02. Rescue

SHOULD-GET ITEM - Make sure to get Worn Bow from one of archerwomen after you kill them. There are six archerwomen, and if none drops the bow, reload your last save and try again. You can get this bow via enchantment later, but the required ingredient is very hard to obtain, so I recommend getting the bow now.

I think we should make our escape now - go E from your position and thru the open door. Aya will give you several items and spill her beans on camping.

Here's some lowdown on camping:

• Press Back to open the menu and perform various tasks such as assigning skills, making items, talking to party members and so on.
• Be careful where you camp! You should always perform camping when there are no enemies around, because game flows in real time when menu is open.

Menu now becomes available. You get 3x RED BERRY POTION, BLUE BERRY POTION,
5x MIRACULOUS MEDICINE, while Aya herself HAS 2x VEGGIE SALAD, 2x BERRY BREAD,
COBASNA SALAD SANDWICH, TOAST OF DAWN, 3x FRESH HERB, 2x FAYEL WHEAT. She has a weapon Cork Bow, armor Patched Leather Jacket, helmet Patched Leather Cap,
boots Patched Leather Boots, and acc Sacrificial Doll, and begins as lv3 chr.

Proceed S by going upstairs. Looksie, a treasure chest!

Here's some lowdown on examining/(s)talking(Aya):

• With your sword sheathed, press A to examine objects, chests or anything else that looks of interest. You can also talk to people in same manner.

Here's some lowdown on treasure chests:

• Chests come in four flavors.
• WOODEN CHEST is never locked, but it may be trapped. You can destroy such chests with several sword swings.
• STEEL CHEST is always locked. To open it, you need to Connect with either Vic or Komachi and examine the chest while Connected. You can destroy such chests with several sword swings.
• BIG STEEL CHEST is never locked, it cannot be destroyed, and may be trapped.
• MIMIC CHEST may resemble either of the above three types. Once approached, chest turns into an enemy - kick its ass to obtain small amount of EXP, but big fol award.
• Sometimes, you'll see a chest out of reach, or behind a boulder. To get chests out of reach, you need to Connect with Komachi and use one of her skills to claim contents of the chest. As for boulders, you need to Connect with Balbagan or Gustav and use one of their skill to break the rock, thus freeing the way to the chest.
• If you destroy the chest, there's 50% chance for the item inside to turn to JUNK, which you should collect, as it's a part of some IC. If you break the chest without junking the item inside, you'll obtain the item itself.

Smash SCH to obtain BLACK BERRY POTION, open WCH to get BRONZE SCALE GREAVES.
Equip them, then continue E towards SPN. Save your progress, and talk to 'Young
Villager' behind bars.

[MISSABLE] QUEST 1 START - GOLD COIN
Talk to him twice and choose 'Very well.' to receive EAGLE EMBLEM GOLD COIN KI. Deliver it to his family (wife Anne and son Ralph) in Burgusstadt for a prize. Climb the stairs S from SPN and look into one of the two cells for WCH with BLACK BERRY POTION. Return to SPN and proceed N for another tutorial.

Here's some lowdown on Connecting with party members:

• While holding RB, Connect guide appears on lower half.
• Colors correspond to each chr as follows: X, A, B.
• Press relevant button to connect with desired party member.
• Connected chr will follow Capell and attack nearby enemies. Note that enemies that have not detected Connected chr will not be attacked by him/her. Connected chr will also speak and examine in place of Capell.

Here's some lowdown on Connect Actions (CAs):

• While Connected, press one of the assigned buttons to perform CA.
• You can assign new CAs in Skill menu.

With this Connect menu becomes available. Now Connect with Aya and aim at the explosive barrel near the guard in distance - when the arrow will hit, you'll see the cursor change shape, so let loose and there goes the guard. If he detects you, some more guards will come running. Now go E and attempt to enter the elevator for a scene. Turn around and loot WCH for BRONZE SCALE HELMET in a room opposite of elevator, then examine 'Control Lever' next to elevator to call it. Enter the elevator and examine 'Lever' to move on.

Now on lower floor, go around the elevator for WCH with RED BERRY POTION, then attempt to climb the stairs. Master jailer Vembert the 'Fatass' will emerge from his holiday cabin, ready to rock the house. You cannot kill him, so don't try - instead make it to the top of the stairs while smashing the barricades and enemies in your way. Follow my suggestions and you'll come out on the top (almost) unscathed.

Here's some lowdown on fleeing:

• With weapon drawn, press RT to sheathe it.
• Sheathing your weapon commands other chrs to stop fighting and follow you instead.
• You also move faster with sheathed weapon.

When Fatass comes out, go downstairs and into his room to loot WCH with BLACK BERRY. Wait for Fatass to enter the room and slip by him. Return to the stairs and begin waltzing - draw the sword and destroy two barricades. Further up kill two guards, open WCH for MIRACULOUS MEDICINE.

While you're climbing, Fatass will often try to charge you, which can be seen by screen shaking or felt by controller's vibration. Keep going up until a cutscene - further up you have two guards, barricade and two explosive barrels. Obliterate the guards and barricade, but be careful you don't strike the barrels.

Further up is explosive barrel and two archerwomen. When you kill them, pay attention at the railing - Vembert will attempt to climb onto it. Quickly target it and slash at his arm to cause him to let go - hehe. Smash next barricade and continue up - be on the lookout for more Vembert's attempts to cut your escape by climbing over the railing.

Smash next barricade, ignore two explosive barrels for now, give Vembert some more medicine for not climbing over the railing and kill two archerwomen ahead. Further up a cutscene runs showing Vembert running after Aya (I knew he was a pervert).

Things will get hairy now - you have three barricades ahead, five explosive barrels (two in front of barricades, three behind), two guards in front of barricades and two archerwomen after barricades. Connect with Aya and shoot explosive barrels in front of barricades to clear these, as well as two guards. Kill archerwomen as well and hurry on. Smash two more barricades or let Vembert do it, carry on for another cutscene.

Connect with Aya and steadily aim at explosive barrels Vembert is closest to (there's 9 barrels in total up here). Let go and the explosion will knock Vembert out. You get PRISON KEY KI, so open the blasted door. Now you may want to return downstairs and shoot up all explosive barrels we passed as well as destroy any missed barriers. When you mop up, return topstairs and smack final barricade - doing so gives you SITUATION BONUS [Destroyed all barricades.], and award is full HP & MP recovery. Make sure you also shoot all barrels for an achievement <BARREL OF LULZ>.

Open three WCH for MIRACULOUS MEDICINE, BRONZE SCALE ARMOR, RED BERRY POTION. Save at SPN, then exit the prison.

GRAAD WOODS

Contains 1 Cracked Rock.
[MISSABLE] ITEM - Make sure to *never* sell Emblazoned Sword.

Here's some lowdown on detection:

• When enemy sees you, [!] will appear above the enemy, indicating you have been detected and enemy will fight you.
• If the enemy is aware of you, but doesn't see you (various obstructions, and similar), [?] will appear above the enemy.
• Certain actions and movements result in noise.
• Louder noise is heard from further away.
• Enemies who have detected the noise will move towards its source.

Here's some lowdown on Surprise Attacks (SAs):

• SA occurs when you hit the enemy withoug being detected.
• If SA occurs, all enemies you can reach are 100% susceptible to criticals, drop 50% more EXP, and are more likely to drop rare items.
• On the other hand, if you are surprised, your chrs are 100% susceptible to criticals, AP becomes zero (0).

While you're in the areas without light source, your minimap will show static. This goes away when you approach a light source. To make it through the forest, follow the torches. If you think you're lost, bring up main menu and examine the map (map is unaffected by proximity of light sources and will always show everything you've explored so far).

You can't return to prison, so instead sneak up on soldier ahead and show him some SA. Near first torch is WCH with RED BERRY POTION. Pass the torch and continue for a scene where Aya notices two apples in the tree above 2nd torch. Shoot the down and collect 2x BURGUSS APPLE. Further ahead near 4th torch a scene plays and tactics are introduced.

Here's some lowdown on tactics:

• They dictate other chrs' actions during battle.
• You can switch between them with up or down directionals.
• FREE: allies act on their own.
• COMBO: allies attack Capell's target in an effort to chain attacks.
• FOCUS: allies concentrate attacks on Capell's target.
• SPREAD: allies attack enemies Capell is not targeting.
• WAIT: allies refrain from moving.
• SAVE MP: allies attack without using MP as much as possible.

Tactics are now selectable. Collect MEDICAL HERB near 6th torch, and go E for another scene. Press on to 7th torch, look up and shoot down two more apples, then collect 2x BURGUSS APPLE. Pass 8th torch, collect BLUE BERRY POTION from WCH near 9th torch. Don't collect rotten fruits or you'll constantly draw those silly insects into attacking you.

Pass 10th and 11th torches, press on to 12th torch, look up and shoot down two more apples, then collect 2x BURGUSS APPLE. Pass 13th torch, collect MEDICAL HERB near 14th, pass 15th and shoot down final apple in the trees above 16th torch - doing so gives you SITUATION BONUS [Shot down all Burguss Apples.], and award is BLUE BERRY POTION.

There's MEDICAL HERB near 18th torch, WCH with MIRACULOUS MEDICINE near 21st, WCH with BLACK BERRY POTION near 23rd... when you run for 24th torch, Fatass jumps on the scene. As with before, you cannot kill him, so make a run for it. Don't bother fighting the enemies on the way, just dart past them and don't stop. When you make it to wooden bridge, you're out of harms way.

There's WCH with MIRACULOUS MEDICINE near 28th torch. To get it, I suggest to wait for Fatass to perform his charge and stop, then gun it for the chest and hope he doesn't run into you and break it. Shortly before passing the bridge, you can collect FRESH HERB to the left of it.

Woohoo, take that, Fatass. You'll stop peeping on Aya now - only I can do that. When in control, talk to Genma, Sigmund, Balbagan, Eugene, and Edward - each person twice. Then collect FRESH HERB near Aya, save your game and bring up the menu. Take off all of Sigmund's and Eugene's equipment and give what you obtained to Capell. Hehe, thanks, mate!

Now some info on other four chrs...

• Edward is lv8 chr, and comes equipped with HAND-AND-A-HALF-SWORD,
  IRON SCALE ARMOR, IRON SCALE HELMET, IRON SCALE GREAVES.
• Sigmund is lv10 chr, and comes equipped with LONGSWORD, IRON SCALE ARMOR, IRON SCALE HELMET, IRON SCALE GREAVES.
• Eugene is lv8 chr, and comes equipped with BEGINNER STAFF, BARK ROBE,
  GRANITE CIRCLET, LAUAN SANDALS.
• Balbagan is lv8 chr, and comes equipped with BRONZE AXE, IRON SCALE ARMOR, IRON SCALE HELMET, IRON SCALE GREAVES.

Talk to Aya twice. You'll receive EMBLAZONED SWORD.