Beyond the Beyond: Update 65: Act 3 wrap-up and bonus material

[ladyabaxa]

Beyond the Beyond: Update 65: Act 3 wrap-up and bonus material

As with our prior two act wrap-ups this is the time where the narrative takes a vacation and we peer under the hood and around the machinery to see the nuts and bolts of our virtual world. First though it's time for...

the Act 3 recap!

I've been slacking a bit on the in-update recaps of events so this one is going to be longer and more detailed than I otherwise would write it. Well, that and Act 3 is actually pretty damn busy event-wise.

Act 3 began in the village of Simone with a newly un-cursed Samson recuperating and enjoying being well... uncursed. (Believe me it took some getting used to to not have curse effects going off all the time. I had gotten used to them.) From there it was back to Zalagoon where the team arrived just in time to interrupt an attempted power grab by Glade. When the king of Zalagoon allowed Samson to attempt the lift-a-pillar test again and Samson passed with flying colors Glade freaked out, swallowed a pill given to him by Shutat, and was immediately possessed by a being from the underworld. G then transformed Glade's body and attacked the team under orders from Shutat to kill Finn.

Once G exploded in a lightshow the king of Zalagoon went ahead with plans to send his army into Marion. The plan however quickly hit a nasty snag. The Zalagoon army was unable to cross the river border between the two nations because of the terrain and Bandore's garrison on the other side. In order to circumvent the defenses the team took a long route through the mountains until they retraced some steps in their flight from Marion months prior. Once in Marion they found out that Sir Galahad was leading resistance operations against Bandore (although they never ran into Galahad himself) before attacking Bandore's garrison on the Marion - Zalagoon border. With the garrison dead Zalagoon troops poured across the border into Marion.

From there the team easily walked into Marion Castle and watched as the emperor of Bandore fled ahead of Zalagoon's advance. Also they found Ramue in one of the two towers cursing some unfortunate person who is definitely not Percy before teleporting away and leaving some ogres who had stolen castle keys or something. In the other tower, unlocked with said keys, (thanks ogres!) the team found Edward's father the king of Marion. Unlocking the gate at the rear of the castle Shutat appeared, having been abandoned by the emperor. There was a brief scuffle where Shutat decided to go all boss battle on the team but Ramue teleported in and interrupted him. After some back and forth the two began powering up to attack Finn's group only to be stymied first by Sir Piat then by Sir Galahad. Ultimately they realized they were outgunned and teleported away.

Marion's king resumed control of the kingdom placing Sir Galahad in charge of its forces because Lord Kevins was taken by Bandore in the retreat. After that, spurred by Edward's desire to press their advantage, the group went to the Marion - Bandore border in two groups which promptly rejoined into one. They had broken up because the king of Marion didn't have the troops to send into Bandore and didn't want his son doing anything foolish before the nation was ready. Edward said nuts to that and decided he was going alone if necessary. The remerged group found Bandore on edge in anticipation of a counter invasion by Marion. Following a kid taking his imprisoned father food the team infiltrated Bandore castle where they saw the emperor again fleeing. They were unable to help the wounded Lord Kevins who told Finn the truth about his family - that Kevins was not Finn's birth father and had adopted him after pursuing his birth parents to the Marion - Zalagoon border and being the cause of both of their deaths. There was some prophecy, save the world!, type stuff before the team left Kevins to be dragged away to his scheduled execution up on the volcano.

After a short rest the team decided they weren't going to abandon Kevins after all and instead marched into the volcano where Shutat and Ramue tried to trap them in an ambush. After the monsters Ramue summoned were dispatched the masked man Ramue cursed (who is definitely not Percy) tossed a key down allowing them to escape. After making their way through caverns overflowing with not-lava they reached a caldera where it seemed Kevins was tied to a rope suspended over the pit. After they pulled the rope up Yeon dropped his illusion revealing it was a somewhat clever trap (way better than what Ramue tried!) and part of the team was instead the ones suspended over the caldera. The real Kevins showed up just in time to have a tug-o-war that resulted in he and Yeon falling into the volcano. Arawn then piped up to remind Finn he needed to keep moving. So much for not interfering!

Picking up a key that was just lying on the ground the team made their way to Bandore's harbor where they found that Shutat had repaid the emperor for stranding him in Marion by doing the same in return. Having stolen Bandore's spiffy new battleship they then blew up Bandore's automated fleet, rained cannonballs onto the harbor to kill the emperor, and then merrily sailed off into the sunset. The only thing stopping them from shooting at Finn's group at the harbor was that a dragon flew overhead and looked at them rather crossly. Then Domino showed up out of the blue saying he had been snooping around Bandore on his own. Domino finally got with the program and joined the team at long last bringing the member count up over our maximum party size. Also he comes with his own ship. Hopefully it will last a week in the team's hands. Just don't ask how the hell he hid it right next to the biggest military harbor in the world.

end of recap

With that out of the way the mischief can begin!

Walls? Schmalls!

First up on our not quite world tour is poking around with walk-through-walls. Zalagoon was covered a while back so here goes the revisit to Marion and the trip into Bandore.

First up is the return to Marion. There isn't too much to mess with. Part of that is that there isn't much in the way of character-dependent scripted events. The other part of that is that those scripted events that do exist are buried in the depths of Marion Castle where it's kind of a pain to get around because the random encounters can't be disabled with the codes available.

With walk-through-walls it is possible to get around the castle's interior second and third story rooms since they share a map. Here an intruder slips into the room where Ramue is preparing her offering to the Plot Gods.

Ramue and the masked figure cannot be interacted with as expected.

Stepping on the trigger tile starts up the scripted sequence but doesn't reorient Finn. That way he can properly snub her dastardly scheme by keeping his back to her the whole time.

Over in the belly of the volcano the team found a cave blocked by a rock. Said cave is only a set piece. The rock is never going to be removed from the map while the entrance itself has no warp point and thus goes nowhere.

Why is this cave there? Presumably this is the passage linking Bandore to Zeal Village. There are a couple mentions of Zeal in the game (one in Marion, one in Bandore) but with everything going on in the plot this is easy to forget. The Vicious Ones supposedly sealed the passage behind them and the developers never got around to actually making it. That means we'll have to find a different route to Zeal Village. Considering it saves us a long trip through multiple dungeons I'm perfectly fine with that. I would have liked to see the tunnel from a world detail point of view but not having to actually traverse it is a nice reprieve.

Bypassing Yeon's trap is a simple matter. We'll just leave him hanging there and head into the tunnel to have a look around. With walk-through-walls the Gold Key isn't needed but it was bright and shiny so I picked it up anyway.

On a related note the Escape spell does work in the little cave with the Gold Key. It takes the player back to the entrance of the volcano.

Speaking of the entrance there are things tucked away along the map perimeter well out of camera range. To the south is the door animation sequence.

Meanwhile to the east Kevins is having a smoke break before he has to act out his death scene. There's something under him but I can't tell what it is. Maybe the tied up Kevins illusion? This technically isn't the same screen as the caldera but the magic of RAM and computer logic don't care about little details like that.

Over at the harbor the northeastern corner is perfectly normal as it terminates in darkness. Nothing to see here. For now...

To the southwest are various water animations. We've got water lapping against the harbor platform and two variations of water itself - shallow and deep. Or that darker coloration could be an object under the water such as the structure of the dock going down past the water level. It's hard to tell.

On the platform itself the emperor and attendant soldiers haven't been placed yet. They will be if Finn and company step onto one of the trigger tiles but for the moment the emperor is off stage somewhere probably complaining about how his upcoming scene does him no justice.

Oh and its possible to head south of the harbor and reach Bandore Castle. The portcullis is closed though so this is as far as Finn can go for the moment without cheating. This will all change after the scene with the emperor and the fleet but until then the player is railroaded towards the water.

Speaking of that scene and following events the game has to load more stuff in order to make changes to the map. Here in the northeastern corner what was once a rather normal looking stretch of rock has had a gangplank and a bit of Domino's ship loaded into it to be copied over into the player's camera view. The tiles that Domino's ship occupies out on the water are always impassable though regardless of the graphics on those tiles.

Down in the extreme south is Domino facing a direction he never faces during his scripted scene. Oh well. He and Kevins probably have some weird bet going on behind the scenes. (Hey this is the only time I can make jokes that break the 4th wall. Gotta lean on that wall a bit while I can.)

In the lower left corner are the last frames of the trio of explosion animations that were played. Minor stuff all around but it is a bit interesting how the game uses areas well beyond the normal camera view as a sort of canvas. It works the space behind the scenes so it can move things on and off stage.
 

I Reject Your Sequence And Substitute My Own

I used a savestate early in the sequence of events in Bandore to see how doing events backwards affects things. For this I used walk-through-walls to go into and through Bandore Castle exiting out the back gate. Then I marched Finn up to the harbor and watched the emperor die again.

(Yes there's a soldier just barely on screen. Ignore them as they are irrelevant for this.)

The interior door on the castle's second floor is locked when the player first enters and isn't unlocked until after the player meets Kevins down in the dungeons. Makes sense. They have to take him out this door in order to reach the volcano which is where he is to be executed. What happens to those soldiers once they get to the volcano is a mystery. Yeon might kill them or simply dismiss them. Either way it bites him in the ass as seen when Kevins forces Yeon over the caldera's edge and into the fiery chasm below.

Now because I skipped meeting Kevins and watched the last cutscene to take place in Bandore the game has advanced the entire castle to its next state. That means Kevins is gone for good and it is no longer possible to find the soldier who drops the key to Kevins's cell. Ghosting my way into his cell did nothing. The door leading to the battlements will remain forever locked in this scenario. That means I have to use walk-through-walls on the exterior map to reach the battlements (the easy way) or go out to the harbor and walk all the way back through the volcano (the ridiculous way).

Heading into the volcano I made sure to skip the trigger tiles for Shutat and Ramue's ambush. Off on the eastern edge where Kevins was previously having his smoke break there instead stands the Phantom Soldier sprite ready to be called into cutscene action. I do like how many random monsters get sprites like this even if the player barely ever sees them. It would be nice to see more of them in game.

Meanwhile at the caldera the game doesn't have Yeon's trap graphics loaded because I skipped the event with Shutat. I'm using walk-through-walls here to get a good screenshot of the environment. There's no rope, no illusion, no Yeon, but the supposedly illusory staircase descending into the red depths is present.

Because of the skipped event the game has a set of resources (sprites, portraits, voice values, etc.) lined up in memory that don't match what the developers intended to be used with Yeon's cutscene. Instead of a fake Kevins the game uses Shutat's portrait. Also the camera's position is clearly way off course but it doesn't cause further glitching or the game to crash so whatever.

Despite there being no rope graphics the trigger tile works just fine. Finn thus unties and grabs an invisible rope.

Shutat continues to stand in for the illusion directing Finn and company on how to rescue him from the volcano.

Once the illusion is dropped Yeon appears as Ramue because assets for her character were second on the loaded list (or something or other). Ramue trying this kind of trap is totally believable though. Granted her prior attempts were more forceful (and direct!) but she is good at magic and underhanded enough to do something like this if she put her mind to it.

When Kevins appears to wrestle with Yeon the game again uses Shutat's sprites but doesn't get their position right. As if this cutscene wasn't funny enough already!

The positioning error does produce a further error when the game has Kevins fall into the volcano. In order to show the character is in freefall his sprite goes through a rotation routine while moving down. This requires an animated GIF to really explain so here goes.

In game this all happens so fast the player might not even notice. I had to slow it down in the GIF. That spinning in place at the bottom isn't visible if the starting position is correct. Here though the sprite being used for Kevins starts at a higher position so once it moves the designated distance (a sort of "move X number of pixels down" command rather than "move to X coordinates" command) it gets rotated to the default orientation before being erased from the screen.

Arawn showing up is when things run even more off the rails. Since there's no 3rd character for the ambush at the volcano entrance there's no portrait or voice in the queue. The game gets a bit confused and ends up using no portrait but giving Arawn G's metallic scraping voice.

Porting back to the entrance the team triggers Ramue's half-assed trap. Since their characters were removed from memory following what happened at the caldera there are no sprites and the game defaults to Finn's portrait. Just try to imagine Finn acting out all the lines for Shutat and Ramue here to find out how absurd this is. The masked man does appear as scripted after the battle and tosses down the key so at least that works right.
 

The Act 3 Deads

While Act 2 had a lack of events with character-specific scripts to mess with Act 3 has a few. Its no great abundance but enough to provide some variety. Our first event was the last one I checked because I forgot about it until I was putting together the Act 3 wrap-up checklist. Fortunately I still had a memory card save back in Zalagoon. That meant I had to fight the Bandore garrison at the river again but that went quickly. Not caring about MP makes fights go faster even when the super archer managed to sneak in a turn out of nowhere and break confusion. (I wasn't recording at the time but the action taken was one of the confusion only joke actions that don't actually do anything. The archer tried to cast Troll level 4 which isn't an actual spell in the game.)

Entering Marion Castle by ghosting up to the battlements meant entering a castle that wasn't entirely prepared for the player. I didn't grab a screenshot of it but upstairs the roaming NPC soldiers were still present while the game recognized that the Bandore Stooges had to be placed and run their script. Then they ran downstairs towards the castle's back gate thereby teleporting themselves into place for their scene by the castle's front door.

Marion Castle still has poison damage disabled despite crawling with enemies. None of those enemies can inflict poison so it easily goes unnoticed. A random encounter was thus needed to allow Finn to die from poison damage.

The other thing the team needed was the Steel Key in order to open the gate. That's why I ghosted up to the battlements first. It seemed the most expedient way to reach Ramue and get the key while minimizing random encounters.

Shutat's appearance in the castle is where the game has to make a check to see if Finn is alive. Shutat addresses Finn directly so the script requires a branch to cover the possibility that he isn't present. When Shutat approaches the party the script makes its first divergence. He still has that moment of apprehension when he realizes who they are though so its not just Finn who's off-putting to him.

You are... Finn's friends I assume?

The whole group then nods.

Strange timing. Wait, I get it. It's all because of you. You brought Zalagoon here, didn't you?

Shutat then plays a nodding animation.

I should have destroyed you before you became so powerful!

Then the screen darkens, Shutat starts to advance, and Ramue teleports in cutting off the attack before it can begin.

Lord Shutat... What's going on?
Ramue...

Ramue walks forward to see what's got Shutat all riled up.

Oh Ho! I see... But we don't have time for this!
It will only take a second for me to destroy Finn's friends!
Lord Shutat, why bother? If we don't leave now, all may be lost!
You're probably right, but if I don't... I might regret it... That's why I must destroy them now!!

The only actual difference in this segment is that the game swaps a variable. Instead of Finn it becomes Finn's friends. This actually makes Shutat's statement "That's why I must destroy them now!!" more accurate. When it's just Finn it sounds a little strange for him to swap from focusing on Finn (the singular) to them (the plural) with that statement.

It also transforms the 'you' in the line "It's all because of you. You brought Zalagoon here, didn't you?" from a singular (referring directly to Finn himself) to a plural (addressing the entire team as a unit). It's a subtle thing but it shifts his perception of events from Finn as a savior type performing his duty with a bunch of tag-alongs to the group as a whole acting with or without Finn's input.

Then Sir Piat joins the party. If Finn is alive Piat's line is "Sir Finn! Sir Samson!" but Finn is dead in this scenario and thus his name is omitted. It's a small detail to be sure but it is nice someone noticed it.

Piat goes through his lines to where he rushes forward recognizing that enemy officers are before them. There the script diverges again. Annie plays her nod animation and says.

Bandore's Lord Shutat!

Ramue then asks Shutat what they should do and he concludes they should fight. Yadda, yadda, Sir Galahad shows up to continue the gag reel of Shutat getting nowhere with his attempts to start a boss battle.

When Finn is alive Galahad notices him immediately and his lines get right to the point. When Finn isn't present he instead goes through a slightly longer introduction.

Now I know why Zalagoon's troops came to help. Well we can talk later... but first let's deal with Bandore's Lord Shutat!

Sir, we should forget about Finn's friends and retreat!

Things advance as Ramue and Shutat prepare to flee up until Shutat turns to address Finn's group. If Finn were alive he'd threaten the boy directly.

Finn's friends, I'm sorry we can't settle this now. Your demise will have to wait until we meet again!

Again this amounts to one variable swap. It's a little clunky sounding but works.

"Finn and all other's are resurrected!" [sic]

When the scene concludes and the screen cuts to black the game takes the opportunity to slip in a free revival for everyone who happened to die along the way. This only happens if a party member is dead, grammar error and all.

There's another cutscene directly after this that requires the entire team so this is a quick way to ensure everyone needed will be present. It does make sense though from a narrative point of view. If you had the power to resurrect people why wouldn't you use it to restore your own allies following a major battle? It's not like they're pressed for time or anything.

That concludes the first scene to test.

The second scene to check is the not so effective rescue of Lord Kevins in Bandore. Kevins addresses Finn directly multiple times so let's see what happens when Finn isn't around for that.

The Chain Key isn't strictly necessary but there was no real reason to skip getting it. Despite having lost Finn Annie boldly marches on with the rescue attempt.

... ahh... Annie... You came...

Annie nods since she's taken the role of team leader. Once again all the reaction animations go to %Party_Leader with the game not caring one bit who that is.

Finn... Is he not here?

Annie nods again.

All right. Well, I don't have much time... that's right. Relay to Finn what I'm going to tell you now.

Annie nods for a third time.

Finn is... not my real son.

Finn isn't around to have the shocked shaking animation with Steiner but Annie manages it for him.

He's the son of the King of Marion's sister, Katherine, and my friend, the Knight Sir Norton... [sic] They both passed away when he was very young.

Finn was born with the mark of Arawn. An ancient prophecy refers to a child born with such a mark as the Great Light. It says that the Great Light travels to Quamdar to fight a great evil. The outcome of this encounter is not portrayed in the prophecy.

Annie nods to acknowledge the fact that she's going to have a lot of explaining to do when Finn's revived.

Finn's parents did not wish to lose their son, and so fled Marion. [sic] The king feared the kind of backlash this might have on Marion. Though I didn't want to, I was ordered to search for Finn's parents to take Finn back.

Annie shudders.

When I found them, Sir Norton challenged me. I had no intention of harming Sir Norton, but during our battle, he... he took a bad step and fell into the void of the Dragon Cave.

Annie shudders again.

Witnessing her husband's death, Katherine fell into a catatonic state. She no longer had the will to live and died a few days later.

Finn is scripted to move back presumably in shock at the whole tale. Since Annie's taking up that slot she gets the reaction shot instead.

In honor of the brave couple, I raised Finn as my own son, telling no one of his identity. Knowing that one day Finn would have to fulfill his destiny, I trained him vigorously. And now it seems the prophecy is upon us all.

For peace to return to the Common World, Finn must go to Quamdar. It's Marion's obligation to defend this world.

... That's the end of the story. If he wishes to visit his parents' grave, tell him to seek the Dragon Cave.

And after that Kevins's script converges with the one he uses if Finn is alive. He tells the team to leave him there and save themselves. This version has subtle but significant differences. Kevins never talks about the torture he suffered. Instead he launches right into his confession. That makes him seem even more rushed and worried then he is when Finn is present.

On a final note when the player leaves the dungeons after talking to Kevins two Bandore soldiers enter and walk down to his cell to get him. There are two staircases connecting the dungeon to the first floor. It doesn't matter which staircase the player uses. The Bandore soldiers will always appear at the other staircase and thus miss them.

Next up is the caldera. In a two for one deal both Finn and Samson will be dead for this little experiment.

Annie! I knew you would come for me! Hurry! Untie the knot and pull me up!

As expected where Finn's name would appear in a direct address Annie's is used instead. Oh well. Annie unties Yeon and falls into the trap.

What did you think of my illusion spell? Pretty scary, huh? He he he.

When Finn is alive Yeon addresses him directly telling him that he's disappointed that Finn is but a child. When Finn isn't present Yeon is giddy about the effectiveness of his spell - confirming that it was an illusion - and wants validation about it. The scripts converge up through Steiner's line asking what they should do. After that Yeon has a different line.

Tell me... are you scared? He he he, should I let you suffer more...? Huh?! Who?!

If Finn is present his line is:

I'll gradually loosen the rope and let you suffer... before you fall!

When Finn is around Yeon seems more certain that he wants to inflict suffering as if he really is disappointed that the great enemy he was waiting for is but a child. He sounds like he has genuinely become vindictive over it. When Finn's not around though he's almost playful as if he's happy to have someone caught in his net and is milking it for all its worth.

When Kevins appears Finn is again swapped with Finn's friends in the script. Annie gets all the reaction lines that were Finn's meaning she gets the ..! and ... responses as well as becoming the subject of Steiner's exhortation that they need to save Kevins. At the end just before he falls Kevins has a modified line.

Finn's... friends... I don't think... I can hold it anymore. But you're safe. Tell Finn I'm proud of him ughhh.

At the end of the scene when the team is processing what they've just seen Finn doesn't appear as expected but for some reason Samson does. His line in the script is skipped though. Annie starts off with a truncated line. Her line when Finn's present:

Sir Kevins... what should... we... do...? Finn! Please say something!

Her line when Finn's dead:

Sir Kevins... what should... we... do...? Tell me!

It's a rather awkward variation because with the way it is worded it sounds like she's demanding that Kevins, who just fell into the caldera, answer her question. That is impossible. Her facing the rest of the team sort of implies she's asking anyone to answer with an emphasis on how she's upset about what happened to Kevins, possibly even angry at him for falling. Samson then gets skipped on account of being dead for this test, Edward says his piece, and Arawn hits the dimmer switch.

Finn's party... you're all his friends!

The team looks around in confusion. From this point on all of the reaction animations Finn uses are instead Annie's. Between each of the following lines she does something to acknowledge what Arawn is saying. It's mostly just nodding.

I know just saying "cheer up" won't help. This is a great loss to us all.

You must all try to put your feelings behind you, and go after Shutat. [sic]

Listen... Death, to anyone, is a sad thing. I understand.

But... if you let Shutat go, his evil plans will continue and cause more suffering. Is that okay with you? Are you going to just stand there and let that happen?

You guys probably figured this out already, but Finn is the only one who can save this world!

Finn must end this! He must fight against them... But Finn is not strong enough to fight them alone. You guys are his friends and he really needs you right now!

I think you understand, that's all I want... Now, you better go after them. [sic] I think someone might be looking for you!

It's basically the same thing that Arawn says to Finn more personally if he's present. He's still telling them "get off your asses and go after Shutat."

Onto the final scene of this update.

With the harbor scene the game again uses the Finn's friends variable swap if Finn is dead. Eh, I expected it at this point. This is the only point where anyone even acknowledges the team's existence.

When Domino appears Annie, being temporary team leader, has to give him the piece of the Light Orb that inducts him into the team. This part of the game was always confusing. Are they just taking a Light Orb and literally breaking it apart like with a hammer or something? Is the orb a gooey or mutable substance like clay or Play-Doh? Not only is this never even touched on (Arawn just makes a passing mention that they'd know what to do with the orb when the time came) no one seems to think it unusual. I guess at this point they've seen so much weird stuff that nothing phases them anymore.

Regardless of who gives Domino "a piece of the Light Orb" their Light Orb is never damaged and will work just fine.

Next time on Beyond the Beyond - the beginning of Act 4!

Update Sixty-four | Index | Update Sixty-six