#raku plays her faves: ys viii

[rakumel]

City of Aegias, Capital of Eternia, past and present

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII: Roundup of Little Things I Like

In no particular order:

This absolutely delightful official artwork of Sahad and Ricotta. :D (Even if they don't have noses. I get that they're hard to draw, and it's kind of part of the anime style, but come on.)

These mineral vein landmarks and this waterfall, because I like shiny things.

(More spoileriffic favorite bits of mine under the cut.)

At some point in Chapter 5 we find out (or rather, confirm - there were hints back in Chapter 2) that Alison was several months pregnant. Luckily, Adol's party finds and rescues her husband Ed shortly after the revelation, so he gets back to the village just in time to be there for the birth of his son.

Later, both Alison and Ed ask Adol to be their son's godparent and name him. Unfortunately you can only choose between two names, Hope or Luke; you can't make up your own. Still, it's a cute detail, and the baby likes whichever name you pick.

Gladiator Grandma, aka Silvia, aka the Silver-Winged Hawk, age 70, who was undefeated in the Romun Coliseum back in her day.

When I accidentally deleted my screenshots, the only thing I really regretted losing was her introduction. You can find her as early as Chapter 4 on the Pangaea Plains - as in, the big open plains with killer Primordials everywhere. A tough armored beast attacks while she's talking with Adol and his party, and they draw their weapons to defend her. But Silvia says, "Nah, don't worry, I got this," and defeats it by herself in only a couple of strokes.

She then says she'll be glad to join their village, and tells the kids to be careful as she makes her way over there. Her description even changes from "Unassuming Old Woman (?)" to "Mighty Old Woman" right before we learn her real name. I love it.

Callbacks to older games in the Ys series! Even though this is the only Ys game I've actually played (as opposed to watching other people play them), I still appreciate little easter eggs like this.

Dana wielding the Corona Illiad weapons. They match her water theme!! And her base colors!! They got runes and gold on 'em and shit! ARE THEY NOT FUCKING GORGEOUS?!

(Sorry for the all caps screaming but I really really love these. And her.) (Did I mention she beat Dogi in an arm-wrestling contest?) (Yes, Dogi the Wallcrusher, that Dogi.) (I love her) (in a very platonic yet fervent way)

And finally, this beautiful shot of the whole adventuring party at night, which I hope tumblr doesn't squash.

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII: Feesh!

Today I'm going to talk a just little bit about Ys VIII's fishing mechanic. Kind of. Okay, if I'm being honest, it's partly about the fishing and partly about the characters doing the fishing.

In fact, the title of today's post comes from one of the lines Ricotta says when she starts fishing - it's just her pronouncing "fish" in the cutest fucking way imaginable.

Which brings me to the main reason I even bring it up. Like almost everything else in Ys VIII, there's little bits of characterization tucked into it, and I love love love me some character details. Even the ones that are seemingly insignificant, or that don't have anything to do with the story.

If you remember way way back in one of my other posts, I mentioned that this guy, Sahad, was a fisherman by trade, and that he was the one who taught the other characters how to fish. Some people might wonder: aside from maybe some novelty, why even bother letting the other characters do any fishing? Why not let the professional guy do it all the time, every time?

Well, there's a couple of reasons. First, there's the sensible game reason: Each character fishes in a slightly different manner. For example, Laxia has a better chance of catching rare fish and items, though it's more difficult for her to reel them in. Hummel can cast his line the furthest and can get to tinier spots (at least until another character joins the party later). Adol and Sahad are good for any basic fishing job, whereas Ricotta... to be honest, I can't tell if there's much difference in what she catches or how easy/hard it is for her to reel them in, but she's just so damn cute and excited to catch fish that it's fun to play as her anyway.

Which leads me to the second reason I rotate characters when it comes to fishing, and this one I'll admit is very much a "it pleases me" reason. It's because they gave each character individual voiced lines during fishing that reflect their personality. And...fuck it, I just love that amount of detail.

They say different things depending on the size and/or rarity of fish they catch, have their own unique, slightly puzzled reactions when they catch items instead, their own utterances when they're reeling a big one in, even lines for when they approach a place to fish. Sometimes that last one can prompt you to stop and look for fish shadows in places you wouldn't ordinarily, so it can be useful. But mostly, I just appreciate that they took the time to do those little bits of characterization.

I can't bring up fishing without bringing up Shoebill. Bring her one of every fish you catch (aside from the four biggest, rarest ones) and she'll reward you with some pretty cool items.

You also get some basic items like ores, plants, and meat just for a catching any fish. So it can be another way to harvest items if you've got enough bait. Once you've given Shoebill her share, you can also trade fish with Dina the merchant for even more items.

Another thing I like about the fishing in Ys VIII is that every party member can do it from the start, no questions asked.

To explain why I say that, I'll bring up another game I like very much: Dark Cloud 2 on the PS2. It is one of my favorites, but it's not without its flaws. And one of the things that bothered me the most was that the male character, Max, got to do the fishing and golfing mini-games; Monica, the female character, didn't - even though she was the one who taught Max how to play the golf game.

Now there may have been practical reasons for that. Maybe they didn't have the time or disk space to put in animations for Monica too. But given how big Dark Cloud 2 is, to be honest, I kind of don't buy that. Admittedly I don't have any evidence for this, but I suspect that the reason Monica doesn't get to fish or golf is because the developers didn't consider them "girl" activities.

I mean, if they'd included a little scene or throwaway line about Monica not wanting to handle fish or bait because they're gross and slimy and smell bad, ok, that would be fair. But they didn't, so I'm just guessing. My point is, whether it's sexist assumptions on the developers' part or just plain laziness, it rubs me the wrong way.

Not so in Ys VIII. Everyone you can play as, can also fish. Boom, done, simple.

So I do like the fishing in Ys VIII, but it's not entirely free of bullshit. Sometimes, instead of a fish, items, or a treasure chest, your character will pull up an Angry Catch. Angry Catches are a unique set of monsters that can't be encountered any other way.

It's a neat twist on the fishing mechanic, but I wish they'd tweaked it a little more. It's entirely possible to unwittingly reel in a monster that's several levels above your characters, or an undead monster that's impossible to defeat without a certain item you don't get until very late in the game. When this happens, you've got two options: dig your heels in for a long, LONG, tedious fight that you may or may not be prepared for, or run like hell to the next area and hope it doesn't kill your party before you get there.

Talking about YOU, Blobrovia. And hate staring. You gelatinous fucker.

(Okay, okay, to be fair, if you can whittle it down, stun it, and defeat it, it does give a nice amount of experience and a lot of a rare item. But still. It starts at level 70, which is not cool when your characters are barely level 40 when you first fish it up.)

Just so I'm not ending the post on a bitter note, here's an old screenshot of Adol holding up a fish with the most fun name, Boleh. It's the silly kind of name you'd say over and over to tick someone off or to cheer yourself up. Boleh boleh boleh. There's also a Queen Boleh that's larger and more purple, for the record. Not as fun to say though, boleh boleh.

And that's my report on fishing in Ys VIII. Good night, and good boleh.

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII: Chapter 2, Part 1

Last time, a couple more people were rescued, and we learned that there’s at least one dinosaur on this island. Unfortunately, it doesn’t subscribe to the “friends, not food” philosophy. But all things considered, our group of castaways is making the best of a bad situation. So far, their goals are to find any other survivors, build a safe meeting place for them, and develop a plan for actually getting off the Island of Seiren. No one else has successfully done it, but by god they’re gonna try anyway. And to be fair, they seem to be a skilled and optimistic bunch, so maybe they have a pretty decent shot at it.

Simple and straightforward, right?

Well, it’s sure seemed that way so far. In fact, one could probably argue that the castaways’ story alone is enough to make the game worthwhile. There’s a lot to it. In fact, this entry might be a little boring because I’ll be going over (or trying to) some of the mechanics they introduce in this chapter, and pointing out a couple of features in the pause menu that I really like.

I’ve been mostly glossing over the game mechanics so far because while it’s important to me that they work well and make sense, what really grabs me about this game - or any game, or any work of fiction - is the characters and the story, so it’s what I tend to focus on. And Chapter 2 opens up with what will eventually be a new twist to the plot.

To really set the stage though, you’ve got to hear the music that plays through the opening, which is one of the most beautiful tracks in the game (and there’s a LOT to choose from!!)

We’re not really given any explanation for this non sequitur after Chapter 1 ends, just a blank screen saying “Adol hears a girl’s voice that he does not recognize.” Then the camera (for lack of a better word) pans over still images of whatever it is Adol’s witnessing. There’s no voiced dialogue, so sometimes you have to take a moment to figure out who’s talking to whom.

The girl is named Dana, and it’s implied she has visions of future events. This gets the attention of the oracle at a place called the Temple of the Great Tree, and the people on the left in the lower screenshot there - priestesses, or servants of the oracle presumably - have come to Dana’s family to take her there. They say she has “been blessed with outstanding Essence,” which isn’t defined here, but for now it’s probably safe to assume from context clues that  it’s some power she has that’s responsible for her visions. Dana agrees to go with them to the temple, mainly for her family’s sake, as she’s heard that they’ll get great blessings after she leaves.

It feels like the beginning of a completely different story, and it’s not immediately clear what it has to do with Adol or his situation, or why he’s seeing any of this.

Not clear...yet.

Cut back to Adol, who had been sleeping in a makeshift hammock. Ah, it was only a dream he had, though it seems to have robbed Adol of any actual rest. You can tell Laxia the truth here (”I had a weird dream”) or just say it’s nothing. Either way, the game proceeds as normal. Makes sense. I mean, how many of us just go on about our day after having a weird dream? Usually we just blame it on the leftovers we ate last night and move on.

Laxia’s been sorting through some of the wreckage that’s washed up on shore, and she finds some clothes that are about Adol’s size and honestly, look pretty good on him. But if you miss his sailor outfit, don’t worry: you can change right back to it in the equip menu if you want. I thought that was a neat little touch.

If Adol thanks Laxia for the clothes, she just does the whole “It’s not like I like you or anything, baka!” bit in the upper screenshot.

Ah yes, the menu. Let’s take a look at a couple of things in it before proceeding with the story.

So here’s the Skills menu for each playable character (er...so far) (yes there will be more), which has some nifty little features including this awesome dynamic artwork of them. There are basic moves that you can do with the attack and jump buttons, but as your characters level up, they also learn Skills. 

Skills are special moves, usually with more range and/or power, that you execute with something called SP. SP is built up from normal attacks, and is indicated by a blue gauge in the lower right of the screen (when you’re actively playing). As you can see in the lower right of the screencaps, highlighting the skill in this menu gives you a quick description of what the move does and a graphic depicting the type and size of range it has - directly in front, small and centered around the character, etc. You can assign a skill to whatever controller button you want, change them at any time, and deploy it in battle with R1 + whichever button. At first, the game seems to encourage you to try as many of those skills as you can; you can level them up to 2, and then Max. I assume they do more damage at Max level, but truth be told I haven’t paid much attention.

You can also see each character’s Extra skill in this menu, but they only get one and it never changes. So...basically trivia. But still, I dig the move customization.

There’s also a tab for Adol’s journal, which has all kinds of useful shit in it. It keeps a record of things like how long you’ve been playing, how far you’ve traveled, and how much of the island you’ve explored. That last one’s actually important: the captain rewards you with an item for every 10 percent of the island you explore. Any time you pick up a new item or encounter a new monster, it’ll also be recorded here. This comes in handy whenever you need info for item harvesting purposes.

Whenever you meet a new person, it’s jotted down too. At first you get a quick bio and some more of that kickass character art; more details about them are filled in later as you talk to them and the game progresses. See that yellowish star in the top right corner of the page, along with the two black ones? That’ll become important later as we’re introduced to another game mechanic. (Especially if you want the game’s true ending.) It’s that character’s approval rating, and Adol can increase it by completing side quests and buying gifts for that person.

My only nitpick about this is that Dogi starts at one star just like the rest of the characters. It makes sense for the people who are relative strangers to only have one star, but supposedly Dogi’s known Adol for a long time by this point. Shouldn’t his approval rating already be maxed out? Oh well. Guess it wouldn’t be fair to leave him out of the gift-giving, anyway.

There’s more to the menu, but hopefully you’re getting a sense of how much detail and work went into this game, and damn man, this lady appreciates it.

...fuck, that got wordy. Here, have a funny picture to balance it out.

Thanks, Sahad. Appreciate you.

And of course I appreciate you too, Dogi! Anyway, yes...brand new morning on the island. Right now the facilities are few and simple - a campfire to cook with, a rudimentary forge to improve your weapons, a stump where you can make a few healing items, and a place where you can trade up some of your collected items for higher tier ones. But they’re all important now, and will be much improved in the future as we find and rescue more shipwreck survivors.

There’s basic tutorials for all the facilities, but I wanted to draw a little attention to the cooking one specifically. Laxia reluctantly admits she doesn’t know how to cook; since she’s a noblewoman, servants have always done it for her. Dogi’s got the perfect response above. In case you can’t see it, he tells her that now is the perfect time to learn, and he teaches her (and us) a simple fish soup recipe. Now that is exactly how you respond to someone who doesn’t know something you think is “obvious.” No judgement, no incredulous “how do you not know that??” bullshit. Bless your big wallcrushin’ heart, Dogi.

Dogi asks Sahad if he can catch some fish for their breakfast, so right around this time is when you learn how the fishing mechanic works. I know, I know, every game has fishing in it nowadays, but here it makes sense - they’re stranded on a desert island and gotta eat. Naturally, since Sahad’s the fisherman, he shows the others how, and even makes a fishing pole for them. Fishing’s very simple - just collect bait, look for fish shadows in any body of water, cast your line at them, mash X (and sometimes other buttons, if it’s a big fish) to catch. It’s not a bad idea to fish occasionally, as you get items for each fish you catch, and sometimes even fish up treasure or unique enemies.

There’s also a friend we’ll meet later who will be very interested in the fish you catch, and will reward you with rare items for giving them to her. 

Another new feature is this message board that’s been put up. Remember those approval ratings for Adol I mentioned earlier? This is where you get those side quests to raise them. You’ll want to check this board fairly often, because these quests are missable. You’ll also want to make sure you complete them within the allotted game time, although it’s usually a very generous amount of time and therefore not much of a problem.

By the way, see that parrot sitting on the notice board there? The one that looks like a cross between a Macaw and an African Grey? He’s not just for decoration. He even gets his own entry and approval rating alongside the people in Adol’s journal, which is fucking awesome.

No, I mean it, this bird absolutely deserves his entry. To explain why, let’s go back to the story for a bit.

So Adol, Laxia, and Sahad set out to find more people, only to come across a large tree obstructing their path. The parrot, who we learned earlier is named Little Paro, had followed them. Little Paro then flies back to their base and gets Dogi and the captain to help them move the tree and clear the way.

This is the mechanic for opening up some new areas of the island. If you come across an obstruction, and have rescued enough people, you can ask Little Paro to deliver a message to them to come and help you remove it.

(needed*)

Little Paro also comes and finds you whenever there’s trouble at the base. So basically he’s a little long-distance messenger. Also, nice reference to actual African Greys, who are not only vocal but incredibly smart. So it’s no stretch that he would not only know the layout of the island, but also recognize the characters and even use their names. Very cool.

So now that this way is clear (and I’m done fucking rambling about game mechanics and menus), what will they find on the other side? Besides more beach, I mean. We’ll find out next time.

[rakumel]

Showing off a raid (technically, redoing one for a better score). After completing one, you can redo it at any time by talking to Dogi.

Spamming Adol's Tornado Blade move because I was trying to level it up, and demonstrating his Extra Skill move at the end. You can also switch players, though I didn't in this one for some reason.

lol not my best gameplay, but good enough that you get the idea.

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves: Pardon Our Dust

So I kinda knew that Ys VIII was long and suspected it might not have been the best choice for testing out making a regular feature, but man, it’s longer than I remembered. I’ve played through Chapter 2 and am partway through Chapter 3 now, and there’s way more ground to cover. (If I’m remembering correctly I think there’s 6 chapters in all, not counting the Prologue and Epilogue. And they’re long, and a lot of shit happens.) I’m going to have to condense the posts I’ve already drafted and sort of change tactics. Instead of detailing literally every single thing that happens like the world’s most inefficient let’s play, I’m going to try and focus on the things I liked most, with just enough explanation to provide context. If possible. (When it comes to shit I like I can get wordy almost without trying, which is one good thing I’ve learned from doing this so far.)

Plus I’m playing faster than I’m writing, so half the time I don’t accurately remember the details of the parts of the game I already played.

The last few posts I’m keeping up though, even the one about how good the menus look because one of my favorite things about Ys VIII IS the presentation. The art just looks so fucking good and even though there’s a ton of information, none of it feels overwhelming because it’s so well-organized. I can easily find what I need and ignore what I don’t.

Anyway, learning and growing pains, y’all.

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII Chapter 6: Crouching Wasp, Hidden Dungeon

(This was actually put together several weeks ago along with most of the other Ys 8 posts. There's still a few more still sitting in my drafts, but lately I haven't had much time or energy to sit down and properly edit them. Also had to redo some screenshots, with mixed results. Sorry for the weird and long gaps in between these posts.)

One night, while trying to finish up some stuff before moving on to the end game, I discovered that there's an entire optional dungeon area that I've never explored before.

(Here, have an accidental screenshot of Dana right before she opens up a package of frozen whoopass.)

But anyway, y'all know the drill by now, spoilers below:

I'm not completely sure what unlocks it, to be honest. If it's doing all of Dana's quests in the past, or just the final one, or if you have to have defeated [BIG spoiler boss], or if it's something you get after beating the game once on a certain difficulty, or what. All I know is, after completing Dana's final event in the past and coming back to the present, there was a green shield icon on the map that wasn't there before. What that icon means is there's something of significance at that spot that you haven't discovered yet. Usually it's a landmark or castaway that needs to be rescued.

I'd found and cleared all those up until this point, so this new one intrigued me. It was located in the ruins of Aegias, specifically in the stupa - the building with the very tall crystal in the center of the city. In the past, Dana's been exploring a massive, multi-story sanctuary under there, but in the present that's all been closed off...

...until now.

The cavernous temple is now broken down and in ruins, like the rest of the city, and is crawling with high-level, annoying monsters. The part of the temple that had clear water running through it is now a murky, overgrown swamp. The floor that had magma all around it in the past, has cooled in the present, aside from huge walls of flame that shoot up as if an eruption might still be imminent. Not to mention, it's a lot darker everywhere. (I had to kind of doctor some of the screenshots just so you could tell what was in them, but trust me, it's dark. There's an item you can equip that mitigates that, but even that doesn't do all that much.) It's kind of fascinating in a sad way, if that makes any sense.

To show you what I mean, here are some screenshots of this dungeon area from Dana's time in the past:

Compare those with how it looks in the present:

The good news is, Dana doesn't have to explore it all by herself anymore; you got your three active party members that you can switch out as needed, just like all the other dungeon areas so far.

The bad news is, the lovely warp points on each floor (that also restored your health) in the past are all gone, aside from the first and last one. So yep, running a gauntlet here. Also each floor has a boss; sometimes one Dana's fought before, other times a souped-up version of one Adol and co has fought. And if you teleport out of the dungeon to restock your healing items before reaching that final checkpoint - because you WILL be burning through your healing items if you fight every monster in the place - you have to start all over again, and every monster will have respawned, including the bosses.

This dungeon is a stone bitch to do, is my point. It's actually much more difficult than when Dana had to go through it herself.

Shit, I thought, as I found out the hard way that the bosses don't stay dead. There better be something fucking amazing at the end of this.

It's not just that the monsters are high level: so is your party by this point. It's that they come in swarms, and sometimes drop on you suddenly. There's a few treasure chests that, when opened, cause a bunch of monsters to appear - that's not necessarily unexpected, but the sheer number of them was, at least to me.

Also, for the love of god and all that is holy, bring insect repellent. A LOT OF IT. Because wasp monsters have made a neighborhood on one of the floors, and they do NOT want you in it. You'll need that repellent to take out the hives immediately, or else you'll be dealing with a neverending swarm of monster wasps.

The hives also respawn if you leave the room and come back, by the way.

And did I mention one of the hives is on top of a series of blocks that you have to jump up to in order to proceed? So not only are you having to calculate the distance and move the camera around so you can see what you're doing, but you also have to dodge wasps so they don't knock you off the blocks. Oh, and make sure you choose an attack to deal with the wasps that doesn't also move your character too far or they'll fall off, and GOD FUCKING DAMN IT I HATED THAT FUCKING WASP ROOM SO GODDAMN MUCH SWEAR TO GOD IF I FALL DOWN JUST ONE MORE FUCKING TIME I'LL-

*cough* anyway. Yes. Sorry. What was I going on about? Oh, right. Is it worth all the trouble to get through this dungeon?

This is going to sound weird, but I'm still trying to make up my mind on that. I will say that there were some definite benefits to going down there. Since the bosses respawn, it's a relatively quick and reliable way to level up all your characters this late in the game. There's also a high chance to fish up an Angry Catch that drops a random stat boost item when defeated, and it's actually one of the least problematic monsters in there.

The dungeon's also full of excellent treasure, although if you're like me and get twitchy unless you find all of them, I recommend trying to get all of it in one go. Though, if you must make multiple visits, just run through the first couple of floors. I'm serious. Don't engage. The monsters won't pursue you past the boundaries of the room they're in, and you'll need the focus (and the healing items) for later floors where it's WAY more difficult to run straight through (Exhibit A: Murder Wasp Block Puzzle From Hell).

At the very end is a level 99 boss, if you like that sort of thing. It's very fast and a pain in the ass, but honestly, not nearly as bad as the stupid wasp swarm block ordeal. At least it's on a wide open, completely flat boss arena, so you can see what it's doing at all times. Even if what it's doing is usually "firing multiple lasers at you faster than you can react" and "magic bullshit that suddenly reduces you to one party member."

But there is a treasure chest beyond it, in front of the final monolith. So what's inside?

Three unique equippable items. I may have offhandedly mentioned it in another post (and I'll admit it, I'm too lazy/into writing this right now to pull them up and check), but your playable characters each deal a specific type of damage, which some monsters are weak to. With Adol and Dana it was Slash, with Laxia and Hummel it was Pierce, and with Sahad and Ricotta it was Strike. Each of the three medals corresponds to those types. And if I read the description correctly, you could, for example, equip Adol with the Pierce medal and his attacks would gain that type in addition to the Slash he already has.

It's an interesting concept, certainly not what I was expecting. I tried equipping Adol with one of the medals, then did one of the practice raids back in the village just to see what it felt like.

It's kind of a doubled-edged sword (no pun intended) from what I can tell. If a monster's weak to the type of attack you've got equipped, it takes damage from that plus whatever you would have done originally, so it's possible to really tear through some monsters, or monster crowds. Adol's got a special move that's basically just a quick, giant horizontal sweep: so with the Pierce medal on, he could mow down a cloud of bats or bugs (both weak to Pierce damage) in no time flat.

But if a monster's strong against whatever you've got equipped, it seems to actually reduce the damage you would have done without the medal. So...yay for situational use, I guess?

You also gain a new option through the save crystal in Castaway Village: you can reduce the maximum size of your party (or set it back to three, the default). I guess this is for people who like to challenge themselves, maybe do a solo character run. But I like having the other party members around, not only for monster crowd control, but because they can notice things like treasure chests and fishing spots before you do.

I also like the little encouraging ways they talk to each other when they encounter a monster that they know is weak to another character's attack style. "It's up to you, Sahad!" "All you, lil' lady!" "Your turn, Adol!" Things like that. I can definitely understand someone finding that extra dialogue annoying, and I guess by this point in the game you don't really need them to notice things anymore. But it just doesn't feel right to me to not have your friends alongside, who've come all this way with you. So I don't know that I'd be making much use of that new option.

But overall, even though I got very frustrated at some of the more difficult parts*, I'm glad the developers didn't forget about the underground temple, and put in the effort both to show how time had affected it and to make it an optional dungeon area with a unique reward. It would have been easy to just keep the door to it sealed, throw on some text that said 'welp, door's rusted shut, looks like it's not opening anytime soon, too bad' and called it a day. But they didn't, and I'd give them a thumbs up, except mine are still recovering from that room with roughly ten skillion pirate skeletons in it.

Seriously though, I never get tired of that cool feeling you get when you discover something in a game you thought you knew everything about. Even better when it's an entire dungeon, and better still when it's tough as hell but you conquered it anyway.

*re: the Wasp Part: I found out later that just spamming the insect repellent as needed while jumping from block to block to reach the hives made that part a lot easier. So while I still say it was frustrating, I think I was making that part way more difficult than necessary by being a combination of sleepy, stubborn, and stupid XD

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII, Chapter 5: Who You Gonna Call?

So another side plot I kinda like is the one about the ghost pirate ship. It's not nearly as exciting as the whole deal with the actual killer in Chapter 2 - in fact, it's a bit of a step down, kind of like an old Scooby-Doo cartoon after a true crime show. But like almost every other character and story that we've encountered so far, it's a little deeper than it first appears.

There's still some spoilers left over from Chapter 4 below. And some for part of Chapter 5, of course.

At this point in the game, you're given a couple of options as to how to proceed. Well...kind of. The only choice you're really given is which one you want to do first. Ultimately you have to do both to advance the game.

One of them makes more sense to do from a story advancement standpoint. If you saw the end of my last post on Chapter 4, you also saw that Dana is somehow now in Adol's time, the present. By this point she's physically recovered but still has a massive gap in her memory. She's also now officially in Adol's adventuring party, so you can play as her permanently now. (Yaaaay!)

You also may remember from past posts that the two big problems the villagers need to solve in order to escape the Isle of Seiren are 1) building a boat and 2) getting rid of the massive ship-destroying squid monster that patrols the island.

Dana thinks she may be able to help with the second one. She tells them that the squid monster - the Oceanus - was a problem in her time, too. There was once a research facility called Baja Tower that may still have information on how it was defeated back then.

I will not be talking about the Leaning Tower of Baja Blast this time, but I do want to share some pictures of it because I absolutely love this atmosphere it gives off. (Though my old eyes do not appreciate the nausea-inducing camera angles this level sometimes uses.)

Nope, we're going to talk about the ghost pirate ship option.

So some of the villagers have been seeing an old, abandoned looking ship sailing nearby, which then disappears behind a cape to the southeast. It moves incredibly fast and is consumed with blue fire that doesn't burn up the ship itself. While some of the villagers are convinced it's a haunted ship with evil intent, some of the more practical ones are just wondering what the hell it is. Is it an actual ship they can maybe use, or at least salvage some things from? Are there people actually sailing on it? It's all a big mystery, so professional adventurer Adol and his party go to investigate.

By now you should have enough people rescued to open the way to this massive cave where the pirate ship is currently docked. It certainly looks real, and not like, say, a projection on some fog or something.

Laxia notices the name "Eleftheria" carved into the hull of the ship. Sahad was already nervous at the prospect of setting foot on a haunted ship, but now he really doesn't want to get on it, because he recognizes that name. According to the tales he's heard, the Eleftheria belonged to Captain Reed, leader of an infamous band of bloodthirsty pirates who reportedly terrorized the seas about a century ago. But, says Sahad, he'd never heard of Captain Reed going to the Isle of Seiren.

Since way back in Chapter 1, Adol's occasionally come across skeletons dressed in pirate rags, some of which had handwritten notes. Up until this point, the notes were just kind of there to find, with no real explanation of how they got there, or why they matter to Adol's group now. A couple of the notes mention the unusual beasts on the island and how terrifying they were, but you don't really learn anything new about them or the island itself.

But from the five notes found so far (there's six in all, the last one is on the pirate ship), you can kind of get the gist of their story. A pirate crew came to the Isle of Seiren (somehow), over half their number died due to the beasts (and another possible cause we'll learn about later), a mutiny was attempted but thwarted. And...that's it. We don't know yet what ultimately happened to the crew or their captain.

The captain isn't named in the notes, but Laxia puts two and two together and now wonders if the skeletons they'd been finding were once members of Captain Reed's crew.

When they all get close enough to the ship, the gangplank lowers, as if inviting them on board. It could be a trap, but that doesn't stop Adol and his crew from stepping aboard (reluctantly, in some cases).

Shortly after they're all on, the gangplank is lifted, and the ship takes off for the open sea. Well, shit.

Worse, these pirate skeletons start coming to life all over the ship. It's easy to knock them down, but they'll just get up again shortly after; you can't actually defeat them now. To properly defeat them, you'll need an item that you won't get until well after this part is done, which is one of the few things about this game that I didn't really care for. But at least you can use these enemies to level up your characters' skills if you need to. Otherwise, it's best to move quickly along to keep from getting swarmed.

But the good news is that there's treasure chests scattered all over the ship. Some contain good loot, while others contain the pages of Captain Reed's ship log, which explains how he ended up on the Isle of Seiren - and fills in some important details that the old rumors left out, or flat-out got wrong.

I'm just going to post the second page of Reed's log verbatim, as it does a good enough job summing up most of his story:

"Before I reach the Isle of Seiren, I must reveal a simple truth, regarding the scouring by fire of the archipelago's villages. None were spared…certainly not the men, but women and children fell just as surely." "The people curse the name of Captain Reed, and blame me for these heinous acts… but I tell you, I am innocent." "The Eleftheria is crewed mostly by victims of the slave trade… including myself. It seems the authorities did not appreciate us banding together and fighting to emancipate the slaves, that we could all stand free. The people of the archipelago accepted us, and even took to calling us the Pirates of Justice. Truly kind folk, they were." "And just as truly, it was the men of Greek's navy that put the villages to the torch. Word later reached my ears that they did this to draw us out, to purge the Gaete Sea of our ilk." "I'd sooner wallow in horse manure for a hundred days than obey those of so twisted sense of justice. But the people have suffered enough, and I would trouble them no further." "After giving it much thought… I have decided to go to the naval headquarters and turn myself in."

So yeah - even though Captain Reed was a pirate, he swears it was the navy that destroyed all those villages, just to try to flush him out of hiding. So to prevent further attacks, he willingly turned himself and his crew in to the authorities.

Sahad points out that the Greshun navy has a sterling reputation, so he's a little bit shocked to find they were hiding a scandal of this magnitude. He also mentions that "Eleftheria" means "freedom" in their language, which given what we now know about Captain Reed and his crew, seems an appropriate name for the ship. (Coincidentally, were any of the devs fans of One Piece? Because this setup sounds very familiar.)

(And speaking of coincidences: No, I had no clue tumblr was going to do an ad campaign for a live action One Piece thing back when I was first writing this. Unlucky timing on my part. Just adding that in for the record.)

Anyway, as the group explores more of the ship, they find more pages of Reed's log. The navy offered him a deal: he would explore the dangerous Isle of Seiren for them, and in exchange, they would let his crew go free - IF he made it back alive. It was clearly a bullshit deal, but Reed more or less had to take it - if he didn't, the navy would simply execute his crew instead.

For the journey to the Isle of Seiren, the navy replaced his usual crew with a bunch of actual criminals, none of whom had any experience sailing, or even any idea about how dangerous the island actually was. Many of them had absolutely no loyalty to Reed either. He mentions one guy that tried to mutiny; Reed simply kicked his ass overboard into the ocean. (One of the pirate notes seems to be written by that guy: he survived the ocean and washed ashore, only to get cornered by beasts later.)

Despite all these handicaps, Captain Reed landed his ship on the island, even managing to escape the Oceanus. But the voyage rapidly went downhill from there. Not only were the men getting picked off by beasts and rebelling against him left and right, but Reed himself contracted some sort of disease that he thinks was unique to the island. (None of the current castaways ever get mysteriously sick though. Unless the poison status effect counts.)

Still, Captain Reed persisted in exploring as much of the island as he could, not only for the sake of his original crew, but also for a handful of the guys on the new one, who had come to admire him too. Unfortunately, after the last page, it's implied that he eventually succumbed to his illness, and neither he nor the navy's men ever made it off the island. His only comfort was that he'd heard that his family had escaped from the navy and was safely in hiding on a small island in the Gaete Sea.

After searching the whole interior of the ship (well, as much as possible - some parts are underwater and therefore not accessible right now), everyone finds themselves back out on the deck. And it wouldn't be a new area without a boss to fight. Unlike the skeletal minions, it IS possible to defeat this big one, for some reason.

Anyway, after you defeat it, the spectre leaves behind a very important item.

Yep, it's a sea chart of the waters around the Isle of Seiren, which includes the migration path of the Oceanus. So not only will they know where it will generally be at any given time, but also where it makes its nest. This knowledge, combined with the information obtained from the Tower of Baja, will finally allow them to defeat the Oceanus once and for all, clearing the way for them to leave the island.

And it should be no surprise by now who put that chart together, or whose angry spirit they just defeated, for that matter.

Yep, it's the ghost of Captain Reed, and the chart was his work. He lets them take it; besides, like he said, it's not like he has any use for it himself.

The old ship returns to the dock it came from, and lets all its living passengers disembark.

But before Captain Reed departs for the afterlife, he singles out Sahad, recognizing him as a fellow man of the sea, and tells him they'd better not meet up in the underworld anytime soon.

Unfortunately the rest of Reed's farewell speech is a little corny, and it doesn't help that they gave him a stereotypical cartoon pirate voice. But, all the same, it's a bit of encouragement.

Soon after Adol and his group leave, the ship loses its unearthly blue fire and sinks further into the water, never to sail again. You can go back to it from the map, though, just like any other location. (In fact, you'll have to, if you're the type who needs to complete everything. It's just not possible to fully explore and loot the ship the first go-round.

So the story of Captain Reed isn't perfect. But, I still kind of like it because it's another example of a detail that they didn't just forget about. It would have been easy to just not do any of this - to just have the pirate skeletons be there with no explanation other than, hey, maybe they crashed here a long time ago. Or the sea chart could just be found in a chest somewhere.

But they took the time and effort to put in a little backstory, and make an entire pirate ship level with a boss and everything. It was hinted at near the beginning of the game, and a nice payoff came later. I just...like that, y'know?

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII, Chapter 4: Badly Abridged

Let’s see if I can squish Chapter 4 into a single post. On one hand, it’s a lot shorter than I remember. On the other hand, I generally can’t shut up when talking about this game.

Also: major end of Chapter 4 spoilers at the end of this post.

Hummel shows back up and joins the party permanently.

From the summit they can see some ruins and a massive tree, but no clear way to get to said ruins. Still, turning back’s not an option, so down the other side of the mountain they go.

They camp for the night at the foot of the mountain. Adol fesses up about his highly detailed dreams, where he’s actually experiencing things as Dana, not just seeing her.

The group doesn’t know what to make of that, but they stay supportive. I’m 99 percent sure no one at Falcom meant it this way, but in my dumbass imagination, I can’t help but wonder if at least one person in the party wondered that night if Adol was trying to come out as genderfluid. I don’t know about y’all, but I’d buy every Ys game made until the end of time if they were bold enough to do that.

He has another very vivid dream that night, where we play as Dana again in the royal capital of Aegias. It’s fuckin’ ornate and gorgeous, and none of the way too many touristy-style screencaps I took can do it justice.

If you saw the title The Lost World and immediately thought of the Jurassic Park movies, you’re not alone. In the screenshot you can kind of see the ruins in the distance, but to get there, they’ve got to cross these plains full of Primordials, most of which will stomp your party flat if you try to pick a fight with them at this point.

If you love the found family trope, you’re in for a treat in this camping scene that takes place after they’ve crossed the plains, but just before they get to the ruins. Ricotta���s always wanted a family like the ones she saw in the books she and her dad collected, and with this group, she feels like she’s finally getting her wish. And everyone else is all, “Heck yeah, we’ll be your family.”

This isn’t a major plot point or anything, but I shared it anyway because it gave me both the warm fuzzies AND the happy sniffles.

Back in the past, Dana sees - through Adol’s experience - that he and his group have made it to some ruins, but a big chasm’s keeping them from actually entering them. Also, oh shit - she recognizes the ruins as what’s left of Aegias. Apparently something happened between her time and Adol’s that destroyed the capital city.

Remember back in Chapter 3 where Dana planted a sapling in the past that grew into a big-ass tree in the present, allowing Adol’s party to cross a canyon and get to the mountain where they couldn’t before? She basically does the same thing here.

Back to the present day, and....

After exploring the ruins a bit, they finally find Thanatos Beldine (kind of...more like he finds them) and turns out he’s both older and goofier than they imagined. He’d been captured by a flying Primordial, but managed to barely escape with his life. Unfortunately, it left him stuck on the wrong side of the mountain. But at least now Ricotta’s finally reunited with her adopted dad :)

Speaking of goofy, the story’s been told very well and very sensibly so far. So even though this part’s a stretch, I’d say they earned the right to have a little silliness. As a treat.

So turns out the reason Hummel came with the party this time was to deliver a suitcase to Thanatos. And its contents turned out to be...seriously, y’all might want to sit down for this if you’re not already...a jar of pickles and blueprints for a ship. And the reason Thanatos got those things was because, on a whim, he wrote that request down on a note and put it in a bottle, then threw it out to sea. And Hummel found it, and apparently that’s good enough to count as a contract.

(Yes, I have many, MANY questions about all of that.)

But yes, Hummel’s been walking around with blueprints for a ship this entire time. God damn it. (For the record, he also canned the pickles, and according to Thanatos, they were damned good.)

To Mr. Beldine’s credit, he generously gives Adol the ship blueprints to take back to Castaway Village so that everyone, himself included, can get off the island. Once they take care of the giant squid problem, of course.

So. MAJOR SPOILER TIME. 

But first, I’m posting two images of really big fish catches, because a) I want to give you ample time to turn back if you don’t want to see the spoilers and b) damn it I nearly killed my thumb again trying to reel these big stupid scaly bastards in, so I’m showing them off.

(Wait...464.1 cm? You’re telling me Sahad landed a fish that’s over 15 fuckin’ feet long with only a homemade fishing rod??? God DAMN)

Er...anyway. Once again, major spoilers for the game and the end of Chapter 4 ahead. Everyone still here, you ready?

So Thanatos mentions to Adol that there’s a temple in the ruins, at the foot of that massive tree they saw way back on top of the mountain, that he should check out. But, there’s yet another gap in the ruins they can’t cross. So there’s yet another trip back to Dana in the past, who plants another sapling near the temple. (Dana does a lot more besides that; I’m glossing over so much exposition and shit here, it ain’t funny.)

So once again, plot tree to the rescue. After making their way through the temple and fighting off all the monsters that have taken up residence in it over the years, guess what Adol and company find?

Another tree! No, wait...something’s in the tree.

Did I say something? I meant someone.

Holy balls, IT’S DANA. Like...really, actually, physically there.

She wakes up and recognizes Adol, but can’t remember why she was in the tree, or how she got that red tattoo-like mark on her shoulder. Dana’s still groggy, which is understandable for someone who’s been asleep for god knows how many years, and hasn’t had anything to eat since. The party quickly agrees to take her back to Castaway Village, and that’s where the chapter ends.

Well...huh. Damn.

I’ll admit that characters having amnesia in games like this isn’t exactly breaking new ground storywise. BUT, I still love the breadcrumb way Ys VIII tells its story. Mysteries arise, then get solved, but the act of solving them opens up more mysteries, advances more of the story, reveals more about its characters. Even sidequests that in other games would be wholly separate and self-contained contribute to the story.

For example, there have been notes left behind on pirate skeletons that we’ve been finding since way the hell back in Chapter 1. We get a full explanation of those in Chapter 5, PLUS a thing at the end of the pirate story that’s necessary to the main story.

And, jar of pickles with ship blueprints aside, none of it feels unnatural. None of it feels too rushed or too slow. None of it feels like filler. Even the optional quests you do for the characters don’t feel pointless or like a waste of time. Since Adol’s the main character we’re meant to project onto, he unfortunately remains mostly a blank slate, but almost everyone else? Feels as multi-layered as actual people. 

Considering we’re now up to over 20 characters, that’s fucking amazing to me. And there’s still a few more of ‘em to come. Aaaaand by the way, we’re not done with past Dana, even though she’s been found in the present. Yep, Dana’s such a badass that she continues to solve mysteries while existing in two different timelines.

This game, y’all.

[rakumel]

Ys VIII screenshots out of context, Part 2

Part 1

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII: Damn It Damn It Damn It

So I did a very stupid thing and accidentally deleted a lot of the screencaps I’d made for Chapter 4. I can go back and remake some of them, as the game very kindly has a feature that allows you to rewatch any cutscenes you’ve unlocked, but any gameplay and one-time events, well, they’re just gone =\

I’ll see what I can salvage and hopefully can slap together something for Chapter 4 soon-ish. In the meantime, have this line I love from Chapter 3.

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII, Chapter 3 Part 3: In Soviet Seiren, Chicken Roasts YOU

Today, we’ve already reached the end of Chapter 3. It wasn’t as long as I remembered, but a lot was packed into it. We climbed a mountain, found a cabin and some friends, and picked up a possible lead on how to defeat the dino monsters that have been extremely tough so far.

I say “friends” plural, because in addition to Ricotta, there’s a couple more castaways to rescue in this chapter.

The first time I played through this game, I didn’t rescue Miralda here until well after I was “supposed to” because the game put her in that huge foggy area full of Primordials that at this point can one-shot everyone in your party if you try to fight them. So I wound up missing her approval rating quest and never got it maxed out. It wound up not mattering much because Adol’s overall approval was still high enough to get the best ending, but it still kinda bothered me.

So this time around, I remembered to just fucking RUN and found her camp (which functions just like the ones Adol and his party make)(which is cool).

On the way to find the cave with orichalcum in it, if you explore the area thoroughly you’ll find Austin. He’s interested in the landmarks around the island, and will reward you for finding them all.

In the same cave where you fought the Red Primordial, there’s also this little cat dude, who will reward you for feeding him cooked dishes. He won’t come with you, though. Sadness.

If you talk to Ricotta before heading back up the mountain, you get this scene where you find out that the shoebill that’s been hanging around Castaway Village is Ricotta’s mentor. Any words of wisdom for Adol, Shoebill-sensei?

...thanks. At least Shoebill will now help out on raids, so there’s that.

At this point you also have the option to do an approval quest for Sister Nia, which amounts to an escort mission up a big hill. Yeah, yeah, I know. Stop groaning, it’s not that bad. Seriously, it isn’t. She’ll follow you, but if you get too far ahead she’ll just stop and wait for you. So it’s easy to run ahead, clear the path, then go back and get her to resume the quest.

There’s nothing super interesting about doing the quest itself, but I like the character development Sister Nia goes through here. The top screenshot looks gratuitous, but she’s actually got a good reason for tearing up her dress: on the way up the hill, she kept tripping on the hem, until finally she’d had enough and did something about it, rather than continue to let it be a hazard.

Sister Nia doesn’t really abandon her faith here, but she does examine it. She decides that rather than going straight to thoughts and prayers every time trouble comes up, she’s going to do what she can as a person first. Good on you, Sister.

There’s a bridge that needs to be repaired in order to access the western foot of the mountain, which is where the group needs to go in order to find the cave with orichalcum. In the process we learn that Ricotta’s lived on this island for as long as she can remember, possibly implying that she’s been here even longer than Thanatos. That could explain why her teachers are animals and she was super excited to see other people.

After fending off more monsters, they find the cave with fossils in it, and sure enough, there’s orichalcum in it. Laxia starts to wonder if there might be something to the dreams Adol’s having.

Despite all that gleaming ore in the cave, for reasons I can’t remember (maybe they had difficulty mining it?) they can only bring back a smallish lump of usable orichalcum. It’s not enough to make even one entire weapon, so Kathleen suggests just enhancing the weapons they already have with the ore. 

She gets to work, and soon everyone in the party has an anti-Primordial upgraded weapon ready for use. Good thing too, because not only does it make going back up the mountain easier, but there’s a firey death chicken boss waiting for them at the summit.

BUKAWK. BUKAWK. BUKAWWWWWWKMOTHAFUKAAAAAH

It dives at you, breathes fire, and tries to slap you with its claws. Bring plenty of burn medicines and make damn good use of the dodge roll, as well as any attacks that can reach up, because this boss will spend a lot of time in the air and out of reach. (Adol’s Tornado Blade is good for this.)

After defeating the Hell Rooster, the way to the summit of Mt. Gendarme is clear, and the group is rewarded with a spectacular sight:

The ruins of an ancient city that seem vaguely familiar and a massive waterfall.

Well, the game seems to think we’ve surpassed Mt. Gendarme, so that’s it for Chapter 3. But hang on, game - we’re not on the other side of the mountain yet. Once we are though, you’d better buckle up, kids - because the plot’s gonna take off.

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII, Chapter 3 Part 2: The Little Badass With the Cheesy Name

aka Climb Every Mountain, Ford Every Stream, Fail to Sneak Around Every F*cking Dinosaur

Dawn breaks over Mount Gendarme, and today Adol, Laxia, and Sahad begin the long climb up. Well, after we do our overnight check in with Dana, that is.

The big important hint we get from Adol’s dream this time is that weapons made from a metal called orichalcum are capable of defeating Primordials (called Saurians in Dana’s time). So the big dinosaur-like beasts that have been a lot of trouble so far? Looks like they won’t be for much longer.

Dana’s friend Sarai is leaving the temple to go back to her home, but gives Dana a nice set of new blades as a parting gift. Sarai mentions that the weapons were tailor-made for someone Dana’s size, so it would be a pain to have to take them back for something else. So here we learn that she’s very short fun sized no, you know what, let’s stick with short.

Back in the present, Adol and company start their ascent up the mountain. Aside from some giant scorpion monsters that can paralyze you and your team, the beasts aren’t too much of a problem. There will be a lot of Primordials, though, and you don’t have any orichalcum weapons yet, so it’s best to just avoid them and/or run away for now. It’s not impossible to defeat one or even two if you’re forced to, but it takes a long time to whittle down their health and you’ll probably use a lot of healing items in the process. Mount Gendarme counts as a dungeon, so you can’t stand still to regenerate health, either.

About halfway up or so, Adol and company come across the strongest evidence yet that someone’s already been living on this island:

An unmistakable cabin, half-hidden with leaves and vegetation. Laxia knocks on the door, but gets no reply. You can’t leave and come back later: the game literally blocks off every exit, so you’re forced to enter the cabin and look around. That seems a little douchey to me, but whatever. I mean...granted, they’re halfway up a mountain on a deserted island, it makes sense to be curious about a cabin. But just going in and tromping around what is clearly someone’s home? Using their stove, sleeping in their hammock? And suppose the original owner came back and didn’t take kindly to that? Maybe it’s me, maybe I’m the weird one for thinking of these things.

No one currently inside, but it’s clear that someone’s been here a while, and probably still lives here now. Laxia also makes another interesting discovery:

There’s a journal with handwriting in it that matches the notes signed “T”, that were posted in the watchtower they’d found some time ago. Hmmm....!

After a rest in the cabin, they travel further up the mountain, into a huge cave, and find that same red Primordial that’s been showing up since the first chapter. Now if I were the one writing this story, this would clearly mean it likes them and just doesn’t know how to properly express that. I mean, it seems to be following them around, and hell, it even took care of the serial killer problem for them. That sounds a lot like a dino friend to me.

But I’m not in charge, so no dino friend. Just another damn boss fight with this thing. But at least we do get....

This little badass named Ricotta, and her excellent entrance. After Adol’s party lays the smackdown on it, the red Primordial gets back up yet again. Just as everyone’s wondering what the hell it’s going to take to put the bastard down for good, Ricotta jumps in and announces herself. She does a backflip and tosses a couple of darts at the beast that actually hurt it, and it runs away.

Naturally the group is grateful for the save, but also, they have lots of questions. (None of which are, “Who the hell named you after Italian cheese?”)

Everyone heads back to the cabin, which as it turns out is where Ricotta lives with her adoptive father. Or she did until about a month ago, when he left to go observe the Primordials and didn’t come back. Naturally, she’s worried about him, and naturally Adol and company are worried about her, even though she can forage for herself (and has been). (Seriously, she even made the tea she served them, right down to picking the blend of leaves.) Especially Sahad, who goes into dad mode immediately.

Understandably, he does NOT want to leave her all alone up there. Luckily, when they ask if she wants to come back to the village with them, she readily says yes, excited to meet other people. They also agree to help Ricotta look for her missing father.

Ricotta clears up a couple of things while they’re at the cabin, though. She reveals not only T’s full name - Thanatos Beldine - but also that he’s her missing father figure. (I guess a guy named Thanatos would think Ricotta’s a perfectly reasonable name.)

There’s also the matter of the dart Ricotta used that injured the Primordial. Turns out the tip is made with a special kind of metal that none of them have seen before - aside from Adol in his dream, of course, but he doesn’t speak up about it at this point.

Since it’s a metal, the group decides to take it back to the village and ask the blacksmith there if she knows anything about it. Ricotta comes with, and she becomes a playable character in your party.

The Skills menu art is still awesome, but it makes her seem like some sort of feral child like Gau from FFVI, and that’s not really accurate. I wonder if the artist only had descriptions to go on, or something. I also like Ricotta’s weapons, which are two club-like things that can attack close up or extend to attack long distance in some Skills.

This doesn’t have anything to do with anything, but I love how Ricotta starts mimicking Sahad once they get to the village. It’s just so adorable, y’all.

Anyway...they take Ricotta’s last dart to Kathleen, their blacksmith, and she notes that the metal looks a lot like the legendary metal named...surprise, surprise...orichalcum.

Now it’s been a while since I’ve played this part of the game, so my memory’s very fuzzy on the exact sequence of events here. But if the order of my screenshots is accurate, this is the point where Adol mentions his dream, as well as where to actually find some orichalcum - in some old strata. This makes Laxia give him the side eye - she’s actually studied Primordials in books, so she knows what strata is, but how the hell does Adol know?

But Ricotta backs him up - after all, she had the darts, and those had to come from somewhere - and says she and her dad found that metal in a cave with Primordial fossils in it. Where, y’know...old strata is likely to be.

Next time, it’s back up the mountain with our mining equipment, and a roundup of other fun events in Chapter 3.

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII, Chapter 3 Part 1: The Plot(s) Deepen(s)

Things are looking up in Chapter 3, mainly because we’ll be spending the bulk of it climbing the huge mountain that divides the island. The castaways name the mountain Gendarme. (Or Gen D’Armes in other versions of this game - it looks like both could be correct, so I’ll just be sticking with Gendarme since that’s how the PS4 version spells it.) 

Up until this point, we’ve had two main storylines going. The first one we’re introduced to, and the one we’ve mostly been concerned with, is the story of Adol and the survivors of the Lombardia shipwreck on the isolated Isle of Seiren. So far it’s been a pretty active one - the castaways have found each other, built a village, explored the island, defended themselves from monsters great and small, and resolved the mystery of a serial killer.

But just before Chapter 2 starts, the game starts telling a second story about the life of a young lady named Dana. Through Adol’s dreams, we see that she’s gifted with magic powers that allow her to manipulate the elements and briefly see into the future. We also see that she’s not afraid to act quickly when necessary. After having a 'red vision’ - a vision of an immediate disaster that would happen too fast to be completely prevented - Dana woke up her best friends and convinced them to help her break a reservoir just in time to save her city and the temple from a great fire. While it ruined the temple interior, the damage would have been far worse had Dana not acted at all.

While both Adol’s story and Dana’s are well-told and compelling, it’s still not clear how the two stories are related. Nor do we know exactly why Adol’s having dreams about this lady he’s never met - it would make sense for Dana to have visions since we’ve already established she can, but as far as we know Adol doesn’t have powers like that. He’s just a decent adventuring guy who’s good with a sword (and occasionally says dumb things, if it’s me controlling him).

Chapter 3 is where the two stories finally start coming together. (Some references to Chapter 2 spoilers under the cut.)

Before Chapter 3 starts, we get the usual sepia-toned peek into Dana’s life. We learn her last name, and see her officially granted the title of Maiden of the Great Tree. In case you don’t recall, it’s basically like a high priestess - in her society, it’s on par with royalty in rank.

But when the dream ends, we don’t cut back to Adol and Castaway Village right away. Instead...

...we get to see Dana’s world in color, and play as her for a while. Even though she’s now got a title and prestige, Dana still feels like the girl that liked to explore and check things out for herself. Having to behave with decorum and properly address people who were once her peers and friends feels especially weird to her.

Here’s her Skills menu art, which is fantastically awesome like the others, even if like 90 percent of it is her hair.

While exploring the temple where Dana lives and works, we see this little girl, who’s not named yet. We’ll learn her name later, and find out why she’s there much later.

We’re also properly introduced to Dana’s best friends Olga and Sarai, who accompany Dana to the start of some kind of trial she has to go through, as sort of her first official duty as the Maiden of the Great Tree.

This is where you the player assume control, and you’ll quickly find out that the trial is more annoying than dangerous. There’s a strong wind that occasionally keeps you from progressing, and also blows these plant-like enemies into your path. Fortunately, they’re no big deal.

Also, check out Dana’s unique weapon here. It’s some kind of cross between swords and chakram, and just looks gorgeous as hell.

Dana makes it to the end of the trial and plants that curved thing in the top screenshot, which she calls a prayer tree sapling. Those will become important shortly.

But for now, Dana plants the little tree, and is supposed to have some kind of vision for the future of her country, which we now learn is named Eternia. Instead, she experiences brief flashes of drowning in a shipwreck. Specifically, Adol’s experience.

Dana doesn’t know what the fuck that’s about, and chalks it up to nerves. She quickly makes up a story of having a vision of a calm ocean, which the others in attendance take as a sign of a good future. Only her friend Olga there seems to suspect something’s not quite right.

Adol finally wakes up at this point, and we go back to the castaways for a while.

It’s been about a week since the end of Chapter 2, and everyone’s still coping from the events that transpired. It’s got a proper melancholy feel to it at first.

Eventually, the castaways decide to try and fulfill the captain’s last wish, to get everyone safely off the island. But to do so requires solving two seemingly impossible problems. First, they need a ship that can hold everyone. But there’s no shipwright here; the closest thing they had was the captain, who’s dead and buried now. But even if they do build a ship, or somehow find one, there’s still the matter of the hostile giant squid out in the ocean, the same one that sank the Lombardia and marooned them all in the first place, and who more recently cut Sir Carlan’s little boat trip short.

After some more discussion, they decide that maybe, just maybe, the solution to at least one of those problems might be somewhere on a part of the island that they haven’t explored yet. There’s a massive mountain that divides the island, separating the as-yet uncharted northern half of the island from the southern half. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the reason our exploring trio haven’t set foot on the mountain yet is because there’s a massive canyon alongside it they can’t cross. 

At least, that was the case the last time they saw it. But remember that sapling Dana planted in Adol’s dream?

It’s a massive tree now, and it’s forming a bridge to the foot of the mountain. Not only that, but we now have some confirmations about the dreams Adol’s been having. First, Dana is a real person who lived during an era long past - something we probably strongly suspected, but now have confirmed. Second, her actions during her time affect Adol’s group in the present. If you were wondering, yes, there will be a few more times where Adol’s group will come across an impassable gap, and we’ll have to jump back to Dana’s time to fix it.

For now though, it’s enough to get them to the foot of Mount Gendarme and set up camp. Next time, they’ll start the climb. The bad news is, they’ll find the mountain’s crawling with Primordal beasts they can’t easily defeat. But the good news is, they’ll also find a little human ray of sunshine there.

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII, Chapter 3: ‘Tis the Season on the Isle of Seiren

After the harrowing events that closed Chapter 2, the islanders could use something more lighthearted and fun. How about some holiday cheer? 

(via Hallmark)

So one of the things you can start doing in Chapter 3 is purchasing gifts for the other castaways.

Dina’s been sifting through the things that have washed ashore, and has found some unique items that you can trade for. Giving these to the castaways will raise their approval rating, and you literally can’t go wrong here - a prompt will appear when you talk to the person with the correct gift in hand.

For some of the gifts, it’s pretty obvious who they’re meant for. Others you might have to guess at, or if all else fails, process of elimination. (Or, if you still don’t get a prompt, there may be someone out there you haven’t rescued yet.)

Hostess? (Naah, you don’t get a body like that by eating Donettes. Don’t ask me how I know.)

When giving someone a gift, you get a closeup of them, and have a short conversation where they reveal a little more about themselves. It’s not that much different from any other game with a friendship or love interest mechanic. Still, I like how they use it in this game for character development.

Gifts benefit in other ways, too: Your playable characters get a stat boost, and Adol gets half of whatever boost they get. For example, if Laxia gets a 5 point defense boost, Adol gets a 2 point boost to his. If Sahad gets 100 more hit points, Adol gets 50. You get the idea. Other castaways may have more items available for you to trade for, or if nothing else, better bonuses during raids (if you opt to participate in those). So even if you don’t care about the popularity aspect, there’s still good reasons to invest your time and items for gifts. (Or not, I suppose, if you’re purposely trying to get the neutral or bad endings.)

You can also find some of the gifts in treasure chests while out exploring, like the Big Seed for Little Paro here. (Of course he gets a gift too. He’s a valuable member of the crew just like everyone else!)

Oh yeah, and here’s this other guy we rescued, a young nobleman named Austin. He’s not as bad as the screenshot makes him look. Mostly he’s just inept, not mean spirited. I included this because I thought his reaction was kind of hilarious: “Oh my! You’re so wonderful and thoughtful!” *grabbyhands*

Anyway, Adol’s got the gifts covered. But it wouldn’t be a proper Christmas without a tree to decorate, now would it?

I’m serious.

Sahad has a quest early in Chapter 3 that involves you helping him find a tree. It’s for a custom from his homeland, where people write down their wishes and decorate a Wish Tree with them. He thinks it might help cheer up the castaways here. Luckily the game is nice enough to indicate right where a good tree is.

They bring the tree back to Castaway Village, and Sahad gathers everyone together to explain what they’re doing. He passes out shells for everyone to write a wish on. And for those of you wondering, “Won’t everyone just write ‘Get off this damn island’ or something?” Well, the littlest rescue, Quina, has you covered.

She says something to the effect of, “Yeah okay, I want to get off the island too, but what about after that? There’s a lot of stuff I want to do once I get back home.” To which everyone says, “....huh. Okay, fair enough.”

Once the event is over, you can look at the tree anytime to read everyone’s wishes, and see what kind of shell they picked. People you rescue after the event add their wishes too!

I like this quest because not only does it have more of those little character tidbits I love so much, but also because it embodies a lot of the traits I like about Sahad. He’s a big-hearted guy, and wants to spread that care and goodwill to everyone else in his own way. Kind of like Santa, if we’re sticking with the Christmas theme. (We don’t have to. I basically just used that to tie his quest and the gift-giving together.) Sahad may be a big strong middle-aged guy covered in tattoos, but there’s not a mean or even judgemental bone in his body, and I am here for it.

He’ll be turning on the dad energy again later on in this chapter, when Adol and crew find a human ray of sunshine further up the mountain. But that’ll be for another post.

(Ditto, I lose track of time when writing these!)

[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII, Chapter 2: Nemo No More

So? Everyone got your deductions ready? I hope so, because today we name the Nameless Ripper. Let’s see if you were right.

(Spoilers for the end of Chapter 2 below the cut. This will be the last post about Chapter 2; after this, we’re movin’ on!)

So last time, Adol, Laxia, and Sahad might have found the most important clue so far. Razor-sharp, military grade wire was set up in a trap outside the village, and was specifically identified as wire used by the Romun military. 

But aside from Euron, no one else in the village is part of the military...

...right?

While discussing the clues they’ve collected so far, Sahad and Laxia remember that Doctor Kiergaard had talked about being in the Kingdom of Altago recently. Turns out that’s very significant, because...

...as Euron and Dogi explain, not just anyone can go to the Kingdom of Altago, due to a war going on. Certainly no civilians can visit, at any rate. So if the doctor said he’d been there...out in the field...like he’s some kind of...field...medic?

Doctor Kiergaard isn’t at his usual station, so Euron seizes the opportunity to search it. He quickly finds another length of wire, exactly like the one Adol found outside the village.

And come to think of it, even though the game doesn’t have a character draw attention to it, the two notes were found very close to where Kiergaard had been recently.

Based on this find, the captain orders Adol to apprehend the doctor quickly, before someone else becomes a victim.

They find and confront the doctor on the outskirts of the village. Kiergaard drops his nice-guy act almost immediately, and doesn’t refute the accusations. He even insinuates that the reason Euron never found his partner on board the Lombardia was because he’d already killed him. Then he goes into a monologue, just to really drive home the whole villain thing.

When Euron tells Kiergaard to just come quietly, since there’s nowhere for him to run - he’s stranded on the island just like everyone else - the doctor replies with:

Fuck all y’all, have wire-trap hell, and makes a break for it anyway.

The captain sends up Little Paro to track Kiergaard, and let Adol know where he’s headed. Adol, Laxia, and Sahad take off in hot pursuit, with the captain promising to follow as soon as he and Dogi secure the village.

They chase Kiergaard down to one of the first beaches they discovered (same place they once found Sahad’s footprints in the sand). He disappears, but instead they find a little girl surrounded by monsters.

Our team clears away the monsters, and Captain Barbaros arrives and moves to save the girl, but:

...he runs straight into a trap, set up by Kiergaard. Apparently he’d kidnapped the little girl at some point, and had planned to use her as a hostage or...well, for something like this. Worse yet...

....Kiergaard says it’s likely that his wire trap has sliced clean through the captain’s femoral artery. 

Hang on a second, y’all.

*googles femoral artery* 

Umm....shit. Also fucking OUCH. I mean, I’m not medically trained, but...SHIT. That artery kiiiiiiiinda sounds extremely important.

The wound is essentially fatal, and the captain will bleed to death right there on the sand.

Oh, fuck you, you needle-dick weasel.

He runs again, and Adol, Laxia, and Sahad corner him in the spot where earlier they’d fought the big red dinosaur beast. But even now, Kiergaard doesn’t plan to go quietly, and definitely not without a fight. With the captain out of the way, he plans to kill Adol next, as Adol’s been working hard to give the villagers hope, what with him defeating all these monsters and doing things for them and shit. And our newly revealed asshole wants to delight in taking all that away, and watching everyone else break down and panic.

After another speech about good and evil needing each other, it’s time to finally throw down proper with the no-longer-Nameless Ripper.

This asshole. This. abs-so-lute. ASSHOLE. There’s pretty much no way for either you or your teammates to avoid getting hit, as he’s got wires set up every-fucking-where and can trip them in multiple directions with little or no warning. The best you can do is heal as needed and keep going, and eventually, he’ll fall.

But Kiergaard’s somehow still not dead yet. Fuck man, what’s it going to take??!

...that, apparently. The dino beast from earlier shows up, does us a solid, and carries the doctor away for a midday Nameless snack. I don’t know why being repeatedly sliced with a sword, speared with a rapier, and smashed with a big-ass hammer wasn’t fatal, but there you go.

They rush back to Captain Barbaros, but it’s too late. There’s nothing Euron or anyone else can do to stop him from bleeding out. Before he passes away, he makes Adol promise to get everyone safely off the island.

And so, Chapter 2 ends on a wild, morbid note.

(By the way, if you were wondering about the little girl Kiergaard kidnapped, of course the villagers took her in. She shows up in the next chapter doing just fine, and doesn’t seem to have any ill effects from what happened to her. It’s hard to tell from the one screenshot, but she was wearing the coat of a Lombardia sailor, so it’s assumed she came from the shipwreck too.)

I say morbid, but honestly, I’m kind of impressed that they went there. That they weren’t afraid to shake things up with a story about a madman terrorizing the castaways, as if being trapped on an isolated island full of savage dinosaurs and other beasts wasn’t terrifying enough. 

And the real hell of it is, the game isn’t even over yet. Not even close. Less than half the island has been explored, there’s still more castaways out there, and they’ve still got to solve the problems of building a boat that can carry everyone, and dealing with the big ocean monster that would just sink it in two seconds.

The villagers have to learn how to trust each other again after Kiergaard, a man who everyone trusted with their health and basically their life, turned out to be a fucking serial killer. They’ve also got to rebuild some semblance of order now that Captain Barbaros, who was for all intents and purposes their authority figure, is now dead. (Also I guess someone needs to start bitching about things now that Sir Carlan’s gone?)

I mean...wow, y’all. How can they top that, as far as high stakes and drama? Believe it or not, they do. But it takes a good while to ramp up to that point.

For now though, Chapter 2 is over, and there’s a lot of work for our castaways to do. There’s bright spots coming up in Chapter 3, and I’ll share a couple of those with you too.