We start our journey into the Side Stories, where else, but In Search Of Hope.
Cause there certainly ain't much of it here.
We'll be looking at the world through Sylvando's eyes today.
...Once he's figured out where that is.
At least he finagled his way to safety. How everyone got clear of Yggdrasil is satisfactorily explained later, but not necessarily where they turned up once they did. A lot of characters turn up in medias res, with no explanation as to how they got into the situation they ended up in.
Sylvando, at least, wound up in control of the Salty Stallion.
And this conversation takes place some significant time after Sylv woke up. There is a timeskip after Yggdrasil's fall to when the vanilla game starts up again, but where these stories fall in the middle of it is skimmed over.
Sylvando has been... well, exceptionally depressed since the whole "Yggdrasil got destroyed" thing.
Not only is the... waves vaguely depressing enough on its own, but we did just a very decisive loss against Mordegon and Jasper. Good luck trying again when everyone is... somewhere.
Considering Sylvando is the team buffer... how does he plan to act on his own?
Dave tells him to snap out of it. In his own way.
Does Sylvando really think everyone else is dead? Honestly, the "having to act without them" is enough of a burden.
I'm not sure if I can pinpoint why, I just love the tone (both the words he says and the way he says it) of the "did you fink it was gonna be easy?" line. Just kinda scoffing at the idea that they should've kicked Mordegon then and there.
Somewhere, doing something, everyone else must be alive out there.
And somewhere we shall find them.
Right, now we have a goal, we must take a look around at what is going on to turn that into a plan.
Sylvando will be landing in Gondolia.
They're back to normal!
...Well, OK, part of it is the "Act 2" theme Where is the Hope, but I can't see... that much less activity compared to standing in this spot in Act 1. Yes, Dave's observation is pertinent, but...
...Actually, yeah, the port is over to the west side, isn't it? Why are we spawning at the city entrance if we got here by boat?
We now have control over Sylvando. The four Side Story characters now have playable roles. Despite this, it's impossible to play as them in the main game- presumably, the animators didn't want to assign animations to everything Erdward can do for each party member- there's a lot of things you wouldn't think of in that list. Nevertheless, party members have a surprising amount of things they can do as overworld characters, including jumping, landing first strikes (although there's only one animation for that- Erdward has a separate one for sword strokes and greatsword strokes), and even some collection point stuff.
Dave: Ol' Gondolia ain't 'alf as lively as it was last time we was 'ere. Mind you, that's 'ardly a surprise, given wot's 'appened... 'Ow about we 'ave a look around and a chat wiv a few of the locals? Maybe there's somefink we can do to 'elp.
Dave even has Party Chat.
There's a lot of miserable people here, but very few we can be much help with. What are we supposed to do, pull a fully functioning fleet of merchant ships out of a hat?
The shops are selling an expanded inventory. This is actually a common thing after the fall of Yggdrasil. Although one thing that doesn't fit is the lack of one weapon in particular among the stock. For some reason, the shop inventory isn't what Gondolia will be selling when Erdward comes around.
Hercules here is talking about a problem Gondolia is dealing with, rappers.
Our goal is to go comfort this man, which is why Hercules is pointing us in his direction.
Hilariously, these three are the Beastly Boys in question, being their nasty selves on one of the bargain brothers. We can't intervene right now, though.
Neither can this guy.
...So when's Heliodor withdrawing their military intervention? More importantly, how is Heliodor functioning? Carnelian and Hendrik were in Yggdrasil too, they're presumably turned up in a nebulous Somewhere.
Doge Rotondo recognises Sylvando-
Although he's not in the best of sorts. He's keeping his chin up.
Being the mayor of a dying town gives you a lot of responsibility and not a lot of solutions.
...I wouldn't even say this is a bad idea.
He's talking about Erdward...
Well, that's a random quote that just jumps out at you like a splash of cold water.
...
If you think it helps, sir.
This looks like a serious one.
...Understatement of the year, there.
Presumably, Luciano isn't having better luck.
Sylvando, fortunately, apparently minored in therapy when he got his entertainer's degree.
Tetsu, the character from the diaries scattered around the world that wanted to go to L'Academie before finding out it was an all-girls institution. He doesn't appear- well, named- in the base game, although it seems he never did make it home... and also that he left more recently than you might have assumed.
Unfortunately, he picked a bad time to get on the move.
He did well at half the journey, but the ending caused a problem.
Imagine telling your mother that you had a gift to apologise, but it got stolen by common thugs. What kind of excuse is that?
That doesn't... sound like he's talking about losing the party.
Well, to be fair, they didn't name themselves.
Let's go see if we can't go knock some sense into them.
Tetsu didn't think he was serious.
Sylvando is always serious.
Dave: These Beastly Boys sound like a right bunch of toerags, don't they? Fancy pinchin' some poor fella's luggage, right off 'is back! Come on Sylv, let's go and get Tetsu's knapsack back. 'E said they'd be causin' trouble in the south part of town, didn't 'e?
Sylvando gets right to business.
The Beastly Boys respond in kind.
The leader of the Beastly Boys, a bunch of bandits based in Gondolia. A former fisherman who swapped his rod for a spear in an attempt to fend for himself in this frightening new world.
A sometime sailor who's second in command of the band of bullies known as the Beastly Boys. A specialist at swimming, he was known as the Mighty Marlin during his seafaring days.
The baby of the bunch of bullies known as the Beastly Boys. His woeful lack of worldliness was what caused him to be led astray by his bandit brethren.
The Beastly Boy in Training, Leader of the Beastly Boys, and the Vice-Leader of the Beastly Boys (from left to right) are not listed on the resource I've been getting all my information from, which leaves me in an awkward little bind. While I can't tell you how tough they are, I do know roughly what they can do.
Now then... what can we do?
This, probably. Dave is a Guest character and will be able to be of great assistance to us in both meatshielding and dealing the actual damage, but we lose if Sylvando drops.
The Boy in Training is by far the scariest one- he has the buffing spell.
Two can play at that game.
Now, I know I call Abilities Spells on occasion for simplicity's sake, but "cast" a fishing net to use it as an attack? I feel like that's fishing terminology, but we're taking the mickey a little, aren't we?
The Leader knows Multithrust. So, you know, ow, but on the other hand, he's doing 25 damage a hit with both +1 Atk on him and -1 Def on us.
We're doing a touch more than that.
You needn't worry too much here- these boys are good, but kinda outclassed.
Interestingly, no gold drop. Enemies still drop Gold in the Side Stories, even if Sylvando's purse starts at 1000G. I... haven't actually counted if the Gold gets added back to yours once you reunite your party members.
And with that, we've got what we came for.
Any further than that, though?
Dangerous to commoners like Tetsu, maybe. But even narrative Sylvando is not impressed with their combat.
Another "reveal right after the fight" thing that my positioning of the beastiary entries spoils.
...It was swarming with monsters before. Do other ships just not have to worry about men o war?
This is quite a lot of people in Erdrea after the fall of Yggdrasil. Well, quite a lot of survivors. Lots of people also found themselves in the "our families" part of that sentence.
He could be talking about either the choice or the fact the life of crime is still a life. He doesn't strike me as the type to go with the former.
Fortunately, Sylvando has just the trick in mind.
...
I'm not sure what kind of magic Sylvando has, but I'm not entirely sure I'd want to eat that. I happen to rather strongly agree with the idea that you can't make nutrition with magic- especially since, in a world with MP, magic clearly burns calories in and of itself.
(Also, I wonder what that NPC back in Downtown Heliodor would think if she saw this.)
Sylvando feeds the fishermen for a day, at least.
...Well, maybe more than a day. Not sure how long that loaf of bread keeps.
Good question. I don't even know.
As always, you learn a lot about a man from who he says he is.
Dave: Them Beastly Boys 'ad their reasons for turnin' to a life of crime. It ain't like they're bad to the bone or anyfink. You did the right fing in givin' them that bread, Sylv. I reckon it might 'ave reminded them wot 'uman kindness looks like... Anyway, that's enuff o' me gabbin' on. Let's go and give Tetsu 'is knapsack back, eh? 'E should be waitin' for us in that big square where we found 'im.
Indeed, although Sylvando hasn't helped the fishermen, his act of kindness in a world without any has done more than a single loaf of bread ever could.
Although the two brothers are fiercely competitive, they wouldn't want to see the other screwed over.
...
Why do you think you have Hendrik's armour?
Tetsu's stuff seems to all be in order.
Tetsu gives something to Sylvando. Not that Sylvando actually checks what he's got. I feel like that might be something you want to check.
Tetsu is going back home, and once he gets there, he plans to make something for Sylvando to thank him properly.
I imagine we'll wind up in Hotto eventually.
It'll take more than that to take out Sylvando.
Sylvando feeling better now he's helped someone out?
Much better.
He's figured out how to tackle the problem in front of him-
By tackling the problems in front of him, helping individual people, and leaving the big picture concerns to more qualified hands.
Dave's happy to help.
And as we leave Gondolia, we're stopped by the Beastly Boys again.
Dave's prepared for a fight.
Sylvando is... somewhat less so.
The Beastly Boys have volunteered to join our cause!
I mean, considering they've lost so much, there's not a lot of things they could be doing that won't lead them back to their life of crime.
Sylvando's "merry band" is the main mechanic of Sylvando's side story, but somewhat unfortunately, it doesn't actually get that much time to shine. Sylvando's merry men are not full party members, but Guests like Dave- and as such, they don't have the full "new party member" chime, just a shorter little ditty.
Sylvando has found just the thing to get everyone prepared-
...
Well, they're certainly on brand.
At some point on the way from where Tetsu was to here, Sylvando has secretly opened his present and realised he was holding the perfect signifiers of his little troupe's purpose.
So it's time we got moving.
Dave won't actually keep his, but everyone else uses the spears to help cut down on animation costs. Oh, and by the way, Sylvando only has four of them. Yes, that will become relevant.
Dave: Not only did you 'elp old Tetsu out, you also managed to steer them Beastly Boys onto the straight and narrow! Nice work, Sylv! You're right, though. There must be plenty more people out there wot need our 'elp. So let's get a move on and track 'em down! Lead the way, Sylv! I'm right behind you!
Leader of the Beastly Boys: What we did was shameful, really. Everyone in the city was suffering just as much as we were, but no one else turned to a life of crime. I suppose I knew this all along, but it wasn't till we met you that I really admitted it to myself... Well, I suppose all I'm trying to say is that I'm grateful you gave us another chance. You won't regret it, I promise!
Vice-Leader of the Beastly Boys: I'll be honest, being in the Beastly Boys felt great at first. It was us against the world. We felt like we could do whatever we wanted... But as we did more and more bad things and hurt more and more people, I started to hate the person I'd become. It was like something inside me was rotten, you know? It's lucky you came along to knock some sense into us when you did. I didn't think there was any hope for me, but you showed me how wrong I was. I'll never forget that.
Beastly Boy in Training: I'm never going back to a life of crime! Never! I just want to concentrate on being a good person- oh, and seeing a bit of the world! Fortunately, it looks like you're going to help me do both those things! Thank you! Thank you ever so much!
The merry men of Sylvando's band have Party Chat, too. Thankfully, not as much...
Dave suggests we head to the Laguna di Gondolia, a suggestion that's... half helpful. There's someone to help there, but really, our next narrative goal is to go to Gallopolis. Still, that requires going through the Laguna.
Gondolia will be thanking their luck plenty until a new group of bandit fishermen take the power vacuum.
On the other hand, it sounds like the people of Gondolia might have a solution that precludes that.
I'm here to help!
Dave: Hey, Sylv! 'Ave you 'eard about these extra-vicious monsters wot 'ave been turnin' up all over Erdrea? Let's keep an eye out for 'em. We won't be able to 'elp anyone if we're brown bread, after all...
As for the Laguna di Gondolia itself... When we begin Act 2 proper, we'll find most, if not all, of the enemies have been replaced by a new variety. Sylvando's version of the Laguna is mixture of new enemies and their Act 1 versions.
Each Guest has a normal attack and a limited selection of special skills- no more than two, if what I've heard is to be believed. The Beastly Boys use the skills they had as bosses- Multithrust for the Leader, the fishing net for the Vice-Leader, and the sea shanty for the Trainee.
Ironically, this probably makes the Trainee the best of the three.
Enemies drop EXP and gold as expected. While Dave has put away his staff to use the same attacks as the Underdigger (and what he was using on the Beastly Boys), the merry men pump their staves in a sort of "hip hip hooray!" fashion.
Morphean mushrooms driven to dangerous extremes by the dark power of the Lord of Shadows.
Ah, there we are, that's the new enemy type. Many familiar enemies have turned Vicious by the Lord of Shadows, and now bear red eyes and new stats. A lazy way of adding new enemies? Little bit, but there's still plenty of completely new monsters to find in Act 2. These guys just fill up the ranks.
You might wonder what happens if you miss an Act 1 enemy. Defeating a Vicious monster will give you the entry for the normal variety too if you didn't already have that, although Vicious monsters do have their own entries too. I also won't be treating Vicious monsters as I do the rest of the enemies- some of them do have unique abilities or drops, but most of them don't (although, if a monster knows a low level spell like Crack or Bang, their Vicious version might know a stronger version like Crackle or Boom), and their beastiary entries are also a bunch of "this enemy has been driven vicious by the Lord of Shadows".
Sylvando can mine out some ore, but he doesn't have the Golden Pickaxe, so he only gets the three.
"Peripatetic" is presumably being used in its "itinerant" meaning, rather than "Aristotelian", considering there's probably no Aristotle in Erdrea. Dragon Quest kinda likes using the word "itinerant", so I'm not sure why I went for the more complicated word. Probably for alliteration.
This man has the same problem as Sylvando, which is the whole disenfranchisement with helping the world when it is so determined to break.
(Also, when standing idle, the merry men wave the staves in the air, and that's why the horse head has jumped into frame.)
The priest is hoping he can get a good night's rest to press on, but the "gettting to bed" part is the issue.
...Why would a talking cow have different milk? Magic, probably.
Sylvando assures him he is capable of doing this.
So then... any of you three happen to be farmers?
...Well, it's what Sylvando's good at!
Time to put on a show.
They do animate a few of them, but they have a few cuts to blank. They only have so much time to devote to this.
That got us what we were after.
...A pail? Are we at least bottling this first before we hand it over?
(By the way, yes, this is the weathercow.)
The priest has received his milk, but he feels underserving of it.
However, if you're not feeling your best, you won't be helping anyone else. Well, on purpose. Perhaps you might say something accidentally as you try and fail to fall asleep.
Sylvando keeps an eye on the priest as he gets his rest. We are a bit of a ways from the campsite, after all.
With our kindness in mind, the priest decides to join foces with us to lend a hand to the world over.
And now the priest has joined our group!
Priest: I thought I could change the world through the power of prayer, but I've seen enough suffering now to know that prayers alone won't change anything. That's why I've decided to come with you. Together we can make a real difference to people's lives, I know we can.
While he can heal, as Priests tend to do in Dragon Quest, his main ability when Sylvando is in no need of healing is... breaking out into sermons that lull the enemy to sleep. I mean, I guess it's on brand?
Despite possessing the actual inventory horse hailer, neither it nor the campsite ones work for Sylvando.
On a related note, there's a gap you have to climb to get to the main part of the Laguna from here, and it's the only gap Sylvando is really expected to climb at any part of his side story. I've never actually tested to see if he can climb it. Erik can climb gaps, but I can't picture Sylvando doing it.
It'd be a shame if you could miss the priest.
Entering Gallopolis, we are met with this young man.
This kid was inspired to join the circus because of Sylvando. Interesting that he "ran away", though. Do circuses ever recruit new talent from people who don't run away from home?
This is certainly a weird place for an entertainer, no hypocrisy mentioned.
The circus finds it difficult to perform when n one wants to be "cheered up".
...Honestly, man, I'm not sure what you expected to find, but you're lucky you found us.
Sylvando is more than happy to play a part in a big performance no matter where he is.
I don't think Dave, the Beastly Boys or the Priest volunteer, it's just Sylv.
Now that we're tasked with looking, the circus novice points out the inherent stupidity in trying to gather people from the desert. Most people out here, even if they were performers, are in no state to perform.
Yeah, that'll certainly help.
...If you know who to recruit, why are you asking me- oh right, star power.
Dave: That fella from the circus 'oo we met at the checkpoint told us to look for potential performers over in Gallopolis City, didn't 'e? Well, I reckon we should 'ead there sooner rather than later. The early bird catches the worm and all that, eh?
Leader of the Beastly Boys: We should be careful. There are vicious monsters roaming round these parts that are definitely not to be trifled with!
Vice-Leader of the Beastly Boys: I'd often deal with Gallopolitan merchants, back in my seafaring days. Most of the poor dears had never known anything but acres of sand, so they were desperate for tales of foreign climes. They'd always be willing to buy you a drink for your trouble, too!
Beastly Boy in Training: Whoa... I'd heard rumours about the desert heat, but I didn't expect it to be quite this sweltering! I'm absolutely exhausted already! I've heard there's a campsite near here, though. We should rest up while we have the chance.
Priest: There would appear to be three settlements accessible on land from our current location: Gondolia, Gallopolis and Hotto. The road to each one is fraught with danger, but we have nothing to fear as long as we stick together.
...
Oh hey, there is another performer out in the desert.
He is not interested in performing at the circus- or at least, we can't ask if he is- and he won't be joining our party. However, his dialogue is a clue about where you might find someone who will.
...It's not night-time and the spitzfires are awake. Tread carefully.
Heading south of Gallopolis bumps you into this guy. I was apparently going into the sides of the weird sand drops, which is why he's up at an angle. Normally, you're supposed to start this conversation more level.
Not that he doesn't have a height advantage here.
This knight has spotted some Vicious fandangows harassing a family. Not his family, I don't think.
He's a knight of Puerto Valor, but not a very good one, apparently. His heart's in the right place, but everything else...
At least we can help there.
I love how the fact these literal walking balls of spikes with glowing red eyes are being treated as dangerous and terrifying because of their poor dance skills.
All right, I reckon we ought to play a round of soccer.
So you want to dance, eh?
I'll show you a dance.
As a side note, Vicious fandangows are capable of attempting to force party members to dance as well as laugh. It's one of the new abilities that gets snuck in. Also, I'm fairly sure the game doesn't let every single character in your party attack in one turn- which is why the Priest and the Vice-Leader don't even have "Misses". I'm fairly sure Dave is always in the turn order.
Dave's dance animation is actually pretty funny, and it's a shame it's difficult to capture.
Here they are also getting Sylvando to catch the giggles. I thought it was dancing he was weak to.
And here's the Priest healing Sylvando. It's a Midheal, but hey, he's literally free.
That's some lives saved from the horrors of bad rhythm.
Now then, about our cowardly caballero...
Let's see if we can't whip him into shape.
Sylvando, once again, being mysterious about his interaction with the Knight's Pledge.
Even if he does "and all that other stuff" it here. With that said, that is the end of the Pledge as recited in-game. There's a lot of stuff before it, but this is honestly the heart of it- and probably the best part.
There's a lot one can do with a little faith...
I wonder if this is meant to be a reference to a known character or just a comment on Sylvando's brave spirit.
And now Sylvando has a Puerto Valorian caballero on his side!
...I see no problems here!
And with that, we have now gained our fifth party member.
You can only have four party members travelling with you at once, and you can change which ones you have by checking in at a campsite. And that kinda gets in to one of the ways this side story was executed poorly.
There is literally one more fight left now that we have enough characters to need to make decisions about our party lineup.
...When I'm cutting this thing in two, that's how you know the narrative stuff goes on.
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