Wild Arms 3 Part 16: Lunar Silver Slickster Story

This update is appearing on Gogglebob.com on August 15, Mystery Day. Cats that live to old age are said to gain mystical powers. Do you know that former Drifter in Jolly Roger? His real body is the cat rolling around near him and the old Drifter is the cat’s tool.

Previously on Wild Arms 3: It’s a girl! By which we mean we found out that Clive has a daughter, and a different girl tried to kill everybody through a series of dungeon traps. But we rescued a third girl, Claudia, and now it is time to take her home.

Here we are.

Claudia is no worse for having been possessed by the robed woman. Incidentally, Claudia still has her “Ah” accent, so apparently regional dialects supersede possessions.

Gallows has learned nothing.

We have no idea what Claudia remembers from the incident. All we know is she doesn’t give a hoot about Gallows.

Angela, Claudia’s boss who set us on this quest, is happy to have her wage slave back home.

You know, we paid Angela for information to find out about that ruin, but it seems like she is the one making out here…

Gallows certainly saw no reward.

It wasn’t Virginia for once!

It is dunk on Gallows day!

I don’t see what this has to do with Capcom 90’s era fighting games…

Clive… bro… don’t know how to tell you this… but… Could you find a way to rephrase that? It got to be kind of a thing…

At least Gallows identifies there was an issue.

Love my Westerns including Japanese gestures.

Okay! The Guardians indicated we should head somewhere southeast, so let’s see if we can get some information.

We are on the right track!

Claudia will provide directions that trigger the next area. I guess rescuing her did provide a reward.

Getting kidnapped by bad guys is not a trick!

The rest of the town is much the same, so let’s trot over to the shrine.

Yes! Good! Love this name. Going to name my kitchen after this.

Architecture kind of looks like the (Lost) Guardian Shrine way back by Baskar Village.

Looks like they stopped at Taco Bell on the way over.

Ah. That would be the three-bean burrito.

Wild Arms had a Pleasing Garden. I wonder if there is a relation…

What’s important is that this place has violent, sentient trees stalking around. Play lumberjack when you have a chance.

There are some obvious paths to the sides, but they are blocked. Straight ahead it is.

Have to hit a switch first, though.

Here we go.

We have a treasure room here, and it contains our first second tool. Err… That is to say the first tool we receive outside of a character’s introductory dungeon.

Note that Wild Arms 3 allows you to rapidly cycle through your characters by hitting the L2 button, but you cannot do the same for tools. You have to open a menu like a jerk.

Steady Doll is another Wild Arms staple tool. This is the tool that is “thrown”, and will activate switches or open treasure chests. In both Wild Arms and Wild Arms 2, the “tool” is a sentient creature (Hanpan the Windmouse in Wild Arms, Pooka the Pooka in Wild Arms 2), but here the Steady Doll is just another mundane(ish) tool. I guess we blew the mascot budget on Schröedinger’s cat.

That duplicator door in the previous screenshot contains an oddly specific treasure: the tiny flower. A tiny flower is incredibly rare in the wasteland, and it is good to have at least one for gardening purposes later. Or you can use it up at some point to pump up a character’s luck stat. Luck fluctuates, though, so don’t waste it…

Here is our new tool scoring a treasure chest we otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach.

And it’s an important treasure! This is the first Migrant Seal found in my PS2 “cheated” playthrough. Finally! Slightly less monster encounters!

See? Got the tutorial for finding my first. If I was on the ball, we would have seen this in LP Chapter 8.

Okay, now time to hit the other side.

The next room demonstrates how the Steady Doll can push blocks. Note that Steady Doll cannot push any blocks that we would not otherwise be able to push (like that one we found in previous update). This is the Steady Doll, not the Strong Like Bull Doll.

Eh, let’s get in a random fight.

So there are these mushroomed little jerks. In a normal playthrough, they are kind of monstrous.

Here we are in PS5 land for a demonstration. First they cast “Water Zone”. I don’t know exactly what Water Zone does, but I am going to guess it pumps up the damage from water attacks for the remainder of the battle.

And then they use an attack that I’m going to go ahead and call Hydro Pump, and it can eat off like half a character’s HP. And these buggers attack in groups of four. So if they all decide to use their super move at once, you’re pretty well damned.

And they also use Amnesia attacks, so you might not even get experience points if you manage to survive. In short, these things are super annoying, and, if you are unlucky, they could wipe out a party inside of two rounds.

Not that that is possible back on the PS2 playthrough…

A little bit of a puzzle here.

Note that the Steady Doll can push blocks, but there is no way to toss that little dude and “pull” blocks. So don’t get stuck by leaving two blocks next to each other.

We see a lot of booby trap chests in this dungeon. They will drop half your current HP if triggered. I am just noting this because there is something infinitely funny to me about your character getting exploded, lying there, and then the victory music kicks in while everyone else is just standing around.

“Should we help her up?”
“Nah, she’ll be fine. She’s still twitching.”

Okay, back to dungeoning.

There is a switch on the wall. Have you figured out that this is the Steady Doll tutorial dungeon yet?

Hey, something that has nothing to do with the Steady Doll.

Snake around the room to jump on this “big” switch from above. Just need a little extra gravity to deal with this puzzle.

Eventually, you will fight a boss in this very room. And this treasure that allows you to summon a Guardian one extra time is a hint to its solution. Foreshadowing!

But for now, more Steady Doll! This one is an elevator that you must be standing on before deploying the doll. We already had a puzzle like this with torches in Ka Dingel…

Are we there yet?

Hey, we’re outside.

There are no encounters here, and you must use the boxes around the area to trigger three separate crystal switches.

Number two is over by a treasure chest.

And number three is hiding just out of reachable range by the first crystal. Finding this one through camera rotation is a sticking point for some (like me. I’m talking about my dumb ass).

Now we’re back to Steady Doll’ing along.

Hey! Here is one of those ambushes I was talking about a couple updates back. It… works just like in every other JRPG. I guess it should be noted that you can still be ambushed even if you are level 99 and your opponents are little more than speedbumps. Technically, ambushes work on the Luck stat, and this is somehow the second time in this update that we will note that Luck fluctuates randomly.

Right past there, we’re at our main destination. Odd narrative choice: nobody in the party talks about this thingamajig, but we’ll get an explanation the next time we see one. For now, it’s just… something or other.

But you have to know we’re on the right track.

Here we are. Some transparent woman and…

Slickster.

This is a legitimate question, as what the heck is happening here?

That is not a very helpful answer.

“Also the robes. But the fact that you’re a jerk is what I noticed first!”

Hey, we have a name for “Robed Woman” now, even if Slickster won’t introduce himself.

Remember, kiddies, only villains talk about how women are too emotional.

“Just going to go ahead and assume you’re doing something evil here!”

“Your boorish behavior annoys me. Take a look around. This warm, shimmering light…Oh, how beautiful life is…The existence of this guardian will cease, but will continue to live on in a new and beautiful form.”

Oh, great. So he’s draining the life out of gods. That is never good.

“She wasn’t using her life anyway.”

“Which is a legitimate question! Anybody know how to stop this?”

“Hey Karen, don’t get mad, I just work here.”

Remember, kiddies, only villains come up with customer service slogans.

Slickster isn’t big into the fighting.

You knew this was coming!

Or not. Looks like Janus is… hiding behind a pillar? Appreciate the party all ready and looking around for their dungeon-mandated Janus fight.

Okay! Not the boss fight we were expecting, but a boss fight is a boss fight!

Let’s fight Slickster. Note that my capture card is working fine, thank you, Slickster is just… a little fuzzy today.

A quick analysis does not offer any explanation.

And he doesn’t really do anything…

But if you try to do anything, you will fail.

And then he’ll kick in on actually punishing the party. He can drain off some HP, or hit you with an attack that randomly assigns three status effects. In a game where you have a separate healing item for every effect, that is really annoying.

You can hit him with magic.

Or you can use Clive’s 100% accuracy Lock On attack. That’s how I banished him on the PS2 playthrough.

Over in PS5 land, I did it the “right” way. You’re supposed to interpret Slickster’s fuzziness as he’s moving too fast for your bullets to hit, so casting Decelerate will bring him down to normal speed.

Note that this is the only place in the game where Decelerate has such an effect. Under normal circumstances, it just drops an opponent’s speed, and that is rarely useful in Wild Arms 3.

Slower Slickster is still wild with the status effects, though. Figure out which status effects you can live with before wasting all your turns tossing Peppy Acorns back and forth.

Yeah! Eat bullets, slowby.

Okay, we’re done with you now. Note that he still says “this drawn out battle” regardless of if you finish him in a turn or two (which is what happened on the PS2).

Clear Chime will save you from confusion. That would have been useful for this fight…

Janus decides to pop in after Slickster falls.

I feel like you just answered exactly why Janus didn’t bother. Bro does not like to be “used”…

Funny, I used the exact same excuse to take Friday off last week.

Apropos of nothing, Slickster always kind of reminds me of Michelangelo of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is a shame, as I like Michelangelo.

“Moreover, there never would have been a need to utilize guardians if only you had acquired the Ark Scepter in the first place! Do you realize the pain and suffering my body endures by trying to make contact with an intangible, spiritual being!?”

An explanation for a plot point from like ten updates ago! Now we know the exact reason for the train robbery.

“Boss, I’m sorry. To make it up to you, I’ll actually do my job for once.”

“Hey, good guys. Could you let us through? Have to deliver the god juice back home or something.”

Well, they wouldn’t be if you hadn’t just conveniently given them a path out of here…

So the party follows after… mostly.

Guess Gallows is getting a vibe or something.

What’s that, transparent girl?

Guess we receive the last of the god power here.

Incoming message for Gallows! Get equipped with Determination.

Our first new tool since the first chapter is joined by our first new medium since the first chapter. Yay!

We have control again, so let’s equip that puppy. This rock boosts HP and magic stats, so it is best on Gallows or Virginia.

It also comes with skills for resisting sleep and dark attacks. FP Save reduces the amount of FP you need to cast a spell, so this medium really is probably best on prime mage Gallows.

A quick note about our latest Guardian acquisition. Celesdue is the only Guardian original to Wild Arms 3, as every other Guardian popped up in Wild Arms 1 or 2. Note that Celesdue is listed as the Dark Guardian, but that is likely a translation error or a temporary bit for Wild Arms 3, as Celesdue is correctly denoted as the Moon Guardian in Wild Arms 5. This tracks in Wild Arms 3 with her gravity/moon powers that appear in her spell list and summon attack. And, ya know, that whole “Celestial” name pun. There was also already Leitea Salk, the OG Dark Guardian, in Wild Arms 2. And notably, while Celesude does grant a darkness immunity, she does not confer any darkness spells, as that is reserved for a Guardian we will obtain much later.

So, anyway, Celesdue. That’s her.

While we are in a menu, note that over on the PS5 playthrough, both Jet and Gallows were afflicted with Amnesia, and we ran out of Amnesia curing items thanks to those mushroom jerks, so they are not going to gain any experience points for any bosses seen in this update. To use the vernacular, that sucks goats.

Also, we are currently existing in one of the few spots where you absolutely cannot save. Spoilers: we are between boss fights right now, and it is assumed that the designers recognized that you could put yourself in a situation where you are down to 1 HP and incapable of leaving to heal or buy healing items. There are decent odds you wouldn’t even notice that this is a place where Gimel Coins are disabled, though, so don’t worry about it.

Anywho, you should know something is up, as you have to walk out of the dungeon. I guess we are technically chasing Slickster and Janus… we’re just doing it at a leisurely pace.

This dungeon still operates like it always has. You can fight through a few random battles on your way out.

If you see this room, stop and heal for a moment. You’ll be glad you did!

We finally catch up in the room with that jumpy switch.

They have been doing pretty well so far! And we didn’t even fight Janus.

Janus is not looking to bolster his performance review.

There is no transition between this and the previous screenshot. Slickster all just shouting about ancient creatures now.

“Angolmois! Unleash your hidden frenzy! Do not hold back!”

Wait! Angolmois? We’re going to fight that thing? Here!?

Yep. King of Angolmois. Right there. In the flesh. Super.

(Wild Arms 1)

(Wild Arms 2)

So a bit of explanation for anyone that didn’t play the previous Wild Arms games. In Wild Arms 1, “Angol Moa” is described at the start as some unstoppable demigod, and is eventually fought as one of the toughest optional super bosses. In Wild Arms 2, Angolmois has no real explanation, but is arguably the hardest optional super boss around. In both cases, Angolmois requires a lot of preparation, and a surprisingly high amount of luck. Nobody likes a super boss that can confuse your prime attackers.

Here… he’s pretty much just a regular boss of no major concern. So… hooray! I guess Slickster’s “explanation” notes that King of Angolmois is an ancient evil like always… he’s just kind of let himself go in the intervening years.

It is listed as question marks here, but the only reason you need to worry about Angolmois is he has got an assload of HP. There is a (gameplay) reason for this, but let us assume Slickster just summoned the monster with the most health to cover his escape.

King of Angolmois uses a simple single-hit dark spell, or…

(Wild Arms 2, again)

The Seventh Moon, his signature attack. This was debilitating/obliterating in his previous appearances, but it is mostly just your average multi-hit attack here.

What is important here is we have new spells thanks to our new Guardian. Despite legendarily being susceptible to sleep in Wild Arms 2, it does us no good against this Angolmois. Feeble Mind reduces magic power (who cares), and Eraser dispels status boosts (which is not a current issue). But! Grav is your typical JRPG gravity spell, and will ratio down an opponent’s HP. Guess what this King of Angolmois actually is vulnerable to…

In fact, in my PS2 playthrough, summoning Celesdue’s 100 FP gravity attack killed Angolmois outright.

I tried not using any gravity attacks over on the PS5 playthrough, and it did not go well. Angolmois never really does too much damage, but without the obvious “use the spell you just got” bit, cutting through all of his HP is a major pain in the ass. Takes for freaking ever…

Anywho, he’s dead now, and we won’t see a super boss version of him in this game. Fun fact for the day: “King of Angolmois” appears in the predictions of noted prophet Nostradamus…

“The year 1999 seven month
From the sky will come a great King of terror:
To bring back to life the great King of Angolmois
Before after Mars to reign by good luck"

… And some weirdos used this passage as “proof” that Nostradamus predicted September 11. I cannot even begin to explain the incorrect math that is behind that one…

Oh, and Slickster and Janus escaped. Back to the plot, I suppose.

So that’s that for the dungeon, and our party presumably exits while this drama plays out back at Bad Guy Base.

Janus is being berated, and “Masked Man” inexplicably picks up the proper name of Leehalt.

“He was going to save that energy for the puppy orphanage, but now that’s cancelled, all thanks to you.”

Oh, and Slickster is named Malik. And we get a sort of explanation on Panakeia. We already basically knew this from the “ain’t got no teleports because my panakeia is a quart low” last update.

“Our degenerated bodies are like a foreign element trying to survive on Filgaia. This very planet will try to cleanse itself by removing these foreign elements: us. Your duty is to protect us from Filgaia’s purification. That is why we let you live.”

Though it is elaborated that Panakeia isn’t just good magic juice, it is the only thing keeping these three from being expelled from the planet.

“The Dark Spear you have received shall expose the truth, and lead us to the garden of truth. You have been endowed with the power that exceeds all so that you can stop the terraforming at all costs.”

Terraforming? This crap bowl of a planet?