Keep an eye out, because today is May 22, Detective Day. Today is the birthday of the famous author who wrote about a great detective in his books. Am I the only one that feels awkward about this? Yes, I don’t think it’s the right way to name a holiday. Ask me… I’m the pro!

Previously on Wild Arms 3: Maya has been kidnapped! Still! Siegfiend has demanded the Teardrop in exchange for her safe return, so we have to go fish that out of the Ruins of Memory.


569600.png

And away we go. Decided to give our horses a workout. They’ve been getting lazy since we started riding around on a dragon.


569700.png

Ruins of Memory is a dungeon we explored way back in Chapter 1. In a way, it was our first “real”, full party dungeon.


569800.png

Ruins of Memory was only visited once so far, but it was also obliquely referenced at the Leyline Observatory when it was noted that the acronym ARMs in Wild Arms 3 stands for “Artifacts (from) Ruins: Memories”. So this place is quietly relevant across the whole of the game.


569900.png

Remember when we teamed up with Janus here? Good times.


570000.png

Eh, I can kinda see it. Looks a little familiar for some reason…


570100.png

Anywho, nothing has changed about Ruins of Memory since our last visit.


570200.png

The only clue around here is that if you are paying attention (or using the Tracker item from Millennium Puzzle #10), you will notice there is an inaccessible bridge in one of the rooms. Now we just have to find our way up there…


570300.png

You could easily spend hours wandering around this ruin, desperate to find the all-important item you somehow missed on your first trip.


570400.png

But this plaque (that has always been here) offers more than a subtle clue.


570500.gif

We first visited Ruins of Memory back when we were fledgling Drifters. Now we have been all over the world, and acquired the grappling hook of experience. And a literal grappling hook, too. Time to use that.


570600.png

Whole new area to explore. Note that (the majority of) this section aesthetically fits perfectly with the earlier dungeon, and really sells the concept that this is just a previously undiscovered “second floor” to the place.


570700.gif

First, we have one of those “hit one switch, the two nearby switches turn off/on” puzzles. I eat these kinds of puzzles for breakfast.


570800.png

Hey, we’re up here now. Neat.


570900.png

If you remember your lore from our earlier adventure (which was almost a year ago in Let’s Play time), Ruins of Memory is supposed to be a derelict museum. The lower floors are all looted and destroyed, but there are still some nice paintings up here in the hidden area.


571000.png

This particular tapestry may be a reference to the first Wild Arms. In a memorable moment during that story, Adlehyde, the castle town that was the hometown of one of your protagonists, had a particularly heated time during some demon negotiations. Given the whole place was torched thanks to demonkind attempting to steal the Teardrop, this seems relevant to our current circumstances…


571100.png

Other paintings in the area are generally pleasant.


571200.png

There does not seem to be any way forward in this gallery, but using “flame” on the painting entitled “Flame” will provide a path.


571300.png

Take that, priceless relic of the past.


571400.png

And our final barrier is… a door.


571500.png

Anybody think to bring a key?


571600.png

We did! Last update, we found Maya’s lost book, and the bookmark was the Card Key. And we can use that now!


571700.png

So if you are one of those pedantic nerds, yes, you can always come to the Ruins of Memory, but you won’t find this area until you have the grappling hook. And even if you do come here immediately after earning the grappling hook, you need to wait until you complete the Dissection Facility, because the ultimate reward for that quest is Maya’s keycard. So, yes, even though the Teardrop is and has always been hiding in this room from an early dungeon, you cannot access it until it is plot mandated.


571800.png

Quick! Somebody send Shady the Cat to touch the highlighted jewel to confirm it isn’t a trap!


571900.png

We have learned nothing.


572000.png

Maya has been kidnapped for a few hours, and Virginia is getting all “I want to have an intimate relationship with this rock,” like this is a Steven Universe forum.


572100.png

There is a quick note about the merits of trading this all-powerful gem for one puny human.


572200.png

But we’re heroes, and you know how this is going to go.


572300.png

We found it! We have an artifact so powerful, it once lifted an entire city into the sky. We can probably pawn it for some solid beer money.


572300a.png

The Teardrop is an item in our inventory (for now).


572300b.png

And you can actually use it in battle with Virginia’s Mystic command. It simply casts the normal Heal spell, so it is more of an easter egg than anything.


572400.png

Welp, that’s it. We got what we came for.


572500.png

Sometimes reusing a dungeon in an RPG comes off as a “cheat” or an obvious cost-cutting move. In this case, I very much approve of the reuse of Ruins of Memories. With the “inaccessible” higher area followed by a sealed door (that Maya found the key for somewhere), it really sells how an object of such incredible strength could be lost to heroes and villains for so long. The Teardrop is an amazing find, but it takes so much to find it, it is no wonder it has gone missing for generations. And just to drive this point home, you explored this dungeon once already, and completely missed it, too. Excellent use of gameplay/storytelling synergy.


572600.png

Oh, and speaking of gameplay, guess who has come to congratulate us.


572700.png

We never did discuss a handoff location, so it’s nice that they teleported on in.


572800.gif

Teleportation really does streamline this process!


572900.png

We will be ignoring this advice immediately.


573000.png

Last time Virginia had a magical gem or two in her hands, it went poorly.


573100.png

Virginia hands off the Teardrop, and…


573200.png

Extremely loud incorrect buzzer.


573300.png

Fooooooled you.


573400.gif

So Virginia completely blew it, but the experienced Drifters are here to save the day.


573500.png

“Just in time to watch you hand over our only leverage like a moron.”


573600.png

Ha ha! You never suspected Maya could have a loving family because you’re a putz!


573700.png

Let’s fight about it.


573800.png

Been a while! So here’s the fight that could have been the finale for Chapter 2, but wasn’t.


573900.png

So far, the only time we fought all the Prophets at once was when they were on their last legs, and, while they weren’t complete pushovers, there was a plot-mandated reason they could not pull out all their tricks with one foot in the grave.


573900b.png

Now we face them simultaneously at full power. Or maybe “more” power? How much of a powerup do you get from becoming a demon?


573900c.png

What does this all mean?


574000.png

Well, each of the Prophets now use their “moves” from when they were solo fights.


574100.png

This isn’t Bravely Default, they don’t really have any sort of synergy with their abilities. But their individual powers are powerful.


574200.png

As a reminder, Malik is so fast, he cannot be hit with physical attacks unless you hit him with a decelerate (slow) spell.


574400.png

He also will smack you with strong physical attacks and status effects.


574500.png

Melody is poison to the core. She will use a poison attack frequently, and counter any attacks with poison, too.


574700.png

Equip a poison ward to nullify her greatest offense, or have fun leaking HP.


574800.png

And Leehalt still has his “full counter” ability that means he does not technically do anything in a round unless you hit him. If you do hit him, though, he will return exactly the same damage upon his attacker.


574900.png

Though he has the same weakness of only countering the final blow of any multi-hit attack, so a gatling that runs out of bullets may work well.


575000.png

This battle isn’t all that difficult if you counter everyone. Poison wards nullify Melody, confusion wards will neuter Malik, and if you ignore Leehalt, you can avoid any damage from him until the absolute end. The real test here is simply if you remember your defenses from back in Chapter 2.


575100.gif

Not that the battle matters anyway. The real fun starts once Shady makes the scene.


575200.png

Looks like all of our heroes are playing well together. If you remember, this dungeon was where we got burned with Janus, so it is good to see Virginia has made some real friends out in the wastelands.


575300.png

But speaking of old friends…


575400.png

Time to suffer the consequences of another old plan.


575500.png

The golem is back, baby!


575600.png

I just told you!


575700.png

Asgard!


575800.png

I will always remember what my father told me on my wedding day.


575900.png

“If you are going to banish one of your enemies to an unknown point in time, make sure it is not the one enemy you have that is a confirmed immortal.”


576000.png

I mean, we do live in a world where people routinely are brought back from the dead with “revive fruits”, so this shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.


576100.png

Man, super good luck for the Prophets that they chose to fight at the one place on this planet that happened to house their entombed, ruthlessly dedicated robot.


576200.png

“Master, I have -returned-. “

“Returned…!? Then, that means…”

“To fulfill my master’s command…And…to exchange fire with you again.”

Thanks?


576300.png

“New glasses?”


576400.png

“Asgard! Have you seen my ‘Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my Panakeia’ mug? I haven’t seen it since we left the Yggdrasil, and you have a good memory.”


576500.png

Maybe Asgard spent the last millennia learning how to be a better robot-person, and no longer cares for violence or…


576600.png

Oh. Never mind.


576700.gif

This shouldn’t be a big deal. That barrier only killed us the last time it got used at full power.


576800.png

Two for two!


576900.png

A reasonable time to believe you are hallucinating.


577000.png

“Daddy has magic protect-me powers! I knew it!”


577100.png

By “take advantage” we mean “be quiet” because “Daddy doesn’t want to talk right now.”


577200.png

“Silent, Virginia. Like crabs.”


577300.png

So Virginia finally apologizes for being angry the last time Werner had to save them from Asgard. Or maybe she is apologizing for when she was mean at Ruins of Dreams? No, it’s probably the Asgard one. Good “killed by robot” parallels.


577400.gif

Daddy-Daughter Day is gonna be complicated this year.


577500.png

“You don’t have to tell me now… We… Probably don’t have much oxygen. That’s… a good reason…”


577600.png

“I know you’ll tell me, someday…I’ll be waiting…Waiting to hear what you have to say…But, don’t leave me again, Daddy…Please…”

You got pattern recognition, Virginia?


577700.png

Against all odds, this is somehow the second time Todd has appeared to awaken Virginia while she is dream-pleading with her father. Is this foreshadowing for the reveal that Todd is Virginia’s real father? (No, it isn’t.)


577800.png

We’re fine!


577900.png

Literally no one acknowledges this as an explanation. Clive is probably gesturing to Alfred to just shut up and let Virginia have her fantasy of “Daddy Barriers”.


578000.png

The Teardrop is gone, and Maya was never here. But don’t worry! Alfred accounted for our ineptitude.


578100.png

Alfred explains that he used trackable shrapnel in his bomb from the start of the battle. He does not note that Maya asked him to invent this tech so she could GPS Virginia at all times.


578200.png

We’re going to be okay!


578300.png

… Until the tracker stops working. But we have a general spot to look. Let’s head to Laxisland (again) next!


578400.png

Look, I don’t want to hear a peep from Virginia’s team right now. You guys fumbled the most important item in history/Maya’s engagement gem.


578500.png

“We’ll take our dragon! You guys fly there with your cat or whatever it is you do.”


578600.png

And we are done with all that nonsense. Off to Laxisland!


578700.png

Just for curiosity’s sake, if you return to Ruins of Memory, you can explore the whole dungeon again without issue, just the main hall is more than a little wrecked up.


578800.png

Asgard gone, girl.


094700.png

(flashback to when there wasn’t even an hour on the clock)

And as I tried to avoid “spoiling” earlier in the LP, Asgard has always been a part of ROM all the way back to our first visit. If you have a particularly good memory (and a decent TV), you may have recognized Asgard’s initial appearance in Prophet cutscenes as that same “thing” from Ruins of Memory a handful of dungeons earlier. Or maybe you just assumed it was typical PS2 era asset reusage. Whatever! It was a clue! We know that now.

Also, given Ruins of Memory is a pretty prominent ruin (the Prophets’ own lackey Janus did explore the place), Asgard could be a stable time loop wherein Melody’s design was based on the future/past Asgard chilling in stone… but WA3 isn’t as interested in timeloops as the Final Fantasy series, so nobody dwells on that.

So that was kind of a quick update, and Maya is probably doing just fine as a captive, so we are going to take a moment to deal with a little optional Wild Arms 3 optional content.


578900.png

Across Filgaia, you will see many signs posted by “Alan Smithy”. If you recall, Alan Smithy is supposed to be the “original” Drifter, and his tips are supposedly legendary advice… that may or may not have been provided by other Drifters claiming the name Alan Smithy.


492600.png

We also found that one book that distinctly noted Alan Smithy has “many unproven tales credited to him” and he may be dead or immortal.


579000.png

And this will be relevant in a moment when we decide to pay Daddy a visit.


579100.png

Even once you obtain your airship, you cannot easily return to the Yggdrasil area.


579200.png

So once again through Nidhogg Pass


579300.png

Enemies are pushovers, but a number of the puzzles reset.


579400.png

Okay, back in the forest.


579500.png

It is recommended you revisit this area at least once after obtaining the radar from Gunner’s Heaven. As we covered during that update, there is an EX File Key hiding in the woods.

(And this is the same key we covered then, just flashing back as a reminder. There are not two keys here.)


579600.png

But our important destination is Green Lodge.


579700.png

The next mandatory dungeon will grant us a tool that will allow us to transform this rooster into an item. I am not doing another trip through Nidhogg Pass, so…


579800.png

Here’s a flashforward to the item you can obtain later.


579900.png

Magic Candle will confer a skill that grants you additional encounter points after a battle. Like a lot of late game treasures, this is only really important in The Abyss, and even then, it is only important if you are actually entertaining battles down there. Not recommended. But it is recommended you obtain this one-of-a-kind item when you’re here.


580000.png

But our real reason for visiting today is Daddy’s little monster.


580100.png

Sing ‘em a song, Gallows.


580200.png

Meet our unique super boss…


580300.png

John Dee.

I have seen debate amongst Wild Arms 3 fans that John Dee is supposed to be Alan Smithy, one way or another. To wit, I have seen the following explanations:

1. “John Dee” appears as the same name as “Alan Smithy” in the original Japanese.
2. “John Dee” and “Alan Smithy” are separate names in the original Japanese, but only because someone misunderstood they were supposed to be the same (English) anonymous pseudonym.
3. “John Dee” is intended to be the “real” Alan Smithy regardless of naming intentions. This is part of the myth of the man/demon.
4. “John Dee” is supposed to be the demon that defeated “Alan Smithy” (As mentioned in the previously noted Alan Smithy book).

Unfortunately, there is not much documentation on an otherwise forgettable super boss that only appears once 70% of the way through a Playstation 2 exclusive that was released in 2002, so I don’t know the real answer here. But there is the distinct possibility that John Dee here is supposed to be lore relevant. I guess.


580402.png

For my money, Alan Smithy is distinctly described as a “gunslinger” in his in-game biography, and Johnny here only uses magic and a billy club, so it is entirely possible this creature has as much to do with the lore as Heimdel Gazzo or Kraken.


580500.png

Let’s focus on what we know: John Dee does not have any overt weaknesses.


580600.png

He has about an 80% counter chance with a brutal physical attack, and he leans into spells that are both dark-based and non-elemental.


580700.png

Unfortunately, his biggest hit-all attack is non-elemental, so that is going to do a lot of damage if your levels are not up to snuff.


580800.png

So what’s the trick this time? Well, John Dee has an AI quirk wherein if you buff your party in any way, there is seemingly a 75% chance he will use his turn to cast Eraser, the dispel spell of Wild Arms 3.


580900.png

This is vastly preferable to nearly every other move he can use, so just make sure Jet or Virginia are casting a buff on a party member every turn. It doesn’t matter what buff you cast, just buff something, and John Dee is very likely to forgo totaling your entire party in favor of canceling a useless speed-up spell.


581000.png

Dark Ward will handle any of the dark spells, and then it is just a matter of healing after the (now extremely rare) Unbreakable spell? move.


581100.png

Clive took a number of hits thanks to JD’s counterattacks, but we still won the day.


581200.png

And we earned an Ebony Shadow.


581300.png

Ebony Shadow is vaguely complicated. Ebony Shadow will guard against distinct Arcana Attacks, like Spectre (light spell) or Pressure (water spell). It will not defend against unique monster attacks, so things like Ragu o Ragala’s One Trillion Degrees will pass right through the Ebony Shadow. Given that the majority of super bosses use their own distinct attacks, this makes Ebony Shadow worthless when it could be most useful. That said, a number of lesser monsters across the game use arcana, so it is not wholly useless.

Beyond that, Ebony Shadow actually working is based on a FP/PS point ratio. If you only devote one PS point to Ebony Shadow/Arcana Blocker, it will only work when your FP is at 100. If you provide the maximum four PS points, it will block anytime you have 25 FP or more… which is practically all the time at this point in the game. There isn’t a detailed explanation of this effect in Wild Arms 3, so if you don’t think it’s working, there’s your answer.

And, on a personal note, I have never bothered with Ebony Shadow beyond testing purposes. An elemental ring is always the better choice.


581400.png

And now we don’t ever have to come back. Don’t forget to stop by the one Millennium Puzzle in the Yggdrasil Grove while you’re here!


581500.png

You cannot summon your dragon to leave, but you can teleport away. Come to think of it, make sure you have a Warp Star or Teleport Orb before coming to Green Lodge, or you’ll have to walk back through that damn dungeon again.

And, no, teleporting to Green Lodge is never an available choice.


581600.png

And now we’re at Laxisland. Will we pick up the plot again and rescue Maya?

Next time on Wild Arms: The second or third worst sidequest in Wild Arms 3.

2 thoughts on “Wild Arms 3 Part 55: Blasts from the Past”
  1. […] If you’ve been using the radar in every town, you would have noticed how animals are frequently “targeted” by the radar like treasure, but you had no way to get a chicken or a cat to hand over the goods. Now, if you use Virginia’s Changecrest on a radar-indicated animal, it will change into an item. Oftentimes, these items are high-level consumables, so it is worth it to revisit old towns. None of these item-animals appear in dungeons, so the hardest treasure to find would be the change-chicken at Green Lodge. We covered that one a couple updates back. […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.