Quesada's Swan | Tales of Berseria - Part 118: Escape From Hexen Isle

After an expedition, Velvet's now more softer-sounding and encouraging. She wishes the crew "good luck." Character development, yay!

Down the steps we go...

Velvet's smiling. Aaaaah! What is this sorcery!?

Magilou tells Velvet to open her mouth. She's checking her teeth to "see if she's broken anything." If her teeth were broken, Velvet would lose the bet she made with Magilou.

Magilou pulls in Phi for the inspection.

Velvet asks why Magilou's dragging Phi into this.

Magilou, you troll...

Velvet: "Why are you making this even more awkward?"
Magilou: "We can't settle the bet until we know the tooth!"

Velvet: "Fine, but let's check the ones with my left hand first."

Now Magilou drags Bienfu for the unnecessary dentist appointment. Poor Bienfu...

Eleanor giggles.

Eleanor: "Looks like Velvet's just fine."
Rokurou: "Yeah. The spark's returned to her eyes." That same spark that she lost three years ago...

Rokurou asks if "showing the inside of one's mouth is embarrassing."

Eleanor blushes.

More steps to climb.

Eleanor wonders what the Abbey's plans are for the Calix.

Zaveid: "...they're trying to keep it hidden. Can't be anything good."

Another auto skit: Zaveid asks Phi about his "friend," the other malak.

Poor Phi. They were still numbers, enslaved to Teresa back then...

Phi's sad.

Phi: "I found Velvet and the others, but he probably had nowhere to go."

Zaveid, quit with your lady hunting!

Phi doesn't get what he means.

Zaveid decides to look after Phi's friend until he gets his free will.

The battle music's changed as well...

This is a big place...

After Velvet cooks quiche, I activate a skit where Eleanor and Rokurou talk.

Rokurou: "Wait, do you just not like quiches?"

Eleanor says that she likes them. She just hates spinach.

Rokurou's smug smile when he realizes Eleanor doesn't like spinach reminds me of SpongeBob's "You like Krabby Patties" face.

Eleanor: (sighs) "I suppose there's no point in denying it."

Rokurou: "I know a lot of people don't like carrots or bell peppers. But spinach...that's a new one to me."

Rokurou also brings up her distaste of sale'tomah.

Eleanor: "It's actually because of the sale'tomah. I used to love spinach when I was little, but now it just reminds me of... euch, sale'tomah..."

For Magilou, she now likes spinach post-sale'tomah...

Eizen: "Being a fussy eater is just another way of life. You're in charge of your own plate."

This man is going to get his glory because he defies fate and his misfortune so much...

Eleanor's projecting that everyone hates spinach like her.

Eleanor: "I'm talking about the Spinach Method! Supporting Peers In Achieving Cohesive Harmony! It's the foundation of any successful team, and you all...fail at it!"

Magilou doesn't get what she means.

Rokurou: "Some of us just aren't cut out for team leadership."

Then Eizen points out that the Spinach Method is a big requirement to get into Aifread's crew.

Eleanor asks about his report...oopsie, Eizen seems to have forgot about that...

Now Eleanor forces Eizen, Rokurou, and Magilou to sit as she lectures them...all of this because she hates spinach...

Magilou: "How did we get from spinach to a lecture on team-building?" Yeah, how did we?

Moving on, I get the first Elixir for this game!

Eventually, I activate another skit: Zaveid asks Phi to name the malak child.

Even Zaveid thinks calling someone by a number "seems mean." At least Zaveid isn't that cruel...

Rokurou takes over calling him "Hajime" or "the first."

Zaveid suggets Ichirou, or "first son." Rokurou's not going for that, he mentions that name "was Shigure's childhood name."

Eleanor suggets Ichi and Numby.

Velvet asks where the second name came from.

Phi suggests not to mention his number at all.

Velvet: "How about Bob?" Maybe Ash, or Haku?

Magilou thinks she got that name because of his hair. I got Haku because of that too.

Eleanor prefers Bobby.

Phi tells the party "a boy doesn't want a name that sounds cute!"

Zaveid thinks his name needs more "panache."

Eizen suggests Silva, noting his pendant and hair color.

Rokurou's happy with that name, mentioning its "mystique." Phi likes it too!

Zaveid: "Well done, first mate."
Eizen: "Praise from you is wasted on me."

Zaveid calls out to Silva. Yay! The malak has a name now!

Awww, Phi's laughter and smile is so radiant...

Another skit: Rokurou asks Magilou what she was doing while everyone was stuck in the earthpulse.

Magilou: "I was ringing the bell. The rift was open the whole time. Couldn't you hear me?" Evatvat gur oryy...nabgure Irfcrevn ersrerapr? Gurer arrqf gb or zber Irfcrevn ersreraprf...

Eleanor "didn't hear any bells."

Bienfu explains what she actually did: she held Melchior back. Bienfu, through tears, calls her last stand "moving."

Magilou: "Yes, yes. I did endure. It was so hard not to laugh."
Rokurou: "Did the old man tell you a joke or something?"

Magilou mentions it as being "a staring contest." Rian Johnson extreme close-ups and all, I'm guessing...

She tried to imagine him younger, but with the same face...

What "ringing of the bell" is Magilou talking about?

Magilou asks Phi if "he's fishing for sympathy" when Phi asked what broke.

Magilou hates being awarded and praised. Velvet knows Magilou don't care about the honors.

A golden pillar's down at the bottom isle. That's probably the warp!

Now we're at the second Calix...

An arte barrier made up of multiple rings of chains await us...

Phi sees it first. There's a dragon locked up in the barrier!

Eleanor wonders why the Abbey would do this.

Magilou deduces that since the Calix is near Innominat's earthpulse, Phi wonders if Innominat's involved with the dragon.

idgi explain

Oh, Zaveid...

Velvet starts to explain. Phi's worried.

Velvet: (smiles) "I'm fine now. I promise." Aaaaahhh!
Phi: (smiles too) "All right."

Velvet explains everything to Zaveid.

Zaveid asks if she's going to fight Innominat. Yes, she is.

Zaveid compliments her as "ice cold." Oh my god, Zaveid.

Rokurou wonders about what will happen to Innominat if "humans can't create any more malevolence."

Innominat needs malevolence to survive, or maybe he needs it to be at full power instead of actually using it as sustenance.

Eleanor thinks he might sleep again.

Rokurou: "But if he [sleeps], then his power will fade and humanity will start creating malevolence again, right?" It's a deadly cycle.

Velvet explains that he does need malevolence to sustain himself. Hence why these dragons.

Eizen calls the Calix a "dragon farm". It does look like a field.

Eleanor: "You can't be serious!"

Magilou thinks it's plausible.

Zaveid: "They can't think of malakhim as anything but tools..."
Eleanor: "Just how much will they sacrifice for their ideal world of tranquility...?"

Another skit: Eleanor's having a moral crisis regarding her beliefs about the Abbey. All because of the dragons they have.

Phi wonders if the malak used to be human then turned into a dragon...Eizen confirms it. And Melchior must have turned the malak into one.

Even laidback Zaveid isn't too happy...

Bienfu tries to cheer up Eleanor.

Magilou: "But spawning dragons in addition to therions...you think they'll figure out a way to make humans [turn into dragons] too?"
Eleanor: "Yes. Wait, that's awful!"

They probably will...just like how they did with the Shepherd.

Velvet: "We don't dare free it. It'd be too dangerous."
Zaveid: "I know. Damn the Abbey and their twisted morality."

My god, that scene was deep...

Off to exploring the rest of this colossal floating archipelago!

Crossing a bridge, Phi and Velvet talk about their family relations. Phi now knows his father's the Shepherd.

Velvet: "Look, you were reborn, right? Honestly, I really don't know anything about how being reborn works. But to me... what you see [...] hear and [...] feel? That's what's important. Whoever we used to be in another life, I'm me now, and you're you. That's all there is to it. "

Rokurou points out what Eizen said about malakhim being reincarnations of humans. Eleanor speculates that malakhim might be reborn from other living things like birds or fish...

Magilou: "That's not-not-not-not-not true!"

She uses a dog as an example. Then she goes on to call Phi "Velvet's little pup." Oh my god, Magilou.

Phi: "Be careful. I bite."
Magilou: "Have mercy! I take it all back! Just don't bite me!"

Eizen explains malakhim's rebirth.

Eizen: "Everyone's lives are founded on the past." I never thought of life that way...

Phi: "So I'm just me."
Velvet: "Yep. You're you and no one else. You're Phi." Aaaahhh...Velvet's smiling so warmly...

Let's hope this one's the last skit...

Zaveid asks Eizen about the daemon bodyguard of Melchior's...

Eizen says he doesn't know.

Zaveid feels that that's probably Aifread...

Eizen says again he doesn't know. I think he's trying to deny it...

Velvet mentions they haven't fought him so far. They met him in Aball...

Velvet thinks Melchior's "controlling him" through his illusion powers.

Zaveid tells her that would've been a hard fight if they did face him...

Zaveid has very good insight.

Eizen still can't believe that might be him. But he mentions his scar...

Down more staircases, and there's the last pillar of light...

We're now at Hexen Isle proper, An Island Wiped From Existence.

Zaveid tells us he sailed here. He tells us the ship's docked southeast.

So we're in the island southeast of Islegand in the map...

There's lots of big, tall monoliths here.

I save at this point.

And there's our old friend, the White Turtlez!

The new monsters on Hexen Isle are Enticing Glamors...

We take the herbs around the monoliths and head further...

...but a rift opens! Oh no!

A purple ball of energy bursts from the rift!

No, Silva!!!

Eizen's the first to see him down!

Innominat: "We used to play tag all the time. I won't let you get away, Velvet."

Fearful, Silva's falling under the malevolence, no!!! Why!?

Innominat: "[Turning Silva into a dragon] is the whole reason I took him from Teresa. It's just another necessary sacrifice for peace." I cannot believe I'm typing this down...

Silva turns into a dragon! No....why!?

Eizen: "Innominat, you monster!"

Magilou: "Innominat to the front of us, a dragon to the back of us...Reaper's Curse doesn't begin to describe it."

Innominat's hungry for some despair...

Innominat: "Is that despair I sense?"
Phi: "Not on your life."
Velvet: "It'll take more than this to make your big sister break."

Then Innominat pulls a line that wouldn't be too out of place in a Borg episode. His tone sells it.

Zaveid decides to face him, using Siegfried as his powerup! Three times!

Zaveid: "[My power] knows no limits! For I am Zaveid!"

Zaveid makes a hurricane to blow Innominat away and continues his fight...

Rokurou: "This is officially too damn much!" You think so?

We face the Hellkite Dragon!

He's weak against non-elemental and water attacks, but strong against fire and earth...

Eleanor: "If only I'd been a larger vessel..."

We start the barrage, as the Hellkite unleashes his fiery breath!

I have to be careful when he unleashes his Seize attack!

He does a Neigh, which stuns us!

Then, after a few minutes later, he's healing himself! Magilou tells him to stop it!

Oh my god, Innominat finished Zaveid off!

Innominat crosses his arms, unhappy.

Phi decides to take on Innominat by himself! Oh god!

Eleanor's not letting him fight one-on-one with him!

Phi: "This isn't an order. It's strategy."

Velvet quietly gives him her blessing to face him.

Innominat: "For something that's a mere part of me, you're really uppity." Look in the mirror, O Mighty Empyrean.

Phi casts his artes...

Phi: "I am the malak Laphicet. I am my own master!"

Innominat's now going at him with full power...

Velvet: "And neither will we!"

Now we face the Hellkite sans Laphicet.

Eleanor: "But nothing's changed."
Velvet: "Everything's changed. Phi's trying to become someone new."
Rokurou: "It's a gamble! I'm in!"
Eizen: "Me too."
Magilou: "You stay out of this! Your [...] coin always land on skull!"
Eizen: "Then someone will have to flip it for me."

I unleash my allies' Mystic Artes on the Hellkite!

Oh, come on! He's healing now!!?

Now he's unleashing his fire artes like Calamity Flare!

Now the dragon's healing!? Ai ya...

Velvet states it isn't!

Laphicet vs. Innominat is still playing out..,

Innominat casts his fireball at Laphicet!

Innominat's smiling face as he tells him to surrender is creepy...

Phi: "No way I'm apologizing! Not to some jerk who doesn't understand how Velvet feels!"
Innominat: "...she's my sister."
Phi: "I know eveything. But I won't tell you!"

Innominat fires, and charges at him Dios Rush-style!

Phi pulls out the compass!

Innominat pauses!