Disk 4: The Mystic Dragoons (ミスティックドラグーン), Part 3

This week we go back to the Mystic Dragoons once again for two reasons. One, I did promise that I would post more about it at some juncture or another, if only for my own amusement. Two, due to some recent health concerns, I haven’t been able to write very much, and thought that this would be better than leaving my readers without any post this week at all. I hope that you enjoy it.

Welcome to part three of our trek through The Mystic Dragoons. As mentioned beforehand, many of the names that I use in this post will be the anglicized names given in the art booklet that came with the game. I’m doing this purely to make my work somewhat easier for people to read. Anyway, when last we left our intrepid band of misfits, they were wandering around the bar in Harvey, looking for passage on a ship to the mainland. Considering the dubious nature of the patrons upstairs, the basement of a dive bar is not exactly the kind of place that I would normally want our underage heroes to go, but given the drastic situation that we’re in, I suppose we have no choice. So here goes nothing.



The first rule of Fight Club is...

Well whatever I was expecting to find in the basement, a fight club was certainly not it. Apparently anyone who wants to board the captain’s ship has to beat his underlings in battle. Rasseru, the aforementioned captain, tells everyone that it’s not to the death, which is incredibly reassuring and makes this scenario seem perfectly normal and socially acceptable. This sounds like a healthy form of entertainment for our emotionally fragile heroes to unleash our pent-up rage in, and since we’re stuck here anyway, I suppose that we have no choice. After taking out three generic looking soldiers that each have names that I don’t care enough about to write down, we’re granted passage to Pura-ma. Finally! In other news, that was the lamest fight club ever. I think that the soldiers were weaker than some of the random encounters I’ve come across. Also, the crowd sound effect in this section of the game is worse than nails on a chalkboard. You can’t say that I didn’t warn you.


My eyes!!!

Moving onward, it’s time to head to the port and get off this island once and for all. We board Rasseru’s glaringly fuchsia ship, and it’s finally time to head out onto the ocean. Being that this is an RPG, I expected something terrible to happen to us between here and the continent, as that is the usual formula. But except for several random encounters along the way, the voyage was completely peaceful. What, no ghost ship, no sneak attack by an enemy fleet? I am severely disappointed in this game for letting a chance to be cliché completely pass them by. What were they thinking?

After working my way through my little snit, I decided that it was time to see where Rasseru had dumped us. He wouldn’t give us much information either, so it seems that we have our work cut out for us. Of course we do. It seems that we’re in Borushu, which is in the southwestern part of Pura-ma. Grand. Well, at least we’re closer to wherever we’re headed than we were. Time to go fishing for information. We find one of the scouts who have been mentioned around town, made quite noticeable by the fashion statement he makes in his bright pink armor. Apparently we need a letter of introduction if we want to become the dragoons we were clearly meant to be, but we don’t know anyone in power, and have therefore reached another roadblock between us and the sky army. Oh joy. We’re stuck here, with the bridge being out, and we have no letter of introduction, so it seems that we have no choice but to enlist in the regular army. So with dreams of glory dashed, we head off to become grunts and work our way up the proverbial ladder the old-fashioned way.

Interesting fashion statement you're making there, Skippy.

There is a bizarre looking dragon near the city’s exit that appears to be some form of transportation, and near it is a soldier. Turns out that this is where we want to be, so we board the dubious looking equipage and head out. Cliff and company protect the critter from mooks until we reach the bridge, which isn’t any less broken than it was when we were exploring the field just a little while ago. But before we can consider the logistics of maneuvering ourselves and the dragon vehicle across the gap, somebody appears out of nowhere and murders our escort and his beast companion with fire. Our heroes all leap across the gap in the bridge to confront him. Let me repeat this. Our party members jump across the previously un-crossable, ridiculously large gap in the bridge in a single bound to confront the murderer. What just happened!?



That is one weird looking dragon.

After processing the fact that rage seems to give us very limited superhero-like abilities, Mila demands to know why they killed the dragon. Nice to see how much she cares about the human life that was lost. But anyway, we discover that these creeps are from Gureizeru. And yes, they killed the dragon because of the aforementioned prophecy that caused the destruction of our hometown way back in the beginning of the game. After giving the murderer a good old-fashioned butt kicking, his henchmen stick around long enough to tell you that the fight has only begun and that Gureizeru is going to win. Typical enemy posturing finished, they die in a mass of glittering sparkles. Not the most intimidating way to go out, but good riddance.

Well, now even Alf is upset, and if he weren’t so precious looking during his fit, I would be enthused to have an angry dragon on my side. Oh Raira, why did you have to die? (To further the plot, of course.) The realities of war seem to finally be sinking in to Bud, and everyone is pretty low, until Roxy notices something approaching. I don’t believe it. I really don’t believe it. It’s the Tactical Dragoons, late as usual. They recognize us immediately, which is nice, considering the situation that they last saw us in. After giving us some well-deserved props for taking out the Gureizeru murderers here on the bridge, they point us in the direction of the army camp, tell us to be careful, and book it again. On the way out, Psy, one of the dragoons, makes a comment to one of her companions about the commander of this particular camp’s nickname being Gozetto the New Recruit Killer. Oh this just keeps getting better and better. They seem to be amused by how this is going to go for us, which, considering our recent circumstances, is just mean. Why do we want to join them again? Oh right, the dragons. I almost forgot.

Mila is about as enthused with the Tactical Dragoons and their attitude as I am, but there is nothing to be done about it at the moment. We have to move onward to the army camp on our own, even though Bud is being a complete wuss and seems unnerved to be going there without an escort. After some mockery of Bud courtesy of Roxy, we regain control of the party and finally reach the land on the other side of the bridge. We can’t commit anymore herculean leaps, so there is no backtracking. Nothing to do now but move forward and into the loving arms of Gozetto the New Recruit Killer.

Next time on The Mystic Dragoons: Boot camp for ten-year-olds and the commander from H-E-double-hockey-sticks.

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