It's over.

Amusingly enough it took me more than week to start playing again, but that's besides the point.

Tales of Berseria is one of THE games of all time.

Hypocritically, I don't know how to summarize my thoughts on this game, and maybe sometime I'll come back to it (since I might plan to 100% it, is that enough of a way to show how much this game grown on me as time went on?).

There's so much I want to dissect, really, that I feel like I need to go through it another time so I can look at it with more context.

The way the game ended, it makes a lot of sense really. Velvet was their glue, and with her gone, so does everyone else. Rokurou continues honing his skills, Eizen with his crew that can no longer see him (which breaks my heart, actually), Magilou doing her own thing, and Eleanor becoming the new 'Shepherd', so to speak. And Laphicet is a whole-ass Empyrean.

God, this cast is great. A story of revenge and love. Tales of Berseria to me remains to be a story about the things we do for the people we love.

I finally finished the numerous fucking sidequests they gave me (sans the one about Rokurou's mom, please let me be able to do it still after the final showdown lol). Doing them all within the same time span of one another reminded me of the same vibe I had during the quests Tabatha gave us early on in the game in exchange for info on Artorius: painfully boring after a while. Thankfully I got through it and honestly I enjoyed some of em since they were mostly conclusions. Videl's and Majelu's were the standout ones for me. Phoenix's was also one, but it was specifically the fact that he was Lv. 100 AND his fight was inescapable. I thought I was about to get my ass handed back to me. The long skit that follows shortly afterward—Eizen tearing up at his sister's reply—was really endearing. I think the fact that they're literally a family of choice makes it all the more sweeter.

I said in my last note that Tales of Berseria's ultimate theme was the sacrifices you make in the name of the people you love. I take that back. For me, it's not just the sacrifices you make, it's not just the love that haunts you, but something else that had been there from the start. Something I'm actually kind of embarrassed to not have picked up to begin with.

The importance of being able to choose what path your life takes. Everyone in the cast could've gone down a different path, but they're here now. They chose the road they walked, and they plan to make the most of it.

Every conversation the cast has before the final battle has me smiling bitter sweetly. Eleanor overthinking final battle and Rokurou telling her to think about the future instead. What will she do then? Eizen and Laphicet, the former helping the latter deal with the pain and anxiety of knowing the human members of their crew will not be able to see them anymore. Velvet and Magilou, in their endearing roundabout selves, betting on one another about who will survive the final battle.

I've said it before that I don't see them as family, but the appreciation they now have for one another, even if they don't blatantly say it, because none of them ever will, is the best part of this game to me. The camaraderie they currently share becomes all the more sweeter given their rocky start. Velvet used to view Rokurou and Magilou as a liability. Magilou previously held no hesitation in ratting them out. Eizen intimidating them with his Reaper's Curse. Eleanor appears as a boss three times! (I have a lot of thoughts on her, but maybe, and this specific part is for me, I could post it on tumblr instead for better retrieval purposes.) It's great, I love it. I love them.

It's making me me emotional, as I stand at the foot of the stairs right before where Innominat is. I'm going to miss this game when I'm done with it. What a perfect way to start off the year.

Now, for some genuine journal entries for today's playthrough. In Davahl Forest, there is a section that is blocked off by red fumes that cannot be passed by unless you eat a fruit sharing the same color. I had missed this the first time I entered the area, thinking the game would introduce the mechanic similar to how they introduced the geoboard. I was wrong. The answer was staring at me multiple times already by the second time I arrived. The very tree I needed to eat from I even vaguely remember remarking how bright its fruits were. I was just blind lmfao.

Next was the hell that was Innominat (the area). I checked the map and was initially intimidated by the 10(!!!!) areas available to go through. I remember being shoved into the earthpulse during the time the Innominat shoved us in there and going :/ at how I needed to go through MORE areas. Occam's razor says that the plot is going to introduce itself along the way, and it did with the flashbacks. Here, it turned out to be optional bosses that unlocked the third mystic artes of all the characters.

This was a pain for me. I was able to effortlessly collect everyone except Velvet and Eleanor's, of which resulted in a totally normal reaction. The map is by no means confusing until they start introducing multiple areas at different altitudes and I honestly have never been more lost before lmao. I circled the Sublime Areas multiple times before realizing the remaining orbs were hidden in a very specific area that I hadn't checked since I thought I've been there already. I wish I could describe the joy I had upon realization that no, I HADN'T been here before. Needless to say it was great. The bosses were tough, not hard, and the rewards (the mystic artes) made it worth it all in the end anyway. Not that I'd be able to pull it off, I think, who knows! I thought the same when I got the second mystic arte but I can confidently pull it off now anytime as long as I have the souls for it.

Oh yeah, I also got a bottomless Inoph bottle, which is probably one of the best things they could've ever given me. I cheered.

Last thing I'll write about. When talking to the crew before teleporting to the Innominat proper, Magilou says, "Well, it seems I've finally found something that matters to me". This tore my heart apart. I still remember a section in the synopsis saying she had lost her will to live, and is inspired by the rest by their persistence and eagerness to pursue their goals. Eleanor is best girl to me but Magilou is just, chefs kiss.

I didn't actually expect the game to take this long, or for me to be taking this long to finish. Technically, I should've been done roughly 30 hours ago, but you know what? This taught me that I won't look up how long it takes to complete a game for a while now. I wanna be surprised at where they take me. RPGs are probably my most-played genre, I don't know why I expected anything shorter lol.

Time to fight god tomorrow, in typical JRPG fashion :)

Magilou used to be a legate. Used to be a disciple and even took Melchior's last name.

There's nothing 'special' in the way Magilou explains that the way she caught Melchior off-guard was that she exploited his overwhelming love for flowers. But in there's a whole past there. There's a whole life there that's gone now. She understood him enough to know flowers would be his doom. She was trained hard enough to know many books' worth of artes, even if it pales in comparison to her master's. And yet she hates him, she refused him, she's his greatest mistake. I'll forever be thinking about that line from hereon.

Also, I missed it in game but this fic I briefly read reminded me of it: Magilou describing her thoughts of herself as "absolutely vile", and then Velvet wishes for Magi to learn how to like herself. Then, in classic Magilou fashion, she brushes the comment aside. As much as Eleanor is my favorite character I really adore the writing of Magilou's character. So much said about her without it actually being addressed.

When they finally awaken the other Empyreans, they have this cute moment at the bottom of it. Velvet and Eleanor offer to cook for the rest once they head back to Van Eltia and it's like, this used to be a group that would've ditched one another if circumstances forced their hand. They are the equivalent of a group whose personal goals simply led them on the same path. They didn't need to go together, and at first they certainly didn't want to be.

And yet.

I don't really see them as family, but they're definitely friends. They're each others ride or die, and they don't need words to know it's true. Velvet entrusting Laphicet to Eleanor if shit hits the fan is the epitome of this. When Velvet tells her, "If the worst happens, I'm counting on you", I am passing away as we speak.

I think I'm reaching the end now, but they dumped a whole lotta side quests on me, so I'm going to get those done.

There's this heartwarming yet bizarre sidequest where a talking pengyon who is actually an isekai'd med student from another universe. They tell the crew to look out for a girl who was also isekai'd with him and is most likely also a pengyon too. Velvet asks what's his relation to her and he just replies that she's very special to him in a way the game has repeated to us through the voices of many other characters before.

Tales of Berseria's ultimate running theme to me is the sacrifices you make in the name of someone you love. Velvet and Laphi, Eizen and his sister, Kamoana and her mom. Artorius and Celica.

The beginning of today began with chasing after Prince Percival and the little kid with him since they were being chased by malakhim to be suppressed. It's fun to me whenever I go back to a past location and while the enemies' levels scale with mine somewhat — it's akin to going back to Aball.

While making my way towards the villa, I used the warp but didn't read the map and went the opposite direction. I spent a few minutes trying to decipher where the fuck was I when I realized I only made things harder for myself lmao.

The two of them were already captured, but Percival was able to escape with his will intact, though the kid was less fortunate. I made a remark in my notes how Velvet's original mission of enacting vengeance that originally framed her as a villain is now rebranding her as a hero. She's like Akechi during the third semester oh my fucking god.

I never really got the 'erase all emotions for the sake of never feeling pain again', but never were these characters in a rational state of mind anyway.

For Maruki, it's more of granting everyone THEIR ideal reality. For Artorius, it's HIS ideal reality. Conceptually the same but Maruki has the grace to know that everyone has a preferred reality to live in. I guess that's what the cast meant when they called Artorius selfish. He made his pain everybody's problem, and is selfishly taking everyone's emotions and will away from them because he'd rather live in a perfect world, where no one gets emotionally hurt because they've been stripped of the ability to do so.

Seeing this version of Velvet is by far my favorite. She's been hurt and is still hurting, but she's learned to accept the company around her. She's taking revenge on Artorius not just for the death of her brother anymore, but for the sake of herself. For the sake of the life that he had cruelly taken away from her. For the sake of her own hurt. She had gotten this far fueled solely by the anger of her own grief. For the first time in a while, she's doing something for herself.

Short tangent about Velvet/Eleanor because Idk where to place this:

While in Loegres, Eleanor reflects on the fact that had Velvet not 'conquered' her, she would be under the Abbey's control, and becomes genuinely grateful towards Velvet much to the latter's surprise. Velvet, the tsundere she is, calls her a pain in the ass (not verbatim).

Then, in Meirchio, after Velvet's bait to lure out the legates, they call each other nicknames (this is in a long skit that I will rewatch). Like, what is this energy in the studio right now.

Anyway, I stopped by Southgand to get one of the four nor dolls, then had a small side quest in Palamides. The music in Southgand is so cheery. It makes me happy listening to it.

Going back to Hellawes in order to reach the Mount Killaraus, the Suppression apparently had only entirely engulfed Midgand. All the other gands have also been affected but not to a severe degree. Meirchio isn't even affected at all by it.

Speaking of Meirchio, Gaiburk literally looks so cold. The snow, the intense whites, the ice, I wonder how the humans got through it. Also there was this long skit where everyone sans the malaks were sneezing, and everyone was waiting on Laphicet to sneeze but he didn't at the moment. But then he did just in time in order to break up Velvet and Medissa from fighting which is so on track for him.

They have a little heart-to-heart afterwards, and it's heart wrenching to me. I keep saying this but Velvet is not inherently a violent type of person, but the goal she's dedicated herself towards requires her to commit a certain degree of violence in order to succeed. She's always been someone who'd do anything to achieve what she wants, and this was the price she has to pay. She can't imagine turning back into a human even if Laphicet masters his power since, I think, she perceives all her actions up to this point irredeemable. What she has done, is doing, and will continue to do, is something only a daemon can do.

The sucker punch in this cutscene is when Laphicet forgives her. It comes directly after her lightly apologizing to his joke that she doesn't understand boys, but his forgiveness is more than that. It's forgiveness for what she'd one, forgiveness for all the pain she had caused him and all the pain she might cause him, since they're both connected to the Innominat. They both might be gone once the dust settles, and Velvet apologizes for stealing Laphicet of a future he deserves to have and everything else in between.

Here is the obligatory Magilou section now. She reintroduced herself as a Mayvin, and yet Melchior's last name is the same. Are they biologically related? Is she adopted? She calls him master still, and he calls her his greatest failure. Surely Rokurou and Eizen KNOW that they're connected, they were literally there. And yet the other three are still in the dark about it, and Velvet is even the one who's going to presumably kill him. Huh!

Also, I'm scared for Eleanor since Kamoana had a bad dream that she died, and even made her promise to take care of herself. What does this MEAN.

Rokurou meanwhile carries the soul of Kurogane with him. The empty cup of alcohol in front of him is a bittersweet view.

Lastly, Grim makes a remark on how the Innominat needs 8 types of malevolence, but there are only 7 therions. She and Laphicet pondered on who could be the vessel of despair, and my only candidates so far is everyone but Rokurou and Eizen.

Laphicet could be, but Idk if he's the default choice. Magilou, due to her heart being broken I guess?? Eleanor, because she's the most empathetic of the crew, so she's at the very least susceptible.

But there's also Velvet, who's been the main person the Abbey is trying to suck despair out of anyway.

Anyway, the crew go up and meet Shigure, who had the cat nerf him the entire time. It's like when a cat lays down on you and it's a crime to move. We beat his ass up after Rokurou has another final drink with him and then slices him in the chest. The cutscene has such nice choreography. Rokurou is the swordsman of all time.

My last note is that I really like how the cast has genuine friendships with one another that don't have to concern the main protagonist/Velvet. It makes the group feel independent, like they are each their own person. Rokurou invited Eleanor to have a drink with him, and while the rest were there yeah, the invite was only explicitly her.

It's really endearing and connects to a past point I made about this game where any conversation that doesn't have a conclusion can be brought back up. It makes the world feel really alive, and helps me at least immerse in the story.

The real reason for the extra areas that we had to go through was for the Innominat to have a chance to show Arthur's past memories lol. Velvet slashing the memories always catches me off-guard.

The first meeting of Arthur and Celica is great. "Is life something you have to earn? To deserve?" took me out, but "Feeling these things is proof that we're alive" decimated me. Velvet learned the phrase from her. She's an amalgamation of everyone that has came before her: Celica in her wisdom, Laphicet in his sense of adventure, and ironically, Artorius in his tragedy. This game makes me sick.

I'm still kinda in disbelief that this is THE Laphicet. To be fully honest, I'm kind of confused over the whole Innominat thing too. I'll check the Synopsis once I get back to playing.

When Innominat was trying to absorb them, it's literally the power of friendship that saves Velvet it's hilarious. The scene is sweet though. Phi telling Velvet that she is not the cruel-hearted monster she thinks herself to be. When he promises to protect Velvet with his entire life, it's a bittersweet callback to Laphicet himself, who's entire reason for his death was to serve Velvet a better life.

Also, "...if the world says it's a mistake to love you, I'll fight the whole world!" is probably the greatest thing one can say to her, and Phi is the only one who can tell that to her.

It's genuinely refreshing to see Velvet after that whole cutscene. Her losing it was pretty rough lol. She came to terms to the fact that she shouldn't be avenging her brother, but rather the life both their betrayal had caused her to lose. At least, that's how I've been interpreting it so far.

When they finally escape, Magilou is still writhing under whatever Melchior was doing to her. They both speak of the heart breaking as if it's a tangible thing, and when Magi tries to appeal to Silva she says that "[Velvet and the rest] are different from us". Who is us??? I saw in the Synopsis that Magi had "lost her will to live", and admires how Velvet and the others persist even in spite of everything anyway. Melchior calling her his "greatest failure" is also something. I can't believe I had to wait 50 hours to finally see wtf is Magilou's past, cause I realized this isn't reward to a build-up, this is still build-up.

Afterwards, the plot takes a turn towards escaping Callix, and okay, I've seen Velvet smile but it hits different now. She knows herself better now. She knows what she wants. Everything has never been so clearer.

There's this long skit over what Magi had been doing and it's really funny to see them thank her in their same bantering way. One of the main things Velvet teased Magilou about was her nonchalance to everything, and to see it be brought up here not as a tease, but as an understanding of who she is — it's great, it makes my heart full.

What questions me now is that yeah, they know Magilou held the door open for them so to speak, but do they know her connection with Melchior as his student? She reintroduced herself yeah, but it was never explicitly dropped, nor did Melchior offer up any information either.

When they stop by Port Cadnix??, Velvet offers yet another opportunity for Eleanor to turn away. But Eleanor is as stubborn as the rest of them, honestly, and refuses. When Velvet calls her a pain in the ass with a smile on her face, and Eleanor retorts that she's one to talk, adfhdafgh I love this. My favorite emotionally constipated crew but gets their message across to one another anyway.

Oh yeah, Velvet and Phi can no longer physically touch anymore since the former is exuding too much malevolence. Not something I understand entirely, other than that this was her price to pay for choosing the path she's on. They also say she's fully become a daemon, or something. Wouldn't Phi not be able to touch Rokurou either? Or maybe Velvet's emotions are way more intense than Rokurou's.

She has this dream where she speaks to Seres and says how she was happy to be a sister to all of them and goes, "I was happy". God. Okay. I'm so normal about this.

Anyway, they head back to Endgand since Van Eltia spotted Aifread. I don't have to deal with the puzzles again thank god. They meet Aifread, kick his ass, Phi gets held as hostage but he coordinates with Eizen for him to be taken down. And then Phi turns him back to a human somehow like what the fuck can we talk about that????

At the very least he gets to say all he needed to say, both the parts informing them about the Innominat and the Empyreans, and a parting line for Eizen: "If we ever meet again, let's raise some hell."

They leave Endgand and are on their way to somewhere when everyone gets suppressed. Idk how the crew managed to avoid it when the Van Eltia crew wasn't, but whatever. They make an emergency escape to Port Zekson and it's like, this is like if Maruki was evil. LMFAO. I got this screenshot of Velvet sitting on the edge of boat and the therapy cat is by far the best accessory choice I've made for her besides changing her clothes.

I think I ended it there cause I realized I was more tired than usual playing today since I couldn't think of stuff to write. There was a lot going on!

I'm making this note from a bullet point list of a live reaction I had, so this might have more? or maybe even less? structure. For a me that might look back on this, and maybe possibly anyone else, very important context for this particular note is that it's being translated from me flipping out at each twist lol.

Teresa's overwhelming desperation to save Oscar from dying has made her so that she's willing to work with the very person who hurt him, AND the person who she believed set the ball rolling for him to be hurt. I really don't know how I missed this comparison when they introduce the Linares siblings. It's idk, two older siblings once more who'd burn the world for their younger sibling. More specifically two older sisters who'd do whatever it takes to save their younger brother. While it's explicitly showed how Velvet allows Teresa to tag along both due to what she knows about the therion, Oscar, and the Abbey's plans, and also to be used as bait for Oscar, I personally also believe it's because she sees herself in her.

Then, there's Teresa and Laphicet. I tried elaborating to myself why I felt uncomfortable whenever the two would interact. I guess it's like, unlike Eleanor and Laphicet, Teresa has history with him. Teresa saw him as HER tool, and Teresa has only had a fraction of the time Eleanor had to learn that now free from her leashes, Laphicet has grown into a person of his own. Also, when Eleanor formed her pact with Laphicet, she already knew of the potential of his power. Teresa did too, but she only knows of it, not the experience of wielding it. So to me, during the entire Endgand area, I couldn't help but feel wary for if Teresa was gonna pull anything off. She was willing to call him Laphicet than Number Two not out of respect for his independence, but rather to just not stir up shit. But she never really ended up doing anything in the end anyway, and more intense things happened. Their new dynamics are just something I thought would be interesting to go over.

The boss fight wasn't tricky, but lol my all-female sans Rokurou team does not favor healing since they all do targets instead of directly healing. I got through it though so I'm not gonna complain.

Velvet killing Oscar and her horrified look afterwards was absolutely crazy. The Artorius parallels of killing a sibling in front of the other. The sound here was crazy too. She was genuinely spiraling at that moment, because she just did the very thing that started her whole journey in the first place. Her lashing out at Teresa was born out of her already mentally exhausted mind to protect herself from both Teresa and her own trauma.

Idk if I'm correct, but I swear the two of them died surrounded by the same flowers Velvet gave her deceased family 3 years back. The ones Laphicet collected before they were attacked by a daemon. Drives me insane man.

Afterwards, Velvet tries to justify what she has done, saying she had no choice. Eleanor retorts with, "and who does killing them save?", to which Velvet clumsily replies, "my murdered younger brother". I call this clumsy because I don't think Velvet has a proper reason for killing them. She just did because it was in the heat of the moment. As Velvet does a lot of repression whenever anything related to her trauma is brought up, she does it here too.

Here is the obligatory Magilou pondering section. At first I thought why would Magilou know the intimate details of Melchior's armatization arte. To my understanding, it was an incomplete thing, which was partly why Oscar ended up dying in the first place. This was yet another point into the running total of 'things Magilou knows for some reason that is never explained'.

Turns out, the real traitor is Bienfu on a technicality. Melchior had botched the connection between him and Magilou, leading to their locations being revealed and leading the crew to unintentionally suspect Eleanor again which I found funny. I lost my shit for the second time today when Magilou dropped how Melchior had orchestrated "even her imprisonment", because I thought Melchior was mostly Eizen's problem. Well!

The whole twist makes sense in hindsight, that Magilou has some sort of connection with the Abbey (turns out she's literally his student). It's very obvious that Magilou knows A LOT that she isn't sharing, and she's the only one that hasn't had her past elaborated on yet. I mentioned this in yesterday's note too. Also past me says, 'this mustache is not it', and it really wasn't. I'll try to not use accessories that cover faces now lol.

Another thing about Magi before I change topic from her for a while is that it makes sense why that's the bet she made. I wondered why she was so insistent on Velvet's downfall.

Anyway, back to the rest for a bit. I had spoilered myself where Velvet apparently sacrifices herself for her brother. I didn't know what that meant because Laphicet is clearly very dead, but he's not, apparently! He's the fucking Innominat, and we spent a good chunk of the game collecting therions to prevent an awakening that had already happened. :/ LMAO

Prior to seeing Artorius, the crew briefly talks about if the Abbey knew of the danger of the armatization arte, and Eleanor said they probably do. It's the very principle that Artorius goes by: 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few'.

What makes Eleanor interesting to me is how, despite her occupation, how against that belief she is. She's by far the most emotionally expressive of the bunch, and she makes the remark how she'd be using that arte too had she still been with the Abbey. Even if it scares her, even if she'd die.

Now! Back to plot. Magilou drops the line, "There is no sword that will not break, nor is there such a heart" or something along those lines in reference to something I can't remember nor do I have liberty to look up in order to prevent spoilers. I'll look it up once I'm finished though. If there's a line that'll stick with me it'll be that one. Holy fuck that's raw.

Laphicet Crowe being the Innominat goes crazy. He sounds weird, he looks weird, and he feels weird. This is the part where Velvet actually loses her shit, then he hits her with the fact that he hates who she is. Innominat does not feel anger towards Artorius for killing him, but would rather erase his own sister.

Artorius is literally Maruki.

Anyway! Again, topic switch, this note is probably the most back and forth I've been. After Laphicet 'eats' the crew, Magilou narrowly escapes since she discovered an opening somewhere. And this is where it drops that she was Melchior's student, and how illusions won't work on her since her 'heart was already broken'. Melchior says something about pitying his student, and again yet another thing I'll look up once I'm finished with the game. My two questions from this cutscene is whether Magi means that literally or metaphorically.

Switching back to Velvet, we watch as she literally loses her mind. She can't fathom the idea of Laphicet not condoning everything she has done. Velvet has justified time and time again that her ruthlessness was in the name of avenging her brother. This bothers her so strongly because for all her prowess at fighting even before her brother died, Velvet is not a violent person. For Laphicet to say that he doesn't condone the entire reason Velvet has held out for so long is almost akin to him saying he hates her.

God, this game is so fun.

Two more things I just wanna point out gameplay-wise that I want to briefly complain about.

One, since you can also control where you're going with RS while on the Geoboard, you cannot change the position of your camera which makes travelling upwards/downwards at times difficult. On a controller anyway.

Two, Endgand is a large area with puzzles I was so glad I didn't have to deal with once I beat the boss.

I recently read a fic where Eleanor was still an exorcist, but Velvet was a werewolf. The latter was living in the town nearby Aball that started with a T. I forgot the name lmfao and I don't wanna look it up in case I accidentally spoiler myself. At the time of reading the fic I wondered why Aball was so close by, and thought that was some artistic liberty taken, turns out it wasn't and I was lightly surprised lol. As soon as I saw the entrance back to Aball on the Morgana Woods side, it wasn't anything deeply poignant, but a part of me was like oh, I remember this place. I remember running through here with slight trepidation. This place was beyond Aball's walls. Monsters lurk here, and Velvet for all her past strengths was not the daemon she became yet.

But coming back, the place to me becomes re-contextualized to a place both signifying safety (you're near home! a home that wasn't wiped out!), and this sense of reassurance? In the sense that, Velvet is so much stronger now, what is there to fear? I'd even purposely make enemies run into each other so I can have more combat time.

Game-wise, this is "just another area", but narratively, it was the area before home. I remember that save point, I remember that chest. I remember those Katz spirits.

This re-contextualization (which also extends to the entirety of Eastgand both pre and post-illusion) hammers home a point the game emphasizes through subtext so hard it might as well be text: that the 19 year old Velvet Crowe, no matter how much she tries to wear the corpse of her 16 year old self, has changed too greatly and has been hurt too deeply. It's like that feeling of coming 'home' after being away for so long. A daemon is the epitome of malevolence, and Velvet carries too much of it in her veins to even ever pretend otherwise. But Velvet still carries that corpse of herself with her.

A long skit with Phi and Eleanor has them creating headcanons of who Velvet was when she was younger, and I think the most important remark there was how Phi goes, "this [a cheery, happy, friendly Velvet] is her real self". And he's right.

She doubts the survival of Aball, doubts the survival of Niko and Laphicet. She's warned of it being a trap but still, she clings on to the hope that it's not true. Her resolve literally shakes here. Living inside Velvet Crowe is this wish for things to be the way it once was. Artorius has cruelly morphed his sister, a teenager at that too!, to carry an anger that has fundamentally changed her. While it's specifically Laphicet's sacrifice and Arthur's betrayal what turns Velvet rightfully furious, the aftermath caused her to lose a home too.

It's why I kinda dig the dynamic of Velvet and Eleanor. They're almost like opposite sides of the same coin. Artorius killing Laphicet pushed Velvet to be a daemon (heavy simplification but lol). Daemons killing Eleanor's mom pushed her to be an exorcist.

I also think it's finally causing Velvet to break. Eastgand is probably so far the most emotionally tumultuous section for Velvet since breaking out. Yes, even more than the first half of the game up to where she confronts Artorious. That one was filled with, I'd argue, rage. Eastgand was everything else in between. Aball is titled the Village of Longing for a reason. The trauma of having devoured her friends and having to do that again. The bitter decision of having to let Laphicet go. Of letting him 'die' again.

The cutscene of her fainting starts with her thinking about having had to kill her townsfolk again. She literally sees Phi as Laphicet, something she has only done through comparisons. She nearly called Seres her sister. I'm actually kinda lowkey concerned for her lmao.

Anyway, enough about Eastgand. Whenever the camera settles on Magilou I get really intrigued. She's the only one left in the cast without a 'goal'. Rokurou with slaying his brother; Eizen finding Aifread; Eleanor's pursuit for the truth; Phi and his self-identity. Do I even need to explain Velvet's?

Initially, I thought meeting Grim would be the game's ticket into elaborating more onto Magilou and her past and/or connections but nope. While they briefly talk about how they got acquainted, it drowns in favor of Grim translating that one ancient language that heavily relies on intuition.

So far Magilou strikes me as someone who knows far more than what she lets on. She carries herself with this air of nonchalance, and treats the others with an unseriousness that has made for funny interactions. She tags along for "entertainment", but why? Magilou remains a free spirit. She started the game not giving a fuck, there's no way she'll end the game like that too. This is not a criticism of her character, just something that keeps me on my toes about her. She's funny, witty, and the crew's self-imposed comic relief.

When curious, she masks her questions behind that same face of nonchalance. Why is she insistent on insisting that things don't matter? Why does she continue to tag along beyond reasons like wanting to know how Velvet's quest of revenge will end? What does she want, ultimately, out of this? I heckin' love Magilou.

I can't believe there's only one therion left to go. Maybe it'll be Teresa? But they're going to Endgand and she's at Midgand. Also, I wonder what was the experimental arte.

Random but here's what I'll end this entry with: Oscar reminds me of someone and I can't remember who it is.

I feel like whenever I try to think about what has happened when I played everything escapes me.

Apparently, when I last changed everyone's equipment at once, I had set Velvet's Defense to around 100. At the time, and honestly, it still was, an okay number to set it at even at around Level 40. The only reason why I ever noticed was she kept on dying when I encountered a Dire Foe.

Maybe it's also because the aggro was on her, but it caught my attention since none of my other party members had a scratch on them (and if they had, the healing was enough to make up for it). Quickly changed that and now it should be roughly in the 200s or 300s, and I took the chance to upgrade both Velvet and Eleanor. I put Eizen on the backburner again and swapped him for Rokurou since Eleanor learned another healing skill. Magilou's Arte Attack is in the 500s and it could've been the placebo effect but regular fights became even quicker. This game is so fun lmao. I'll upgrade Rokurou and Magilou some other time.

Now, plot-wise, a moment I really like was Medissa being able to answer the question Eleanor wasn't able to for Kamoana. It makes sense that Eleanor wasn't able to answer it either, since her mother died at a young age, and she's not a mother herself. Her own answer to Kamoana's question is one I bet she uses to comfort herself.

(I keep getting distracted by her jacketless attire. The white suits her really well.)

Eizen talked about how they have nothing to worry about regarding Eleanor being corrupted by malevolence since she's, in Magilou's words, almost the embodiment of the Abbey's teachings of purity, he also mentioned how human hearts are fickle. While this is true even without the context of the game, a part of me wonders if it's foreshadowing.

The way this game writes banter amongst the cast is so fun to watch and read. I've caught myself many times laughing at whatever shenanigans they decide to pull off. I just encountered one where they finally wrapped up the whole bug debate between Eizen and Rokurou. I love how they reference past events like this in a more, idk, elaborate way?

I guess I like how they look back on it, and how they continue the conversation. Each conversation that ends without a conclusion has the opportunity to be brought up again and to be discussed once more. It makes whatever happens to the characters a bit more real, to me, in a way.

Reached Hellawes again. Most important achievement of today was being able to activate Velvet's second... whatever the LT does.

I have no idea if it's as grating in the EN dub, but the voice of Kamoana in JP whenever she cries makes me uncomfortable. It's cute how Velvet just walked up to her and gave her a hug. She'll forever be an older sister.

And! I do like how Velvet's learned to separate Laphichet from Phi. As much as I adore the way both Eleanor and Velvet take care of him, it hits better when they're not acting in competition to one another.

Finally got the hang of the combat-ish. I've learned to live around the numerous mechanics it gives you and realize all you really need is Velvet, Break Soul, and the occasional Blast Gauge. Also, Dangerous Encounters are my only way to do combat because on Normal difficulty, foes are too weak to actually put you in a state of peril, and the former situation lets you at least experience the combat more, which I've grown to actually like. Thank god, since the combat was admittedly one of my least favorite parts of the game.

The part where Eleanor finally admits to them that she's a spy, and then retort that they knew all this time was really funny to me. I really like the interactions between Laphichet and Eleanor since it feels like two people trying to navigate a world they know little about---Laphichet since he's young, and Eleanor because her worldview is literally being expanded.

For the Synopsis entry for this part of the story, Velvet trusts that Eleanor is telling the truth because she isn't one to lie, and also because Eleanor is a horrible liar. Lmao