Everybody get excited because today is November 28, Sword Day. A sword and a dog had a fight. Sword won the fight. Sword was the name of the dog. What was the name of the dog? Think about it carefully…
Previously on Wild Arms 3: Virginia saw her uncle, Gallows saw his granny, and now we’re going to fight to save all of space and time.
So here we are, still in Baskar.
Every other NPC is now talking about Nidhogg and Yggdrasil. We are so close to the quest that makes that relevant!
Eh, I don’t wanna.
Our next destination is Infinitum, and it is super close to Baskar… except for that danged sand sea. Going to have to retrieve the Sandcraft.
Excuse me? I have never forgotten a cat in my life. I would tell you the name of my first cat, but then I would have to reset all my security questions…
Okay! Off to see the magical cat god!
So we have to head back to the train station, because the Sandcraft did not follow us back to Jolly Roger.
Back to Southfarm Station (near Boot Hill), and back to the boat.
So Boot Hill was our last major destination, and it is practically at the North/South pole (stupid map). Baskar/Infinitum is located at about the middle of the map, so we have a long way to go.
On the way, we find this mysterious island at the Huskarl Sand Canal Strait. Using the radar here reveals a statue.
Hey guess what! More Nidhogg nonsense!
So all those NPCs and books are clues to our next-next destination. There are two giant statues on this map, and where their gazes intersect is the location of an upcoming dungeon. We found one statue! And we could find the other one! … But this was more on the way…
Moving on.
This beastie looks threatening, but it is only a color swap of an actually relevant monster. That book about Balal Quo Naga? That is this thing’s twin.
Eat cannon, jerk.
Okay! Here we are! As advertised, this stop is just across the “sea” from Baskar. If you need a free rest at an inn, just move your Sandcraft about three feet over yonder.
Using the radar once you’re ashore will reveal a big honking tower.
Infinitum is technically a new location for the Wild Arms franchise. That said, Dan Dairam the Time Guardian did appear in Wild Arms (1), and there he was hiding in the Temple of Illusion, accessible only through the Rings of Timespace. And the Rings of Timespace were just outside that version of Baskar, so Infinitum is a quasi-reference to OG Wild Arms.
Second thoughts about the plan?
“… Bound by the lineage and destiny of priesthood…I couldn’t bear it. That was until yesterday…I rebelled and left Baskar, but that didn’t change a thing…I couldn’t find the freedom I was looking for…”
If you want a traditional JRPG “character focus dungeon”, we have got great news for you.
True freedom is the ability to control all of time.
You don’t need to know the rest of that sentence. Virginia is just admiral ackbar’ing out.
Freedom isn’t free! It costs gods.
Turns out the plan was pretty simple.
“Infinite Tum” is what they call me down at the Golden Corral.
So it is a Wild Arms 3 temple dungeon. Ho-hum.
And there are monsters. Who would have thought?
Your opponents for today are Delphins. They are like Dolphins, but less friendly.
Delphins may be accompanied by Premium Delphins. They do not seem to drop any extra rewards, and…
They waste their turns standing around being premium. I… think they are a joke?
Whatever. Just blast them with bullets or wind.
Let’s get to why we’re all here: vaguely time-related puzzles!
Straight-forward task: rotate this wheel until the gears line up with each other, so you get one solid line of dominos.
There are two wheels to manipulate here, and, if you are smarter than a toddler, you shouldn’t have any issues.
I think I figured this out! There are these hallways where nothing happens, because battles do not play nicely with puzzles. So every Wild Arms 3 dungeon has this rhythm of puzzle room – boring hallway – repeat so there are places where the encounter system can activate without interruptions. Only took half the game to figure that out!
Also, I think Premium Delphins are just here to spoil the multi-targeting abilities. Your party should be over level 25 by now (“real” playthrough party is currently level 29/30), so you can start fights by using an elemental gem with Virginia’s mystic or Gallows’s extension abilities. Both cost 25 FP, and your FP count equals your level at the start of every battle. There is no benefit to “saving” FP after a battle, and random mook battles rarely last past two turns anyway, so just go ahead and hit every monster’s weakness right out of the gate.
A little further ahead, we see an old friend.
We know.
Help. I’m having Xenosaga flashbacks. I need an adult.
“Yes, I heard you come in. I’m not just talking to a wall.”
I appreciate that they are laying down the bones of “Janus is actively betraying his masters” here, but “it’s the last guardian shrine” should be the easy answer. If Gallows was on the ball, we wouldn’t even need Janus’s help.
No answers! Only questions!
We know because you told us. A lot.
You know, we get a lot of information on the Prophets and their fall from grace and all that nonsense. But we never really get an explanation on how they got so good at summoning monsters. One would assume it came from some Hyades information, but you have to wonder who they were summoning monsters against before our party showed up. It’s been ten years!
Regardless, they are definitely good at mustering up uglies.
“Even widdle demon kittens?”
“Especially widdle demon kittens!”
“I would kind of like to be a demon.”
“Shut-up, Jet.”
Good news! You will not have to sign any paperwork to become a demon!
Unfortunately, being a Prophet is taxing, so Leehalt is down and out before we even start shooting.
Leehalt! Yo! Don’t teleport away now! You forgot your monster!
Fine, we’ll play with it.
If you have Fire Ward, or the ability to confer Fire Ward on a character, do it now. This would not be a waste of a Fire Ring, as Fire Ward will be essential to a super boss fight at way the heck the end of the game, and it’s not like skills expire.
I mean, this thing is named Pyrodrake. What element do you think it is going to use?
Amusingly enough, it is not strong against fire, but water. However, as vaguely expected, it is weak to ice.
But don’t think ice magic is the only way to win here. Pyrodrake enjoys using physical attacks…
And being huge.
It also has a single-target fire “spell” in the form of bowsering fireballs at you.
Now here is the trick…
Pyrodrake is very weak to ice magic, but it will counter its weakness with Volcannon Trap every time. This is a multi-hit fire spell, and, if you have your entire party use ice magic in one turn (through ice gems for whoever isn’t equipped with the water medium) you will die.
However, that doesn’t even matter if you are equipped with Fire Ward, and thus negate all fire damage. Regardless, your options here are either to use basic attacks, or use ice magic if you can soak up the flames. Either way, not too much of a fight.
Mini boss down.
These blocks over here are way too conspicuous to not play with.
And then boom.
Treasure! Not going to think about why Clive’s daughter’s favorite book series has a copy hidden in a wall in an ancient shrine, but I’ll take it.
Virginia got ambushed by the other thing skulking around Infinitum’s halls. These manticore dorks are all about the wind magic and being speedy. I think they also poison, but don’t quote me on that.
After obtaining the treasure, these blocks can be manipulated to form a handy bridge.
Unfortunately, the way forward is blocked.
But this thing might be useful.
Time to stick the Baskar dude in the front.
Oh…kay?
“Yeah, I understand. It’s the lineage of the priesthood that flows within me, and the destiny that I carry, right? If I have the qualifications of a priest, open up—darn it!”
Stop yelling at the inanimate object that has been sitting there for centuries! It’s not like…
Oh, guess that worked.
Going up.
Now we’re getting into the good stuff.
We have swinging pendulums here, and you must position your characters so they get “hit” by the pendulum, and swung over to the switch platforms.
Or toward treasure. That is always good, too.
And use a boomerang to activate pendulums.
Might be needing that soon…
Action scene!
Timing!
Looks like Gallows just has to agree with inscriptions to proceed here.
Whatever gets us through the tower.
If you are unaware, Wild Arms 4 wound up featuring straight up 2-D platforming sections during many of its dungeons and set pieces. A lot of people were surprised that the “traditional JRPG franchise” decided to include such “action game” conventions amongst its random battles and hours of dialogue. But anyone that played Wild Arms 3 wasn’t surprised! There are two dungeons that contain a lot of wannabe platforming BS in WA3, and this is one of them. Welcome to cog hell!
Technically these are all “walking puzzles”, but timing is key here.
And I’m not convinced the Wild Arms 3 system is 100% ready for these kinds of challenges. The cogs have to be aligned juuuuuust right, or you will fall and have to repeat the room from the entrance.
See? This is rubbish.
At least you don’t have to reactivate any switches if you fall. So there are basically built-in checkpoints. Somebody realized this room might be frustrating…
So close!
Okay, we’re done with that now. Let us never speak of it again.
Let’s roll!
Rolling commences.
One more clock puzzle for the road.
Did you graduate kindergarten? Do you know how a watch works? Wild Arms 3 challenges you to count to twelve.
So you have to light the torches in order from one to twelve. The trick here is that if you shoot “in” to the clock, you will inadvertently light other number torches, and you will have to start back at one.
So “proceed with the inner flow” and only toss fire cards from the inside-out.
Twelve!
Solving the puzzle opens the door forward and resets to clock to match your system time.
See? Got the Playstation 5 proving it is 11:41 and everything.
Anywho, we have all but completed the dungeon now, and the “plan” is a bit of a doozy, so we’ll save that for the next update. Hope you enjoy that… timing.
Next time on Wild Arms: So Wild Arms 3 totally stole this bit from Breath of Fire 1, but nobody ever got that far in Breath of Fire 1, so it is okay.