#Also Kaiser oblivion takes over a restaurant

[kelbunny]

Reading the Bravely Default Praying Brage archive can be quite fun lol. Even if it requires using google translate and seeing silly lines.

[bluerosesburnblue]

Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Chapter 5, Part 1/2

The final stretch is here. Welcome to Chapter 5: This is Our Coup de Gravy!

I’m splitting Chapter 5 into two parts due to length. This part features an amazing climax boss, and is then followed up by the Sidequest Roundup, which ended up longer than I expected! We’ll resume with the plot next go around. I understand if anyone wants to skip this one, since it is mostly sidequests, but at least read the beginning because reveals abound and the plot starts to really kick into gear. No more messing around this time!

No introduction is needed. It’s time to end this before it begins. Let’s make sure the Kaiser rests in oblivion

“I deny you all” you know, Oblivion. Buddy. Synonyms exist. Try them sometime

Between the start of the scene and actually attempting the fight I started drinking some hard cider. So if the team members are siblings, I’m the tipsy extradimensional aunt at the reunion. Let’s punch Kaiser’s blond chinstrap beard in

Aw, damn. They switched Magnolia’s and Edea’s positions in my party. Muscle memory is gonna smack me down in this fight

Edea took out about half of Kaiser’s health in one full BP volley. Not so tough now, huh? Really should be buffing your defense, instead of the attack power of everyone on the field

Oh no. The magical domino mask that everyone seems to think hides your identity but really, REALLY doesn’t fell off

Kaiser is Yew’s missing big brother. I’ll... get into why that doesn’t surprise me in a minute

...that’s not the pronunciation I expected. Denys Geneolgia. I read the name as “Dennis.” Yew just pronounced it “Denny.” It’s... uhh... I can see why he went with “Oblivion,” even if it does make him sound like an edgy 13-year-old trying too hard

So. Yeah. One of the few things I was spoiled on was that Kaiser’s real name was “Denys Geneolgia,” and after Yōko’s prank with the Danzaburō illusion and the zoom-in on Kaiser’s prosthetic hand... I kinda figured he had to be Yew’s brother. I’m sure there was probably some foreshadowing that I missed, but I feel like I caught a fair amount of it

Fuck, I can’t believe Yew’s brother is the restaurant chain Denny’s

I can’t believe Denny just got arrested before he could give us exposition. That’s totally unexpected for a JRPG. Wow.

GOOD NEWS THOUGH. Tiz and Agnès are finally in the same room as each other. I... perhaps should not have made him a ghost knight for this reunion, but she’s seen him wear worse. It’s fine

AAAAAAHHHHHH that hug was so cute. “...You came for me!” HE SURE DID. ACROSS TIME. All for you, Agnès! Tiz will never let you down!

And from her perspective, Tiz is still in a coma. It’s like he came back to life miraculously just because she needed him

AND EDEA’S MADE IT A GROUP HUG. AHHHHHH. WHERE’S RINGABEL GET HIM IN HERE FOR THIS

Nevermind, Magnolia and Yew are joining in and that’s cuter. But still. We’re missing our sixth teammate, Ringabel~

Time to give Alternis, Braev, and Agnès the low down on the end layer, and how we sent player with the Bravely Second

Agnès can actually remember parts of it because she’s also synced up to the hourglass, but since she didn’t travel through time with the party, it’s more of a dreamlike recollection

One last job. Kaiser’s in jail, but his soldiers aren’t. We need to take them down and extract or destroy the Ba’al locked in Skyhold. But this time, we complete the ceremony and join the Orthodoxy and Duchy. Two forces once at war with each other, now at each other’s backs to save the world

Ag... Agnès maybe don’t base your speech on events that now no longer happen because I changed the past?

Apparently there was quite a bit of time looping for her. She was whisked away to the edge of time “over and over” again? Was that the result of being in a timeless space, or is she referring to various new games on the cartridge, of which there are none because I only have the one (now two due to New Game+), so...

This speech almost doesn’t work because they don’t make the player go through several meaningless loops this time, so even from a meta perspective, she was only kidnapped once. So unless Agnès has lived through save files I never made, I don’t know what she’s going on about

Didn’t take the Empire long to bust Denny out of prison

Altair didn’t even help with Anne’s bestiary entry! Why couldn’t it have been written without him?!

...glad the chest key for blue chests was just sitting out on the floor of the church there

Yeah, of course it was Janne and Nikolai who broke him out. We can’t have pancake night without Denny’s!

“Does the name Jerome Balestra mean anything to you!?” Janne... Janne you fucking idiot. Mook #4 didn’t kill your dad. None of these guys know what you’re talking about. But no, kill them. Fine. You useless brat

I DON’T THINK THESE GUYS, SPECIFICALLY, KILLED YOUR DAD, JANNE! They all look the same! How can you tell?!?!?!?

You. Are. SUCH a child. Get over yourself

Nikolai should not be that acrobatic

Oh good. Bella and Cú are back. Hey, Bella, is it awkward that Yew’s rocking your getup right now? It is, right?

Denys, why are you enabling the use of “coup de gravy”? No self respecting older sibling would let him get away without some serious teasing for something so cringey. I’m an oldest sibling. I’m speaking from experience here

After Bella’s speech, I can’t tell if the Empire is just Denys accidentally adopting people who need help, or a cult

Bella mentions crimes against “her sister.” She’s a “Dark Vestal” with black hair and seems to give prophecies of doom. Is Sylvie her sister? Did Bella do something to make her mute? Sylvie was one of the big mysteries from last “arc” that never got answered, so I’m hoping for payoff here in some fashion

Not even a moment to breathe (or save). Time to battle Bella and Cú once more!

Okay, so Bella’s sister was killed on the night Eternia was founded, by the “witch” who began the Plague, mentioned in the last game. Seems that may have been started by the Crystalguard

She tried to revive her sister, much as Geist tried to revive his son. But all she made were monsters. And Cú, whose resurrection she messed up. But none of them were Donna. (So, not Sylvie. Should’ve just given her a minute to monologue). She named her doll after her sister

Cú wasn’t even technically resurrected. He’s just a statue that she managed to animate

My Spirit Magic is so much stronger than Bella’s at this point it’s comical

Cú. You’re using up Edea’s special. Hurry this monologue up

Dammit Cú. I had Critical up by 300%. Thanks for wasting that

We spared them. Of course we did! This is the Best Timeline™, guys! No one dies, no one gets to economically ruin a nation!

Yew’s determined to show Denys’s people that the word can change so long as people are willing to work for it. Stop living in the past and wishing you could undo mistakes. Time to start working for a better future. And I can’t think of anyone better to show them than Agnès

“We can’t risk her Holiness...!” Othar, Agnès killed Ouroboros, the Devourer of Worlds. I think she can handle Sad Bella and her horse man without her useless bodyguards

I like Cú. He’s a man... horse of honor

And Agnès let Bella keep Donna, her doll. So sweet

Oh just let me save the game already!

We called in Braev, Alternis, Norzen, Kamiizumi, Goodman, and Lotus to hear our story. Lotus... has no idea who we are, unless we either called him from Sagitta and told him offscreen, or he somehow also had his memories hooked up to the Second

At least Norzen won’t arbitrarily attempt to kill us this timeline

Eisen and Eternia are teaming up to make sure Agnès can’t be kidnapped to use to awaken the Crystals

Magnolia’s got a plan to take the Skyhold. “Lord Arima and Sakura remember you well. Together, we’ve been preparing for this day.” Is this Kingdom Hearts logic, where all memories are connected, so as long as we remember the last timeline, so does everyone we befriended? Who, exactly, was memory synced to the hourglass?

...is it me? It uses the player’s SP, so as long as I remember the events of the story, so do they? Lucky for you guys I’ve been doing a liveblog, huh?

...that’s actually gonna suck if the sidequests remember Bad Timeline events, because now it’s a betrayal

Agnès has given everyone pendant pieces, so we’ve got a group call with the team now

“Take back the compass”? I don’t believe they’ve stolen it yet, Magnolia

Thank GOD. I can finally save and take a break

Denny’s got the team together to recoup after having his little brother time travel just to punch his face in. Understandable

He does genuinely seem to care about his underlings, so I’m pretty sure “savior of the lost” is the kind of person we’re dealing with here

“They went down fighting for the cause.” Janne, stop. They’re not dead. Best Timeline™

So Denys, Nikolai, and Janne all remember the past timeline, too. Who... who does and does not remember? Someone needs to get me a comprehensive list. Alternis may or may not get super pissed that I intend to “betray” the orphans this go around if he remembers

I like the fact that the villains in this game are as perceptive as they are. “If we remember, then I’m sure they do, too. No element of surprise with our plans, so we need a change of course”

“My friend...” Denys is the same as Yew. He adopts people. The empire is to him what the party has become to his brother: a second family to make up for the one they botched

They’re sending Geist to claim the compass instead of Minette this time. If the catsassin ain’t a secret, may as well go with our strongest operatives

New Game+ means both New Enemies+ and all sidequests from past chapters are open, so let’s go clear out some Catmancy skills, then fix the mess I made of the last timeline and see if I like the quests any better when I like the ending. We’re leaving the Bestiary until I get the Yōkai job’s Obliterate skill to make it easier on me

I’m gonna take the quests in order of appearance, so first up is Jackal vs. deRosa, where we side with Jackal instead of letting deRosa maybe accidentally start a Cold War for the sake of making some kid happy about his thesis project

Okay, they did exactly what I was hoping they would when I realized that everyone retained their memories. Event scenes are heavily abridged, but it seems like only the party remembers everything. So they go “hey, is this what’s happening? Okay, we can help let us fix this.” instead of having the situation explained. That’ll make it easy to collect the rest of the jobs

deRosa may remember. He knew everyone’s noodle orders, but doesn’t seem like he remembers anything about the Wellspring Gem. So... I dunno

Also, WHY DID YOU TELL HIM. You know it just causes a fight with Jackal!

“For every five years our research is delayed, the world suffers a decade of sorrow...” Okay, kid. Stop being dramatic. Your thesis project is not some high-end deal and not worth destroying at least one, maybe several towns over. He isn’t even a high ranking Al-Khampis student. Sorry, dumbass, I’m not letting you make a fantasy nuke

At least he’s got his heart in the right place. He’s gonna find a solution that doesn’t need the Gem, so that everyone benefits and they don’t have to destroy a city to do it. G... good job? You should’ve considered that from the start

Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s find Gho Gettar and slyly whisper to him that there MAY be an owl-man hanging out in the Northeast of Eternia that MAY have what he’s looking for ;)

Weird that the Gho sidequest starts up with meeting him and Mephilia in the woods to deliver Kamiizumi’s letter when the event we got the letter from didn’t happen in this timeline. Maybe he handed it off to us during the big peace talks in Gathelatio?

I’ve been listening to Critical Role too much, because when I heard the voiceover for Kamiizumi’s letter, I couldn’t picture the character, just Liam O’Brien’s goofy smile

Follow your dreams, Gho. I promise, Amaterasu is just a (very long) boat ride away

Kamiizumi thinks we’re being naive, because being a low-ranking worker isn’t anything shameful, and we’re encouraging Gho to be a quitter. And I agree, yeah, there’s nothing wrong with being a labor worker. BUT! It’s also not for everyone. Some people are AMAZING at those kinds of jobs, and some people shine in other areas. I don’t see Gho shining as a factory worker. I just see it crushing his spirit. And his sense of dedication is not an issue, because he is putting in just as much effort into summoning Amaterasu as he did working in that factory, but the summoning work makes him happier. He’s no less a hard worker for focusing his efforts on a strenuous process that makes him happy than one he doesn’t care about

“You counsel a guileless youth, still ignorant of the world, to throw up his hands at the first hint of hardship.” But we aren’t, though. You think there are no hardships on the path to his dream? That it won’t be difficult? No, we just refocused his efforts on something he cares about. He’ll struggle through just as many hardships, but with this he’ll want to go through them, want to make it through because they’ll be for something he’s passionate about. He’ll actually have the motivation to get through those hardships, and he’ll be more pleased with the results. Sorry, Kamiizumi. Just because it’s not for a job you particularly find tasteful doesn’t mean he’s not working just as hard. Maybe even harder, since he’ll be more excited to do it

The Kamiizumi fight is much easier once you remember that your Hawkeye has the Condor ability that can pierce default

And this is what I’m talking about. Gho is getting frustrated that he still can’t summon Amaterasu, he’s putting in so much effort, but now it’s for something he’s passionate about. It might not be as fast as he accomplished something of note as he did in the vs. Mephilia ending, but he’s accomplishing just as much, and I’m proud of him. Sometimes it takes just a little longer to do something truly great, as opposed to just something good

Oh, wow, I forgot about Sage Yulyana. Not his existence, but the fact that he hasn’t been relevant to this game. We still haven’t been to the Yulyana region

According to Mephilia he fought a Ba’al about a year ago, told her about Amaterasu and one other summon (Susano-o, the one she was searching for last game, or Charybdis, the other new one from this game?) and then either left this world to hunt down the Ba’al... or just died. Honestly, either would be pretty in-keeping with the good old sage. Just as well we probably won’t be seeing him, though; I only ever used Conjurer for Obliterate

Yeah, I’m happier having Gho follow his dreams than slave away at a job he hates, even if he managed to make that job more efficient. I’ve got faith he can do just as much, if not more good like this

Well, on to the next... oh. Oh god no not Holly vs. Profiteur again oh good lord come on, let’s try to stop this economic disaster before a child gets lost in the freaking mines again

Huh. This timeline they’re all just... talking it over like mature, responsible adults. And while Profiteur is going to make sure his economic argument is sound, Holly is... going to gorge herself in Heartschild. Great. Just go to Barras in Florem and leave the rest of us alone, you loon

And even the girl is more sympathetic. She still wants to stay, but she’s scared of her granddad having to go out and fish on the open water every day if they do stay there. And, kid, I got wrecked by a Monoceros out there and this party is TRAINED to fight, that is a very good fear to have

Oh thank GOD it’s not making me chase Profiteur down again

Greater good! GREATER. GOOD!

Oh, cool, Holly’s fucking drunk. Really making a good argument for yourself there, hon

Profiteur’s plans will “only help the few?” How so? Seems to me a flourishing economy benefits EVERYONE. Besides, I’d rather side with someone taking the situation seriously than one drunk madwoman

I’m almost happy that they made Holly so unsympathetic this go-around

But... now the kid’s back to being a brat. She’s throwing a tantrum because she doesn’t want the house sold. Too fucking bad? How many kids do you think would end up homeless if they didn’t sell? I don’t think an eight-year-old should be making the financial decisions in this family. They’re not good big-picture thinkers

Also, no need to be so hostile to Profiteur, Edea! Holly’s feelings aren’t the benchmark of morality, either!

I still have so many problems with the way this quest is written, as though the conflict is modest-but-happy lifestyle vs. lavish-but-empty lifestyle, when it’s really a needs of the many vs. needs of the few scenario. As though someone being sad is a decent argument for a large decision like this. As though kids are good at making rational decisions. Sometimes families move, sometimes things change, and it’s hard and sad and difficult to adapt to, but you need to. And this opens up so many possibilities for her that she can’t even see yet. Better schooling, a better home, good jobs, heck, she’ll be able to spend even more time with her grandpa if he doesn’t have to work all the time to get her food!

The one thing this quest has going for it is that I totally buy Profiteur’s redemption from the last game. He’s still a moneygrubber, but he’s a moneygrubber who’s genuinely looking to open up some honest jobs and help a country out

“You can trust in Erutus Profiteur! If you think I am taking too long [making this country a better place], you may come to blast me away at anytime!” God speed, good sir. He sounds so excited to make this work, and I’m glad to make it happen

Sidequest still wan’t great, but much more bearable than the first time. A kid didn’t even have to almost die this time around!

Well, now it’s time to go get stuck in Grapp Keep. If we were smart, we’d tell everyone to get out before the place collapsed, but then we wouldn’t have a conflict? Oh well. Let’s go kick Ominas and his baby dragon’s asses

I don’t foresee that fight being a problem, since I have Magnolia as an Astrologian with Elemental Barrier

...at least Edea tried to avoid slamming into that guy this time

The saga of Magnolia’s cooking continues. Seems she’s gotten to be a much better chef

Oh god it just hit me. The Edea punching the wall scene happened again. We caused the damn cave-in

And they tried to warn them of the cave-in, but we still got trapped. But of course

And Artemia and Ominas definitely don’t remember the last timeline. This time, though, we’ve told Risotto’s father to form a rescue party in advance. No worry about a search party not showing up. Now we have even less reason to side with Ominas! Food for everyone! Femto Flare later, when not under threat of hunger

Ominas, dude, just learn Femto Flare when we get out of here. World isn’t screwed because a tiny dragon didn’t learn it this second. Besides, the way this is going, it ain’t gonna matter much this timeline, anyway

Man, that is such a nothing quest. No real stakes, no real emotional involvement. Nothing. Cool. Moving on

...why does the Bestiary make it sound like Bahamut is dead when the actual epilogue says he’s fine?

Kikyo vs. Heinkel was enjoyable. Let’s hope it is again, yeah?

I like the premise of “oh we already know who did it, let’s set up a trap to catch the culprit”

And they aren’t even pretending it wasn’t Whitson. Hell, Edea’s blatantly guilting him, without actually saying his name

Let’s get Sholmes in on the police force. He needs to learn a little temperance. His big problem is jumping the gun with his intuitive responses. Putting him in a position that encourages him to think more logically and put together better evidence for his reasoning can only benefit him. Intuition is best used when you understand why you’re having that gut reaction in the first place, and it’s not the only thing that makes a good investigator

Kikyo’s still an annoying fight what with her constant evading and Transience skill, but Ninja was one of my top classes last game so it’s good to have it back

Yes, yes, we know what the truth of this incident was. I don’t need to hear it again, game

And you know, I’m liking this new, mature Sholmes. Good. I’m glad he’s finally wising up

Still a decent quest, I just almost wish the stakes were higher. ...then again, this game has proven that higher stakes in these quests tends to lead to higher stupidity from Edea, so maybe it’s for the best this stays low-scale

Who feels like opening up the first co-ed school in Florem. I do! Equality of the sexes!

Straight to the fight! This one was pretty straightforward

A co-ed school with optional enrollment is moving too fast? Really Einheria? Shut the fuck up. Both of your sisters are smarter than you right now, and one’s a psycho summoner and the other grew up in the woods

I just Summoned a Friend. He named his attack “Shot thru the <3″ and had Yew’s finishing line be “You’re to blame.”  What a freaking legend

Oh no Rhea’s crying. What a shame

Einheria can’t even remember her name while proclaiming her loyalty to her. God, how could you forget a name like Rhea Veeling

And Swetti’s crush is still a thing. Great

Barras has licenses to teach various forms of martial arts and 22 fields of medicine? Dude, hey, go down to Eisen, find your drunk girlfriend, and go settle down yeah? Keep her out of trouble because you’re clearly the responsible one in this relationship

Eugh. Rhea’s Bestiary entry says she only joined the Bloodrose Legion after they ruined Florem, and her whole “making up for the sins of the past” shtick was an act to get the teaching job. Wow. Fuck her, glad this is Best Timeline ending

“Regardless, she is probably the most rational of the three Venus sister...” Not in this scenario, Tiz. Not at all

Back to Florem to respect the wishes of a deceased artist. Arca Pellar’s song will see the light of day. And then eventually Praline can remix it, but I don’t think she’s gonna have the patience to, honestly

So Pellar... remembers the last timeline? But Praline and Barbarossa don’t? What... why??? What are the rules for cross-timeline memory!?

At least it doesn’t seem like we have to trek through the Witherwood again. Good

And our plan is scream our answer into a microphone so that Praline and Barbarossa hear it and the loser challenges us to a fight. We’re just provoking the boss at this point! Why???

*mic voice* FUCK PRALINE. SHE AIN’T SHIT

I still can’t hear her over her background music

“Why not recreate that song as something people today will be able to enjoy?” Why not make your own freaking song!? There’s market for both genres! It’s not like the freaking Beatles are any less popular because their stuff’s old, you know?

Praline I am far too cynical to fall for false tears. I didn’t even cave to a child’s real tears. You think that’s gonna stop me?

Oh lord her awful song’s the boss music. You know, I like Jpop every once in a while. It’s a decent genre! This... this is not a good song

See? Barbarossa just handed Praline a commission to do a song for them. It... was for Arca’s song, though, invalidating everything I’ve done. At least this time the sailors are working with her to keep true to the original spirit of the song

Well, that totally invalidated my entire choice, but at least everyone’s happy?

The Bestiary has a few interesting tidbits. Rabbits are sacred on the moon (because this game was made in Japan, of course they are), Praline has been lying about being 17 for a long freaking time, and Nikolai was apparently a fan. I... Nikolai, buddy, really? Never would’ve thought

Time for one last diversion: solving the economic crisis of Grandship. Alternis may have his heart in the right place, but his clouded judgement will wreck Grandship in the long run. Let make the Best Timeline one worth living in, where everyone’s happy

It just occurred to me that there’s over 30 Jobs. That’s nuts

Just heading straight to the council meeting, huh? Just as well, we already know who we’re here to support. Though I wouldn’t have objected to hanging out with Datz, Zatz, Alternis, and the Proprietress for lunch again

(Also, side note: The salted caramel tea I’m drinking right now is ~amaaaaaazing~. I’m not even really a salted caramel person. Bigelow teas are a gift to this earth. Alternis is gonna get a beating while I sip tea dramatically)

Shoot. The elevator’s still locked. Guess I’m dungeon running with encounters off again. Teeeeediuuuuum~

(I get the point is probably new encounters but: I don’t have Obliterate yet and I’m still overleveled. So!)

We aren’t abandoning the orphans, you overdramatic dork!

Wow. That might be the first boss I’ve lost to.

Alternis, you’re proposing now!? In the middle of combat over the economic security of orphans!? Learn some tact, doofus!

Minus Strike is complete bullshit when Alternis has 100x the max health we do. That’s just an instant kill

And Khamer seems really devoted to helping the poor despite all this. “Maybe we can have our cake and eat it, too.” Yeah, I like it!

Oh, sure, cut to starving orphans to make me feel bad

Oh, I love the Proprietress. Now that people have money to spend, they’re spending it on helping the poor! And the kids are being offered an apprenticeship and schooling! Exactly how it should be. I was worried they were gonna vilify my choice for a second there

I forgot Edea was only 18. These kids really are all younger than me

Ah, that’s cute. Magnolia wonders how terrifying Alternis’s face must be in the Bestiary and Edea can only reply with “...” Yeah, mmmhmm. Good response to the pretty-boy pompadour guy

Thank God those are over. I love this game, but that was basically an hours-long boss rush. Most of those were a bit more tolerable than the Bad Timeline runs, but I still don’t think they were written well. The flaw is in the fundamental conflict setup... but I think I’ve talked enough about my problems with them in previous entries, so let’s make like a New Timeline and cut the chit chat because we already know what’s up

I’ve finally escaped Morality Sidequest Hell. Now, there’s at least two more sidequests in the game, but I have high hopes for them. Mostly because they won’t be confined to the Choice structure that all of the others have been stuck in which means: 1. no moralizing (probably) and 2. development for party members other than Edea, because the Tiz, Yew, and Magnolia might as well have not been there at all for all they contributed to these quests

Wow, that ended up being way longer than expected. I was hoping to get right into the story this liveblog, but I guess that’s not gonna happen. Well, check back next time when I go race Geist to the spacetime compass. He... unfortunately has a good headstart considering I just did eight sidequests, but now the whole party’s level 60 and ready to go! He doesn’t stand a... geist of a chance