Last time, Fortifel runs on nonsense. Today, more nonsense! (Also, image-heavy update today.)

Well, here’s the lobby. I’ve put Tehgonan back in, but as it turns out, I don’t really need him. He is forever the useless deadweight.

You may have thought it was hyperbole when I said Falitza could literally stand in one spot and let them do all the work. It was not.

“The lands fall victim to energies which the sky sheds. Affine… to their source. Tread not upon these unhealed lands. This told must not be forgotten.”

Falitza will provide hints on the puzzles here, but most of them are useless. This one, for instance, doesn’t tell me anything that isn’t immediately obvious about the puzzle it’s referring to. (Honestly, it’s probably more effort to figure out what the hints refer to than it is to figure out the puzzle.) They’re pretty writing, but there’s only one that I actually found helpful. I doubt that was intended, but in retrospect it’s actually kind of funny – maybe she really does need help to get out because she can’t figure out the puzzles? She’s a lot less smart than she’s made out to be in that case.

“Steps…walking! Eyes forward, never straying to the side! Faith… Walk with faith, and nothing else!”

“Spirits of magic-mundane bonds, hollowed and trapped among one another in stasis. Be gentle and mindful when disturbing their rest.”

“Sight will betray you! Seek your other senses, ally with their abilities, bind under their terms. That which you seek cannot be fully seen.”

“Words… words, words! Once confined to sound alone, now shared within sight. Words bound to being, and experience.”

“The world…an open mind to that which has been seen, known, read, cherished. The pursuit of knowledge ends in victory.”

“Four founts of wisdom… two trustworthy, two enfeebling. Drink from none but one. Be not poisoned by a deceitful wellspring.”

“Forces… from the skies above, condemning the mortals to their rightful lands… Existence undeniable, yet quantifiable.”

It is pretty writing, though.

To answer Dehl’s question, I have him approach the exit. Surprising no one with access to his status screen, he’s struck by a lightning bolt and pushed back because he’s not a caster. I’ve already put forth my crazy headcanon for how that works, I’m not going to stare any further into the abyss. (Moke can pass, curiously – is his magic “good enough”? I imagine that must raise eyebrows.)

So. There are eight rooms surrounding the central chamber, each of which contains a puzzle. I need to solve at least five. Each of the rooms has that purple book sign in front of it, which I can examine for a description of the puzzle. The one in front informs me that it’s The Trial of Faith. Walk straight ahead, unending, and do not waver.

Calling this a puzzle would be an insult to all puzzles ever. The solution is to walk in a straight line. That’s it. You get teleported around a few times to make it flashier, but that’s seriously the solution. Just keep walking in the same direction. There’s not even any reason to think you shouldn’t, since the sign explicitly gives you the answer, but on my first playthrough I didn’t even read the sign and I still got this on my first try.

I can see why this would be fitting test for Sanctifellians, but for sane individuals it is not at all a challenge. This would only be actually challenging if it gave you some reason to think you should stray from the path – other signs further in insisting that the others are liars, perhaps? Oh, wait – what if the keystone pedestal at the end wasn’t the real one? You actually have to go off the straight path to go up one tile. What if the real solution was to not be tempted and keep going, with the real keystone further down the path? Come to think of it, I have no idea why the game didn’t do exactly that. It’s already got a perfect setup – there’s an empty tile to the east of the pedestal landing that could have housed the real keystone. (Instead, stepping onto it teleports you back to the start – so is the lesson that faith will eventually betray you?)

This one isn’t really a puzzle either, but at least the solution is more involved than “hold down one key for a few seconds”. Each of those squares is enchanted with an element, and I need to counter-enchant with the opposite element to clear them. Since I only have Santes, Qualstio, and Tehgonan, I can only disenchant noxious, cold, and physical squares. If I waited until later in the story I could come back here with more casters, but…

…I don’t actually need them. It’s possible to clear a path with just the starting three.

(And… what are the fire squares doing there? They’re impossible to clear since Falitza’s the cold caster. I think I remember the developer said somewhere that originally Kulkumatz was the cold one, so this must be an artifact of that.)

Some of the arrangements are really weird. Like, here? I can clear the cold and noxious squares no problem, but I still can’t pass unless I have Moke, in which case I’ll still have Qualstio and Santes so the other squares aren’t obstacles. Why not just have a divine square? Or, better yet, just don’t put anything there at all and give me the darn shortcut since I can get over there just fine?

Honestly, I can’t say how to make this a real puzzle while still retaining the idea that more casters can help. I guess you could provide shortcuts for later elements (maybe a mental square right in front of the pedestal just to troll players), but it still seems pretty pointless if you can reach the end with these three anyway. Maybe something like… enchanting in a specific order or combination? I don’t see how sliding scale difficulty could be added to that, though.

Oh whatever, I don’t know how to design puzzles. Moving on!

Finally, a real puzzle!

I think this is the only one where having the other casters actually helps. Those black things are braziers, and you need to light specific ones to solve the puzzle. Each one also has an inscription that provides a hint to the solution, but they’re written in different languages, and naturally characters can only understand a few. (Although they do seem to easily recognize the languages they don’t know. Despite Fortian writing just looking like boxes and Shra writing being described as “bird scratch”, even Tehgonan can recognize them.)

Like with the enchantment room, though, I already have everything I need with the starting three. Qualstio knows Human, Fortian, and a bit of Shra, while Santes knows a smattering of Fih’Jik.

(Tehgonan only knows Human because he’s useless.)

If for some reason you waited until chapter 5 to do this you’d have characters fluent in Shra and Fih’Jik, but Qualstio and Santes are really all you need.

“Hope springs forth from this fountain,” “3,” “Seek the light to your side,” “The wall is dark.” The only hard one is that central one, I admit that was a guess. Maybe the full inscription is more helpful.

More of the puzzles should have been like this. I think this is probably the best one – it requires actual puzzle-solving and logical deduction skills, and, though not outright impossible to start, it does become significantly easier if you wait to get other casters and more information.

(I do kinda wonder why they can’t just copy down the inscriptions and show them to the people in the lobby other than combinatorial explosion. I guess it’d be considered cheating since non-casters can’t assist.)

Wait, there are other counting systems? Why is this the first I’ve heard of this? And why would elitist Fortians use the human system when they presumably have their own?

This is the only one I don’t know how to solve. It’s a moot point, because…

…it’s impossible for me. Qualstio’s your best bet here since he actually has an attack influenced by strength, but if you haven’t cranked it up to 30, you’re out of luck. It’s… sort of clever to have a puzzle determined by the caster dump stat, but it’s also a dick move since you get no hints or warnings beforehand. It’s just, surprise, you can’t solve this puzzle because you didn’t waste your points on a pointless stat! My best guess for the solution is that you need to create a difference of 20 between the lower and upper switches (so, 20 on the bottom and 10 and 30 on the top two), but I dunno.

…You can keep a matterfiend alive after de-coring it? And that removes their aggression? How does that work? What’s left behind? Is this equivalent to a lobotomy, or are matterfiends not sapient enough for there to be ethical issues? Truly, Fortifel is an endless font of mysteries.

This is essentially a block puzzle. Running into a matterfiend pushes it back one space. Like the rest of the puzzles, this one is pretty easy. You don’t even need to mess with the upper half at all.

This is a fun one, even though it may not look it. That isn’t the actual keystone pedestal; the real one is invisible. You have to fumble around blindly hitting the “interact” button – there are a lot of invisible squares scattered around. They’ll provide you with a temperature that tells you how “warm” you are in relation to the keystone. The actual keystone is in the upper-left corner. (The illusory pedestal doesn’t change afterward, interestingly. I suppose it cements the fact that it’s an illusion, but I think it would have been cooler if the visible keystone did disappear, to imply more of a spacial warping thing going on. I guess that might be beyond their tech level, though.) There’s also a second room to throw you off; figuring out which one to search in is really the only challenge to this.

This one is also an actual puzzle! And it’s the only one where Falitza’s hint is actually useful.

Only one switch is the right one, and I only get one guess. The leftmost shelf says it’s not the right switch, the second shelf from the left says two shelves lie and two shelves are truthful, the third says the correct switch is on the right side of the door, and the rightmost shelf says it’s the right switch.

Falitza backs up two truths/two lies and I think I can trust her, so that’s one truth accounted for. From there, you can puzzle it out. If the rightmost shelf is true, then they all are, which contradicts the second shelf. That means the rightmost shelf is false. Then, if the leftmost shelf is false, the third shelf must also be false – but, again, this contradicts the second shelf, so the leftmost must be true and the third must be false. Following that logic, the switch can only be in the second shelf. Clever to hide the switch behind the innocuous-seeming expository one, though I think it would have been more clever for the expository shelf to be the liar.

Well aren’t we patronizing today.

This is basically a multiple-choice test. Each of those books is a true-false question, usually relating to trivia about the world. I found this puzzle to be the hardest, because one of the questions is about a really incidental detail I think few if any people picked up on and another is a weirdly-worded geometry question. Everything else can be figured out through the glossary.

All the answers are set to “false” by default, which takes some of the challenge out of it (especially because there are more false answers than true ones). The true statements are “The Slashling wields two horns on its chin,” (I guessed) “The Fih’Jik have but four digits upon each hand,” and “The figure with six faces has but twelve edges between them.” (“Cube” too pedestrian for you, Fortifel?) So, just a matter of having a photographic memory and parsing geometry jargon; fairly disappointing, all things considered.

(Is it sad that the geometry question was the hardest one for me? I saw “six” and “faces” and immediately imagined something with hexagonal faces, at which point my brain shut down at the prospect of evaluating the number of edges. Boy, I’m dumb! Don’t be like me, read the problem thoroughly like your teachers always tell you.)

This counts as a quest, and I get favor for it. Pity there’s no bonus for getting additional trial stones.

Purged? Did they literally destroy any evidence she was ever in Sanctifel? Religious fundamentalists could necessitate that; having records explicitly stating you’re a heretic might be too dangerous for released Sanctifellians.

They go on about how terrible it was she was locked up because she’s so harmless but the trial keeper is all but, protocol! Dehl approves of this sentiment despite previously finding Sanctifel disturbing because what is consistency.

And it’s time for random dickishness! The trial keeper walks off and says Falitza is no longer their concern, which translates to leaving her to die of exposure since she’s still effectively catatonic. So basically, if you can’t pass the trial (which is supposed to be a measure of self-sufficiency) but someone else does it for you, it’s a death sentence. So why is assistance even an option?! Are they trying to get these people killed? Urgh. This is so stupid.

Anyway, naturally Dehl is concerned about this (as is Qualstio because he’s in Good Person Mode for the moment). Dehl brings up the possibility of returning her to her family, but Qualstio says he doesn’t know where they live, therefore it is not an option. Do these people not have records or anything? They can’t even go around town asking for the Falitzo family? I’m sure they’d come running for their beloved daughter pretty quick if her release was made public. But no, that’s not an option because the story says so. Dehl is all, well, they need to do something, they are responsible for this after all.

Qualstio: “You mean we gotta take her with us? Seriously? I ain’t a babysitter, you know.”

Ah, Jerkface Qualstio returns. It’s almost been a full quest, I was getting concerned for a moment there!

Instead of punching him in the face for suggesting they leave her to die, Dehl just presses the issue and says Qualstio should be her caretaker because they’re both Fortian. Uh, wow, racism much, Dehl? Perhaps that’s his substitute for face-punching. Qualstio relents to this because [not found].

Falitza finally decides to speak up. What was she waiting for? She says she has to help them because “the sky” told her to and she can’t disobey. Uh, okay. Again, I wonder if she’s actually getting portents or if this is her own decision. I’d assume the latter, but she has no real reason to join them in a fighting capacity unless she’s like Tris and likes to ~live dangerously~.

Dehl immediately brings this up and she just reiterates that she can’t disobey the sky. “My wandering trial has ceased! But yours has yet to begin!” What? All of this seems to be pointing to her having real clairvoyance. That’s a weirdly accurate proclamation and one she doesn’t have much reason to make. It could just be nonsense to make her sound more crazy, but I really think she could have stopped at “I must not disobey!” and they’d still have taken her.

Qualstio is, unsurprisingly, on board with using the crazy girl as a meat shield. Dehl does not object because it’s his turn to be a doormat for no reason. Falitza is a “Wonder Caller”.

Once a highly talented prodigy of the arcane, she pushed herself past the limits of reality, and suffered the consequences. Proficient at mending the minds of her allies and delving into those of her enemies, and other unknown magical oddities.

Falitza is fun to use but not terribly practical. She has a lot of really weird, unique abilities, but many are risky and her damage output is sorely lacking. My favorite skill of hers is probably Procure Status – it’s a “scan” spell that also reads the enemy’s mind for a cool bit of flavor text. Apparently the developer hates scan spells, though, because trying to use it is absurdly punishing – it costs a big chunk of body points (her weakest area), and she has to be in melee range to use it. On top of that, it has a random chance of failure, just as a screw you to the player. Every other skill? Oh no, we can’t have a miss/failure chance, it’s not fair for player strategy to be ruined by bad luck. Flavor ability with limited tactical use? Cripples the squishy wizard and may not even work. Tactical!

Mana Twist is her only offensive spell, and it’s useless. The type of damage it inflicts is dependent on the target’s element (based on the rules outlined by that NPC in the hunting area), but since the damage type of the opposing element is always a mismatch for an element’s own damage type, it has terrible synergy. Press Fortune is a gamble – it can produce a “good” effect (full-party buffs for you or debuffs for enemies) or a “bad” effect (the same, with targets reversed), and like Procure Status, it has a staggering health cost that cripples Falitza. Really, the only skill of hers that has any tactical worth is Blessing of Wit, which bestows everyone with the mind regen buff. (Stable Thought’s just a healing spell, which, eh.)

So like I said, she’s not terribly useful, but I like to include her in my party nonetheless. She’s just so interesting! I love knowing nitty-gritty statistics so I love scan spells, and the thought snippets are added fun. Press Fortune always makes battles more interesting, too. The game’s not very hard, so I don’t feel the need to replace her with more boring, practical characters.

Falitza: “Ahh! Clouds! Clouding, of mind and of the future! The blue becomes orange, then gray!”

Man, I remember writing a silly entry on TV Tropes about how this was deep foreshadowing. Now I’m more inclined to think it’s nonsense she came up with to sound crazy. That’s becoming a good explanation for most of her lines, isn’t it?

Dehl thinks she’ll get better if they throw her into fights, perhaps because he senses they’re in an RPG. Qualstio muses that she might actually get worse, but no one responds to it. It’s just there to make him look deep and keep up the “totally a good guy beneath it all, totally” pretense.

This whole subplot makes even less sense after the reveal. If Falitza wanted out so badly, why couldn’t she pull a Rosenhan and be all “oh actually I’ve been sane this whole time SUCKERS” then pass the trial with flying colors? What’s the point of keeping up her act? She might be forced to return to her family, but the guild’s just given her an out: Qualstio says he can’t return her even if she wanted him to. Like with so many things, I get the impression her ending reveal wasn’t developed until later, so we get incongruities like this. C’mon, developer. Editing. It exists for a reason.

Oh look, legit foreshadowing! The trial keeper said she wasn’t aware of her surroundings, so how can she be observing??? So either it was planned out from the start or the developer didn’t think this line of flavor text through.

Sometimes I really don’t understand this game at all.

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