Xenogears - Stealth Mission

Video: The Tournament

Alright, it's time for a tournament!

But not before a nice little nationalist speech by our good friend Shakhan. Like most nationalist speeches, it sounds nice until you start paying attention to the implications. Yeah...he's definitely not a good guy at all...

Ramsus hilariously walks in just to curtly wish him goodbye. Shakhan tries to invite him to watch the tournament, but he bluntly refuses, lol.

Miang attempts to soothe things over, but Ramsus, continuing to be a sharp aleck, delivers this absolutely amazing line! With Shakhan so thoroughly humiliated, he has no choice but to silently watch him strut away. Thankfully for him, Miang does choose to stick around and offer him some company.

She's even impressed by Fei's physique, catching sight of him just before his first match! Heh, well I doubt they're ever going to end up together, but who knows.

And so, we begin the first battle of the tournament! Gonzalez here is a fairly straightforward opponent. His one gimmick is to retaliate against unique combos with his own powerful strikes. But aside from that, he doesn't really have much going for him, and is soon thoroughly wacked out of the tournament!

Annnnd then we cut back to Bart, who's busy navigating the waterways.

Yes, this game has two gameplay segments play out in parallel, and yes, Fei's performance in the tournament does influence how Bart's part plays out. It's a pretty cool concept, even if each segment is admittedly a little simplistic on its own.

There's not a lot interesting in the waterways, despite its looks. Bart can take a peek at some places, like the aquarium at the restaurant or the pool, but he has a cousin to rescue, so he just heads straight for the palace.

Once there, he meets the caretaker, who gives him a warm welcome! Well, sort of. He's rather senile and rambles on about the good ol' days, but he does recognize Bart as the king's son. Vaguely.

Bart, after a somewhat confusing conversation, heads up into the palace proper. But before he gets there, we cut to Fei's second match, with Big Joe as his opponent. He was the punk rocker we met back in...Dazil. Yeah. He's kind of a recurring mascot.

As for his combat performance, he hits quite feebly himself. The problem is his fans, who are only too eager to throw confetti at him to considerably heal him up, or soda cans at Fei to noticeably wound him. Both of these moves are random, and there's not much to do in response, except to appropriately heal and go on the offensive, depending on the situation. Luckily, they didn't play too rough, and so defeating Joe was rather trivial, if time consuming.

We then cut back to Bart, who's now in the palace proper! This is where this update's titular "stealth mission" begins, as Bart has to sneak through the palace while avoiding the guards, else they'll run to him and trigger a fight. At least, that's the theory. In practice, the guards don't hit very hard, and Bart needs the XP for an upcoming fight, so you're actually encouraged to fail the stealth here. Bizarre.

Also, Bart's victory pose is quite awesome. There's something really adorable about his exaggerated thumbs up, lol.

There are some amusing conversations to be enjoyed in the palace's rooms, though once again, Bart can't really stop for a chit chat, he's on a timed mission. The palace is honestly pretty well detailed actually, with lots of well decorated rooms and a fair number of non hostile people inhabiting them.

Bart enters the palace's main hall and checks out its second floor, prompting yet another cut back to the tournament! This time, Fei faces Scud, a pharmacist who chooses to fight with their medicines rather than raw force. They can either heal themselves, deal damage, or inflict statuses with their wide bevy of drugs. They can also just choose to throw an endless supply of knives and deal pathetic damage.

The statuses can get a little awkward, but otherwise, this is yet another easy opponent. Trust me, there will be an actual challenging opponent soon. Lol.

Cutting back to Bart again, he fights a few more guards and sneaks into the palace's library, where he learns a bit more about Bledavik's history. Apparently, it was originally just a castle built to protect an underground spring, the city sprung up because the people living around the desert found it a convenient source of water and protection.

Also there's a Shakhan loyalist blatantly trying to rewrite history and discard anything inconvenient to his rule. Ah, good ol' governmental manipulation...

This part of Bart's adventure is cut pretty short however, as up next is Fei's semifinal match against none else than Dan! Dan is pissed as hell, and seeks revenge for the destruction of Lahan!

However, we're...not going to fight him.

Dan's attacks are, as you'd expect from a kid, all rather pathetic, with the exception of this hilariously over the top mind laser. Anyhow, as a friend of mine following this LP elsewhere told me, Dan is not actually capable of killing Fei, unless you aren't attentive enough. Simply heal and defend enough, and eventually...

Dan gives up, feeling rather dissatisfied at the passivity of Fei, and throws him a memento of the Lahan incident - Alice's wedding dress! It's not that strong defensively, as you might expect, but it provides a decent bit of magic defense. And yes, Fei can put it on, why do you ask?

Anyway, back to Bart. He meets a few officials wholeheartedly supporting his return, and hilariously ends up in the same room Shakhan was spying on Margie from. In fact he can use the camera himself, but well, it's better if he physically gets to her room first. So he continues to navigate the castle's central hall...

And we cut to the final match, Fei pitted against the blue cloaked, mysterious man! There's a slight problem, however...

The cloaked man, styling himself "Wiseman", effortlessly dodges all of Fei's attacks! He's effectively invincible. Worse of all, though, he doesn't bother fighting back, either.

Naturally, the spectators are bored, and demand a proper fight. But Wiseman begins talking to Fei, pointedly asking him why he fights.

Fei, taken aback by the sudden questioning, refuses to answer him. In turn, he mocks Fei for being too directionless. Fei, frustrated, tries throwing another punch, but Wiseman effortlessly evades it, like all of his other attacks. He then backhandedly compliments him for superficially regaining his strength, at least physically, and recovering from his wounds as a child.

Fei, surprised, tries to ask him about his own backstory, but Wiseman, realizing that he's spoken too much, quickly bows out of the fight, to the consternation of everyone else. The referee, taken back by the clusterfuck unfolding on the arena, quickly declares Fei winner to save face!

We cut back to Bart, for the last time, and, after a minor scuffle with some guards, he finds Margie at last! She's overjoyed to see him, and wastes no time accompanying him on the way out.

Alas, Ramsus and Miang catch them almost immediately. Welp.

What shall happen next? Shall Bart and Margie leave safely? Will they be both held prisoner? And what of Fei and Citan? Shall they mount a rescue? Or are Aveh's hopes at an end? Find out all of this and more, next time!