Last time, why wasn’t the entire game this.
Alito notices that the second steamship is the one that was stolen recently. Dehl tells them to get a move on, but is interrupted by someone coughing.
It’s Skint! He says he’s too far gone to save (convenient but he is missing half his body, it’s easy to say healing magic can only do so much), and admits to stealing the ship. So he can pilot it? Huh.
Skint: “But this is as close as we could come. Those damn Shra… tore Aryn to pieces.”
And his sidekick dies offscreen without ever contributing anything to the plot. Why does she exist, again?
Dehl: “Why are you here? What trickery is this? You should be at the top of that Spire.”
Skint: “You thought that I am the Lord-God? Your flattery knows no bounds, Sikohlon.”
Dehl: “Dmmmph. I was sure that only you had the want and the power to command the Shra.”
This makes perfect sense if you don’t think about it. If you do, an obvious plot hole presents itself: the army is made of si’shra, which are completely different from regular shra. Skint wanted to control an army of regular shra, but the shra and si’shra hate each other. Lumping them together is akin to, say, assuming China, Japan, and NORTH KOREA THE UNSTOPPABLE would be on the same side in World War 3, because they’re all Asian and that’s close enough right? It makes sense that someone else would make that mistake, but chapter 4 made it abundantly clear that Dehl understands the distinction. It doesn’t actually make sense to assume Skint is at the helm of a si’shra army, even in Dehl’s addled state. Now, if Skint had talked about uniting the shra and si’shra, that would conceivably be enough for Dehl to go off of. Instead we get someone operating off of a racist misconception about his own race. It does not compute.
Skint: “All I ever desired… was freedom, for all people… ours, theirs, everybody… I hoped that one day our brothers in the Capital would welcome us home… …isn’t it funny how long our lives are? The end never seems to leave the horizon…”
Dehl: “Do you truly intend to die here?”
Skint: “Hah. Look at me! The worst fate for a Shra is to die some place he does not belong. Broken… cold… alone… my spirit will never find peace. But you… still have a chance. Leave this place! Don’t let your final moments pass in agony like this…… just… leave!”
Dehl: “We shall do no such thing. However, we may still help you find your peace… Join our guild, Scourgelord Skint.”
Skint: “Hah. Join you? I am hardly even half a man any more! What would that accomplish?”
Dehl: “You would not die alone. You would be in the company of friends. What say you?”
Skint: “I accept, Ilganyag. I would never know of warmth again if I stayed alone.”
Skint: “I was a defender once, only to be struck from behind by those I wished to protect… And when they fell to my Plague-soaked blood, they called me scourge lord. Mmm… nothing has gone right since that Plague… and now, we come full circle.” […] “You’re still strong, I see. I do not know how you lasted these years. … I’ve a request. You have to kill me.”
Zargos: “What?! He can’t do that! We can still save yer life! You’ll… you’ll be fine, you’ll see!”
Huh, so is healing magic really powerful enough to keep him alive?
Skint: “Even so, is this a world worth living in? Our cities are ruined… our progress is lost… Even if you do defeat the Lord-God, there is nothing left for me. I no longer belong here. Dehl Sikohlon, you were always so swift, so merciful. That is why I am asking you.”
Dehl: “…hmmm.”
Skint: “Come here.”
Santes: (“He’s really not gonna do it, is he?”) santes where have you been the last half hour
Skint: “Pull the blade from my back. If you are fast enough, it should cleave my heart perfectly…”
Moke: “Eaaaghh! Young master, you mustn’t!”
Qualstio: “Whoa, hey, you’re serious?! L-let someone else do it. Dehl doesn’t deserve all this.”
Dehl walks over without a word. I love how he just completely ignores the peanut gallery.
Skint: “I knew… my faith in you was not misplaced. Only a Shra could empathize with my pain. Why are you hesitating? Be sure you have a good grip on that thing. Hah…”
Dehl: “Skint… if only you’d listened to us. You can never change anything solely on your own.”
Skint: “I see that now. That is why I am trusting you with this. … Thank you, Brother Dehl.”
…
So on the one hand,
But on the other hand, this resolution leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It’s certainly a nicer fate than most well-intentioned extremists get, but it still feels like it’s blaming him. There’s never any real acknowledgement of Dehl’s own part in this, other than a bit I cut from the last scene where he says it was stupid to let Skint go. He criticizes Skint for trying to do everything on his own (even though he didn’t, is Aryn so meaningless to the plot she’s actually invisible to everyone else?), completely ignoring the fact that Skint did try to work with him, and it was his stubbornness and stupidity that led to this outcome. There’s barely any mention of Skint’s actual goals and ideals, no acknowledgement that freeing the shra was actually a good thing, just oh yeah I guess he wasn’t pure evil. Then he conveniently offs himself with an utterly nonsensical rationale – seriously, we’re supposed to believe these spineless, petulant idiots are willing and able to rebuild society but not the guy who actively fought for change? You could pass it off as him being depressed from living through eight years of this, but in that case we get the lovely message that helping depressed people commit suicide is right and proper. Definitely don’t try to lift their spirits, God no – when he says civilization is irreparably destroyed the heroes do nothing to argue this point even though the first thing they do after this whole affair is to prove the claim wrong. If they had just kept him alive a little while longer, he would have wondered what he was thinking and proceed to live a long and happy life.
This isn’t Skint. This is a doppelganger put here to make the heroes feel good about themselves. It’s a whitewashing and perversion of everything he actually claimed to stand for, allowing this subplot to be wrapped up in a pretty bow and then put out of our minds, saving our precious babies from having to acknowledge they might have been wrong.
(Also, that “Brother Dehl” slip is supposed to reveal that Skint was the third Sikohlon father, but once again I didn’t pick up on it. It’s muddled by the fact that “brother” is a standard shra greeting, so I assumed it just meant Skint was accepting Dehl as a true shra and not a “whelpling” anymore. I realize in hindsight he would have said it in shra language if that was the intention, but it’s still way too subtle. The other piece of the puzzle is supposed to be that Skint doesn’t answer in the negative when Dehl asks him if he’s Sikohlon in interlude 4, which, no, Space Lizard, that’s not evidence. The developer seems to have this weird obsession with incredibly minor cues like word choice while refusing to leave any clues based on actual behavior, making the characters look like sociopathic aliens whose behavior doesn’t match the stated facts.)
Still,
Probably the best-written scene in the game. I cried through it even while I was trying to be in cold serious critic mode.
There’s also a bit after this where Dehl has a breakdown about how he’s terrible and wants to die and brings nothing but misery to everyone. Interspersed are some very obtuse hints that he was the true plaguebringer and guilt over that is the root of all his neuroses. Once again, waaaaay too subtle for something that’s supposed to be so pivotal. This would work perfectly if it was hinted at (properly, for non-psychics) throughout the whole story then explicitly spelled out here, creating another “oh so that’s what was going on the whole time” sensation similar to the berserker reveal. Instead it’s still just as vague, and as a result I just have no idea what’s going on.
There’s a quest mode area where I can save and train and stuff before the assault. This also means flavor text!!!!!!!!
Alito gives an introduction beforehand, and…huh. I can’t believe I never noticed this. Back when the game first came out I made a tongue-in-cheek jab on TV Tropes over how they still stick to the party size limit after Wadassia’s reduced to ruins, but actually there was a perfectly reasonable explanation the whole time. Silly me.
“Mmmph… almosst time. Jusst give me another day, or another year, please, body…”
“Opportunity to test skills against a god… Pro. Extreme likelihood of certain death… Con. She… is no longer alive to see our world…”
[long pause]
“…Pro.”
This is a little icky in that the husband is deciding whether his wife is better off dead for her and deciding in the affirmative because women are just such frail flowers or something? But that is taking the worst possible reading; it is a rather poignant piece otherwise, and given there’s nothing to be done for it now it’s reasonable for him to try to find some comfort in the situation. It also works for a conclusion to what passed for his character arc – he was obsessed with finding her and now has to accept that, regardless of what state she was in before, she is gone now, and there’s no need for further waffling and paranoia. Better to know they’re dead than to live forever in uncertainty etc. The Drop will later contradict this by having him believe she’s alive again because sequels.
Qualstio: “You’re taking this better than any of us, kid. Better than I did at your age, anyway.”
Tehgonan: “If I’da never joined, I’d be dead too. And even worse, I’da never gotten to meet you guys.”
Yay character development and people not being terrible. Why doesn’t he refer to his brother by name though? I’ve never heard people refer to their siblings this way, ever, so it feels really jarring and artificial. Ever17 annoyed me when it did this too, and here there’s not even the excuse of the name being important so it just looks like the developer being too lazy to come up with a name and integrate it properly.
Tehgonan: “I don’t think those Watchers planned on DYING to prove their point. Something went wrong.”
Qualstio: “Maybe. Scary, though. Banking an entire world on a bunch of strangers’ skills.”
Tehgonan: “Well did you ask Tezkhra? It seemed like he knew what was going on up there.”
Qualstio: “Yeah… he says he can’t remember. Even still, I’m sure he’d have stopped it if he could.”
They sure do have a lot of faith in the guy who appears to have no emotions and acted suspicious as heck the whole time.
…So the twelve-year-old boy managed to take this without breaking down, but not the secret agent. Of course.
Moke: “Fortifel… oooh… what will happen to magic use without the magisters to guide it?”
Yfus: “The Shra survived for thousands of years without magic. Perhaps we can as well.”
Do the magisters really matter that much? If anything they seemed to be stifling new developments. I would be more concerned about losing their records and libraries. They better hope Falitza has a photographic memory and really paid attention in those classes.
Yfus: “How so? I always read they were brought in when the Nal-Guard turned rotten.”
Rehm: “More police. More laws an’ arrests. More anger, more tension, more crime, ya know? Vicious cycle, mate. Vicious. Can’t cage up people like that an’ expect ’em to play nice.”
Well that’s certainly a change of pace from usual libertarian rhetoric, where we have to abolish everything except the police. Though I think this is a bit unrealistic of a portrayal, it is good to point out that crime is a systemic problem and throwing more manpower at it doesn’t always help.
Yfus: “Moke… you’ve known the Sikohlon family all your life. Do you think he is… dangerous?”
Moke: “Oooh… I do not know what to believe any more! First his Father, and now he as well…”
So I guess Dehl never lost it before now? Might be more interesting if he had, and Moke knew this was coming.
Santes: “Maybe he didn’t mean to… maybe he got caught up in it somehow. Poor guy…”
Zargos: “Still, knowin’ he wasn’t ever an enemy of Wadassia gives me hope yet fer home.”
…What? How does that follow? The fact that the guy you hated was actually on your side gives you hope for the home that’s already been reduced to rubble through completely unrelated factors? Just, what?
“It’s a… weird feeling, bein’ alone like that. But that means I gotta work extra hard!”
Yay, Santes does not make me want to claw my eyes out for once!
“She’d be happy to see both the homes gone. No more fighting, just like she wanted…”
She was over ten years younger than him, really? That seems like a pretty big age gap, especially for a species whose lifespan caps out at 50. And I see we continue to have male relatives speaking for dead women.
Fero: “‘Toughened up’? What for, friend?”
Lani: “This is gonna sound embarrassin’, but… So I could stand up to th’ Silver Army one day.”
Fero: “And was it a success?”
Lani: “Well I’m still here, ain’t I?”
This feels incredibly token to me, like the developer realized everyone had a tragic backstory except her so he added one at the last minute to fit her in with everything else being super dark and serious. I think it would have been better for her to maintain that lack of dark backstory, which is what enables her to so upbeat and emotionally supportive towards these traumatized wrecks. That’s a character niche that’s unique in this story and could go places. Perhaps the intention is supposed to just be that she got over it instead of having crippling hangups like everyone else, which would have also worked, but we’re just not shown enough to go off of.
Lani: “Eh, we had a good run. You’re right, though. Looked like things were gonna turn around.”
Yeah sure whatever. You’re not fooling me anymore, I know this is just nonsense now.
“Unfortunately, I am not entirely sure myself. I offer my sympathies to your plight.”
Alito: “Th-thank you, master. Are you… truly a god? You seem so… vulnerable to our needs.”
Tezkhra: “In the scope of your being… yes, I am. Yet, I assure you I am also an ally and a friend.”
This sounds heartwarming now, but wait until the ending.
Whee, that was fun! It’s great to actually hear the characters talk instead of just getting descriptions. I can see the groundwork for I Miss the Sunrise‘s optional conversations here, which is good because those were the best things ever.
It’s really a shame the soundtrack for this game was never uploaded, because the background music for this place sounds like something churned out from the bowels of Hell and it’s awesome. Fortunately, I can link the area’s battle music, which is just as good. It’s very unlike any of the other tracks and jRPG music in general, which heightens the sense of confusion, shock, and anxiousness that pervades this entire chapter.
Ohhh, I just realized this is the escape route! Good foreshadowing. (I am a bad reviewer who references later events too much yes.)
When I try to proceed, I run into this guy.
There are three enemies here, each geared toward body, mind, or soul. Enforcers are the body types. They have a pretty strong special attack (crushing, so Santes is in danger), but nothing else to recommend them. They only have 90 mind/soul points, which is like 2-3 attacks for me. This one goes down pretty easily.
It’s also hard to miss that Dehl’s new portrait has the same model as these si’shra, which is an excellent touch. He who fights monsters, indeed.
:(
The path splits. I take the left stairway up.
These rooms are actually very polite. Battles are unavoidable but you’re allowed to turn back after popping your head in, so you’re able to scout things out and make sure you’re prepared. This isn’t much of a problem right now, but later when I start encountering larger groups it’s nice to not get ambushed.
Dominators are the soul enemy. They have a dark version of Dehl’s Spirit Crush, which I think is clever. It’s pretty strong (~15 damage), which puts the weak-willed Sirush and Falitza in danger. Everyone else can tank soul damage fine though. The cutscene was only slightly inaccurate; Dehl can take these guys down in two slashes.
The slave trader reveals that the si’shra murdered his family, thus destroying his shallow justification for ruining people’s lives, then enslaved him themselves. Karma! Also fridging. He gives them a key before running off.
A sense of justice resonates through your guild. All allies receive 5,000 [experience points] for setting him free.
Yay! I don’t think there have been many of these recently. Nice to see the emotional level ups coming back.
I return to the lower level and go up the other stairway.
Manipulators are the mind enemy. Their special attack deals respectable mind damage of their own element, but overall they’re pretty meh. They always have light armor, so between Dehl’s White Cleave and Sirush’s Perfect Frenzy they go down fast. (Also Falitza gets to tank, which is a rare but pleasant occurrence.)
With all the special element-shifting of the dominators and manipulators the enforcers’ fixed skill feels out of place. At least making it the same type as their natural weapon would have maintained some consistency. Really, the enemies having a greater variety of attacks at their disposal would make them more threatening in general. Very few enemies have multiple elemental attacks they can use strategically – the na’hrin divine/noxious combo is the only clever one I can think of. Giving the manipulators, say, a second skill that had the affinity opposite their own element would make them harder to defend against and give them some uniqueness beyond “has big numbers”.
I have no idea what’s up with this. I can’t enter it, it’s just scenery.
There’s a locked gate here that I can open with Yacatec’s key. I follow the path…
This larger group is more threatening, but I still outnumber them two to one. I find another key and free some slaves.
I can access almost the entire area now, but the way forward is blocked by some gates. I open one to find
and
The final gate key is split in two to make me run around more.
The second half is in this little basement. This fight is actually pretty rough; three enemies of the same damage type can easily destroy a single guy if I’m careless and leave them alone on the front. Sirush’s high agility and short range means I make that mistake here.
But first I free the last of the slaves. I seem to recall the switch here having a strength requirement, but I guess I’m properly leveled because I didn’t run into any problems. Dehl has Superman level strength at this point.
And these guys are just here for flavor or something. You don’t have to fight them and they aren’t guarding anything. Maybe there was supposed to be something here originally?
On the sides of the final room are endless si’shra hordes for all your grinding needs, but the final boss is a pushover so I don’t need them.
And the final group is one of each, naturally. This actually makes them the least threatening group, since they can’t coordinate any attacks.
So that was a good bit. It actually felt like a proper RPG dungeon, albeit a bit on the small side. There haven’t been nearly enough of those in this game. I haven’t really seen this kind of tense yet open-ended environment that rewards exploration since… chapter 1’s final quest, actually. I guess some of the chapter 4 quests came close too? But wow, there sure are a lot of bland straight path type levels in this game. Ah well. Onwards to the final boss!