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I don't remember why I took this screenshot... Maybe because of its ellipses? It seems like Claude is talking to his imaginary friend.

I've got a better question for the lady yet: how did you get HERE? It didn't look like the personnel at the Home was kind enough to let anyone use the teleporter Claude and the others have used, so did she sneak her way in? I also believe Artis relocked it after they came through (although, because I know who the stalker is and her capabilities, it might have been possible for her to unlock it somehow).

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Did the two extra 'ow' really warrant a scrolling dialog box? Sure, it's not as bad as others I've seen, both in this game and in older ones, but this one made me chuckle.

Running around the crystal cave in frantic search of the Synard, and happily slaying opposing monsters while they're at it, our heroes see the red-haired stalker once again, this time unseen (wonder how she didn't notice eight people running by). Her entrance this time is one of the most spectacular: she's running out of that passage on the right, when she suddenly trips and falls flat on her face ('Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow...'; yes, this definitely needs at least 5 'ow's to be well-conveyed). But the best part has yet to come! After swiftly getting up, looking around thinking aloud about how embarrassing it was and hoping nobody saw her, she runs back through the passages she just came out of! Not to mention she drops her ID card in the process.

You'd think our friends would simply laugh off at that performance, but Claude can't help but point out that this girl is running around the very same, violent-monster-filled cave they're in, by herself, and she doesn't seem to have suffered a single scratch (well, aside from those she just got while tripping). That noted, the player can choose to pick up the ID card the stalker dropped (it's a long walk and it usually means 4 or 5 extra random battle encounters), in order to give it back to her next time they meet (Claude is a gentleman after all).

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As bright and acute as always, Ensign Kenni! Fortunately he doesn't add anything after that, and they just move on.

Noel accompanies the group through the natural reserve, a lush forest on a small island very far from North City; there's also a natural cave which Noel says is the Synard's nest. This cave is really colourful: I imagine it's because of the many enchanted purple crystals scattered all around that there's so much light in here. Unfortunately the atmosphere is marred by a murderous scent in the air. Noel desumes that something has made the animals around here violent (possibly the presence of the Ten Wise Men), but that's par for the course: you wouldn't have expected a peaceful walk through the caves up to the Synard's nest, would you?

This cave is very large and with a confusing layout, but it's not hard to navigate, it's just that with all the forks, and the long walks combined with a fairly high battle encounter rate, the experience is none of the best. The violent animals are also quite tough. This is more of a test of endurance, make sure you get your hands on all the treasure you find, it might help.

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I know they're trying to put some poetry in the game, but must they always resort to the old 'Be pure of heart, conquer your inner fears' cliché?

To the utter astonishment of Claude and the two Tetragenes, Noel reveals the plan he imagines Artis had in mind: retrieve a wild Synard! I sincerely have no words left to comment on the complete idiocy of the situation, so I'll just move on. It also turns out that, to make matters worse, there's probably only one of those beasts in the wild, and in order to tame it, our heroes must beat it in combat (and demonstrate the superiority of their heart as well!). Noel happens to be a sort of warden to a wildlife reserve, and he's quite disheartened by the current turn of events, having to capture the last wild Synard; but he also gives up fairly quickly, stating that it's a matter of survival, and that any animal brought to the brink of extinction was surely just another victim of natural selection.

Regardless of the group's intentions, Noel offers to accompany everyone to the Synard's nest, located in a cave nearby. You can also put him in your fighting party if you want, he's a quite unique fighter: mainly an attack spellcaster, he's also gifted with some healing magic (he's a Nedian after all), so he sports a good variety of spells, at the cost of their overall effectiveness. He wouldn't be so bad of a choice in combat, however, if it weren't for the complete lack of any good strategy for his healing magic: he basically shares the tactics of other Heraldry spellcasters (Rena has her own tactics based on healing), which makes him very hard to instruct with regard to assisting strategies. Noel's attack magic is mainly earth and wind-based, and its power is limited. In the end, you'll surely excuse me if I don't get him in my party, won't you? He doesn't even have any interesting Private Action anyway.

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This begs for two questions. Does it mean that Noel fought alongside or against the Ten Wise men? How old is Noel? Unfortunately, as usual, this subject is never questioned or discussed about by anybody for the rest of the game! Noel is such an underdeveloped character, almost on par with Ernest.

Our heroes try to explain the reason why they're here, even though they aren't so sure themselves; Noel somehow understands the situation (although he's still puzzled at how nobody has explained it to them), and gets somewhat gloomy about it. He seems to be a peculiar guy, with much experience on various things, sort of like a more refined version of Bowman (except Noel's not married, nor does he show any interest on anything that's not a wild beast... I didn't mean it that way though).

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This isn't a very good first impression you're giving, Noel.

While refusing to fully explain the reason behind the Synard's sudden attack, Artis profusely apologizes to our heroes, and also tries to justify their actions; he and Narl are certainly hiding something, I'm sure, since the situation seems almost too quiet for it being the greatest crisis they've faced since the Ten Wise Men's first attack. Well, that also menas they've got no time to lose, and a few 'sacrifices' are to be expected during war, so Artis tells the group to walk into a teleporter they've got in there, as they will know what is to be done as soon as they arrive to its destination.

After being beamed Tria knows where, Claude, Rena and the others end up walking into a house, whose proprietor was just about to enter: so they bump into this weird-looking but seemingly very polite guy, and already have to make quick excuses for the sudden intrusion, as puzzled as he is about this meeting. His Name is Noel Chandler, and he's got those strange-looking things on his head, resembling animal ears (nobody really questions this, just like for our little Fellpool); coincidentally, his name is 'Leon' spelled backwards.

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It's her again! It might not be Fatal Attraction, but she surely is some crazy woman...

...jumping off and miserably falling like this. Does she even carry a camera with her? Maybe on Nede there's more sophisticated ways to take shots, possibly with the aid of a magical fairy or elf.

Artis is mortified and tries to cope with the situation as best as he can: he leads the party into his room to briefly illustrate one of the alternatives to getting a Synard (Not-Precis: couldn't we have a regular airship instead?). Meanwhile, it seems our favorite Nedian stalker has showed up again, only a little late. By listening to her thinking aloud, we can guess she's a reporter (our friends aren't here, so they don't know yet), so she's probably just covering the story of the heroes fighting against the Ten Wise Men (pretty uninteresting story so far, if you ask me). We also learn that, other than being clumsy, this lady is also quite tough, what with falling off the top floor and recovering almost immediately.

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Something went wrong, we killed the Synard, and now we have to share the blame. At least now they'll think about more sensible options for transportation, right? Right!?

While inputting Claude and Rena's data onto the Synard, the beast suddenly went berserk: it was about to destroy the whole research facility, so our heroes had to fight it. A battle with no winners...

At least now Claude has the chance to try his newly-built weapon, the almighty Eternal Sphere... too bad that its 'sparkling' fatures don't work for aerial attacks, and the Synard flies all the time! We now discover that this heraldic beast is also a powerful creature, but no matter: we've got the best anti-air unit available, that is Opera and her trusty Kaleidoscope. You must know that, while she uses her cannon as a melee weapon on the ground, she'll use it as a proper firearm against flying or jumping foes; moreover, this long range attack is also very fast and has almost no recoil, which means Opera can stun-lock about any opponent in the air. With her in your party, no matter the level, the Synard is as good as dead.

The other two, green-haired researches are now mad at Artis and the group for wasting a Synard, which apparently is very costly for them; if only they had told us sooner about their concerns on the 'inputting', I'm sure Claude would have cooperated, and maybe they would have opted for ANY MEANS OF TRAVEL OTHER THAN A MAGICAL BEAST! Sorry if I insist so much on the subject, but the brain-pain you have to go through during this part of the story is unbearable for me.

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Rena: It's not my fault if you're too quick, Claude.

Seeing as everyone is done with their stroll about North City, our friends meet up at the Home: the researched named Artis welcomes them and briefly explains the situation. The Home is a sort of biological research facility where they 'produce' Synards; this makes it easier to use them as transportation, since you only need to input genetic data of the owner into them to make them obey unconditionally... What the... Couldn't this have been more complicated? Aside from the ethical issues concerning this kind of artificial procedure (which Claude doesn't fail to notice), do we have to resort to this stuff on one of the most advanced planets in the universe? Can't we use a private jet or something? This is too stupid to be true...

Anyway, at least the 'inputting' process isn't hard or painful, as Claude and Rena only need to stand in a room and relax for mere seconds. Incidentally, the other characters don't need to do that, probably because they're optional for the party (remember you can go through the game with just the main couple), and they didn't bother thinking about a fitting cutscene mechanic.

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I have no idea what's being shown on that screen. Nedians...

Everyone is still wandering around North City, so Claude decides to have a look at the place Narl wanted them to go to (yeah, we sort of have a mission here, don't you remember?): this place looks more like a biolab than a Synard ranch, whatever a ranch for those animals looks like. It's called ' The Home', however, which is comforting; let's see what they have in store...

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I suppose this episode would be morally unacceptable, and exposure to children could be bad, so at least they put in this little disclaimer. But since there's no narration in the whole game, this line sounds really out of place.

In the end, Rena went on and 'initialized all data'; regardless of the odd wording, you can guess what happened. The funny part is that, while the library database was being wiped out, you could hear all sorts of bleeping and exploding sound effects, like those of a pinball table gone crazy (I wonder who programmed it). Of course Rena didn't realize what she'd done, but she could tell something was wrong: seeing as the accessing program wouldn't 'go back', she paniched and silently ran off before the librarian found out what had happened. You would have done the exact same thing, wouldn't you have? After all, technically, it wasn't really Rena's fault that she could access such a dangerous function of a freely accessible program.


Now Claude is a witness of the whole scene, but he decides not to reveal anything and runs away. Later on, he finds Rena at the inn, still a little flustered by the incident. The library database won't be available for a while (I think we now know why the database terminal was used only by the librarian).

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Nedians are so civilized and have such an advanced technology that even Rena can access the administrator functions of the library database and erase everything! That, or Rena's a real h4x0r.

Since Opera wasn't impressed by Claude's sword, he's thinking of showing it to Rena... Wait, this sounds wrong... Anyway, it seems our little healer is trying her hand at some Nedian technology right now, so this isn't the right time. I guess a lot of people might have watched similar scenes on Earth, about at the end of the 20th century or beyond, when computer programs had very little protection agains human error, and no real disaster recovery elements.

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You mean... Nanomachines! Oh, disregard that, I just wanted you to see how they had the guts to actually put a character that far away from the camera (in this case Opera); would it have killed the game if they had split North City into two separate screens?

Claude has just created the exceptionally broken Eternal Sphere, and can't wait to show it to everyone; he's a little disappointed by the fact that nobody really seems interested in it though. I guess Claude's attitude for combat isn't what his friends like of him the most. Whatever, it's nice to see Opera hanging outside, instead of spending her time drinking at a tavern or making bets with the locals. I think she and Ernest are quite impressed by this place: products of human arts and technology seamlessly melding with the natural environment, it's certainly not something you see often on the planet of Tetragenes (you can have a small glimpse of that planet if you manage to get the Claude-Opera ending).

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It doesn't just sound ridiculously overpowered, it is!

Once you get to Energy Nede, there's lots of new things you can find around, either in shops or as items relinquished by defeated enemies; regarding the former, you can buy new musical instruments, while regarding the latter, you can get Mythril ore. When you combine these items with some musical talent, dexterity and originality, and add up one sharp edge, what is it that you obtain? That's right, the Ethernal Sphere!

Let's delve into the details of the procedure for a bit, shall we? First of all, you must know that getting all the necessary items for this can be accomplished on Expel as well, but you need to test your luck a lot (and possibly waste a lot of time); in particular, the musical stuff is not necessary at all, but it really helps. The main ingredient you're after is two chunks of Mythril and the Sharp Edge: do you remember the fine sword grandpa Gamjee gave Claude after the Tournament of Arms in Lacour? Well, I hope you followed my suggestion from before and didn't get rid of it. The rest is simply a matter of talent and skill.

You may already know there's a specialty called 'Customize', which allows a character to modify one of their weapons using some material; other than investing enough Skill Points into it for Claude, you should make sure he also has the 'Originality' (and I think the 'Dexterity') talent(s). Also, if you've bought enough musical instruments (buy more in North City) and composed enough songs, learn the Super Specialty 'Orchestra', which improves the chances of success of any Specialty while you're playing music. Warning: the lack of any of the non-mandatory parts will cause additional reloads.

By successfully using Customize on the Sharp Edge with Mythril, you'll obtain the 'Minus Sword', which seems like a cursed weapon and isn't very powerful. If you know better (and who knows how in the world people managed to find it out), you'll use Customize again on this sword, again with Mythril, and upon success you shall obtain one of the best weapons Claude can use. Why is it so good? It's not because of its attack power, which is great but not exceptional; it's partly because of its magic powers, which raise Claude's attributes and some magic resistances; but mainly it's because each time you hit an enemy with this sword, it will shoot forward several blue sparkles, each doing some damage, with a high chance of stunning your opponent for long enough to quickly land another hit. An additional merit is its availability, at the very beginning of the second game disc (if not earlier); the only other item which has a similar effect is the Angel Armband (another really cheap item), but you can only get it in the extra 'dungeon'.

In short, get the Eternal Sphere and most of the game will be a breeze: you won't need Claude to use his Killer Moves ever again.

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I've got the feeling that even on Nede Celine is considered 'old'; it must be her silver hair...

So it was true, there's a fortune teller in town, with purple cloak, glowing crystal ball and all. Claude walks into the inn to find Celine with this clairvoyant, who has apparently just finished his (her? I honestly can't tell anymore in this game) 'reading'. Our Healdic sorceress wouldn't reveal her fortune to Claude, but suggests him to try and get a reading too: despite being generally skeptic about fortune-telling, he accepts the proposal (since it's for free after all). As the player, you can choose what kind of fortune to ask for, including Claude's compatibility with Celine; I think it's embarrassing to do that in front of the other person unless you're already close enough, but if you want to improve their relationship, this is the way to go.

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Man, I'm learning more and more new words thanks to this game! Although I wonder why this town is giving such an impression: it certainly looks better than Arlia. The capital b makes me thing of another meaning though.

Precis seems so uninterested by this town that she'd rather run around a streetlight, with Bobot following; you could watch her running for hours and she'd never get tired of it. Not that it's an unusual thing, mind you: even in other towns on Expel you'd find Precis and Bobot playing on the rooftops. She certainly had no problems adapting to this new planet (well, who wouldn't, given that, apart from teleporters, there's hardly any significant difference from other planets), but remember that, like the other Expellians, she doesn't know about what happened to their planet yet.

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Maybe it's not as noticeable as when played on the Playstation console, but this is one of the few places where your character can move very close to the camera, causing the filtering effect not to work on him/her anymore: the result here is a very "pixelated" Claude.

Librarian: Excuse me, may I ask what you are doing standing right across the entrance please?
Claude: Um... Well, I though there was more light here so I could read better...
Librarian: But you are not carrying any books with you, am I mistaken?
Claude: Oh, that's right... Ehm... Where did I put that book...?
Librarian: I will have to kindly ask you to move aside, sir, you're blocking the entrance to the library

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I'm telling you, this Energy Nede is getting less and less impressive. The funniest thing is that you can ask that guy for a topic and he'll run to the terminal to find it, and then he'll come back to you and say it aloud. Wait! I get it now! This guy is an android! Wow, how high-tech!

Once our heroes split up for the usual Private Action, the first place Claude visits is the library, of course. Here you can find a lot of information about the planet and the history of the Nedian civilization; little is found about the Ten Wise Men though, as noted by some bookworms inside the library, who find it funny that most information about them is in fairy tales. I'd say it's not that surprising, since it happened so long ago, but it's probably worth investigating because, other than the Ten Wise Men's imprisonment, there's no historical event of note reported in the archive after that (must have been pretty boring).

Claude gathers as much information about Nede as he can, and plans to do some extra research once they get to the University,which is located on another island. For now it's enough, as there are more pressing matters to attend to, like saving the universe. Hey, is that Leon over there? Figures that we'd find him in a library, strutting as usual (I'm sure his lab in Lacour is more high tech than the facilities in this town).

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Wheeere's Claude? Part 3 is now up! Seriously, whoever thought it would be a good idea to have characters go that far must have been drinking too much. It's a pain even just moving over there, it takes so long and yet Claude looks almost stationary.

We should be here to get a Synard and get on with the mission, but everyone is mesmerized by the appearance of this town; even to the Expellians in the group this looks like a rustic backwater village. But there's plenty to do here: there's a very well-furnished shop which also sells tools of all kinds, a very large library, and Claude just got wind that a famous fortune teller is in town and is resting at the inn.

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Our heroes bump into that mysterious girl once again; despite her remark, I don't think them just walking by to be 'clever'. And what about Claude's reference to that movie? I didn't know it was regarded as culturally relevant in 2400 AD.

Setting foot outside Central City, Claude, Rena take a good look at the landscape, made up mostly of small islands in a large ocean; this is probably the reason finding means of transportation is so hard (but not ride-a-magical-beast hard!). What certainly stands out on Energy Nede is the red-glowing barrier that surrounds most of the planetoid. The rest is just green plains and forests, snowy mountains, and... wait a minute! An island floating in the sky? Whatever, it's magic (or Heraldry).

To the utmost joy of the hard-boiled level grinder, out heroes find out (to their expenses) that evil creatures roam the lands even here: new entries in the bestiary we've compiled on Expel include disc-shaped tentacular machines and old sorcerers with phasing magic. Luckily the path to North City is very short, so our party gets there immediately to see what kind of battle equipment it has to offer (since Central City wasn't great in that department).

To their great surprise, North City looks very different from the previous town: at first sight it resembles a normal rural town, not unlike the countryside towns found on Expel, but on closer inspection (performed by yours truly Claude C. Kenni, Opera Vectra and Ernest Raviede), it appears that all sorts of modern commodities are well-hidden behind covers or underground.

During their first tour of the town, the party again stumbles upon that red-headed girl they had met in Central City; once she realizes she's been found, she runs away through the wilderness surrounding the town, but Claude can faintly hear the sound of her tripping and falling to the ground. This won't be the last we see of her, and the game will make sure we know that she's quite a clumsy lady, by making her trip face to the ground the next two times we meet her, just to get the point across better. It's now clear our friends are being followed, but that doesn't seem to be a problem yet, so we can keep on moving towards our next objective in tranquility.

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Well, it's nice that even Claude noticed that. You could see it another way though: Claude thinks Rena's a freak, but he hides behind the 'you're our friend' lines.

It seems Rena is alright for now, but who knows what their journey will bring them? Enough wandering around the city, it's time to leave! Do you remember our next objective? Go to North City and get a convenient means of transportation to explore Energy Nede: a flying heraldic beast! Are you still convinced you want to follow our heroes' story? Well then, stay tuned!

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Claude didn't look that point to me, but if Rena says so...

Seeing Rena in such a state, Claude can't help but try and make her feel better by sharing his point of view, that is, she is their friend first and a Nedian second. If you recall, they've already had a discussion about how Rena was 'different' from the other people on Expel: you'd think this one here is the last one we get, but you'd be proven wrong towards the end of the game (and each time she feels worse).

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When Rena tells Claude about her confusion and doubts regarding her Nedian origins ('Just... who am I?'), you have the option of making Claude answer in one of the most tactless ways you could think of; it turns out however that it's one of the best answers, because Claude manages to get to the right point somehow.

Claude goes upstairs to check on Rena, and finds her deeply troubled. She looked so determined and strong when the group came on Nede, it's painful to watch her act like this now. Maybe it's what Narl told her before, that made her fully realize her situation. As the player you are given three choices for Claude's reaction: act dumb (see above), say some cheesy lines, or stay vague. The latter choice has the worst outcome, go figure... Maybe it's just me, but at times you can't really tell where Claude is going with the dialogue by the first sentence you're given: it makes me feel it's more of a guesswork and less roleplay, but whatever, I could be horribly wrong.

When Claude meets Rena you actually have the option of ignoring her, and then to chase after her afterwards; in this case it's obvious that just leaving her alone is the worst choice in terms of relationship.

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Opera is so drunk she's glowing red! This would have been Claude's chance to... erm... get closer to her, if they hadn't found Ernest back then on Expel.

Opera doesn't seem very interested in the sights of Central City, at least not as much as in Energy Nede's liquors; I bet she had to try every single new one, because now she's so drunk that not only her face, but her whole body (clothes included) glows crimson. I suppose she's used to this, so leaving her here alone and armed with her trusty Kaleidoscope shouldn't be a problem; but isn't Ernest concerned about her? Why isn't he here? Well, Claude doesn't seem to like the atmosphere here, so he is about to get out of there, but he happened to hear someone talk about a Nedian in weird clothes going upstairs, with a depressed look on her face. Better check out on her.

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See? Even on Energy Nede they use Microsoft Windows. By the looks of it, they're also using CRT screens for their work. Wow, Nedians sure have advanced technology!

Since they still have enough time to spare, our friends decide to split up and look around Central City a little more. Claude decides to search for some information about Nedian history and customs (it could come in handy for an eventual degree in History of the Universe... who am I kidding? He's just trying to be ahead of the game so he can look cool). However, Claude can't figure out how the communication media work on this planet: there's no hint about something like the Internet existing here, nor do they appear to use phone-like devices... Do they use telepathy? Whatever, he doesn't get discouraged, and since there doesn't seem to be a library around here, he checks on the local press office; too bad they're all busy on covering the Ten Wise Men and won't listen to Claude's questions.

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Taken out of context, this is pretty funny; but one of his friends is apparently trying to hit on one of the girls over there, and needs support. Three on three is fair game, don't you think?

The more I explore this place, the more it reminds me of present-day Earth; the only difference is in how people dress up (and hair colour, but everybody knows you can find lots of green-haired people in Japan). What you can observe here is a mixture of typical Nedial fashion with Expellian outfits: basically, they're recycling NPC sprites. But how can you blame the developers of the game for this? They'd have to draw a lot of different characters to give the illusion of crowds, and it works quite well.

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This scene can be a bit confusing if you try to go in there first: if you enter the other door, Claude says 'A public restroom...' and doesn't go in (because, you know, RPG heroes don't need them). Of course he might not be able to tell which is the ladies' room because on Nede they use different distinguishing symbols from those of Earth to indicate that; and yet, if you try to get in after the first time, the same scene repeats itself. Claude never learns...

Nothing much to see around here; it might look like an incredible town to Rena and the Expellians, but Claude is more amazed at the thought that this kind of civilization existed billions of years ago. He's definitely interested in the history of Nede, though, and might do some research here and there if time allows it.

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I think this is just a case of lazy translation. While I can appreciate the fact that the theme of evolution is somehow still alive in Enix games, I believe 'evolution' is not the right term to use: 'progress' would be more appropriate.

Central City doesn't look that different from some modern towns of Earth (by modern I mean present-time Earth, not the one in-game, year 2452 or something), except for the lack of elevators. Chatting with random people, you can tell they're not overly worried about the return of the Ten Wise Men, maybe because of the long and peaceful - probably also uneventful - life they've lived until now.

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Why the sudden change in narration? This sort of reminds me of some old Point & Click Adventure game.

Taking their time to explore Central City a bit, our friends try to get used to the huge residential buildings, the crowded streets (well, not really, this town gave me a feeling if emptiness), and all the small technological facilities scattered about. 'This is really an incredible town' says Leon, as he looks around in marvel.

There are shops in the main square selling equipment and various items: it's curious how most of them could be found on Expel as well. The main difference is that you can finally buy weapons for Opera and Precis, since they have the technology to build them here. Apart from items, there's also a Skill Guild (they all look the same, even on Nede): you should have gotten all the skill sets on Expel, but they're still available here in case you missed some or couldn't afford them back then.

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In this game there's a good number of lines that sound excessively rethoric, but this one is probably the cheesiest of all.

Rena's had her talk with the mayor, and has put up with her newfound knowledge of being a Nedian, at least for the moment; she won't tell Claude what Narl said, but shows determination in her behaviour. The group shares her enthusiasm, each member for his or her own reasons, in following this mission.

The player is now finally given back control and has the opportunity to explore Central City and its surroundings (and, at long last, save the game), before going to North City to get a Synard: despite being very interested in seeing how such a beast looks like - not to mention riding it in the skies - we're only just arrived on a completely new planet, with lots of places to explore, people to meet, and treasure to loot! It's probably interesting to mention the fact that on Nede they all speak the same language they use on Expel (and Earth, for that matter); that, or everyone uses an automatic universal translator (pretty useful for the inhabitants of a planet which has cut off all of their communication channels with the rest of the universe). The air also seems about the same, and gravity too; the city, however, looks somewhat like Earth. Let's explore town a little bit...

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Why are they going that way? That's where the transporter they came through is, while Narl clearly said they can't use it to travel around Energy Nede. I'd also like to add that the mayor is leaving our heroes by themselves, without an escort or even just a guide showing them around. Man, this planet is lame: we're on a four-floor building and there are no elevators!

The mission briefing is over, and everyone is ready to leave (the wrong way!), but Narl still has something to tell Rena alone. You get to watch that scene only if you're playing Rena's story, and I honestly don't remember what they talk about, but you can surely imagine it's about Nede and Rena's origins.

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You've got to be kidding me! We're on the most technologically (well, and magically) advanced planet in the universe, and you say the best form of transportation is a flying animal!? Does it come with comfortable seats at least? Come on, you've got teleporters all over the place! And it gets even worse once the group is about to get one of those 'Heraldic life forms', just wait!

So, now that Claude and the others hae accepted to help the Nedians in their fight against the Ten Wise Men, Narl explains what they must do: or, rather, he remains mysterious about it, limiting himself to telling them where to go next. Since teleporters can't reach the places they're supposed to go, our heroes have to find means of transportation. Do we get an airship? That would be classic, but this game was made by Enix, while airships are typically Final Fantasy stuff (back then it was Squaresoft, before the merger with Enix), so no dice. I say that a flying beast is much better... Why are you looking at me like that? Ok, I know you didn't expect that, but I'm sure Narl has his reasons for that... right, Narl?

Narl: That is a meaningless question, you don't need an answer.

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They never really explained that in the end: what does Narl mean by 'powers of a different type', other than a ridiculous excuse for making Claude fight in place of regular Nedian soldiers? You know, maybe nowadays Nedians can't level up anymore, so Narl thought that getting a bunch of heroes from other planets and making them grind levels in their special 'dungeons' would be a good plan to fight the Ten Wise Men. That worked for me.

Right after their return to Nede (again, it's Energy Nede, so they haven't really come back), the Ten Wise Men have immediately seized property of one of the cities of the planet, Fienal: aside from having a nice and very apt name, I suppose the reason they chose it was because it's the only city on Energy Nede located beyond some weird-looking red energy shield which covers the rest of the planet, making it virtually inaccessible until they deactivate said shield. A brilliant tactician they must have with them, eh?

Narl has no idea what the Ten Wise Men are plotting (aside from conquering the universe), but he knows they have to be stopped, and as quickly as possible; he also has a good idea about how to trick our friends into helping them (yes, aside from that 'powers of different type' business)... But it seems our heroes are, indeed, heroes, and would certainly be unable to stand aside and do nothing while such evil men are afoot; therefore, Narl thinks it's best to save his trick for later, in case their faith decreases.

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That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? I think the plot of Star Ocean 3 might have something to do with it. Also, small nitpick: Narl is saying the Ten Wise Men 'escaped and returned to Expel', but as far as we know, they had never been to Expel before. Or is Narl implying that they had? Somehow I doubt it.

Millions of years have passed since the Ten Wise Men were imprisoned in the 'Eternity Space' where time stands still, and the Nedians have been living in isolation from the rest of the universe so far. You might have noticed, though, that Rena is somehow an exception to this isolation: how did she get to Expel from Nede? That's a (uselessly contrived) plot point which will be revealed later on, towards the end of the game.

Now we can all see the evil Ten Wise Men have escaped from their Eternity Space prison (we have no idea where it is nor how it works), and somehow migrated to Expel with the Quadratic Sphere (the Sorcery Globe; we also have no idea where they got that). Their plan was to return to Nede (or, rather, get to Energy Nede) for some reason we are never really told about. And I was even hoping we would get some sensible answers regarding the plot... silly me.

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The Ten Wise Men battle against the forces of Nede... Aside from the ridiculous uniform worn by the Nedian soldiers, why is that the Nedians are represented in Super Deformed appearance, while the Ten Wise Men aren't?

The inhabitants of Nede lived their lives in peace, and had an important position in the galactic federation (I can't remember what it was exactly) thanks to their incredible knowledge. However, men with 'malice in their hearts' gathered and started using their powers for destruction: those were the Ten Wise Men, some of the most powerful beings in Nede and, consequently, in the whole universe. The Nedian forces had to gather all their powers to fight back, and once they had prevailed in the battle, they confined them in a special prison 'where time stands still'. The Nediands however realized that even their own power was too dangerous: were more people like the Ten Wise Men to come out, they'd become a threat to the entire universe. So they decided to move to Energy Nede, an artificial planet protected by a barrier, through which nobody and nothing could pass.

...I admit that when I played the game back then, I didn't find this story that corny; maybe it was because the whole game was so cliché that pushing it a little further in that direction went unnoticed to me. That was probably for the better, though, because it made certain extra scenes more worthwile. If you don't buy the story now it's fine, but it's not like the truth is a whole lot better: it's just less of a fairy tale and more of a down-to-Nede report, but still very cliché.

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Now, 'magic science' just doesn't sound right...

Narl starts narrating the history of his planet, Nede, and how its inhabitants were at the apex of civilization, knowledge and power throughout the whole universe (but even they would have been able to explain how Planet Stream works, I'm sure). Other than being quite a fascinating story (or boring, depending on how much in a hurry you are for going to save your game), there's an interesting detail about the planet's current state: it appears the planet our heroes are on now is actually Energy Nede, an artificial planet built by Nedians. The most important part about this, is that Nede, the original planet, doesn't exist anymore, as it was destroyed by the Nedians themselves after they had moved to Energy Nede, for reasons I'm explaining in the next post.

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I wonder why they got such a megalomaniac title, those guys; not that it's used very often, as they're usually referred to as the Ten Wise Men... But even then, they're noteworthy more for their destructive powers than their wisdom, so the name doesn't seem appropriate anyway.

After even the wise and knowledgeable Claude has given up figuring out what kind of device that thing in the middle of the valley could be, a very kind advice resounds in the air: 'Come inside please'. Our heroes realize it's someone speaking from a distance, and after a little bit of discussion, and explaining that this device is a 'transporter' (futuristic cabin which almost instantly teleports people through the ether, i'm sure you've heard of them), Rena ends up saying they can trust this guy. Everyone enters the transporter, and ends up in a dark, quiet room (not even a welcome party?), with a door that leads in the room you see in the screenshot.

Waiting for the party is Narl, the mayor of Central City, the largest town on Nede; or, rather, Energy Nede (we'll get back to it in the next post). He briefly explains what he supposes has happened that caused them to end up here, and then proceeds to enarrate some story about the ten guys responsible for Expel's disaster, commonly referred to as 'God's Ten Wise Men' (Ten Wise Men for short). It will be a while before you can save the game, so relax and listen to what he has to say.

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Very helpful insight, Claude, as always.

Following Rena's directions, our party is led to a breathtaking scenery; we should thank our favorite healer for these beautiful sights. Wait, what's that thing right in front of us? It looks way too elaborate and out of place to be a simple gazebo.

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She sure sounds confident, but I don't think it's ever explained how she can tell they have to go that way: either it's telepathy, or it's just Rena remembering that there was a safe place or something like that in that direction.

Claude now knows where they are, although he's still puzzled by how they got there, and by the fact that they're still alive and well; he probably should have stopped worrying about these small details after being beamed from Millocinia to Expel, if you ask me...

Well, could we be more lucky? Everyone is here and in good health (maybe except for the eventual wounds you got in that last fight against Berle), the place they've ended up in doesn't look dangerous, and Rena somehow knows where to go. I tell you, I've been through a lot of 2nd Discs in my gaming life, and this is by far the best situation you start in. Sure, there's that small detail about Expel having been blown away, but it's nothing a lame plot device couldn't fix; besides, I've already told you what I think of small details.

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That was pretty close for a guess, eh Claude?

Ok, we're finally on Disc 2 (well, we already were in the last post, but it didn't feel right to start it with just some dialogue by whoever-it-was). This is probably the first time Claude wakes up from a traumatic experience and doesn't find himself alone, so let's celebrate!

Claude wakes up Rena and meets with the others: apparently everyone is safe and sound, but where's this place? Heaven? Certainly it's too beautiful to be real (too bad we won't see much of it), and Expel was destroyed - although only Claude and the Tetragenes know - so they must be somewhere special. Then, all of a sudden, Rena declares, with an air of complete certainty, that this is Nede. Opera then remembers what those men said, that Rena is a Nedian, so she might remember this place (although there's something strange about it, we'll see why much later on).

Our heroes briefly try to make some sense out of what's happened to them, but the plot device through which they've come here is so cheesy that they're disgusted to even think about it. Now, where to go, what to do?

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Oh, so these villains are as cliché as Shin (or as any other bad guys in the whole game). I should make a Demotivational Poster with a patchwork of quotes like this, and add 'REGRET' as the caption.

...well, our heroes didn't really put up a show there, if you know what I mean. But you can't help it if there are so many invincible bosses in the game, Berle being the latest; he's so noble and kind though, running around the battlefield and trying to slash the party to death (if you're confused about this, I meant that he only uses easy-to-avoid melee attacks, so you can lure him with Claude and keep the others safe).

In case you were wondering, this is indeed a survival fight: after a couple of minutes the timer stops because we're close enough to Nede and impact is imminent. One of the ten men says they can now use their power to teleport themselves to the other planet, leaving Claude, Rena and their friends to die on an exploding Expel. The good news is that our heroes get mistakenly teleported along with them (figures...), only too far away for the evil guys to do anything about it; the bad news is... none, really, but if the player doesn't realize that the battle with Berle was a timed one, s/he'd get a Game Over, and would have to sit through all the dialogue before the battle. It's not as bad as the norm was back then regarding JRPGs and unskippable cutscenes, but it can get on your nerves because of the particular plot point you've reached.

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It's not like you were on a mission to save Expel from distruction; I'm sorry for your son though...

Ok, this final line sounds funny to me: is it wrong? By the way, science isn't powerless (ask Dr. Insano about that), it's just that technology can only get so far, and Heraldry is quite disappointing, as you can only use it to destroy, rarely to protect (finishing the game will prove it to you).

You would think Ronixis knew that main characters cannot die in the middle of a game... Actually, if you thought so, you would be underestimating our Commodore: you see, he's already been in a game (not exactly starring in it, but he was still pretty important), so he knows the rules. He's also quite knowledgeable about game mechanics in general, and about the innovations in this game in particular, so he feels it's very possible that the second Disc could simply sport new characters, who could perhaps inherit our heroes' abilities and stuff. This isn't standard fare in RPGs, but I suppose Ronixis deemed this game innovative enough to try such an interesting move.

And yet, he's still wrong: the plot might be interesting in some parts (especially the hidden plot points accessible towards the end), but the game still relies a lot (too much if you ask me) on plot twists, and it does it very seriously, causing it to sound bad most of the time. Well, the game also relies too much on inexplicable plot devices, but we'll get back to that in a post or two; for now, let's just leave the Commodore to his pain.

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Well, that was weird: I had always thought Rena's pendant and the Energy Stone were crystals already. Thanks for telling me, although ti doesn't quite explain what a Quadratic Key is used for.

Here is, in brief, what I've gathered about the plans of these men so far (I already know more about it, but this is what anyone who's played the game up to this point could assume):

• one of these guys notes that thanks to Rena coming here with a Quadratic Key, they can speed up the process that will allow them to return to Nede (heh, in a way Rena could be the indirect cause of Expel's destruction)
• from this I can postulate that the Quadratic Key, by reacting with the Quadratic Sphere, gives it enough power to alter Expel's orbit to collide with Nede
• from here I may also assume that the original plan of these ten men was to get hold of an Energy Stone and then crystallize it to obtain the Quadratic Key they needed
• which brings me to the Lacour Hope: Shin said that tricking humans into bringing the cannon to El was part of a plan, which would make sense, as they needed the Energy Stone, but on the ship he just seems to destroy the stone (this is just what it looks like to me).

So, in the end there are only three possibilities: Shin didn't actually destroy the Energy Stone, but brought it to the ten men for crystallization; I got it all wrong from the start (it's not easy when they don't reveal important details); the game's plot is inconsistent (pretty common in large, story-heavy games, but this was based on a novel, so it should be as consistent as Star Trek or something).

But this isn't really the time to worry about that now, since the planet's about to be destroyed. Let's fight bravely, for Expel's future!

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I don't know what to say... Is this guy laughing, or is he just coughing? Either way, it's funny, so I'll be sure to take another screenshot of him the next time we meet him.

Ok, so Claude's reasoning is that killing these men will somehow avert the collision and save Expel: I don't know if it was the spur of the moment or all the legends he'd heard about the Warrior of Light, but surely he couldn't seriously think that in a normal state of mind. The dark guy farther away from them (who we can assume is the leader), even humbly tells him that beating them won't change the fate of Expel, because it's too late. I was somehow surprised by such an answer myself: usually you'd get an evil laugh or two and a snide remark like 'As if you could beat us' (which, incidentally, is what everyone else does), but this man simply tells things how they are. Character development? Not as much as I'd hoped for, as you'll learn if you play through the whole game.

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Ellipses and question marks galore!

Rena is positively confused by the things these guys are saying, yesterday she didn't even know anything about outer space and other inhabited planets. An interesting bit: in the Rena storyline of the game, you can trigger a Private Action with Claude in which he will ask her about what she thinks is 'beyond the sky', to which you can select the answer 'maybe another world?'.

What I could gather from the information these ten men (?) are providing is that:

• they created the Quadratic Sphere (i.e. the Sorcery Globe), which automatically makes them our enemy
• they are from Nede, the same planet Rena is from, but how both have come to this planet and why is still a mystery (and for them it's not really explained even later on)
• they possess (I think) a crystallized form of energy called the Quadratic Key, which is similar to Rena's pendant, but are surprised she has one as well (this IS explained later on, but I still don't know what a Quadratic Key really is or what it's used for)
• each one has a different personality from the others, which will make it slightly more enjoyable for us when it's time to kill them all; however, given that there was a boss battle just a little while ago, and we've still got another Disc to play, I guess this is not the time

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I know it's pretty common in these games to have dialogues that don't make any sense until later on, but here there's an unhealty amount of that. Furthermore, I'm not even sure everything is accounted for: the nature of the Sorcery Globe (whose real name is 'Quadratic Sphere', how clever...) and this Quadratic Key they mention (which is Rena's pendant) isn't really explained, except for their relation to the Energy Stone our heroes had found in the Huffman Ruins.

Claude, Rena and their companions finally come face to face with the cause of all the trouble Expel is facing: ten people hidden in the shadows, with weird-looking dresses, who literally lighten up when talking. But the more terrifying thing about them is that all their names are replaced by '?????'! Terrifying, isn't it? Kidding aside, you can tell they're a menace because one of them intimates the group to refrain from moving (with an all-caps voice, no less), and shoots Rena with his laser-eyes when she disobeys. Naturally Claude shields her from the laser (or something, maybe a particle ray), and Rena heals him after that.

Seeing Rena's healing powers, these men realize Rena is a Nedian (i.e. an inhabitant of the planet Nede; Only recently did I notice that it's Eden spelled backwards, shame on me), and take some time to reveal a bunch of stuff. Namely, they note Claude's an Earthling, someone else is a Tetragene (but nobody cares), and explain some stuff about the Sorcery Globe, or Quadratic Sphere (in the background), and its relation with Rena's pendant, a Quadratic Key. We'll take more time to analyze this in the next post.

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Man, this Shin guy couldn't sound more cliché even if he tried. Try and guess who's gonna win now. I'll give you a hint: he's made a grammar mistake.

After wasting a lot of time on that dead end of the keep (now I recall that they sometimes call this keep the 'Eluria Tower'), our heroes can finally get to the end of it, and unravel the mystery of the Sorcery Globe; but not before the third (and last) battle against Shin, the boss of all demons. Don't worry, he isn't invincible this time, I promise. By that I mean, if you die here it's game over. That should be the last of your problems though, as he should be easy to deal with, and since the bigger problem is something called 'planet collision'; it would have been nice if you had a timer or something for this battle, it would have added some tension.