Get it on like Donkey Kong because today is April 17, Barrel Day. On a certain pirate ship, there was a man who had a body like a barrel. He was able to hide various objects inside his body. Angered by other pirates abusing his talent, he invented the wooden barrel. From then on, the pirates used barrels to hide their weapons and loot, but it saddened the barrel-like man, for he lost his sense of purpose.
Previously on Wild Arms 3: We said good-bye to Clive’s mentor/father-in-law at the ancient nanomachine plant where he was buried alive. Pretty typical day. And as soon as Clive paid his respects…
We got a lovely little cutaway to our favorite demon gang.
Where are they? We don’t know. What are they doing? We have no idea. But what do they need? -The Power-.
“Can we just build a new one?”
“Who built the old one?”
“Man, we were terrible at our jobs…”
Remember how Yggdrasil’s power source was stolen? We still don’t have a culprit for that. Not like Werner is walking around with a big ol’ orb.
Pointy-helmeted boss checking in.
“Do our demon forms have some kind of… super vision? Or maybe infrared…”
“No. Just throw poison at the problem like all demons used to do.”
Leehalt is such a bootlicker.
Meanwhile, back at the dungeon we are so close to never seeing again…
“I know the source of the decay. It was me. But why me? Oh, Guardians, why me!?”
“You are a good daddy. Totally blameless in every way.”
“All very good. Mom died of a broken heart for a good reason. Totally great death. Alone. Pining for you…”
“Please say you’re a robot, please say you’re a robot, please…”
“Not now, Clive!”
“Because my daughter kept interrupting me…”
She finally figured it out! The mailman had a huge crush on Mrs. Maxwell!
“That was you, wasn’t it, Daddy…!? Those flowers gave me hope that maybe some day, you might return! I would have been much better off if I had given up on you!”
Sorry. I did all those sidequests, and forgot to park Virginia at a food truck somewhere in there. She’s swinging all over the place because she’s hangry.
Werner’s “good day sir” animation is tops. Does he turn his whole body via hat?
“It’s all I know how to do!”
“And we’ve seen you fight a golem and a prophet solo! You would be more useful on this team than Jet!”
“Gotta book it to Filagaia’s last remaining Catholic church.”
“To the Daddy Van!”
“Crap. I forgot to give you plot hooks for the next dungeon. That was the one thing I was supposed to remember to do…”
The demons are chasing a gigantic energy source, and Werner tells us we might find one first at Fila del Fia.
… And why Werner hasn’t nabbed it himself in the last ten years is a good question…
“I’m just gonna go get high in my van.”
He has told you, like, six times at this point! Daddy guilt is real!
Ah yes, the sky city that randomly appeared in a book a little while back.
Virginia is exactly as excited as I would be.
Booooooooooo.
“Wherever that city fell down! … Do we have directions?”
Should we get some kind of gravity-lock boots, or… a helmet?
“Which shouldn’t be hard, as this whole adventure took place on an isolated island…”
“Surely if I do this, daddy will praise me…”
“Duurrrr talking hard.”
“Words do not express feeling. Feeling is expressed from the heart. And I strongly believe that feelings can be shared without words.”
See why I assign Clive the Love Guardian? I mean, not literally, as he needs the Courage Guardian to do maximum damage… But metaphorically!
Clive slipped Virginia one of those cheese sticks wrapped in ham, so she’s back to her usual, peppy self.
Like…. Maybe… a…. Crater?
So, as a first for the game (give or take how Nidhogg Pass worked), we do not receive any sort of directions or clues for the next mandatory dungeon. That said, you may recall the seemingly hundreds of NPCs and signs that refer to a big, whopping crater.
And we’ve got a dragon-airship, so it is pretty easy to find.
Like with Clive’s mystery map for the last dungeon, you do not need an airship at this point in the game, but it sure doesn’t hurt.
If you explore this area earlier in the game (maybe because every third person on this planet suggests it), you will find nothing.
But now that daddy has plot-activated the place, we’ve got a dungeon.
Laputa this ain’t.
Filgaia has a legal system: confirmed.
This gigantic crater we’re standing in could have been caused by anything!
Let’s not jump to any conclusions just because we live in a magical world with floating hand monsters that are equally as aerodynamic as a city.
Big words from a guy who flew here on a mobile weapons platform/demon airplane.
“If anybody around here sees a battery the size of a Buick, give a shout.”
(So that’s what Daddy was trying to tell us…Daddy didn’t leave on his own…He was guiding me all along. Daddy and I are working together…)
Jesus, Virginia.
Gallows is 100% aware that Virginia has only two (2) interests in this whole world (and where has Maya been lately).
“Just… just… I wanted to see a floating city so bad…”
Let’s unravel this thread!
Dungeon monster roundup! You ever notice how the zombie monsters in this game dress exactly like Werner?
Whatever. Blast ‘em with light magic.
These weirdos are like those spikey dogs we saw at the coliseum. They’re tremendously less deadly here, but still electricity-flavored.
And this dumb caterpillar returns from the last dungeon. He wasn’t a threat then, either!
Monsters all present and accounted for? Okay, let’s traipse through this fallen city.
I would have really appreciated a cool, “ruined” town from the past, but this whole thing is mostly the city sewers. This makes good plot sense (a flying city would have to have a huge mechanical infrastructure to keep the place going, and said structure would be more likely to survive the fall/years of decay than the residential district), but still a letdown for someone that enjoys fantasy tropes.
And we got a new tool for what goes up.
Clive’s grappling hook is more or less an upgrade on Ashley’s flare gun from Wild Arms 2. It is very different from the grappling tools in previous Wild Arms titles.
Previous grappling wires (belonging to Jack and Kanon) went sideways, like the boomerang. Our newest tool goes “up” in the 3-D environment. This means Clive can get us some height.
This allows for some more interesting dungeon design, but comes with the drawback of grappling points almost always being “obvious” ceiling objects that would never exist (or be displayed/rendered) if not for the express purpose of “you should use the grappling hook here”.
And speaking of dungeon design, let’s take a look at this furnace thingy.
It’s only a centuries old computer terminal from an ancient civilization. I’m sure you can hack it in no time, Zero Cool.
Beep boop.
“It turns out we’re in the Mushroom Kingdom.”
You sweet summer child…
Dragon pipes!
And the Maximals in Beast Machines! … But that isn’t relevant right now.
I cannot believe they hang a “surprise” on this plot after it has been explained, like, six times at this point. Were you listening to Shane at all?
Gee, you think there might be some overt connection between Neo Sapians, Demons, and the current crop of whatever counts as humanity? Like maybe how we can all use “demon” weapons? And you don’t see a whole lot of Elws around…
See? Virginia is coming around here.
Whatever. Moving on in more ways than one.
Stupid living pipes…
Grappling Hook usage #2: hit switches/objects that are above the party. This is how it most resembles WA2’s Ashley’s flare gun, as that tool was unintuitively used to smack ceiling switches, too. Still not certain how nobody died from that… Or at least got a flare-burn…
Treasures are around, of course. Good thing the same treasures have been in the same ruins for centuries!
Dangerous footing ahead.
Walking around this “bridge” area is a free trip to the abyss (not that Abyss).
So remember you have a “sneak” button and take it slowly.
Afterwards, use the steady doll to score some treasure. If you already have the Teleport Orb, this haul is particularly useless.
Crack kills.
So blow it up.
Treasure room!
Important treasure room!
I want to say this hidden area contains the most easily missed Adventure book. The rest are generally out in the open (the last one we found was a 100% drop from a mandatory boss).
It is time to talk about pipes again.
Everybody! Get in talking positions!
“This generator that looks exactly like the last generator? And isn’t protected by a boss or anything?”
“Are you saying there are submarines here, too!?”
“What?”
This place has an impressive electrical grid, so, logically, it must have flown through the sky.
Whether or not it could fly, it is still extraordinary to Clive.
Excellent point, asshole.
Jet’s nihilism is instantly met with Virginia’s optimism. Scientifically speaking, I think this means that having Werner as an active parent in your life makes you a worse person.
Guess which word you shouldn’t have used here, Virginia.
I got a timer in the bottom right of the screen that says you have at least a few hours of memories.
Major downer.
Jet: gradually showing social improvement.
But still grumpy as all get out.
And speaking of getting out, we have about half a dungeon to go here, and it seems like we’ve been doing this for a while, so we’ll take a little break to admire the techno-organic plumbing.
Next time on Wild Arms: We’re Back! A Family’s Story.
[…] how it has been stated, like, seventy times that there is an overt link between “demons” and the “humans” of […]