Before we can go into the next chapter, we need to do a mission with Irina. Since I was doing everything in the game pretty much blind, I chose to jump into the fight alongside Irina, but apparently there is an unlockable if you hang back and let Elma go instead. Ultimately, there was a lot I missed because I didn't get a piece of information at the right time, so I'm not stressing over it. Luckily, this is something pretty small, so nothing of value is really lost in the big picture.

Otherwise, we need to exterminate some monsters. There isn't really anything special to this. They are the avian type, so you may want a long range gun to chip away at them should they hover outside your skill activation range. We are still early enough in the game where the mission monsters do not lean towards overkill.

And here is what is essentially the grand finale. We hit the bottom of the Zeroth Stratum and get to find what was missing throughout our journey through Crossbell. It is a three stage boss where every stage has its own team. I wanted to try to do one of them without a dodge tank, but ultimately it is just more hassle than it is worth.

With this out of the way, the only thing left is to do the Daydreams. I mentioned that I will not both with the challenge doors anymore as they get incredibly tedious and don't really offer anything of value. Overall, I was pretty disappointed with what the game has to offer, and after reading about the Calvard adventure coming up, it seems like the writing team has kind of lost the plot. I am happy that the Crossbell games got physical copies to go with their translations. Now, I just hope something can be arranged for Sky as well, then I can depart the series content.

Some groundwork is laid for the coming arc where we need to meet the Shi'arcs. There are more characters recruited here, but I will omit the story characters with few exceptions.

Otherwise, Lam is the glitched character that you can be locked out of on the release version of the game. Do not speak to her without Riufan to avoid triggering the glitch. Sadly, if you wanted to get a physical version of the game, this does mean that without patches, it is possible to lock yourself out of at least two characters. What is worse, is that Lam is pretty good for sending out on missions.

For Code L, you just need to show him the Rune that we got as a boss drop from an earlier fight. Afterward, feel free to equip and use it. Otherwise, L will need a Rune Shop for his dealings, so you may want to build him one. Beyond that, he is required for a later recruitment, so don't forget he exists.

For Milana, she is recruitable once you have the Rune Shop built. Personally, I don't think she is a bad character, but dark magic has not impressed me much. She does have a global AOE for 2 SP, which is why she was on my radar, but I have not checked her lens for how versatile she can be. I will briefly use her later, but I cannot promise whether she will find a home beyond that.

Lastly, since we have B'baba, Francesca, Yusuke, and Yume, Faye can now be recruited. With the exception of B'baba, who is a recent recruit, the other three were picked up much earlier in the game. Visit each of them after the divination to get the scene with Faye and once you have her locked down, she can be recruited.

I went overboard here. We seriously recruit 9 characters in this video when I normally wanted to do 5 max. Part of the reason for this is that I layered things to be time efficient, which is why we're recruiting a character on 4 minutes average. The rundown is as follows:

Aire wants a foot race. If your speed is high enough, you get the recruit. If not, come back in a bit.

Maureus wants an ally with a large MP pool. Falward at this stage has enough, so we get him (this is why I show Falward). I have this one and the one above because I wasted so much time fishing...

Fume, Enoe, and Larla require the Mission Guild to be built, which requires the level 2 castle. Both Fume and Enoe will come once it is built, but Larla requires an Epic Success mission result. You can stack the teams to make this pretty easy to come by.

Paquia and Mandie need eggs. They drop from a plethora of monsters, and you may have the 5 that you need. If you don't and are having trouble, you get your first drop boosting accessory in the dungeon where JC joins, so you can come back later. This is too early in the game to really get anything of value out of egg racing, so unless you need to burn time, don't bother with it.

Douglas just needs some iron, which is easy to come by. Pop into the well and you can grab some at the end of the dungeon. You do not need it in your inventory, just mined. This means you can leave through the castle instead of forcing your way through the mine. Sadly, you will need the next castle upgrade before you can get your money's worth out of Douglas.

Lastly, Isha is the annoying one. She is the first permanent recruit from the Rising game (Garoo and JC will be guest characters first). She sends you off on a series of fetch quests that you will need to knock out. The good news is that she is a very good mage, possessing a row attacking Rune and a good MP pool if you want to use her as a healer. When I break the game later, she will be taking ove..

I expected so much more out of this segment. This disappointed me so damn much, I stopped playing the game for a week. The worst part of it all is that this is not the translation, this is just really bad writing. I am tempted to make a longer video to tear into this, but to summarize:

The only major development here is the Emperor's assassination, which causes a rift in the Imperial side. Goldwyn withdraws, Seign defects. As for Nowa's side, literally nothing is accomplished. Euma is still as indecisive as ever, only choosing to run away from the issue instead of growing to confront it. The Alliance expands due to Melridge and the defectors joining, but other than possibly Seign, none of them have growth any from their journey other than their "stats". Perielle doesn't have a good friend moment with Euma, instead looking very parasitic in that once they are allied, she is off to the next location instead of sticking around to help him. There were no developments with Nowa, where he may have learned something about leadership from either Goldwyn or Kassius. With the exception of the announcement of the Emperor, I would call this entire segment just filler. I'm not sure how many people feel the same about this, but it makes the whole Euchrisse journey feel like something to pad the game time and the roster size. Unless I am missing something, there just isn't anything here.

We have hit the final stretch before we can take on the final boss. Overall, the stratum is much like the ones before it with no new twists or turns. Since this was DLC in Japan, they probably went simple, but it just feels lazy to me. We just need to power through this one more time.

With access to fast travel via Carrie, I opt to go get some of the recruits I was not able to. We kick off the Faye and B'baba recruitment line at the beginning as I make my way to Leon, but they will not be coming up for a bit.

For Leon, he is on the west side of the castle once it has been upgraded the first time. You just need to talk to him to recruit him. Leon is a fighter.

For Squash, we have to get him the Sparklestone. I ended up getting 3 of them while I was out there, so just give him one and he will join. He requires a shop to be built.

For Kurtz, while we are recruiting Squash, we pick up the recipe he requested from the tree folk. Talk to him afterward and he will join. He requires a restaurant to function.

For Pieter, he is tending the fields in Werne. You just need to talk to him. Build an expanded field at the castle and he will function.

For Glen, this is the start of the card game side quest. Like in real life, card games get expensive fast, so this is something I will be chipping away at off screen for the most part. Otherwise, beat him using the default deck and he will come to the castle. You will need to build the card shop for him to function. He will sell you booster packs and arrange battles between you and the various people you recruited. There is a lot to this, so expect more details further down the line.

Lastly, I am going to do these recruitment videos in 5 character blocks for title purposes. There are still more people we can recruit, but I will alternate between here and the story. For instance, I will not be doing the beigoma crap until much later on, but in theory you can go recruit them or the person from the card game quest already.

This is the part that pissed me off. You can catch the damn fish either in the Sea Cavern by the house or at the coast outside of it. Neither fishing spot is well advertised. I spent 2.5 hours there (check the game clock if you think I'm joking), and the enemies in the sea cavern are stronger than the ones we encounter elsewhere. This turned into an accidental grind session, so I am going to be overpowered for the remainder of this arc.

Otherwise, we dip into Daphan and grab B'baba. Had I done Riufan first, we could have gotten Lam, but we will get her later. The good news is that she is no longer glitched. In the base game, talking to her in her young form twice without Riufan permanently glitches her and she will never join. Expert coding FTW.

Afterward, we deliver the fish to Huang and get him to join, unlocking a lot of upgrades for the castle. I ended up doing everything I could while burning these 2.5 hours, so the castle is almost maxed for this stage of the game.

Lastly, since I am overpowered from getting the fish, I fight Riufan and you can see that I'm toying with him. He is probably meant to be tougher there, but once again, the balance is shot.

With those out of the way, we go into Hishahn Old Town where Carrie is required to do an impossible teleport. Afterward, there is a boss we have to fight, then we get our evidence to bring down Harlan. In the next part, we can bring this arc to a close and hopefully you can see my disappointment.

We arrive at Hishahn and there are a few recruits up for grabs. Carrie is required, and you need to navigate some of the pathways to find her. Getting her unlocks the quick travel feature, so we can hop around the world freely, and this allows you to easily backtrack. Other than that, we can grab Nell, but we will not be able to get the expanded inventory immediately. Riufan can be recruited if you have the levels, and Huang requires an annoying fish, so we will not get them yet.

Story-wise, we are able to meet the leader of the adjacent state to Grum, and to be honest, this is the arc that has largely killed my interest in the game and I haven't played it much since the conclusion. I am only mentioning this so you can lower your expectations as this is not translation related, but just very shoddy writing.

Otherwise, I am not putting Perielle and Janquis in the title as they are story required. I did put Kallathor in an earlier video, but that was because he started as a "guest" like Mellore did earlier. For Perielle and Janquis, this should be a permanent addition.

Perielle can function as a fighter or a support. As a support, she is the offensive option, helping you to immediately crush opposition. Janquis can help you make bank, which will be important for some of the recruitments to come as they will be getting pricey.

This is the last video before fast travel is unlocked, so bear a bit longer. We need to return to the Treefolk Village and take a different exit with the help of Sabine. There are new NPCs here and there, so you can pick up a few more recruits if you're willing to do more backtracking. I opt to hold off until a later video for that, so instead we make the cross into Euchrisse after grabbing Chron at the HQ, then grab Pastole and Mariette in Twinthorne. I don't believe any of them are combatants, so you will not get any benefit from them until you get their respective buildings back at HQ.

In the interests of time, I cut up the dungeon itself removing any backtracking and needless exploring. As a result, we kick things off by exploring the Treefolk Village and talking to everyone as per usual. Once that is done, we tackle the Road to the Proving Grounds which is nothing we're unfamiliar with.

The Proving Grounds is a little different with a slight puzzle element to it as you are able to rotate the corridor to create different paths. By adding more pieces to it by finding the gears in the two corners, we are able to access where the lock on the door is and then progress to the boss area.

For the bosses, there are two fights. The first one is against the golems, and you must knock out the big one first to get its entry. It can get stuck in a loop where it will spam healing on the small one, so a lot of people are tempted to overlook it. If you want to be a completionist, take it down then worry about the small one. For the small one, you need to defend against the attack from the other statues. If you can get to that point, you are most likely golden.

After that fight, save and heal as there is another fight coming. For this one, I calculated it would actually be easier to replace the lost EXP from KOed people than it would be to use the healing items the fight really required (you need Incense). As such, I sacrifice party members to take down the first enemy, and with him out of the way, we are free to take down the second and bring this dungeon to a close. Kallathor will permanently join the group, but the other guest characters have their own things to worry about.

The prerequisites for the different chapters change considerably between the chapters themselves. As the third chapter took quite a while to get unlocked, we are able to hop into the fourth immediately after escaping the affinity mission.

For this one, a lifehold has been identified in Noctilim that we have to head out to investigate. Here we manage to find yet another alien species and one of them ends up joining the group. Said individual is the best tank in the game, so there are a lot of strategies you're able to use with him. The problem is that he uses the same shield weapons as Lin, and with her being required on most missions, it becomes difficult to squeeze them both in.

If you are willing to backtrack to previously explored areas, there are more characters to recruit. Ormond, Hiro, and Galdorf are all found in the mines. We met Hiro while going through them, but the other characters are at the beginning and end. Falward is probably the most important acquisition here as he will be replacing Francesca as the team healer shortly. As for Frida, she and Hiro are the first vendors that can be recruited. If you have the building materials, you can immediately open their shops. By doing so, you will increase the castle population, which will affect how quickly we generate currency. Ormond and Kerrin (from the previous video) will give you free resources for building their stuff, so it is up to you on which to prioritize.

I dipped into this area two videos ago to show what it looks like before the path appears. Kallathor will accompany us, but he won't join until later. Past where he stands, we can find Martha and get the farm going in the castle to generate resources. Afterward, we are able to enter the Greatwood East, and upon beating the boss there, we are given the item we need to recruit Gieran. I will use him a bit later. After that, we enter the Treefolk Village and get some scenes, but it will be the next video where we explore it properly.

We do not have access to the full area of either location yet. There are glitches in both areas where the encounter table changes against the invisible wall, so if you want to really break the game, you can run along the wall for these later game encounters and use the EXP from there to dwarf anything in the coming segments. I opted not to do this, so we will remain level appropriate until we try to recruit the fisherman, but that is a few videos down the line.

The objective here is to find bodies to help us with the castle. Kerrin just needs you to do a short hike to gather some wood, which is easy enough. Afterward, she can set up a timber mill sort of thing in the castle to provide wood for you. Wyler needs help finding his sister, so you just explore the gathering points until you find her. Afterward, he joins you as a ranged fighter and she joins you as a support and healer. Personally, for this stage of the game, Marin is probably the best support you can have, so she will be tagging along in that slot for a very long time.

We have seen the primary battle system up to this point, but now we get to see the other two that carried over from Suikoden. The first is that we have a brief and simple strategy battle where there are 3 captains guiding units that have to repel the enemy. We have the fortifications, so we just need to let them crash into us until they are broken enough for us to go out and deliver the final blow.

From there, we have our first duel, which is technically winnable, but you will need to spend excessive time grinding to get to a high enough level. I believe some dialogue will change by winning, but the ultimate outcome is the same.

As Eltisweiss falls, we opt to regroup at the ruins of the castle. With everyone who survived chipping in, surely we can turn it into a place of repute.

I did not see much of a change in the main area of the Corridor, so I suspected the dialogue for everyone was the same. As a result, there is no need to waste a video talking to evryone again and we can instead plunge into the next stratum. I had to be a little creative in the editing here as I wanted to make sure it clocked in under two hours...

Anyway, the final layer is available at the end, so we need to get ready to face the true final boss now.

Not too much to say here. We continue delving into the next stratum which in turn will unlock the next one. Overall, kind of a filler segment, but we do get gear and stones to unseal.

Knowing the truth behind what is going on at the border, Nowa and crew decide to sneak around and see just how large the invading forces are. While there, we run into another familiar face that is not as receptive as the ones before.

Also, I don't know why it is, but having to do these stealth segments is still something that pops up in JRPGs. The mechanisms are not really here to support it, but for some reason they still get shoehorned in. I wish these went the way of the QTE.

My crash course with the game systems continue, this time learning what all it means to do an affinity mission. Basically, I am trapped doing this before I can do any major missions. To make things worse, HB is not really worth it. While he is a DLC character from the Japanese version, he is the worst of the shield users. In any circumstance, you are better off using L or Lynn, so this is ultimately a massive waste of time.

Failing to find the bandits we were looking for in the previous video, Nowa heads home and uncovers the plot. The only bright side is that we find out not everyone on the Imperial side is working together as we meet a familiar face. Sadly, the next one we meet will not be as receptive.

Also, a bit of a warning. About half of this video is combat as I opt to fight every single bandit here for power leveling purposes. It alone is not enough to get your level high enough to win the first duel, but it is going to do wonders for when we're about to do the next recruitment drive.

I don't want this to get lost in the uploading of Eiyuden, so we are going to move forward with Chapter 3. Sadly, the capture card lost the data between me walking out to the starting point and where the previous video ended. Nothing of real value is lost, as the important stuff comes later. This is basically the beginning of us recruiting other alien species to live with us while we try to figure out why some of the races outright hate us and whether that hate extends to other races we encounter.

This is where the loading times on Switch (how?) start to feel punishing. We must navigate the mines and push carts here and there to make progress while we investigate the bandits. Upon reaching the opposite end, we have a full blown team fight with them. Yusuke is really good for this segment as you can use his "block" Charge Up to defend one turn and then deal serious damage the next. It beats the "taunt" that Iugo offers by a huge margin. Kuroto and Mellore can attack from the back row and Francesca can heal, so I really recommend bringing those three for this part (bench Iugo).

When all is said and done, we have located the ruins of a castle, and a lot of hungry people. Ultimately, we will need to look more into this whole bandit thing and get to the bottom of it.

You run into Mellore in the city, but you must do this sidequest to recruit her. We must cross the ridge and fight the monster at the end of it, which has a minor gimmick to it. I don't know how you tell with certainty where the monster will pop up so you can hammer it down, but if someone tells me in the comments, I will pin it.

Upon defeating the monster, Mellore joins the team and we can finally change her equipment. If you fought 3 wild boars as you travel through here, Kuroto will join you when you go back and talk to him. Finally, if you talk to Yume's grandmother after clearing the area, you can come back to find Yume and her friend, the first of the "large" party members you are able to recruit.

To my knowledge, this is the extent of the early recruitments, so we will need to move the story forward a bit before more come up for grabs. Still, we are making good progress I think.

I will try to put the recruited characters in the title moving forward. Otherwise, Mio has gone on leave and Garr may be behind her, so we are given the temporary captain assignment. Our first job is to fill the ranks, which I believe you can complete whenever you have a 6 man party. However, there are more people to be had here, so we will do a brief sidequest where we can bring in 3 more...