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Part XXIII: The Power We Witnessed
Upon returning to the docks, we get a skit with Benwick in it. As acting captain, I assume THE captain now, it's Eizen's duty to inform the kid as to what happened. As for dealing with this awakening the Empyreans business, well, that's why we need Grimoirh on deck.
In lighter news, the first trip to the archipelago was a resounding success in terms of finding new materials and charting this area. In addition, we discovered the area's resident recipe, the Berserker's Palmier (I think the vast majority of the game's recipes can be found via Expeditions, for the record). It looks pretty good, but, as the description says, nothing to get angry over.
As for waking up the Empyreans, which will seal Innominat's domain and considerably reduce the brat's power, well, there's a lot of layers in this skit. Let's just go through the highlights briefly.
1. We need to do it on a Scarlet Night. Luckily, the next one is pretty soon. Seems they happen in pretty regular three-year intervals.
2. We need "souls free of malevolence" to wake up the Empyreans, like what Artorius did with Laphi. Thankfully, we won't need to kill anyone to do it. I mean, we already did. As Magilou points out, high-ranking exorcists would do nicely here, and Velvet has devoured and killed Oscar and Teresa already.
3. We need to wake up all four to do the trick, and they're in four different places. Thankfully, something called a "Lifepool" will help out here. Because of the way these flow, we can reach all four Empyreans from a single place. Unfortunately, the Empyrean's Throne was already built over one, so that's out. We can alternatively use a "Lifespring" to accomplish the same end, but it'll be a bit harder. Eizen chimes in that the nearest Lifespring is Mount Killaraus, which, you may recall, we very briefly heard about on our first visit to Hellawes. Told you volcanoes in video games are always important.
Uh, yes, that about sums it up. So we're headed to the north of Northgand, the only notable area on the world map we haven't been to yet. Do you remember when we were in Faldies Ruins that, if you proceeded far enough, you could see a bunch of exorcists hanging out on the far side of a large room, but you couldn't get any closer? That's in the direction of Mount Killaraus, except now, we actually have reason to go in that direction. That's why it was blocked off at the time.
Before we push off, there's a conversation with Benwick, and then a skit right afterwards. Apparently no matter how well Benwick and the crew appear on the outside, the Van Eltia will never be quite the same.
Looks like this is what it all comes down to.
In the seas between Midgand and Eastgand... Sailing to fate
...I see. Orichalcum or not, Stormquell snapped like a twig.
Afraid so. It was Innominat who did it, but I think Shigure could have done the same.
So hardness alone isn't enough. Forgive me, I thought I had found clarity, but it was only foolish pride.
You should be proud. You are without a doubt the greatest swordsmith in the world. I'm looking forward to your next blade.
Even now, you would still place your trust in me?
Of course. Is there any other swordsmith who could craft a blade out of orichalcum? You're a master of your art. A visionary who spent centuries working to forge a blade of legend. I'm honored to know you.
...I don't know what to say.
Not in the least! Hahahah!
Wonder if Kurogane has the most extreme case of Phantom pain ever...
The only problem is that the ceremony that Artorius was going on about. We don't know how long it'll take.
Aifread said they called it the Ceremony of Suppression. Most likely, it's how Innominat plans to release his power.
Most likely. He hasn't absorbed Laphicet and your despair, so Innominat should still be incomplete. But if his powers fully awaken...
Humanity will be robbed of their free will.
I can hear them celebrating now. "The ugliness of the human soul are suppressed..." "And the world is free of malevolence! Hurrah, hurrah!"
Robbing humanity of its will... They'll be like I once was... Something's coming!
Power to change the world
A changed world
This is a domain?!
Innominat's domain!
It's not been fully sealed away yet. Rokurou! Give 'em a good smacking, wake 'em up!
On it! *runs down to the deck*
Eizen!
Got it. We'll put in at the nearest harbor! To Port Zekson!
And that we did...
Dig up some spirit. They're trying to strip your will.
Oh no...
Look! It's that merchant! You're all right!
I do not deserve to be all right. *continues walking to the dock's edge* I...used people, stepped on them just to make a profit. I even aided wanted criminals so that I could expand my business. My soul is black with ugliness and can never be forgiven.
Huh...? No, wait! *rushes to him, grabs his sides*
The world needs to be purified of malevolence. I don't belong here. I have to die. I have to die. I have to die.
No! It's not right!
You can die if you want. But saying you "have" to die is a good way to make my blood boil.
You did punch his lights out, Velvet. Don't think he heard you...
Those awakened to their own malevolence seek to end their lives. Welcome to Artorius' uncompromising world of "reason".
First they steal humanity's rudder... And now they want to say who lives and who dies?
*looks at Eleanor* We should find out what's happening here. Unless you'd rather not see...
You're right. I wouldn't... But I won't hide from the truth any longer!
Before anything else, we'll need to confirm just how far his power reaches. Let's head to Loegres.
There is a very good chance of that... There's another skit shortly afterwards also about this new world we're in. Luckily, we seem to have been spared. Officially, it's because Innominat's power isn't full and he can't sway the entire population to the path of pure reason. Unofficially? Main character privilege. I mean, I could theorycraft why, like maybe Eleanor is unaffected because of her pact with Phi (ditto for Magilou and Bienfu), and it doesn't work on daemons like Rokurou and Velvet, but as far as I remember this is never confirmed. So take it for what it's worth.
We actually saw this guy much earlier in the game, as we were leaving Loegres for the first time. I don't think this business opportunity particularly panned out...
Someone doesn't find Magilou entertaining? Truly a blighted world. There's another conversation in the inn about alcohol no longer being acceptable in a world governed by pure reason. Or at least, the Abbey's interpretation thereof.
The world outside Zekson is, as you might guess, similarly lifeless, with the exception of the enraged wildlife. Unfortunately, since this is a special part of the game, the normal battle themes and music won't play, so even though Rokurou is wearing his Ludger costume, no songs from Xillia 2 will play. Soon. Hopefully.
After some more fighting, trying to lure out the Dire Foe, my crew found this. Another Tales of Destiny 2 reference, this belonged to Judas aka Leon from Tales of Destiny 1. He was allegedly killed in the first game but it didn't quite take, so he decided to change his name and don this bone mask in the sequel, which is another accessory that frequently shows up in Tales games.
Fun fact about Leon that doesn't technically have anything to do with the games, but I think is worthy of mention. Every year Bamco holds a Tales of Festival to commemorate the series, holding events with the Japanese voice actors, the whole thing, y'know. As part of the festivities, they regularly hold popularity contests, asking the fans to vote on their favorite characters in the series, alongside more specific categories like favorite mascot character or what have you. Leon / Judas so regularly won first place in the overall popularity contest that he was actually retired from the voting pool. This also happened to Yuri Lowell, the main character from Vesperia. As of the most recent poll, Velvet is the most popular Berseria character at #14 overall, but two of Zestiria's main characters fared better, at #2 and #7. Apparently Tales actually has a massive female fanbase in Japan, so male characters are vastly more likely to chart higher than female ones. In fact, only 7 characters out of the top 30 are women.
Is this made from the bone of some monster? This mask has a disturbing aura about it.
Hmm... It's got several nicks on it. I'm sure it was worn during some very fierce fights.
Why not try putting it on, Rokurou? It just might be your style.
I admit it's a fine piece of protective gear, but I'll pass on it. "Cut before being cut". That's the Rangetsu philosophy.
"The best defense is a good offense", in other words?
Not quite. It's more like, "The best offense is a good offense!"
I-I see. Well, I hope I never have to fight a practitioner of the Rangetsu style.
Well, again. Presumably.
It's even as bad as getting old people, who as far as we know don't even have the self-hating reasons that merchant did, to want to kill themselves?
Oh yeah, and I did get the Dire Foe, a Sacred Baboon, to spawn. I guess it put up a better fight than the Queen Bee. Not much, though. If this guy looks familiar, it's because this is the monster Velvet was fighting in the OP.
Okay, I *know* I opened this chest earlier in the game. I think it was a Slow Ward earlier in the game, now it's a Grace Sheet for Phi. Finders keepers.
Not a pleasant line of discussion, that's for sure.
Well, I think we got our answer what the situation looks like here. This woman was from another conversation on our first visit to Loegres, and where we first learned about Percival.
And again. The conversation near the fountain is about a vast urban renewal project in the name of "reason". I certainly hope they do not go through with it. If it gets any livelier around here, a funeral's gonna break out, but it can get worse.
Looks like the Bloodwings are out of business, and no sign of Tabatha, either...
While there are no conversations or special things to be found in the cathedral's courtyard or the cathedral itself, I found it wise to check up upon our faithful priest. Apparently not even he has control of his senses. Also make sure to pick up that geotree in the corner there. Where we actually want to go is the outer wall of the castle. The holdouts
Isn't there anyone here who still has free thought...?
I hope so. There has to be.
??? Mommy...
That was a child!
Mommy...! I'm scared! Mommy!
Don't show any feelings, dear!
If they spot you, they'll...
Prince Percival! Tabatha!
You're still you!
This fellow is a "Minion of Prophecy", apparently. While it certainly looks unusual, and even stranger such a thing would be here, it's basically just a slightly souped-up harpy type enemy, the type you've killed probably hundreds of over the course of this adventure. Nothing more to it than that, especially since it's alone.
Tabatha, your mind's still your own?
Yes, somehow. But Prince Percival and that girl...
Looks like those malakhim took them away somewhere.
Aaah, so that's why that thing's friends ran off. Makes sense.
The prince was trying to help us get away. He said that the Abbey was gathering those who still had control of their own will at the villa.
We need to go after the prince, and see just what's going on at the villa.
We don't know what sort of defenses they have at the front gate. Let's sneak in through the back.
Good plan. Back into the catacombs, then.
You got it.
Well, by "catacombs", he of course means the sewers. Just a strange thing to call them but hey, maybe he just said the first word that popped into his mind. I certainly would not want to be buried in a sewer level. As for the sewers themselves, remember the entrance is in the courtyard outside the cathedral, and there's nothing of note in there besides a couple skits that trigger near the start of this little retread of past dungeons. You can take the blue teleporter to warp right to the ladder beneath the villa. But hey, if you want a snooze cruise through the dungeon again, no need to lower water levels, and all the enemies will die from getting run over with the geoboard. Let's just skip ahead...
This place looks a bit livelier during the day. Remember when we had a boss fight with Eleanor here? And Magilou actually helped out for the first time? Quite a night. As you might guess, our destination is Griffin's former prison. The rescue
Gnngh... My mind is...!
A channeling circle!
It's eating their will directly!
Well, I'd certainly say matters have become a lot less ambiguous than they were at the start of the game. I would agree with that. This battle is a *bit* more dangerous, against three Minions of Prophecy, but again, they're more or less glorified harpies. They do have a decent HP pool, but as enemies, basically harmless. I do hope, for Innominat's sake, this isn't the best he's got as far as flunkies.
Prince Percival, are you all right?
Yes. Thank you... Well, I know I can still feel scared out of my wits, at least...
*goes toward the kid* It's all right now. We'll help you find your mommy and then we'll--
...Mommy was executed. They killed her because she stole food to give to me.
...So this the true face of their "suppression".
Yes. This is the ideal world sought by Shepherd Artorius. As long as malevolence gave rise to daemons, this was the only way. That's why the kingdom of Midgand consented to his plan. But I will never consent.
Returning to the surface... An unlikely hope
A world without sadness, but also without joy. A world without hate, but also without love...
You suppose the whole world's like this now?
No. Even this close to the Empyrean's Throne, some here have held on to their free will. Still, we don't have much time.
Right. I can feel Innominat's domain spreading even now. It's incomplete, but it's quickly growing stronger.
Even we might be suppressed if this keeps up, and then it'll be Reason O'Clock all day long.
*looks at Percival* Prince, Griffin is doing well.
Good, that's good. I'm happy... Truly. Until now, I thought I was just a tool to serve my country. But when my feelings were being torn from me, I felt myself want something. "No!" I thought. "I don't want this! I don't want to lose who I am!" I understand the true horror of this ideal world now... I know it's selfish to put this burden on you, but I beg you. Stop all this. Stop Shepherd Artorius.
And now I say this to you. People stripped of their feelings can never truly be alive.
Yeah. That's how I used to be.
We're doing it for us. Not for you.
...You've changed, haven't you.
You really have. You used to be a sword, wielded by your own hatred. But now, you're in control. You're the one who swings the blade.
Even if I still don't know when to sheathe it.
Don't worry. When danger comes, I'll be there to protect you.
My, I'm jealous. It must be nice to have a reliable young man like that by your side.
It certainly is. Our Phi's a gallant soul.
Eizen... About Captain Aifread...
I dealt with him. But the Abbey, they stomped all over Aifread's pride to achieve this suppression of theirs. With these hands, I will destroy them.
*nods*
Well, I'M pumped. Who wants to go cut our way into this throne of theirs?
We can't just barge in, sword-for-brains! We gotta prepare!
We stick to the plan. Wake up the four Empyreans, and take Innominat's domain away from him.
Artorius said the ceremony wouldn't be complete until the Scarlet Night.
Will they complete the ceremony first, or will we awaken the Empyreans... It's a gamble.
Well, moping won't get us anywhere! Let's head to Mount Killaraus.
Right! It's time to suppress the suppression!
Catchy, Eleanor. And indeed, Phi's right; there's nothing standing between us and Northgand now. There are a few sidequests that are available now, we'll be tackling those before the end of this update, because as I recall the visit to the north part of Northgand is a very chatty sequence, not to mention the inevitable resistance we'll face at Mount Killaraus. Hey, if we've figured it out, the Abbey almost certainly has. After all, they had a complete copy of that Innominat book a lot longer than we had, or Melchior just knew the contents by heart and just took that book to keep it away from us.
That aside, not including the end of this update, only two more updates between now and the end of the third act. It's a pretty short arc of the story (if you skip cutscenes, it's probably like 2-3 hours long), but I should say that these act breaks are entirely my sense of when arcs of the game end. In typical Tales fashion, once you get to the final dungeon, a whole lot of side content becomes available / feasible to do. A number of sidequests have been available for progress, it's just that it didn't make much sense to do them, or we simply couldn't have done them because we hadn't progressed the story far enough And because the guide I'm following so I don't miss out on any content leaves most sidequesting for the final part of the game. For example, Southgand has been completely unavailable ever since the scene where we learned about malevolence, but it is available now.
But we'll get started with a couple skits when we're about to leave Loegres. The first, about whether the exorcists up to now even *really* knew what they were signing up for (Eleanor's pure-heartedness is quite formidable), and the second, about Magilou's latest hair-brained scheme to make 100 gald. Okay, maybe it's a *little* more meaningful than that, but that's the gist of it, alright?
Oh yeah, and I haven't forgotten about Rokurou getting into his Ludger garb on short notice. Most common battle theme, now that regular battle music has returned, is Keep pushing, until the sword is exhausted (should have been the battle theme named for Ludger's hammer, for obvious reasons. The hammer isn't an accessory, the Spirius Shot Left / Right are), the rarer one is For the Sake of Mutual Proof and the victory theme is A Victory for You. All these three were short and sweet to find for once. Does it help that I did an LP of Xillia 2 years ago? Ehhh, I don't know if I'd agree. For one thing, the songs seem a lot louder than the cameo songs from the earlier games, so it was easier to pinpoint them, and only a handful of names on the OST actually sound like battle themes, y'know? I was fighting to try and get Rokurou's Legacy costume quote, but I was unsuccessful. Knowing Ludger, it's probably just "..." or a quiet grunt.
Well, not that we canonically have any reason to go here, but yep, Innominat's power reaches all the way out to Reneed, at least. I mean, it would be pretty lame if it was just isolated to a couple towns, that's for sure.
As for why I'm Reneed, well, that was on the way to returning to the front door of Vortigern to bully those weak enemies and get Legacy costume quotes. As for Rokurou, uh, turns out I was off the mark. Now, I admit I don't know much, but I'm *quite* sure Ludger doesn't say this at any point in the plot. There's not even many characters who *would* say such a thing. I have one theory who might say it, combining it with a Ludger outfit, but that's just it. A theory. Actually, speaking of Kratos Aurion from last update, he got a Ludger costume in the Symphonia PS3 port. So there you go.
And I also made sure to avenge my failure to get Eizen's quote in our first trip to the Baird Marsh. Now we can get back to business.
That just makes me more worried, personally...
First sidequest, stopping by a funeral party on Lionel Island. You should be able to guess who this is for, but you'd think they wouldn't start without Eizen in attendance. From everything we know, they were pretty tight. There's an also an accompanying skit. Our first mate has the final word. The actual reward for seeing this event is getting Eizen's color variation outfit, the one with the red coat.
The seas are a poorer place without him. It'll be up to this man to carry on his fight. But don't sail off from Lionel quite yet.
Return to where you fought Aifread and, you see that white gathering point directly in front of me? Examine that for this skit about finding the next ingredient in Videl's Omega Elixir. This is actually one of two places it could be found, the other being Galles Lake Road, which could have been picked up as soon as you got the geoboard. You would have gotten a different version of this skit depending on which you picked up, but regardless, you can't progress this sidequest until later, so as far as that particular progression goes, doesn't matter which you get. I've mentioned character-specific sidequests, and don't worry about progressing them; aside from Eizen's, which we just finished by seeing that funeral party, you can't finish any of them until after you unlock the final dungeon, the very creatively titled "The Last Dungeon".
Oh, and for the treasure chests here, yep, I was right. I'm guessing the Ceremony of Suppression also caused a whole bunch of treasure chests to get restocked around the world. I won't go around and open all of them, just the ones that are convenient. Here, the closest one has a Summertime Waistcoat, and the other has a Francois Rabelais Sash for Velvet. When you're done mucking around, you can take advantage of the treasure Aifread passed on to us: the Bottomless Denore Bottle, which allows you unlimited ability to warp around dungeons already cleared. We could previously do that with regular Denore Bottles, which were limited, but now, not so limited. Works for everyone.
Unfortunately, this cheery tropical clime also has been touched by Innominat, but our business here in Southgand has two objectives. First can be initiated by talking to a guy in the tavern. He'll mention that the Abbey has forbidden entrance to Palamedes Temple, because a particularly nasty daemon that eats other daemons has taken up residence. Well, the more you tell us to stay away, the more I'm inclined to go, personally.
The other business is stopping by a now completely deserted Haria. I guess the Abbey came in and wiped out the daemon population while we were away. This is the third part of the Nor doll sidequest.
And a skit pops up more about Eizen's complicated relationship with her sister and Velvet's impatience with the particulars. I really like how Velvet delivered this line. As you might guess, this completely shut down the conversation.
On the way to Palamedes, you can also play around at the second fishing spot. This is the grand pirze that I got after wasting 6 damn Emperor Ants for this location, so once you catch this, you're done. There's actually six fishing holes. In addition to Burnack and Manann here (which I was constantly misspelling on our first trip here), there's one in Brigid Ravine (on Islegand), Tranquil Woods, and two locations we have yet to arrive at.
I found Velvet's swimswear in the Force Islands while traveling through here, named after a thing in Tales of Rebirth. Not gonna lie, I'm probably going to have waste quite a time with the Expedition menu, because we're only up to 9/20 locations, and we're very close to the end of the game.
Eizen was curious about where Phi keeps all that paper, for the record. This win screen did remind me to change Phi's outfit, since it's been a while since he had a new look.
I think he's well-prepared for Northgand now.
Oh hey, it's the Queen Bee again. Queen Bee's region is Islegand and Southgand, which obviously included The Calix. Sacred Baboon hangs out in Midgand, Bacturian Man in Eastgand and Endgand, Lindwurm in Northgand, and the one we have yet to see, Hanged Man, in Westgand. Now, when I talked about Dire Foes, I mentioned that there's a special sixth one. I didn't lie, no sir.
Thing is, we have the entire world map covered with that list, don't we? Well... The sixth one is very special, and very easy to miss. We're long, looong past the point where we could have fought it, but in my defense, because I didn't carry over *that* much between playthroughs, I couldn't have done it at the time as I was going through this game again for this thread. The trick? You need to unlock the highest difficulty level (Chaos), you need to be playing on Chaos, and it only spawns at a very specific time in the game: the first time Velvet goes hunting in Tranquil Woods. And I mean, the *very* first time. If you try to make it spawn when you go to rescue Laphi from the forest, the next time you go there, it won't work. As for WHAT it is, well...gotta keep some things in my hat. We'll get to it sometime in the next act when I'm wrapping up odds and ends before going onto the final dungeon.
As for the Queen Bee, yeah, it got a stat buff, and yeah, it didn't help it. 552 grade in 2 minutes don't hurt my feelings, either. I mean, to be fair, I did have 2x Grade activated on my way to triggering a Dire Foe again, but still. The rest of my time at the reef is not worthy of mention, so let's skip ahead to where we saw Kamoana's mom the first time, eh?
Ew. Let's do this thing, Gluttony, a favor by getting rid of it.
Yeah, it's a blob monster, but despite what you may have heard, it's easy as hell. Bosses spawning buddies to help in this game is always a two-edged sword, because if they're easy to take down, they're easy to get diamonds in the Soul Gauge on, too. This one melted very quickly. I kinda get the feeling you were meant to fight this earlier in the game. Its only unique arte is Maul, where it...jumps forward and tries to bite you. Yeah...
Trust me, it was nothing. This is actually a really weird event. I don't think it's connected to any sidequests. Just a random "boss" that got a conversation and skit attached to it. I dunno. Phi saying he sensed "a determination to continue living" is pretty funny to me, describing a slime monster. I would have sensed just the opposite, personally.
But now that those two sidequests have been wrapped up in Southgand, NOW it's time for the frigid north. For the last time.