LogFAQs > #961591080

I think the Bienfu Bounce part got cut, but I played that game for a good chunk of time. Didn't quite get any prizes for the "Normal" mode and decided to come back later, since I tired of it. The keyboard works a little better than the controller with this. But you gotta take it a little at a time.

And now I hope for more fights like that harpy. But first... I spent eons trying to manage my equipment. Again, that potentite from the Dire Foe is 100% useless, as a 1% increase is nada especially if it'll never spawn. I'm keeping some older stuff in stock just in case I need an innate skill from it doubled. Doubtful, but you never know. This takes over half an hour, because there's so damn much and I want to make sure I don't lose out on things. I'm too much a perfectionist.

Eleanor claims to be able to "see beyond the surface" but Velvet thinks it's a load of bull, given how xenophobic Eleanor acts. She has that "us vs. them" mentality through and through... and Velvet doesn't like her for it. I explore this place - there's a looming darkness on the horizon. It's very laid-back right now and right along the waves, but something just feels off. The daemon that the villains mentioned earlier lurks nearby... and people here don't trust the Abbey. I have a bad feeling this place is about to get wiped out in some capacity, and they Abbey will use it to further grasp control with the "SEE? This is what happens when you don't follow our lead." bullshit. When we all know that it's the Abbey's fault for leaving people behind. Fuck the Abbey.

Also odd: This place claims to not have many visitors... yet they have an inn. That's a JRPG thing, I guess. Surprised it's not just like a Bed & Breakfast type of household where the mayor or whoever hosts any visitors that happen to drop by. It's just a speck of the map for now, but... we'll see. I also find a boy who talks about choconito gels - chocolate and fish oil, eh? - and putting them in toilets. Well shit! He's certainly thinking humorously, but he doesn't want to grow up to be a buzzkill. Y'know, the Eleanor "LAY DOWN THE LAW - MY LAW" type. I like this continent, honestly, because the people seem more relaxed and fun than the uptight garbage world I live in. I'm... introspecting quite a bit, aren't I? But that's one thing a good JRPG does, and this is a good JRPG.

After finding the last two Katz souls I needed to open the damn chest here (I need to stock up on those), I rest at the inn. There's... only one room, plus a gathering hall. Odd, but... JRPG. Laphicet calls Grim "teacher" which she likes a lot more than "ma'am" - I wonder if the Japanese version was "sensei" or "senpai." In town, I go talk to everyone. Rokurou is glad Laphicet is finding his calling as a cunning linguist. A townswoman hates Villain Teresa for coercing people to give up their traditions of worshiping Amenoch in favor of Innominat, and finds the Abbey barbaric like I do, nice. Another guy mentions Palamedes is Amenoch's temple, which is where Teresa's thug brother Oscar is, alongside the village priestess (and her heir, most likely). Eleanor's self-righteousness believes what Villain Teresa says and recognizes that Velvet would expend anything to achieve her aims... just like Artorius, honestly. Biggest difference is that Velvet is more openly ruthless and less likely to kill if unnecessary. Velvet and Magilou discuss the Abbey's intentions with a hostile takeover... where we'll have to take out that trash.

As Eizen said, Avarost requires intuition to decipher... Grim and Laphicet somehow decipher a passage about eggplants and tomatoes to say "The Nameless Empyrean." This is hilarious at the same time it is important. I forget exactly what this book was, just that we stole it by chance. Been too much game since then. Grim says it's a book of children's counting songs - the religious kind. The drawing looks like a phoenix-like monster among the world's islands... apparently the earthpulses are his lifeblood? The "heads" - the therions - are connected through those earthpulses. Wanna bet that Palamedes houses one of these? We gotta cut it off. I also wonder if Velvet, who's also a therion, inherited the power from something she destroyed at the game's opening. And I still don't know why she didn't figure out that Artorius murdered Celica - and their baby - too. Laphicet suggests that, since the sigil was in the forest... his pet beetle is a therion, and that's why the Abbey was keeping it locked up. Same goes for the thing in the villa's basement. We decide to go check out Palamedes, but are stopped by the innkeeper's daughter... who thinks it's official Abbey business because Eleanor. She pleads to help find the priestess Mahina and her daughter, Kamoana, who she's friends with. A sidequest after re-entering the village indicates that the innkeeper's daughter put Kamoana up to this and doesn't want her friend to die because of her... :/

Velvet interrogates Eleanor about her motives, and Eleanor opens up saying she wants to know what the hell is going on and why Artorius won't tell her anything. She's not sure what she's gonna do when the truth inevitably comes out. And Rokurou dismisses Velvet being a therion as jargon, since that was what Artorius labeled her. Bienfu has this rant about how Velvet and Eleanor are complete opposites, which is hilarious at the same time it's wrong. They're a lot more similar than one might think, which is why they fight: They're both stubborn as hell. Their similarities are just as relevant to their sparring as their opposing philosophies.

I continue through this beautiful area, again going back to town just once to grab some things (knowing this town may not be there when I return). There's... not much here. Cutting coral forming the caves... Bienfu fainting from smelling the bug juice... Magilou punking Laphicet with innuendo-ridden book statements and a subsequent "Waifu Fight" (this one was amusing)... Bienfu writing poems, apparently (Magilou can't always be taken seriously though)... HOLY SHIT HOWLING DRAGON THAT IS THE AWESOME I EXPECT FROM MYSTIC ARTES...

I use the warp pad at the end to go back to town and trim down my again excessive amount of equipment... I'm gonna be here a while. Next time (probably Monday): Oscar dies.