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The Ossa Trail

So I booted up the game, right in front of the entrance to the Ossa Trail. It’s a simple winding path that goes up, then back down a mountain. Not far in, we encounter an assassin! It’s a young woman, and she seems to be after the blood of the chosen.

As you can tell, she isn’t all that intimidating as far as assassins go. Worse, Colette trips (as usual) and hits a lever, opening up a service hatch for the mountain mines. Sheena falls, and is no longer a problem. The party continues.

At the end of the trail, however, she comes back, running out from a cave opening, and we fight a miniboss, Sheena and her guardian spirit thingy.

Defeated, Sheena runs.

I’ll note that the cave is a sort of side dungeon, the boss being the Sword Dancer. I did not choose to grind enough levels to fight the sword dancer, instead I intend to return later.

Izoold

So, we reached the small port village of Izoold, and mess around in there a bit. Izoold is probably the easiest place to get stuck in the whole game, outside of a few dungeons. Unbelievable!

Essentially, the party has to get across the ocean so that they can get to the water seal. Max has the only boat, but he’s too scared to cross. Luckily for us, he’s smitten with a girl name Lyla, so the part talks to her. Well, it turns out it’s not that easy either. She just goes on about some Aifread, who apparently is a pirate. Well, it turns out you have to talk to some random guy, who tells you Aifread’s in his hometown Luin. Then you can tell Lyla, and then she’ll want a letter delivered to him. She’s the one who forces Max to take you and the letter across to Palmacosta. Geez.

Palmacosta

Well, Palmacosta seems to be a large city, big shops line the port. I would have loved to buy some items, but I actually spent all my money back in Izoold on seaweed and barley rice… for riceballs. Instead I did a bit of weapon and armour upgrading at the customization guy. Customizing is free.

So, continuing into the town, we encounter what looks to be another adventuring party. Colette knocks into them, and we spill their precious Palma Potion. Well, we’ll have to get them a new one. Lloyd isn’t too happy about this, because the other adventurers are pretty rude about the whole ordeal.

Well, in looking for a place that sells the potion, we encounter Governor-General Dorr. He seems to be intent on fighting against the local ranch. There is not non-aggression treaty here, instead Dorr has organized a town army, a militia!

I decided to learn more about this Dorr, so we headed into his office. It turns out that they have a book, a record of Spiritua’s journey through Sylvarant, where she hit all the seals. Well, they had a book. It turns out that apparently the chose and their group had already come here and gotten it! What? Dorr calls the guard in, and in moments the party is blocked from escape by ten or twenty armed guards!

Colette falls, accidentally revealing her angel wings. Luckily, Neil, the assistant, calls off the guards. Sparkling wings clearly state that this group is not the imposters. It seems that they gave the book to the wrong group, to a bunch of fakes! Genis gets mad, and starts to show his racist side. See, Genis, being an elf, looks down on humans Raine smacks him before he goes too far. Let down, the party exit after many apologies from the General.

We found a shop called “Marble’s.” Inside a girl named Chocolat is yelling at a couple of Desians. They seem to want to get some gels for a discount price, and she’s refusing them. What a sight! Thinks Lloyd, someone’s standing up to the Desians! They leave, threatening to tell Lord Magnius about this event. Afterwards Chocolat goes off to work. She’s a pilgrimage guide. We talk to Cocoa, Chocolat’s mother, and owner of the shop. She apologises for what happened, and then we shop! I see the Palma Potion on the list, it’s 1000 gald!

Wait, I can’t afford that! I spent all my money on rice ball ingredients! Well, I sell a Beast Tooth and buy the potion, heading back to the adventurers.

After a few rude remarks, they leave, seemingly satisfied. Then the party realizes that that group, those adventurers that had been so rude, they were the imposters! We exit grumpily, looking for the next seal.

Hakonesia Peak

We head north. It seems that there’s a mountain blocking our way. The only way over is through a guarded path, and passes cost 100,000,000 gald! I don’t have enough for that, I bought seaweed and rice! And I don’t have 100,000 beast fangs to sell either! What a mess. Lloyd complains as we exit, and someone approaches is. It seems that Desians have attacked Palmacosta! Magnius is planning on making an example of the pesky shopkeeper from earlier with a public execution! They need the Chosen One’s help. Unable to allow preventable suffering, Colette chooses to go back south and help.

And so, we rush back to Palmacosta right as Magnius, one of the Five Desian Grand Cardinals finishes his speech. Cocoa standing on the platform, ready to be hung…

I’ll get to what happens next later!

Daniel Triumph.

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P.S. Check out what I plan to do with Tales of Symphonia, or the Table of Contents.

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