The End Is In Sight! VGC Let's Play: Tales Of Symphonia!

[Conegamer]

Part 5: The Northern Lands & The Assassin

So what awaits us to the North, through the pass, I wonder? More walking? More dungeons? More illogical cutscenes? You can bet it'll be all of the above!

The first stop is to visit the nearby town now we're able to move through the Hakonesia Pass, and this is Asgard. The small town with three inns...and also an interesting ruin. Raine wishes to investigate in more detail, naturally, but a band of ruffians have other ideas and try to blow it up! A quick spanking later and that idea is firmly dislodged from their chrome dome.

Turns out they were doing it so their friend/sister didn't have to take part in a barbaric ritual...which makes sense in a way. Naturally we can't leave a damsel in distress so, in an amusing cutscene we take her place! Ofcourse there's more to this than meets the eye and we end up fighting a relatively plain boss but that does provide us with a map of a nearby ruin. Nice!

After a quick resupply and weapon upgrade it's time to explore this area. First, there's a strange lake with a Unicorn at the bottom of the water...no doubt this will come into focus soon but not yet. Next is another Human Ranch, see above as we can't go in yet. And finally there's a city of hope called Luin, a city with plenty of amneties (more weapon upgrades! Yes!) and also a nice cutscene with the mysteriously busty Assassin whom we've been tripping over the whole time. It does feel as though we're moving closer and closer to another altercation but...we shall see.

Anyway that's enough of a detour, so it's time to head into the Masoleum. Surprise it's another seal! This one is the seal of wind. So naturally there's some windmills. We have to light some torches in order to see what lays ahead of us and via several cryptic messages, unlock the puzzle using more windmills in the next room. This dungeon alo features some annoying traps but, nothing too serious.

The puzzle is a little annoying and frustrating but we get there after a short spell. The boss lays in the next room and a few unison attacks see it off. Everyone is now over level 20 and unlocking Rank 2 Arts and the difference is stark and notable right away. Seal unlocked, Angelfication has continued and we leave.

...

Or, that's not quite it. Remember the Assassin from earlier? She decided to ruin the party, pre-save point, and mess with me. I'll be honest I came in unprepared for this fight and I couldn't do it. It was too much so, the prior boss fight had to be re-run. Knowing the strategy I was able to do it with no casualties saving the precious resources, which were used up in success for the following fight! Story scenes occur as we learn a little more about this assassin and we head out.

Collette, the Chosen, hurts herself pretty badly but she doesn't feel a thing. Infact she's lost most human states, such as eating and sleeping, at this point and this revelation becomes too much for her and Lloyd, whom she confides in. It's a touching scene and it sets us up for a journey to the next seal.

I choose to drop by Luin once again, but sadly it's not quite so cheery this time. That's an understatement as the whole place is destroyed and the survivors taken prisoner at the nearby Ranch. Our Assassin tried her best to fight them off but, sadly, she was also defeated. A decision was made to save her life and after that, we decided to call a truce as we both wished to save the prisoners. As such the Assassin, Sheena, joins the party!

A few fights with Sheena to learn how she plays (she can summon enemies which is quite nice), and it's on to the ranch. Where we stop for today! All in all quite a productive journey if I do say so myself.