Big White Knights have large metal underpants

Ha….. it’s been so long since i’ve typed anything on this blog, so much that i think dust has filled the site….. omg, i think i can see the dust…

anyway, i finished White Knights Chronicles. I bought the Japanese version online after i failed to buy it while i was waltzing in Akihabara in Japan. I played it, and really…. I LOVED IT. The graphics is pure gold and honey…. not that i would eat gold, or pay anyone in honey. The music is also to die for…. But the best part of it all? The characters. Okay, i admit that i’m never a huge fan of the active time bar (or ATB as it is commonly called, remember FF VII and FF VIII?). And this game goes further by letting you run free as the bar (or in this case, circle), fills up. BUT BE WARNED!!! IT IS SIMPLY A FACADE!!! Running around and hoping your enemy cannot hit you when he tries to does NOTHING. This game is really like any old JRPG, based off stats.

But the characters are nice. And the loading times are nearly non-existent…. to point where it actually irritates me. I wanna take a quick break, but then i know i would most likely die if i do nothing while gigantic enemies swarm all over me. I created my own character, and the option of being able to customize my characters anyway i want is a win for me. I love that. So i created a short girl with longer white hair… She’s cute. And i made her specialize in the two handed swords and bow. Her third option would be single sword, followed by spears. I don’t know anyone who is good with an axe….

Anyway, training in the game is something that really wasted my time, but maybe it was well worth it. Trying to get my character to be stronger, the urge to gain more stats, to increase her attack power, her defence power, her speed, her evasion, her everything! But i also realized i may have done a few things wrong with her…. well, nevermind. She can take down most giants in less than five minutes. That isn’t saying much though, since i’m sure many others can.

The funny thing about the game is that there seems to a huge number of giant monsters lumbering about. To anyone who knows the game, some of the characters can transform into giant Knights using ‘arcs’, or simply put it, ancient artifacts. So i guess those giant monsters are meant to let you use those Knight transformations to whoop ass…. but i ignore that, and charge at it like David fighting Goliath…. or simply an idiot running to his doom. But i triumph multiple times…. in fact, i only use the Knight transformations (by my own accord, and not following the storyline), in boss fights. You may wonder, isn’t using those transformations during boss fight the main idea ofthe storyline? Ah, but there are some boss fights where you can just defeat using your normal party. And that just proves how powerful your party really is. I defeated more than half of the bosses in the game using my own party, and not any giant clanking, faceless man/woman-transforming-machine.

Another thing that irritates me about this game…. the ‘item building’. You know, the special option of you collecting materials and going to a specific guy…. or frog, and creating very nice equipments….. Now….. the thing about this is that most of the materials are nearly non-existent….. OKAY, so that do exist, but most of the items that you create, and are at a lower level than the armour you have by the time you find the monster who drops those materials…. so it makes the armour, or weapon completely useless.

okay, now for the storyline…. SPOILERS!!!! SPOILER ALERT!!! TURN AWAY IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE… SOMETHING…. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

So the storyline…. what can i say?…. CLICHE AND CLIFF-HANGER!!!! WTF?! CLICHE!!!! Ordinary boy (who turns out to be not so ordinary after all) falls in love with princess, and sneaks into ball where the princess is having her coming of age ceremony…. or something along those lines. Then enemy bursts in, storming the castle and town…. boy rescues princess, and leads her away, only to find the White knight…. okay, not so cliche on that part, but here is where it gets back on the cliche train… princess gets kidnapped…. and boy goes to rescue her…. cliche right? EXACTLY!!! Now, where does your character fit in? The one you created? Oh…. appears only as a new helper in the store where the boy works…. and so your character gets dragged along without a word…. YES, YOU DON’T SPEAK. Your character simply stands in the back of the group as people shout stuff, discuss things…. sigh, well, you can’t ruin the story with your character blabbering….

So let’s see the characters:

-Lenard (レナルド)
unknown age (possibly over 100)
Male
Has the White Knight
Likes the princess (duh)
pretty naive and out-going, typical main male lead

-Yuri (ユウリ)
unknown age (she may be the same as Lenard, but no proof so far)
female
childhood friend to Lenard
Knightless
Likes Lenard (DUH)
Feeling slightly jealous of princess (DUH)
out-going, tomboyish, typical childhood friend to dumb main male.

-Eldoa (エルドア)
unknown age (unlike the Knight contractees, he claimed to travel through time, so by law of physics, he is the same age as he was before he jumped time)
Ex-knight to the Queen of one of the two warring nations during the great war that gave birth to the Knights…. His Queen was the one who sealed the Knights of the enemy nation.
He vows to protect the reincarnation of his Queen, who just so happened to be the princess (CLICHE)

-Ceasar (シーザー)
unknown age (possibly same age as Lenard, but could be older by a year or two)
adopted son of the mayor of a city on top of a giant stone mutated turtle…. forgot the name, sorry, but i like that town alot.
He is REALLY good at artwork, able to duplicate an extremely rare piece of artwork to the finest detail, though colour seemed to be a problem for him.
He has a bad habit of looking into people’s heart and character with the use of his power, Dragon Eye.
Has the Dragon Knight (which is pink…. why pink?!)
Likes Kara (how sweet)
He is the most laid back on the entire group, though can be serious if the need for it arises.

-Kara (カーラ)
unknown age (possibly over 100, maybe younger than ceasar by one or two years)
she seems to be slightly bitchy, but a nice person overall
very analytical
Has the Black Knight (though she dies in the end, and the Black Knight goes to that one eye green goblin dude)
likes Ceasar (hinted that she and Ceasar used to play with each other when young)
blindly follows the eldest of the contractee children, even when she knows it is wrong.
As stated above, she dies. She also betrays the group not too long after she joins…. don’t bother training her. She dies before she can rejoin your party… which sucks, because i really wanted to play the black knight.
She is the black armoured person, but she isn’t the one who killed the King. Lenard saw two black armoured people and thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. No, lenard boy, you didn’t not see wrong, nor do you need glasses.

-Princess Shizuna (シズナ様、シズナ姫)
the main princess of story
is actually the reincarnation of an ancient Queen who sealed away the Knights and their weapons
a typical dojiko, actually she doesn’t actually fall, but she does seem like one who would.
can be serious at times, but still gives off a dojiko feeling
can go into trances often and chant weird words to releases Knights and their powers.
keeps on getting kidnapped over and over again
she lost her voice when her mother was killed before her eyes, and never spoke till her father was stabbed before her eyes…. what an ironic twist of fate.
likes lenard (for whatever reason besides that he constantly declares that he will save her, i do not know)
she met lenard once when lenard visited the castle as a small boy. She chased him, and smiled to him…. unbeknownst to Lenard, she was looking at the butterfly that was perched on his head, though let’s just let the boy day-dream a bit longer.

Okay, so that’s the main cast…. i didn’t add the enemies, because there are simply too many…. or i just forgot their names. Now, let’s talk about the Knights…..

In ancient times, two great nations waged war upon each other. I forgot their names, so let’s just call them A and B. Shut up, i’m also sad to not remember their names.

So A is the one where Eldoa came from, led by the Queen who would later become Shizuna. B is the nation which is basically down-right evil…. They created the Knights. The Knights, used by B, had to have a source of energy to run. And they used babies and children. These babies and children formed pacts and contracts with the Knights, exchanging life energy for power. Nation A then used some special skill (or they just whoop ass), and defeated nation B, sealing the Knights in the process. Of the Knights that Nation B made, five remained (or that there were only five in the beginning, i’m not sure, i was cooking when they were explaining). The Queen of nation A died shortly after from wounds and exhaustion from sealing the Knigths. The King of nation B is missing and isn’t dead.

Okay, skip a few years. A group of adventurers and excavators dug and found an ancient temple, revealling four babies and one young boy. These five were the contractees for the sealed Knights, and somehow or rather, they survived (probably with magic, and or cold sleep…. replace science with magic, and cold sleep is possible). They were brought to a village, where they were raised, but something happened, and they were forced to seperate. The young boy, disappeared with one of the babies, who had already grown slightly. This boy would be main antagonist…. forgot his name. The child he took would be Kara.

One of the child was left in the care of the mayor of that mechanized town on top of a mutated turtle….. i really forgot it’s name. That child would be Ceasar. Another child would be left in the hands of a beastman who runs a store in the starting city. This boy is Lenard. The last child’s fate is unknown. It could be Yuri, it could be your character (though that is HIGHLY VERY UNLIKELY), or it could be the captain of the guards (he is an orphan as well).

So the Knights each follow a theme.

-White Knight (Lenard)
human type
sword and shield and a cape
specialize in defensive, alright with offence
The arc is a gauntlet with a dagger to slot into the gaunlet (slotting the dagger into the gauntlet activated it the first time, other times, Lenard just seems to wave his hand over the gauntlet… the animators were getting lazy)

-Black Knight (Kara)
Bird type
one sword, and a pair of wicked black wings
specialize in speed, evasion, and it’s long range is killer
The arc is a black flaming sword (drawing it activates it)

-Dragon Knight (Ceasar)
Dragon type
Trident/spear, nice dragon wings, but why pink.
specialize in long reach, offence is highest amongst the first three
Why pink?!
The arc is a…. belt…. i can’t…. say…. anymore… (…. locking, clipping the belt activates it…. lame.)

-Sun god, 　太陽王 (oni-san…. that’s what they called him at the end.)
Emperor type…. can i say it has a sunny disposition?
Cross arms, yellow, shiny, looking very boss like
Is said to be the strongest of the five remaining Knights, but when i fought it, it practically did nothing (mainly because it’s powers were being sealed by Shizuna)…. it’s powers were sealed by Shizuna so oni-san can’t use it. Too bad
The arc is a plain mask. (You put it on to activate it…. what else? Piss on it?)
The last Knight has not been revealled, and we can only guess on its theme. So two Knights are with you, and two are with the enemy, but who is the last contractee? And what are its powers? Like i said, the game ended in a Cliff-hanger, so i don’t know. Need to wait for the second installment.

let’s see the list of potential last contractee:
-Yuri
she is around the same age as Lenard, and they never introduced her parents, or foster parents, so she could be an orphan.
she is the childhood friend of Lenard.
A cliche storyline if she is the last, her jealousy towards Shizuna causes her to turn over to the bad side, letting the enemy have three Knights. Hey, it would be too easy for the good guys if they have more Knights than the enemy, even if the enemy has the freaking strongest Knight.
Probability that she is the last: 70% (the percentage is not counting overall, but rather the chances individually)

-Captain of the guards (i don’t know his name, nor do i want to know)
He was brought to the castle before the King as an Orphan
He was adopted by the King
After the King was murdered, he left the Castle and the Kingdom with four of his men, wandering around the map with no goal in sight…. even at the end, they are still wandering…. i think they’re lost…..
If he is the last contractee, a storyline would follow like this: He finds a way to forgive himself, and redeem himself for not protecting his foster father, the King, and jumps into the fight at the last minute, brandishing his power… or he would succumb to madness and just destroy a whole lot of things before Lenard comes and calms him down. Either way, even if he is a bad guy, he wouldn’t stay a bad guy for long.
Probability that he is the last Contractee: 60%

-Your character
….. really, i don’t think so….
your character is silent, neither agreeing nor disagreeing
your character is simply dragged along with the series of events…. see? This is what happens when you don’t speak! you go on a wild and stupid adventure on your first day at work!!!
It is not likely that your character is the last contractee, since this game includes online play with your character. And online play with Knights is simply cheat.
Probabilty that he/she is the last contractee: 1%

-New character
Well, it is typical for companies who release a series instead of everything in one disc to not finish creating everything, like characters, maps, weapons, etc.
Since it is a new character, nothing more to say
50-50 for good and bad…. most likely bad side and you would have to fight it/him/her/them…. (hey, who knows…. maybe the original contractee died and the replacement was more than one? Two people morph into one…. weird)
Probability that he/she/it/them is/are the last contractee: 50%

Okay, so it seems weird, doesn’t it? We’ve got a lot of strange things happening in the game, and weird people….. at the end of the game, everything supposedly goes back to normal, but we ALL KNOW that nothing is going back to normal. Oni-san is on an island gathering up new forces, the prime minister of Shizuna’s country is working with that evil oni-san, that green one eyed globin dude has the black knight (and when he transforms… he is fugly…. and i really want to kill him for killing Kara and taking the black knight for himself… i’m going to kill him the next game and fuck up his insides, take the black knight and then fuck him up overkill style.)

Another weird thing…. you can finish this game with your party around level 37…. my main character was level 39, but that’s besides the point. Training is really tough…. but i think it’s well worth it…. always train your party so that they would be at least 5~10 levels above the monsters in the lastest area you’ve been to. That way, you wouldn’t have to use health potions….. i never used a single potion…. except action potions, since they replenish AP…. and AP is hard to replenish…. either kill enemies, enemies hit you, you deal specific damage to enemies, etc. But watching your character do a complete overkill combo, ending it with an arieal attack is totally worth it.

Oh yeah, here’s a break down of weapon types:

-Single handed weapon (sword, knives, maces)
can equip shield
fast, average damage
has an amazing number of arial hits
main stat increases are:
-speed (evasion andspeed of ATB, though mainly evasion)
-weapons usage (accuracy)
-strength (damage)

-two handed weapon (Normal two handed weapons, and Katana types, huge ass cleavers included…. Higurashi anyone?)
coolest collection of weapon
slow, heavy damage
it’s cool, and deals heavy damage, but hard to stack combo…. nice damage though. Mainly berserker types
main stat increase are:
-strength
-HP
-defence

-Spear (harpoons, spears)
can equip shield
good defence
average speed, average damage (slightly lower than swords)
Very average, all rounder types, though something tells me they have good piercing damage.
main stat increase are:
-defence
-weapons usage
-speed
-spirit (magic power)

-Bow
Can attack from a distance (very useful especiall against giant monsters… run into a tunnel or something like that where they cannot enter, and shoot away.)
very Fast, low damage
don’t have much combo, but have a lot of status changing shots. Sadistic players would love this
main stat increase are:
-weapons usage
-speed
-spirit

-Axes
I don’t know much about them, since i never use them.
i would suspect same as two handed swords, slow, and heavy damage.
Main stat increase are:
-HP
-strength
-defence

-Staves/ Staffs
i never use them, nor do i want to.
averge speed, low damage
they mainly boost magic
main stat increase are:
-MP
-spirit

-Black Magic (Attack Magic)
fire, ice, air (wind/lightning), earth
has both attack and defence spells for each element
Main stat increase are:
-MP
-spirit

-White Magic (Support Magic)
healing, status change, boost magic
has curing and inflicting ailment magic
has increase and decrease attack/defence magic
Main stat increase are:
-MP
-spirit

My list is not complete, since i am writing off memory, and i didn’t unlock everything.

For the healing magic, it is a bit weird, since you cannot unlock stat increase options like the other weapons…. you must learn the magic skills first, before you’re allow to increase another stat, and it really irks me, since i have to guess which skill unlocks which…. and the advance healing is only unlocked once you have learned every single ailment curing spell (including the group healing), then increase your spirit for white magic for the second time, and then advance healing is unlocked…. that would make you lose around 20~30 points…. that’s 5~7 levels devoted completely to white healing just to get advance healing…. what the hell.

Oh well, overall the game is still nice, and worth its price….. if only that made your character stand out more…. but i know, you cannot stand out, because your character is not suppose to be there! Your character is simply following…. without much reason….. really, why are you following? You follow Lenard in the beginning because it’s your job…. you start working in that store, and then the store owner gets you and Lenard to go to a nearby village to collect alcohol for the princess’s party…. you meet Yuri there, and when you get to the castle (after knocking a giant troll down), and Lenard wants to sneak into the castle, dragging Yuri and you in as well. While Yuri goes off to pig herself on the food, Lenard goes to spy on the princess (STALKER ALERT)…. and you? Well, you mysteriously disappear.

Then crazy clowns just have to crash the party with a giant cannon on the back of a freak monster who apparently love torches and candles…. While the guards are pretty much fighting a losing battle, the King is offed, Shizuna screams and gets her voice back, Lenard rescue her before she is offed as well, Eldoa appears and guides Lenard and Shizuna into a secret passage way. Meanwhile, you and Yuri are confused at the…. confusion, and somehow are rescued by captain of the guards. Lenard then stumbles into the basement of the castle, and sees the White Knight. The giant cannon monster who has a fetish for candles, storms in. Lenard decides to put on gauntlet, Shizuna enters trance, activates the Knight. Lenard is forced to battle some sort of shadow, most likely the spirit of the gauntlet, and gains control. He transforms, and then decides that dungeons are too small and cramping his style. He decides to make a skylight roof, and brings the candle fetish monster with him. Fighting the monster outside is much better, and he whoops ass, only to find that the princess is captured by a fat rolly polly man who has too much wax and not enough hair on his head, so he uses it on his stache.

A talk with the captain of the guards and the prime minister makes Lenard, Yuri and Eldoa incharge of rescuing to the princess, much to the dismay of the captain of the guards…. you…. well, you’re standing in the background, leaning against a pillar…. i guess you’re dragged in by default…. blame yourself for not voicing your objection. The captain of the guards leave shortly after, without a sense of direction and or a map, he gets lost…. multiple times…. don’t bother looking for him, he can’t be found.

So the first place you go is to the desert. Why? Because the princess is heading there. How do you know? Eldoa has a pair of coloured fluffy weird ass owls. Apparently they act as an ancient form of holographic telephones…. yeah… i know…. weird…. so a pink one stays with the princess and projects Shizuna’s image to the blue one that follows Lenard, and vice versa…. there is the dancing scene on a lake (wait, dancing ON a LAKE? They must be high….), which is very much similar to final fantasy X…. though in FF X…. Tidus and Yuna had lungs of steel and they were dancing/swimming/syncronise diving, INSIDE/UNDERWATER the glittering lake…. i think that lake is toxic. Why else would it glitter?

Oh yeah, you fight the black knight at the end of the mines to get to the desert…. it isn’t tough, and i saw no need to transform into Knight mode…. just use arial attacks if you have them, if not, hack at those legs till it goes down. Defending constantly is key.

So you reach the desert…. no one bothered to remember to pack water. You end up in the desert town, and are ambushed by Kara, who poses as a poor village woman whose sister is held hostage to force her will… well, there are lot of problems with that story, but let’s leave that for now. So you fight Kara and a bunch of towns people, whooping their ass clean, before Kara goes ‘Knight-like’ transforming…. that’s called ‘Advent’ (and they say that before transforming too, wow… like saying the name of a move while doing it. You have 変身… and you now have アドヴァント)…. that is basically selling your life energy to transform into a hideous giant beast. Like selling your soul to the devil…. so you beat Kara, and learn that Shizuna is in the ruins nearby, but to go there, you need to get through the other gate in the town, and you need the permission of the town’s lord…. who just so happened to be a giant frog who cannot keep his slimy webbed feet to himself. He’s a flirt.

Help him send a letter to his ‘girlfriend’, who just so happened to live in an oasis…. yes, his gf is a giant pink frog (don’t believe what the servants tell you about how she is ‘the most beautiful thing in the world’… yeah, lenard is an idiot for actually believing that.) So deliver the message, and after bearing witness to some typical wife bitching, you get permission to use the other door in the town, as well as using item creation. But it cost materials, and money… a complete waste of time. Unless you have nothing better to do.

Go through the door, and go to the ruins. Where Kara’s ’sister’ is… and so is Shizuna. Rolly polly bald clown demands Lenard to drop his arc. He does, but rolly polly cannot touch the arc, because it is bound to Lenard. Kara grabds Shizuna and pulls her to Lenard’s side. Then you fight some Advant soldiers…. then Kara’s ’sister’ (who has her mouth duct-taped, so she cannot refute the claim that Kara is her sister… wait, duct tape? They have duct tape?), is forced to do advant with two other soldiers, fusing into one big ass monster. Lenard has his ass whooped, and after his Knight is body slammed into a wall, a shield is revealled. Shizuna then goes into her trance mode again, and does that holy virgin mary praying, and
the shield is activated, allowing Lenard to use it. And you beat that fused up fussball. But Kara allows Shizuna to be captured again, therefore letting the group set off once more. Kara joins you as a permenant member now…. but like i said, it’s pointless to train her since she would die… well, she could come back to life in the second game, but unlikely….

So you go off to the moving city…. the valley before this is a perfect place to train…. with narrow cravices where giant monsters cannot pass, you can take a bow and shoot them before they can land a hit…. you’ll be fighting a black dragon, who isn’t very tough, but you transform anyway…. and the black knight appears… note that Kara is gone. Defeat the dragon, and the black knight kills it. Eldoa gets suspicious that Kara is not with them after the group rests…. Kara reappears later, claiming to have gone scouting. Anyway, go into the town, and learn that to continue, you need to get the giant turtle to go to the mines, but it isn’t in season (yeah, who the fuck has heard of mining seasons? What, do the rocks need time to ripen?). So you need to convince the mayor… who just so happened to be searching for a piece of artwork called ‘The Goddess of Lepana’ (ever notice how the moment you enter town, the lord of that town always just so happened to want something, just waiting for you to gain favour)…. You have to gain entry into an underground black market auction, and you need to talk to a certain somebody for that… trade the item he wants for the entry, and go in…. and what luck…. or if the entire world’s coincidences came together for this moment….. the Goddess of Lepana just so happened to be put on show in that underground auction. Don’t worry, money isn’t an option here. It is revealled that one of the Goddess’s eye is missing. And that eye is made from a gem from a fire salamander. You strike a deal with the dealer, saying that you will get a replacement for the eye, in exchange for the artpiece free of charge.

You do this quest, kill the salamander (who isn’t very big actually), and go back to the dealer, who apparently wants to double cross you, but Kara made quick work to make him see the error in that. It would problematic, after all, should minor characters take up the main spotlight. So you walk away with the Goddess. But heading to the mayor’s residence lets you discover something…. the mayor already has it?! No way! YES WAY! But you’re let in anywho…. because Ceasar said so. Yes, you meet Ceasar. He is the adopted son of the mayor, and claimed to have gotten the goddess himself…. of course, privately, he tells you that you have the real one, and that he created the fake one. When the party sees the mayor, and the fake goddess, Eldoa notes that the fake is exactly identical to the real one, except for the colour…. Ceasar apparently has the hands of a godly artisan… he even got the salamander gems. While the Mayor is happy for the real one, he is pissed at Ceasar for tricking again (again? Ceasar is apparently a naughty child… bad boy)… but he complies with your request. Oh, and note, the mayor is deathly ill. He is nearly at death’s door. Probably rining the doorbell by now.

you leave the residence, and Ceasar tags along as a permenant member. Take this moment to train him. Train him like you mean it (Or that you have nothing better to do in your spare time…. his dreadlocks need to be styled). The mines is a good place to train. I won’t tell you what to do exactly, but just check every place…. the best training regime i have, is follow the tracks up the slope, fight the black giant, follow through the back, till you fight the Earth dragon, go across the bridge, down the stairs, down the elevator, fight the fire dragon, then go through the tunnel filled with Wizard (that is the name of the enemy organization, in case you didn’t realize it by now) soldiers, and fight the black giant…. back track, go up the elevator, and repeat the cycle. The small frys you fight along the way, plus the four giants in total should give you a good boost. Train till Ceasar is at least 25, if not, buy loads of health potions and make Ceasar hold them. Make sure that your party can withstand a long fight, because you’re going to take on 4 boss fights in a row. And rolly polly is among two of them. He can cast silence on your party, so make sure you have revival and healing stuff. When you fight the boss, first is rolly polly with a couple of soldiers. Easy, and make sure that no one is silenced…. silenced party members do NOT use items automatically (if you place healing commands in their command bar, then they would automatically use them…. same with arial attacks… they would automatically use arial attacks on a giant monster if it is in one of the three command bars)

Defeat rolly polly, and then you fight two Advant monsters. I don’t know if it’s a glitch, but while fighting one of the two monsters, my party’s MP kept draining…. it could be that one of the monsters can drain MP, but it may just be a glitch…. nah, i think they can actually drain MP… so watch it. Next up, is a pink dragon…. If you saved Lenard’s AP, now is a good time to use it. Transform into a Knight and whoop ass. The dragon can withstand a lot of damage, unlike those weak advant monsters, so it is best to save the transformation for this dragon battle. After the dragon, rolly polly does advant himself, and the dragon goes down…. it transforms into an arc, and gives itself to Ceasar. Shizuna goes trance again, and
unlocks the dragon knight. Here, Ceasar is on his own, so heal yourself if need be, but at level 25 or higher, Ceasar’s health is good enough to withstand the entire fight. Rolly polly is irritating…. don’t aim for it’s head, but for its stomach, that deals the most damage.

After the fight, rolly polly dies, killed by one eye green goblin… i hate your guts goblin…. and shizuna is gone again. You go back into the turtle town, and find out that the mayor is dead. He left a note for Ceasar telling him that if he wanted to know his past, go back to the starting town and find a certain dude…. wait, no will? Well, the mayor wanted to thank Ceasar in the end for being his son… blah blah romantic stuff… whatever. So you go back to the starting town and search for clues…. this is tricky, since the map won’t give you hints…. best way? Start from the store which you start off from, turn right from its exit, up the stairs, and the first pair of young guys who are talking to each other. Talk to them, and they’ll tell you to find the building with the blue roof (apparently, someone likes to stand out so much that he would even paint his roof a different colour from everyone else). Walk down the road, and CG time…. then the map leads you away. There, you’ll find that the house is empty…. and that the man you’re looking for is dead. What a surprise…. but he has a son. Omg, yes a son….how cliche….. wait, why not a daughter?

So you ditch the gossiping woman who has to do laundry but decides to gossip with you anyway, and head out…. note that the field has an upgrade of monsters…. though they look the same, they are stronger. And this time, the ‘Troll King’ appears as a random monster… you can get a good material drop from him if you’re looking for item creation. So follow the map…. if you did the first side mission, this place should be familiar. So enter, and you’ll find a emo looking dude being chased by trolls…. three of them. What, does this guy emit some female troll pheromone or something? Sheesh, talk about popular with the wrong crowd. So save him…. yeah, both Lenard and Ceasar go transform…. this would be the first ’semi-boss’ fight where both Knights are on the field at the same time…. but the Black Knights is in as well…. and it’s helping you. Note Kara disappears again. I think it should be obvious…. but Eldoa now seems to confirm it. So you rescue the dude who is the guy you’re looking for… And he brings you back to his place to explain things…. He then tells you that he’s been under watch by someone for a long time, and tells you to meet him at night at of the town’s exit. You can go shop or do whatever you want before going there. Once there, be ready for a bbq… bring marshmellows…. and meat.

The dude’s place is on fire…. wow, what a surprise…. so you chase an owl…. this one is grey…. it’s not yours…. it’s oni-san…. yes, oni-san…. he tells you where to go next. And apparently, Shizuna was the one who arranged the place. Why? Because this place holds a sword that can kill Knights…. ooo…. yes…. apparently, there is a dude during the great war, who fought single handly against the Knights…. that dude must be tall…. and he decided to stay in a valley…. that became known as bug valley… or something like that. Bug named…. why? Because it has bugs…. no kidding…. pack your bug sprays, because it isn’t a joy ride.

One thing to note in bug valley…. there are lots of irritating enemies. Spiders, scorpians, spitting flowers, flies, giant weird rock lizards, trolls, and treants. Spiders can shoot a web at you, slowing your speed and evasion. Scorpians can poison or paralyze, spitting flowers can paralyze you in two ways, one with powder, the other is trapping by sinking its roots into the ground and grabbing you… the only way to get rid of this, is either get another team member to attack the plant, or wait. Apparently getting attacked also works, and the plant is still stuck trying to get something. Take that opportunity to whack it. rock lizards are considered huge enemies, though they are relatively small compared to other huge ass monsters…. but they are tough, and can deal 100 damage if not careful. They can also poison.

Ceasar finds out that Kara is the black knight, and though Kara threatens to kill him, she doesn’t…. yeah, unknowingly, they actually like each other, or more like Kara is rather reluctant to admit it. So you go on, rescue a…. rabbit? Erm…. what the hell is that? Well, you’ve seen that species around before…. but still…. what the hell is that? So you save it…. with overkill knights….. but that lizard has taken a liking to Ceasar, and decides to have him to go…. too bad Kara has dips on him, and swoops in as the black knight and rescues him….. yeah…. nothing says more romantic that bird woman saving pink dragon man….

So you continue on…. ending up kidnapped by masked rabbits…. they watch too much movies…. and decide to roast you…. or blow you up…. in the middle of their town. Hmm, they must really hate their own architecture…. Oh yeah…. interesting matches to who is tied with who…. Lenard with Yuri, Ceasar with Kara (oho?), you with Eldoa…. you with the oldest dude of the group…. or …. not. Ah, so as the rabbits test their mulfunctioning bomb on you, you are rescued by…. the ignored rabbit you rescued arrives…. so anyway, you’re welcomed by the midgets…. and you can get some nice items here… You also learn of the legend of the one eyed dude who can tackle Knights. And dragons apparently. Here is a CG with just you and Lenard…. don’t be so full of yourself, you still say nothing.

The next map is when you can get to use flower-copters! Yay! I always wanted to fly by grabbing onto a giant dandelion for dear life! Look at your map, and you’ll see arrows which point in which direction do the flowers go. If there are two directions, by activating the flowers, the game would tell you whether the wind direction is ‘up’ or ‘down’ (上 or 下 respectively). Just look at the map and orientate yourself that way. Up is the direction that is ‘above’ on the map. Down is the route ‘below’.

You continue on, and you reach the end…. where Lenard and Ceasar and forced to trade their arcs with Shizuna…. but after it all seems fine, something is wrong, and just in time, as Shizuna is actually… a FAKE!!! OMG SO CLICHE!!! And apparently Shizuna has many look a likes…. So the fake goes advant, and Kara shows her true colours. It’s now a two on two battle. If you trained right, this should be easy. And then, the real shizuna decides to follow her monk ways and starts praying, revealling the holy sword…. but it can’t be touched! Why?! Then Lenard get’s it! Let’s make the statue blind! And poof, a sword…. what the hell… So you get the sword, and deal with the enemy…. Kara gets away with oni-san…. with Ceasar pleading her not to go, but she replies that she has no where to go, and so remains by oni-san’s side….. what a…. bore….

You try to escape the crumbling ruins, because your battle attracted the grand daddy of rock worm/lizard, and your rabbit friends come to help you, but apparently you ate too much. You’re heavy. You go DOWN. And guess where? On top of the giant rock lizard. But this isn’t the end. No, the rock lizard has a very nice surprise…. it has a map on it…. i mean, it is like another dungeon… a short one. There isn’t anything here, just hurry along, and make sure to equip your healers, making sure that their best healing spells are in their command bars…. the next fight is going to be irritating.

You face off against…. a…. erm…. what is that? Let’s just say it’s the brain…. note that there are multiple tentacles sticking out…. you might want to take them down. They are weak, but will cause two things…. one, if you get too close, they will make you fall. Two, they can mess up your targeting, unless you’re good at changing targets. The main goal is the large centre brain flower, the tentacles can and will regenerate. They also distract your team members. If you can balance the attacks from tentacle to the main body, you can win. It is easy to tell when it would send it’s strongest attack, so defend when necessary.

Win the battle, and you’ll go back to the rabbit village, and find…. hey! The dude who supposedly burned is alive! But ceasar apparently finds his shoe interesting. I do too…. Take note…. the shoes….

The dude then leads you towards the village where it all began, Shinka village. The next map has a lot of enemies, so be prepared. But this place is ideal for meterial hunting, and exotic monster hunting. It is also by far the largest of all maps. There is an interesting version of the cerberus monster here (you know, the three faced dog… it isn’t three headed, because it only has one head, but three faces). This version has two snake like heads sticking out from its torso…. and if those heads are there, it can use a fearsome area fire attack. Use a bow to shoot those heads off, and by then, half of it’s life should be gone. It is the easiest giant enemy in this map. The candle fetish is here as well, and he isn’t easy to beat. The candle fetish is hard to defeat using normal a normal party, and Knights would find a battle against him to be long and tiring. The third giant monster in this map, the wind dragon. That is tough, as with all dragon type of monsters. But it isn’t invincible, so it just makes battling it long and tiring. Next we have the ice dragon, and finally one ice giant…. the ice giant is easy to deal with. When you see it after opening a door, stay by the door and wait till it sees you anc chases you. Run back and let the door close. The monster can’t chase you, and you can shoot arrows like no tomorrow.

This map also has an abundant number of small creatures…. on the surface, we have jackals, scorpians and the occasional basilisks…. underground, we have wind elements, basilisks and spiders. Basilisks can drop a rare material that is basically like a feather…. it drops it about 40% of the time, so keep killing till you’re satisfied. That material is mainly used for upgrading cloth type armour, creating mantles, or cloth type armour. It is rare though.

This map is both a mix of above and below ground, and you need to have good memorizing skills, with the addition of analytical skills to make your way around. But it’s easy once you’ve reached the centre of the underground map, and unlocked all of the doors. Note, train Eldoa specifically before you reach Shinka village. If he is important to your party, then all the more.

Eldoa in my party is my primary healer, and so it was important that he was good enough. Why was the old dude my healer? Well, he has naturally high MP, and magic attack/defence. So he makes a good healer/support. Second is Yuri, since she doesn’t have access to the heavy weaponary. She uses spear, and is my back-up healer. My main character, plus the two Knights are my heavy hitters. They dish out over 100 dmg, so makes sense.

Anyway, you reach Shinka village, and the dude reveals that Eldoa is actually from the era of the great war, and when faced by the others, Eldoa disappears. Like i said, if he is important to you, you had better trained him. You won’t be getting him back for some time. So you get told about the great war, about the five children and how the Knights work.

You continue on, trying to beat oni-san to his own Knight, which is the Sun God Knight. The next place is long, and just plain irritating. I know i say that most maps are irritating, but wait till you reach the ending part. Anyway, continue on, and then you’ll stop and camp…. then you’ll be ambushed…. only that it’s not really an ambush, because your group was expecting it. Yes. You’re entire party had suspected the dude… i think his name is Seti…. finally remembered his name. And he is revealled to be…. ONI-SAN!!! OMG!!! And the clue that tipped the party off? His shoes…. i told you those shoes were something. And Eldoa comes back, saying that his absence was a good rest…. lucky SOB.

But your victory is short lived as you are dropped down into a hole, and forced to fight…. oh, a candle feitsh monster’s brother, who has a fetish for crystals…. this guy is easy, so just beat his ass down, and continue on.
The next map is clear cut, so just continue on…. notice the increase number of golems…. golems are the toughest type of two legged giant monster, especially the ones in here, since they have no element, compared with other golems who have elements for you to exploit. Go through the ruins, and there would be a cut scene, and Eldoa explains his role, and Shizuna’s true nature. No, she isn’t a monster.

The next part of the map, is the temple, and is the beginning of the irritating crap. Begin by going to the door on the left, and teleport. You have to go through the different teleports, killing off all golems and giant monsters that you come across to unlock some of the locked teleports. When you unlock most of them, and end up in a giant rectangle hall, defeat the last golem, and head straight down the hall…. if this golem isn’t the last one, take the other teleport and just keep on finding golems till they are all replaced by giant black monsters. If you can access that teleport in that giant hall, you’ll end up in the beginning place, but on the North end, a place you couldn’t reach till now. Defeat the golems there, and jump down. The other teleport is now accessible. Going through you can see two additional teleports on the map. The one further from you is the final stage, the other will bring you back to the beginning.

You might want to prepare before the final fight. It’s another four boss in a row, and this one isn’t that simple….. You cannot change members in the middle of the fight, so the best way is to get both Lenard and Ceasar into the party, and make sure they keep their AP full. When the fight begins, you will fight against the Sun God from the get go, but Shizuna has sealed its power, so it would be easy. Of course, Oni-san is pissed, and stabs Shizuna. He then runs away, ordering Kara to finish the party off. While Kara transforms, Lenard grabs Shizuna and lets Eldoa heal her. Now you face the black Knight. It has strong long range attacks, and unlike it’s previous fights, it isn’t afraid to use them. You may have to depend on your other party members to heal and attack while you are sent flying across the field.

Once you defeat Kara, Ceasar manages to convince her to join them once more, and when Kara agrees, the green goblin stabs Kara from the back. Kara tries to transform, but that fugly dude grabs her from behind, and draws the sword. So it’s a fused transformation. The result? A fugly black knight. Really, i have no other descriptions for it. I really liked the black knight till i saw this…. and really, it’s simply fugly….

Right, now this is where the battle will be hard. Even at level 39, my characters has to endure about 100 dmg with the best armour available on. And that isn’t nice…. so get Lenard and Ceasar to transform during this fight, and let them absorb the damage and dish out the pain. The last character should focus on making sure the two Knights have good health and mana left. After this, the mutated black knight is forced to lower itself down closer to your level. Now is damage dishing time. If you’re party attacks relentlessly, this form should prove useless. Relentless attacks would prevent it from attacking you at all. It would shine once in a while, but that practically does nothing to you. Just hack away.

Once you’ve defeated it, it would revert back…. but Kara falls to the ground, and the green goblin has the black knight’s arc. He disappears with it. Ceasar runs to Kara, and the two share a touching moment, before the ruins come crumbling down…. again…. why so cliche?! Shizuna is healed, and she tells them to hurry to the open. There, a giant plane…. i guess it’s a plane…. with flapping wings…. appear, and they rush inside…. but Kara is dead, and her body is left in the crumbling ruins…. chances of her returning? Well, better than if she were brought with them…. if her body is never disclosed, then who knows what may happen?

But as Lenard makes his way to the ship, he collapses, due to the fatigue of using the Knight to much. Shizuna suppports him onto the ship, and Yuri is feeling depressed and jealous. The plane manages to escape, and they all return to the starting town. There, Shizuna takes control of her kingdom once more, and everyone goes back to their lives…. well, not really. Lenard gets a scolding from the store owner, who probably wondered where the hell Lenard went (though if you talked to him before this CG, he would say something ‘going to rescue the princess? Then what are you waiting here for?’). Yuri is with Lenard, and your character simply smiles at Lenard being scolded…. sadistic you. Ceasar and Eldoa share a drink at the bar in the town, and seems good. Then you see oni-san on an island, ressurecting an army….. he claims that he cannot use his Knight due to Shizuna, and his army is mainly following him out of fear. Also, Shizuna’s minister is helping him, so we know this isn’t over. Ah….. the captain of the guards is still lost.

And that’s the end of the single player storyline for this game! While nice, it is rather short…. well, the huge expanse of the game world, and the online feature is yet to be explored….. i am still not done with this game. Time to see how far i can go.

Oh yes…. in your clear data, there is a guy in Shinka village, who can transfer data…. i think it means transferring the data from this game into the sequel when it is released.

Well, that’s all from me about this game…. i’ll write more if i can get more.

I was wondering if i could use this story in my fics…. or write a fic on this…. i think i’ll do both.