Don’t forget! Today is September 11, Backwards Day. .yadot sdrawkcab gnihtyreve daeR ?ttub eht ni niap a ti t’nsI
Previously on Wild Arms 3: Beatrice the Dream Demon created a monster-spewing tower, and we destroyed it with the help of a vaguely suicidal Asgard and Jet overcoming his tragic origin PTSD. Beatrice did make mention of a backup tower, though…
So no sooner do we leave the old tower…
Than another earthquake occurs!
“The old one, or the new one?”
“Probably new!”
Reminder: Beatrice is using something like “Guardian tech” to create these pillars, so Gallows knows what to look for. … Sense for?
“All my stuff is there!”
Quickly! To Clive’s adorable daughter!
Good news! I don’t see any monster pillars distinctly in town…
But may as well do a survey.
Statler and Waldorf felt that earthquake.
“It’s not the gob living under the bridge, right?”
“No. But I do hate gobs…”
Man, even the normies are sensing the evil god powers today.
Just a normal pillar of light, citizen! Go about your business!
“We’re the… pillar police? Is that a thing?”
Clive has not pooped on his own toilet in days.
“Why ever would you visit your own home when it is five steps away?”
Huh. Clive officially just left the party. We’ve only got a team of three at the moment.
Not that that impacts anything. You cannot leave town without your buddy (yet).
“Clive! Did you and your wife used to be much fatter? That is one hell of a wide chair.”
Can’t a man sit in peace?!
Did you deadname Jet again?
“Solvable problem! Some monster hit him with the Downhearted status effect. Gallows? Grab the Peppy Acorn.”
“I understand that the Demondor Pillar is a terrible, dangerous device that summons monsters…Even still, I would like to analyze the Demondor Pillar and investigate what’s beyond it — Hyades…I am not worthy enough to fight shoulder to shoulder with you all, for the sake of this planet…For the sake of Filgaia…”
This is something that has been foreshadowed as early as Chapter 2, but Clive has finally had it all come to a head. He cannot fight against technology that he wants to study, even if he knows said tech is being used for evil.
Jet has become the wise, old planet clone he was always destined to become.
If Clive would burst into song here, Wild Arms 3 would be the best game ever created.
Mission accomplished?
“Maybe we should plant a tree somewhere?”
“A what?”
“Deep down…I know what must be done, now…And I know how I’ve been bound by the chains of the past…But the truth is… I do not have the strength to break them…”
There are some very human moments in Wild Arms 3. In the previous update, Gallows initially reacts to Jet’s melancholy with “you have a very good life with all of us! What is wrong with you that you think something is wrong with you!?” which is a very common reaction to depression. Similarly, here we have Clive outright admitting that he knows the “right answer”, he just cannot bring himself to do it because he cannot see past the possibility that Hyades could be helpful.
What I’m saying is that Clive knows the internet is actively killing him, but what if he misses Cats vs Inanimate Objects after it is gone?
Virginia really regrets not recruiting a psychiatrist to this team.
Welp!
“This whole ‘pillar creating monsters’ thing is an emergent issue. You get that, right?”
Clive is just gonna sit here and flashback for the afternoon.
Now he’s thinking about all sorts of regrets.
Crushed under the weight of his dead father-in-law! Who, ironically, was himself literally crushed!
And I guess we’ll check back with Clive later.
Or immediately! Screw you, well-paced plot, we can enter any house we want!
They really should have given Catherine another character portrait…
Good memory, Clive.
Anywho, time to get going. This random NPC reference to a “demon ship” is about the only plot explanation for why these pillars are popping up where they are. Looks like Beatrice is using some old tech that has been buried for a whiiiile.
Hey, now that we had our little Clive breakdown, a green dot is appearing in the south. Guess where we are going next.
The pillar is really close, but it is in some deadlands where we can’t park our dragon.
The Abyss and this stupid place are the only two mandatory dungeons that ever pull this trick. We’ll have to land over here.
We have to walk a ways, and we only have 75% of a party.
Because of how the encounter/Migrant system works, we can cancel battles just as easily with a party of three or four.
But if we do choose to fight, the local battles are scaled for a full party.
We have two mages and “the fast guy”. Without the strong guy, these battles can last for friggen ever. Do your best to focus on elemental weaknesses, and realize how much Clive has brought joy to our lives.
Maybe it is best to cancel any and all fights on the way to Demondar Pillar-Rear.
This place is just plain named wrong. “Demondor Pillar-Rear” sounds like the back entrance to the previous dungeon. It should really be more like “Demondor Pillar – Backup” or “Demondor Pillar – Redundant”. Maybe even “Demondor Pillar – South” for its global location.
Those cracked pillars can only be demolished by bombs… and Clive stayed home with his bombs…
I miss Clive.
While the overworld shows no mercy, the encounters in this dungeon are scaled for your limited party. These dorks actually hit a lot softer than the jerks outside.
Which is not to say they are not visually imposing.
Like with the Hide Bombs in the previous dungeon, the dark elemental is going to be your path forward.
And maybe protect against light attacks. It has been a while since this was relevant, but recall that Clive is something of a glass cannon. Just because you have lost your attack guy doesn’t mean everyone remaining is vulnerable.
If you were concerned there was some enemy variety here, don’t worry!
In general, your Clive-less battle strategy should be to blast these dorks with dark abilities, and have Jet on healing duty (if it is remotely necessary). If you want to go nuts, summon Lucy the Wolf to wipe out any given gang.
And speaking of “in the absence of Clive”, we will have to take the route that features Virginia’s tools.
Welcome to Arkanoid.
These pillars are wigglin’, and if you touch ‘em, you’ll be hurtin’.
They are also vulnerable to nearly every tool you have.
Fire melts ice. You should really know this by now.
And the boomerang will slice off everything above waist level.
So for this room, you just need to whip out the boomerang…
And jump along.
Demondor Pillars are architecturally similar.
Trivia mentioned way the heck back in the Let’s Play: this is one of two times in the game where you have a party of three. Solo acts happened during the introductory chapters, and we never see a party of specifically two. Exactly one battle in Infinitum and Demondor Pillar Rear are all we got.
Aw, fignuts.
“We’re stuck in a forcefield! And it is super gooey!”
“EVERYONE BREATHE AS HARD AS YOU CAN TO USE UP THE OXYGEN FASTER!!!”
Hugging won’t be the solution this time.
Fighting might.
So this silly miniboss…
Obviously, we are at a disadvantage here with our meager three-man group. As a concession, we are granted a choice on how to die. Yay?
Every round starts with that question, and you absolutely get to choose. This is not a trick! Nebiros plays fair.
And he has an elemental weakness, so get ready to use those light abilities this time.
So whatever you choose winds up being the element of an attack-all, generally strong spell. The trick is that since you can choose the element, you can choose an element you are protected against.
It is not quite as simple as “always choose fire”, because there are many possible elements (fire, earth, water, wind, thunder, ice… I never saw light/dark in my fights), and you only ever get a choice of three. In other words, you could be equipped for “hurricane”, but if it isn’t an option, you must choose something.
The good news, though, is that the choice is always before your round selection, and you can juggle or equip wards at will after having answered the question. If you selected blizzard, you have ample time to then prepare.
And this loser doesn’t have much HP, either. I’m not going to say you have to try to lose this fight, but it is more of a scare on “can we do this without Clive?” than an actually threatening battle.
Thanks for the vegetable!
“Oh, Beatrice? When did you come in?”
“I should have known you would be responsible for this dungeon you already distinctly said you created!”
Good reaction, Gallows.
“See, Jet, she might appear to be a little girl, but she is actually centuries old, and that means…”
“Gallows, why are you telling me this?”
We already had a boss fight. What could be more fun than that?
More battles. Got it.
So Beatrice is the living embodiment of “remember this picture from your timeline?”. She is evil. She is pure evil.
Meanwhile!
WARNING! INFINITELY CUTE ENTITY APPROACHING!
“This house has two rooms, Daddy.”
“Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir comes on in five minutes, and I need the room.”
You didn’t miss any dialogue here, Clive just immediately brings up his buds unbidden.
Fuck yeah, adorable little girl, get to the heart of the matter.
“Monsters are probably going to spew out of that tower, and… Dammit. I just realized this place has way too many windows…”
Get your tissues ready, folks.
I have now died from diabetes.
“You bought me this ribbon when I was really little. It’s filled with lots and lots of memories of you and Mommy. It’s my most favoritest thing. It’s my most favoritest thing, so…”
I was in the afterlife, and then the sweetness of this continuing double killed me, so now I’m alive again.
Kaitlyn’s favorite people include “everyone in the whole wide world”. Girl is a lot more social than I thought.
Clive has also died. He is physically incapable of getting up now.
There is so much hugging in this game!
“I expect 5% ribbon interest when I get back.”
Is the implication here that Clive had a depressive episode where he refused to leave the chair, and Catherine took that time to go out and buy groceries? Actually… Mom had Dad home for the first time in the whole game. Of course she went out.
“I have both you and Kaitlyn. And I have this moment. In order to bring forth another moment tomorrow, the day after, and in the future, I must go!”
“What? What did I miss while I was at yoga?”
“Gotta go save my idiot coworkers! Don’t wait up!”
“Can I choose the cat?”
“Hey, guess what, dead father-in-law? I love your granddaughter more than I love science! Weird!”
Lombardia just circling the town now? Does she miss Clive, too?
“Mommy, since when does daddy have a dragon jet?”
“I guess since the last time he visited, Kaitlyn.”
“Do you think he’ll let me ride it sometime?”
“Sure, Kaitlyn. Sure…”
Next time on Wild Arms: There can only be so many doting daddies.