Last time, our heroes turned away a desperate man who begged for their help, because his request might have inconvenienced them. Noble.

Let’s talk about heroes for a moment.

I said previously that we like our heroes idealized; that’s what makes them heroes. Heroes do what we cannot – they defy limitations and consequences. They act. Even villains operate on a similar principle. In these epic, larger-than-life tales, characters should be exemplar. They aren’t like us – they are what we wish to be, and that’s what makes them interesting. Of course, there are times when this is unnecessary or even detrimental to a theme, like I mentioned with Alito, but I don’t think this is one of those times.

The characters here are just expressing an everyday sort of petty selfishness, combined with one of the cardinal sins of bad protagonists: a refusal to act. If the game made a point of this, perhaps had some other voices acting as counterpoints (maybe, for once, the entire guild could actually be present instead of a chosen few going behind everyone’s backs), this might be a decent deconstruction by showing that heroes can be selfish and petty, or perhaps that these people aren’t true heroes at all – but that’s not what happens here. This is a forced, pointless sequence that exists only to manufacture false tension, and never comes up again. Why do they even care about the officers? Their jurisdiction seems limited to Nal, and the guild doesn’t plan on returning there any time soon. But no, they’re ~so scary~ that we have to ignore the obvious plot hook.

This scene is also OOC for most of the characters (which is an accomplishment when these people are so one-dimensional). It’s OOC for the guild in general, actually – their modus operandi has involved being incredibly idealistic and trusting so far, so this sudden cynicism and suspicion is out of left field. Zargos I could understand not wanting to stir up trouble, but Qualstio? Literally his sole redeeming trait is his hatred of corrupt authority. He should be ecstatic at the prospect of screwing over a corrupt regime – that is, if he was a decent protagonist who actually did things instead of sitting on his thumbs and whining all day. Dehl, too – this should be a defining moment for him, not something that uses him as a prop to manufacture artificial drama. This dilemma is what his entire character arc is about – when push comes to shove, will he choose to follow the law or his own morals? In chapter 2 he chose the law – has he learned or changed since then? Evidently not, which raises the question of why we wasted all that time on it. This should be a painful, difficult choice that makes him reevaluate everything he’s thought up until now, not an easy dismissal.

The same should apply to the guild at large, come to think of it. They are no longer a group of no-name, do-gooding mercenaries living in fear of authority – they are a powerful, international army that has gone toe-to-toe with the darkest and vilest organizations in the world and walked away unscathed. They should no longer be beholden to world powers because they have become one themselves. Instead of asking whether they dare to offend the unstoppable force of a starving hellhole, they should be considering what their own goals and desires are and how they plan to change and impact the world. Heck, there could even be a commentary on what happens when individuals become too powerful to be cowed by authority. But of course that can’t happen, because these characters have no consistency. Their current characterization is whatever best serves the current scene.

Why should I care about these people? Why should I keep playing this game? We’re halfway through and still we’ve seen no progress, no development, no nothing. These are not heroes, nor even villains; they’re just the average, petty, selfish idiots we all have to put up with on a daily basis. And when they’re finally given the opportunity to change into something that might actually be interesting, they spit in its face.

Rehm mopes and says he’s going on a suicide mission to slaughter all the officers. Dehl’s only reaction is just some halfhearted “but violence is never the answer” proselytizing instead of freaking out and going to stop him, thus destroying the last bastion of good writing that was Dehl’s character. He wonders if they should follow him, but everyone convinces him that he’s not their problem and they should just leave him to his fate. Wow.

At this point I am free to do as the guild does and simply abandon Rehm to the wolves. Because I am a better person than them, I will be following him.

Because Moke is the only decent person in the entire cast, he decides to help Rehm. He gives him some soporific poison that he can use to knock people out without killing them.

Moke: “It is the young master’s will to see that you have a life of limited troubles.”

Wow, unless they had a conversation afterward that we didn’t see, that’s a bald-faced lie. Moke is actually taking quite a lot of initiative here. Perhaps he’s chafing under Dehl’s obsessive control; that would explain sneaking off to Berylbrine as well.

Then after Rehm leaves Moke decides to tell Dehl because he’s certain he’ll be pleased even though he agreed they should abandon Rehm? Urgh this makes no sense.

The idea here may have been that Dehl secretly wanted to help Rehm but conceded to the group decision, but that’s not clear at all. He agrees with the others from the start that they can’t lift a finger for Rehm, and though he says they should follow him the others talk him down until his final line is basically “eh, whatever”. For this scene to work, Dehl’s conviction had to be far stronger; in its current state, this feels like a non-sequitor.

So this is a stealth sequence, similar to interlude 2 but much more involved. I like it.

Rehm has a unique status screen, which is a nice touch.

This is, I think, the most interesting component of the quest. In most stealth games the guards are all interchangeable, faceless mooks and getting caught provides an instant penalty. That’s not the case here. Every guard has a unique personality, and you can actually talk your way past them most of the time. This one is actually pretty funny – he asks for identification but Rehm turns it back on him, saying it’s suspicious to be loitering the halls and that he’s probably waiting for smuggled goods or something. This is apparently right on the money, as the guy flips out and lets him go. A bit convenient, but it works.

Unfortunately, the quest is held together with spit and packing tape. There are passability issues everywhere – I just straight-up walked through the wall here. The developer and/or beta testers must have been asleep at the wheel on this one.

It’s an insightful look into Space Lizard’s mapping style, though! Apparently all the rooms in this building are in one giant map, instead of being completely separate maps as they are in most RM games. If you walk around you can see every single room in the level (and theoretically cheat by going into rooms before you’re supposed to).

This one is actually nice and was concerned about Rehm’s disappearance. Seriously, why are the only nice characters minor NPCs? Maybe he turns nasty if you say the wrong things, I dunno.

This part is really creepy and depressing, which is rather at odds with the comedic tone of the rest of the quest. I can call out to the guy in the cell but he doesn’t respond, and Rehm thinks he may just be dead. There’s not even any point to this room, it’s just, here, have a dead guy!

Don’t know why he died, though, when he could have just phased through these illusory bars to escape! OR MAYBE IT IS REHM WHO IS DEAD, PLOT TWIST

This guy guards the top floor and won’t let Rehm see Asarik. Rehm makes up a really bad cover story (seriously, he flat-out changes it halfway through) that gets the guy to turn around, and… Rehm bashes his skull in.

Uhh, I think you just killed that guy, Rehm. Or at least gave him horrible brain injuries. I guess the developer wrote himself into a corner here and couldn’t get Rehm to pass any other way, but, still. (Or maybe he just wanted to show people getting punched.) Would have been kinder to use the tranquilizer.

(I’ve always wondered if this counts as “violence” for the sake of Rehm’s post-quest bonuses. Probably not, which is kinda messed up.)

On the third floor, have some more GHOST REHM.

(seriously you can walk into the walls, what happened here)

The guys on the top floor are more aggressive, but they just kick you back to the second floor, nothing serious. It’s a bit of a disappointment that the third floor turns into a standard avoidance sequence. I think it would have been more clever to make the entire quest more about talking than sneaking.

Ugh, this room. Despite the other guards having excellent vision, Rehm can walk straight into these guys’ lines of sight (and directly behind them) with no repercussions. It took me a long time to figure out that I could actually just walk through here. Bad game! Consistency is important.

Cutscene time. Asarik taunts him a bit, then Rehm goes into a murderdeath rant. Asarik points out he’d be dead if they hadn’t found him, and Rehm understandably says he doesn’t give a crap. They’re about to fight when…

…

So, this makes it seem like the earlier cutscene was meant to be a fakeout. That doesn’t change the fact that it horribly derailed every single character in it for cheap, pointless drama. (Also, what is Fero even doing there? He wasn’t present for the original discussion!)

This could have been handled so much better. Just have Rehm decide on his murder spree plan immediately, which the rest of the guild dislikes because they’re not horrible people. Then, instead of the group decision being unanimously in favor of “let him die”, the final discussion is mixed and ends with the guild still on the fence (with Dehl solidly in favor of helping/stopping him to set up Moke’s assistance properly). There, now it makes sense for it to be the player’s choice without the entire guild looking evil.

I feel like that last part may have been the sticking point here – by all logic and ethics the guild should follow Rehm immediately, but it has to be an optional sidequest that the guild could conceivably ignore for the entire game. Personally I feel like, in that case, the circumstances should have been rewritten, as any writer should do if they’re hitting logistical snags, but as we’ve established the developer does not have a good track record with that.

Asarik: “I see. So, the eagle flies with the dove! But can a Sikohlon throw his own to the dogs?”

Something I feel I should point out: Asarik has a really weird, poetic way of speaking. He’s like Alito or Ques on permanent Pretentious Mode. I guess it marks him as well-educated and upper-class, but it seems out of place in Nal, which doesn’t have much of an aristocracy from what I can tell? Unless he’s supposed to be Wadassian, which would make a twisted sort of sense: Nal isn’t even governed by their own people. (There is a bit of a plot hole in that his daughter doesn’t talk like this in The Drop, but that could be personality and circumstance differences.)

Rehm: “They’s with me, ya got that? They ain’t gonna let me down now!”

Uh, what? Literally his only experience with them is them spitting in his face and denying even his most basic requests. Why does he assume they’re there to help him? For all he knows they’re on Asarik’s side and want to stop him. Dehl’s opening line was even trying to talk him down, and Qualstio immediately says they didn’t come to help him fight. I’d classify this under protagonist-centered morality; we know they’re the good guys (ostensibly), so clearly Rehm does too, even though he barely knows them. His very memories are being warped so he can be buddies with the heroes. It’s honestly a little bewildering.

For some reason Asarik believes Rehm and not everyone else, and fights them. For some reason they all go along with this instead of trying to talk him down, presumably because then we wouldn’t get a boss fight and that’s just unacceptable.

This seems to be the point where the game stops pulling its punches, because battles skyrocket in difficulty. Asarik is actually challenging, due to a combination of having a boatload of health, hitting like a truck, and the game giving you a terrible preset party for this. He opens with Fearless Advance, which generates a huge amount of rush, enough to knock me back one stage right out of the box. (Occasionally he’ll rush normally though, which seems weird.)

This is his regular attack. It’s slashing, and four of my party members have light armor. Moke and Tehgonan have terrible soul defenses to boot; a single slash can probably down them.

And his main attack skill also deals slashing damage. Qualstio only survived by the skin of his teeth here. If he had light armor, he’d be toast.

As always, it falls to Fero to be the tank: he has excellent body and soul defenses, and he’s not weak to slashing damage. Bloodburn Shot can also cancel out some of Asarik’s buffs. (This is also one of the few times Calculated Retreat is worth using since so many people are at risk of being oneshotted. Fero is infinitely useful.)

Not only does Asarik have a ton of health, your offensive capability is hamstrung from the get-go. Qualstio and Tehgonan are the only ones who can hit a weakness, and they deal different damage types. I go with Qualstio’s Flame Burst, so Tehgonan spends the entire battle twiddling his thumbs. Why is he even here, anyway? Does he just follow Qualstio everywhere like a lost puppy? It’d have been way more fitting for Lani to be in this battle – not only would it provide a potential basis for their romance, it could also advance her character arc by making her confront the injustices of Nal, possibly setting up her role in The Drop. (Plus having someone with heavy armor would be so, so useful here.) But I suppose since she’s a ~girl~ she can’t possibly be involved in anything important.

Rehm is completely useless, so I’m basically fighting with five party members here. You can’t actually use these skills, so they’re not even useful for advancing the chain count. The most he can do is rush a little. (He usually falls really early in this battle; I’m trying pretty hard to keep him alive this time.)

It’s a long, difficult battle, and Qualstio and Moke are the only ones who can inflict real damage, but I make it without losing anyone. It’s honestly a little amazing how this guy was actually difficult despite being an (essentially) solo boss, in contrast to Mental Councillord “Dies Like A Chump” Pazatto. I also seem to recall him having a despair-inducing full-party AoE attack, but he didn’t use it this time. Hm.

Oh crap I beat those redshirts through body damage. Bad me. I really hope they aren’t dead.

Rehm starts rambling about how he’s going to torture Asarik to death and eat the corpse, but in the end he can’t kill him. The only thing Dehl cares about is that Asarik said Rehm was a Sikohlon; there’s some gushy weirdness about how he must be since he didn’t kill Asarik.

Then Asarik reveals it was all an experiment to beat the suicidal out of Rehm. Now that he’s found a purpose in life he’s totes free! He’s also okay with the guild barging in to beat him up. Isn’t it nice how conveniently that all worked out. I guess this is supposed to be a big reveal, that the leader of the officers isn’t a corrupt douchebag like everyone says, but honestly it just kinda comes out of left field. Why does everyone think Asarik and his officers are scum if he’s not? Why is a Wadassian noble running a privately-owned vigilante corporation in the first place? Wouldn’t the Nal-guard be more his style? What is he even trying to do here? Does he fancy himself as some kind of internal reformist, and he just sucks at it? Is this supposed to be hypocritical and he’s actually a manipulative sociopath like everyone else in this game? It also makes the previous “oh no the officers are so scary” cutscene even more grating, because all their grandstanding was meaningless. They could have just walked in here and done whatever they wanted with no repercussions – not that anyone acknowledges this, of course.

Everyone leaves except Dehl, who says, “Were I another man, I would shred you myself for the suffering of one of my own. Instead, you may continue existence, and dictating the wills of those who wish to die.” That’d be a pretty awesome threat if he hadn’t done exactly the same thing to Rehm five minutes ago. Rehm said he’d rather die than return, and told them to kill him if they couldn’t shelter him. Dehl refused. It can be hard to tell with Dehl, but I don’t think that hypocrisy is intentional.

…Those officers still haven’t gotten up. I really hope they’re not dead.

Not a lot of favor, huh. I guess it’s to avoid ranking up just before getting a new character, which could potentially be cause for weeping.

Anyway Dehl gives him a white cloak so he can be a proper Sikohlon.

And he’s back to his interlude expression. The message seems to be that he’s back to normal and can resume his character arc… but he’s forgotten the events of his character arc, so he can’t do that. He’s starting from the beginning again, which is nice thematically but runs the risk of retreading old ground. This, again, makes me wonder what the purpose of the interludes is. They had a story but it was cut short, and now Rehm is starting a different story. It just makes it feel irrelevant; Rehm doesn’t need that backing, because his story could start here no problem.

Anyway, Rehm’s a “whitewind” (whatever that is). Now in control once more, he has regained his old abilities and is empowered further by his newfound confidence. Extremely proficient at boosting the Chain count, and good at inflicting Body damage and wielding ‘weather’-like skills.

He gets bonus essence ’cause I didn’t fight anyone (I just bashed that one guy’s brains in). The number is 17000 which seems like a weird maximum, did I miss something and the max is 20000? I wonder if using the poison counts against this or not. Maybe I ticked the violence counter against that one guy and wouldn’t have if I used poison. Hm.

Oh what the heck he didn’t get any essence from the Asarik battle? So I wasted some of the boss essence for nothing??? Agh! I guess the game doesn’t expect you to keep him alive, and this is done so that you don’t feel bad about losing him.

Rehm is the first decent party member we’ve gotten in a while. He’s the same as he was in the prologue, which is a sturdy fighter capable of dishing out lots of heat damage. (Ironically for being a fighter, he has a lot of spells.) Storm Surge is also physical-elemental, which is a damage source I’ve been lacking ever since I kicked Zargos out. Coin Toss just advances the chain (eh), Wavecaller clears enchanted squares from the field. Since very few enemies use enchanted squares this usually harms more than helps. It’s pretty much only useful in one upcoming battle, but I may not get it high enough rank by then. (Would have been really nice to have against the firefiends in chapter 1, but them’s the breaks.) Self-Improvement boosts various stats, most notably charisma.

Now that’s just sad. Apparently he has both reterograde and anterograde amnesia if he can’t keep a hold on something he should be reminded of constantly.

You may also notice that the roster is filling up at an unprecedented rate. I haven’t done a single chapter quest and already I’ve gotten more party members than any other chapter so far. I’d say backloading most of the characters is pretty bad game design; my options were highly limited at the beginning, and now I’ve got more guys than I know what to do with. No, really – I just passed 12 characters so I can’t even have everyone on support. One person’s idling and doing absolutely nothing. Once again, this is something that’s fixed in IMTS: same number of new recruits every episode, and you can use every single one.

(And just to dash what few hopes you might still have, all three of the remaining party members are male. The womanchild, the Ophelia, the prostitute, and the ~woman warrior~ are all you get.)

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