Lunar Genesis -
Because they cannot charter the Caldor-Wrick ferry to take them to the Ghulian continent for some reason, instead they walk there through a couple of caves beneath the ocean. So upon entering the first town they see in Ghulian what is the first new information they find out? That the Ghulian-Caldor ferry has just opened for service :D! Knowing Jian, he was probably fully aware that this was happening and withheld the information just so they would have to go cavewalking. Especially since the courier service he works for has depots in Ghulian... is the implication here that until now they have been transporting everything through that route?
The existing ferry GOES RIGHT PAST THE PLACE
Meanwhile in the city at one point Flora can waffle on about HOW DID THESE GUYS GET A WHOLE BARREL OF GHULIAN APPLES THEY ARE LIEK MY FAVOURITE when a) THEY ARE IN FREAKING GHULIAN and b) YOU SPENT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE UNTIL NOW IN A HOLE FLORA YOU HAVE NEVER HAD ONE
Black Dragon Cave! We jump into holes looking for a photon
power plant. Maybe Titus was getting his caves mixed up earlier when he said we had to jump into holes in Red Dragon Cave and we didn't. Typically, the hole for the plant was almost the last thing I did in the cave before fighting the Black Dragon, so a great deal of help it was (assuming it wasn't mandatory to get in to see the Dragon anyway, as I didn't try beforehand).
The Black Dragon was much better than the previous two dragons. It didn't waste any turns. It was still not particularly difficult. The fight turned out to have a second section however which stepped things up a fair bit... the second enemy having a 2-3 HKO MT breakdance move. Fortunately it only used it on me twice, but those two times were consecutively -_- It used it once which resulted in Jian and Flora getting knocked down, then on my next turn I went to have Gabryel use the fully-restore-downed-people card only to find that it managed to go first and use it again D: Fortunately for me she managed to survive on double-digit hp, and it never ended up using that attack again, so everything ended up going finely and dandily.
Blue Dragon Cave! We unblock a number of tiny fountains, which somehow reduces pressure enough to remove a whacking great waterfall from blocking access to the Blue Dragon. We also get an item which cuts MP costs in 3, making Flora's buffs somewhat usable. The Blue Dragon was a return to form for the dragons with the reappearance of dead turns. Why exactly were these necessary. The Blue Dragon also manages to vastly overrate Jian's intelligence. Especially since he speaks a bit about how Ignatius is waiting at the Cathedral for the seal to be broken and the first thing that Jian & Co decide is necessary to do afterwards is to head off to the
Frontier to stop him. Sadly I expect that this will be the right decision.
I assumed that the reason Jian wasn't able to use his magics was that he needed to collect them all first and was confounded when I finished the dragon set and his magics didn't unlock. But I have just now noticed that it looks like he needs to equip elemental rings in order to use the matching elemental magic. So he can only use one element at a time and it blocks him from equipping say the Counter items. That's terrific.
Heading back to Blue Dragon Cave to collect stone foliage now.
[EDIT]
If I had realised I was close to finishing I would have held off from posting until I had done so.
Anyway, finished.
As it turns out Ignatius
was at the Cathedral but Vile Castle was still the right place to go anyway. How Jian is supposed to have intuited this is unknowable.
Anyway, finished.
I would not say that the final boss came out of nowhere exactly, but it was a character that very little had been done with throughout the game. Rufus really needed more time devoted to him as well, especially since his sword was apparently special in some way that's never specified as far as I saw.
Anyway, finished.
The ending was fairly atrocious. Jian is fine in a manner of speaking with Ignatius manipulating Althena but goes off the handle when Althena gets in the way of an attack Ignatius is making and gets hit. Then Althena tries to convince Jian to use the tactics that he had already been trying and failing at. All in all Ignatius ends up losing thoroughly unclimactically and not really directly due to the actions of the heroes. And Titus, another character they occassionally try to convince is is important but is barely relevant, ends up turning into a monster for some reason.
Anyway, finished.
I tried out Jian's magic and it was much better than I was expecting, wiping the floor with Gabryel's technique. Ended up leaving him with magic and assigning countering to Gabryel, although it would probably have been better to have left her with the Force Ring. Plus, his magic was boosted by Flora's attack-boosting buff, which worked wonders considering it was already so powerful.
All in all, the game was competent in terms of gameplay and mediocre in terms of story. Fairly good times were had. Most of all, random equipment breaking needed to not exist, but it seemed to cease being a problem later on - I may have just been being lucky however.
