and can be tackled in a similar way to Grudiev and Fengalon.



Big Press is his regular attack. Like Grudiev it's low accuracy and he'll always counterattack with it, so nice for building FP with.



He can heal himself for a minor amount and attack us with Refrigerate.



Finally, his big attack is Assault Tide.



Shooting down from the heavens, he lands with a massive splash, bringing the rains.



After sucking in the mist for a moment, (for some reason) he unleashes a mighty tidal wave!

The resulting tsunami is enough to take a significant chunk of health off the posse members. Once again, a Mysticed Heal Berry is the best response.



After the first round, I realised that Pearl needed to spend most of her FP healing, but she had the Medium with the Arcana Schturdark is weak to. (Inspire)
Fortunately, you are free to shuffle around your mediums however much you like at the start of each turn, so I give it to Boone instead.

You can use this menu to almost completely rebuild your characters on a turn-by-turn basis, though most of the time you shouldn't need to change frequently. Only your ARMs cannot be changed. I've never seen a RPG that's so generous about tinkering with character builds mid-battle before.



Once again, hitting the Guardian with it's elemental weakness really cuts the battle time down. Schturdark is not more difficult than the others.



The reward is Aqua Wisp, the same medium Boone had before Halle destroyed it. We've seen its spells before but...

Pressure - Water damage VS one enemy
Refrigerate - Ice damage VS one enemy
Heal - Heal an ally
Analyse - Uncover an enemy's elemental weaknesses and status effects.

Boone gets this too, but I give Gale Claw back to Pearl.

That just leaves one statue, the southern one.

> The visions in your minds are bound together. The swirling blaze coalesces, heralding a new beginning. You feel a presence hotter and more ferocious than anything. The power of fire spreads its crimson wings! The bearer of the Ark Scepter must have the strength to fight that which has no form. Fight, and show your strength to Moor Gault!



In some ways, Moor Gault is a lot like the other guardians.
This is the game luring you into a false sense of security.



Like the others, he'll frequently counterattack your physical attacks.
Unlike the others, it's a powerful, accurate hit that can eaily hit Pearl or Billy for more than half their health.
Combined with his big attack, you can easily end up with Pearl and Billy both dead in the first turn if you're not careful. It's best to have them defend or take some other action in the first turn.
It's surprising how quickly things can turn bad fighting this guy.



He also has access to Cremate, a fire-damage Arcana.

His big hitter? Vapor Blast.





Best tactics? He doesn't have that much Hp actually, and he's weak against ice damage, so as long as you don't get stuck trying to rez dead characters you should be able to defeat him with the Refrigerate arcana.
If you really know what you're doing, you can stock up on Ice Gems by killing regular enemies with Refrigerate duing Boone's prologue, and use them on him. Four characters casting Refrigerate with gems can bring him down very quickly, and he won't counterattack gem use either.

This goes for the other guardians too, but unless you explicitly go out to farm them at this point you probably won't have any Wind, Earth or Thunder gems and frankly it's faster to just shoot them.



Our fourth and final (for now) medium! Firey Rage gives us the following Arcana...

Cremate - Fire damage against one enemy.
Weaken - Lower one enemy's defence
Devastate - Non-elemental magic damage against one enemy
Revive - Bring one fallen ally back from the brink.

With all four mediums now available, I give everybody one.

Pearl gets Gale Claw (Wind and Thunder damage, Turbulence and Quicken)
Billy gets Firey Rage (Fire and non-elemental damage, Weaken and Revive)
Boone gets Aqua Wisp (Water and Ice damage, Healing and Analyse)
Doc gets Terra Roar (earth damage, physical and magical shields, Decelerate)

If you'd like to see videos of the bosses, here they are, though honestly the only reason to is to see the summon animations. No additional commentary - not much more to say after all that.

VIDEOS
Grudiev - I take a moment at the start of battle to change my character order. This doesn't have any practical effect on the battle, I just prefer to give commands in the order they will be probably carried out in - Pearl first, Doc last.
Fengalon
Schturdark
Moor Gault - I didn't have any ice gems, but I did make use of a water gem. It doesn't do additional damage, but he won't counterattack it. Also, I completely waste a Mini Carrot toward the end. Idiot.


Now that we have all four mediums, Boone once again upholds the great Baskar tradition of explaining game mechanics in-character.

Earth, water, fire and wind. So we got all four mediums from the four great guardians. And these mediums in their purest form are said to contain special powers.

I'll interrupt him here. We can summon our Guardians to deal damage to all enemies. These typically do great damage, especially if you match up the right elemental properties, but there are two limitations.

1) Summoning consumes all of your FP. The more FP it uses, the higher damage it does.
2) Each character has a statistic called "Material Count" (MTC) This starts at 1 for everybody, and summoning consumes 1 point of MTC, after which the character must stay at an inn before they can summon again.
The max MTC can be raised in two ways - finding and using a Growth Egg item, or using the summon to kill enough enemies to gain a MTC level.

I personally have never had much use for summons. Regular battles are usually easy enough that you don't need to summon, and I don't like losing all my FP in a boss battle as it locks you out of arcana/Force Ability use and gimps your damage and defence.
Suffice to say, when I completed my test playthrough of this game I finished it without gaining a single MTC point from experience.

Well then...Now that it's all over, I suggest we go see Halle. This was an official mission that we undertook. The proper thing to do is go back and report.

I still can't believe that the power that sustains the world is inside this tiny, little plate... It's even more unbelievable that it's mine...

Uh oh. Megalomania... rising...

Everyone leaves to return to Baskar.

I can't shake the feeling someone's watching us though.



Uh oh.

Hey, Boss! Shouldn't we go after 'em?

No, we'll let them be. But only for the time being...

B-B-Boss, look...



Huh? Is that some kind of bird?

A watchbird, huh...Well, we did fail to seize the Ark Scepter. I'll have to deal with the consequences. But sooner or later, I'll have to come through for them, or else they'll have my head for sure...

oooh, cryptic.


Meanwhile, back at the ranch colony...



Well done. I knew you could do it. Now, hand me the four mediums.

Pearl gives them to Halle.

Hold up, Granny!





Now, listen to me well! Each of these pure mediums emits a special aura that protects the bearer. It enhances your physical attributes by raising your ATT and DEF level, allowing you to take on powerful monsters. And...



WHOA!!
Quit overreacting all the time. Shame on you!
But the mediums...
Nothing to worry about. They're all right here. Personal Skills are hidden within each medium to protect the bearer. Personal Skills are activated by expending PS points, and vary according to your level. Their many uses vary from offense to defense, and anything else you might need to fight off monsters. I have just awakened this hidden power inside the mediums. Now invoke your medium, and experience their powers firsthand.

Halle's not kidding when she says special powers. Personal Skills are very useful. If we go into the Invoke menu, we can now equip the party with their medium's PS.



Each character has a number of PS points to spend that is equal to their level.



Here are the skills that Gale Claw gives to Pearl.
The wards reduce incoming damage of the appropriate element. With one point in them it's cut by 25% - with four points damage is completely negated. Very useful.
Counterattack gives her a chance to counter with a regular attack from her ARM. It uses up a bullet and builds FP just like a regular attack. A little bit wasted on Pearl but we'll reshuffle mediums later as we get more.

You might notice that we've spent 6 points but only filled in 4 gems. Each level of Counterattack costs 2 points.



I gave Firey Rage to Billy just because of the Critical Hit PS. At level 3 it increases his crit damage by 75%, and it'll go to 100% more damage at level 4.
It also has a Poison status ward. This gives us a 25, 50, 75 or 100% chance to avoid being poisoned. These kind of wards become vital in many later fights.



Boone gets a couple of elemental wards and ATT Blocker, which gives him a chance to completely negate a physical attack.



Finally Doc gets some wards and Defender, a great skill that lets him protect an ally by taking a hit for them. Given his tankish nature, this is a good option for him.


Moving on...
A few people have new things to say in the Colony.

The dunes are swells of sluggish death that corrupt the continents and cover the planet with sand. It is said that beneath them lurk evil gargantuans that prey upon vessels that sail the sands. None dare brave the dangers of the dunes... None, but the Drifters.

Drifters? Hey, that's us! We rock!

The port town of Jolly Roger is next to a bridge across a shallows far south of here. I used to vacation there a long time ago. It was a bustling town full of things to buy and people to meet. Maybe you can find some leads there.

Well, since my foot injury I've had to stay put here, but I think it's better now. I'm going to get my show back on the road. I'll be heading to the next village soon. That village would be Jolly Roger. It lies beyond the bridge, on the shore to the southwest. It being a port town, it's a place where travellers from all over the world cross paths. I hope our paths cross again, too. Remember, I'm always open for business.

I hope you bought and sold anything you wanted before you chatted to him, because Roykman leaves the colony right after this and you won't see him again until the next town.

Just ask me if you ever wish to change the names of your Arcana. I can do it for you through a little ceremony that's unique here in Baskar.

That's right, we can rename our magic spells.

Will I let goons rename our arcana? Chances are it'll just turn into an incoherent clusterfuck, and just renaming the main characters is confusing some people already, so probably not. But if you manage to impress me... maybe.



Well...what do we do now?
Does anyone have any pressing matters they would like to take care of?
We were all out havin' fun releasing the guardians. No one has any errands to run.
And now that we're all done, why don't we just do our own thing.

Great. Why don't you go do that.



I suggest we head down to the bustling port town of Jolly Roger. I'm sure we can obtain some leads about further missions, and means of transportation.
That's not a bad idea... We'll find our own path from there.
Well, we've only known each other for a short while, but we were able to complete all our missions. Let's have our goodbye party there!
... (A goodbye party? Whose? Ours? Oh yeah, it's not like we're a team or anything...)
It's decided then. Let us head to Jolly Roger.

The team's breaking up already? But we're just getting started!


Time to sleep I guess. One last thing. When you go to save your game, you will be asked if you want to continue playing. If you select No, you get...

VIDEO - Closing Sequence

A nice touch, in my opinion.


Next time... Jolly Roger, and Pearl is a colossal idiot.


Oh yeah, before I forget...


Um... I have a choice here?




This is quite disturbing on several levels...


I'm hungry now. I wish I was a radio wave.