Okay, let's finally get back to Cold Steel IV Fragments!
Oh right, it's a Free Day where I'm controlling Altina. I'm excited about this. We can observe Kurt and Ash playing a chess match while Jusis and Machias reminisce about a nobles/commoners chess tournament from CS1 (one of the few Machias Bond Events I actually did in that game, in fact!), and Altina says that Jusis and Machias together remind her of Kurt and Ash together. I don't really see it because neither Kurt nor Ash really gets under the other's skin in any real way. Plus, Kurt certainly isn't smug like Jusis, and Ash isn't really a hothead like Machias is. I get the fact that they're basically foils for each other, personality-wise, and they manage to get along in spite of it, but I feel like that's where the similarities end. I'm honestly loving the Altina inner monologue as she interacts with people and tries to gauge their intentions though.
Musse and Sara are discussing what traits they look for in a man, and they're both suckers for older men, unsurprisingly. We get a sick burn when Sara says she's still a spring chicken, and Altina responses with, "And a headless one, at that." We get our first Zeo appearance (unless you took Gaius along to Crossbell, I guess), and we learn he's named after a legendary Nord warrior who fought alongside Emperor Dreichels. I trigger a sidequest where we learn Altina has the pendant Emma made for Rean to help him control his ogre power, but it's broken and needs to be repaired.
We get a cutscene with Juna and KeA, the latter of whom mentions talking to Shizuku recently, which is ironic because when I left off in Trails From Zero, they had just met for the first time! Apparently, Shizuku is in Remiferia now, so that's cool. Then Altina asks KeA if they were created in a similar way, and she confirms it. It seems like the Gnomes and the Crois family steal each other's tech pretty regularly! I guess I sort of suspected KeA might have been created based on her "amnesia" in Zero, but I get that confirmation here first! We get another cutscene with Renne and Alisa discussing the former's mad hacking skills as Kitty, ending with Altina determining Renne's greatest weapon is her puppy dog eyes.
Eventually, it's time to tackle the next phase of the labyrinth. This one is meant to be confusing by having false paths and everything, but I actually luck into the right path to the end without screwing up, which was nice! The boss was a little annoying because it can cause confuse and impede any spells you attempt to cast, but it wasn't too hard overall. Also, it feels like I struggle with cash in Cold Steel way more than I ever struggled in Sky and more than I've struggled in Zero. Even just trying to keep New Class VII up to date is more than I can afford!
With all that out of the way, it's time to pinpoint the Black Workshop's location at last. The Hexen Clan has been searching for the Gnomes HQ for the last 800 years, it seems. While the witches hid within the forest, the gnomes burrowed deep underground, as one might expect, considering the name. Apparently, it's outside of Lamare near Milsante in a deep trench within a mountain range. It's about 1000 meters below ground, and we need a teleport gate to reach it.
Roselia plans to use our Panzer Soldats as beacons to reach the Black Workshop because they still have some of Valimar's power in them. Then literally everyone in the village enters the room to help cast the traditional teleportation spell. The entire town of Eryn itself has to become the portal. However, it's a one-way trip. Roselia won't be able to extract us once we're inside. This spell is powered by determination and any doubt will cause the portal to become unstable, so we've entered into some sort of Final Fantasy VIII/Gurren Lagann hybrid, apparently!
Oh hey, it's Towa and the Empress suddenly, and then Alfin and Tita dressed like royalty for some reason. Then it's Elise and Tio. Like, if all these people are okay, why hasn't anyone been able to find them? Well, whatever. Looks like Randy caught up to Thomas and Agate, nice. And Crow's been expecting us, it seems like, although Georg and Duvalie seem surprised. Well, it's the first time anyone's ever been able to find the place, I guess. Oh hey, there's Angelica, wearing some sort of Bleublanc-esque mask and speaking in a weird way. I guess she was brainwashed at like Crow after Georg ambushed her in CS3. Duvalie seems conflicted by all that's going on, so maybe she'll defect to our party at some point...! The presence of Class VII seems to be having a negative effect on Rean though. Celine calls him a Sacrifice, whatever that means. He's able to break free from his shackles, saying he won't forgive them for what they did to Millium, although apparently no one can actually say her name or Rean's without sounding like they're underwater. Then Celine transforms into a catgirl to stop him, I guess!
Roselia says the path splits so we have to split into two groups. Sara suggests dividing up the boys and girls, although she volunteers to go with the boys. Oh bummer, Renne and KeA aren't going with us. FIrst we take control of Rean and catgirl Celine. That DISAPPEAR Rean shouts for a follow-up attack is fantastic. I've always kinda felt Rean had one of the weaker VAs for a major character in Cold Steel, but he's killing it here. I love the vacant stare Rean has on the victory screen, too.
Looks like we can freely change between all three parties during this dungeon, so that's nice. I figured we'd need a checkpoint or something like in CS3 when we had split party dungeons. As we move through, we find the incubation tanks where they create the homunculi. Also, the battle screen transitions are cool here. Turns out we don't really need to switch because the girls' route ends when they run into a couple of girls who look like Altina in her Gear Mode. The guys come across a combat shell research lab, and at the end, more girls like Altina in Gear Mode. Gaius says that he can't sense any sort of life in them at all, so Sara concludes they aren't homunculi but archaisms instead. They actually make us fight them this time, and beating them triggers the girls' fight. This leaves just Rean's route.
