Wild Arms 3 Part 11: Schröedinger’s Gat

This is being posted on Gogglebob.com on July 4, Courage Day. Once there was a boy who mustered up the courage to shoplift a toy called Deluxe Justine. He proudly placed it on his shelf like a trophy. The next morning, the boy was utterly surprised to see Justine standing by his pillow. By the third day, the toy even grew out hair. So the boy decided to repent. He found the courage to return the toy to the shopkeeper. Remember kids. Shoplifting is stealing.

Previously on Wild Arms 3: Virginia made a new friend! Or enemy!

Yep, definitely looks like the second one.

Okay, enough pouting, we are going to go raid this tomb, and no meddling blonde can stop us.

We have to scoot all the way around the perimeter of the dungeon again to get back to that door we opened. This is good. It gives Virginia time to cool off.

Here we are. Moving on.

So Serpent’s Coils is kind of a snakey pile of hallways and… Oh! I just got that.

In this case, we have to pull a switch to lower one “bridge” and raise the other. Luckily, we will want the bridge raised to move forward shortly.

A Lucky Card! Or three! These are great: they double the experience you earn in a battle. Each Lucky Card technically only works on one party member, but you can use Mystic with Virginia to apply the boost to everybody in one go (and one Lucky Card consumed). Like the Gella Card from a couple updates back, this is best used on bosses and “special” encounters. Unlike the Gella Card, it distinctly works on the party, not your opponents, so enemy groups do not impact the calculation of whether or not it will be worth it.

Another switch, another unlocked door. At least this one doesn’t require backtracking.

And now we are back at that bridge area.

What? Where did you come from, Blonde? What are you doing?

Oh. Oh how dare you.

Of course you realize this means war.

So, once again, we have to hop down, pull the switch…

And proceed to circle all the way back around again.

Fast forward again, and Blonde does not try the same dirty trick twice. Though that is probably just because she has enough of a lead on us…

Dungeon continues unabated. Not pictured: plenty of slimes to attack, too.

Oh, a frozen switch.

We have the power of fire! Bye bye, ice.

Thawed switch works, doors open. Easy puzzle.

Now let’s take a leisurely stroll to the next room…

Oh! Oh! Jail for Blonde! Jail for Blonde for one thousand years!

The door is now closed, and Blonde is scooting off to parts unknown.

So the fun thing about this “puzzle” is that Maya will reset it over and over again. This is new (compared to her other efforts in the dungeon), and can leave you in an endless loop of never making progress.

Or we could just turn the switch to the proper position, and then re-freeze it. Eat it, Blonde!

That kinda worked!

Follow that calamity!

Confrontation time.

This is as good as she gets! Give her a break!

An ARMS-based society is a polite society.

A 1-on-1 duel would be interesting (and futile) at this point…

But let’s have a free-for-all four versus four drifter down.

Even odds for a boss fight? Well, I never.

Everyone retains their “unknown” names for this boss fight. May as well stick to that for the moment.

Their stats are standard boss fare. Hey, Blondie.

Afro must be defeated first. His Psycho Crack attack will inflict the status effect Confusion, which will likely take one of your characters out of the fight if a cure isn’t handy. And who would have thought to bring a confusion-curing item?

Also, Afro uses a sword to attack, and he specifically employs moves that have the same names as the techniques of Jack, hero of Wild Arms (1).

Cat (?) uses elemental attacks, mostly just fire and ice. And he’s got a weakness to water we can exploit. Oh boy!

Afro’s obvious competence and precision makes him the counter character to Clive. Gallows, our elementalist, is matched by a talking cat. That… that has to hurt, right?

Blonde uses her ARM. She is the only one on her team using ARMs of any kind.

And Timid Boy only ever uses his one attack: Homemade Blast. It isn’t all that effective, but it.. uh… exists.

Note that this move is a clear echo of the Homemade Bomb attack frequently used by Liz of Liz & Ard of Wild Arms 2. “Joke characters” have to stick together.

Use a Lucky Card! With Mystic! Get all the EXP you can!

Afro doesn’t only use Psycho Crack, he does have a basic physical attack. Afro will also instantly “counter” any injury done to Blonde or Timid Boy with a cure spell that will likely negate any damage done. He doesn’t heal the cat (?), oddly enough…

Alright, enough playing. Time to drop these guys.

Like all “story” fights, nobody dies. Timid Boy feels like taking a nap now.

So now all that is left is Blonde.

Blonde is supposed to have a super attack. She is supposed to use it when she is at low HP, and the rest of her party is down…

But despite the fact that I nailed her with an elemental gem that should put her in critical mode…

She refuses to use the move…

I am assuming Blonde works off of something like the party’s FP, and can only use her special move when she has scored a number of hits on us. Since everyone has insane evasion and defense, she will never reach that point, and never use the move. I really wanted to see the move! It’s good stuff!

And now she’s done! Dammit!

And you die too easy!

Oh, did I ever mention that on the original PS2 version, you can hit select, and it will show you the character portrait without any text or filters? Showcasing this for the first time, as one of Blonde’s “emotes” is clearly her analyzing a jewel.

She’s going to throw the book at us! Oh no (?)!

Or she will get distracted.

Good reason to be preoccupied, at least.

You were already losing!

And away they go.

Finally! A name! Maya Schröedinger of the prestigious dieresis heritage.

Good. They introduced themselves. Now they can kiss.

This is flirting, right? I’m not just imagining it?

Note: the rest of the party hasn’t said boo at all today.

So we move forward. Damn… still kind of kicking myself that I missed seeing Maya’s special attack.

Hmmmmm….

Oh? An opportunity to save in the very next room?

I mean… I could take a little break…

Just take… a quick… break…

Give the ol’ Playstation 2 a rest…

And scoot over to Mr. Playstation 5…

Oh look. I have the PS2 Classic Wild Arms 3 for Playstation 4 and Playstation 5.

What a lovely booting screen of the whole party having fun. The whole party is having fun, Jet.

Yep, that’s Wild Arms 3. Toe to tip.

So here we go again.

I am starting another game of Wild Arms 3 on my PS5. This one is going to be sans cheating.

Well, give or take the “cheating” of already clearing these dungeons/areas on a file where there is cheating, so I spend a lot less time wandering around trying to find the next objective.

I am going to name this Virginia with the Polish spelling of Wirginia. It is pronounced the same.

Aside from the shift in graphical fidelity (which stealth appeared in a previous update, too), if you see a Wirginia, you know you are seeing PS5 captures.

Everything proceeds as you’ve already seen…

Though the monsters get a lot more turns when I’m not Level 99.

Here is something we didn’t see: In my initial playthrough, Virginia murdered Boss Gobb too fast to have a little powerup moment where her FP pumps up to maximum.

And it further reinforces her whole “drifter/flying” metaphor, so it is worth seeing.

Though we don’t need another tutorial.

Similarly, once we get to Jet’s little adventure…

His lizardy opponent heals itself…

Thus necessitating a tutorial on his Accelerator.

And Gallows is taken aback by his tutorials. You see the things you miss when you cheat?

Okay, we’ve just about caught up here.

Is everything brighter on the PS5? Is that a thing?

Let’s coil!

Here’s that map I was talking about in the previous update.

It slaps a floor count on your main view, and indicates if you have been in a room before. This is only for this dungeon. I wonder if some play testers had problems with this place or something. It is kind of samey…

I did not pull the switch on my first run because I missed that room did not want dots all over the place.

Speaking of stuff I absolutely did not miss the first time, empty treasure chests are supposed to indicate Maya is on the way before you ever see her.

Aw, back when Wirginia was still smiling.

There is a duplicator chest deep in the dungeon, too. Nectar is your X-Potion for Wild Arms 3. Whatever it is that fully restores HP regardless of value. That can really be helpful if Wirginia uses Mystic.

And here’s a Migrant Seal! I actually remembered to grab the other seal on this playthrough, so marvel at the possibility of green exclamation points on this file.

Okay! Take 2!

First of all: cool thing that I couldn’t really pull off the first time…

Afro does not technically have a weakness to fire. That said, if you use a fire attack on Afro, his trademark afro will catch fire, and continue smoking through the rest of the battle. This works like the poison status effect, and is the only place “afro is currently on fire, oh guardians” is a possible malady.

See? There he is taking damage between rounds.

Also, here’s a shot of that instant-heal counter I described earlier. You are not making any progress while Afro is kicking.

But we made some progress, and here it is, the reason for the season: Blonde’s special attack, AW-RSTN87. It does extra damage, and is not all that amazing. But it involves a woman shaking a chain gun out of her dress, so I am going to call it worth it.

Hey, wanna see what happens when you run out of bullets? It’s funny right now.

So that was a brief sojourn into the PS5 world of Wild Arms 3. Maybe we’ll go back there later for some reason (we will). Maybe we won’t (lies). At least you will know from now on that when I say “oh this boss is hard on a normal play through”, it’s because there is a secret normal play through happening right under our noses!

We now resume our Serpent’s Coils already in progress.

This looks familiar.

I don’t see how that’s possible, but I’ll take it!

Were they, like, hiding in the one room we passed between here and the last fight? Were they holing up in one of the treasure chests? … Is this because I took a save break?

Should have brought a ladder…

This dungeon got all the jokes.

Yo.

Nobody is surprised to see Janus and friends.

Is this why Romero only has one eye?

“Just because I routinely abuse everyone around me.”

“Now I get it. You feel no pain when you stomp all over people because of the way you think.”
“Well, of course. I’m the one doing the stomping, so why should I feel the pain?”

He’s got you there, Virginia.

Find a new word!

That works!

Second Drifter Battle Royale!

This fight is basically a “combo” of the phases from the last Janus battle. The toadies will attack with their usual on every round (like after he left last time)…

And Janus can use the always dangerous multiblast…

Or initiate the Trinity attack. Note that if they Triple Tech, it is only an “action” for Janus; the other two get to have their turns like normal.

I Guardian-murdered them. This battle seems entirely perfunctory after the Maya main event.

But while we were fighting….

Somebody had the foresight to bring a flying cat.

Nobody ever looks up (for flying cats).

Maya was always in control, and ready to steal the peach while the lion and tiger played dominos. Or whatever that metaphor is about.

Not all Januses.

Maya ain’t takin’ no guff from Janus.

So this was mentioned by Janus last time…

And Maya is proud to say she is an excellent drifter. She got Shield #1 without help from anybody!

Also flashback to Jet’s intro. I wonder why Pike would note the drifter that already nabbed the treasure was a “girl”…

Anywho, looks like now we get to have a boss fight between boss fights.

….. Or they decided against it. They can fight later (don’t worry, they will).

Janus tells us all the masks need to be gathered at Ka Dingel. This was the final dungeon of Wild Arms (1), and Janus’s description vaguely matches its function in that game. So this is akin to Sephiroth telling you he will meet you at Kefka’s Tower.

Actually, I said Janus tells “us”, but he was more talking to Maya. With the cat stealing what would have been our prize, she’s the only one with any shields around here.

And we all amicably part ways.

Oh no! An earthquake hits! Or a bomb goes off? Look, the screen is shaking right now, and I have to tell you that, because I don’t want to make another GIF.

Virginia isn’t taking it sitting down.

And she almost gets squished for her troubles.

She is on her knees, and Jet is injured, but she’s not stopping.

Maya has a suggestion.

Legitimately, it could be two people.

Is Maya jealous of Janus? No, that doesn’t sound right…

“Someone who actively tries to rob a train?”
“You have two of those people on your team!”

Virginia re-drops to her knees at the realization she might not be good at this.

Maya’s got places to be, though.

She literally just asked that!

“You’re wondering why I would set out for that tower? Well, if we go there and they show up, all the shields would be in one place. And the Eternal Sparkle is sealed there. The stage would be complete.”

Did anyone tell her Janus thinks the Eternal Sparkle is some kind of doomsday weapon? Should someone maybe get on that point?

Virginia is falling back on metaphors.

What’s this? A pity shield?

“Just bring the shield and head southwest to Ka Dingel. There, you’ll find neither good nor bad–only the truth about Drifters. Once you face the truth, you’ll find your answer. Okay?”

So now Janus and Maya are going to have to wait around for Virginia to show up? Is this really the best plan?

And the whole plan is that she will show up to this life or death situation… and give up? Cold.

As cold as a frozen switch.

And fade to black. Virginia is in a bad place right now, but at least Jet is back up and on his feet. Let’s pick this up again later. Maybe Virginia will feel better by then.

Next time on Wild Arms 3: It’s like that one part in Final Fantasy 9, but about nine times better.