LogFAQs > #961204358

Forgot to mention: "Barona" is clearly a reference. Was that not the capital in Graces? I forget a lot of cities unless they're from Abyss or stand out in general tbqh.

We get into a library, where Laphicet is enamored with the ancient books Magilou finds behind a hidden shelf. I notice a red book that screams "PULL ME TO OPEN SECRET PASSAGE" but Velvet just steals it for the kid to read later. Rokurou wants her to lighten up even though they're there for an assassination. I kind of agree tbqh. I look around the library and read a few books. The thing that stands out the most is "Legate V: Shigure Rangetsu." So... Rokurou's brother - the fourth son, I would guess based on the "Shi" (traditional Japanese for "four" though that's fallen out for "yon") - is a praetor? Imagine that. There's also population trends (the empire's population is about 700,000 after the Opening halved it, and then it increased a little and held steady) and some bullshit about people enslaving malakhim being considered "heroes" but that's the Abbey for you.

There's this AMAZING Magilou skit - the "Magikazam" one. She tries to take away the boy's pointless worry... only to pointlessly worry about that pointless worry pointlessly. Incredible. This had me giggling. And she's right: We should dispel pointlessness with amusement... just so long as the guards don't hear us and sound the alarm. We would not be able to complete our assassination that way. Or do things like juggling four thugs with that water claw Break Soul attack.

I get into yet another huge cathedral area - the Abbey can never get enough of those - and corner Gideon, only for Henchwoman Eleanor to show up. She's blindly bound to her duty as a praetor and gives me some Flynn Schifo bullshit about "he's the Abbey's to punish" - sure it is. I beat the shit out of her and Magilou repossesses Bienfu - renaming him Cass or something (a lot happened here). This gives us the green light to kill Eleanor. Velvet eats her malaks and she's scared, but Velvet instead just knocks her out with a swift punch to the gut. This is probably because of how weak-willed this Karen is.After she falls, Velvet corners a cowering Gideon. He goes into excuse mode saying he got all these people addicted to an opiate for the sake of financing the Abbey's construction of the temple. Uh-huh. So it's "for the Abbey" to cause people to die from overdoses. You're not protecting the people there, buddy. When Velvet implies that it was Artorius who sent her - I think that was intentional, to cause a rift. Gideon turns into a Lizardfolk daemon and storms off. This does not surprise me, but we must make haste because he's getting away. And hey, with that malak power tethered to her, Magilou is finally playable! She controls... alright, I guess.

Gideon has already met his end by the time I get to him. Some gryphon daemon is devouring him, and Velvet doesn't give a shit since the thing isn't attacking us. A conscious - but completely worthless - Eleanor is, and Velvet openly mocks her, saying she has no malaks left and therefore no exorcist power. Eleanor just falls to her knees and cries. I'd feel bad for her if she didn't keep getting in my way. In fact, I find it unintentionally hilarious that a henchwoman is this miserable by her own doing. Maybe she made the wrong call in joining the Abbey. Also hilarious: Bienfu's legitimate FEAR of Magilou using him as a pin cushion. She's a real sadist to him, and that's bound to produce constant amusement. Poor thing. (His reaction when Velvet says the objective is to kill Artorius is GOLD.) We need four Greater Malakhim as keys, and we have three: Two of which we stole and one of which we aligned with. After Laphicet passes out for the night and we wake up, Velvet also thinks "Innominat" is a false god created as an excuse to control people. Like the Catholic Church tries to make "God" into "everything." This is most certainly commentary on religious just the same as Abyss had in droves. I naturally am drawn to it.

There's this great "Malak Ranks" skit where Bienfu goes from introducing himself to being heartbroken by Magilou, since he's the "greatest servant" she has. Not how you should put it, Magilou! "Without you, I'd be a whole lotta nothing." would work better. Make him feel valued! Even though this mascot abuse is kind of hilarious and makes me like Bienfu just the same as I did Mieu. "Pitiable mascot" > "Obnoxious mascot" every day. The BEST part of the skit, though, was "Don't judge yourself by a label given to you by other people." Which is something MANY people in this day and age need to take to heart. American society in particular is obsessed with labeling people nowadays and judging them by those. It's prejudicial and discriminatory, and it needs to stop here much like it does in Midgand.

People around town are noticing more soldiers about, but they're not saying anything because why would they? They don't want people to fear the High Priest's death. Who knows what Eleanor told them... she was a wreck! An idiot merchant is getting chalices engraved, but he may have missed his opportunity - by the time they're all produced, Artorius may be dead. Eizen also manages to get a sailor to give up Nectar for alcohol. That's an improvement, as Nectar kills you more expediently. Alcohol... well, it won't harm you much if you keep it to one beer an hour, and only once a week. Something tells me this guy is gonna harm himself by getting drunk, though.

There's this existential skit centered around Laphicet, which gets me to realize two things. One is that Laphicet is a really fascinating "kid character" in that he's having an identity crisis after having been freed from slavery; Villain Teresa saw him as a tool and not as a living creature, so he's wondering what his place in the world is. It's absolutely fascinating for a kid as young as he to be the one with this storyline, and it's way better than the "obnoxious moron" kid types. Two, in contrast to Graces where everyone was jubilant with each other and was just having fun as a unit, this group does a LOT of arguing. I get the sense that they don't exactly like each other, except for Velvet/Rokurou and Rokurou/Eizen. Laphicet doesn't really have complete relationships yet because he's so far an incomplete character - his development is only just beginning, and his relationships will flourish from there. This set of characters is bound to have hilarious reactions for the rest of the game because they often only tolerate each other. Magilou is the pariah of the party and I expect it to stay that way even as they start to grow appreciative of her. Which they will - but I think Rokurou's trolling and Magilou being crazy will both be done more and more in good fun as the game goes on.

I clear out every enemy in my way along the Danann Highroad for three reasons: 1) to get Magilou skill points, 2) to test out this "character swap" thing (I don't like it because it costs 1 BP and doesn't really add anything, but perhaps I'm just bad at it), and 3) to see if Magilou is fun to play as (she's really not). I must note how flawed the battle system here is. 25 hours in (this counts my time writing notes for this) and I'm STILL just mashing buttons no matter who I control. It's not like there's TP conservation or crazy fun combos. It feels like how you combo here doesn't matter. You can go AABX or AXYA or BBBB and... they all produce the same result of whoop-ass. Even the supposedly "strong" enemies go down easily, and I'm playing on Hard. Perhaps I should up the difficulty to Intense?

At any rate, I am done for right now, and I've hit the character limit. Merry Christmas, everybody!