The Let’s Play returns on July 17, Grumbling Day. It’s the birthday of a famous literary work about a tortoise that grumbled all day. He grumbled and grumbled until the world started to rumble. I had to write a book report on it this year, but I hope no one heard me grumbling about it…
Previously on Wild Arms 3: We took a brief respite to find every last available treasure in the world, and now we are returning to our regularly scheduled Maya-rescuing.
So the bad guys launched their flying base, and… where is that thing?
You don’t have to do this, but the technical solution involves…
Stopping at Ballack Rise, the only “optional” town in the game.
They have a telescope here, and it finally comes in handy for potentially scoping out the enemy base.
Unfortunately, the clue is all but useless. The “invisible” castle is indeed difficult to see, but exact coordinates would be better than “it shimmers like a pony”.
Whatever. Grab some treasure while you’re here if you missed it on the first trip.
There is our shimmer. This thing can appear anywhere in the world, as far as I have been able to tell.
It was definitely in two different places across two different playthroughs. Compare the two above screenshots to try to triangulate a location.
Smacking into the shimmer does nothing.
Those demons do love their barriers…
So launch some missiles!
That’s the stuff.
Destroy all wizardry!
We’re going in, hoss!
If you made a beeline for this dungeon immediately after the denouement of the last dungeon, this should look familiar.
Stupid, lazy nanomachines.
Siegfried has a random thought…
“And by ‘we’ I mean ‘I’ because all my friends are now dead thanks to following you, my liege.”
I say the same thing about my computer science degree.
Someone… or something… has derailed Siegfried’s train of thought…
“If no other demons aside from myself were summoned, then that means this person descended to Filgaia by their own power through Hyades. Could that be possible…? One must have their personal data stored within Hyades to do that…”
Siegfried is afraid there has been a rival demon stalking around, ruining his plans…
Whatever Siegfried is thinking, Leehalt is ready and willing to agree with it immediately.
What could it…
Oh! That crash he hears means we arrived.
Not a subtle gang of drifters…
“Virginia, this is better. It feels more… Star Wars.”
Gross. The demons never even thought to clean up the place.
We have seen these “webs” before in places that the Prophets had already ransacked.
Instead of “gray goo”, Wild Arms 3 goes with something out of an Adult Mag.
Guess we’ll leave our dragon to wait here.
Deux Ex Machina, the final dungeon of Chapter 3, starts now!
Unless you want to leave…
Once again, we are dealing with a dungeon that will not last past our visit, so there will be no treasure chests here.
Monsters are plentiful, though.
Bandersnatch has guillotines for arms.
Bandersnatch is a trap. They are weak to every element, but have a permanent reflect-protection barrier.
So get Final Fantasy 4 on their asses.
If you cast reflect over your party.
They will suicide from a bounce within the round.
Jabberwock is our typical weak-to-ice lizard monster.
Not much to write about a heaving lizard.
I guess fire breath is remotely notable.
So, yeah. Use ice.
Quox is a recolor of the monster that capped off Clive’s tutorial dungeon. Like that creature, if its health gets low, it will fly to dramatically increase its evasion.
Appropriate the Clive got a sneak attack from this thing…
Ice is also the answer here. Remember back when Clive didn’t have magic at all?
And that’s it for the common monsters of this overly long dungeon.
The traps of this area are once again laser based. There are many ways to stop these mobile barriers, but bombs feel good.
You can also get creative with the physics of Wild Arms 3. I feel like this is how a cat would “solve” this puzzle.
Next, we have a reminder that the changecrest exists.
You can hold off on clearing the blocks immediately to use a jump plate to get up on top and…
Nab, like, five white gems. You know in a proper dungeon that this would be a treasure chest.
Let’s not waste (anymore) time.
Timing puzzle!
This walkway is more mobile than we like to see, so properly time a galecrest usage to zoom along.
Don’t forget the switch to open the door!
More lasers. Excellent security system for this enemy base that houses two (2) whole people (demons).
Blammo.
We also have familiar Yggdrasil architecture here with stairways that have no puzzles so there are excuses for monster encounters.
Anytime there isn’t a laser on screen, you should be asking where the lasers at.
What did we ever do before villain dialogue interludes?
So apparently Siegfried was ruminating on “dream demons” earlier.
“So it’s not a series of tubes?”
Basically, Hyades is a series of electrical impulses like the human brain is a series of electrical impulses, so “dream demons” can freely move back and forth between the two. This is why any decent tech will warn you not to fall asleep while on the internet.
“So all of our problems have been caused by a dream demon? Sure. Whatever. Keeps my head off the chopping block.”
The good news is that dream demons are more or less true to their names, and can only exist in dreams/demon internet. Siegfried has a real, big-boy body, so nothing to fear.
Don’t worry about dream demons Siegfried. Focus on the things you love.
And hate.
All glory to the monster hand!
Meanwhile…
Something is happening!
Virginia is prepared for anything…
Even… love?
This counts as rescuing! It totally counts! Everybody write that one down! We have a clear win!
“Are they gonna make out?”
“Jet, are you stupid? Of course they’re going to make out.”
“Are they gonna make out?”
“Alfred, are you stupid? Of course m’lady is going to make out.”
Virginia has not smiled like that since the last time Maya was on screen and across from her. This is not a joke.
A good damsel rescues herself.
Nobody tell her we already saw her fail at that once…
That’s right, girl, play it cool.
Remember how we found her book back at the Dissection Facility?
I cannot believe I did not pick up on this innuendo when I played Wild Arms 3 twenty years ago…
Virginia is gradually easing into wearing the pants in this relationship.
Maya can switch with the best of ‘em.
Weird! I just looked up the word “sapphic” in the dictionary, and this GIF was used as the example.
Ditch the rest of those losers. Make this the Virginia ‘n Maya show for a dungeon. You know you want to.
Let’s claim we have an eight-person party for the next thirty seconds.
Computer room.
I feel like a place this important should have more lasers…
Not much we can do there, though.
But…
Looks like Maya has an idea.
Let’s see here…
So we just reunited, but we are immediately separating because it apparently takes four people to work the locks in this place.
Glad to see Maya’s captivity did not change her one iota.
“Just cast ice magic on any lizards you see. I think your cat can handle that.”
Incidentally, this is the first and last time in Wild Arms 3 you can simply “talk” to the family.
For a fun bit of esoterica, you can use the Name Tag item to change the display names of any the Schrodingers. Call Alfred “Scrimbo” from now on for all anybody cares.
Shady reconfirms why you won’t get a playable Schrodinger-based side mission.
… She’s just going to shoot it, isn’t she?
Legitimately, we have been working together for nearly this entire chapter.
So if we leave the room…
And then immediately return…
Maya changed! She read the instructions, and now she kind of has a school uniform/glasses thing going on. I’ve seen some people claim that this outfit is the “true” Maya, but she distinctly notes that she just read the manual, so this “nerd chic” is probably what happens when she gets technical.
If you’re curious, we’ll see these duds up close in a later cutscene. Revisiting this room right now is not required, and marginally an easter egg.
Weirdly, Alfred will help you save here. Given you (almost) always have the option of using a Gimel Coin, it is unusual that Wild Arms 3 provides a distinct “save point” in a dungeon.
And Todd is a living inn for the remainder of the dungeon. So it is worth it to stop back if you’re tired.
Shady, being a cat, provides nothing.
Now for a brief test on if you understand your controller.
You must “input the same command sequence as Maya”. From a practical perspective, this just means you must press the buttons displayed within ten seconds. There is only one short sequence generated, but it is random. If you mess up, you just have to do it again.
Nothing to worry about, though.
Okay! Enough socializing! Time to move on up.
Those weirdos back in the command room could never handle this many switches.
Three big blocks and one little block must be moved to their proper positions here.
Obviously, the trick is to keep track of the little block. You can use your imagination and object permanence to visualize exactly how this puzzle is completed.
Moving on, the next room has a projectile/conveyer belt puzzle.
You must hit each of the three switches with the boomerang, but each progressive switch makes the belt move faster. Try to figure out which of these switches is easiest to hit as a moving target.
And then use bombs to hit additional moving targets.
Is the whole floor covered in nanomachines? This is the grossest dungeon.
Whoops, random boss fight.
Aw, it is one of Sieggy’s pet dragons.
Who was it that beat Fafnir? Sigurd? I’m sure that’s not relevant to anything.
Overcompensating for something, Fafnir?
At least this stat screen is more interesting than your usual “no weaknesses, no strengths”.
So, once again, this is a trick.
If you do hit the Wind weakness, Fafnir will counter with Fafnir Horn, a very powerful electric attack. You can either account for this with a Thunder resistance, or simply not hit the weakness.
Other than that, Fafnir doesn’t have any interesting abilities save Contaminated Crust. This is the same move that was used by Power Trask, and it will gradually reduce your HP every round regardless of any defenses/wards. Presumably, the ticking clock of Contaminated Crust is meant to bait you into hitting Fafnir’s weakness, thus incurring that wrathful counter.
But Fafnir doesn’t have a fraction of the defensive power of Power Trask, so there isn’t much to worry about with the perma-poison.
So hunt another dragon to extinction.
Go blow your horn elsewhere.
Yeah, that’s right I get a dragon fossil out of your corpse.
Alright, we rescued (“rescued”) Maya and slayed a dragon. I think we’re good to take a little break.
Next time on Wild Arms: Secret origins revealed!