Trails in the Sky #8 His Ever-Growing Shadow

RECAP:  The Power of CARING

It Begins...

Surprises abound! On the airship to Rolent, Schera catches Olivier talking to someone on what is

basically a cellphone, something unheard of in this world. He surprisingly, doesn’t try to play it off, and she correctly infers that he is actually an Erebonian spy (he assures her however, that his eccentricity is absolutely genuine). When pressed, Olivier then adds that he is looking for [fade to black] the Divine Blade Cassius Bright.

Meanwhile, Estelle and Joshua decide to take care of any sort of last minute business, remaining in

Dat narration tho

Bose, fulfilling the final guild contract and handing over the black book to the Haken Gate guards. They then say their farewells to the citizens of Bose and head west through Krone Pass. The journey was slightly more difficult with only two able hands as opposed to four, but the young bracers still deftly make their way to the Ruan checkpoint at sunset. They tell the guards their circumstances and they happily welcome the bracers to Ruan and even allow them to stay the night (with free food!). The guards mention that there have been an abnormally high amount of monsters lurking along the pass (despite the road lights’ repellent qualities). Unfazed the bracers prepare to eat dinner and turn in for the night, when Agate of all people arrives at the checkpoint, due to a job he has in Ruan.

They exchange (rude) pleasantries and he sneers at the bracers’ inexperience, but Joshua points out that they are indeed inexperienced and will likely struggle for a while without Schera to back them up. Estelle isn’t satisfied but Agate prematurely ends the conversation by swiftly falling asleep. The two bracers then join him, with reluctance on Estelle’s part. They are all awoken in the dead of night however, when a large pack of monsters assaults the Bose side of gate. Agate and the junior bracers immediately step outside to see what is happening, and though Estelle wants to help the guards, Agate and the soldiers point out that this is their job and they can handle it. What they can’t handle, however is the pincer attack launching on the other side of the gate at the same time.

Rude though he may be, Agate is actually
a pretty sensible guy

Agate leaps into action to defend the lone guard left to guard the Ruan side, but quickly finds himself surrounded by feral wolves. The bracers, finally step into the fray to assist Agate (thanks to Joshua claiming that they will try not to get in his obscenely badass way). An extremely one-sided ensues and wolves are KOed. The bracers then speculate as to why such a large pack would attack and take a well-earned rest. The next morning, the bracers notice that Agate has already left. They resolve then to do the same and leave the checkpoint. A little further along the trail, they take a moment to gaze out at the ocean and appreciate that they are making legitimate progress on their journey.

Several dead flying sharks later, the pair approaches a fork in the road with one side pointing to

Manoria Village and the other a lighthouse. To satisfy their need to complete every sidequest fully

I still wonder what dark deed Falcom committed to gain
the talent to write such amazing NPC dialogue 

explore their surroundings the bracers check the lighthouse first. Outside the phallic structure they meet Vogt another member of the League of Extraordinary NPCs the old, care-obsessed lighthouse keeper. He tells the bracers that the lighthouse has been overrun by monsters and not-so-indirectly demands that they clean it out. So they do just that, grounding another dozen or so sharks before returning to Vogt. Estelle doesn’t show the man “proper etiquette” and the ungrateful old man calls the two lousy by comparison to the last bracer he met. The two quickly discern however that the bracer they’d been shamefully compared to was Cassius and then take the man’s insults a little more seriously. With their egos humbled, however, the two return to the fork and continue along to Manoria Village. Their first order of business: find lunch.

The Ph.D in Trolling

The unlisted sidequest with the black book alluded to in the first sentence of the second paragraph

Well, THAT's not shady at all

highlights the importance of actually talking and listening to NPCs in this game. The Let’s Play I’ve been reading called the sidequest completely unfair and bullshit on Falcom’s part since it requires one to go somewhere completely unrelated to where the story points them within a very narrow timeframe. However, since I just played the entirety of Act 1 a second time, I noticed that the game had not only set up this side quest, but basically points one straight to it. Assuming that one has been paying attention to the NPC dialogue that is.

When I first arrived in Bose, I was systemically driven to find the Orbal shop first as that has the most relevance to the battle system. So, I consequently ended up finding and speaking to Nigel (the crooked Orbalist shopkeeper) who seemed to be reveling in the fact that he was somehow getting away with shady business practices. In talking to the other employees, they also all seem astounded by how Nigel had managed to stay in business. Later on, after the string of robberies hit Bose from offscreen, if you talk to Nigel again (which one should since they are required to investigate the robberies by speaking to Bose citizens in his area) he mentions in a very audible monologue that his ledger was stolen, and how he could be ruined if it fell into the wrong hands. The employees however, didn’t know about the ledger and were impressed that seemingly nothing of consequence was stolen.

You'd have to be pretty much illiterate to NOT know where to go

Then when one returns to Bose after dealing with the Capua family and finding the black book, if one visits the Orbal shop, they will notice that Nigel is no longer at the store, and after asking the new shopkeeper why this is, learn that he was temporarily imprisoned at Haken gate for shady business ventures, but will be set free since the guards only have circumstantial evidence against him. So, the player knows exactly where he is, they can piece together how he got there, and recognize that they have the evidence to prove his guilt. As such, everything about this sidequest was telegraphed by the game and did not necessitate a guidebook, which was just an extraordinary use NPC text coaxed by careful framing of gameplay and narrative incentives. Even though some fans call it unfair, I viewed this as about as perfect of a sidequest as possible.

With that said, the game has also been (and will likely continue) setting up another effective use of

NPC dialogue with respect to Cassius. Many of the NPCs encountered both in the main story (Nial &

Dorothy, Maybelle, Agate, Morgan, etc.) and out of it (the Rolent citizens, Anelace, Vogt, and others
whose names I can’t remember) have all known and commented on Cassius Bright’s excellence. It

You really know how to make a girl feel special, Vogt

almost gets annoying hearing so many people sing the praises of this person who has largely been off-screen. But, at the same time all the brown-nosing gives the player an ideal to strive towards by consistently reminding them of the characters’ primary objective: finding Cassius. What’s more, the shockingly frequent praise given throughout the game, further builds upon the mystery of Cassius’ disappearance, especially in light of General Morgan’s remarks that he was one of the greatest military tacticians in history, and one of the four people in the world to hold the title “Divine Blade” (which just SOUNDS legendary). All in all, I’m clearly still impressed by just how well the game is woven together. And yes, there were more amazing empty chests in this session.

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