Wild Arms 3 Part 14: Goals and Dolls

Back to Wild Arms 3 Let’s Playing proper here on August 1, Soaproot Day. You might laugh at me for saying it, but I really like soaproot. They come in handy when I need to get that sneeze out of my system.

Previously on Wild Arms 3: In a climatic battle between Virginia and Janus (and those other guys), Janus was soundly defeated. Ka Dingel partially collapsed, and our party left to… Uh… what were we doing?

Having flashbacks again, I guess?

Clive experiences the same flashback we saw back in his introductory chapter.

Apparently he has ruins-based PTSD. This must be a common affliction in JRPG worlds.

And it caused him to miss the ol’ alarm clock.

I am betting this inn is tired of these doofs and that white-haired kid putting his feet up on the table.

Having completed 25% of the game, Virginia feels accomplished.

They really haven’t! Everything with Janus was zero sum (as far as they know; in reality, Janus effectively won), and before that they got some god-rocks. That’s it!

A true one!

Dad said to calm down!

Please don’t be another flashback. Please don’t be another flashback. Please don’t be another flashback…

Surprised they didn’t use the “stars in her eyes” Virginia emote here.

“That Ruins of Memories dungeon must have been a real let down for you, right?”
“Yes.”

“Supreme Court rulings?”
“Only partially.”

“So Supreme…”
“Different demons!”

Clive has a point here, and it makes perfect sense that there would be people in JRPG universes that are not content to simply believe in what we would typically calls “myths”. On the other hand, Clive fought a literal god (four of ‘em!) a week ago.

But long story short, Clive is and has always been investigating the provable, physical reasons Filgaia is in such s$^& shape, and that lil’ dude from the flashbacks is obviously his old, deceased professor.

And, oh yeah, demons are 100% real. We already knew that. Granny was all about that demon life.

“Like the Supreme…”
“Would you knock it off!”

“That makes sense, Clive. I feel like if you found the source of all ruin on the planet, it would have been in the newspaper or something.”

“Sure, Virginia. The one thing we have seen that says ‘demon’ on it might have something to do with demons.”

You. Have. Already. Fought. Gods.

Oh snap! Jet sucks!

I love the idea that Virginia is 99% calm and collected in nearly every situation, except when Jet opens his dumb mouth.

Jet would prefer we get back to actually paying jobs. Clive concedes that he has a point.

Processing… processing… processing…

Virginia calms down, Clive says it is time to go.

Gallows has… kind of a lead. Or he just wants to hit a burlesque show.

Gallows will show some major improvement in the focus department over the course of this chapter. In the meanwhile, though…

“It is… uh… like… Over there?”

“Seedy town” probably doesn’t have much in the way of leads on the secret history of the world, but we can get a decent job shooting somebody.

“So, as long as we continue on as Drifters, we’ll find more leads about artifacts, right?”
“Yes…Which will bring me closer to finding out more about Filgaia’s history. Thank you, leader. I appreciate your interest.”

Objective fact: Clive absolutely is transparently a nice guy. That said, if he was even the slightest bit devious, I would be convinced he is manipulating Virginia to his own ends with the whole “you are the leader” thing.

Anywho, now we have control again. As one might expect, half the town is providing helpful directions to Little Twister.

I interpret this as these villagers just want these dang Drifters gone. But not Pike! Pike will always be happy to see you.

Always.

Bye bye, Claiborne. We’ll be back when we want to get stuck in a trap dungeon in a chapter or so.

Leaving town will trigger the first of many “checking in on the bad guys” cutscenes.

Janus was pretty good about being in the immediate area when we were seeing his backstage machinations (like immediately after the Guardian fights), but we will witness a number of clandestine villain conversations throughout this chapter that all take place at Evil Base, and nowhere near the actual party. This is something of a Wild Arms storytelling staple, as both Wild Arms (1) and Wild Arms 2 had frequent checks on what the villains were up to and their hiring processes and whatever throughout their stories.

Anyway, we’re still in the getting to know you stage of the villain relationship here, so they’re mostly talking about -this- and -that- and things that we have no hope of comprehending right now.

As established last time, we have a blonde pretty boy, a purple-based woman dressed in mummy-chic, and a “masked man” that is not so much “masked” as “wearing a scarf”.

On a sidenote, seventeen interior decorators died painting this room. The three that survived were never actually paid.

So the woman is serious, “Slickster” is a bit devil-may-care, and the “masked” man is the obvious leader. Anybody else in this merry band?

Hey! I recognize those pants!

And that watch! Looks like Janus acquired a bit of a skin condition.

Slickster recommends sending Finny Fish here out into the field, and Robed Woman objects.

On a sidenote, it is obvious that Janus now has new powers and has been invited into the inner circle. On the other hand, these three already hired and relied on Janus once already for the entirety of Chapter 1, and he literally failed at everything.

Oh yeah, this is going to go swimmingly.

Janus is going to close out this scene by being morose. I would feel bad if I became The Creature from the Black Lagoon with anime hair, too.

Back to reality.

As mentioned a few updates back, now is the time that you have buy a horse (or four). In order to proceed, you need to ride your horse over the nearby crevasse, so no progress until you’ve got a pony that is hot to trot. Luckily, it should not be a financial burden after the last few dungeons.

Little Twister is dead west of Claiborne, and pretty close to the “shore”.

Their view of the sand sea is tops.

Welcome to Little Twister. This place sucks so bad.

Walk three steps into town, and there’s this weird drunk talking about beautiful women. Thanks for the tip! Go away now!

You want to know how bad Little Twister sucks? See this well here? It contains a super boss. We can’t fight it yet (as per Wild Arms tradition), but these yokels have been getting water from a freaking Kraken for years.

Property values are at an all-time low as a result.

By Grudiev, this town sucks.

Screw it, let’s go to the bar.

Fun fact: Gallows said he has been here before. And we know he has! As you can see above, this is the exact spot where Gallows had his introduction breakfast/flashback. This means that, in the three months that Gallows had escaped his hometown, he got exactly as far as one train stop and one town “away”.

As per tradition, if we want to advance the plot, we have to buy the most expensive liquor available.

Oh wow! We are going to get a job exploring a ruin here! Clive is having a good day!

So we are told there’s a ruin nearby, but bad news: it has been eating up Drifters like candy. Also: there may be a missing waitress there. Do we explore the place that is literally known for getting our contemporaries killed?

Jet is into it. Jet very consistently wants to find something in these ruins across the globe.

Virginia remembers that conversation we had a horse ride ago.

Theory: Jet subsists entirely on pissing Virginia off.

And he eats like a king.

Gasp! Jet officially tells the party that he has no memories. This was alluded to in his introductory dungeon, but this is news to everyone that isn’t currently shoveling horse manure (hi Pike!).

“My first memory is sitting in some stupid bar discussing whether or not I would investigate a nearby ruin.”

“Wouldn’t stop talking about the New York Jets. He never told me what a ‘New York’ was.”

“Amnesia” is a status effect in Wild Arms 3 that prevents acquiring experience points. Just noting this because Gallows is probably thinking this can be cured with an item you can buy from that green guy two houses back.

Okay, with inn stops, I am pretty sure the train ride where everyone met started “a week ago”. And half the flashback dungeons happened a month ago, so we’re not talking about the far-off past here…

Jet has amnesia, but he wants everybody in the immediate area to know that he doesn’t care that he has amnesia.

Virginia actually feels sympathy for Jet! It’s a Little Twister miracle!

Jet is still being Jet, though.

And there we have it, folks! This update accommodated both Clive and Jet, and now we have clear, stated motivations for everyone in the gang:

• Virginia – Daddy Issues
• Gallows – Guardian/Granny Issues
• Clive – Archeology Issues
• Jet – Memory Issues

Let’s go solve all our problems!

Look how happy she is! Meddling is her superpower!

Gallows’s official function in the party is saying, “Don’t worry about it. Chill.”

Clive brings us back to reality.

“No, but I was already planning on doing ridiculous things. So it will probably work out.”

“Well then, what do we do now? Do we head for this dangerous ruin?”
“Hmmm…I haven’t thought about that yet…”

Our fearless leader is so easily distracted…

Gallows suggests we check it out, and if it is a bad scene, we simply leave.

… I am continually annoyed at how Gallows seems to think exactly like I would…

Everybody is a little shell shocked after that last adventure. Nobody do anything crazy!

Oh yeah, we are totally going to strike it rich within walking distance of this crap town.

So we know where we are going next, but maybe we’ll check out the village a little more.

This shack looks promising.

A book notes that you can be ambushed or “trouble”’d in battle. An ambush is your typical “enemy acts first” scenario, but a “trouble” fight is when only one party member is cornered, and must fight alone until the rest of the party arrives as reinforcements. Both situations are generally more annoying than deadly. I am pretty sure these unfortunate battle possibilities do not happen until Chapter 2, as I didn’t see either pop up during Chapter 1 on either save file.

Oh, good, another sealed book. If you use a duplicator…

You will find a book that tells you what you already know about Guardians. This must be a trick, as “finding Guardians” will definitely be a plot point, and I could see blowing a duplicator on what could be a clue to the next shrine. However, it must be emphasized that this book only notes that, like, Guardians exist.

And resting at an inn restores summon points. Real news flash there.

So don’t waste a duplicator on that book, and play with the wheely thing over here.

This opens a door to Little Twister’s “back”. In Dragon Quest tradition, you can now putter about the perimeter of the town to find a few extra treasures.

And the Little Twister Arm Smith. Nothing special about upgrading here, but it is good to know where to find your local vendor.

Do not use this on a book!

What’s this shed?

This place looks interesting, but we cannot enter without inserting some kind of card. Hmmmmmm…

We’ll be back later! Back in the town proper, we can visit the completely unused sheriff’s office.

There’s a book in here emphasizing how ARMs are related to demons and the demon war, so maybe they could be a little dangerous.

You can only see one message per playthrough, but every character has a different reaction to the jail cell. Virginia, Jet, and Clive simply do not want to wind up behind bars. Gallows, meanwhile, provides a scientific explanation:

“The smell of booze, leather, and dirty laundry make up about sixty percent…The rest of this odor is coming from the toilet…”

Please do not consider how Gallows is so good at this.

So let’s get out of this stink town.

You can visit this general area anytime after you get a horse, but note that the monsters are a little stronger than on the other side of the crevasse. They are no big deal by the time you conquer Ka Dingel.

Ruins are back toward the east.

The Unclean Mark? Can we just visit the Squeaky-Clean Luke instead?

Looks like a dungeon to me.

Monsters inside are pretty similar to the monsters outside. Watch those buggies, they are big on the poison attacks.

And who’s this then?

Claudia! The missing waitress! And she’s a flirt!

You know who else is a flirt?

Virginia has time today to get mad at party members other than Jet.

Virginia urges caution in this potentially deadly dungeon, but Gallows is just the kind of good Samaritan that this world needs.

So… a grown (straight) man, then?

Jet hits the nail on the head.

By “true to myself” you are referring to some specific chunks of anatomy, aren’t you?

Betrayal!

Gallows is the obvious mark, Virginia and Jet seem like the kids making comments, so Claudia decides to address the obvious leader, Clive.

Claudia is described by a few different Little Twister townsfolk as a beautiful waitress that has recently gone missing. Nobody mentioned she was an archeologist.

Appreciate the Rogue (from X-Men) accent.

That would be exactly how we got the power of the Guardians, so this is a pretty typical prize, evidently.

So Claudia just wants to make the world a better place through ancient weapon removal, and Gallows makes the excellent point that this is just the kind of mission Clive was looking for in the first place.

“Does anyone that isn’t thinking with their junk want to take on this mission?”

Gallows is never all that quick when he gets granny’ed.

“Whatever. We weren’t doing anything else anyway.”

“We’re doing the mission. But enough out of you.”

“I know what you’re thinking…But the truth of the matter is, Drifters have entered and have never come back. There is definitely something fishy going on… It might seem troublesome, but if we’re needed, I think we should help.”

Gallows and Jet get absorbed into the void that is being an unseen party member, and the adults have a quick conversation.

“We’re all doomed by Gallows’s libido. Check.”

“Want to join the party for the dungeon? It saves on polygon resources.”

Claudia technically joins the party. She will not be involved in combat, but she will occasionally pop up to offer advice. Other than that, you won’t even know she’s there. Just like Janus and company back at Ruins of Memory. Just like Janus…

But we will save any additional betrayals for next update. Will Claudia and Gallows get together? Or is this romance not written in the stars! Find out next week!

… But first! As was noted a little bit back, the opening intro has a slight change with every new chapter. We’re in Chapter 2 now, so while the majority of the opening is the same, the duel between Janus and Virginia has been replaced with…

This friendly fellow.

And our new trio of robed scientists. What does it all mean? Well, probably not that we are all going to go out for pizza together…

Next time on Wild Arms 3: “Everyone noticed she is actively trying to kill us, right? It’s not just me?”