Act 1

Before you can start, Towa has a personal request.

Lots of students have been scattered across country. She wishes to bring whoever you find on the ship so that they would be safe.

So while doing quests, you also should take a note of that.

With that we start our journey.

Gather them all once more.

Our first destination is Garrelia Fortress.

Not much changes here since your last visit.

We can poke around quickly and go to meet general Craig.

He got a quest for us. It seems that some guy got lost around the fortress. Which is definitely not the safest place to get lost.

Rean is asked to find this guy and lead him back to army's camp.

Now you can take a close look at what is left of the fortress.

I'd say we're lucky to not be here when it happened...

For our quest we just need to go around proving grounds and ruins asking soldiers about missing guy.

Not the most difficult quest and it is easy to find out our person of interest.

When quest will be finished, next time you return here you'll notice some big change.

Oh well i admit you don't see such monster every day. Frankly it is super tough so when you play first time, you'd better to avoid it for now. This is a same cryptid you fought several times already but much more stronger.

Luckily the cryptid isn't aggressive so you can easily walk back.

Our next stop is Garrelia Byroad. Somewhere on they way you can find camp of your fellow students.

We got here Nicholas and Emily. If you remember Nicholas is quite a chef so we're definitely better to recruit him.

Turns out they are here to help Imperial army and asking to wait... But oh well, who would be Rean if he didn't suggest to help... Right? So let's help them, we ain't going to regret getting chef.

We only need to go around the whole road and setup some devices into lamps.

After that we got chef Nicholas and he even sells very delicious stuff!

When you have money, it is always great to be able to get this special curry instead of cooking one by yourself.

Considering master quarts Moebius we can pretty easily keep our party buffed up with just one piece of curry. That's neat, right?

Gather them all once more. #2

Our next destination is Legram.

Legram never changes... The same misty town. I actually like it.

We got here for a short stop to check up some fellow students.

We can find Vivi in the Chapel and Casper in the Training Hall. Both of them can be recruited. Casper will start selling weapons at your ship and Vivi will become one of the navigation pilots.

I also stopped by the Bracer Guild for a short talk about current situation. But for now there is nothing new in Legram so we can go for our next destination.

There is also small quest you can take and it requires a short detour to Ymir. But it is quite hilarious quest, you'd better see it.

Gather them all once more. #3

Our next destination is Zender Gate which is, if you haven't forgot, gateway to Nord Highlands.

We can freely walk around now and do whatever we want.

And on our way we can also meet Beryl nearby stone monument where we last time landed. Though it turns out she isn't very interested in helping you now and is perfectly fine on her own. Yeah... in wildness, but oh well what can you say...?

Our next stop is watch tower.

It is kinda nice to re-visit the same locations in a different circumstances.

While it feels like a while ago, not much time passed since our infiltration into tower. And now you can walk around freely. And fly too.

View might suck you into a bit (even though it is only PS3, it is still nice view), but we came here for business.

At watchtower we'll find Mint - cute and funny loli. She's eager to join you, but she needs to find something first. Seems like she lost it somewhere in tower, and oh well we can help her, right?

We're gonna climb this tower almost like during our infiltration except having no enemies to beat. Easy peasy...

Turn out that somehow Mint lost thing is at the top. How? That's question without answer... She thanks band and promises that with her abroad it will be easy peasy. Yeah... sure.

With that we finished one of the Towa's quests. But there is still some stuff to do, so no time to relax.

Time to kick some ass

If you take a look at your last request - it is ask for help from Gaius's settlement. Seems like there is some dangerous monster in the wild.

We're heading to far north now - Lake Lacrima

We can take a moment to relax and then look for Elder Ivan and Gwyn.

They explain that monster is very dangerous and they really reluctant to send you... Besides they have no idea what is this monster. But oh well no need to worry. Rean and party are pretty capable.

We're heading to north highlands and there we can find this mysterious & dangerous monster.

Try to guess what is that thing... But oh well let's just poke it and we'll see.

Yep, 99k HP. You got it right. That's lot and considering that you almost cannot de-buff it, it can heal sometimes... It is going to be pretty long battle.

I suppose whoever made these magic golem was really smart... Anyway after long battle, you'll get a bit surprise.

These magic golems can revive after lots of beating... Yep, you got it right... Rean is screwed.

But it is jRPG, we're playing so someone gotta save our band.

Srsly, i was like beating the crap out of it 10 minutes and Gaius's dad killed it with one blow...

Gaius father suddenly appears and saves the day. Everyone is happy and etc... Time to go back.

Rean gets into a bit long dialogue but after that we're free to do whatever we want. After all it was the last quest to do.

But nothing is easy in jRPG and you get a call from Towa. She's kinda asking to come over once you're finished... Seems like we got new troubles.

But first we have small business to finish!

Gather them all on... WAT!? AGAIN!?

Ok, some might find it annoying, but you can enlist one more fellow student into our ship's crew.

We gotta go to Ancient Quarry.

If you don't remember from the first game - it is old and not much used quarry. And there we fought some really big spider.

Anyway our party will stumble upon Clara, master of stone art.

According to her, there is some super cool stone she wants to work with... Yep, you heard it right. She came to this far away and forsaken by god place for a piece of stone.

Frankly most Rean's fellow students are kinda strange, so we should get used by now.

If we want to enlist Clara we need to help to get this stone. So let's go into quarry...

Before you can find this stone though, you'll find quite a familiar ugly spider...

But turns out this spider isn't much of a boss.

It is so weak, that it is becoming disappointing...

Anyway, we'll find stone in spider's nest and now we can finally enlist Clara. With this we ended our journey for now. And now question: why we bothered to get Clara if it isn't even quest?

It is simple: she can do some magical enchantments for Valimar.

Yep, you heard it right. We can upgrade him a bit!

Now we might as well to finalize all quests and ask Towa what is her request about... Not like we forgot that she asked to come as soon as possible.

Operation Kick Some Noble Prick Ass

According to Towa Imperial forces are planning to take Twin Dragons Bridge. Good guys are on the move. Cool, right?

But it is not so simple, it seems that Noble Alliance has hostage - daughter of general Craig. Beautiful and kind sister of Elliot.

It is a true disgrace! Of course we cannot tolerate such thing, but Noble Alliance hopes to prevent Imperial Army attack at any cost.

Sadly the general has no intention to retreat, even with his daughter being a hostage. It is admirable, but sad nonetheless.

Our goal is simple: beat the hell out of Noble Alliance and save hostage. Simple? Simple. Rean gets approval of princess pretty quickly and now we're ready to launch operation.

First we get cover from imperial armored division, but mecha battles will wait for us. After all, who if not Rean gonna shine in mecha?

For this mission we got mandatory party members: Elliot and Sara. Elliot is not a big surprise, but it seems Sara is pretty eager too, for some reason...

But we still have 3 more party members to get, so i got myself covered with my favorite party setup: Fie, Laura and Millium.

Time go in and kick some noble prick ass!

Our party is gonna strike bridge side, while the army strikes the other side.

Time for our Valimar to shine!

This time we got quite a bunch of enemies. While it is yet not the toughest mecha battle, it can drag for a while.

First we should focus on weakest enemy: Drakkhen.

Valimar can get quite lots of hits, so be sure to keep up his health with secondary pilot skills. As long as you use secondary pilot properly there is no way to lose. It is also good idea to keep your SPD buffed by Fie

In some cases it might be good idea to not forget about Valimar counter attack skill. You can survive with it quite painful attacks, while striking back with almost 100% chance. It takes a lot of CP, but with it you're almost invincible.

When last enemy remains (i advice to leave Hector for the end) you can switch to Sara. Her skill is perfect for one-to-one battles. She can almost incapacitate enemy with her de-buff on STR and SPD.

In this state, your enemy pose no threat whatsoever. Rean can just punch it until Hector will no longer be able to stand.

After that, Rean and band can proceed with infiltration of enemy stronghold.

This place is crawled with noble soldiers and automatic machines. So our party got a lot to deal with, before they can reach command of Noble Alliance

It will not be long before you'll reach commanding officer office.

Still we shouldn't forget that enemy got upper hand. He has hostage and we cannot just kick his ass as we were planning...

Noble prick isn't interested in any sorts of negotiations. He even throws his dogs at you. You cannot really attack this prick and now you got fight these enormous dogs. The best day ever.

They ain't exactly difficult bosses and no tricks are required. We beat them pretty easily.

But now we got a problem... How we're going to apprehend this prick? He is still having hostage and more dogs...

Luckily for us, we got some help from unexpected place.

Neithardt-sensei sure knows how to show off. Still we should be thankful, his sudden attack took noble prick off guard.

Now that Fiona is safe general Craig will advance even more quickly. It will be not long before enemy stronghold will fall and Noble Alliance retreats completely.

Seems like our operation is success after all. Well, Rean didn't kick prick ass personally, but well Neithardt is good enough for this job too.

Our party got thanks from Craig family and now rest.

Even japanese hero needs a rest...

With Noble Alliance forces falling back, we also freed Celdic.

Rean decides that it would be good to get supplies there and take a bit of rest.

After all, our party deserves it, right?

Again, this is a free day so Rean can do whatever we wants... But first we got some things to do.

When we'll find Becky, our fellow student, we can recruit her to the ship's crew.

Again while it is no mandatory, i tend to be a perfectionist in question of gathering them all :)

In addition to that we can visit Weathercock Inn and talk with owner Margot.

Rean gets free stuff, which is neat. After all free stuff is cool.

Now our hero can hang out with his buddies.

Again, in scope of this writing I'll mention only most important events.

First we got to see how Laura is resting. It is difficult to surpise me, but she suggest that together with Rean they could help Margot.

Now Rean got a job of bartender while Laura is waitress.

I can never stop admire how adorable Laura can be.

Same goes for Rean... He even got scolded for not working by her.

After seeing this adorable seriousness of Laura we better to find Fie.

She is, after all, our tank and maybe quite tired after this constant tanking.

Oh no... she so tired that fall asleep on a floor.

Some might wonder if she is almost like a little cute kitten (Note: kitty ears are just in-game accessory :P). I find her very adorable. She seems like a adorable and cute little sister, but she is also pretty tough. Being raised on battlefields after all...

Still sleeping on the floor is not good for her health, right? We need to do something about it.

Uhh... need to be careful not to wake her up, right?

But oh well, Rean is trying his best already.

Mission accomplished!

Although she sure is adorable, it is better not to stare too much.

So let's go somewhere else.

Now, my last stop is Millium.

We can find her in Church when there are classes for children being held.

Something unexpected is gonna happen, Millium takes a role of sensei!

She sure had some fun teaching these children.

In a way it a nice picture...

This is our last stop and now we got to finish this free day.

Sadly... but we still got a lot of work to do.

Saving country and etc... Someone needs to do it after all.

But before we can leave, Rean is being called by some unknown guy.

Hm... It is not our first meeting, right?

Some time ago we already met this guy and he seemed quite suspicious.

Especially because he knew who is Rean.

And now this guy stands right before our hero.

What a unexpected turn of events...

And it is just beginning... We got to see a true face of this mysterious figure.

I'll be frank with you... This is unbelievable plot twist.

You would never expect to meet Thomas-sensei behind this cape. Not only that, it turns out that he has been secretly helping Rean and his buddies. Talk about unexpected surprises...

That marks the end of this act.

See you in our next adventure!