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Part XVII: The Shining of a Jewel

Gonna be a big update today, I can promise you that. When I was looking at the course of this game from this point until the end of the story, I was looking and there wasn't really a good stopping point until the end of this particular thread, which truly begins in Lohgrin. The video I'm going to be taking stuff from was four hours and change long, which, if you subtract the time on footage that will be lost forever when the video gets deleted, almost certainly means the longest recording I've ever intentionally done. I think some Xillia 2 sessions went longer on-camera, but that was because I was getting wrecked in the bonus dungeon. Overall, the progress of this update went decently well.

But on to greater adventures in Zaphgott Moor.

First up, Rose's outfit is currently Haruka Amami, the second of two idols she can cosplay as (the first being Chihaya, since she shares all costumes with Alisha), and the "main character" of the original iDOLM@STER series, insofar as such a thing can *have* a main character, of course. Nevertheless, when Bamco promotes the various iDOLM@STER series, Haruka tends to represent the original crew, so there is that. Her battle song is GO MY WAY!!. I do always make it a point to represent every song's *official* name in this LP, just so you know.

It's funny watching me go out of my way to fight with Lycanthropes, because I can guarantee by the end of this recording session, I was just *sick* of fighting them. They are everywhere in these far side of Camelot locations.

Sorey is an admirable Shepherd. How could I?

Do you think he can win against Heldalf and Maotelus?

"Tell us"? Shall I read your palms? Oh, you have girl trouble!

So it was that easy to tell, huh?

So I'll just go ahead and say the next two Malevolent Crucibles are special cases. For all of the ones we've encountered so far, they've been single battles with one party member against a horde of enemies, in manageable waves. Well, for the next two, it's a battle featuring armatization. For this one specifically, you get the chance to bring in Sorey and a seraph of your choosing, but it otherwise works the same as all the others. Rose's version of this type of Crucible is in the next map over. That one we'll be getting to today.

Since we're ignoring the crucible for now, this is our only business here on the plateau, our latest normin friend.

I was wanting to check this out to see if you could continue heading as far afield as the Plitzerback Wetland, which, lining up the geography with Berseria, would be the Fens of Nog in a previous age. We've got plenty of business here, just nothing that can't wait until we hit the next plot beat in Lohgrin.

Surprisingly, for such a large location, there's *not* that many unique treasures to find here, and there's also not a flowering of normin to find, either. Just two, one of which we've found already.

Should go without saying Dream Slasher is practically *made* to wreck the Elephants.

These coming up junctions are important. We're obviously ignoring the path to the northwest, but all the branches have treasures in 'em, some more than others. There's a landmark in the south. Among the many cacti you can find in these inhospitable wastes, there's one with orange flowers on it in this branch of the map that should catch your eye. Mikleo may not be a match for Edna, but Rose certainly is.

Cactus Flowers posted:
Cactus flowers that are a rare sight even in the Zaphgott Moor. Their round shape gives them a charming appearance.

In the eastern branch of the junction, you can find a Quartz Sword for Sorey and a monolith in the dead end. From there, head back to the junction and head northwest. This isn't where you can enter Lohgrin, but...

I dunno, I just really like this victory quote / animation for Sorey.

This is what that "but..." was in relation to, by the way. Also, I didn't exactly focus on it while recording, but this wall is not part of Lohgrin's town wall. There's actually, apparently, quite a bit of lore attached to this, which the game does not touch on, at all. In some extras book for this game's setting, called Tales of Zestiria Official World Guidance, we get some context as to what this gate is doing here.

We are exactly right where that black circle is. According to what I've heard of this book, long before the events of this game, the story here is a group of nomads came to this region of Glenwood and clashed with Rolance. It's not exactly made clear if Rolance actually manages anything in Zaphgott, but at least, everything beyond this door they certainly do not. You won't find the name in this game, but allegedly there's a third country on this continent called the Suraga Duchy that may be found in this direction. The climax of Tales of Zestiria the X takes place in a snowy environment that may or may not be this entirely uncommented-on area of the land, and which may be the remains of Northgand, which would roughly line-up with Berseria's geography, but that's really just speculation.

And what would Tales of Zestiria be without minor cave dungeons on the way to more important areas of the game? Well...not Tales of Zestiria, for starters.

Nice ambiance. Unless there's some weird translation thing again, don't think "Trizolde" is a nod to anything.

Duobombs are very...dualistic about things!

I'm not really sure I get it...

That was weak, Lailah. But I understand not wanting to expend much mental energy on skunks. Despite that that sarcophagus seeming something of import, it's not. Just a random, lone sarcophagus.

Really, just thank goodness all these caves are pre-mapped for us. Would get super easy to get turned around in all of these optional cave dungeons if we had to find our way around by ourselves. As is also usual, the road to the boss is generally linear, but with lots of offshoots, mostly leading to generic treasures not worthy of mention.

Hey, at least I don't have to mention we'll have to come back over and over because there are so many boulders blocking offshoots.

This cave's landmark is in that northern branch, to Sorey's right. As always, if I don't mention any of the treasures up to this point, assume they're not worthy of mention. I'm rarely wrong.

Might seem innocuous at first, but that glow does tend to stand out. Being a wind seraph, Zaveid is indeed good at clearing the air around here.

Glowing Mushrooms posted:
Mushrooms with a pale glow. The surface of their caps is covered with a viscous liquid that the careless might find hard to remove from their fingers.

Deep in the caves, a bit past this area's sole save point (that also has a Quartz Umbrella nearby), in this room there's a normin behind that far stalagmite. Well, it's not hard to find as long as you're diligent about searching every nook and cranny while you're exploring these caves. There's also a gold chest in this cavern, but again, this area is close to a save point, so we can warp to it at some point.

And finally, we come across the star of the hour.

I won't accept such a half-hearted attempt! It's ball or nothing!

Another good pun. She seems to be picking up a bit, given the tension here.

What, did you think I was kidding? In spite of its innocuous name, Pill Bug, and being a gross bug hanging out in a cave, this is a very powerful enemy that, once it starts getting serious, can easily shred your party. In addition, it has a good amount of HP and ability to crouch into a defensive stance to mitigate all incoming damage, so you definitely can't sleep on this one. Best way I found to deal with it is Water Form + spamming the combo that begins with Saint's Arrow. Although Wind is its actual weak point, Water is much better at locking it down, but you can certainly have Zaveid and the other human handling close-range harassment. As always, Water's best asset against bosses is it ability to lock down an enemy for a long period of time. Also good advice to never be close to this thing. It has no long range ability, so you know to run if its AI gets bored and starts going after you.

Yeah, this is the "getting serious" I mentioned. Super Spin is an *incredibly* powerful attack. This is the other reason why Water Form is good here, because, let's say you're running Earth and Wind, both primarily close-range attackers.

Yeah...Super Spin usually doesn't end pretty. Water has plenty of time to see Super Spin coming and dodge out of the way. It only goes in a straight line, but anything in that line is almost certainly meat.

This is that defensive stance I mentioned. As far as I'm aware, it's completely invulnerable in this state, but it can't move, so it doesn't particularly help or hurt it. Only thing bad you can do here is waste lots of SC attacking it while you're not doing damage.

And of course, finish things off stylishly if possible. Was able to slightly redeem myself for the many times I was defeated here.

This is what the depths of despair looks like. Also, curious thing about this guy is you can restart straight from this fight, rather than having to reload from a save point like most every other "strong" random enemy out in the field. I guess that's because something special is attached to it, the skit in this case. If it was an enemy just like Duhvision or Behemoth, then I would have had to run back from the save point many a time.

The cavern after this one contains Frameless Glasses accessory, but otherwise, it's a fairly straight line from PIll Bug to back out in the wastes.

Place hasn't changed much from Velvet's time, has it? Well...it's still vaguely tower-shaped, at least. The tower remains

Hey there, Sorey, young lady. You look well.

Glad we found you! Have you learned anything about Maotelus?

Right down to brass tacks, I see. Nothing much, I'm afraid.

*all the seraphim pop out* Listen, Mayvin. I do understand this infringes on the taboo. But Sorey is the only Shepherd we have right now. Please, I ask you lend him your power so that he may walk his path without regrets.

Mayvin... You can really hear them?

Huh? What are you talking ab--

Storyteller. We need you.

I see... So this man is the current Storyteller of Time.

Storyteller?

You must really be in a bind this time, huh?

I won't say we aren't.

I shall lend you my power. But you do know what that means, don't you?

Yes.

You're a scary one, lass.

Well! I'm lost.

Seriously! Lailah, Mayvin, can someone please explain what's going on?

Now hang on a minute. Do you understand how momentous of a decision you're presenting me with here?

Wait a minute. Is this the "taboo" Lailah mentioned earlier?

That's correct. But as an explorer, I'll give you a bit of advice. If it doesn't all add up, the sensible conclusion is that you're missing a piece somewhere. Also. Relics are not only to be found in ruins. Remember that.

Are you talking about the Earthen Historia?

It's true we only got bits and chunks out of those.

What is it you know?

For now, just search and trust your hunches. Everything else starts from there.

You never could giev a straight answer.

I'll be sticking around here. Come back once you're satisfied in your search.

Got it. We'll be back.

Thanks a lot, old man.

*knowing nod to Mayvin*

Well, that certainly answers my question about how many of the Earthen Historia you need to actually finish the game. "All of them" is the correct answer. However, what I can tell you for free is that there are 14 parts we need to concern ourselves with, and we've found 11 so far, so we've made good progress. Of course, if you've been largely sticking to the critical path and, in particular, not talking to Rose very much in the world map, with her pointing you towards various sidequests as they open up, then there is a loooot of bracktracking to go, and in those cases in RPGs, that can easily kill your motivation to wrap things up. Of the remaining three, two are related to sidequests over in the Greater Pendrago Area, while one is tied to a sidequest that spawns here in Lohgrin. No sweat.

For a town on the far side of the world, Lohgrin has a surprising amount of stuff to do in and around it. Of course, there's the requisite restoring the blessing aspect of any new region, but you can see a couple blue dots / purple stars on the mini-map to investigate the goings-on. But as for now, we're in a wild frontier town, so let's mingle with these chatty locals a bit.

Sorry. I'm already putting my life on the line. *walks off*

Hey mister! Don't you know that you're getting ripped off?

I know. But in this region, traveling merchants are the only people we can count on.

But five times the market rate is just too much!

There's a rampaging elephant in Zaphgott Moor that is attacking merchant caravans. The danger involved causes the prices to skyrocket.

If it's just an elephant, aren't there plenty of ways to deal with it? Like running away or setting a trap?

But it has wiped out many cavalries and armed troopers!

Definitely sounds fishy.

Could you possibly be...the Shepherd?

Oh, yes. My name is Sorey.

Oh my! We've heard a lot about you.

You're hope for this world. Please, do your best.

Please let us know if you need anything. I pray we can be of use to you.

Thank you. Just saying that means a lot.

*bows, leaves*

I'm surprised at how pious they are.

That's how it's always been in Lohgrin. They must admire and respect the Shepherd full-heartedly.

Well, with this particular site...yes, I would agree with that.

Even though they're in a state like this...

Isn't that where you come in? As the real Shepherd?

Looks like it!

Yes, this does indeed sound like the kind of thing the Shepherd has an interest in. Not really with the cost of living here, per se, more in the sense of malevolence even beginning to seep into this town on the edge of civilization because of the supplies situation. Before you wander off too far, though there's a skit at the save point next to Lohgrin's entrance, about this "Storyteller of Time" epithet Mayvin seems to have. Well, we know Zaveid and Edna have seen more than their fair share of this world's history in their lifetimes, so they seemed to have sussed out that Mayvin is no simple adventurer / explorer.

More turtlez and normin hanging out in the city's back alleys.

What else around here... Oh yeah, that doll looks familiar, doesn't it?

Curious Doll Statuette posted:
A curious, multilayered statuette comprised of dolls within dolls. They have a tight-fitting design that demands a specific order to nest them together.

So in spite of Mikleo's grand theories about what this may or may not represent, according to the traditional folkcraft of the people of Lohgrin, it's...actually just Teepo, Elize's...well, it's not quite right to call it "sentient", doll from Xillias 1 and 2. For another frame of reference, Edna's cameo costume in this game is Elize's Xillia 1 design. And what appears to be a cartoony...Yuri from Vesperia inside. Not sure where that part comes in, as I don't think you ever see Teepo's head and body seperate like this in either game. Well, I suppose it doesn't outright contradict anything.

I'm just glad someone knows their history around here. Sauteed Cactus actually seems pretty good as far as cooking effects go. Well, the foods you'll be eating in the endgame to boost grinding efficiency are better insofar as they give you more concrete stuff, ike more gald or experience, bt in terms of right now? Good effects.

Oh yes, and the reason we're stopping by in the first place: skits, of course.

This is about the incident with Rose taking Symonne hostage during our last encounter with Heldalf. For a seraph...she's definitely on another level, apparently. Next one is about the party's never-ending war against secrets and lies, and the third one is the reason I kept ordereing Sauteed Cactus, despite the other fact that it's a good dish for general purposes as we venture out into the wilderness. This is the "real" reason.

And they weren't kidding about those prices around here. 10k Topaz stuff, even if it's the next-highest tier of equipment, is asking quite a bit...

Hey, never doubt Sorey's ability to detect things through walls. The stairs that formerly lead to the upper reaches of Lothringen are destroyed, not like there was much up there in the first place, and there's similarly nothing in the former mess hall of the exorcists' training base. This door is "shut firmly tight", but it certainly stands to reason it'll open up at some point.

This seraph seems to a bit late to the party. He talks about something round hanging out in Trizolde Cave, and trust me, we've met. If you turn around from this guy and go to a nearby tent with four people standing outside of it, you'll find Urth hiding within its flaps. Pretty small area to hide two normin, to be honest.

Now this is a bit more newsworthy. Zaveid seems to have something on his mind about a "traveling holy woman" as it relates to a "chaste young Shepherd", but this discussion goes over his head. Nevertheless, this is definitely a thread to pull on.

Yeah, like a giant elephant.

See? Truth is sometimes just as strange as fiction. The last lord

What is up with that shining hellion? And jeez, it looks so heavy, too!

You'll writhe in agony if you get stomped by it.

In spite of regular elephant enemies being basically harmless, this one is anything but. It's very large, but it has a large health pool and is very very powerful, with attacks hanving a very large hitbox. You'll really want a dependable arte that can hit one of its weaknesses (in this case, Rose's Glimmer Dragon hits its [Dragon] category so it staggers more easily and is prevented from attacking until the combo is over. This uneven terrain also certainly does not help, but you're just going to have to deal with it, since this is an enemy who won't aggro toward you on the field map.

What's done is done.

How careless of me... Turning into a hellion...

Are you all right?

Oh, I must apologize for troubling you, Shepherd. My name is Alken. You must tell me! What did I go and do?

Well...

You became an elephant and started attacking hellions.

Oh... Oh dear...

That made things hard for the people in Lohgrin. We wanted to do something to help.

Lohgrin? Oh, those devout believers of the Shepherd. Is there no guardian seraph?

Not right now. But the people continue to practice their faith even in such hard times.

Hmmm...

It was the work of a hellion. Don't blame yourself.

But nevertheless, I used to scoff at those humans for how easily they would become tainted with malevolence! And then I myself became a hellion... And in my rage, I destroyed my very own followers... I'm ashamed of myself.

Hey, what's the use in crying over spilt milk? What matters is what you do from now on, right?

I'd wager you have a considerable amount of power, Alken. Could we ask you to give your blessing to Lohgrin?

We'll find a vessel ourselves.

Hmm... I maybe able to use the tower in Lohgrin as my vessel, assuming devout and pure humans have been living there! Please, let me ask of you. So that I may atone.

Thank you!

Don't worry! We're sure it'll all be worth it!

*nods, walks off*

You would certainly hope. Of course, the blessing for this area has now been restored (Camelot is outside of Morgrim's domain), and we also finally have a new outfit for Mikleo, as well as a new haircut. How exciting.

But what ever would that be? Who knows. Maybe Eguille?

Sure did, boss. Remember how you were looking for iris gems?

Earthen Historia! Did you find one?

We did, but we were a little late.

Someone besides Sorey wants them?

The guy that brought it is a priest who's studying archaeology.

Archaeology?! Is he studying ruins?

I'm not really sure, but he has published several books.

Oh man, that's awesome!

I'm interested in his writing.

Could you try to stay on topic for once?

And, who's this researcher?

As far as I know, he went to the Lhitwerg Barewoods near Plitzerback Wetland for some research.

That's pretty dangerous!

Though I do understand how he feels.

I'm a bit worried. Let's go.

Now, that conversation is quite important because now that we've initiated all the sidequests in Lohgrin (do they count as sidequests if you have to do them to finish the game? Hm. Maybe "subquests" would be more appropriate), all the Earthen Historia are now available for our discovery. Lhitwerg, formerly known as Warg Forest, is a completely isolated area of the world map and is a good final area for this arc of this game, honestly, so we'll be handling that last. For now, we're headed back to Pendrago.

Also, prices have dropped, but it's still a pretty pricy proposition to shop in Lohgrin. In fact, this discovery will...kinda prompt a skit? I don't think it's related, but it is fitting.

Not the type of place any self-respecting merchant has any business being in. Guess we gotta bail him out, but first, we need to check up on Sergei at the Knight's Tower. The next two voiced scenes will be in this one video. Priests and soldiers

Ten people have been killed already, and they haven't a single clue!

Please calm yourselves. We are doing our best to find the culprit.

But that means nothing if you can't catch him! There's a murderer on the loose!

I understand your concern, but please believe us. I swear on my honor to find the culprit!

Hmph. Rumor has it you have your eyes on a different kind of "honor", isn't that right captain? Starting to butt in to politics more, aren't you?

So that's what this is about! Of course, political power is more important to you than citizens' lives.

No! I would never do such a thing!

These knights are only human too. Please, don't judge them so harshly.

*the crowd disperses*

Thank you so much for your kind words, Father Amethor.

Humans are weak, and we must all acknowledge that. Evil lies in the people's hearts, especially those who allow themselves to fall to their own arrogance.

Indeed, we are weak creatures. But that is all the more reason for me to work harder!

As expected of Captain Sergei. Salvation shall come your way when you are in need. *walks off*

I do apologize, but such is the situation. I must go join the search squad. *excuses himself*

I wonder...could hellions be behind all these murders?

Let's check it out.

This guy points us to an important clue, or something. Look, it's a thread. Next step in this quest is to wait until another heady night in Pendrago rears its ugly head. Lotta stuff happening in this town at night these days...

Sounds like this hellion is nocturnal. Let's wait until nightfall.

Something just doesn't feel right.

What is it?

How should I know? It's just a gut feeling.

Did I scare you?

No, I just have a bad feeling is all.

The culprit's inside the church!

Are they...dead?

This is not death, but salvation, good seraph. I have purified the evil.

*everyone gets into combat stance* He-He heard my voice?!

Why so surprised? You were the one who showed me the way in my dreams, time and time again...that the world's salvation was my sworn duty!

You call this salvation? This is massacre!

The blame rests on them. They could not admit their own weakness. Instead, they would blame their own country, the knights...even the church for their own blasted misfortune! Such disgusting vermin... What would you call their illness if not malevolence?

Are you serious?

Quite, I assure you. This world is so hopelessly smitten with malevolence. If I do not dispose of the evil ones, there can be no future! It may seem cruel, I know. But it must be done. That is my sworn duty!

Lailah, is he...

No. He's not a hellion.

...

You assume I can be bound with the laws of man? How foolish. But then again, who could blame you? I am all too aware... That your brother was killed by Cardinal Forton in an attempt to fight her.

...

He must have been but a weakling, who could do nothing but blame his misfortunes on the church. And oh you poor soul, who's been working so hard to atone for his sins. Your heart is truly worthy of salvation.

How dare you!

Enough, Sorey. What he says isn't far from the truth.

Of course it isn't. Please, confide in my what troubles you. After all, it is my duty to save lost lambs like yourself.

Well...all I can say is at least the entire church isn't like this. Some folk are just trying to do their best in an unfortunate situation, but there's really nothing that you can do about guys like that. But of course, the real reason we were is because of that Earthen Historia.

Heldalf's family history is...not a pleasant one.

And a final reflection on the way out about a certain mad priest. Human affairs are certainly a difficult topic for this bunch, and you have to admit, Lailah does have a point about wanting Sorey to stay as high and dry as he can from them while he's handling his role.

The type that don't even ask that.

Swing and a miss. This, of course, was seen on my way to Westronbolt.

Alright, alright, we'll handle it. Sheesh, we don't need everyone telling us to check for some stuff happening in Westronbolt these days.

Well...I guess a goblin rider *could* eat an iris gem... Also, this is on the route to Edna's Crucible, if you want context as to where I found this guy. Goblin Lord

Awww, it even has that cute little crown.

Aside from taking out his little goblin friends as soon as possible, don't really have anything too special to say about this guy. He has powerful ranged attacks that are difficult to side-step, but that's the problem when you're riding around on a cannon, it's predictable what kind of attacks you're gonna pull out. Another boss who's only dangerous angle is right in front of it.

That it is.

Even self-death couldn't take him, eh... Someone really had it out for this guy.

This next scene I *believe* originates once you've purchases all of the Turtlez maps, since I believe the one in Lohgrin is the last one. It's on the Great Camelot Bridge, down some stairs from the market halfway across the bridge. A turtly victory

*falls over*

H-Hey!

Careful! Are you okay?

*gets up* Thank yaz... I'm a bit weary from my journeyz. But it'z time to settle the scorez! Gotta hurry to the Katz Korner! *scampers off*

The turtlez, he's still hurt...

He's going to Katz Korner, huh. Is he going to have a duel there?

It's the illusionary village where katz live.

Ha ha ha. It might become a huge cat and turtle free for all!

So I wonder, where exactly is this Katz Korner?

I've never heard of it before...

I don't know much either...

We're gonna have to do some research.

Hmm. Let's start by asking seraphim who are knowledgeable about regional lore.

Good idea. Guardian seraphim are more likely to know something about the lore or legends.

This is a sidequest you can initiate now, by talking to each Lord of the Land (what, Morgrim alone wouldn't have all the deets as to find the place?) you've enlisted to restore the world's order, but you can't take any concrete steps toward finding the elusive Katz Korner until a very late moment in the story. We're not quite there yet but we're not far off, either, especially by the end of this update.

Probably. By which I mean "absolutely".

You guys are so mean.

They do tend to give Sorey a hard time, don't they?

But don't forget. We need to find the iris gem.

Yeah, I know.

Welcome to what became of the Fens of Nog.

First up, these Plantus. You'll frequently find them lying in wait, but their ambushes are somewhat undermined by dramatically leaping into the air as you get close. What's also weird is these guys' official name is Merciless Plantus, but I could have sworn we've never seen them before, but there was no commentary from them when I began this first fight. Maybe they forgot to write anything here?

But these guys definitely are new.

(Aqua Scylla) These ones are even more adept at water attacks than Scylla.

You should stand back while I take them on.

We'll be counting on you, Edna.

Edna's special abilities against them notwithstanding (I don't think she has any), these are probably the most dangerous enemies to be found in Plitzerback because they have good stats and come in large groups.

That is, however, until I remembered armatized forms have powerful spells, too. I...have no excuse for forgetting them. Calamity Flare in particular is *really* good. One word of caution is to not use it against the side of an arena, with you facing toward the boundary. The fire wall will push forward past the battle boundary and obviously, enemies will never be there.

Large groups of spellcasting enemies? No problem. Yeah, just spam this and burn these groups to cinders.

So the Wetlands are another large location with lots of branches in it, and plenty to see. Not really much different from Zaphgott, actually, but not *as* big, but that also means less empty space filled with werewolves. Win-win to me.

First up, up that moss in front of Sorey will lead up to Mystic Feather Garment, but...

Don't forget to leap off to the right. It'll lead to this area's first landmark.

These lovely flowers.

Only Rose could ever make such dark statements with a smile on her face.

Crimson Flower posted:
A single flower amongst those growing in the swamps that has turned deep red, perhaps due to the qualities of the earth it grows in. Regardless, its crimson color is stunning.

Further on from that flower toward a dead end, this little explainer about how stat growth works. Zestiria sure has a lot of weird mechanics like this, doesn't it? I can't say I prefer this way to frontloading important information like this, but, we are pretty late in the game and only in the level 40s or thereabouts, so there's actually plenty of time left to make use of this information. Just...not in this LP. If I have to say it in one Tales game I'll say it in another, but level 200 is both the maximum level in this game and hilariously unreasonable to grind towards outside of NG+ when you have EXP multipliers available.

Can the starfish float?

Pretty much.

Well, did we expect much more enthusiasm from her? Anyway, these guys are completely unworthy of mention.

Whoa, where's that come from? ...Of course, I mean Zaveid's cooking skills. He's nearly as bad as Rose.

She did have it coming. As for what type of beast made this...well, let's hope it's another type we don't run across. We have enough trouble with hellions.

Giant Footprints posted:
Footprints so incredibly large, it's hard to imagine how huge whatever left them could be.

What the...? Enemies can spawn on top of you? Damn starfish. Anyway, these kinds of compressed environments are *perfect* for Calamity Flare. Pretty much just "mash X and win" arrangements, assuming you can get the first one off.

No it ain't. The reason we're over in this corner of the map, however, is...

Looks like a ruined village to me. Perhaps we can find some clues about this "Saint" everyone's been chatting up lately.

Well...I don't know if I'd say "no one"'s here, Rose... To be fair, Zaveid does call her out on that. The third sister

Like I mentioned during the last update, she, Stheno, and Medusa were all sisters, but what I didn't mention, because I hadn't looked it up, was that first two were immortal, whereas Medusa could be slain. Her name means "Far-roaming" in Greek, and actually, there are several "Euryale"s in Greek mythology, but obviously this one is supposed to be the gorgon Euryale. She has all the same abilities as her sisters did, and sometimes she's actually the mother of Orion (yes, that one), sometimes she's not. Mythological creatures, what can ya do?

Anyhow, this is basically the same fight as Stheno, fittingly, with the exception of the fact she gains a new arte called "Gorgon Hold" when she gets low on health and will use Gorgon's Frenzy earlier in the fight. What Hold does is that she'll extend her tentacles towards the target, and if she catches them, she'll deploy an Eye behind her to Petrify the target, with I guess a 100% success rate? Something like that. If the target is KO'd in this state, I think it's fine, since they can be revived from a KO state. She doesn't seem to have access to Gorgon's Eye, or at least she never saw fit to use it against me, so that may or may not be something.

Oh yeah, and don't get me wrong, Petrification is not a 100% sure thing to happen if you get hit by one of those artes, just a very good chance.

Lailah!

*hops out*

You glorified me as a Saint! You pushed all of it on me! You did nothing to help! You let disease take the children, one by one! None of it! None of it was my faaault!

She still had fight left in her?

Dang! We couldn't purify her either!

Not doing so hot, are we.

Hey, wasn't that hellion...

Yeah... It must have been the Saint. Betrayed by the people she believed in...

Medusa-type hellions tend to women with high degrees of self-righteousness and hatred.

Oh, so that's why you freeze when they glare at you.

The Saint was a nun. Maybe the church in Pendrago would have some info on her.

Let's check it out. We can't have hellions like that running around.

You *might* be able to do that, but this is another sidequest that you can't finish for a bit because you need access to all of Glaivend Basin, and obviously, that is not in the cards right now.

There's nothing left in the village except a Strawberry Tart next to some graves (strange customs in these parts), but...I think the entrance to another dungeon counts as "something", honestly.

Just a Grape Gel and a nice view if you climb up that moss.

The Arctus Ruins are quite an abyssal plane, and the last of these kinds of dungeons.

Then we'd better watch ourselves to the end!

You do have to check yourself around ghosts, to be sure. Despite groups of spellcasting enemies generally being awful, Ghosts are probably the easiest of their ilk.

Their weakness to Void attacks is probably the biggest reason for this. This is their suicide attack, but thankfully, once they get this low, it's not hard to exorcise them before they explode or do whatever they were planning on doing.

There are two main paths down to the depths of Arctus, both of which contain treasures and doors to dissipate via map actions. Thing with map action doors, though, is you can only operate them from the correct side, so you can't, say, take the rigth path here, then on the way back up, take the left path and assume you'll get everything. The right path, which we'll be taking, has Mini Piercings, Dexterity Decor, and a Brunnhilde as unique equipments you can find, whereas the left path will have a Symphonic Sheet and Jasper Soul for equipment and in addition, an Hourglass and Elixir for special consumable items.

Alternatively, Dream Slash the *hell* out of them.

Man, Zaveid *loves* this seraphic arte. I've seen him use it in like every fight that lasted long enough for him to cast it.

Sounds very classy.

A masterful subversion of expectations.

Oh yeah, and speaking of Zaveid, he can use every costume Dezel could, including the color variation. So normally I'd say it's another Rose / Alisha costume situation, but nope. Dezel never gets to go shirtless.

Yep, thankfully Arctus only has three floors. Thankfully, if you want to get all the treasures, it doesn't *take* that long, just hope you enjoy spelunking around in dark corridors with fairly easy enemy groups.

And now the paths have officially linked up. The most important treasures here, though, thankfully are on this connect path. First one, a very very special one, is actually just in that first large room to the north from the save point.

Hallelujah. Now every chest and door is open to us...aside from special ones that open during the plot, of course. I skipped over it while grabbing the key, but the Wind Rush grate to the left leads to a gold chest with 20k gald in it, and the right path has Summer Vacation armor for any of the guys in it. In that little room in front of the Gold Key chest, opened with Lailah's map action, you can find a Topaz Sword for Sorey.

But no matter what route you choose, Voyd needs a few friends, rather than hanging out in this very quiet part of the world.

Well, I guess we shouldn't be surprised by the master of this place.

It's Naught.

It's not what?

Sheesh. It's not admirable to flaunt your ignorance like that, Rose.

Having different cut-ins / different animations for whoever is launching an armatized Mystic Arte is pretty cool. That's pretty much the only thing I have to say about Naught, even though it does have a cool look. Aside from powerful seraphic artes, which you should be well into the business of knowing how to disrupt in either armatized or normal forms, it's a Zombie-type enemy, which means it's about as harmless as they come.

Going back to the save point, since there is naught in Naught's chamber, this door was previously locked because we didn't have the Gold Key. Well, now we do. Nice of them to put the key like a 10 second run away.

You don't say. All of these gold chests contain 10k gald, so you can do the math for yourself, but that mirror in-between the sarcophagi is our next landmark.

Well, feminine appeal is still important for seraphim, even if they have to concentrate the hell out of themselves to make it happen. If humans get scared in the process, that's their problem.

Metallic Funerary Mirror posted:
A splendid, metallic mirror that tells the tale of the power wielded by the person with whom it was buried. Perhaps the most precious and important artifact among the other buried goods with which it was found.

Aside from this treasure room (I guess we're fine with looting the money that was buried with this allegedly powerful woman), the most easily-accessible treasures are an Elixir in the far northwest room of B3 and Jasper Soul for Zaveid in square room just southwest of that. For anything else, you'll need to return to B1 and take the left path.

If you don't work, you don't armatize.

And of course, don't forget about Mr. Frog in the northernmost room of B1, now that we have the Gold Key.

Sure.

C'mon, man!

Don't expect too much out of Sorey on this.

Yeah, Mikleo could mean a lot with that line, and it's not main scenario stuff or anything, so take it as you will, but I think it's pretty safe to say Sorey is simply not very interested in women in general. He talks like he never even considered it. His closest personal relationship would definitely be Mikleo, and I would rather advise you that the fanbase did not fail to notice that. Could be a byproduct of the game's troubled development, that they just didn't have time to add much else beyond what we see in the game (or in the case of Alisha's main party member status, deliberately remove), but it is pretty notable to see there not being any romance subplot in general. The fanbase, in that absence, has mostly seen fit to pair Mikleo with Sorey which, again, I think would be fair to say, and I wouldn't argue against it.

As for the unexplored portion of B2, there's an Hourglass in that eastern room. Usually how it works in Tales games is that you just use it, it stops all enemies from doing anything for 10 seconds or so, then the battle continues normally. Here, it only works for 5 seconds, and also only works if the enemy affected level is not 20 or more. Really a novelty, and I think there are some special enemies it just will flat-out never work against. Might have to try it against the enemies I'm thinking of to be sure of that.

And now we're finally done with this place. Yay.

Now we're headed to the Malevolent Crucible for Rose + a seraph. For context of where this is, this is up a moss climby-thingy to the northeast of the Giant Footprint landmark. That silver chest just has a Dexterity Decor in it, so we can leave it at that, but let's go with...Rose and Lailah. A sufficiently hot-blooded team. Pratapana is the naraka where the damned (well, not really damned, just those paying back bad karma, essentially) are mercilessly skewered by guards with tridents over and over until flames start bursting from their orifices.

Yeah, as a compromise to having 2x the firepower, the enemy groups are much larger / dangerous as well.

Let's just say that, for me, Calamity Flare got put through its paces here.

Now only one "idol" victory quote is left. I actually consulted with someone whose knowledge of old iDOLM@STER content far surpasses my own, because they've actually played older games in the series, and apparently these quotes aren't really from the other Bamco series at all. The consensus we reached was that, as far as either of us know, these quotes are just like...idol-y lines and poses that were created for this game. Just going to have to leave it at that for now.

He certainly has come a ways as a Shepherd. To aid in this continuing journey of discovery, a Survivor's Garb shall be your reward. For other treasures in the Wetlands, there's a Leather Belt in a gold chest on some docks near the start of the area...

Yeah, you can see that the camera angles for Sylphistia are different depending on who launches it. Again, as I said, a nice touch.

... and a normin chilling out on a swank lilypad. And that, far as I know, are the only valuable treasures left to find.

A forest on the edge of the world. This is what became of Warg Forest, but I like this palette a lot more.

She's real pleased with herself lately.

Uh...not really!

Just give us the battle tips, please?

Well, they really are fairly difficult enemies, and they also have an eye laser arte like they did in Berseria. At least that's pretty easy to interrupt. The northern clearing in the first area has Gooey Stuff in a chest (ew) and gald, whereas the island in the south has a Military Hike and gald, so you can skip those if you please, but there are more interesting treasures to be found in the depths of the forest.

Like this normin here, past a destroyable boulder, in the second area. I guess this one's pretty hard to find in the sense that's not in obvious sight on a critical path and there's nothing special about this particular area that would direct you to investigate, but nonetheless its deception was not good enough.

Personally speaking, I'm all for this dungeons near the end of the game to be fairly short. I think there's only two actually new dungeons left to discover outside the postgame. Those two large areas in the northwest of this map are what we're actually after, so you can skip to that if you so choose, or you're at the end of a more than 4 hour recording session and just want to wrap it up. But maybe that's just me. The clearing immediately to the north has Lhitwerg's only landmark, a fallen tree. You'd think Edna would have the worst reaction to that, but it's actually Lailah who needs cheering up here.

Vines Around the Withered Tree posted:
A tree that has withered under the vines that encircle it. The blossoming flowers have a certain melancholy to them.

Moving on beyond treasures you can find in the extremes of this map, both the southeast and north, you can find this rather large fellow. Well, would be hard to miss this one, wouldn't it?

Titan here is a large, lumbering beast, as you might guess. He has no more complicated attack patterns than stomping and swinging his arms around, but with a large amount of health and lots of resistances, you'll just need to find something that works for you. I don't think there's any great strategy for dealing with it, just slowly chipping it down with normal attacks and seraphic artes should suffice to wear it down eventually.

On a side note, boy did the first recording of this fight not encode well on my end. At the time I was pissed off that, shortly after this fight, I got a Game Over against a Dangerous Encounter, but watching the video back, yeah, life has a way of working out sometimes. The only thing I do regret is that I skipped the cutscene afterwards on the Titan fight you actually see, I'll have to transcribe it, without the video. Considering how it turned out...I made the right call here.

This place is a lot more dangerous than I thought!

We need to find him, quick.

*walks up* What was that?

Are you that archaeologist?

You... You just cut through those walking stones...

It's not like that! It's called a hellion--

S-Stay away from me! You monster! *runs off*

Uh...

What's the deal?! We came to save you!

We're really after the iris gem.

True, but Sorey isn't just about that!

Well at least he's okay.

Yeah, I guess.

But still!

Look! There's the Earthen Historia.

That researcher dropped it.

Well, well! Looks like we got a souvenir out of it!

Is this really okay?

Of course it's alright!

And the last...

But just how does one go from a human to the Lord of Calamity? We have all of the Earthen Historia, but I think there are still a few pieces missing. Think it's about time Mayvin provided us some, don't you think?

As for the last things to do here in Lhitwerg, there's an Afro Puff accessory just south of where Titan was, behind a destroyable boulder, and one last weapon...

A Darkness Disruptor for Edna in this chest, in the east of the second map. That's all for notable business here, and I don't think we ever have to return. Just a quiet forest at the edge of the world, just like I said.

I did get this victory quote on the way out. Very deft movements.

It's all right. Even if we'd have met with him, he probably wouldn't have listened to your ideas.

It's fine.

But what we know is based on our own thoughts after exprimenting firsthand.

Even if our conclusions are different.

I'll say.

Hey! Quit lollygagging, you nerds!

Rose is still mad at us.

You know it's because she cares.

I know, I know. I'm cool with it.

You guys are quite a team.

Come on! Put some hustle into it!

Coming!

And to wrap this update up, a healthy three skits attached to this save point, once you've completed the Earthen Historia. First one is about the "completed" saga, and what it might mean for Sorey, second one is Sorey putting the pieces together that, whatever happened to the previous Shepherd is connected in some way to Heldalf (though Lailah certainly won't tell us what the connection is now), and Edna's savage beatings, and the final one is directing us dead-ahead to Lohgrin. Yes...I think that's a good idea.