Do you hear that? Today is June 19, Sound Day. Sound is a vibration in the air. If an identical vibration is generated at the same time, they would cancel each other out. Deep bass really shakes things because bass is uncommon in the natural world.
Previously on Wild Arms 3: Virginia and Maya’s gangs are both infiltrating the enemy stronghold, but it seems like the bad guys are having a bad time of it, too. Malik successfully revived his clone mommy, but she didn’t immediately dote on her son, so he killed her and the main power core for the place. It’s all going downhill from there…
So we just shot Malik and Melody until they were lying on the floor and not getting back up. While I understand that sounds pretty normal for people being shot, consider that every other fight with those two led to them teleporting away. The implication here seems to be that this was their final death-death. This will be true for one of them…
They’re in a better place, and all we get is a hallway.
Back to the normal dungeon nonsense. Even if the baddies lost about half their gang, you should still avoid being spotted.
Grappling hook remodeling for the win.
You cannot reach this switch without venturing into the light, and you cannot get under the lamp to destroy it, either. Play with your doll, Gallows.
I appreciate a “simple” puzzle that winds up requiring many different tools to conquer marginally different situations.
Elevator away from this floor. Malik is starting to smell.
Meanwhile!
Apparently Melody’s last gasp attempt to save the power core worked, and Leehalt appreciates it.
“Which chunks of them would you like to have located, sir?”
Yep, they’re done.
Literally! Because they’re dead!
Anywho, time to launch this god machine and destroy the base. Wait! We’re in the base!
Do I even need to tell you that cool theme music is now playing?
Remember how Asgard had to deal with Werner? Well guess who used that opportunity…
There is fencing right over there. You guys could really stand to figure out how cages work.
Boss vs. Boss fight!
Amusingly enough, we have not fought Siegfried yet, but this will now be the second time an NPC attacks the big guy. The first time was Janus at the end of Chapter 2, and… that did not end well for Janus.
Brother, you don’t know Maya.
So, give or take a HUD, this is a straightforward battle between two rivals.
Unfortunately, both fighters got inflicted with Blind before the skirmish started, and now everybody is missing their mark.
We’re going to be here a while. Anybody think to bring snacks?
Maya brought something! And it’s super effective!
Virginia just had the weirdest twitch, and she can’t figure out why.
“By ‘mentally synchronize’ I mean ‘literally pull them out of nowhere’.”
Oh yeah, Maya has missed the sixty lore dumps that explain how ARMs are leftover demon weapons.
Remember when I was talking about how there is evidence Maya “should” be the main character? Like she is some kind of chosen one? We’re back to that.
“Your spiritual strength exceeds those of demons…This allows you to draw out destructive power from within the ARM…This is getting interesting…Please entertain me some more…A hero never dies…As long as he has the will to fight!”
And Siegfried is into it. Please recall that it is canon that demons got to be “demons” because they liked fighting too much.
And Siegfried pulls out his trump card: he “uses” the Teardrop, and it restores all of his health.
Was Maya mad at us every time we used a heal berry?
It’s a shame, really…Not only will the energy from the Teardrop help raise nanomachines, but its sparkle maintains my existence! In other words, the sparkle of this planet becomes my power, and with it, I expel the planet’s life force. Oh, the irony! This is like a comedy–with the life force playing the role of the clown! Hwah hah hah hah!
Gee, sure is a good thing we gave Siegfried this ultimate power in exchange for absolutely nothing.
Unfortunately, despite being the rogue archetype, Maya did not dual class in thievery.
You trying to high five with that claw hand, Sieggy?
Snacks?
No snacks.
Welp, that went poorly.
Hey! I just remembered that Todd can heal everybody! Maya, you hypocrite!
Oh, right. More pending matters.
At least she is rescued in the nick of time.
We went through… three dungeons and a huge sidequest in that time… so… yeah, sorry.
Get your team on a more focused cardio regime when you get home, Maya.
D’aw.
She’s up!
Phhht we beat her four times before she finally changed her mind. Siegfried just has one victory so far.
Kick some ass, Maya.
The real demon all along has been blonde…
Meanwhile, back with the less interesting party.
We have finally reached the “generator room” that has been featured in so many cutscenes.
You would think someone would have a chair in here or something…
You figure Leehalt had to solve jumping puzzles every time he left their room?
These lasers move faster than the last place we saw them, but this is otherwise straightforward.
Make sure you boomerang this switch over here.
We done with this place yet?
Guess we are!
Why are we suddenly outside? Was this Siegfried’s favorite balcony for singing?
Difficult to capture: rumbling.
Hey! Is that Melody down there?
We have lift off! Or… lifting off…
Kind of hard to parse the physicality of this place, but it looks like we have been mostly hanging out in the “underground” of this soon-to-be floating castle, and we’ll have to approach the top half later.
Or maybe this bottom half is completely unexplored? I have never been able to figure out what was with the Black Omen, either.
Anywho, this castle is popping into the sky, and Melody somehow found herself on the ground floor right in the way of the launch jets.
Which… is not a good place to be.
So Melody apparently survived our last fight, but she ain’t surviving this.
And we might be joining her.
Yeah, I guess we’ve been exploring the “launch pad” this whole time… even though I really can’t see how we’re “there” and outside at the same time…
But since the forcefield is going down…
Bang the Flammie Drum.
Last of the dragons, and she is supposed to come when called by some purple girl?
She’s doing this, but only because she was bored standing around for that whole dungeon.
“Hey guys. Have a good afternoon?”
Maybe it is like a multistage rocket? Like this part is going to fall off as it ascends?
Whatever, we’re safe now.
Or… not.
Alternative dragon out of nowhere!
So now we have…
Our first mandatory air battle. It is possible you could have already experienced air battles thanks to the UFO sidequest at this point, but this is the first time it is required.
So air battles: basically Vehicle Battle Part 2. Despite noting that this is not exactly like a sandcraft fight, it is still pretty similar.
Lombardia gets four actions per “round”, one for each party member. However, every party member has the exact same choices of “Lombardia moves”. And each character’s stats do impact their “Lombardia” turns. So, basically, Clive turns will hit harder but happen later (because he is strong and slow), while Virginia turns will have more effective magic and happen earlier in the round (because she has higher magic and speed stats).
So the trick is to know your party well enough to combine their best stats with matching Lombardia moves.
Also, Lombardia’s opponent here is just… Dark Lombardia. Nobody felt like designing a second transformer for this game.
So what are Lombardia’s options? Well, there’s the basic attack-attack, of course. And then we have “Missile Might”, which I think is more magic-based, but is difficult to gauge either way. “Use this to do basic damage”.
Epidermal Shell will increase your defense. Maybe this is relevant on some sort of low level run, but Lombardia has an absurd HP count, and I would be curious to see how long it would take for her to actually run out of health points, defense maxed or not…
Mighty Might was mentioned during the UFO update, but noting again that it maxes out your attack for the penalty of eventually putting you in a paralysis state for a few turns. But the drawback doesn’t matter if your enemy is dead by the time MM wears off…
Cerebral Matter ups your magic attack. I have never used it.
Self-Regeneration is there if you want to waste Virginia’s turn restoring like 5% of Lombardia’s health.
And Draconic Gun Blaster is the Lombardia ultimate attack. It drains all of your FP, but it kills damn near everything.
Particularly if you use Mighty Might first.
A move so powerful, it reveals the world map for some reason.
And that’s that. In general, every Lombardia fight is a matter of buffing on Virginia’s turn, gaining some extra FP on Gallows and Jet’s turns, and then unleashing the DEATH LASER on Clive’s turn. Do that, and you’re golden.
More of a reward than those stupid UFOs…
I like the idea that Lombardia is just here and hanging with the party, happy to be involved in the conversation for once.
Yeah, we never saw anybody actually leave. We’re the only cool kids with a dragon escape route.
So anybody want to take a wild guess on our next dungeon?
Here’s a preview!
“Take it nice and slow to start. Gotta get a feel for the place.”
This is some doomsday wizbiz, and I’m not certain a single NPC ever notices…
Also, is Siegfried just shouting at Leehalt? The guy that is three feet in front of him? I don’t see any other toadies left…
Bet you miss your M&Ms about now…
So Siegfried was as good as his word…
Until we beat the next dungeon, the sky is crowded with Wyverns, and we have to repeat that last “boss battle” if we initiate any air random battles.
It is the exact same fight over and over again, and it is easy to cancel the encounter. That said, if you want to clear out a few Wyverns, go ahead. Aside from the UFO sidequest, this is the only point in the game where there are air encounters. Enjoy it. Question mark?
Just for your own sanity, you do not want to be doing the UFO sidequest at this exact point in the game. The skies will be less crowded in the near future.
So while wannabe dragons darken the skies, let’s take a quick break back at Baskar. It’s good to have a rest after two continuous dungeons and three boss fights!
Next time on Wild Arms: Our finest arts.
[…] So this is the final mandatory Lombardia battle. Those of you paying attention may have also noticed that this is the second mandatory Lombardia battle. […]