Star Ocean Notes

Star Ocean Notes

Intro credits video shows nuclear Armageddon. We see launches from planes and subs and cities being nuked. The two leaders come together in the destroyed world and find peace a better idea.
We watch as a space program is created, presumably to find a new planet to go and squabble on since we have wrecked this one.

We can now start a new game and choose difficulty. I choose normal.

We see another cut scene with a voiceover we see much of what we already saw. Then told about the space recon force which is looking for new planets to live on.
We meet Edge who is ducking out of a boring ceremony hiding in the battle simulator. A girl called Reimi turns up who it seems has been chasing Edge for a long time, he is fairly rude to her. She goes off and we get to do some battle simulations.

We are shown how to move. View controls on the camera are reversed, I hate that, you had better be able to change that. The music is also of the irritating variety.
Attacking is done by pressing A repeatedly. There are chain combos.
We are shown how to jump using the B button.
Guarding is done automatically unless you are attacking.
Rush mode is charged by holding B or taking damage. When the rush gauge is full we can press X to unleash rush mode which makes us faster and our chances of critical hits higher.
We are shown that the left and right bumpers allow us to switch between characters in our party that we are controlling.
The party members can either be set to auto or manual which will make them stand still or attack according to a pre-chosen battle tactic.
We are shown that by pressing in the right stick we can change to a more static camera.
We are then free to fight three enemies with a ghost of yourself as an ally.

We can now choose to do more advanced training or leave the simulator.
Blindsides
If you charge a jump with B while an enemy is approaching you and move the left stick when the enemies targeting appears on you. You go into a blindside where you move quickly behind the enemy and can attack for a critical hit.
We are taught about short and long range blindsides. Long range blindsides just move you quickly a long distance.
NOw blindside counters, some enemies can counter a blindside and you only end up taking damage yourself if you try it. Their targeting icon shows as red, you have to wait until their icon flashes to show an attack underway before blindsiding. This means they are already committed to one attack and can't stop to counter your blindside.
Rage pointer
Enemies have a rage icon which shows red or blue. If it's red then it will attack you, if it's blue it will just attack any of your party. You can switch it you you by attacking that enemy repeatedly. You can also switch it from you by blindsiding and not attacking which makes them lose you.
We can assign special arts or symbols to thee left and right trigger buttons as we find them.
We have rising blade which flashes all sorts of lights and sword strokes.
Now we learn rush Combos, which when pressing X and a trigger button when the rush gauge is full unleashes a full party rush combo. We have to do some quicktime button presses during the combo to keep it going.

I have had enough battle training time to leave the simulator.

We are on a base on the moon.
We meet Shimada and Lightspeed Kenny.
Shimada is an asshole.
The dialogue is almost insufferable already. I hope it gets better.

We now get control of our character.
We can change to sprint or walk mode with right trigger and can also trigger a short boost with X.
Yay you can change the camera controls, thank god.
I can now wander the moonbase. The graphics are fairly rudimentary for the environments.
I find a glowing ball, which turns out to be a savepoint. So I can't just save anytime I want. Damn irritating.
Seems  that if I walk any distance at all there is a blank screen and a loading icon.
Oh this isn't the moonbase it's our ship. I find the bridge and Reimi asks if we are ready for take off.
I find an item creation area. Some cargo bays.
There are some bunk rooms and shower rooms further back in the ship.
Also a recreation room.
I go back to the bridge and talk to Reimi to start the next cut scene.
We speak to our support handler from Earth, and she is the most irritating character ever seen. Pink hair, helium voice perky.
Edge speaks to another Captain called Crowe, who seems to be his friend, he has made Captain and Edge hasn't.
Edge is jealous, Crowe tries to give him a pep talk.
The Captian of the Clanus arrives.
Kenny tells everyone the future of the human race rests in their hands.
We watch as three SRF ships launch, though there are more.
They seem to be opening wormholes and driving into them.
Something is wrong there is a distortion wave in the wormhole with them.
It passes them and gravitation waves hit the ship.
Things go pear shaped and an emergency warp out is needed.
The ship goes into an opening in the wormhole, and we see the worst star trek the ship is shaking acting ever from the bridge crew.
The ship comes back into normal space, makes a dodgy reentry through the atmosphere of a planet and crashes on the surface.
Edge awakes after the crash and looks out onto the surface of the new world.
We get control back and find all the rest of the bridge crew lying on the ground.
Going to reimi and talking to her triggers a cut scene.
The crew are all unhurt. Other ships from the fleet have also crashed on the planet. This also seems to be the planet we were heading for anyway. One of the ships is missing.
The Captain wants to go and meet up with the other crews.
Edge is asked to scout the region around the ship to ensure it is safe.

Outside the graphics for the environment aren't bad, but nothing to write home about.
We can pick up blueberries, iron, insect eggs and blackberries from pods.
I find a broken metal cutting blade in a chest.
Lot of poor camera angles, hidden walls and getting hitched on scenery.
I wander around for a while trying to see what to do next. seems I have to speak to two crewmen from another ship. They give me a sniper bangle. Then speaking to Reimi triggers a cut scene.
Reimi is worried about Crowe in the missing ship.
As she talks about the plant life a spider cockroach type thing attacks. The gunss have no effect on them. Reimi is sent back to the ship for Help and Edge finds a sword. The sword works on them and this puts us into battle mode.
We have to fight two spiders or Adephaga as the end of battle menu calls them.
We can wander around again and talk to all the injured.
Seems to be nothing else to do but go back to the ship, going to the bridge triggers a cut scene.
The Captain thanks us for saving the day. One of the other ships beacons has vanished. The captain sends us to investigate, Reimi comes to help, although Edge is mad about it.
The Eremia seems to smoking, which does not look like a good  sign.
Reimi joins our party.
With Reimi in our part we can now harvest at a glowing harvest point.
An area previously blocked by debris has been cleared and we can proceed.
In the new area we get a cut scene showing Reimi using a bow and arrow to kill one of the spiders with one shot.
I find a glowing spot on a wall which is for mining, seems we don't have the party member to do that yet.
We fight some more monsters and meet killer wasps.
Much fighting with the wasps and spiders. Level up a few times.
Have to use berries to heal and restore MP after the battles.
We go into caves and find new monsters, blob like things with teeth and what look like bats.
I have to go through miles of cave to find a save point in an exit back into the jungle area.
I explore the menus a little more and find that SP or skill points i presume can be added to the individual characters in your party. This upgrades their abilities. Battle and harvesting etc.
I eventually find the crashed ship and an unconscious crew member lying on the beach.
In cut scene the party revive him. He tells us that he did as we did and explored. They found the insects and other monsters. He tells us that they found a meteor and took it into the ship. Then the crew went mental and the he blew up the ship. Possibly the person we are speaking to is the mental one.
An alien ship arrives and a man with elf like ears arrives. He seems friendly.
As we are speaking to him the body of the man changes into a huge boss monster.
Which beats me up. We are back a long distance at the last save point.
Why are these jrpg's so unremittingly hostile to the player.
I find attack seeds which have the ability to raise your attack level.
I go back and fight all the monsters I can find in the last area. Then go back to the beach. I find some crabs on the beach.
I eventually manage to kill the boss, using Reimi as a long range weapon.
We chat with Faize who is an Aldarian. He is a member of a race which have been in contact with Earth for a decade. Seems the Earth base have asked them to help us in hour of need.
The monster turned back into a meteor when it died.
Faize joins the party and we get a meteor fragment.
For some unknown reason they want to go back to the ship on foot. There has not been a save point since long before fighting the boss. I am loathe to fight in case I die so I try and avoid all the monsters on the way back to the ship.
When we get to the ship the Eldarians have brought a field base which is pretty impressive.
Inside the base are lots of things to explore, including sickbay, a shop and a science centre.
We find the Captain and a cut scene. The Elves, sorry Eldarians are asked to examine the meteor.
I buy some bangles and a new bow for Reimi at the shop. I sell my junk and buy berries and supplies for healing.
We are told to go back to the Captain when we are ready for the next mission.
When we do We are taken to the calnus which has been repaired and also upgraded.
Edge gets promoted to Captain of the new Calnus.
He is hesitant but accepts.
Faize and Reimi are his crew.
We get to travel to another planet, I missed what our actual mission is but off we go.
Edge gets all philosophical about the responsibility of being a captain.
We speak on the radio to Shimada who is rude as usual.
Then chat about Crowe with Reimi and Faize.
We go to the battle simulator and have a fight where i get hopelessly beaten.
Then find a control in the bunk room where we can assign rooms to the crew members.
The the creation interface where Welch appears and scares the heck out of Faize with bad jokes.

End of First days play 5hours 30 mins.

I find my bed and rest until we arrive at the new planet. You have to go to the bridge and get talked through the landing sequence.
As we leave the ship, someone is spying on us.
There are new monsters, here a form of living plant called Dryads.
Birds called Perytons.
We find a village.
The villagers are middle ages level tech and think we are gods.
Ghimdo the elder talks with us, his legs are turning to stone caused by some kind of virus.
New monsters are invading the land.
As we are talking with the elder a little girl buts in and nearly knocks Edge over.
Faize recognises that the villager have rudimentary symbology. Turns out that the girl has a very powerful fiery dog attack.
Bacculus is the name of the plague. The little girl is to go on a quest to another village to get a symbol to cure the bacculus.
Lymle wants to be called Lym and does not seem to like Faize much.
After completing the cut scene I expected a save point to be available in the village. I had to run around for ages into the new snowly landscape of the mountains before finding a save point. All the time avoiding combat. Don't these developers understand that people have lives to lead and can't play on in a game for another half hour just to find a save point.

Another half hour. 6hours total.

Day 2
I fight some more lizard and mushroom type enemies.
I use the SP to upgrade my parties attributes.
I explore the area and grind. I find a bridge to the west and entrance to a large building to the east and another large castle type structure to the North.
I try the North castle. As we try and open the door a pink light enters edge and he is granted symbology powers.
Edge learns healing and Remei is jealous as she doesn't get symbology powers.
Inside the castle is a large cauldron like area with glowing blue light. There are stone shapes around it.
There are Stone golems and skeleton warriors in here.
Some of the stoone shapes have glowing blue jewels in them, pressing the jewels makes to stone shapes move up to the ceiling. These act as doors in some places and the others do something undetermined as yet.
There are rooms around the west and east of  the main circular room. In these are more monsters and some chests. Inside them I find some of the jewels that move the stone shapes.
I have to go and do some real life stuff and after an hours play I can't find a save point inside the temple. If I leave it all the monsters will return. I have to or I will be unable to save. This design is unacceptable Saving at any point should be a law with the dealth penalty for breaking it.
I find that there are doors to higher stories of the castle.
Also little green things that look like save points refill your HP and MP.
The stone shapes are locked doors basically. You have to find around 6 keys to move them all to get to one that is a lift to the highest level of the castle.
Which means much exploring and much fighting.
There is a save point before a door on the top floor. This looks ominous.
When we enter the room there is a woman being menaced by a Dragon Newt.
Lym tries to use the cerebrus summons on it but it  is defeated. The other three come to Lym's aid in a little skit on teamwork, which is actually sickening to watch.
Now we have to fight the dragon.
Which actually wasn't that hard surprisingly.
The woman we came to see was presumably the one being menaced by the dragon. She is crushed under rubble and appears dead. So it's a dead end, until Lym spots that someone has learned the symbol from a nearby village. You apparently have to leave your name in the temple when you learn a symbol.
So it's off to the next village.
In this areas we find mana yeti, horned turtles, apprentice scumbags.
At the village I find Lutea's house. She does know the symbol for curing bacculus, unfortunately this is a new strain that her symbology does not work on. We have to find the source of the new bacculus and make a new symbol for it. She gives us a symbol stone for this purpose. all we have to do is find the source.
I find my first side quest, to return a lost child to a storekeeper. The child is standing almost outside the shop and speaking to her returns her.
Inside the shop I buy and speak to the little girl. She has lost her cat in the forest, that is why she wandered off. We agree to go look for the cat.
I find a barrier made of trees, finding an orchid at random seems to have lowered the tree barrier. Now I can get back to the ship. I also find the cat so I suppose I will have to go back to the village first.
I encounter man eating trees.
Back at the village and we don't even get a reward for saving the cat!
I go back to the other village. I suppose we have to find out where the old man was to contract the bacculus to find the source.
He tells us this time that another celestial ship landed and monsters appeared and then the bacculus started.
Why he didn't mention this the first time i don't know.
We go off to the site of the ship landing and Lymle is left to look after Grampa. I was just thinking great, then the grampa sends her off after them. Seems he is sick of her too.
Edge postulates the theory that the ship could be Crowe's, however grampa said it crashed a month prior. That is to early to be Crowe. Faize suggests that it is possible if the warp accident shot them out into an earlier time. That may also be what happened to the ship on the first planet that got taken over by the meteor monster. They might have been on the planet a month longer than Edge's gang.
We have to get a fire ring filled up by a sorceress in the village to get to where we are going.
I find the path and it's blocked with mounds of ice which the fire ring can clear for us.
Along this path are sabre toothed tigers.
We see the ship in the distance and it isn't one of ours.

End of seconds days play 3:30 making a total of 9:30

Third days play
We enter the ship through an icy tunnel. The interior has locked doors which we can open with plastic explosives we find lying around.
I find a chest encased in ice and use the fire ring to open it. Inside is a skill manual, which when read by a character gives them a new skill.
We make our way through the ship to a marked point where Faize finds a computer he can access.
We see a video of aliens named Caridionon. They mutate into the lizard creatures we have been fighting and start attacking each other. Seems they have regressed and mutated somehow. The ship crashed after this change.
We go on to the bridge and find a large diamond shaped floating thing.
Which seems to be made of the same stuff as the meteor fragment. Lyms symbol stone glows, she touches the stone to the diamond and it absorbs it. A large monster then appears.
I manage to kill this boss called barachiel on my second attempt.
Seems he was the ships captain mutated. On his defeat the meteor fragment turns into a blinding light which leaves through the roof of the ship. All the lizardmen in the surrounding area turn to stone and then blow away like dust in a wind. Seems our chance of getting a cure is gone.
On getting back to the village we find that all the patients who had the bacculus have turned to stone when the monster was defeated.
Edge is distraught at causing their deaths, but Faize suggests that more and more would have died if they had not done it.
Lym decides to come with them to find the source of the meteor and all the trouble it has caused.
Back at the ship Faize find a picture of Crowe's ship the Aquila near a planet named Cardianon where the lizardmen were from. We set off to find him.
On the journey we can do the usual chatting to the crew. Welch taunts Lymle now. Faize is still in love with Edge. Lymle draws on the walls. It's more like a nursery than a serious interplanetary exploration mission.
When we get to Cardianon we find a huge artifical structure.
It pulls them in with a magnetic field.
Inside the bay nothing happens, Edge decides to go our exploring with the aim of finding our about the meteor, Crowe and getting the tractor beam turned off.
As we leave the initial bay the intentions of the Cardianons are revealed when we are attacked by their soldiers and robots.
We are attacked by more robots than Cardianons. We work our way through the ship until we come to a data terminal. Faize gets a passcode and the location of the generator. Looks like something bad has happened to the Cardianons, they may not be in control here.
We find a computer that needs an id card to use.
In the next big area we find a lot of coldsleep pods. There are mutated lizard men here, what the Cardianon turn into when the meteor stuff infects them.
Something with very large footsteps is coming their way so the gang decide to keep moving in the other direction, after all they now only want to escape.
The dead lizardman has the id card on his chest, but it's frozen on. we need to raise the temperature somehow.
I manage to eventually recharge my thunder ring using plasma from a broken conduit.
I can then hit the controls with the thunder ring and raise the temperature. This releases a load of lizardmen from the coldsleep pods.
I manage to get the card and can now use the computer.
We find out that the Cardianon were invading a lot of worlds not just Lemuris.
They have data on the meteor but they are encrypted. The file is called the ephianies of guidance.
Seems they have an object in an isolation chamber. Probably the source of the trouble on this ship. So what do we do, we go head for it. Of course we have to get  to the boss battle somehow.
The can enter a room and are teleported into a cell.
Which renders all their weapons inert.
A voice says that their power is given by the epiphanies of guidance.
A lizardman talks to them. He gives the we will rule the universe speech
He wants our gang to stop a steel giant. He thinks it's part of our team due to the same emblem. Looks like Crowe is here and causing problems.
They want us to talk to Crowe, Edge does, but only to tell him to kill em all.
Seems that it isn't Crowe as the steel giant comes bursting through the cell walls. He is an alien named Bacclus. He joins our party. We now escape the cells. There is an awful lot of this mothership to traverse and I am losing sight of objectives in all these corridors.
We get random battles from flying ships as we progress through a huge s shaped section of the ship.
Now we find forcefields barring our way.
I find two maze like circular areas with conecentic circular areas. There are conduits to zap with the thunder ring. I think I have done them all but nothing happens.
I find an area I can't get into. I don't know what to do. I am running around for two hours fighting the same monsters over and over as it's hard to avoid them in the small corridors.
I find a door I missed and explore, there is another concentric ring structure. This one has moving conveyor belts. Which make negotating the laser fields fun. There are also dragons roaming around.
I hit a conduit and Then go through another door.
Bacchus explains that he is from a race called the Morphus. Seems that the epiphanies of guidance are what he calls grigori. They are a race that seem to be parasites. The land on planets as meteors and mutate the inhabitants and take them over. They then use them to wage galactic wars just for the sake of it. Seems the Grigori just hate everything and want to destroy. They attatched themselves to the Cardianons and have nuked their planet and made them into space nomads looking for a new homeworld to invade.
Bacchus tells us that he and Crowe came together to destory the Grigori. However Crowe has been sent to the Morphus homeworld for help.
We are near to the Grigori and Bacchus hopes we can do them in without backup.

End of Third days play 5 hours 14:30 in total.

We come into a large chamber with one of the Grigori Crystals. Bacchus blasts it with a nuke and seemingly destroys it. The commanding cardiannon arrives in a walker type  robot and is zapped by sparkling dust from the broken crytal and mutates into a gryphon type boss.
This fight wasn't that hard.
He goes down fairly easily.
Edge is angry that he could not win by diplomacy and had to kill the cardianon.
The cardianon leader is not dead and hurls a grenade at the party.
Bacchus throws himself on it and is injured and though not dead can't fight on.
We get control back and in the next area find the generator. Shutting it down is a short lived affair as it immediately comes back on and a countdown to a warp starts. If the team are still on the ship when it warps they will never be able to return. Bacchus tells them to leave him as he is unable to walk.
Of course the gang are too noble/stupid to do that. They drag him along.
WE get a few corridors with bulkheads that close making us stop to fight two sets of robot flying drones.
This is repeated about five times then a cut scene. We see the woman from earlier, she stops the final bukhead from closing on the gang and appears to be disappointed that they are not the red haired man. She vanishes again.
We are back at the ship.
When you get on board a cut scene shows you leaving in a hurry and the cardianon ship vanishing.
On the ship Edge has a crisis and the gang give him support.
Bacchus wants a ride home so we take him to EnII. The Morphus home artifical world.
On the way the ship is brought out of warp suddenly and sucked into a blackhole/wormhole.
The ship crashlands on Earth. However it's Earth before the war. Have they went back in time?
Nobody seems to want to voice this possiblity.
They leave the ship to go look around.
In the garage edge finds a magazine which points to the date being 1957. The gang discuss at length.
The military turn up annd block the gang off from the ship.
Why they don't just blow them to bits I don't know.
A man called Klaus arrives and tells them to come with him and he will explain.
In the house Lymle is there and it turns out that Reimi has been captured while out looking for Lymle who run off to look around.
Klaus tells them that he will pretend to have captured them and get them into the base.
We are going to the base to help Reimi.
Klaus tells us that the base is area 51. and there is another alien there being held captive.
We are to save her as well.

End of 4th days play 1:20 15:50hrs in total.

Inside the base soldiers take us into a cell. Klaus tells us that he will unlock it. However, this will unlock all the cells and there are experimental creatures. I thought we wouldn't end up fighting humans.
We get locked in the cell.
The alarm goes off and we get our weapons back from Bacchus who is cloaked.
We see  Klaus blow up a generator and get attacked for his trouble.
We find ourselves in the cell areas fighting bigfoot and little aliens.
The gang find cat girl but she runs off.
20 mins

I go through a door and a cut scene shows the cat girl being attacked by a large creature with a birds beak and as snakes head for arms, it's called a Genomic beast.
It seems to be a boss battle. I take it out fairly easily, though a longer than usual fight.
The girl is called Meracle. She kisses the team and joins them, they tell her they are to take her home. The problem is that she can't remember where she is from. Seems she can only remember ever being on spaceships.
There is something distinctly disturbing about a tiny girl with cat ears a tail and stockings and suspenders. Very japan paedophilic.

The Calnus has been brought inside the base.
We meet Milla Bachtein, Klaus's wife. She seems to be trying to side with the gang.
Milla tells us that she is protecting the Earth, seems this is an alternate reality Earth.
Energy is running out. She thinks that nuclear power is the key to the future.
However she is prepared to take any alien gizmo that the gang might have.
Edge suddenly realises that if they give them a better energy source then it will rewrite history and save the war that destroys Earth. He seems misguided but wants to go ahead anyway.
The exalithium crystal that powers the ship is what Milla wants.
Edge wants to trust milla, however Bacchus and Faize are unsure.
Edge gives her the crystal.
Milla locks them all in a cell. They find Reimi naked and unconscious.
Milla is a nutjob and wants to blow everything up and rule it, even if she doesn't know what is out there in space.
Milla has handily built an antimatter generator, though Bacchus thinks it crude and it will blow up.
Edge has a breakdown.
We get control locked in the room and it seems we have to speak to Reimi.
Speaking to Reimi, she wakes up loses her sheet and slaps Edge for looking.
Edge has another breakdown.
Faize and Bacchus give him the Captain speech and Edge decides to leave the planet, well done, destroy humanity entirely.
We get control and speaking to meracle triggers another cut scene.
Klaus opens the cell door and lets the gang out.
Klaus then goes to speak with Milla.
Meracle takes a fit but comes with the gang anyway.
Klaus hugs Milla and tells her that kevin wasn't her fault. Seems that they lost their son.

50 mins
We make our way through another section of the base and get to the ship.
Meracle has a crisis, Edge tells her that he will be her friend and she manages to get on the ship.
The ship can't escape the pull of the new forming black hole that Milla's experiment is making without it's crystal.
Meracle has a crystal given to her by the Klaus.
Turns out that it is a special Exalithium  crystal. Faize and Bacchus are especially excited by this.
Seems that is is hugely powerful.
The gang escape and the Earth vanishes into a singularity and there is a huge explosion.
The gang find they are now back in the time they came from. The Calnus, Edge and Reimi still being here seems to suggest that the Earth was an alternate reality version.
The gang seem happy enough that all is well. Edge has a breakdown at his seeming responsibility for the destruction of Earth, even if it was an alternate one.
We find ourselves on the Bridge a quick chat around the characters shows that the engines are offline and we need to go to a planet nearby called Roak to get repaired.
Welch turns up and confirms that Earth is still around. Edge is still beating himself up. Faize is getting sick of him. Bacchus sympathises with Edge.
A ship attacks, however, another ship chases it away. An Eldarian ship, the grumpy Eldarian from earlier on Aeos is still grumpy.
The calnus limps towards Roak.
Edge still sulks, so Reimi takes on acting Captaincy.
The ship lands on Roak, Bacchus has installed a cloak which keeps it hidden from the middle ages level inhabitants.
This is a greaan and pretty land. There are unicorn wolves, honeybees, kobold bandits, axe beaks,  lurking aorund to fight.
We meet some people and they have ears and tails like Meracle, though she does not feel that this is her home.
We see a person riding a huge pink rabbit.
After much countryside we come to a town. There are weird monks in the town.
Reimi is limping for some reason.
The gang hear a cry for help. Edge wants to ignore it but the rest decide to intervene. A woman is being taken away by the monks.
Edge goes bersek and saves the woman.
Edge is seriously losing it.
The rescued woman is called Sarah. she seems simple minded. She seems to think Edge and Reimi are familiar. There is some stuff about Humans being similar to the Muah who founded the colony on Roak. The gang want to investiagte the Purgatorium. Edge is really freaking out.
No word on who the monks were and why they were taking Sarah away.
We have to ride on the bunnies to get to the Purgatorium.
The desert is impassable due to sinking sand, we have to go to a tent and speak to nomads to get some bunnies.
The bunnies it appear are like summoned creatures.
faize gets a click with the nomad girl.
We have to go back out of the village to catch a bunnie. Reimi collapses with a fever.
Edge takes her back to the village to find a doctor.
Sarah is having a dream about the village being attacked by firey zombies and a thing with glowing pink eyes.
Reimi has stone sickness, Sarah tells us that there is a cure and she knows where it is.
Edge feels even worse.
They have to go to Astral castle to find the remedy.
Again around forty minutes looking for a save point.

1:30

I leave the inn where we were and go to the barge to Astral. We get on and watch a cut scene of the gang talking to Sarah. She says her race are called featherfolk. There is a King who controls the rememdy for Reimi.
Sarah ask that after they get Reimi fixed they take a small detour on their way to the Purgatorium to meet a friend of hers. The friends name is Eleyna and Meracle thinks she has read about her in a book and wants to meet her too.
We arrive at Astral city.
They leave Reimi in an inn and go looking for the cure.
The castle guards let us in.
The King greets us. He agrees to give us some remedy. Sarah asks about the Archfiend. The king has heard of a group who worship Asmodeus the archfiend. Looks like we will soon be helping stop the Archfiend.
Edge sees someone sneaking into the castle while he waits for the remedy to be brewed.
We get control and explore a bit of castle until a cut scene starts.
The remedy has been stolen. We are now after the thief.

1 hour
We have to go back to the first town, and then find that The Black eagle has hid in the colosseum.
Seems to be a slight bug here. Getting into the Collosseum to find the Black Eagle.
Need to speak two random NPC's
Had to consult walkthrough here. Needs an objective waypoint marker.
Inside the collosseum we get another agonising from Edge. Faize says he will fight instead if Edge does not. Edge decides to fight.
We have to take on the Black eagle with only Edge, which takes me a few goes as I have never really used him due to his lack of ranged weapons.
The Black Eagle was hired to steal the remedy by someone else.
Lias turns up, one of the Kings soldiers tasked with finding the remedy.
Lias calls Edge a hero and gives him some of the remedy. Maybe this will give him some confidence back and stop him whining, maybe not.
We cut to the inn where Edge gives Reimi the cure and it heals her.
Sarah is astonished by the speed of Reimi's recovery, her sickness was totally unusual.
Reimi decides to confess to a secret. She was part of a project called Hope to make humans resistant to radiation. She is one of three that the project produced. She, Edge and Crowe.
This genetic adaptation means that the three of them have some strange powers.
Seems that the Muah genes are the source of this augmentation.
Reimi tells sob stories about her childhood and Edge hugs her. She tries to get him to come out of his mood.
He is still sulking but feels better.
Edge goes out for some air and is attacked by yobs who try and steal his sword.
Myuria turns up, she is the one from the Cardianon ship. She is looking for Crowe, Seems she wants to kill him. She tells Edge that Crowe killed her lover.
Myuria tells Edge that she will be watching him and leaves.
Meracle comes to Edge and says that Sarah has been kidnapped.
They go looking for her. seems the Archfiend's worshippers have taken her.
I trek back and forth looking but can't see any trigger points.
I decide to go and try the bunnies bit again.
At the nomad tents Faize is eager to go in, however there is no one there.
I find a bunny and we simple have to press A to ride it.
Taking it through the desert I am prompted to insert disc 2.
The town of Trop is our next stop.
1:10

I wander around trop and Find Elyna's house but she isn't there.
We are told that the Purgatorium is to the north so I decide to investiagate it.
Going through some caves we reach another green area.
I fight some little creatures called spirt priests and one of them turns Bacchus into a pumpkin.
When we ge to the Purgatorium a cut scene starts.
Edge finds a feather and thinks it looks like Sarah's.
There are statues they do look like Edge and Reimi, they could also be any two human male and females. The Muah it seems have visited earht and roak and seeded the planets with their genes.
The gang can find nothing else in the Purgatorium. Meracle thinks they should go back to trop and see Elynea.
When we get back to Trop a cut scene starts. There is a priest of Asmodeous preaching the the gospel. Telling the people that the corruption of the wealthy blights the land and withholds the cure to the stone sickness. However he suggests that Asmodeous will burn the world and all on it. Those who believe in Asmodeous will be saved and delivered into a new world.
Eleyna's house is now open. A cut scene shows the gang breaking and entering and two Archfiend thugs watching from across the street.
As the gang look around the archfiends men set fire to the house. Trapped inside and about to die the gang are teleported to a cave. Eleyna appears to be a bit of an asshole.
Eleyna takes them to her hideout and it's no wonder that a lot of people want her dead.
We watch Myuria taking out the archfiend's men who are approaching Eleyna's hideout.
Seems someone called Giotto has tasked her with stopping the archfiends ressurection.
Elyena tells the gang about the archfiend, and how she uses Augury to tell the future.
She has foreseen that the gang will save Sarah and prevent the ressurection of the archfiend.
Seems that Sarah is to be sacrificed to the archfiend to bring him to life.
Eleyna glows and talks in a different tone of voice and predicts the end of the world if the gang fail to stop Sarah from being killed.
Edge is still worrying about his performance anxiety when it comes to world saving.
Eleyna collapses rather than listen to Edge whine.
Faize argues with Edge instead.
We then get control and have to chat with the gang. Another cut scene starts.
Eleyna gives them a keycard for the purgatorium.
Eleyna tells Edge that even though his actions might seem to be a catalyst for something bad to happen, it is not only his actions that bring things to be. She tells him that he is only an insignificant cog in the wheels of fate. Which hopefully will stop him whining for a while.
Myuria turns up and tells them that since their goals are the same she is joining them.
Fire corpse monsters can be found inside the purgatorium now.
The purgatorium is a maze of corridors and chambers. There are lit braziers all ovr the place. There are also somme doors that cannot be passed due to a dark haze which knocks you back as you try and go through.
There are some braziers that are unlit. Lighting them opens secret doors. There are rooms with satutues of knights that point with theirr glowing axes at braziers which need to be lit in a correct order to open the doors. There are around three rooms with these puzzles

and then you get to the guardian of the purgatorium boss fight.
When you complete that you get a light ring.
The light ring lets you open the darkened doors.
The dungeon keeps on going and going without any save points.
There are bigger and bigger versions of the follow the knights pattern to light the braziers. Large rooms with complex floor plans and raising and lowering staircases.
The final puzzle is a huge area where water drains out of the entire area opening up a new floor plan once you have drained the water away.
Finally we get a save point, the end of level boss must be coming.
Faize overhears some priests talking, it seems they have sacrificed the girl he met at the nomad caravan. Faize goes to kill them in rage and they commit suicide before he can turning themselves to stone.
The boss is Tamiel, the priest we saw earlier. He wants to destroy the world and himself yada yada.
We get a few ambush waves of archfiend soldiers and then Tamiel himself joins in. He can spawn more soldiers during the battle which is a pain in the ass. He takes a lot of killing and I had to grind a bit on the prior areas to get my level up enough to take him out. The first time I have had to do that.
When we kill him a cut scene shows us him vanishing into a crack in the ground. The gang are reunited with Sarah. Edge has another breakdown about not blowing up the world this time.
Faize goes over and finds the nomad girls broach. His eyes turn red and he has a quicker turn to the dark side than Anakin Skywalker.
We have to make our way back out of the Purgatorium. When we do a cut scene shows Sarah buggering off with little in the way of thanks for all the rescuing and world saving.
A message tells them to go back to the Calnus.
Looks like we have to do so on foot. Eventually I make it and a cut scene.
Welch tells the gang that the colony on Aeos and the entire Eldarian race have dropped out of contact.
Time to investigate.
Sarah has stowed away on the ship.
On arrival on Aeos the base and an Eldarian ship are smoking ruins.
A ship passes overhead, it is similar to the one that attacked them in space. The one that the Eldarian with a bad attitude chased off.
Myuria says that they are being called phantoms for now.
I explore Aeos again and go totally the wrong way.
I find the phantom ship eventually and we are ambushed by humanoids with sparkly red and black skin.
7:20

5 hours
Grinding a long time to get through the phantom warrior fight.

After a long fight with lots and lots of waves of phantom soldiers we get to a cut scene.
The gang are being overwhelmed by the phantoms.
The ship that Faize arrived on arrives and blow all the guns off the phantom ship. Then Crowe and Arumat the Eldarian warrior with the attitude problem arrives.
Edge is just about to greet Crowe when Myuria attacks him. Crowe can't remember her.
Then he seems to and we get a flashback.
Myuria and her partner are on their ship and it is attacked by an unknown enemy.
Her partner sends her off in an escape pod unconscious. She awakes to see their ship explode.
Crowe seems to have saved Lucien's ship by destroying the attacker. However, he died in the ship as there was no escape pods left.
Myuria saw Crowe on his ship and thought he was the aggressor.
Crowe gives her a message recorded by Lucien that clears up the whole mess.
Edge asks about the Aeos base and what is going on with the Phantoms.
Crowe tells them that the Grigori is to blame. these new phantoms ships are copies of things the Grigori kill.
Arumat explains to faize that Eldar has been destroyed, the only surviving Eldarians are on evacuation ships.
Eldars sun was induced to go into it's red giant phase early. The evacuation fleet was attacked by Phantom ships. Eldar consumed in flames.
Crowe tells them that the remnants of the Eldarian evacuation fleet are in orbit around Aeos.
He gets a communication telling them that the phantom fleet is attacking. Crowe goes back into orbit to coordinate the battle. Arumat stays with the gang to take out the Grigori on Aeos.
Faize decides to go with Crowe and leaves the party.

We explore the north east of the outside of Aeos and then go down into the insect warrens.
4 hours.

Inside the insect warrens there are sinkholes which move you up and down a level. You have to make your way through until the boss encounter with the Grigori.
An old queen insect corpse  is animated by the grigori and attacks. This is a darn annoying boss battle against a spider like creature which can only be hurt by blindsiding. The first time that this tactic has really been used by me and it's a steep learning curve this late in the day. Eventually I manage to get it.

When the boss dies we see a cut scene of edge smashing the grigori stone. As he does the battle in space is going very badly for the Eldarians. Crowe's ship is disabled and the Eldarians are being slaughtered by masses of phantom ships. Faize takes a wobbly as he watches the remnants of his race being wiped out and goes out on a suicide mission with his own little fighter ship. Just as he is about to be killed Edge's actions on the planet cause a blinding flash which we don't see the outcome of.
Back in the warrens we have a chat with Arumat who tells us that he thinks he is death himself as anyone who spends any time near him dies. Edge tells him what he thinks of that nonsense and Arumat stays with them. The gang are going to go to ENII to find out what to do next.
We have to trudge all the way back out of the caves and back to the calnus, where can now chose to go to En II.
On the way the Calnus is attacked by phantom ships. They are saved by Lightspeed Kenny.
He listens to Edge's report and then tells them his news. The Eldarians are attacking Earth because the phantoms ships look like SRF ships, they now blame Earth for the attacks.
The Humans have decided that they will pretend the SRF never existed and thus shift the blame. Everyone who new of the SRF is dead. The calnus is the only evidence of it left.
Edge tells Lightspeed Kenny they he isn't going to go quietly. Kenny agrees and lets Edge go.
There is a flashback of Kenny talking to the Director Shimda. He is being an asshole. Which shows us Kenny's motivation for letting Edge go.
1 hour

When we arrive at EnII there is nothing visible, a diamond shaped structure then appears. A voice speaks to them and allows them to dock.
Once docked Bacchus says they have to go and meet Ex.
Bacchus asks if he can upgrade the Calnus' weapons. Edge reluctantly agrees.
We get to wander around the EnII structure for a bit then speak to Giotto. Who shows us Ex, which seems to be an a.i. which is said to transcend time.
Ex tells the gang that there is a force which wishes to reshape the universe and basically edit out all life.
Edge gets angry and asks Ex what they can do to stop this.
The unknown will that wants to destroy all life does so because the universe evolves with life and changes gently to support it. If there is no life then the universe will become a different thing entirely. The unknown will is also called the missing procedure, which feeds on life energy it absorbs from living things. The grigori are released into the universe by the missing procedure to speed up evolution and therefore speed up the feeding that the missing procedure can do.
As Ex is about to tell the gang what they can do to help its plans to stop the missing procedure as it seems it cannot be destoyed, there is a huge thump which rocks EnII.
A grigori has smashed into EnII, the gang go off to fight it as Ex suggests.
Here we have an elevator that allows us to go to a few places. There is a small town like area where we can buy some supplies and get some side quests.
We need a wind ring which I had to look up the whereabouts of in a walkthrough.
It's in a tree.
We can now get into the next area.
There are stroper, lightning corpses, cursed horrors, metal gollums and master wizards in this road to the sanctuary.
Eventually I get to the sancutary through a long maze of very samey block like corridors.

Here there is a recharge point, a save point and some monsters to grind in case you haven't reached a high enough level to defeat the boss. The boss stands in the centre of the arena waiting for you to walk up the steps to the platform. Which is nice of him to wait until you have grinded the monsters around the platform and got all the items surrounding.
When we take him on a cut scene shows the creature, a humanoidish shaped knight. It spouts the usual Grigori stuff about one being all and reshaping a new universe. The gang are rendered unconscious by it and all looks lost before it has begun. However, Reimi's power marking glows and she gets up and shoots the grigori in the head. This seems to break the spell and the others awake. The grigori is shocked by this display of power. With everyone up again the fight begins.
This is a long long fight, not hard like prior fights where you just weren't levelled up enough.
The boss seems to be armoured in a way that only at very specific times can you do any real damage. You just have to keep on plugging away and eventually you get there.
The gang are happy to have defeated this Grigori and Giotto tells them to rest in the centropolis.
Edge and Reimi have a little intimate moment.
We get control back and are back in the centropolis.
When we go to the control room loads of morphus are waiting to congratulate the gang.
Giotto tells the gang about the Nox Obscuris. An interface between the grigori and the missing procedure.
The cycle seems to be that the missing procedure absorbs life energy, to facilitate this the grigori are produced to stimulate the rapid evolution of life. The Nox Obscuris is the method by which the life energy is channelled to the missing procedure. If this Nox obscuris can be disabled then the Missing procedure would be starved of energy.
The Nox obscuris is a planet and there is one life sign at it's core.
The Morphus intend to assult the planet. The Calnus has been upgraded.
The Nox obscuris is also on the move, it's destination Earth.
Heading to the calnus starts a cut scene. We watch as EnII moves in front of the Nox Obscuris and launches all it's ships including the Calnus. There is a huge space battle.
The Calnus breaks through the first lines of defence only to be met with much larger forces nearer the planet. As they approach however the phantoms are attacked by Eldarian forces.
Gaghan and Kenny are there and hail them.
With renewed vigour the combined Eldarian and EnII fleets engage the Phantoms. The calnus is able to get to the pole.
As they approach however the whole planet morphs into a dragon type ccreature and breathes fire. The fire toasts most of the fleet and the moonbase, we see Director Shimda's deserved end.
Edge is left nearly alone with little left to fight with.
Crowe turns up, however his ship is wrecked.
Crowe tells them that he thinks Faize is dead. He plans to drive his ship inot the beast and blow the engines making a black hole that will destroy the beast.
This he does after a little speech.
This leaves the Nox Obscuris exposed and the Calnus comes in to land.
Lymle's drawings on the floor of the ship which had seemed childish now prove to be symbols and she uses them to shield the ship while it lands.
Eventually we are down on the planet and fighting a variety of phantom versions of enemies we have enocuntered. The landscape is a lunar type surface with venting gas and balls of plasma flying aroound and exploding.
You can use the plasma as elevators to get to higher levels.
Eventually the gang get to a hurricane which seems to be artificial and blocking the way.
Meracle tells them she can smell something different and leads them to a way in created by a part of Crowe's ship.
There is a temple ahead and after speech making the gang go in.
Inside time is frozen until we stand on a plate. There is a swinging bridge type set up here. Like the pendulum of a clock.
There is plenty of monsters to fight.
I find the exit and move on.
The next area is composed of metors and teleporter doors which take you the next rock.
There are two large rooms full of monsters and treasure, with two areas of the meteors. There are three pendulum rooms as well. This is a right big maze and the save points are non existant.
You have to examine a mirror and a statue in order in one area to get a staff which is needed to break chains holding the last pendulum.
You then get to a save point and the boss.
The apostle of creation chats for a bit, he thinks that life is full of sadness and woe, he proposes that it should end and the new form of life that the missing procedure wants to create.
After fighting the apostle it turns out to be evil Faize.
He transports you to a strange dimension.
This is a maze where you can't see too far in front of you. There are hundreds of grigori, if you touch them then you have to fight a boss from earlier. Eventually following a light that the rest of the gang can't see you get another cut scene.
Edge sees many people telling him that this is the light of life itself.
Edge manages to bring the gang out of the dimension and back to the Apostle/faize.
Faize takes this badly and starts a process which seems to go badly for him.
The apostle changes into something else, like a robotic angel.
I die after about half an hour of plugging away at this boss.
Long boss battles are a real turn off for me.
I try and increase my stats and find all sorts of shit in here. Monsters I have killed loads of have 100% monster data and I can add the data to monster jewels of which I have around 12 of. These jewels can be worn and increase stats and grant immunities too certain things.
The beat system has me clueless. I can change between three settings, however my characters are only powerful in one type of beat, so that is no use.

I level up to level 70 by hours of relentless grinding.
Eventually I manage to kill Satanail.
We see Faize as he usually looks fall to the ground.
Edge and Lymle call him a dummy.
The building starts to fall down around them. Edge and Faize are trappped while the others are urged to make a run for it.
All looks bleak as the place crumbles around the gang then Giotto turn up with his teleporter which now works due to the missing procedure being down. Edge and Faize end up with Faize hanging over the edge of the chasm. Faize lets go and Edge can't hold him.
Edge then is left to fall as the others are saved by Giotto.

The scene cuts to Kenny giving a speech to a un type organisation.
The upshot is that the Prime directive from Star Trek is to be implemented so that evolution is allowed to go on in it's own way. We see Reimi and Edge watching, how can this be we just saw Edge Die.
The scene cuts back to just after the Nox Obscuris disintegrated. We see Edge arrive back with the fleet on Faize's ship.
The gang are told that The Eldarians are going to move the remnants of their culture to Lemuris. Edge takes a strop and tells them that it's a bad idea. He likens what the Eldarians will do to Lemuris as the same as the Missing procedure.
After debate the Eldarians vow to go to lemuris without their technology and go back to the middle ages level of tech to fit in with the Lemurans.
We see Lymle return home to Lemuris.
Bacchus to EnII.
Meracle to stay with the seer woman.
Sarah finds her wings still don't work.
Myuria lays flowers on the grave of her husband.
Arumat can't hack being back to the middle ages and flies off on his own.
Edge and Reimi get a ship in the interplanetary transport fleet.
They meet Klaus, only he does not know them, it seems he is this realities version of the man they met on the alternate reality Earth.
He talks about making a human warp drive and not relying on the Eldarian one.
The credits roll.

Seems I have spent around 60 hours playing.
270 Measly achievement points.