Today is a brand new day, specifically September 19, Pot of Hell Day. Although this isn’t widely known, there is a gigantic cauldron in hell that boils sinners for eternity. The broth that seeps out of the rich and chubby sinners makes a good soup base.
Previously on Wild Arms 3: Virginia and company were defeated by Asgard the Golem, but then rescued by the power of love. Now we’re past all that, and, after a quick, secret visit from Virginia’s father, we’re going to Clive’s home.
Humphrey’s Peak is a long walk from Little Rock, but a quick jaunt from that laboratory dungeon.
Looks like a pretty place.
I just said that! Bah!
“You don’t make ‘buy a town’ money on shooting poisonous birds.”
“We just had the blue roof installed last month. It is somehow already out of warranty.”
Fun fact: This is not a super mountainous area. I have no idea what this is supposed to be the “peak” of.
Maybe we will discover answers under this bridge.
What lives under bridges? Trolls! Navigate a little “hidden” path in the dry canal, and you’ll find Uncle Gob, the only friendly Gob on Filgaia.
This was mentioned a number of updates back, but there is an official sidequest to fill in every corner of your world map. And Uncle Gob here is the quest-giver! Shade in your map to 100%, and you’ll earn a special reward from Uncle Gob. Do not attempt until you have an airship, though!
It’s also kind of funny if you sneak down and see Uncle Gob before exploring the town properly. Let’s get up there and talk to that weirdo in the blue coat! Or the strange little girl walking around!
Okay, back topside now. Roykman the merchant is here for all our shopping needs, and he… is having brain problems caused by verdant towns?
Bro, what are you doing with our save point?
The save-bot had to be repaired? Was it corrupting memory cards?
That… makes a sort of sense. They do look like little robots, so our save amigos being excavated ancient technology washes.
“We members of the Ark of Destiny maintain these figures for free. Some consider us a religious order, but we don’t exactly place our faith in any god.”
So Filgaia is home to a sect of religious mechanics, apparently. And, yes, Albert, you know that any time someone says they are not a religious order, they absolutely are a religious order.
See? We all up in some cult wizbiz here.
Directorial accident or entirely deliberate that there is a cross in the background right now?
Albert, keep the savebots working, and you can hand out all the cult paraphernalia you want.
I do not want to consider the practical ramifications of how people in a JRPG world test to see that their save points are working.
Anywho, rest of the NPCs around here are just teasing future quests all over the place.
This old man points the party towards an optional area over by Baskar. Next week, Ricardo!
“I don’t know if it was something I ate, but I had a terrible dream last night. It could be such a letdown when you realize it’s only a dream. I dreamt that Filgaia was filled with water, and everybody was much better off than they are now. Under the clear blue sky, I was farming the land with my family by my side helping me out…But then I woke up…It was terrible.”
“Clive, your town is freaking me out, can we go to some perilous dungeon now?”
“Your daughter better be hella adorable.”
“You got lucky this time.”
Clive slides into dad mode instantly.
Filgaia is a blighted world where ranch dressing has not yet been invented.
Virginia is about ten seconds away from happy sobbing in the doorway.
Death to celery! It restores zero hit points!
Going to have to stop this update here, as I just died from sweetness overload.
So we’ve got Catherine, Kaitlyn, and Clive. This is one of those weird “Zippa married Zappa” situations…
“They’re those people over there who didn’t take their shoes off when they came in the house.”
“Gallows, did you shove Virginia aside to hit on my wife? Badly?”
“I am a sentient smiley face given flesh!”
“And this is my pal, Saddy the Saddest Boy.”
“Did you know you could eat breakfast with a fork and knife?”
“Great, Catherine! … Can I call you mom?”
Check out the hand over Kaitlyn’s shoulder. I wonder how many NPCs distinctly sport wedding rings.
Married life in a nutshell: we need to save the world, honey, do you mind if we borrow the living room?
Catherine is going to watch 90 Day Fiancée in her bedroom, but call if you need anything.
“Dear wife? You’re going to help us with the book learnin’?”
Subtle worldbuilding!
Clive: owns some books.
Gallows: needs cliff notes.
Jet: Possibly illiterate.
Virginia: Just happy to be here.
“Mainly because our environment… according to leading researchers… ‘sucks’.”
(Wild Arms 1)
Aside from the obvious mythological allusion, the Yggdrasil System actually originates in Wild Arms (1) as a sort of backstory for some nonsense going on with the demons. But it isn’t distinctly much of a thing there, just some general worldbuilding for why there are 10,000 monsters running around. In Wild Arms 3, meanwhile, we are going to hear a bit more about it…
“Oh, but there is a section here about the experts who carried out this project. Let’s see…It appears they were a party of seven, each with their own area of expertise, such as science or magic. The members of this organization were replaced according to what specific field was needed at the time. However, this organization always consisted of seven members, and later referred to as the –Council of Seven-.”
And who exactly was responsible for this Yggdrasil System…
This is one of those sections where, if you read every book at the laboratory, it looks like your party has amnesia (well, beyond Jet’s usual amnesia).
“Have I met any… councils recently…”
You have a break here where you can talk to your party members. This is another “can you solve the mystery” puzzle like back at the end of the lab.
In fact, it is so much like the last time we saw this “puzzle”, it has the exact same solution: select the taped photo from your inventory.
“Daddy! Plus six Non-Daddies! That’s seven!”
This picture is from ten years ago, so this project that nobody ever thought to date is probably from around there.
“It would be a stupendous coincidence if the only picture of seven people we have ever seen is the Council of Seven.” (logic has no place here, Clive)
This guy are slick.
“Gasp! One of the Non-Daddies has a name!”
Virginia again confirms this photo is absolutely from ten years ago.
He’s an anime character, Clive. How can you tell he hasn’t aged unless he has become one of those anime tiny old men?
What does it all mean!?
And since we’re on the subject of Malik, we’re going to flash over to him at Bad Guy HQ, where he is apparently admiring his own giant Zero Suit Samus amiibo.
They are worth more if you keep them in the packaging.
Please do not punch the glass.
Oh, my bad. He is growing his own Zero Suit Samus. Living the dream of the Gamefaqs message boards.
Who is this mysterious blonde in a tube? Nobody is saying for right now, but I guarantee you it is creepier than whatever you are thinking.
This should end well!
“And Clive, thanks for letting us sleep in your master bedroom, on the floor, like a pack of dogs. Best I’ve slept in a while!”
“Jet, how did you get so many dorito stains on the table? My wife has been scrubbing that spot since sunrise.”
“We now know two things, and that is overwhelming.”
“Let’s stop thinking so hard” – Gallows Carradine
See? Needs cliff notes.
Virginia focuses the party on the connection between the Council of Seven, the prophets, the planet, and, most importantly, her dad.
Clive makes the connection between “the planet” and a local cave. Kind of a jump, but a dungeon is a dungeon.
Do you think Jet stays quiet most of the time because he’s a raging idiot?
He is specifically talking about those orange/white gems we see all over the place. Those aren’t just “game powerups”, they’re “real” shards of planet life! Or something!
“I don’t believe in guardians. I’m an atheist now. Kept meaning to tell you, Clive, but it never came up.”
“Catherine, I was so sloshed that I barely remember that week.”
Crap! Another sugar coma!
I’m sorry, Clive? There was a Guardian Shrine down the street, and you were just going to have us sit around and read for an update?
And, more importantly, we can get another Guardian medium powerup!
Choice is scary!
“After Catherine finishes making us breakfast! I smell bacon, and I’m a hungry girl!”
Oh my Guardians there are family photos on the mantle.
“Yeah, uh, guys? I’m going to stay here. With my family. Whom I love.”
“Our wedding? You do remember today is our anniversary, right?”
“I always wondered why we got married at the Danger Shrine.”
Kaitlyn knows why mommy is giving daddy leads.
Aw, they used to both be nerds.
Ominous foreshadowing! Or you just don’t talk about tragedies in front of the kid. Either one works…
“Reminding myself how rock stupid Jet is at all times helps me to not think about my demoralizing past.”
And we’re good to go. Seems like there is a surprising amount of wine in this room, Catherine.
Everyone says adorable things when confronted with Kaitlyn’s gigantic bear.
Kaitlyn was holding out on us! A Grab Bag is your basic “random extra experience points” item. Use it on whoever is falling behind in the ol’ levels.
Like the Gallows residence, this is one of a handful of free inns in Filgaia. Remember that when you can instantly warp around the planet and want to save a few bucks.
“I don’t remember having to fight for my life on my wedding day, but that whole thing was kind of a blur.”
Clive’s family obviously has different dialogue for Clive versus the rest of the party. Amusingly enough, switching between the two affirms the two separate plot goals now available.
And Kaitlyn has tips for a nearby train station.
Humphrey’s Peak has not one, but two game-spanning sidequests.
Kaitlyn has gotten into a new book series, and dedicated father Clive is responsible for not only procuring the latest volumes, but also reading these books to his daughter.
Collect all the Adventure books, and you’ll receive the same significant prize as filling in the map for Uncle Gob. We will get into the details of that quest in a separate “side quest” post, but know that all the reading involved here does feature a character or two from Wild Arms 2…
Cheville is in the house next door. Cheville is depressing.
Looks like her daughter died back in April. Maybe we will be able to cheer Cheville up in yet another sidequest.
But, in the meanwhile, we have some actual game to play. This ain’t Xenosaga! We can’t have two updates of just dialogue scenes.
In honor of that good uncle that lives under the bridge, here is the current state of our world map. We are that white dot to the east. Our next two plot dungeons will be in this general area.
But first we are going to catch a train to the west.
Gotta be somewhere around here…
Here we go.
The train stations may contain important NPCs, but they generally all look alike.
Good talking to you, too, Walker.
We can now travel back to Midland Station (Baskar, Jolly Roger) or Westwood (Claiborne, Little Twister). But we can also hit Dune Canyon, a whole new location that is apparently near that Luck Shrine everyone keeps talking about.
If there was a train station here, and Clive literally lives here, why didn’t we just take a train in the first place? You know, to avoid that whole stupid sand dungeon…
Welcome to Dune Canyon. Tony said something about gargantuans?
Simon will not let you leave until he echoes Tony with a warning about a big monster that “responds to fast-moving things”. Let’s put “move fast” on the agenda.
You know what moves fast? A horse.
These giant lobsters are scary, but they are not “wrecks a train” scary.
And I guess we found the luck shrine/Fortune Gear while we were galloping around.
Give me your gargantuans, game!
A green exclamation point? All the other encounters around here were white…
Yep, that’s gonna be a boss fight.
Meet Diobarg, the one required fight in Wild Arms 3 that occurs on horseback.
Diobarg is technically a boss-class monster, but a pair of elemental weaknesses makes this a lot easier than other bosses.
The big snake has a lot of money and experience to offer, so treat ‘em like a regular boss.
So there are certain status ailments that will never work while on horseback, as no one wanted to work out exactly how you could have a party member both sleeping and riding a horse. Either as a way of demonstrating this to the player, or because some beleaguered programmer forgot, Diobarg will attempt to use a variety of status effects that will always miss. Don’t think too hard about it, and just enjoy having a round where the opponent is wholly ineffective.
There are some legitimately threatening physical attacks, though. You’re not invincible here.
Diobarg has a lot of HP, but is otherwise pretty tame. Shoot or use watery attacks at will.
They didn’t really “optimize” the big boss death animation for horseback. Your party basically laps Diobarg while he is busy exploding.
And here’s the reason you fight Diobarg: 15 Dragon Fossils! Woo!
In case you missed the results screen, a quick message confirms that you now have a pile of dragon fossils available.
You may recall we needed exactly 15 Dragon Fossils to earn a sand vessel. We now have 21 Dragon Fossils. So I guess we found a whole six fossils before we hit this payload. Note that this fight (and its reward) is theoretically optional, but I have no idea how you are supposed to earn another nine fossils before it is plot necessary to have a boat. I think you are guaranteed one more…
Also note that defeating Diobarg will “unlock” Dragon Fossils as a drop from regular monsters, so you may now earn random Dragon Fossils from battles. That never happens while Diobarg is still breathing.
And speaking of which, Simon will have new dialogue once Diobarg is down.
Yet another sidequest is now unlocked! After hearing about puzzles from Simon, Millennium Puzzles can now be unearthed across Filgaia. We will get into that Yu-Gi-Oh nonsense in another update.
So we are supposed to go to the shrine or the gem cave, but I am feeling flush with Dragon Fossils, so let’s skirt on back to Jolly Roger.
Ah, memories…
Just going to go ahead and scoot over here…
Not going to think too hard about why Jet’s radar is indicating a cat is a treasure…
Here we are.
Guess what we have for you, Emilia!
“That’s what I wanted to hear! Actually, I had taken out a loan on dragon fossils to make the part I needed…Now I can pay the loan sharks back and sleep soundly for once. So, the Sandcraft is yours!”
Hell yeah! We get a ship, and Emilia isn’t going to have her legs broke!
The Sandcraft has its own battle system, complete with battles that may lead to game overs. So don’t go flying out to (sand) sea willy-nilly.
Away we go! Or… it goes. The Sandcraft is now going to be docked outside Jolly Roger and readily available.
Unfortunately for you, dear audience, we do not actually need the Sandcraft for another few updates. We will explore Sandcraft battles and how the ol’ jalopy can be upgraded with further Dragon Fossils in another update.
And speaking of which, we’ve hit our limit for the day, so we will pick up on our dual pending quests in the next update.
Next time on Wild Arms 3: We completely ignore our dual pending quests.
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