Rise to the occasion of November 13, Yeast Day. Today is the day I learned for the first time that a fungus called yeast made bread expand. I decided to give it the nickname, ‘Feastmaker.’
Previously on Wild Arms 3: We have explored every nook and cranny of the Nightmare Castle, so it is time to address the mistress of the house.
Here she is now.
Sweet. We were getting bored with those hours of puzzles.
“You failed then. You remember that? You failing?”
Virginia tries to claim that Beatrice doesn’t have the energy to pull off such a feat, but Bea has plans…
Ah yes. The power of a thousand gamers yelling at that stupid Lost Woods puzzle.
“It didn’t really matter to me whether you defeated the Disasters or not. I just wanted the most powerful life-form to offer in place of the Surge of Gaia, so that I can apply its energy to my creation.”
We got super played.
You are welcome.
Thanks, Dad.
Janus doesn’t even get a mention…
Surprise! Lamium, leader of the Ark of Destiny, has inadvertently been working for Beatrice all this time.
This would have probably been more of a shock to the audience if Lamium was more involved in the latter half of the game (or… uh… any part of the game).
“Sucks to be a human. Moving on to new business…”
In case you aren’t getting it, Beatrice straight up addresses Lamium’s nickname for his dream demon.
“It’s because it’s really awkward to go to a fancy restaurant alone!”
“Except baby eating! Do you eat babies?”
Beatrice is going to blow this whole plan just because she’s annoyed.
Sounds restful.
Final(ish) Fight!
That seems like a bit of a flaw in the ol’ scheme…
Oh yeah, if you didn’t notice Beatrice’s makeover… Uh… You blind?
Not certain what we’re going for here, but it does feel very… Picasso.
Let’s get that rug dirty!
In a weird way, Beatrice looks like a graduated form of those dolls-with-scissors random encounters that have appeared in a few dungeons.
Nothing there. Nothing.
So let’s just shoot her.
Dark magic? From the source of all misery in this world? It’s more common than you think.
Appropriate to the Dream Demon, her ultimate attack is Nightmare. It is a quasi-summon that does damage and may inflict sleep.
Sleep is really annoying in this fight. This is a shot of Gallows, the only one with a sleep ward, starting the process of waking everybody else up.
Beatrice also has the ability to reduce your magic resistance. This would be bad news if you were not already powerful enough to kick God to the curb.
So just remember that Beatrice is tangible, and shoot her but good.
Is that an excuse for final boss music?
Great. Wonderful for you. Bet the gender reveal party is going to be explosive.
Pictured: motherhood.
Or just a fun way to end the battle? Whatever.
… That’s bad (?).
That’s bad.
You know what would have been cool? A scene where Lamium actually receives the Yggdrasil generator from Beatrice. Or maybe Lamium reporting that he found the generator thanks to a dream? Something like that? Then we would have a transition of sorts between everyone in the Ark being a bunch of loons and their right-before-the-finale conviction that they’re about to lift off into space. It would work really great for the dramatic irony of the protagonists and audience knowing damn well where Lamium got that generator, and a hint as to what Beatrice was up to.
Or we could just bring it up at the last minute like this, too. That works.
And now for some actual gameplay at the end of the world.
Look at that timer! You literally have ten seconds to book it out of the castle.
Fun fact: you will fail if you try to play this straight. Ten seconds is not enough time to get back to the entrance. But you received the “exit spell” from Shane, so the solution is to whip out the Exodus Orb to make an immediate escape.
Note that if you do not instantly (or within nine seconds) recall that you have an Exodus Orb, it is a Game Over, and you will be booted back to your last save. This has been tested and verified by my dumb ass getting Virginia exploded.
But we teleported out in time. Which is… Well… At least we’re alive.
Everything seems fine back at the altar.
…. Mostly fine.
Really hoping we didn’t kill everyone by exploding the Nightmare Castle!
Phew.
Senile old bat.
Oh. That.
I mean, if you can remember your memories are being devoured…
To… what? Yell memories at people? Just start shouting diary entries at everyone on Filgaia?
“It’s up to us” is not a plan, Virginia.
So welcome to the ol’ Reverse Dragon Quest.
Dragon Quest, the granddaddy of RPGs, had a lovely ending sequence where you could go anywhere in on the planet, and visit all the people/towns that you had saved. There were no monsters, and the world was at peace.
Wild Arms 3 lets you beat the ostensible final boss and then explore a monster-less (and eerily music-less) Filgaia…
But as you quickly find out…
The galaxy is not at peace.
The save points sound downright suicidal…
And average NPCs are doing their best to not go completely insane in the absence of their own memories.
This sounds like a new fetish.
Shane has had so much trauma over the course of this adventure, he can rank his various brain-invasions.
So feel free to visit the whole world. Apparently someone programmed/wrote new dialogue for literally everyone.
Some of the comments are more significant than others. Emilia learned how to smile again after we slayed the sea serpent that killed her beloved Mario, but now she literally cannot remember why smiling is a thing.
It is horrifying to imagine Toy Story being your only memory.
“I still tremble every time I step onto a field of virgin snow. Each step I take permanently alters the path my life will take.”
Okay, random dude that taught us about Migrant Seals.
Maybe everyone in the world is just high?
Special bonus for if you complete the Martina sidequest: Mileux lost her daughter again. Believe it or not, this is foreshadowing.
Pike losing his memories hits the hardest of them all. Think of all the horse dung lost in time, like tears in rain.
Here is Cheville if you do not complete the Martina sidequest. She somehow can remember the concept of pain without memories. Way to go?
There is a happier alternative if you clear that quest, though.
Kaitlyn is… mostly okay.
Fun fact: I did not complete the Adventure Book quest on my PS2 playthrough. If you have collected all the other books, Catherine will still go through the “here is Book #11” dialogue and handoff during the ending. Heck all you can do about it at this point, but rather amusing how this survives her memories being wiped. She really wanted to hand over that book.
Okay, back to normal dialogue about the end of the world.
Clive’s family is apparently putting up a good front for their patriarch. If you speak to these two with anyone but Clive, you get a different reaction.
Not 100% certain I like the implications here for people that lose their memories in our mundane reality…
Thanks, Virginia’s fake mom.
Almost like we’re building up to a point here.
At least some people can hold on to what is important.
Cormano, one of the ruffians of Little Twister, feels better with a lack of memories. Not all memories are good!
Similarly, Myra, the villain of Martina’s quest, feels improved by the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.
Some people may enjoy this, but the basic implication of a few NPCs is that humanity is going to die from pure ennui without memories.
Cram it, Nalice.
It’s always aliens with some people…
Nooooooooo!
The cool kids see the appeal.
Brother!
Well that sounds like an existential nightmare.
Tony is surprisingly chipper.
When you are ready to move this whole thing along, head for the Ark of Destiny. No one really clues you into this… Aside from the fact that Beatrice wouldn’t shut up about the place during the (apparently not) final battle. Hope you didn’t forget!
The Ark of Destiny is the one place you cannot explore during this ending sequence. Once you enter, the final cutscenes begin.
“Kind of… static-y?”
Gallows asks if we are “too late”, and Jet is pretty sure we are.
“Lamium to a lesser extent, obviously!”
And just to make things interesting, monsters are poofing in.
Book it!
These purple things are gradually producing the same creatures we saw Shane summon at Sacrificial Altar.
And we don’t have time for that right now!
Good thing someone made this hallway long as hell…
Makes for dramatic cameos.
“Seriously! … Were you robbing the place?”
“What of it?”
Maya has not appeared for this entire chapter (!), so you will be forgiven for forgetting that she decided at the end of Chapter 3 to conquer the planet.
Thanks to creating this Let’s Play and playing through Wild Arms 3 multiple times, I have seen any individual piece of WA3 dialogue many times. That said, I exclaim “fuck yes” literally every time Maya says this.
Is it because she is laying claim on the world, or because you want to be president, too, Virginia?
“I assure you, my health care plan is top notch.”
“Do you know how easy it is to run a smear campaign on an accomplished woman?”
You notice how Maya has absolutely not lost her memories at all? I like to believe it is through sheer force of will that she rejects Beatrice’s brain jiggling.
It is kind of hilarious that the whole gang stopped like three feet from Virginia, but everyone knows better than to hop in a conversation when these two are talking.
“Good luck on becoming a dictator!”
“If we all survive, wear that pink thing I like!”
She singlehandedly destroyed like 90% of Siegfried. This is nothing.
And she’s got backup.
Bug creatures are not usually known for their manners.
Todd is the smart one here, but he is apparently not great with subtlety and innuendo.
Though I think everyone else has figured out Maya’s intentions at this point.
Sadly enough, this is the last we see of Maya and her clan.
One of those ambiguous situations where you can believe they went out fighting, or they survived to conquer the world another day. I don’t need to tell you what I believe happened, right?
And as for Team Virginia? Well…
Next time on Wild Arms: More forms than a Digimon.