![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I'm back in the US! I have deadlines to meet! I think I'll play a little more of this game.
* Sonja suggests I relax by wandering around the city. I can take a hint, game! Time to go talk to all the NPCs, and maybe upgrade my equipment.
* Sonja is apparently the head doctor on the medical floor. Huh. And also providing flowers for the building! And also researching how mana works! I kinda love omnicompetent JRPG scientists. "I have a PhD. That means I can do anything that involves math!"
* If I talk to Rosch, he wants to know what my decision is. Don't rush me, bro! I'm trying to decide between "Of course you should side with your nice friend, not your clearly suspicious superior" and "That's just what the game WANTS you to think, it's a trap!" and "Well, since I'll probably end up rechoosing and replaying from that node anyway, shouldn't I pick the 'wrong' one first so I can see both in a narratively satisfying order?" which just takes me back to the first two...
* There is absolutely nothing new to do in town. I buy Stocke a slightly better sword, and give his old sword to Marco, at which point I'm out of money. Um. Okay. Guess I'm relaxed! Time to decide!
* If this were a proper LP, I'd ask for people to vote on who I should work for, but since it's not I'm gonna go with Team Fiendish Boss first. Since he's probably evil and gonna have me kill my best friend, at which point, hey, a good reason to go back in time and do things differently!
* Rosch has pretty good voice acting. It's kinda a pity that his huge armor makes talking to him kinda hilarious, no matter how serious he is when talking about needing my help but respecting my decision.
* Anyway, off to talk to Heiss! He wants me to arrest Vlad, "the leader of a rebel faction who opposes the Prophet Noah." Wait. Now we're arresting religious dissidents? Are we sure we're the good guys, here?
* Huh. I thought the Prophet Noah was, like, some distant mythological founder of the nation, along the lines of Romulus, but they're talking about him like he's still alive. Or do we just mean there's a church no one has mentioned yet, that controls his worship? (Baffled shrug emoji.)
* Because, I mean, if there's a church, we're gonna have to fight the pope. This is a JRPG. I know how this goes.
* "They're nothing special, as rebel factions go. There's a similar faction in Granorg." 95% chance the princess is in charge of that one!
* (I'm still waiting to find out if any of my percentage decisions are definitively right or wrong. It's kinda hard to say regarding the 'spy will die' one, given it was both true and false. Damn you, time travel! You throw off my probabilities!)
* (Still suspect we'll end up in a dramatic boss battle with the Prophet Noah and/or his pope, though.)
* Off to talk to our informant in the item shop! With 500G! These are not impressive travel funds, Heiss.
* The item shop owner proceeds to give information about where to find Vlad, then insist Heiss told him I'd be spending money there. Don't push your luck, buddy.
* Off to look for a robed man in the bar. I do like that they're reusing locations I've already wandered through in the city.
* The barkeep and a robed man have a very obviously suspicious conversation with coded phrases. I'm just rolling my eyes when Stocke thinks, "So that's him... Amateurs. No subtlety at all." Ha. Good going, game.
* Apparently I'm gonna chat with Vlad instead of immediately arresting him! "It's been five years since the Prophet's been seen in public... What's he doing with himself?" Vlad demands. I dunno, man, I'm playing a spy/troubleshooter/assassin. He's probably off turning into a multi-form boss or something.
* Anyway, Vlad has a name but no voiced lines, so I guess he's not joining our party. Also, he says some very insulting things about dogs, so I don't even feel bad about beating him up handily.
* Raynie's here to help! I already defeated him, Raynie, but I guess it's the thought that counts. She and Marco haul Vlad off, presumably to be offered a cup of tea by an interrogator somewhere.
* Vlad has apparently already told Heiss that they were stealing explosives. Or Heiss is lying to us. Who knows! Not me! I'm a time traveler, not a seraph!
* Anyway, time for a vital, delicate mission! That could end the war! Stocke is the only one he can trust!!! He needs to... head to Granorg and wait for further instructions. Mmhmm.
* Having dismissed the two subordinates, Heiss now wants to speak ominously and cryptically. Cool. Cool.
* For a top agent, I spend a lot of time running into walls.
* ...Rosch, how the heck do you already know about our top secret vital mission? We really need better security around this place.
* Anyway, he's giving us helpful As You Know Bob about Granorg, and in particular "the scholar Selvan, with an iron grip on their Parliament." Not real sure why that matters to me, Rosch, but so noted!
* Rosch worries that Heiss is "just using" us. Rosch, that's very nice of you, but he's our employer and a spymaster. That's kinda what he's supposed to do. You're in the military! You should not be shocked by this concept! And as someone in the military, maybe stop being shocked that we're taking on dangerous missions! Again: part of the job.
* Then Stocke pretty much says everything I just complained about. He's definitely growing on me as a protag. Not just the stoic badass with a Dark Past that I initially assumed.
* Sonja wanders past to be the voice of reason, and maybe ask the boys to stop having an argument about predestination and the stench of death in the middle of the castle courtyard.
* "Why do we put our lives on the line like this for the sake of the job?" ...because of dwindling scarce resources and a desparate empire attacking your nation, Rosch. Last I checked.
* "It's because that's the only way there is." Thanks, Sonja!
* Time to check in with the twins, so that they can be cryptically ominous! (It goes around.) And prompt us to save, which, after that much cut scene, yes please.
* While trying to find my subordinates somewhere in the city, I end up with my first sidequest! Oh boy! Two small children have asked me to help their Sad Alchemist Dad. I am /on it/.
* ...I need to find out how to make coconut palms grow? Uh. Okay. I'll see what I can do.
* Raynie and Marco were preparing for the mission! At the tavern. Mmhmm.
* Another sidequest! I am helping a small child pretend to be a princess by, uh, sneaking behind enemy lines to get a souvenir ring that's the same style as the princess's. Good thing I'm going to Granorg anyway, huh?
* After a quick scour of the city, I have upgraded armor, another 300G from a chest, and a good excuse to head off to Lazvil Hills. Again.
* Time to forget how to one-shot enemies instead of engaging with battles with them, and fight a bunch of poisonous, blood-sucking random animals on the field!
* For top agents, we're apparently also not sure which side of the river we're meeting our contact on. That seems like a pretty important detail, guys!
* "It's been three hours," Marco frets. "He's awfully late." Well, maybe he can't one-shot giant mosquitoes the way we can and has to fight his way through them over here! Give him a break!
* THE BIG QUESTION: Should we keep waiting, or go to meet him? ...eh sure let's go meet him, I can always change my mind and unravel the fabric of time itself to make the other decision if I pick wrong.
* Jump cut to... THE MINES! "Alma Mine is on fire?" Marco helpfully exposits.
* Stocke decides we should just break through to Granorg via the Mines. O...kay. Aaaaaand I get helpful text saying that the army lost and Granorg attacked Alistel and Alistel fell, jump-cut to... The Queen Ascendant!
* This is the twins expositing to me that I need to go back and figure out how this happened. Also maybe make it not happen. Okay!
* Back at the meeting point, let's... wait patiently like good agents who follow orders.
* The elves show up to go "Oh, by the way, the agent's not coming." And going to the mine won't work, but... there's the power of the chronicle emenating from another! Gasp! Turs out there's the Black Chronicle too. Huh.
* "It is this other wielder who is corrupting history." Yeesh. You couldn't have named them the Green and Purple chronicles or something?
* So apparently I'm the one with the power to fix history, but someone else is actively messing it up. Oh dear. And the elf twins don't even know /why/. "We're not omniscient," Lippti helpfully points out.
* I need to jump to a...different history, apparently, to figure out how to solve /this/ timeline. Oh man.
* Maybe this is a good point to stop and have a headache for a bit. Time travel! It gets weird!
* Sonja suggests I relax by wandering around the city. I can take a hint, game! Time to go talk to all the NPCs, and maybe upgrade my equipment.
* Sonja is apparently the head doctor on the medical floor. Huh. And also providing flowers for the building! And also researching how mana works! I kinda love omnicompetent JRPG scientists. "I have a PhD. That means I can do anything that involves math!"
* If I talk to Rosch, he wants to know what my decision is. Don't rush me, bro! I'm trying to decide between "Of course you should side with your nice friend, not your clearly suspicious superior" and "That's just what the game WANTS you to think, it's a trap!" and "Well, since I'll probably end up rechoosing and replaying from that node anyway, shouldn't I pick the 'wrong' one first so I can see both in a narratively satisfying order?" which just takes me back to the first two...
* There is absolutely nothing new to do in town. I buy Stocke a slightly better sword, and give his old sword to Marco, at which point I'm out of money. Um. Okay. Guess I'm relaxed! Time to decide!
* If this were a proper LP, I'd ask for people to vote on who I should work for, but since it's not I'm gonna go with Team Fiendish Boss first. Since he's probably evil and gonna have me kill my best friend, at which point, hey, a good reason to go back in time and do things differently!
* Rosch has pretty good voice acting. It's kinda a pity that his huge armor makes talking to him kinda hilarious, no matter how serious he is when talking about needing my help but respecting my decision.
* Anyway, off to talk to Heiss! He wants me to arrest Vlad, "the leader of a rebel faction who opposes the Prophet Noah." Wait. Now we're arresting religious dissidents? Are we sure we're the good guys, here?
* Huh. I thought the Prophet Noah was, like, some distant mythological founder of the nation, along the lines of Romulus, but they're talking about him like he's still alive. Or do we just mean there's a church no one has mentioned yet, that controls his worship? (Baffled shrug emoji.)
* Because, I mean, if there's a church, we're gonna have to fight the pope. This is a JRPG. I know how this goes.
* "They're nothing special, as rebel factions go. There's a similar faction in Granorg." 95% chance the princess is in charge of that one!
* (I'm still waiting to find out if any of my percentage decisions are definitively right or wrong. It's kinda hard to say regarding the 'spy will die' one, given it was both true and false. Damn you, time travel! You throw off my probabilities!)
* (Still suspect we'll end up in a dramatic boss battle with the Prophet Noah and/or his pope, though.)
* Off to talk to our informant in the item shop! With 500G! These are not impressive travel funds, Heiss.
* The item shop owner proceeds to give information about where to find Vlad, then insist Heiss told him I'd be spending money there. Don't push your luck, buddy.
* Off to look for a robed man in the bar. I do like that they're reusing locations I've already wandered through in the city.
* The barkeep and a robed man have a very obviously suspicious conversation with coded phrases. I'm just rolling my eyes when Stocke thinks, "So that's him... Amateurs. No subtlety at all." Ha. Good going, game.
* Apparently I'm gonna chat with Vlad instead of immediately arresting him! "It's been five years since the Prophet's been seen in public... What's he doing with himself?" Vlad demands. I dunno, man, I'm playing a spy/troubleshooter/assassin. He's probably off turning into a multi-form boss or something.
* Anyway, Vlad has a name but no voiced lines, so I guess he's not joining our party. Also, he says some very insulting things about dogs, so I don't even feel bad about beating him up handily.
* Raynie's here to help! I already defeated him, Raynie, but I guess it's the thought that counts. She and Marco haul Vlad off, presumably to be offered a cup of tea by an interrogator somewhere.
* Vlad has apparently already told Heiss that they were stealing explosives. Or Heiss is lying to us. Who knows! Not me! I'm a time traveler, not a seraph!
* Anyway, time for a vital, delicate mission! That could end the war! Stocke is the only one he can trust!!! He needs to... head to Granorg and wait for further instructions. Mmhmm.
* Having dismissed the two subordinates, Heiss now wants to speak ominously and cryptically. Cool. Cool.
* For a top agent, I spend a lot of time running into walls.
* ...Rosch, how the heck do you already know about our top secret vital mission? We really need better security around this place.
* Anyway, he's giving us helpful As You Know Bob about Granorg, and in particular "the scholar Selvan, with an iron grip on their Parliament." Not real sure why that matters to me, Rosch, but so noted!
* Rosch worries that Heiss is "just using" us. Rosch, that's very nice of you, but he's our employer and a spymaster. That's kinda what he's supposed to do. You're in the military! You should not be shocked by this concept! And as someone in the military, maybe stop being shocked that we're taking on dangerous missions! Again: part of the job.
* Then Stocke pretty much says everything I just complained about. He's definitely growing on me as a protag. Not just the stoic badass with a Dark Past that I initially assumed.
* Sonja wanders past to be the voice of reason, and maybe ask the boys to stop having an argument about predestination and the stench of death in the middle of the castle courtyard.
* "Why do we put our lives on the line like this for the sake of the job?" ...because of dwindling scarce resources and a desparate empire attacking your nation, Rosch. Last I checked.
* "It's because that's the only way there is." Thanks, Sonja!
* Time to check in with the twins, so that they can be cryptically ominous! (It goes around.) And prompt us to save, which, after that much cut scene, yes please.
* While trying to find my subordinates somewhere in the city, I end up with my first sidequest! Oh boy! Two small children have asked me to help their Sad Alchemist Dad. I am /on it/.
* ...I need to find out how to make coconut palms grow? Uh. Okay. I'll see what I can do.
* Raynie and Marco were preparing for the mission! At the tavern. Mmhmm.
* Another sidequest! I am helping a small child pretend to be a princess by, uh, sneaking behind enemy lines to get a souvenir ring that's the same style as the princess's. Good thing I'm going to Granorg anyway, huh?
* After a quick scour of the city, I have upgraded armor, another 300G from a chest, and a good excuse to head off to Lazvil Hills. Again.
* Time to forget how to one-shot enemies instead of engaging with battles with them, and fight a bunch of poisonous, blood-sucking random animals on the field!
* For top agents, we're apparently also not sure which side of the river we're meeting our contact on. That seems like a pretty important detail, guys!
* "It's been three hours," Marco frets. "He's awfully late." Well, maybe he can't one-shot giant mosquitoes the way we can and has to fight his way through them over here! Give him a break!
* THE BIG QUESTION: Should we keep waiting, or go to meet him? ...eh sure let's go meet him, I can always change my mind and unravel the fabric of time itself to make the other decision if I pick wrong.
* Jump cut to... THE MINES! "Alma Mine is on fire?" Marco helpfully exposits.
* Stocke decides we should just break through to Granorg via the Mines. O...kay. Aaaaaand I get helpful text saying that the army lost and Granorg attacked Alistel and Alistel fell, jump-cut to... The Queen Ascendant!
* This is the twins expositing to me that I need to go back and figure out how this happened. Also maybe make it not happen. Okay!
* Back at the meeting point, let's... wait patiently like good agents who follow orders.
* The elves show up to go "Oh, by the way, the agent's not coming." And going to the mine won't work, but... there's the power of the chronicle emenating from another! Gasp! Turs out there's the Black Chronicle too. Huh.
* "It is this other wielder who is corrupting history." Yeesh. You couldn't have named them the Green and Purple chronicles or something?
* So apparently I'm the one with the power to fix history, but someone else is actively messing it up. Oh dear. And the elf twins don't even know /why/. "We're not omniscient," Lippti helpfully points out.
* I need to jump to a...different history, apparently, to figure out how to solve /this/ timeline. Oh man.
* Maybe this is a good point to stop and have a headache for a bit. Time travel! It gets weird!
Tags: