Eighteenth session of The Abyss: Traumas, traumas everywhere.
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Okay, so it's been a while since I last played this game. When I started this again, I hoped I hadn't interrupted an important sequence. So what is the first thing that the team does? Run away for their lives from Baticul, as the king is ordering the army to capture Natalia (his own daughter, until she discovered she may not be of royal blood) for crimes she didn't commit. My sense of timing is as impecable as always. :(
Asch had managed to alert the people of Baticul of this, and while the team is trying to escape, the civilians are blocking their way, risking their lives for Natalia, whom may or may not be of royal blood, but they help her anyway. One general in particular strikes a woman trying to get to the team, and Asch appears and beats him down. Asch then says to her that she kept her promise from all those years ago, and that she should toughen up in order to change the country together. The team goes to Inista Marsh, since the rest of the world is litteraly falling apart, and while exiting Baticul we see tons of people in the bridge saying goodbye to Natalia and wishing her the best of luck. Poor Natalia, what a traumatic day for her.
To reach their destination, they need to cross a swamp full of monsters. The place is full of rafflesias, giant plants that grow very large and smellyy flowers. Appparently, that place is the prision of some sort of abomination that was too strong to kill, so it was imprisoned there because it's allergic to the rafflesias's spores. The team, and specially Natalia, is shaken ue to the events that unfolded on Baticul. Guy tries to cheer her up, but she really doesn't improve that much. The team finds the monster and, well, it looks like a monster? I don't even know what is supposed to be, an evil cat with thorns and a devil tail, a plant-like monster that has rotten because of the swamp, but the thing doesn't seem that strong. It takes ten-fifteen seconds of punishement without reacting then it attacks and leaves hald of my team with ten HP. So nope, not fighting this thing, don't want to lose all my gel potions. On the scripted scenes, the team manages to get it under control by throwing rafflesia polen to it and Tear's fonic arts.
They get out of the swamp and go to Belklend to find a guy named Spinozza, that apparently worked with Van on the subject of replicas. In there, the team finds themselves in the pressence o Van! What is he doing there? IIs this the final battle? No, he just talks about how he hates the Score and how he plans to substitute all mankind with replicas, no biggie. How on Earth did it take so long for them to notice he was a villain, again? Asch appears for a brief moment, but it seems that neither side wants a fight there, so they both withdraw. Van mentions that Gu used to work fr him, and the team goes all suspicious, but at this point in the story, do we really need more trust issues? It doesn't last long, though. Asch gives Jade a forbidden book, given to him by Ion. It contains crucial information about the planet's core, and after a bit of technobable, the team decides to build a special fonon machine, and they go to the Fon Machine Laboratory to get someone to make it. They get the help from a pairof scientists and the gobernor of the city, but the guy Spinozza heard the conversation and went to tell it to Van. But Asch takes care of it, the team's misson is to gt Ion back. They go to Daath, and because noone of the God-Generals seems to be there (keyword being the word seem), they can act more freely. We get to know Anise's parens, nice people all around. Asch csends a message to Luke via headache, and tells him that Spinozza told Van about everything he knew, so Asch moved the scientists to a safer location. Anise's mom appears and tells the team Arietta has come back to Daath, and because she thought they were friends, she told her about the team. Thanks mom. Arietta apears with two giant ligurs and attacks the team, heavily injuring Anise's mother, but they manage to get her to retreat. Guy has a flashback and he apparently recovers some of his lost memories: during he kimlaskan attack that killed his family, Guy was protected by every female member ofthe house, from his sister to the servants. He stood under their bloody corpses untiil someone rescued him, and that is the origin of Guy's phobia. Way darker than I expected, and everyone else seemed to think the same. More game other day, tired now.
