We are wrapping up Chapter 3 today, August 7, Tile Day. Tiles are nice and smooth, so they’re considered symbols of fair skin. Your skin looks like tiles, too.
Previously on Wild Arms 3: Siegfried is defeated! The Tear Drop is reclaimed! Maya is going to die alone in an exploding castle!
Wait! That last one is a problem!
But seemingly necessary, as Siegfried appears to have survived, and is teleporting into his All the Dragons room.
On one hand, Siegfried is on the ropes. On the other hand, he has a hangar full of Fafnir dragons. Just one of those required a boss fight earlier in the dungeon. That could make our lives difficult…
And Siegfried is the only villain in this piece that understands how healing works. He may have lost the Tear Drop, but he has alternatives.
Drag on, my brother.
Though my sister has objections.
Once again, “we” have gotten pages of backstory on the ARMs and how demons work, but Maya has had to pick it up on the fly. The good news is that she has been picking it up well…
This sounds like it could be the introductory phrase for a Guilty Gear round…
Maya vs. Siegfried! Round 2! Extra phallic edition!
ARMs as we know them are dragon fossils. So it makes perfect sense that Maya should be able to utilize a more recent “fossil”.
Siegfried has doubts, though.
Maya doesn’t.
It was referenced briefly during the first Siegfried vs. Maya battle, but Maya is apparently an extraordinary neosapian.
Her whole "book magic" power? It is just a silly manifestation of Maya’s seemingly innate ability to do damn near anything.
So this confirms two things:
1. Siegfried (and the Prophets) were wrong all along. Neosapians have evolved past demons even on the “battle” rubric that demons cherish. Maya’s abilities are undeniable, devastating proof.
2. Maya is the goddamned Chosen One for Filgaia.
Just a quick note about Maya before she continues to kick ass. Insomuch as one can believe there is a direct “timeline” link between Wild Arms 1 and Wild Arms 3, there is circumstantial evidence that Maya is the descendant of Cecilia Adelhyde, the main female protagonist of Wild Arms. Cecilia was a tomboyish princess who had a grand destiny as princess of a kingdom and the woman who could communicate with the Guardians. Additionally, her treasured heirloom was the Tear Drop, and she spent half the game reclaiming that gem from demons. She is a third of the team that saves the world, and she is the most spiritual of the trio, with a greater ability to channel Guardian energies than her two companions.
So the connection between Cecilia and Maya via the Tear Drop is obvious, but the fact that they are also both powerful “mediums” is present, too. Additionally, Maya’s new dream to be the queen of the world is appropriate for someone who has royal blood coursing through her veins. Also, when Wild Arms 5 decided to have a “version” of Cecilia make a cameo…
They sure did pick a design that looked a lot like Maya’s “nerd” form.
Whatever the case, there is an overt connection between Wild Arms 1 Cecilia and Wild Arms 3 Maya. The correlation between Wild Arms 1 Calamity Jane and Maya is superficial; Maya is a secret princess.
And princess beats knight every time.
Of course, it doesn’t work out all that well for Maya, either.
Might have overdone it, too.
She’s not wrong. Siegfried and an army of Fafnirs would have been a hassle. Guess Maya noticed Sieggy’s movements on her surveillance monitor last update, and the rest of that “I have to stay behind” crap was a feint so she could square her debts.
The raging inferno seems to say “yes”.
Aw, it’s that book we returned. Maya needs deeper pockets.
Yeah, being kidnapped really cuts into your leisure time.
Go out doing what you love.
Todd has The Shining, but he doesn’t talk about it a lot.
Virginia is barely keeping it together.
Looks like Maya survived one collapsing ceiling.
But she is not out of the woods yet.
So she does the coolest thing possible.
Rapid-fire Maya transformations!
We only ever fought one Maya “form” at a time, but…
She can apparently swap powers on the fly. Magic ice to flying kicks!
So… yeah… Can we please get a game where Maya is a playable character? Swapping between Maya “Jobs” sounds fun.
She’s jump kicking her way here, Alfred.
There we go.
And no one will ever know how awesomely she navigated her way back to Lombardia. We just leisurely walked!
We already blew a hole in the place to get in here, but it doesn’t hurt to bifurcate the castle again.
The good dragon.
See you next mission.
Hold up.
Guess Maya forgot to blast a hole in the bomb chamber so the little girl could escape.
I’m sure she’ll be fine, though. Probably not relevant to anything.
Blammo. Really hoping this thing is going to crash into the Sand Sea and not, like, Boot Hill.
Back with a vengeance!
Maya may have kicked his ass, but Siegfried merged with a Fafnir was too good of an opponent to pass up.
So Lombardia fight!
I guess the “real” heroes must have a moment to beat the bad guy once and for all.
Siegfried basically did this in Wild Arms (1), too. He returned after his “final battle” to be the final-final fight while the good guys were leaving the last dungeon on an elevator.
And those protagonists didn’t put up with Siegfried’s shit, either.
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.
Siegfried’s attacks are pretty consistent with his abilities from earlier.
These attacks would probably be a pain if we didn’t have 950,000 HP.
Aw! His sword got bigger, too.
I like the random mishmash of body parts that is now Siegfried. This final form was not planned.
So anywho, same Lombardia plan as before: power up your FP with basic attacks, buff your attack, and then use the death laser.
Couldn’t be easier.
Naturally, we have to close out all this nonsense with a cutscene of sorts.
Note that finishing Siegfried also grants the Chapter 3 Complete Trophy on modern systems.
Anybody notice how everybody apparently has “flying” character portraits?
Does Lombardia have a four-person “Voltron” style cockpit?
Clive always wanted to be a G Gundam protagonist.
Siegfried is the only one with a sword in this whole game!
And… we use the exact same super laser we already used in this battle. I have always assumed that this “super attack” was going to be an unlockable upgrade that is granted after this bout… but then someone noticed that, if you complete the UFO sidequest before entering the flying castle, there will never be another Lombardia battle again. Not just mandatory, mind you, as after the UFOs are trounced, there will never be aerial random battles, too. So no more Lombardia fightin’ at all.
You can still take the sandcraft out for a spin if you really need some WA3 vehicle combat.
Sore loser.
And that’s it for gameplay in Chapter 3.
Siegfried is vaporized, and the castle wreckage is probably not starting a whole new ecological disaster.
All of your enemies are dead.
If that doesn’t work for you, make a new metaphor.
Hey, does Lombardia have additional seating, or were these dorks all squished in the cockpit with our heroes? Was this entire adventure an excuse for Maya to sit on Virginia’s lap?
“I was thinking we could grab a gelato at that place you like.”
Just as well. Maya probably is going to smell like smoke for the rest of the week.
“Ever seen Pinky & the Brain? It’s going to be like that. But better!”
Oh! Todd! He has a sword, too. Two people with swords.
Typical cat dénouement.
“So… were we supposed to get paid for rescuing Maya? Or…”
“I heard something about gelato?”
Oh yeah! The Blue Menace! That was a running threat going back to the start.
Cowabunga.
“Remember when we all nearly shot each other? Good times.”
“And the mysterious entity controlling us with a Playstation 2 Dualshock.”
Woo! Gramma time!
And they walked happily ever after.
Jet is preemptively bringing the party down.
Have you been paying attention at all? We’re a team and a sword of justice or whatever.
Learn and grow, stupid!
Oh, right! Did he blow up?
And that’s it for Chapter 3, ladies and gentlemen. Save a game and get ready for the final chapter.
Hmmm.
Not today.
So here are our stats for Playstation 5 version, and…
“New game plus” Playstation 2 version. In both cases, I have done a lot more sidequests than are usually required at this point.
And thus concludes the story of Siegfried, the Prophets, and Janus (if you were somehow expecting him to return). The Blue Menace has been trounced, and there are a scant few dangling plot threads left to address. Virginia is still daddyless, Gallows is still entirely too sober, and.. That’s about it, right? We have taken out the major threats to Filgaia, so we can rest easy.
…
Oh, wait. Maybe we should do something about that whole “the planet is a wasteland” thing.
Let’s look into that.
Next time on Wild Arms: A chapter break is in order, so let’s chill and listen to some tunes.