Chill out today, November 6, Smoked Fish Day. The smoked fish refrigerator is powered by Alslate, Guardian of Snow, and Nuashocks, Guardian of Lightning. They’re busy powering it right now so you can’t summon them. By the way, they get really mad if you call them the Electric Fridge Guardians.
Previously on Wild Arms 3: We are cleaning up this Nightmare Castle! Three Disasters have been defeated, so now we continue on with…
Dealing with those switches we ignored last week. These two are a classic “stand on (against) one, and launch the Steady Doll to activate the other one.”
Path Wind is open! (And we can see that switch that we hit with the grappling hook last time.)
Oh… this is absolute bullshit.
I have checked FAQs, I have experimented myself, I have tried and tried to see if there is some trick to this… But no. This is just bullshit.
The puzzle of this path is that you have four doors, and only one of them allows you to move forward. There are absolutely no clues here, and this all follows no discernable pattern. It is just trial and error, and then remembering the proper sequence (it is at least consistent). If you choose wrong, you get booted back to the start of the order. If you see this rose in the middle of the room, you have chosen the right door. If you do not see the rose, you are at the beginning.
I maintain that this Let’s Play is no FAQ, but just to save anyone playing this game time, the proper path is: west, north, east, south, west. Remember that you can rotate the camera so your compass always points North.
Fugging hate this. May as well be a “what number am I thinking of” puzzle.
When you hit a hallway, you are done with that section.
And now again!
The previous puzzle had four possible choices. This version has eight.
Once again, if you see the rose in the middle of the room, you have chosen wisely. If you do not see the rose, you are in the first room in the sequence.
At least you don’t get booted back to the start of the previous puzzle.
The proper sequence is north, northeast, west. Screw you, everything about this puzzle. No one should ever have to do this blind.
Okay! We’re done! Time to fight air.
This battle will blow you away.
Disaster Wind has a weakness to earth and water. I guess the water weakness is supposed to counter the lightning strength?
And here’s Gale Claw, which is dimly odd because this Disaster doesn’t actually have anything like claws. Gale Scrape?
That water weakness really comes in handy when our main mage is packing the Water medium.
And we are done with that Disaster.
The trip back is much easier.
Looks like we have hit all the switches and whatnot on the first floor of the Main Hall. Let’s move on up.
These statues look unusual. Let’s drag the third one out of place. I swear I will explain why later.
Door opens!
Path Light time.
Welcome to your grave.
Each of these rocks tell a fun little story. Here it is in its entirety:
“The primordial impulse, the Surge of Gaia. The Vassim blacksmiths, with flames in hand, are the first to embrace this primordial chaos.”
“As time goes by, the demons descend to benumb the humans and Elws with their cold power.”
“The demons used the dragons to devastate the planet, causing grief to many.”
“A man comes forth seeking change. Entrusted by the people, he becomes an advocate of the future.”
Note that this story is roughly analogous to the history of Filgaia told by Shane way back at World’s Footprint. It is curious that Beatrice has a history lesson in her dream castle.
So you are supposed to hit the statue there in the center with tools that match the progression of story. Since you cannot initially reach the statue, you are supposed to use projectile tools. Sorry, Clive.
Tinder Crest, Freezer Doll, Boomerang (I guess it is the most “devastating” projectile you have), Change Crest.
And the path opens.
Next puzzle is a classic.
You’ve got a design, you’ve got blocks, time to rearrange some blocks.
This one is a pain, but it is a reasonable pain.
It is nice that the design is right there on the floor, too. Means you don’t have to switch back to earlier just to get your bearings.
Hey, guess what? The center of the rose design has to be flipped first. If you never rotate it, you will not succeed.
Now we’re on the trolley.
Overall, a pretty straightforward path this time.
Is “blare” the right verb here? Does light make sound? … Are we talking about thunder?
Shiny.
Light is weak to dark? I never would have guessed.
Total eclipse of the Disaster.
Knock ‘em out with darkness.
Vaporized.
And we can Gale Crest on back to the entrance.
Back in the Main Hall, this third unlit candelabra is meant to indicate which statue you are supposed to move to access the last area. Forgive me for not showing you this first.
And now lighting the candelabra because we need to make progress to the final path. Good luck with that statue bit if you light up this candelabra first!
By process of elimination/candle, this must be the Fire Path.
Another classic.
There are three wheels, and three sets of blocks. You must arrange the blocks to make a path.
This puzzle has three rows and three columns of blocks. The path must be three connected rows across any number of columns. The game does not provide a hint as to where/how the path should start and end.
But trial and error is pretty easy here, and it quickly becomes obvious which blocks will connect properly.
And that’s puzzle #1 down.
Puzzle #2 is the physical challenge of the castle.
Timing your usage of the Gale Crest is key.
Weeee.
Time your grappling well, too.
And then jump up to go down.
With the exception of the radar (which finds a complete lack of treasure here) and the Kramer Dolls that summon encounters (we have enough of those), we have used every tool to conquer every corner of this castle.
And now for some fiery rage.
The hottest Disaster.
The weakness for Disaster Fire is specifically ice. Water is neutral for this go round.
Wear something to account for warm temperatures.
And cool things down.
Open fire!
This is the last anyone ever saw of Disaster Fire.
Alright! All paths complete!
Let’s go meet Yoshi on the roof.
Or finally leave the Main Hall through the main exit…
To do this all over again.
Disaster Luck Take 2: Older and Wiser.
Once again, Disaster Luck’s summon attack is ineffective.
And they go down easily.
Tiamat has returned!
Tiamat admits that you may have cut their power a scoosh. But they can still take you! Sure!
Now Tiamat uses the same Final Disaster attack…
But it is only the same ineffectual Lucky Shot as Disaster Luck. What was once an attack that could leave us with 5% health is now barely a blip on the radar.
And it’s not like Tiamat has better defenses to compensate for their newfound lack of power.
This part should be familiar.
And that’s that. Other than the random dragon fossil, no extra bonus or penalty for defeating Incomplete Tiamat.
So there we go! Complete castle completed.
(a screenshot from the universe where we immediately fought Tiamat)
So should we have bothered? Well, if we believe the WA3 in-game timer (which we should not, as it does not count time spent in battles for whatever reason) every last Disaster is defeated as of 23:56:28. In the alternate timeline where we made a beeline for Tiamat, we were done by 22:51:48. So that is apparently a full hour of castle exploration (and likely more actual time, thanks to the previously mentioned weird timer). We do not get any extra rewards for conquering the Disasters, and the experience and gella earned from the monsters around the place is meager. Oh, and there are absolutely no treasures to be found in the Nightmare Castle. At all.
Was it worth it? If you can handle Tiamat, it is not. If Tiamat is impossible without knocking off some lesser Disasters, then do what you gotta do.
Note that this is a mix and match situation. You can destroy Disaster Moon, and then face a Final Disaster that is wholly elemental (and thus something you can guard against). If you know you only have one character with a Fire Ward, then beat Disaster Fire, and see how you fare with the rest of Final Disaster slightly blocked. Leave Disaster Water intact because you have plenty of Water Wards. You have options!
… Though it is not like the paths are distinctly marked, and a new player would have no real way of knowing which path leads to which Disaster…
.. Or which paths are absolute bullshit, and which are perfectly reasonable…
But still! I appreciate what the designers were trying for here, even if it doesn’t wholly come together. It is nice that the most difficult dungeoning challenges in Wild Arms 3 are simultaneously required and optional.
Whatever! Let’s say both timelines now converge, and we are moving on to new business.
Past Tiamat, there is nothing more than a hallway standing between you and the final door.
Duh!
One last choice as to whether to proceed.
Spooky!
You have an opportunity to save here. This is technically the last save point in the game. Also: it is arguably completely pointless, as a trip back outside is not only an elementary two hallways away, but you have the Teleport Orb to instantly exit. Still! It’s appreciated given how apocalyptically the final sequence could go…
Onwards.
Where does one buy dream carpet? This has been one long rug…
And there is our target.
Next time on Wild Arms: A forgettable final battle for the ages.