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Part XIX: The Bond We Severed
Before we get started, I should note that at the start of every recording session so far, the Van Eltia returned with its loaded goodies from beyond the seas. Normally I get rubbish goods, nothing worth commenting on, but for this time, I got Rokurou's swimwear. A duplicate of it, obviously, but the Exploration menu is typically how you get these costume sets, like Winter or Swimwear, with some notable exceptions. It's a bit of a disappointment, because other Tales games would typically tie costume sets to elaborate sidequests or whatnot, whereas it's more generic in this title. Well, can't have everything, I suppose.
Nevertheless, we have a big update today. First up, since we're headed to the far far eastern portion of the map, let's stop by on the next Class 4.
Of course, a serpent-themed challenge awaits. The requisite Katz box is at the very far side of the island from where you came in. This one took me down to 1817 Katz spirits, which is...a little more than half of what I started the thread with? This is certainly taking into account the hundreds of spirits I've gathered since this thread started, but the decline has been slow and steady. Well, there's not *that* many to go. Hopefully.
As for the fight itself, it's really simple. I got through without a single allied KO, quite unlike the bird Class 4. Just a nice punch up, mostly. The reward this time is a Military Hike, boots exclusive to male party members. Well, that was quick. Let's get to Lionel Wharf already.
Upon reaching the coast of Endgand, we get a skit about an Abbey ship in distress. While we are certainly not their friends, Eizen points out an iron law of the sea: a ship in distress knows neither friend nor foe. Even for pirates, attacking a distressed ship is a serious breach of honor. Of course, we'll investigate ourselves to see what's going on. Boarding party
Is this...
The corsair's sourge!
Benwick, do we still have any sale'tomah left?
*looks across the deck* Yes, sir! If this is their full crew, we should have enough on board to treat them.
Now that you mention it, don't Abbey ships usually have a bigger crew?
Teresa!
I knew I was being reckless, but I never expected we'd run afoul of the corsair's scourge... But you know? I'm glad we did, since it brought me to you.
You seriously plan to fight in that condition?
No, no, I know you've won this one. Use me as you will.
Use you?!
Don't bother asking. It's a trap.
Lionel Island is where you'll find Dis, a therion. My brother Oscar is guarding over it.
We can handle him just fine.
You should know that Oscar's acquired a powerful new arte, its formula developed by Lord Melchior.
Everyone: ...
The arte heightens a malak's power far beyond its normal limits. The effect is incredible. Normal artes don't even compare. Even were you to win, you wouldn't come away unscathed.
...Why are you telling us this?
The arte is still untested and imperfect. There's no guarantee its caster will survive the effects. I don't want anything to happen to Oscar! If I'm your hostage, Oscar won't move against you. This will afford you a window to snatch the therion and make your escape.
You're willing to betray the Abbey?
There's nothing in this world that could ever replace Oscar.
...
I know you can't trust me... So don't give me your medicine... I'll place my life in your hands... *goes down to her knees* Just...save Oscar... *collapses*
Lady Teresa!
...If true, this information will be of use to us. For now, let's bring her aboard and give her the medicine.
Well, this was quite a twist. Guess Teresa would do just about anything for Oscar, including turning her back on everything she's known. And we finally learn what the Abbey has been up to recently. If it's really as powerful as Teresa is making it sound (I guess Melchior briefed her at some point after the previous scene with the exorcists last update), sounds like this is quite a collision course. For now, let's just dock and figure things out from there.
Upon docking, we get a skit mostly about Oscar and Teresa's relationship. I already mentioned they're half-siblings, but Eleanor lays it out for us in more detail here. Basically, Oscar comes from a very distinguished house that's directly descended from that King Claudin guy we've heard about a few times. She doesn't *exactly* say it, but Oscar's father had a woman on the side with whom he conceived Teresa. That brings us to the following scene. Her past
My mother died, and my father's wife never cared for me, so I merely served the Dragonia family as a maid. Those were dark, lonely times for me... But Oscar... Oscar was the only one who called me his sister and embraced me as family. Does a sister need any other reason to want to save her brother?
So you're back on your feet.
My sincere thanks for the medicine.
I can't use you as a hostage if you're dead. Where's the therion?
*points in the distance* Ahead through the Baird Marsh are the ruins of an ancient kingdom. There you'll find the earthpulse point, along with Oscar.
Um... What happened to Number One?
As such, whether I live or die is for you people to decide. Once Oscar is safe, you can do whatever you like to me.
...We'll do as you wish. All of it.
Normally you'd definitely be worried about her saying something like this, but, if nothing else, Eleanor will definitely make sure Teresa will be fine. She practically stopped Velvet from killing Oscar before back in Palamedes, she definitely would not tolerate killing someone under these circumstances. Also keep in mind Velvet still has yet to kill anyone, despite all her Artorius-directed venom. Who's to say she even hack it?
Although this dock is little more than a very small Abbey encampment at the edge of the world, for all intents and purposes it's a town. Doesn't have an inn for refilling your BG / HP, but you do have a shop courtesy some enterprising pirate, a Bloodwings rep for turning in any Code Red hunts, and even a couple conversations. Nearest one is about the history of Lionel Island. It apparently was the home an ancient civilization that has long since perished, but the malevolence remains as potent as ever, hence why there's a therion here. Particularly with no troublesome people about, it's prime real estate for the Abbey's purposes. Well, no troublesome people until now.
The other's just about the garrison here, or lack thereof. Patrols are apparently very scarce here, so we can slip in, grab Dis, and get out before anyone knows what hit 'em. As for what we'll do about the siblings, well...we'll figure something out. There's a Katz box near the first conversation that, if you've opened everything up to now, will contain an Earring (Left). Fascinating. I'm fairly sure Dis is named after a city of the damned in The Divine Comedy. There are a couple other candidates, like Dis Pater, a Roman god of the underworld, and Dis, a goddess of fate in Norse mythology, but you'll see why I think the first one is the most likely.
Stopping by the pirate's store (which is named after Chat and Patty, the child pirates from Eternia and Vesperia PS3, respectively), I decided I was annoyed by Eizen still having a BG cap of 3, which means he can't use his second Mystic Arte, which, for the record, he DOES have right now. So I decided to do a little upgrading, to take advantage of some of those Glacites that give you extra max BG if the character's total equipment enhancement level is above a certain threshold. The cost in materials and items was pricy, but gotta pay to play.
By the way, speaking of paying, Eizen's Legacy costume is Hubert Oswell from Tales of Graces. Hubert's kind of a shrimpy genius wiener kid, so definitely an unorthodox choice for a big guy like Eizen. Well, it's fine, it's fine. The sword that hangs at his side is Atwight, a sword that can turn double-bladed, but I'm sure Eizen has no need for it. Only a fool trusts his life to a weapon, you know.
By the way, Teresa really is tagging along with us. She'll be in quite a few skits coming up, which I totally forgot about. A really nice touch to have another character who, up to this point, has been exclusively represented as a 3D model. Makes me wonder if any Abbey antagonists besides her got skit portraits that were never used. She's usually scowling or otherwise in a bad mood, but considering the circumstances and...present company, you can hardly blame her.
For this skit, in particular, Eleanor was attempting a trip down memory lane thanks to the sale'tomah experience they've both recently had, but Teresa was in absolutely no mood. In fact, Eleanor's appointment to traveling exorcist (which was what she was doing when we first saw her) was directly responsible for Oscar ending up in Titania and things...just kinda got worse from there. It's definitely a sad state; you could definitely see exorcist-in-training Eleanor really admiring the way Teresa carries herself both as a person and as an exorcist. Let's hope there's no more tragedy in the pipeline for her.
The conversation near the exit is about a pirate desiring some hidden treasure around here and Teresa scolding him about looting. Well, even Eizen says he won't bail him out if he gets in serious trouble.
So Baird Marsh is actually a really long dungeon. Indeed, it'll be taking up the rest of this update, pretty much. The original plan was to have the content of this update and next be one single update, but I figured there was waaaaay too much plot for one update and split them up. This is the last real dungeon of the second act of the game and it's certainly an adventure. First up...
Elemental switch flipping is going to be a major theme, and this time, it's out in force. All four primary elements are represented here. For this first one, activate it and jump back to the mainland.
For the Graces cameo songs, the most common one is Scorching Brawl, and the rarer one is, I'm fairly sure is Life's Cry. I never played the original Graces or the remake, yet, but it sounds very final boss-y. The victory jingle is Raise the song of victory. Well, if nothing else, the victory jingles in these games are easy to pick out. I fought many, many battles in the Baird Marsh and I couldn't get Eizen's unique victory quote, but this is for a better reason than you might think.
See, the way the game decides who speaks depends on a couple factors. Obviously, they must be in the active party. Second, if a particular character gets the killing blow against the final enemy, if the RNG chooses only one party member to talk, then that character will talk. If a group quote is chosen, it'll pick a group quote applicable to the active party. So to get these Legacy costumes lines you 1) have to have that character deal the final blow, and 2) it has to choose that particular line among like a half dozen that character can say, and 3) it can't be a group line. As soon as possible, hopefully I can find some weak enemies and bully them long enough to get Eizen's unique line. Another day.
As far as the enemies around here, the ones you should watch out for are the crystal golem guys. Their club hand is appropriately dangerous, as you'd expect, but they also have a nasty trick where, once they're low on HP, they can lie down and begin a (hidden) self-destruct timer. I personally only saw it happen once during the ample fighting I did here, but can't be good, whatever it does. Probably blows you up.
Howling Dragon is suitably intimidating. Eizen's got a bit of a dragon theme going. Considering he's a malak, that can't be good. Maybe he just thinks it's cool or something.
And yeah, wasn't kidding about all that fighting. Unfortunately the Dire Foe was pretty shy. Anyhow, the northeast exit is blocked by a Wind barrier, but thankfully there's a Wind / Earth switch in the northwest.
And yeah, definitely noticeably when they try the suicide move. They'll almost never use this move, because they're either dead already or just continuing on with their normal attack patterns. Again, let's say I wasn't in a mood to find out how powerful this was.
Already getting tricky on us. To make a long story short, and since switch flipping isn't that fascinating at the best of times, I'll just abbreviate elemental switch pushes like "R - > B" to show you where to go, the second letter being the color that should be shown on the crystal before you move on. Like most Berseria dungeons, it's fairly linear, it's just you have to interact with these a lot. For this barrier, just flip one of the switches on the previous screen that are just outside this exit. Don't need to go back through where the Wind barrier was.
In the next area, another skit. Man, Teresa had two super powerful malakhim in her thrall at the start of the game. Certainly a blunder for the Abbey to not keep those in safer hands, as it turns out. Between her talk with Velvet and Laphicet in this one, her mood has not improved a bit. Next step is G -> Y and take the western exit of this second area.
Oh yeah, and Laphicet has his, too. I think the activation for level 2 Mystic Artes for malak artes, which is the type of attack that Magilou and Phi use (this game's fancy name for spells), is slightly different, because I sure didn't see Phi pulling off any combos before his AI used this. Well, the Abbey certainly knows potential when they see it. Well, after that potential has defected sometimes, but still.
Well, after so much fighting, I finally got Endgand's Dire Foe, Bactrian Man, to appear. For the record, like with Lindworm, he showed up at 1.8x Grade bonus. A coincidence, I'm sure.
Velvet's okay at fighting him, but Rokurou totally destroys him with Hurricane Thrust, which hits his [Armored] weakness, which is a strange thing to say when you think about it. Regardless, if you're watching battle videos when I'm playing Rokurou, I use Hurricane Thrust a lot, just because it comes out so damn fast. Well, when it hits a weakness, all the better I say.
Overall, Bactrian doesn't have many tricks, and is considerably easier than Lindworm was, but with appropriately fewer rewards. I got 76k gald from a successful hunt, wehreas with Lindwurm it was more than a quarter of a million.
Getting back to business, the western exit actually doesn't lead anywhere, except this curious sight. A shortcut that leads you right near where the exit of this dungeon is. Why do we need a shortcut? The answer...might actually surprise you. It should make more sense when we're just about finished here. As for now, the switches are Y -> G and B -> R.
In the third area, more talks with Teresa. She finally gets around to calling Laphicet by his Velvet-granted name, but according to her, it's just because she's walking a very perilous tightrope and her continued survival is entirely reliant on Velvet's generosity. Well, until something more happens, I guess it's fine for now. Another skit right afterwards, this time about Teresa and Oscar's pedigree. While we haven't had much evidence of their fighting prowess in-person, they were early game bosses. You can't hold it against them.
Afterwards, flip the nearby switch G -> Y, grab the nearby Red Chamomile, and let's be off.
Next area, R -> B and jump over these platforms for that Katz box. A very meaty 300 spirits this time. When you grab it, go back, and B -> R to continue on. This next scene triggers a short ways after yet another crystal, but don't touch that one for now. Boys and bugs
*reaches up*
Oh, it's a beetle.
Y-Yeah, uh... A Lionel giant thunderstag beetle, to be exact...
Why do they always have such awkward names?
I... I think it's a cool name...
*walks toward the tree, reaches for the beetle* *sigh* I've never been able to figure out why boys are so drawn to these things. *hands the beetle to Phi*
I must have missed the phase of childhood of being obsessed with beetles and insects. Personally, I can't stand most of them. Worst of all was a big cicada season back many years ago when I lived in Maryland. I was finding their damn exoskeletons*everywhere*. Nasty creatures.
Huh?
What's the matter? Didn't you want to see it?
Uh, yeah. Thanks...
He'd get so into it, it was never long before he'd trip and hurt himself.
Did you grab bugs for him?
Yes. I thought they were gross, but I was much taller than him and I had the reach. Once, he gave me a whole pile of cicada shells as his way of thanking me. I just screamed.
...I'm sure he just wanted you to know how he felt.
...
I can relate to that.
Rather unusual for a malak like you to contemplate such things.
Well, I try to. It's just...really hard sometimes.
Sometimes, you just have to say what you believe in your heart, even if you're not good at saying it.
What I believe...
Phi, hurry up already!
Hmmm...sounds like she's speaking from personal experience. After the scene, gather a nearby Red Lavender, and switch the crystal we just passed from Y -> G. There's another crystal on the way to the exit, R -> B. There's a skit before we leave, but we're not doing Bettle ID Battle Round 2. And, luckily for us, upon talking with Eleanor about the free will of non-humans, Teresa's expression lightened up a bit. Well, I doubt she's gonna be friendly with us any time soon but seems we have some kind of understanding.
In the next area, B -> R and continue on to a skit.
Laphicet as Number Two's delinquency in sneaking off to the library? Yep, turns out Teresa knew all about it. Even now, with their ties long severed, she has a scowl you can't easily escape from.
But she does have a nice smile to boot. I'm not sure which Teresa I'd be more scared of, personally. This next step, you don't have to do it, but we most certainly will. R -> B and it's time for our Code Red hunt.
But not before a nice view. I should mention that, near that treasure chest I just opened, there was an Emperor Ant in a generic white gathering point, i.e. the most valuable bait type for the fishing game. So yeah, that's how you get more of them. Anyway, Millionaire.
So this large bug is a fairly simple fight, except for its Break Soul, aptly called "Millionaire". This attack involves it jumping up and crashing back to the ground several times. Despite this annoying and random attack pattern (it'll fall down and jump back up at random points while this attack is running), it's fairly easy to sidestep. Aside from that, its only other unique attack is leaning forward and firing a poison ball. This attack will completely miss you if you're close to Millionaire, but you also can't sidestep it to potentially gain more souls.
Its only other trick is attempting to call backup once it falls below 50% HP, but you won't let that happen, will you? No, I think one giant bug is quite enough. Once you're done, continue to the south, picking up a Blob Ring from a silver chest, then hop across more ruins to the geotree platform and switch G -> Y and continue to the southern exit.
Yep, we just went in a big ol' loop. The reason we had to do is that the gap in the land nearest to where we are CAN be jumped over, but we only just got access to the geoboard in this area. And, as I pointed out earlier, we can't use that big ol' dotted route because there were ruins on the far side of it.
So this is actually the penultimate area. While you could go ahead now and trigger a skit, you'll quickly be blocked by G and B barriers between you and where Oscar inevitably is. Luckily, we won't have to travel far to get rid of them.
In fact, right here. And for the last switch flipping, B -> R and Y -> G and we're done. You can also destroy the ruins that were blocking that shortcut to open that up. Well, I guess if you need to restock it's pretty helpful, but otherwise I can't see much merit in opening up a shortcut in a dungeon we've basically already finished.
But...there is one more thing to point out. This is an entirely optional appendage to this dungeon but there's Old Flyers for Phi and an extra pair of Military Hike boots for the guys before you leave. Curious geography though...
Alright, I can't keep it up. You'll be coming back to this place later in the game, hence the very boss fight-shaped clearing here and the shortcut before. That's its actual purpose.Also, before you leave the previous screen, there's a pair of Quartz Boots near the exit to the final area.
And the final area. I mentioned that skit earlier. The plan for dealing with Oscar is use Teresa to get him to stand down without incident, he'll be briefly taken captive, we'll retrieve the therion, get back to the ship, then set the siblings free. We'll have nothing more to do with them after that. Sounds like a lot could go wrong, especially with Teresa asking to swear us to not hurt the kid, but I personally don't see any other option for ending this situation in a way acceptable to everyone.
Man. If this doesn't look like a boss fight arena, I don't know what does. The two chests contain new items, a Summertime Waistcoat for the guys and a Valkyrie for Eleanor. Alright, let's do this thing. The field of flowers
I knew you'd come, Velvet.
Sister?!
As plain as day. Now put down your sword and let go of my therion. If you don't, I'll kill her.
You coward!
I'm sorry to do this, Oscar! I'm searching for the truth behind the Abbey's talk of so-called "reason".
And your idea of reason is to threaten my dear sister's life?!
I'm sorry, Oscar... I've become nothing but a burden.
Teresa, no... It's not like that... *raises sword above head* ...All right. I'll put down my arms.
Teresa, get back!
Well...that's not exactly how it was supposed to go, but obviously we couldn't count on Oscar doing that. I guess he was *really* counting on Velvet's reflexes there, because Velvet could have easily just put Teresa in front of her to take the hit.
Forgive me, Oscar... This is the only way I can protect you.
...We've kept our end of the bargain. Take him and get out of here.
I can't do that. It will reflect poorly on him.
Lady Teresa?!
Have you forgotten? You're just a powerless human.
You're right... I am a weak, worthless human. *begins walking toward Dis* But he has shown me the light! And it shines! My body is receptive to Innominat's power! And with it, I can protect everything I care about!
Uhhhh, yeah. Couldn't see that coming...
She turned into a therion?!
No, she fused with it!
...I'll kill you all! Anything to protect Oscar!
Well, I sure thought we were fighting Oscar, but here we are. What a way to fall for the proud exorcist. Teresa actually isn't too bad. Most of her attacks in the first part of the fight are attacks with her spear that have a fairly short range and don't do that much damage. Not much of a problem to avoid / sidestep them. If the AI feels like it's getting backed into a corner, she has both Soul Burst and Jump, where she'll quickly jump off the screen and then crash back down a distance away from where she leaped.
Once she's below 75%, she'll add in Screw Driver and Energy Trap, both upgrades on damage and damage-dealing potential. Any unblocked melee attack after this point also has the potential to...
Yep, first enemy with a Mystic Arte in quite some time. Shigure was the last one, actually. It's pretty raw, too, just Teresa impaling the target over and over again, but thankfully, unlike the elder Rangetsu, it's only single-target damage.
Once she's really backed into a corner, Explode is a Tales classic spell that drops a single large fireball from above, resulting in a massive explosion. It's typically the most powerful Fire spell in any game that it appears in. Teresa can throw this out very quickly and it does a lot of damage in a huge radius. Definitely something to be wary of. She'll also frequently try to use this spell, so the best way to mitigate damage is to stop attacking and get as far away from your buddies as soon as possible if you think she's going for it. To finish such a tragic foe off, I needed something special.
Namely, Eleanor's second Mystic Arte, Lostfon Drive. This is actually straight-up from Tales of the Abyss, where Lost Fon Drive was the name of the protagonist's, Luke's, most powerful Mystic Arte, one he only had access to on a NG+. It basically animates the same here, lots of slashes followed by a massive skyward energy beam. In that game, though, he needed a special weapon you acquired very late in the game to do it. Eleanor can do it with any of her's.
If anyone asks, it was Lostfon Drive that defeated her, alright? But...tragic though this all is, at least we've pacified her. It'll be a little awkward back in Titania but I'm sure we can adjust. Their fate
L-Lady Teresa...
Stand down, or I'll devour you piece by piece.
It's okay, Sister... You've done enough.
No, don't look at me... I'm so hideous.
*grabs her hand* When I was growing up, the only one my mother and father ever paid attention to was my older brother, the heir. But you, Teresa... You noticed me when they didn't. You looked after me. Supported me. Smiled for me. *raises her head* I could never thank you enough, my sister...
O... Oscar...
Now, keep watching over me, Teresa. As long as you're looking after me... I can vanquish even the lord of daemons!
Take a good look... This is armatization!
Here I come!
So this is "Failed Oscar", which is kind of a strange name, because he seems pretty powerful to me. While his attacks aren't particularly powerful, he can inflict Fatigue a lot, which slows the regeneration of the Soul Gauge, and many of his attacks can hit a very wide radius. Most of his abilities either involve him swooping across the field or jumping into the air, so he's highly mobile and hard to pin down.
And of course, armatization wouldn't be very impressive if it didn't have access to...
Sylphid (hey!) Blaze, which, much like Teresa's before, is a very powerful single-target Mystic Arte. Thankfully, the key word is "single-target". I know for sure it is because Rokurou was attacking right next to where I was and he didn't take a lick of damage.
Velvet is very good against him because her therion-form exclusive attack against Person enemies, like Oscar, as mentioned is very potent, has a very long range, and opens up Power Combos very easily. Use this to pile on the damage very quickly, but again, since Oscar loves to move around, you might have to chase him down and wait for a gap in his attacks before you can get a decent combo in.
His final, and most dangerous attack, is Cloudburst, where he'll leap into the air and fire out a whole mess of lasers at the ground in front of him. It sweeps from his left to the right, but if you get caught in it, expect a whole load of damage. Thankfully, my fight with him is just about over.
Oscar, stop! This has gone far enough!
No, it hasn't... You people hurt my sister!
He's losing control of the malak!
Dammit! It's turning into a dragon!
Velvet, quick! Devour that thing!
Stop! He's still--
You...killed him.
No, I...
He was a good kid. He gave me this pair of earrings for my birthday... They're family heirlooms that were supposed to go to his fiancee... But he didn't know that at the time... I told him he should give them to the woman he cares most about in the world... And you know what he did? He smiled at me and said I was that woman.
You killed my Oscar!
How could you?!
How could you?!
How could you?! *charges at Velvet*
No!
Don't do it!
*gasp*
Don't cry, Oscar... You're strong... You're so strong...
...And we didn't even get the therion we came for.
He... Oscar came at him first... I had to... It was for Laphi... For my...little brother... *passes out*
They're dead. No... Not just dead. I killed them. I'm the same as Artorius...
...It's not the same.
It is the same! But I didn't have any choice! It was the only way to avenge you! It was all for you! I did it for you! *"Laphicet crumples* *Velvet begins crying* I didn't want this...
There's nowhere left to run.
Nowhere for you, or for me...
*continues crying, fade to black*
...Nowhere left.
Indeed... In the skit afterwards, Eleanor of course laments what just happened, but Velvet more or less brushes it off. Sounds like she's really pushing herself to me, but with those two dead and no therion in tow, this mission cannot be considered a success. Finish your business in the Baird Marsh and return to the docks.
There's another skit along the way, this time about the void left by Dis' and Teresa's fusion and Teresa getting devoured. We still don't have a seventh therion, but that means the Abbey doesn't have one to feed malevolence either. Sounds like a lot could happen from this point.
Hmm, I doubt the Abbey has had time to mobilize so many after Oscar was KIA, so that means they've been planning a raid for a while. It's clear across the world but we gotta sail for Titania now. In fact, we have reason to believe they'll be deploying armatized exorcists when we arrive. In which case...no, we have to go there even if the odds are totally stacked against us. Just HOW against us, well, jury's still out.
We also get some interesting speculation from Magilou. Eizen mentioned that Oscar's malak in the previous battle was overflowing with malevolence and was on the verge of becoming a dragon before we killed him. Apparently, to prevent this, the malak is embedded with a self-destruction arte that kills both malak and human in order to stop that. That's, uh...pretty in-line with the Abbey's thinking, actually.
There are two more skits afterwards, first about what the Abbey's overall plan here is, and the second, about why armatizations are coming out now. Apparently, Siegfried might have some part in it, which is why Melchior was so concerned about analyzing that thing earlier in the story. Whatever's to come, it's gonna be big.