Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 06:45 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Alright, let’s finally thread up this pile of screenshots! Last time, we’d just gotten to Duhr where it turns out there was a ton of upgrading to do, so that took a few hours. It also enabled a few sidequests to finally wrap up…
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 06:50 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Notably, Extreme Stress lets us make Fluella Cooties, meaning we indeed have something to give to the knight power-drunk on cheese. (Please don’t give people diseases, I write having finally lost my covid-dodging streak, it’s very cruel)
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 06:52 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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This is a messed-up friendship on so many levels. MOVING ON
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 06:54 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Got this ominous spell for Guillo at some point, everything seems fine
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 06:56 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Atria has a cutscene at the entrance now (had to go fetch a cactus). I’m sure this isn’t foreshadowing for a future bossfight.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 06:57 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Definitely gonna need to explore in there at some point. Not just yet, though!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 07:01 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Back in Duhr, we came back with some wine for the mask artisan. Who says “on the house” but just asked us for a trading item so go figure!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 07:05 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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There are three masks there, each with different descriptions but giving the same Quest Magnus. I started with the leftmost one to clear the path to the chest, which has a bit of Sedna.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 07:07 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Two more jugs of wine later, all three masks are picked up (and promptly turned in for upgrading armor)…
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 07:10 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Which doesn’t mean we can’t get more, we’d just need to bring cookies this time. Which are an even greater pain to get now that the election is done, thanks videogame!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 07:12 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Gemma actually does have people who want to leave. Unfortunately for them I know JUST the place!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 07:14 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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There’s a blue flower right at the bottom of the village, you don’t have far to go! I like that it acknowledges how WEIRD this scheme is
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 07:17 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Speaking of Sedna, let’s go check on it… and hey, that was the last of the immigration sidequest, hurray! Dialog here keeps being entirely normal
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 07:21 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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It looks just as… post-structural as the magnus suggested, and now we have art commentary about it. Thank you Sedna, Mira’s absence is not felt as keenly
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 07:23 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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I WENT STRAIGHT TO THE BLUE FLOWER, THIS MAKES NO SENSE
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 07:26 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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We also have this extremely useful dialog in a house (it keeps going for another 5 textboxes and I refuse to alt-text all of that)
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 09:28 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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(One dinner later…) Once that was all done, it was main plot time again! Kamroh is here but is not The Great Kamroh yet, turns out
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 09:30 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Krumly’s characterization is weird in this one. He’s nothing like the bitter coward we meet in EW, he feels almost… immature, maybe? Also that Great Kamroh mask sure… is.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 09:33 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Not the most formal language either. The vibes are just WEIRD but that’s Duhr I guess
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 09:41 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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The not-great Kamroh restates what we know about which continents were sent up, and we start getting something resembling an explanation at last
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 09:47 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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To the side room, where there’s another Guillo in cold storage!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 09:52 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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If you pick “Wait…”, it does just that and lets you leave and come back.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 09:55 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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If you pick “Sure”, magic light happens and… teleportation to inside the puppet somehow? Sure, this game needed to get weirder!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:04 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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And we’re off! Footsteps make cute light patterns, there’s a weird puppet crop circle, and ominous red orbs that make it glow. Guess we need five of those.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:06 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Once an orb is activated, it also turns some of the caltrops squishy so you can go through them. The second orb seems to be rougher on our team…
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:08 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Because it’s flashback time! We kept hearing that the Children of the Earth were powerful wizards, but apparently a large part of that power was Guillo and pals.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:12 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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This also starts to clarify what “gods” even were: apparently it’s Wiseman’s people? (Hey everyone writing about Xenoblade and its obsession with godhood PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO BK)
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:13 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Seginus’ memories, then. Another bit starts glowing, onwards we go!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:16 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Third orb: apparently the Whale was asleep on the job. For NO REASON AT ALL the Sorceress and Sorcerer’s voices are real familiar. Like we’ve been hearing them all along, layered above each other…
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:19 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Seeing the plan take shape after we witnessed its gory execution at least clarifies a few things, though not why the siblings were targeted rather than… the one who started the whole mess.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:22 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Fourth flashback, first mention of Malpercio. Which requires explaining because it was not at all the initial threat. How did the legends even get so distorted? Also who was Wiseman fighting in Atria, before Malpercio showed up? Who are the Brethren?
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:24 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Really it all boils down to an environmental pollution issue, which is made weirder by gods having been human originally
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:27 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Seginus is defective, which is why it’s still here after all this time. And Guillo… got mixed sorcery power, explaining the layered voice.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:30 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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I can’t recall where the cutoff between flashbacks 4 and 5 was, but eventually we get offscreen dialog that Seginus overheard. Victory but at what cost, etc, and this time Malpercio as the main enemy?
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:33 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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And here comes the core conceit, also establishing that Malpercio ended up a lot more powerful than anything else they faced.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:37 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Our two pilots return, tying up the last loose end about Guillo. Ran out of batteries and ended up in a hole, while the other two were destroyed, and Seginus never made it out of the hangar.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:41 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Obviously we get our party re-stating all that into an understandable format
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:44 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Guillo asks for forgiveness. If you refuse to give it, Sagi of course proceeds to be Sagi. Though please do tell me how a murderer having forgotten they did it would make anything okay, the murder still happened?
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:48 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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If you claim not to remember, Guillo refuses to hear it. “All right, I remember” then gets back to the bygones thing, while “Come on” gets us this. Nobody put Sagi in charge of reparative justice anything.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:49 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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And it all converges back to our beloved statu quo of friendly insults
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:52 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Obviously once we step out it’s bossfight time. Because we’ve kinda fixed Seginus / Dark Samus Guillo Edition enough to spot that Malpercio’s right there. The fight isn’t too tough, or I’m over-leveled, doesn’t matter!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:54 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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And victory kicks us back out into the outside world.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:56 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Poor Guillo. Definitely cursed knowledge, that!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 10:58 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Yeah that does seem like the smart thing to do. Though who knows, maybe Seginus could have helped 20 years later!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 11:00 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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We exit the room and this comes completely out of left field. Yeaaaaaaaah about that-
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 11:03 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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I suppose that makes sense. The no-longer-great Kamroh then disappears back into the side room…
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 11:04 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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… where he is nowhere to be found, but we can go back into Seginus if we want. Go figure!
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 11:08 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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The Newly Great Kamroh has some platitudes and random items for us, and that’s this questline done! I’m sure he’ll do great. Maybe start by teaching the people of Gemma to air out their bedrolls.
Lia
@liareplaysbk
· 11:09 PM · Dec 24, 2022
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Next time: go grab a frame capture in that flashback see what colors Guillo’s siblings actually have, talk to everyone in Duhr again in case anything has changed, then… go pickup some Heartenbrace for Gena at last?