Cesuelia eventually finds Anje, who asks her to use her Tear Drop crystal in the vicinity of a magic lump of rock called the Guardian Stone. Cesuelia does this by pressing Square (this is, incidentally, how the many Tools in the game are used). The stone responds to the light radiated by the Tear Drop, which, according to Anje, means that the Guardians and Tear Drop are linked in some way. Man, who’d have thought that Cesuelia’s magic crystal would be connected to a group of sacred beings? The plot twists are coming straight out of left field here, guys. Anje continues with yet more exposition, as he reveals that the Tear Drop is “the secret treasure of the Adlehyde family”. In return for letting him babble on for ten minutes, he gives Cesuelia his Pocket Watch (another Tool). This allows Cesuelia to traipse back to the library and use the Pocket Watch to reverse time. “I hate using magic for a purpose like this…” she sighs, as if magically moving a few books is any worse than casting fireballs at people. Whatever, Cesuelia. We don’t actually see time reversing – the screen just fades out for a few seconds. We now see that the mess has been cleared. Hooray! Wait a minute – if Cesuelia has just reversed time to when the books were still on the shelves, then surely she shouldn’t yet have the Pocket Watch, and surely we shouldn’t even be witnessing this scene as the books had been messed up before her fucking scenario even began? My brain hurts, and I’ve obviously put more thought into this scenario in ten seconds than the game designers did whilst planning, scripting and programming the whole thing. Then again, time travel/manipulation is always a tricky subject, especially in RPGs where absolutely nothing makes any kind of sense anyway.
Where was I? Oh yeah, the books. They’ve all magically flown back onto their shelves, except for one large purple tome which remains on the floor. When Cesuelia examines the book, the screen darkens slightly and our old friend the Annoying Exposition God pops in for a chat. Sweet Jesus. “Innocent One…” it moans, frying a few hundred more of my poor braincells. “I am…trapped within the…Sealed Library…” it concludes, before the book vanishes and the screen lightens again. So, I guess I must somehow find this Sealed Library and release the AEG from it, perhaps actually developing the plot in the process.
Cesuelia speaks with Sister Mary, who remarks “So, a book is calling you to the Sealed Library?”, as if it’s one of the most normal things in the world. She continues that the library does indeed exist, although she is unable to tell Cesuelia where it is. After all, Cesuelia is the chosen one, and must prove herself by doing this on her own. Please excuse me while I try to remove the lingering, ripe smell of Mary Sue-age from the room.
It takes a good five minutes for Cesuelia to find any concrete information regarding the Sealed Library. Sure, everyone within a three mile radius has heard of it, but nobody knows how to find the freaking thing. They could really use a Strategy Guide or two. Not that I ever use them, of course. During my initial meet’n’greet tour of the abbey, a few of the generic students mentioned that there was something creepy about the two statues in the courtyard. It’s as good a lead as any, so off I go to examine these suspicious statues. I find out that the statues have hidden switches, which magically make them as light as a feather when pushed. The statues are currently facing away from each other, so Cesuelia switches them around, making them face towards each other. Now using the Tear Drop in between the statues summons a pair of sparkly blue orbs, which fly around Cesuelia for a while before shooting off into the abbey. Following them leads Cesuelia to a section of blank wall, where something is now happening. Some sparkly blue light effects produce an emblem of an inverted triangle with a teardrop motif set in the centre of it. Don’t worry if you forget what it looks like, as this is a symbol we’ll be seeing very often. Now we hear the voice of what may or may not be the AEG. It whispers “I am the Eternal Darkness. Come to me, Innocent One. Bring me your inner light…” Now, the “Eternal Darkness” part would surely set alarm bells ringing inside the head of any sane person. But of course, Cesuelia is both a videogame character and a Mary Sue, stripping her of any rational thought, so she uses the Tear Drop once again. Suddenly Cesuelia is sucked into the air. That’s the only way I can describe it. She’s then plonked down inside what I presume to be the Sealed Library. It’s only now that I notice how boring that name is – maybe I’d be a little more excited about the game’s first dungeon if it sounded ominous and/or interesting, like Sealed Temple or Sealed Dungeon. Sealed Library just makes me think of a room full of musty old books. As it turns out, I’m not far off the mark.
The Sealed Library is a pretty mundane dungeon, with no gimmicks or annoying puzzles to speak of. Enjoy the simplicity of the dungeons while it lasts. There are a few little puzzles involving hitting switches and throwing boxes (yes, certain items can be picked up and thrown) but nothing very taxing. I’m caught up in several random battles as I progress through the library, but Cesuelia doesn’t have too much trouble – her weapon of choice is a huge axe. Haha, just kidding. Her wand may not deal much damage, but that really isn’t an important factor when the only things she’s fighting are floating books and retarded demons. Another thing I just have to mention – this game’s MP restorative item is called a Magic Carrot. I guess it beats the magic mushrooms the game designers are so fond of.
A fact the game designers should bear in mind.
In the main hub of the dungeon, there are about a trillion bookcases, all with readable books. Yay. Most of them just refer to secrets and sidequests, or shit that won’t be happening for a very long time yet. As it would be as boring for you to read through the tripe as it would be for me to recap it, I’ll just give a brief summary of the important books:
The Demon’s Heart
“Together, the Humans and the Elws were finally able to defeat the Demon Queen. The Queen’s heart was forever sealed into three separate Guardian statues”.
Enigma of Elw
“The enigmatic Elw race…Much of the Elw magic was truly astonishing. They specialized in magic related to biology. One of their technologies converted life force to energy for transport to other locations”.
The Elw Dimension
“Soon after the war with the Demon Race, the Elws disappeared from Filgaia. They used what powers they had remaining and moved an island still teeming with life to another dimension. Their destination is known as the Elw Dimension”.
The Body of the Demons
“The cold hard bodies of the demons are made of metal. Their metal bodies, however, have most of the same traits of a biological entity. The ancient mages of the art of Alchemy studied captive demons to learn from their technology. That is how we came to create the golems”.
The Demon Invasion
“The Demon Race has technology that allows them to travel across time and space. They have also developed a device that utilizes this technology to instantly transport troops to a faraway location. The demons’ attacks seemed to use this strategy…”
The Lost Guardians
“In the ancient days, Guardians represented basic human nature. There were three Guardians who were in charge of higher energies beyond the four basic energies. These three Guardians were in charge of those who lived their lives according to their energies. These were: The ‘Courage’ Guardian [see, here’s ‘Courage’ rearing its ugly head again], who had the power of growth beyond oneself. The ‘Love’ Guardian, who had the power to protect what is precious. And the ‘Hope’ Guardian, who had the power to believe in the future. In the old days, these three energies existed in everyone’s hearts. Now, people have forgotten the meaning of these energies”.
The New Moon
“The other moon that floats above the night sky, shines its dull light down on the surface of Filgaia. Some say it’s the castle of the demons and is made of magic silver…We have no way of knowing now…”
Ancient Human Weapons
“The eight golems were built by humans a thousand years ago to fight off the invasion of the Demon Race. All but one still remains deep inside the ruins…A real study of these artifacts can only be done when all eight of the golems are excavated”.
There, wasn’t that interesting? Hey, stop yawning at the back! And to think those were just the important books. One other book tells of the feared monster Rago Ragla, the “King of the Beasts”, who resides in a hidden lair, and whose name will have about five different spellings by the time we get to Wild Arms 3. Yay for translation continuity errors! After completing a task of finding three special books and throwing them onto a fire (no, I don’t know why either) a huge door opens, allowing Cesuelia to descend into the deepest depths of the library, where she will inevitably have to further prove herself by fighting a boss.
Said boss happens to be a big blue demon with horns, who appears from a book Cesuelia examines. Thus, the first boss battle begins. I know you’re all so excited. “You’re not the shadow that calls me, are you?” Cesuelia squeaks as the monster attacks. At the beginning of the battle, the monster – Nelgaul – declares his nefarious plans to trap Cesuelia inside the book with him forever. Somehow I don’t think that will be happening, or this whole scenario would be pretty pointless. Cesuelia wins with ease. As a side note, after certain battles – I think it’s random, but there’s probably some complicated formula which certain individuals will have spent hours working out – Cesuelia dances in her post-battle taunt, as opposed to her usual wand-raising stance. Just thought I’d point that out.
‘I see you baby…shakin’ that ass!‘
When Nelgaul is banished back to wherever he came from, a blue sparkly orb flies out of the book and morphs into the dreaded AEG, who now takes the form of a giant blue turtle. “I am Stoldark, the Guardian of the Water,” he declares, before rambling on for a while about Cesuelia being the Innocent One. In a nutshell, she’s going to help to save the world. Score another point for originality! “Everything begins with Lolithia…” he finishes. At this point I have no idea who or what Lolithia is, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon. Stoldark transforms himself into a Water Rune and offers himself to Cesuelia. Ew, not like that. Her current mission completed, Cesuelia is sucked back out of the Sealed Library and back into the abbey.
Now Cesuelia’s introduction is almost over. Sister Mary spouts some more shit about the responsibilities of the women in the Adlehyde family, how they must forever carry the burden of their destiny with them, etc etc etc. Cesuelia rolls her eyes and taps her foot impatiently. Oh wait, that was me. Jeez, how many RPG women are faced with “the burden of their destiny”? They should set up a support group or something. Sister Mary continues that now is the time for Cesuelia to leave the abbey and return home to Adlehyde. Lord knows why they’re sending her home. Judging by most RPGs, she’ll run away from the castle after five minutes anyway. After saying her goodbyes, Cesuelia’s intro concludes.
Emerging on the World Map, I realise that I can continue to play as Cesuelia…but why would I want to do that just yet, when I have two more heroes to choose from first? I select the treasure hunter, who is currently at a location called the Memory Temple.