DQXIS Phnom Nonh: From The Inside

And we're outta there! Good thing someone left that hole there.

And we all landed "safely". If, by "safe", you mean "no longer on the Other Side", we're definitely safe.

And yes, we're warped right out of Nhou Wat and right here in Phnom Nonh.

Erik: So I guess this means we're back in the real world, huh? But we're not done here yet. We need to find that little girl before she causes any more chaos!
Veronica: (pant) Phew... (pant) ...There! All I needed was a few deep breaths, and now I'm right as rain. Let's get moving!
Serena: Come on, Erdward! We must tell everyone in the village the truth about the Nhou Wat mural! Let's start in the main square. There should be lots of people there.
Sylvando: Whoever wrote the warning on that stone was right on the money! That mean little girl is luring tourists towards the mural so they can get sucked right in! Honey, we need to get moving. We've got to put a stop to her wicked ways- and fast!
Jade: Did you notice that the mural had a crack, just like the one on the Other Side? It's hard to believe, I know, but I think we may have been inside the mural...
Rab: Owww... My poor jacksie! That bumpy landing's given me a terrible bruise on the behind. I could do with a wee lie down, if I'm honest with ye, but I'll soldier on.

Serena's got a cute "angry" pose for this Party Chat.

At this point, I wanted to take a stop over in L'Academie to take the screenshot of the "all the colours of the rainbow" scene from the Root of Remembrance. I wouldn't normally mention when I did that, but it shows off a cool little bit here: We're not allowed to Zoom away from this upcoming cutscene. I imagine there's a few moments like this one, where we're tasked with running towards "the front of town" and the game doesn't want us Zooming and playing discontinuity.

None of these moments should actually inconvenience the player- we're just going to watch a cutscene, not get roped into a boss fight.

Oh hey, we found Dora!

Dora, it seems, is also adept at weaponising the fact that the people of Phnom Nonh have turned their kids into salespeople, and fits right in.

And the sneaky little tyke has gone and found another class of human to ensnare- the desperate. Not that she hadn't dabbled in it before, but this is a new low.

That said, she's actually still kinda adorable. Which probably makes it even worse.

You know, probably a really fitting metaphor on this one. Not that it's usually misused, but in this case, I think it might be pretty literal.

The strange thing about this line is that it implies this Dora is actually a separate entity from the contents of the mural. The implications of what that might mean go untapped- deal with one great big monster, and we deal with the whole mess.

I'm sure she's going to be completely amenable to that.

...Yep. Completely amenable.

Also, is anyone watching this?

...It's just a fresco inside a ruins on the other side of the world's longest staircase. Hardly the most impressive of evil schemes.

I assume the reason she's not actually fighting us here, apart from wanting to splash our colours against her canvas, is because she doesn't have access to her full powers out here.

...Rab, time and a place. Not that I fully expect there is a time or a place to ask that question.

Dora doesn't dignify it with a response. Unless you count a maniacal laugh as a response.

As bad as an idea as that sounds... yeah, we should probably at least try to win.

Erik: I always thought it was fishy, this whole idea that the mural could bring you good fortune... I mean, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
Veronica: Come on! Let's get after Dora! We can't let her keep preying on every innocent tourist she comes across!
Serena: I'm still struggling to make sense of it all. It's just so hard to believe that sweet little girl was actually evil... Well, there's no time to dwell on that now, I suppose. We just need to stop her before she does any more damage.
Sylvando: Dear, dear Dora... How did things come to this? At least we know where she is- inside the mural. The Other Side... Well, we know what we have to do. Let's bring this thing to an end!
Jade: I wasn't totally unprepared for it, but it was still a shock to see that little girl suddenly turn into that evil creature... I can't help thinking of my poor father. Mordegon seems to have deceived him. He seems to have deceived everyone in Heliodor...
Rab: Ye don't need me to tell ye this, laddie, but ye'll be wanting to keep yer wits about ye. One false step at this stage and ye're bound to come a cropper...

Also while I'm out here getting that Root of Remembrance, I fire off the Hallelujah I have charged up on some spiked hares for extra Bunny Tails.

Of course I got one of these.

Well, at least you've noticed something.

You're going to want as many of these as you can, at +3. Trust me on this.

Also managed to get a decent forge out of this one. Also seemed like a good time to try.

At any rate, now we can just... choose to cross to The Other Side.

You ever ask yourselves multiple times in one conversation whether you have a bad idea?

If we didn't stand a fighting chance, we'd be long gone.

And now the vines are cleared so we can get up to the other part of the Other Side.

The Cursed Cloisters.

Don't let the map fool you, this is incredibly linear. The problem being, of course, that every five seconds, you switch floors. It's like it's designed just to annoy mapmakers and map-followers.

Sylvando got this and Swoosh. I feel like he hasn't improved at all.

The thing about this area that I do love, however, is they give you a demonrider mount. You can just plough right through all the enemies and it never gets old. Also relevant to this screenshot, brollygaggers can be found normally. These ones won't drop the rainproof rayon you needed for that quest, though.

This would be cool if I hadn't already gone to Sniflheim.

Yeesh, these guys don't want Erik acting.

I don't think Confusion causes AoE to hit party members, but it certainly looks like it here.

Once the proud possessions of professional puppeteers, they come alive after being abandoned, and go on about the glory days.

Magic marionettes appeared in DQs 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10, and in addition to leeching your MP, they can also explode into bits, dealing lots of tiny hits across the party, and reform without any kind of HP impact. The only actual spell they know is Magic Barrier, though.

...Eh, you can keep that. It's Erik, but also, it's Erik.

One of those things that it's lovely to get and you'll quickly forget.

Erik working on his Sword tree...

Mini medal, because there's one of those everywhere, it feels.

Erdward already has Moreheal? I figured he'd wait until later. Eh, it's not like it's the greatest of boons on him.

He keeps going into the Sword tree too.

Now this is lovely. Multiheal's good for 100-340 HP (scaling heavily on MaMend), and it's going to be a spell we're going to really appreciate later. For now, though, I'm fine with Rab staying on MP bank healing duty, and Multiheal is less prepared for that.

These super speedy slimes' low centre of gravity, aerodynamic shape and slippery-smooth skin make them the ultimate masters of fleeing a fight.

I didn't actually know these guys could appear in The Other Side! Liquid metal slimes first appeared in DQ2 and have a perfect attendance record since- they're they big brothers of metal slimes, and they drop ten times the EXP. They also know Sizz, which is about as scary as the metal slime knowing Frizz.

They also happen to have been the only palette swap of Bubble Slime until this game.

I am amazed the game let Jade get away with this.

Perhaps this was the game's way of trying to counterbalance that. Not while I need to pick up that much EXP.

Jackpot.

Veronica picks up Oomphle- obviously, the improvement spell over Oomph. Oomphle applies two stages of Atk Up at once (Oomph only applies one), but it still only hits a single target. There is no spell that applies Atk Up to everyone, like Kabuff (Kaoomph?), and honestly, I feel like that totally would be too broken.

Also this happened.

The game is nice enough to give us a full heal before Dora! Lovely.

This my equipment, incidentally. The Uniforme is still good armour on Jade. Not sure why Erdward has the Assassin, though- Unbridled Blade can't crit. I think I forget this fact a lot in the next few areas.

Veronica, I understand that she is technically cornered, but considering she's sitting on a glowing fountain in the deepest recesses of her personal pocket dimension, I highly doubt that's something to brag about.

...She has a point. We're not making it past the Cloisters in a hurry, especially against someone who can fly.

...You were more impressive in your Dora form.

While the name "Dora-in-Grey" is indeed a reference to "The Portrait of Dorain Gray", the stories don't have much in common other than "the painting is draining things from people". The portrait of Dorain Gray is a lot less malicious (even if it's far less pleasant).

OK, this is indeed scarier than Dora, but I'm still not the most impressed. I can definitely see how you plan to kill me in that form.

I prefer my objects of worship benevolent.

Also helpful.

...Serena, she's a monster. They're kinda made for this. The impressive part is that Dora could live her entire life without doing this.

I'm no artist, but I'm fairly sure they don't need all the colours. Especially not at once.

Beautiful. Just beautiful. She believes her rubbish.

Supposedly the embodiment of artistic beauty, this unspeakable entity rules over the Other Side, a deadly dimension into which she entices unwary travellers in order to steal their souls.

Material family
1200 HP
999 MP

Dora-in-Grey is widely considered to be the hardest boss in the first leg of DQXI, and with good reason. The Magic Key really is more than just for show- she can use it to Seal Abilities and Beguile a single party member. The former is annoying, but the latter is debilitating. You want to block that as best you can. When it comes to hurting you herself, she has a finger flick for critting, laser eyes for AoE, and a tentacle attack that leeches HP from yourself and drains it back to her.

Yeah, me.

I have no idea why I did this. As a wireframe doll, I assume Dora is weak to Lightning, but seriously, it doesn't matter it wasn't buffed, just use Multithrust.

I guess I was in the mindset of "setup turn".

This attack flies by real fast.

...And that could not have happened to a worse target. Maybe Erdward.

At any rate, we're putting all our eggs in his basket, then.

Impressive. Now just to survive to land the rest of the hits.

Eh, I can make do. I'm not actually sure if this attack counts as fire elemental where resistance tables are concerned.

Ooh, that's nice.

Get that damage up higher.

And the rudest sequence of attacks.

...Can't heal that. I don't think Serena has Multiheal herself, but, uh..

At least we're still landing damage.

Veronica, you took that like a champ.

Erdward knows not to counter-attack Serena, but this would leech MP if it hit.

Can she drain less HP because Veronica was almost dead?

Thank you, Serena.

...And I couldn't revive Veronica because I needed Erdward to keep up the damage.

Ah well. The EXP was less than a Liquid Metal Slime.

Learning this spell was in bad taste.

Learning this was just... there. +6?

Monsters always seem to think that, no matter how many times they are defeated, they've got it covered next time for sure.

Town Story villains acknowledging the big baddie they're working for is highly unusual for the series. Even rarer is the actual name used, as opposed to their title. Clearly, Mordegon is a big deal.

I'm sure you will.

I'm impressed at our party's dedication to treating Dora as if she was the slightest bit reliable as a source of information. Bonus points for when we had no actual power over her (which was most times).

Another rift back home. Or perhaps it's the same one. It certainly leads to the same place.

Honestly, no idea what Nhou Wat was like or why Mordegon destroyed it. It certainly doesn't help us explain what his plans are for his next trick.

For that to be helpful, we'd have to know how one goes about living forever. Although I'm sure Mordegon's more well-researched than us.

Floating magic key get. Despite "inexplicably floating objects" being a video game staple, Dragon Quest usually abstains. I'm guessing the Magic Key didn't want to fall into the void of The Other Side.

You and me both. There's only so many times I can ride the demonrider before I get bored.

Erik: Man, that was one nasty monster. But then it was a pretty nasty place...
Veronica: Ha! Bad luck, Dora-in-Grey! You're not ‘beauty personified’ any more, are you!? Well, that's what you get when you tangle with us!
Serena: Now that awful Dora-in-Grey's gone, all the people who got sucked into the painting should hopefully have returned to the real world. Come on, Erdward. We should do the same...
Sylvando: Oh, Dora-in-Grey... What a tragedy! Someone should have told her that true beauty comes from within! Looking good at the expense of others is... um... not a good look! If only she'd known that, none of this awful business would have happened!
Jade: Mordegon... I suspect he's the one who's behind all of this... Behind everything that's happened in Heliodor... We have a lot to think about, but for now we'd better return to the village. Oh, and let's not forget that we have the magic key now. That was an unexpected bonus.
Rab: Ye heard what she said, didn't ye, laddie? That name again. Mordegon... He was the one who reduced this place to ruins, mark my words, and he'll be looking to do it again somewhere else. But we're not going to let that happen, are we?

That's everyone out of the mural. And not just us, either. I wonder how long Dora's been at work- how many people did we just save, and do they all have their lives open to return to?

Mony, rather reasonably, is completely flummoxed by this turn of events.

Even moreso since we seem to have destroyed the mural. Yeah, uh, sorry about that.

I assure you, I did not consider how the economy of Phnom Nonh would be impacted by defeating the monster that sat at its centre.

Fortunately for us, we're spared from explaining that by Bazza doing basically the same thing, just without realising he's even in this conversation.

Although we still need to fill in the details.

Rather pleasantly, it seems like Mony is happy to accept that yeah, perhaps they're better off not profiting from the monster's work. Hopefully he's got a plan, though. Probably not preprepared.

This warps you to the inn, where you're rested, and you can have a brief moment to Party Chat with everyone but Jade and Rab. None of the dialogue is new, though, strangely- OK, Serena's is, but she says the same thing after the next cutscene.

Lots to do. Other towns being terrorised by monsters. Treasure to loot. And if I get around to it, a demon lord to harshly scold.

I can see that as a business venture, but it's also... so how much can the mural do now? I'm fairly sure it can send people to The Other Side still, but apart from that, this is just retelling the story of Dora-in-Grey, isn't it? Hopefully that works out for you.

Beats the alternative.

This is the most important of the Magic Key doors, and Rab reminding the player of it is important. The rest are just gameplay stuff.

Hey. More treasure is better than less treasure.

I'm working on it.

Erik: I'm kind of worried about the locals here, man. Nothing that's happened seems to have affected them in the slightest... Or maybe that's a good thing. If they're getting on with their lives, I guess all is well...
Veronica: Shall we take a look at some souvenir shops before we leave the village, Erdward? It seems a shame not to... I heard a rumour that they might have got some interesting new things in stock...
Serena: The magic key will let us open all sorts of new doors, Erdward- doors we wouldn't have been able to open before! Just keep an eye out for doors decorated with its special symbol!
Sylvando: That turned out to be an eventful little jaunt to Phnom Nonh, didn't it, honey!? Now, have you decided where we're heading next? The Salty Stallion is ready to set sail, so just say the word!
Jade: Many centuries ago, Phnom Nonh was at the heart of a flourishing civilisation. Then Mordegon possessed its chancellor, and reduced it to ruins... I fear that something similar is now taking place in Heliodor. After all, Mordegon is already making his presence felt in the kingdom. Who knows what he may be plotting...?
Rab: That magic key of ours should open up some interesting new areas, eh, laddie? Aye, I cannae wait to start exploring again! Now, I've seen that magic key symbol in all sorts of places. Just off the top of my head, there's the ruins of Zwaardsrust, near the Warrior's Rest Inn... Then there was one up in a kingdom by the name of Sniflheim, far north of this wee beach known as the Strand... What? Ye want more? Heh! I'd say that's plenty for ye to be getting on with, laddie!

The name "Dark Art" is pretty cute, although it doesn't quite feel as punny as I think.

Bazza has learned a lesson from his experience, and on a completely unrelated note, points us to the Magic Key Door in Phnom Nonh. Although I do wonder if it's stealing- not that this ever stops me.

But we'll have to pay the actual price in the future. Considering how many freebies they gave us, I'm more than fine covering the cost, especially since there's a campsite just south of town.

Oh, yes, those replica murals. They're actually a thing!

...All of a sudden I don't feel as comfortable with this idea. I assume they're not cursed if Mony made them.

Hey, even the generic NPCs are learning lessons!

Fine, fine, let me move up to the item shop...

Added to the bottom of the list is this item, the extra mural. It's an alchemy material, and later enemies will drop it, so you don't have to buy any if you're on No Shopping.

However, there's one recipe that comes up before those later enemies that it is incredibly helpful to forge early, and it can't hurt our lore contributions to buy this now.

...Are you talking to me or Erik?

If you're anything like the DQ3 Fighters, you're already most of the way there. Pity we've already got a Jade.

This man, while a crook, has his limits. Most crooks have the same compunctions: even if they don't object to certain crimes morally, they may deem it not worth the risk. A crook who steals is going to be as terrified as anyone else to find out he accidentally did a kidnapping.

Of course, he would rather we forget he's a crook at all. Erdward is smart not to use this guy as a vendor.

I'm sure your daughter will do just fine on the exam. I have faith in her.

The mayor even thanks us. It's nice to be thanked by the officials, especially since we did endanger their livelihoods.

The fact they figured it out helps.

Huh. I never really checked this house. This guy will be important later, but right now, he's eager not to be.

My dear Nisay, don’t cry. Mama will not disappear forever.

I will ask Yggdrasil to make me a star, and place me high up in the sky.

And whenever you are sad or lonely- and even when you are happy- you can look up and see me watching over you.

So, my dear Nisay, don’t cry. Keep your eyes dry so you can turn them upward and find Mama.

I think this is supposed to be a work of fiction- while it is applicable to the story of this house, Nisay is not the name of the child therein. I'm not even entirely sure if it's a real name or a pun- I have no idea where the name comes from either way.

Anyway, time for our first Magic Key Door!

A bottle of Sage's Elixir and this recipe. Time to check what we got-

Ooh, Multibash! Multibash is four randomly applied Bashes at the cost of 7 Focus (compared to 5 for a single Bash). Obviously, you don't want to use this if you're starting to get close to the marker (and never use it if you have a gold), but this is a mainstay flourish for any recipe that's either one column tall or otherwise unusual in shape. Or really, even the other kinds.

The Cuirass is just Defence (good for Erdward, Erik, and Sylv) and the Tiara we know, but the Silver Mail is quite lovely: 8% "Elemental" resistance. I assume this is Fire/Ice/Wind/Earth/Light/Lightning, and not Dark. It'll be excellent to have as much resistance as you can, moreso than a high Def score.

...With that said, I may just recommend not forging this. Maybe one for Sylvando, if he's mostly on backup duty.

Right, now that that's settled, let's take a mosey around the world and see what we can't find.

In Cobblestone, one can acquire a Wristorative, which passively heals 10 HP a turn for the wearer. This is a high-level forge, but if you can redo it, the HP recovery jumps to 25 at +3. Honestly, though, still wouldn't say it's worth it.

...Where's the guard to Downtown Heliodor gone?

Anyway, there's some money in this chest. Decent money, I guess.

Just south of the Cryptic Crypt is one of these Magic Key Doors. I think the addition of these structures helped the Magic Key get more usage- in older games, you usually only found Magic Key Doors in towns. At any rate, the Banishing Blade is a Greatsword that deals +10% damage to demons- I'd say stick to Razor-Wing.

Right, Gallopolis has rather a lot to show for us.

Like a mini medal in a pot. Also a pretty betsy.

The treasure chests have these nifty finds...

And this recipe.

...Actually, I'm not so sure on this bunch. The Hocus Hat and Fizzle-Retardant Suit are Rab-exclusive armours that block Fizzle, while the Hocus Locus has an 8% chance of paralysis on the "swing it like a club" normal attack. Paralysis is good, but your mages would rather be casting spells.

Didn't even get statups...

Over here in Gondolia, we have some more pots, with a dieamend and seed of magic joining this mini medal.

This isn't that impressive- a Seraphic Sceptre for Serena (no bonus effects) and Angel's Sandals- 25% Turn Skip protection, yeah, but by the time you're worried, you'll have better.

Directly east of Dundrasil ruins are these: Three mini medals. Now that's a boost to our next prize.

Puerto Valor gives us the falcon knife earring, a Knife that has the same effect as the Falcon Blade- attacking twice. Both Erik and Sylvando would rather be using the Falcon Blade, and it doesn't work with Knife skills. Back in the older games, Falcon Knife Earrings and Falcon Blades had different user sets, and some games also had their damage formulae get treated differently (the Falcon Blade having a 0.75x damage multiplier on its hits while the Earrings didn't, for example), and these are, without question, Alena's greatest weapon. Without anything like that, though, they're kinda terrible here.

In Lonalulu, slightly over halfway the mountain climb to visit the kanono cannon lady, there's a door nestled into the side of the mountain face.

A mini medal, a seed of life, and-

Zombie Mail! This rather-obviously cursed piece of equipment is no longer dangerous in DQXI- instead, it actually blocks 25% of Dark damage and Cursed chance. 50%, if you reforge it to +3.

Insula Australis has a Slime Crown. Just one, too.

Spare Falcon Blade at Occidentalis, though. If you haven't been finding Mini Medals, this is more than worth picking up, although you may only need the one reforged.

While we're running around, here's one last Insula to visit- Insula Centralis, also accessible only by Harp.

There's a mini medal not behind a magic key door!

Golems who've been left out in the woods until moss and muck grew all over them. The earth shakes with every single step they take.

You guys are mossy golems? Mosstodons are as intimidating as coralossi, and I don't necessarily mean that as a compliment. They have their crits, AoE stomp, and the ability to put you to sleep, but if you can get past their defence, they tend to crumble.

This might be the only real sparkly spot for cherry blossom petals. I always find I don't have many of these, but you don't need that many.

Sainted soma, now that's a good one. This is a very valuable high-level recipe ingredient: In fact, it's in one of those recipes you'll want multiples of. Better stock up where you can- not that we can do that.

Magic Key door over in L'Academie before we turn in those new medals.

There's the third Uniforme. If we wanted, we could have a party of Jade/Veronica/Serena and really get our item drop rate soaring. I find I don't need that much tipping the odds.

Besides this mini medal, there's also a seed of skill in a pot.

The agility gilet feels like it should be in another DQ game, but I don't think it is. It gives you some extra agility, if you think that's worth not using the other bonus effects on armour.

And that's our second page done. Surprisingly, considering the fact the transition from first page to second page had meaning, there is no such transition from second page to third page- we can get started, although we don't have any rewards to show for it yet.

You'd think this would've come up earlier. Maybe if you didn't Zoom to Puerto Valor when you needed to go- even if you hadn't gone to Puerto Valor early, Zooming to Gondolia is a better idea than riding all the way to the dock (and passing by these ruins) once you finally have the Rainbough.

There are two stairways below. Only one has a Magic Key Door at its base. The other one has a door sealed by something different- it'll be a while before we get past that door.

Another enchanted stone and a recipe. Give me a sec, I'll show what's in it later, but this is a good one.

The Purple Orb of Zwaardsrust was a sacred treasure of Zwaardsrust, and when the place got destroyed, the monsters somehow didn't seize this on the way out. Maybe they couldn't get past the door. At the very least, we can still make use of it.

In DQIII, the Purple Orb was held by Pimiko in the town of Jipang. Explaining the Town Story necessary to acquire it will touch on a few Hotto spoilers, and it's honestly better to explain it there anyway.

Five down, one to go.

There's also this in the back corner. Depending on how you make your departure from this room, you might not even see this thing.

No idea what it does, but it's here in our Important Items. I'm sure we'll regret this later.

The Choker was a Cursed item found in the original DQ1. If you found one and got it off, it was worth a large sum of money sold to a shop. Here, it's just a reference item. I'm told this, the Tombola Ticket from the Puerto Valor Casino, and a third item we haven't yet found were items available by password (the normal kind, not pastwords) in the Japanese version- Dragon Quest on Famicom using password save systems rather than hard saves- but the joke would be lost on Western players. Honestly, leaving the item in just makes the joke lost on them even harder.

Right, so these two. The Prince's Pea Coat can be worn by all men, the Princess's Robe can be worn by all women. The defensive and Charm bonuses are pretty close to the Silver Mail all told (Silver Mail is 52 Def, 35 Charm, the Pea Coat is 51 Def, 41 Charm at +3), but on top of that, there's also a bonus to MaMight and MaMend, and the elemental resistance is at a whopping 15%. For reference, the highest elemental resistance an endgame piece of armour gives is 25%.

It's worth making a few for your main players. I wouldn't go all out, but this'll really help give us the edge when we go to Sniflheim.

...Oh yeah, next time we head to Sniflheim for real.

Phnom Nonh is a town about tourism. A metaphorical "tourist trap"- a town engineered around its kitschy gimmick to sell anything that's not nailed down- turning out to be a literal tourist trap. I'm not sure if the pun translates to Japanese, but that is entirely in line with DQ's sense of humour. And far from the usual morals about eyes bigger than your stomach or not being too greedy, the monster doing the trapping has diversified, using whatever traps it can get away with making to ensnare even the people too smart for a traditional bait.

The citizens of Phnom Nonh are quick to forgive and quick to adapt- while taking the foundational gimmick of a town and tearing it out by the root would certainly be highly disruptive, the fact is those roots had to go, and the people were served best by accepting that loss. To continue to profit off of Dora-in-Grey would be actively malicious, and while they've, uh... "done" that, the fact Dora is no longer profiting from it means there's likely no lasting harm in whatever tricks they have in mind. I don't like it, but if it works, it works.

And now for a bit of a side-note: Why the hell was this not Serena's story? A town where helping the little lost girl turns out to be a trap seems written specifically with Serena's ditzy helpfulness in mind, and yet it's Sylvando taking centre stage on interacting with the element of Dora. Serena gets the boss quote and a surprising amount of dialogue with Dora in the second half, but I can't help but look at this and feel like Serena got robbed. Serena's characterisation in general tends to play second fiddle to Veronica, and while there's an element of intentionality to this decision, I think sometimes, they leaned too far in that direction, and this is one of those times.