Lurker > _stingers_

Young Link

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R.o.b

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Mythra

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Damn I was gonna save Diddy fml

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Young link

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Mythra

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That is a bummer. That's the problem with these long story based franchises man, they start bleeding sales. But trails games are more popular in the west than they used to be so maybe there's hope for them here

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Diddy Kong

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Pyra

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Whenever I could play them on my phone

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smooth

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Mythra

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Pyra

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Diddy Kong

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Mythra

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Oh that's not bad. I'll do that next time I play. Still haven't tackled 12/10 yet

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Diddy Kong

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Mythra

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Damn, I really want Machias to have contacts too. Time to learn hex editing so I can modify my save file to get an additional pair...

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Bareahard is not Japan, and thus has no seasons. Duh.

Holy shit this is probably actually it. I'm going to kill myself

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I gave her contacts, so in this scene her glasses appeared back on her face just so she could take them off, which was pretty funny.

Okay I really want to give her contacts. Where did you find them? Did you just happen to buy two when you were at that merchant at the army Outpost?

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R.o.b

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Pyra

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Xenosaga 3
Smash Melee
Xenogears
Trails to Azure
Persona 5
Xenosaga 1
League of Legends
TWEWY
RE2make
Trails to Zero

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Congrats Black Turtle!

by earn i mean, their actions in the first two games didn't lead to them all grouping up for this last hoorah. it was just shoehorned in. everyone was by and large doing their own thing, but they were all brought together because...fanservice.

the problem, for me at least is that it cheapens the world that they had built during the first two games

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LeonhartFour posted...

and the ending is probably the best one in the series.

this is a big part of why i dont like it. these characters didn't earn this giant goodbye. it doesn't make any sense in the context of the larger world the game had created until then. the whole game is just fanservice through and through.

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6/10

star door 15 is half of that

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too pretty to work

aight boss let me stop you there

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Meta Knight

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Diddy Kong

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R.o.b

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Mythra

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Waluigi1 posted...

Wait really??

This lol I know nothing about neo twewy was that serious

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I mean I like his design I honestly just hate his name

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Shulks universe is literally his so

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How the hell did McBurn get approved by anyone with authority

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That is the vibe I am getting right now

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Ivysaur

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Peach

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That's the 13 factories guy you see outside of the puppet shop right?

And thanks for clearing up their command structure. Anguis > Enforcer I kind of understood, but I didn't realize there was 7 of them and the grandmaster was above that. That's all fitting in now. Also didn't realize how important that makes Vita! That makes her showing up at the beginning a lot funnier to me now.

And I guess I'll have to start spamming insight on Sharon, if I keep using her. I was basically planning on having Alisa in my core party throughout the game so it's great to know that insight skill of hers is actually useful, since I haven't used it once yet lol


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Diddy Kong

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Right as he's about to actually leave, our next hit on the fanservice list shows up - Sara! I love me some Sara, but I'm going to have to put her beneath Claire and Sharon on the priority list to bring with me. Sadly I've learned that they're going to make me take 3 shitty classmates and choose my last slot from all the fun characters, which sucks. Sara gives Sharon some props for helping the kids out during this chapter which is really cute considering how their relationship took a turn at the end of CS1.

With Sara here, McBurn is itching to fight again and says he's about to get serious. Sharon uncharacteristically drops the normal lullaby tone to her voice and tells Sara she needs to stay away from him. Some genuine concern is touching to see! Out of nowhere however, who shows up but Duke Albarea, randomly driving by and noticing his son on the plateau. He gets out of the car and yells at Jusis and tells him to get down here this instant, which is fucking great. Here comes this little guy to show up and stop a fight between all of these God tier killers so he can drag his son home by the ear. I love it. Jusis refuses of course, so Dukey boy gets mad and calls in some soldats nearby to come kill us apparently? He certainly came prepared. McBurn now says he's bored and teleports away and Duvalie follows, so guess it's up to us now. Time to do another rinse-and-repeat unlosable mech fight! Right before the fight starts we get to hear the Duke join the club with "An ash-colored knight?" I really hope some translation staff got fired over this.

Since Fie isn't with me this time, we have Machias join the battle in her stead. His skills are basically the same as Fie's though, just with an Earth attack instead of a Wind attack. I don't think it makes any difference. The fight is as easy as every other one so that ends and we get ready to go home, but the Duke once again tries to forbid Jusis from leaving. Jusis, ever classy gives his father a deep bow and wishes him farewell. I respect it. He also says that his dearest wish to his father is that he doesn't repeat his Ymir mistake a second time, which could definitely be construed as a threat. My boy Jusis is off the chain right now, I love it.

They go back and we get told that Jusis and Sara have joined the party, and that Toval and Sara can use Overdrive, "with Rean as a medium". Still don't get the reason for that qualifier. But what that really means is, if they can use Overdrive then they're going to let me bring two adults with me from now on?! Thank god the game is finally coming to its senses! They also unlock a second overdrive, which makes me remember that I even had a first. Some of those hard fights this chapter might've been a little easier if I ever remembered to use it lol. I can't even remember the last time I have, maybe someone can look through my writeups and figure that out.

Toval tries to hit on Sara back in Ymir and she acts pretty awkward about it. I'm not sure if that means that it's awkward because she's totally uninterested, or if she's feeling actual emotions instead of being able to act like she usually does. The character development is real in Ymir tonight! Rean goes to chill at the hot spring alone, but you're soon presented with a choice of "who left the strongest impression" on you between any of your teammates. I love that the game still refers to Claire as "Captain Claire", who is also now joined by "Instructor Sara". I really don't love it actually, it's annoying me but it adds...some kind of charm, I guess. I'm a stickler for the canon romances in games like this though so my choice is Alisa, even if Claire's my main girl.

So of course she comes out to the hot spring in her towel and Rean gets real awkward, real quick. It's a tiny bit uncharacteristic for him, but he's a teenager and all so I'll allow it. Alisa says she wishes that he wasn't staring so hard, and his comeback is that he's not doing it on purpose. Which is kind of cute, coming from a teenager, but I don't think that line would work well on any adult so it's a good thing I didn't call Claire here after all. They go on to have a nice heartfelt talk about how awesome Rean is and how they will move forward together as a group, which I assume is how the conversations go with everyone else as well. After that, the day ends.

Though I get an itch to see what Sharon's is like because I would imagine it's probably the one that's the most different. When Sharon comes out, Rean gets worried that Alisa will find them out here, which is great because it totally plays in to the order how how I actually played this part. Sharon comes back with "Lady Alisa will be none the wiser about any of this". Sharon planning some dirty little secrets with Rean I see, how very Sharon. She then hits him with, "I will do anything--anything--that you so desire." Very intentional emphasis on the second anything. Seeing all of the adults tease Rean sexually is one of the best parts of the game for me because it's the only time the game seems willing to let Rean be a teenager instead of some know it all, super powerful leader which is much more fun to see. The rest of their conversation flows the same as it did with Alisa though so I guess my earlier guess was correct. I thought that they might've taken this for an opportunity to dive deeper into Sharon's backstory but it's clear they're just using this for some fanservice and to prop up how awesome Rean is to the player so that's fine. I'll say it was worth it just for Sharon's teasing. That's not canon though, I'm sticking with Alisa for my real playthrough.

The day ends after that though, so next time on Cold Steel II...once again, bonding events. This game is pretty formulaic with the layout!

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Congrats Black Turtle!

Back to the gang, they leave and go to the highway, but it turns out the duel is a race instead of a fight, which is lame. I'm on a motorcycle and he's on a horse though? That doesn't seem like a very fair race. I guess motorcycles are brand new technology here so we'll just say that they haven't gotten them to go as fast as we're used to IRL, and it's actually an even match. Machias also tells Rean that he needs to "knock Jusis off his high horse"...nice.

The race begins and ends in about 40 seconds, it's pretty easy and I get +2 AP for my efforts. Afterwards apparently they haven't had enough and they actually get to fight?! Hell yeah man! The fight begins, I cast motivate, auto attack, he attacks and misses so I get a counter, I auto attack again and then launch my 200 S craft...and then Jusis dies. Alright, well at least he tried? Rean says Jusis' skills really shone through, clearly because Rean secretly gets off on being a passive aggressive douchebag.

Jusis finally agrees to join the team and Rean says that they've still got to bring Crow back. Is this their new goal now? I can't say I approve, if I were them I'd try and murder him and be done with it. I guess these games are all about friendship and forgiveness though so we don't have much choice. Before the gang can set off however, the girl from before says they shouldn't celebrate so soon. Everyone gets question marks of surprise above their head, except for Sharon, who instead gets exclamation points of surprise above her head. Nice touch for the Ouroboros member to have a different reaction.

The girl is all dressed up in her armor now, which allows me to easily place her as the girl I mistook as Ahrienhod at the start of the game. She introduces herself as Duvalie, and says her group is led by the seventh Anguis. I'm not too familiar with the terms they use to refer to themselves offhand, but was the Anguis their leader? Does that make Ahrienhod the grandmaster I've heard so much about? I kind of hope so because if they do some lame shit like reveal Lechter to be the grandmaster I'm gonna be a little upset.

Duvalie is so earnest and sadistic at the same time it's actually great. I love her personality. My favorite line this chapter is definitely her saying, "Haha! Sucks to be you!" after taunting Laura about Laura not knowing what's going on. Laura plays it off cool though, so props to her. She gets mad at her partner who isn't helping in the fight, and refers to him as Enforcer #1. The gang gets very upset about this! Are they ranked based on skill in combat or something? I honestly hadn't thought about it, but that would make this guy pretty scary. Sharon immediately clears the air and says that the number and their combat skill are completely unrelated; however by sheer coincidence, this guy probably is the strongest Enforcer. I thought XP or someone was saying earlier that Ahrienhod was their strongest, but if she is their leader and not just a normal enforcer I suppose that would make her ineligible for a ranking. He does say however that him and her have never fought (referring to her as 'Steel' to keep those that didn't play Crossbell out-of-the-know) and he's not sure who would win in a fight. So a bit ambiguous as to her status currently. He finally jumps down to introduce himself, and his name is...McBurn.

I liked him before but I hate him now. What a dumb fucking name. That is the dumbest name I have ever seen. Why would you do this to me, Falcom?

The fight against him and Duvalie starts and McBurn has 300k HP, holy shit. Duvalie only has 100k so I guess I'll try and take her down first. That turns out to go pretty quickly, I had Laura use a 200 Scraft with a 50% strength boost on her and it took off 45k damage on its own lmao. Shoutouts to this Tauros master quartz, it's pretty great. As soon as Duvalie dies though, McBurn gets about 6 turns in a row and hits for 15k damage each time he attacks, so I'm guessing we're supposed to lose here. The game gives me +3AP for finishing her off so I guess that counts as a win!

After the fight, she stands back up and is understandably upset, but she mentions that losing to an Arseid is humiliating. So I guess Ahrienhod must have some beef with the Arseid family. McBurn notes that Duvalie couldn't have been trying because he saw her beat Loewe in a fight once, but Duvalie remarks that was a 1W-99L record so it doesn't mean much. Also, this is the first time I heard Loewe pronounced, and that is apparently "Loo Ey Vey". That must be some weird German shit cuz that is definitely not how I was reading that the whole time during Sky lol. McBurn is ready to leave but first asks Rean if he's "mixed", Rean is confused about that for some reason. He forgets about his demon form so quickly I guess. I suppose that means that McBurn also has a demon form or something, so I'm guessing we'll get a cool McBurn vs Rean 1v1 at some point in the series which should be fun.

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Congrats Black Turtle!

Control returns to the main gang, and we finally get to explore the town. Nearby at the inn, they mention some clumsy new student who's working there, but she's not around at the moment. I'd guess that would be Mint, except we've already met her at Nord. I'm not really sure which of the other students from the original was clumsy. I guess we'll find out soon, since Laura says "We should make a note of this for later." Outside the inn, there's a jeweler nearby where you can buy those broken accessories from all the Crossbell games - the ochre and the evergreen and all that stuff. I forget the exact names but you know what I mean. They only cost 50k Mira which isn't bad, normally in Crossbell I remember waiting forever to actually buy these. I have 65k on me so I buy one of them, I opt for the one that gives +100 strength and give it to Laura to make her OP. Also at this jeweler is Colette, who turns out to be the inn worker they were talking about before. That didn't take long. I genuinely don't remember her at all, and her design is completely generic. I was able to place the student in Legram to the sword club, I think, but this chick I couldn't even guess. She lets us know that Jusis is indeed in town, and that he has been overseeing the provincial army in the area. That's what I was saying before! Why do we need to worry about these army soldiers when we can just have Jusis order them to back off for us? These kids got no strategy man. Anyway, the gang then has to figure out how to actually get in tough with him, but I'm sure they'll figure that out soon. Sewer level in 3...2...1...

In the central area in town, there's an old lady who needs us to find her missing cat. Boring old bracer missions like these are the perfect contrast to the wartime atmosphere that has permeated the rest of the game. There's another quest from a nun at the chapel, who wants us to investigate why the statue in the middle of town is shedding black tears at night. That's...certainly a lot more interesting than finding a cat. At the weapon shop next door, there's another student who I don't recall at all, Theresia. Alisa seems to know her so maybe she was a lacrosse girl? She is having trouble with her dad telling her what to do, poor girl. Not much else to her though, but the gang wants to go into the waterways to investigate the water supply for this black tears on the statue thing. Not why I thought we'd be going into the sewers, but okay. You walk through and get to a boss at the end, who is some gigantic black slime thing. He's pretty tough, he has this huge AOE spell that one shots everyone that it touches, and can sometimes cast it instantly, so you don't get a chance to impede it. Whenever that happens your SOL. I was able to win on my third attempt which isn't too bad, but only after Laura and Sharon had died to that spell so no XP for them.

Luckily, the guide I'm loosely following advises you to go back to that boss after you win, since there is a black record on the ground. For those that forget, that was the weird book you could get in Celdic that has a bunch of censored text, so not much use now but I'm sure it's a missable that I'll need later. I never would've done that on my own, so shoutouts to guides. After getting back from that, I head north on some highway to find the missing kitten. You bring it back and there's a funny scene where Celine forgets him(her? I'm not sure)self and starts talking out loud to the cat's owner, and she blinks a few times and says she must be going senile. Nice. After that I wander around aimlessly until the plot finally advances, which is when you come out into the central area. The gang is out of leads on finding a way to get in contact with Jusis. We're given a message from a mysterious benefactor, telling us to meet them at the restaurant; we go there, but we're told to meet them at the airport. Not sure why Jusis is giving us this runaround, but okay.

Once you get there you board an airship and meet up with him on the third floor. You get to see him face to face for the first time, so let's talk about his design. It's pretty good! He's wearing a green smoking jacket with some standard noble frills underneath. Machias and Jusis have a touching reunion where they shit talk each other for 30 seconds, so that was reason enough to bring him along. Jusis notes that he hasn't the foggiest idea why Sharon is with us. Same, buddy. I have to imagine he'd say the same thing about Claire or Toval, but maybe not.

He goes on to say that he's been keeping tabs on us and is then the 23rd person to call Valimar the "ash-colored knight", which is definitely starting to mildly annoy me. He quickly gets to the real reason why he called us here though; he informs us that he won't be joining us on our mission. First of all, our mission up until now was to find you, so clearly you can't join us for that. We don't really have a clear goal in mind afterwards, but I suppose we'll get to that. Secondly and more importantly, as someone who has played a JRPG before I know he's going to come with us, so cut the bullshit buddy. Anyway, he apologizes for what happened in Ymir and seems very regretful, and says he would've done his best to stop it if he'd been in Bareahard when it all happened. I can definitely see how that would weigh on him and would make him want to stay at home, to at least try and keep a leash on the Duke best he can. I respect the intentions, even if they're a bit nave. The gang is upset with his decision of course, and Rean takes it upon himself once again to give a rousing speech. He basically tells Jusis point blank that he shouldn't consider it his responsibility to try and make amends to him, or feel the need to watch after this father. He then calls him a coward and not a true noble if he refuses to come with them, which is pretty great. To be honest I can see both points of view pretty equally here; Jusis could definitely do a lot of good as a man on the inside. His authority is limited compared to the all reaching powers of his father sure, but it's better than nothing. But I know he wants to hang out with his buds and assist them directly as anyone would, so I wouldn't be mad about either decision if this were a real world situation. If he had more ability to actually control things from the inside then I'd be pissed if he came with us, but in reality it seems like his authority isn't great. Anyway, like I said before it's an RPG so let's get a move on. Jusis agrees but, in a bid to keep some sort of control over the situation and not look like Rean's lapdog, he challenges Rean to a duel. It'd be pretty great if they actually let me 1v1 him, but I'd be kind of surprised.

The scene fades away to reveal someone watching their conversation from a good 50 feet away, outside of the airship. Through anime logic though, she can apparently hear everything that they're saying inside. Sure, whatever. I think it's the same girl we saw hanging out at the bar in Laura's hometown, but I'm not 100% sure. She apparently has a partner though, which the girl at the bar also did, so pretty likely. Her partner turns out to be the blue/pink haired Ouroboros member from the beginning of the game. She says he's the one with a the number, so I suppose that makes him an enforcer and her some sort of lackey. They look into the airship and say there's a familiar face inside while zooming in on Sharon, I guess telling you that these people are all Ouroboros if you weren't paying attention at all. I wonder if there's any kind of scene here if you don't have Sharon with you? Mzero, clue us in! Unless you brought Sharon too, which you probably did because who wouldn't, right? So we'll probably never know.

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Congrats Black Turtle!

The second and third attempts go much the same way. That giant circle attack that he has knocks everyone out and almost one shots them. Anyone who doesn't get one shot can't move and then dies shortly after. Somewhere around the...7th attempt, I figure out a working strategy. So, the boss raises all of his stats at the start of the fight. My strategy then is so have Laura and Machias use their defense down crafts, and have both of them actually activate to turn his 25% defense buff, into neutral, into a 25% defense nerf. Having them both actually activate was a little tough since he resists status down, but eventually I can get it. Next, Rean and Alisa have to cast Motivate and La Forte respectively, to get everyone to a 50% strength boost. Then, I can pelt him with everyone's S crafts which leaves him pretty low, but not out. Then I just have to pray that he doesn't use his knockout attack and that I can power up through his move that heals him for 15k and buffs all of his stats that I mentioned previously. I think it took 10 or so tries but eventually with that strategy I won the fight. That was DEFINITELY the hardest fight I've had to do in this game so far, so that's nice. I am glad that they're starting to introduce some real challenges. Those bullshit boss fights in the older trails games could take me a stupid amount of tries, but it's always a great feeling when you finally conquer them. CS1 didn't really have anything to match that, but that fight I just did was on that same level.

Further on down the highway there's another one of those popup mini dungeons. Emma reveals that they are called 'Spirit Shrines' but she doesn't have too much more info on them. Rean asks if she thinks they're connected to the divine knights, and Emma reveals that's very likely, but she doesnt know. After that bit of exposition we head inside - we have a water dungeon! We have to raise and lower the water levels in order to raise platforms and explore new areas! Daring bit of dungeon design here guys. First thing I find is a trial chest for Laura and Emma, and I actually make a save beforehand this time after my experiences on the last one. Turns out that wasn't necessary though because this fight is stupid easy; the boss pretty much only casts magic and you can just use Emma's reflect craft to negate it. As a reward you get 'Shining R', which is a spell you can use to grant insight. To be honest, I have no clue what insight does, but that's okay. The real key is it gives 50% accuracy and 5% evasion as bonus stats, so that goes right onto Sharon to get her evasion tank stats up. 50% and counting!

Monster chest little further on grants Scent, which is a rare quartz that gives Aerial, Grand Press, and Dark Matter at the cost of making enemies more likely to notice you. Saving me some time on whooping ass is hardly a downside and that fits in great on Alisa, who really only had Fire attacks so far. She did have a Dark Matter orbment on there but that just frees up the slot for something else, so its a win-win. The boss fight at the end of the dungeon turns out to be, surprise, the same as the last two dungeons. Hopefully for Falcom's sake these spinning, Spiritomb-looking pallet swaps exist because their design references some weird Japanese symbol that relates to the plot of these dungeons, because otherwise I'm pretty disappointed with how lazy they feel. The last dungeon's version was actually pretty tough too, but for this one it was braindead easy with Sharon here. I beat the entire boss fight without using a single S craft, just to see if I could. Her shadow stitch move (the one that reduces speed by 50% and movement by 100%) is by far the most broken thing I've seen in a trails game yet. I might have to just not use her tomorrow if possible because she makes the game too easy lol. We'll see.

The king flashback this time shows him meeting a girl that says she is in the Eisenritter, and they live at the castle we were at earlier. Does that make this girl Ahrienhod or whatever? I remember her being blonde in Azure so she's probably not Laura's ancestor, so that's a -1 to my earlier theory of them all being related. But to be honest, the whole Eisenritter subplot really hasn't sunk in for me at all. I really don't get what's going on most of the time that any of them appear on screen. Rean finally spills the beans to the gang on the whole flashback thing, and Emma wonder's why only he can see the memories and why they are from the king. Celine hits us with the classic "...", so I take that as a +1 to Rean being related to him at least.

As I leave, I find a fishing spot right outside the door that I definitely missed the first time, so lucky me for finding it now. I caught a first time fish too (an eel) so thank god I didn't miss it again. I'm at 17/24 on the fishes now so pretty close to done, albeit that's with my having cheated the fishing sidequest by being on NG+. Mzero, clue me in on what a normal persons fishing situation looks like around here.

As we make it out to the highway in front of Bareahard, the gang talks about how dangerous it will be if they are careless in the city, and wonder how they will even get inside. Emma is a little coy and says she ahs a plan. Some kind of magic trickery will be afoot soon...my guess is she'll make everyone magic mustaches as a disguise. Side note, apparently it's almost Christmas (12/9) but the trees on this highway are clearly in autumn. What happened to how much you love your four seasons, Japan? Your special fucking four seasons that no other country in the world has? You don't even know how trees are supposed to look in December! Pathetic.

There's a monster chest at the end of the path with a "Tauros", which makes you do 70% more damage at the cost of 1.5x delay. Seems tailor made for Laura, since she barely gets to move anyway, might as well have her hit like a damn truck while she's doing it. Since she's always on the frontline not moving she'll function as a damage sponge in the meantime, so it's a win-win.

Going into town now, Emma hits the guards with the classic Jedi mind trick - "You will let us pass." When she does it though her eyes turn all yellow, which in combination with the cat ears she's wearing made her look extra feline-like which was kind of freaky. Celine does warn us afterwards that that trick loses some effectiveness every time you use it on someone, so to be wary with how you use it. Seems fair, can't have us Jedi mind tricking the war to end or anything like that I suppose. The scene cuts away to Jusis residence, where we get a sneak peak into his daily affairs. It seems like Jusis has grown a pair because it immediately shows him reprimanding his father, the Duke, in regards to his plan to send jaegers to Ymir to capture Princess Alfin and Elise. The Duke is surprised at Jusis' audacity to try and counsel him in any way, and kindly tells Jusis to take his opinion and go fuck himself, which is about the response I'd expect. The Duke has some audacity of his own however, and goes on to think that he needs to reign in Rufus in his war efforts. We all know Rufus is the one calling the shots around here, so it'll be funny to see that backfire eventually.

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Congrats Black Turtle!

Before the fight actually starts though, we get some closeups on our new teammates. First thought is wow, Emma is hot now. They gave her some witchy looking Halloween outfit, but it is a lot more flattering than the school uniform was. If we can get her some contacts next we're in business. Laura, a lot less hot but she is wearing some long blue skirt with a sort of, tribal looking jacket on top. It almost looks like something you'd see a Nord tribesman wearing, or one of the people from Lyn's tribe in FE7. It's a little strange on Laura, but I'm cool with it.

When the fight does finally start however, it's pretty easy when you have Sharon's AOE broken heal to get everyone fixed up whenever someone gets slightly low. The boss didn't have too much bullshit of his own so he goes down without a fight. Afterwards we get a standard reunion scene where Laura and Emma fawn over Rean and ignore the rest of their friends nearby. Eventually Emma notices Celine and goes to pick him up. Celine goes ultra tsundere on Emma while Emma is earnestly happy to be reunited, which is cute. Afterwards the gang immediately heads back to Legram, so I guess we're not exploring this castle today. When everyone is talking on the boat ride back, Emma decides to come clean to everyone about her role and why she was at Thors. Basically, as a member of the Hexen clan of witches, she has a duty to watch over Valimar and observe anyone who gets near him. Emma is laden with guilt from having known about everything all along, but being bound by duty and unable to warn Rean or anyone else over what was happening. She eventually says that she'll leave everyone out of shame. I have a feeling she won't be leaving, but that's just me. Anime hero Rean Schwarzer has my back, and says he has no time for this self pity shit. He gives her a good pep talk and forgives her, and namedrops everyone in Class VII individually saying how they would miss her. He lists Crow's name in there as well, which I find interesting. I kind of hope they don't pull a CT Magus and have him come back to out side, I want just one villain in this series to stay evil dammit.

Emma cries and says how thankful she is to have us (aka Rean) as friends, and takes off her glasses for a bit to wipe away her tears. I feel like I'm in one of those teen movies where the ugly girl takes off her glasses and gets some new clothes and she's just hot all of the sudden. I guess they need to elevate her to main waifu status since Alisa and Laura were the main two in the last one.

Right as the gang is nearing the shores of Legram, some shit starts to go down. An airship descends from the sky, and we get some text that shows it to be the Noble Alliance's chief airship. They ask permission to land here over the loudspeaker, which is a little surprising. I suppose this is supposed to be a neutral territory though so they're playing nice still, even though we know they're going to land regardless of the answer. The head honcho on this ship is someone I don't recognize, though it shows her name as 'Aurelia Le Guin'. Pretty name. She's accompanied by an unnamed pretty boy with a scar across his face, so I'm sure he'll be a boss fight sooner or later. They get into town and it flashes forward a bit to Laura and those two meeting in Laura's castle. They mention that they want an audience with Viscount Arseid, but Laura informs them that he isn't here. Classic blunder! They reveal that they suspected that, and their reason for coming here was merely to confirm it. Laura's many things, but a good liar is not one of them, so she didn't really have any great options there.

The gang is watching all of this go down through a crack in the door in an adjacent room, which is laughable to see. I suspect there will be a scene where they all fall through the door and everyone see's them and they have the teardrop emoticon appear next to their face, but we'll see how silly the game wants to get with it. Sharon informs everyone that the aforementioned pretty boy's name is Wallace Bardias, and that him and Aurelia are the two strongest generals that the Noble Alliance has. Rean remarks that Wallace is from Nord, and I did think he looked a bit like Gaius earlier so I suppose that was intentional. Machias outright says that he looks a lot like Gaius which is funny, while Alisa comments on how that must be why he's so tall, and I notice a hint of thirst in that voice. This is where Rean should slap Alisa in jealousy if gender roles weren't a thing, since we know that's what Alisa would do to him.

Anyway, they go on to say that they have no further business here and prepare to leave. Wallace lets loose that he knows that the Viscount is the one piloting the Courageous, Olivier's ship from CS1, that is also the ship that came to the gangs rescue at the end of the game. Which places Laura in an awkward position, as her supposedly neutral region's leader was actively committing actions that directly impeded the Noble Alliance's goals. Aurelia playfully tells him to back off however, and says that the last thing they need right now is more opponents to deal with. Wallace says that he's disappointed that Laura's friends didn't want to introduce themselves. I like him. Thank god the kids get called out for the peeking through an open door 10 feet away trope. Laura and the gang remain silent at this though, and the two generals leave. Laura literally collapses from exhaustion after they do. I can see how that would be a bit of a stressful situation for a teenager to deal with, yeah.

The gang is ready to move on however and makes a plan to go to Bareahard to try and find Jusis. Emma and Laura officially join our party, and I swap out Machias for Laura. She was pretty OP in CS1, but if she's nerfed in this game Machias might come back in. Emma, though with a buff to attractiveness, still isn't worth putting in over Alisa so she can remain in the backlines. Especially with the Alisa x Sharon level 4 link being active, can't afford to give that up. I swap over Laura to her stage outfit that I imported with my remaining NG+ point, but definitely leave Emma with her default. I've only got one new outfit left to see whenever we find Jusis! I'm kind of sad, seeing the character redesigns has been a good bit of fun.

The game strongly implies that you should head to the bracer guild before leaving, and the new receptionist there gives you some quests. One of them is to head over to the training school for a fight, so I head over to tackle that first. They make you remove Sharon from your party, I suppose realizing how OP she is. Machias gets back in and we start the fight - it's kind of close, but only because I didn't feel like using any S crafts. I'm pretty sure they all would've been one shot if I had. The only other quest is a monster extermination on the highway, so I head out towards Bareahard. As you leave the gang says they should check up on Valimar, so I do so, but they don't really say anything of substance. I have to wonder why they added that. You find the quest monster pretty early on here so I try him out. I lose the first fight, because he was casting some big circle spell so I figured I could swap in Emma to use her magic reflect to counter that, but it doesn't work and everyone dies. Alright then.

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Congrats Black Turtle!

12/9

They're making me pick between Sharon and Claire for who I bring?! I'm going to kill myself, this is the hardest choice I've ever had to make in my life. I like Claire slightly better, but I settle on Sharon. For one, she's the new girl on the block so I want to try her out, and for two, I figure she will have more interesting dialogue than Claire does on average. I also bring along Alisa and Machias for my classmate selection. I like Fie more than Machias, but he's definitely more useful in battle and I need some testosterone in the party. Also, I'm considering the last 3 I'll be meeting up with in Laura, Emma, and Jusis and how they will interact. Alisa and Sharon for starters is a no brainer, Machias and Jusis is another, and Alisa and Laura were pretty good friends from what I remember so they may get some screen time. I'm super bummed out that I have to leave Claire behind though, hopefully that's something they stop doing soon and give us full freedom.

I reequip the master quartz that Sharon comes with to Machias, since it has a 30% chance to inflict (I'm assuming random) status effects by default, and give Sharon Fie's to make her into a speed demon. Also I link up Sharon and Alisa since they start off at level 4 which is insane. That leaves Rean and Machias which is suboptimal, but I figure I'll put in Jusis or Laura instead of him since they're both pretty OP in the last game.

Walking around town to start the day off, the maid Maple says that she's jealous of her coworker maid Purple, because she has bigger boobs. Alright then! She asks if Rean agrees and Alisa gets jealous, while Sharon watches amused. This is the quality content that I play this game for. Nothing else of note happens around town though so I go off to Valimar to get this party started. He lets us know now that only two life forms are detected in Legram and not three as he said before. Drama! I'm predicting those to be Laura and Emma, and Jusis is off doing some royal shit somewhere else. Though to be fair, it could just as easily be Laura and Jusis, while Emma is off doing some witch shit. So I guess I'm not really sure, but I'm leaning towards the former. They also let you repick your teammates again if you're dissatisfied with the decision you had made 5 minutes ago, so thanks for that Falcom. I'll be back for you soon Claire! Unless Sharon is completely broken, I figure I'll end up getting back with Claire after today, assuming that the game will continue to let us gather and choose between teammates in this linear fashion.

After teleporting over, we get to Legram's outskirts and it's pretty foggy. I remember this place being foggy in the last game, but I think it's gotten a little worse. More importantly though, I get to try Sharon out in battle here and here are her starting crafts: A dark matter-esque suction move that does crazy damage in a huge aoe, a move that reduces speed by 50% and movement by 100% (!) and also does crazy damage also in a huge aoe, and a full-team heal that restores 50% of HP, 50Cp and also cures all ailments. Holy shit, this character is broken as hell. I'm not sure how this could be balanced? I guess you could make the argument that she has no strong single target moves for bosses, but all of her attacks do so much damage it doesn't really matter. She has to only be temporary or something because she's so much stronger than any other character it's a little silly. Compare that heal I just mentioned to Alisa's Blessed Arrow - Alisa's does cost 10cp less, but in exchange she does 20% less healing, grants 10 less cp to all other teammates, has no ailment cure whatsoever, and it's in a medium radius instead of full map. It's so much worse than Sharon's it's silly.

Slowly realizing that Sharon may be taking over Claire's spot in my party full time, I explore this area and find some armor that grants 10% evasion. Putting that on Sharon bumps her up to 40% evasion stat with just that one piece of armor due to her natural 30%, which is pretty insane. Evasion tank is beginning to form pretty early here. I also get to try her S craft for the first time, which is a 100% KO chance for all enemies on the map. Now I'm slowly realizing that she is supposed to be a boss character and will not be with me permanently, much to my dismay? Maybe? I'm very conflicted right now. I do appreciate the fanservice of letting her join for a bit though, shoutouts to Ouroboros teammates.

After getting to town, the gang heads to the bracer guild to get the lay of the land. Inside are Klaus, Laura's family butler, and Miles, the new receptionist for this branch. They mention that Laura and Emma are staying in town (+1 prediction point for me), but they just left to go investigate the castle across the lake. They also talk about how strange monsters - presumably cryptids - have been spotted nearby, along with the fog getting worse. Us people that have played Crossbell know that those two things happening at once are no coincidence! The gang decides to go after Laura and Emma to help, but I'm wondering why they decided the castle was the place to investigate in the first place. I guess it's just...generally spooky so you can assume there's some no goodery that will come from there, but I don't know. The real reason has to be asset reuse. Before leaving though, I take some time to explore the town and find a mysterious girl at the inn who has very strong opinions on the swordsmanship and ruling abilities of Viscount Arseid. Spoiler alert, they are not very positive opinions. Rean makes a side comment that he detects a lot of strength coming from this girl, but Sharon gives a little laugh and tells Rean not to worry about it. I have my suspicious that this girl might make a reappearance later! If you talk to her again she complains about "getting paired with HIM", but that she's doing it for her lord so she must bear with it. Mysterious, mysterious...but I will forget about this for now.

Inside the church we find Vivi, the loveable prankster known for messing with her twin sister and hardcore flirting with Rean in CS1. Definitely one of the top tier classmates, so glad to see her safe. She is not her usual self however, and mentions that she lost contact with her twin, and is very worried about her. Hopefully we will see them reunited soon! The other classmate in town is Casper, hanging out at the Arseid training school. I don't remember him at all really, but my best guess is one of the sword club guys? He is here training after all. There's another dude at the school, not a classmate, but his name is Fritz and he has a giant buster sword and spiky blond hair. Cheeky Falcom.

Nothing left here, so I head towards the castle. Celine drops some lore while sailing over the lake: apparently, there used to be a divine knight hiding somewhere in this castle, but it's vanished without a trace. I'm gonna go with it being the one Crow was using since that's the only other one we know of right now, but we'll see. After you get to the island the castle is on, the gang can immediately tell that Emma is fighting someone inside, so they rush up to help. Another Cryptid just like the one we saw in Nord awaits us inside, and Emma and Laura are already fighting it. I prepare for a battle but they take it down on their own in cutscene, without any of our help. I do remember saying the Nord boss was really easy though, so with all the levels we've gotten since then I can see those two being able to take it alone. As soon as that one goes down however, a much more menacing looking Cryptid appears. Not a dragon reskin this time, but some giant lizard looking thing that does look pretty intimidating.


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Congrats Black Turtle!

yeah i got that part

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Congrats Black Turtle!

Jusis and Alisa are both way cooler than Emma and Elliot so I have no problems there.

What makes Gaius good? As far as I can tell he's the worst character in the game lol

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Congrats Black Turtle!

Meta Knight

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Congrats Black Turtle!