At the end of my last post, we were looking for the Tears of the King, because that’s what Ashton wanted and I would do anything for him. Along the way, we are once again admiring scenery.
One might be concerned that a giant demon bird nest would contain giant demon bird eggs or chicks. Fortunately this is not the case. Maybe it’s more a gesture of optimism, since Zinae bemoans always being alone.
Let’s not think too hard about a boss monster’s relationship problems though, we’ve got problems of our own.
So it’s…kind of hot when he starts talking like that, but NO. Don’t do shit like this without someone’s permission. Bad dragons.
(also, tagging his dialogue as Creepy Ashton/Weepy Ashton just makes it sound silly, and we’re blaming Rena for that)
Props to Zinae for providing my first Game Over, with its horrible Eruption attack which kept 1HKOing both my fighters until I ran out of resurrection items. Then I reloaded, equipped fire-resistant accessories and kicked its ass, so all was well.
Quick question, do the other characters EVER explain to Ashton what happened here, or is he just wandering around with a blank in his memory forever?
…Either way, we have all the ingredients for the exorcism, so we can finally get rid of-
Sigh. After all that effort.
By the way Rena, I appreciate that you are trying to be nice, but you’re also lying. You started with zero affection for him, the same as everybody else.
So being the pushover he is, Ashton gets guilted into keeping his pet parasites. One piece of dialogue here claims he ‘never wants to be parted from them’, which is weird because in the original game, it’s made clear that he IS looking for alternative exorcism methods, which won’t kill the dragons when they separate. So let’s see how that pans out.
You might imagine the dragons would be grateful for this turn of events, and stop harassing him. You’d be sadly mistaken. They are forever squabbling, and since we’ve established that Ashton is a pushover, Claude tends to get called over to rescue the situation.
Besides this, his idle animation has him ducking while the dragons swipe and snap around. This is very distracting when I’m trying to catch fish (which I still haven’t figured out a use for).
This second PA used to provide a pretty good accessory, but it looks like they’ve nerfed it. I’ve got other stuff which gives significantly better stat boosts.
Am I being completely self-indulgent and doing every Ashton-centric PA, back to back? Obviously, yes.
Affection is already maxed out. Rena’s still mad at me, though.
Because these scores don’t affect anything outside of battle rage/that one beach scene/the paired endings, we’ll still spend a lot of the game having people say 'ooh Claude and Rena would be such a cute couple’. Both parties continually deny this, and in this case it’s genuine denial and not just embarrassment. Which is a type of peer pressure nobody needs.
Yes I caught Claude mid-blink in that screenshot, no I’m not reloading my save to get additional shots.
I think I preferred this scene’s original wording slightly (Ashton being more convinced that their meeting was fate - which ironically isn’t true since he’s an optional and easily missable recruit - and saying 'don’t be a stranger’ as opposed to 'I hope it keeps going’).
Speaking of that, on my very first playthrough, I actually did miss Ashton! On realising that, I reloaded and sacrificed hours of work in order to get him, because I’d already clocked him as a character I was likely to love. Prime blorbo material, as they say.
…At least I know what my type is.
With Ashton Hour concluded, we can now get back to the main plot, and dealing with the Sorcery Globe. Onwards to Laceur! Lacuer? Lacour.
