Quesada's Swan | Tales of Berseria - Part 75: Return to Titania

Magilou asks a promoter to spread an act for them far and wide. Velvet does not know what the heck's going on...I agree it's a bit confusing. Magilou's dead serious about a Magilou's Menagerie show!

I get treated to a comedy show starring Magilou and Velvet. She improvises very quickly...

Velvet's got stage fright.

Magilou tells her to pretend she's "fighting a nasty exorcist." Poor Velvet...

Magilou tries to bring out her "funny" skills, but Velvet loses her temper and runs off. The audience isn't too receptive...That was a bit funny, though.

Benwick's now having another row with the docksman.

Some aura passes through, and Laphicet senses it!

The docksman and Benwick look tired...everyone's in a standstill...

The docksman decides to passively let his row go.

Docksman: "We should all endeavor to help contribute to the common good of humanity rather than selfishly pursue wanton profit..."

What the heck!? The docksman comes to...

Magilou gets serious and asks if Laphicet sensed something. He did.

It came from the north. Eizen explains that a "domain" affected the area.

Velvet thinks the Empyrean's Throne might have something to do with it...

Rokurou asks if the Shepherd and Innominat pulled something out of their hat of tricks this time.

Eizen drops the George Lucas line and suggests leaving quickly.

As the crew walks away, the hooded figure begins talking...

???: "So the Suppression..."

He walks with them...

Even the merchants felt something different too. They noticed they got polite quickly.

Eizen: "Maybe something was manipulating them..."

Laphicet: "Something strange is happening here."
Eizen: "Seems so. And I think this is just the beginning of it."

We set sail for Titania.

On the ship...

Rokurou: "Don't you think it's time you showed your face, Mystery Monk?"

The man unhoods himself.

Eleanor: "I knew it! Prince Percival!" What gave him away?

percival il mid asgard

Eizen: "Percival il Mid Asgard, crowned prince and heir to the throne of the Midgand Kingdom."

It's from his perfume: a Fragrant Wood scent! Eleanor asks why.

Percival throws the question back at her.

Velvet doesn't care about his reasons.

Percival: "Treat me as you will. It's not like I can ever go back."

marceline what

Magilou: "Princey-poo's rather laid back."

Eleanor sticks up for him, and proclaims that if he's around "Midgand's prosperity will continue..." But he's not there anymore...

Velvet smelled the scent as well, but she didn't want to bother asking questions, as "he wore it for [the crew] to notice."

I'm guessing the prince wanted his hawk out of the villa, since it's probably the therion.

Rokurou senses a trap. Eizen says everything's a possibility at this point.

Laphicet's sad that the Prince can't go back to his castle...

Welcome back to Titania!

Laphicet compares the prison to a "secret fort."

Rokurou thinks it's too quiet...

No exorcists on patrol...

Eizen looks at the Prince suspiciously...

We talk to a pirate, who says Titania's been abandoned for awhile...

The Prince is saying this is "all according to plan." What plan?

Kurogane points out the hard work done on the prison island...

Grim calls the place "ominous."

Benwick calls the prison uninviting. It's meant to be built like that.

Dyle's uncomfortable about the place too, it's giving him the "geckobumps." Hee...

Kamoana tries to be brave...

There's an injured exorcist! She falls. Eleanor goes to her. Her final words are something about "a headless knight." Oh no...another one!? A Bush Ape jumps down to the entrance!

Magilou: "Another prison riot?"

Rokurou tells Kurogane and Dyle to protect Kamoana and Prince Percival.

Magilou throws another gibbon pun...

We finish the Bush Ape off in no time!

Velvet wonders if the Abbey's stopped the riot. Rokurou doesn't believe that.

Eizen brings up another term: "venomization."

It's a practice Velvet's familiar with. Daemons eating other daemons to become stronger...

Magilou implies Velvet's part to play in creating the daemon. Oh, Magilou...

Velvet decides to use the entrance "as a staging ground."

Velvet tells the back four to hold their positions. Eleanor tells Kamoana to call for her if things get dire there.

While exploring, I encounter Flame Witches and Tiga Heddins, or floating tiger heads!

Upstairs, where we see newer enemies: Gargoyles.

Eizen: "This island reeks with malevolence."
Magilou: "I imagine it's emanating from all the big ol' daemons roaming about."

We head to the south tower for treasures.

There's our friend, the White Turtlez! He's frightened of us! But Eleanor tries to understand him...

Velvet explains he's trying to increase prices unreasonably for more profit. Eleanor invokes Abbey law at this point. The Turtlez has been found out!

Velvet asks Eleanor to "give the nice Turtlez a smile he so desires."

She does so.

Hee...

After weapon shop business, we head down...

I look around the prison cells, just a few items and materials here.

Eleanor asks about the prison riot in the beginning of the game.

Rokurou: "I think someone in your position would know."

She only had news there was one, but she was busy pursuing us...

Magilou called it "a small affair."

Laphicet's eyes widen.

Eleanor's in shock at Velvet's plan to break out from the time she was there!

Velvet: "Yeah. You'd expect different from me?" That should be a tagline.

Laphicet asks how the riot ended.

Sadly, the prisoners lost, according to Rokurou. He wonders where the exorcists went. They've been probably eaten by the daemon...

And our job "is to mop up..."

Velvet and Rokurou ask about venomization. It's based on how strong the daemon is, not by how many. V'z guvaxvat irabzvmngvba vf n sberfunqbjvat gb ubj Vaabzvang tnvaf uvf cbjref ivn znyribyrapr, abg ol ubj znal, ohg ol gur dhnyvgl bs vg...

Self-control by the victor is gone after they eat the other daemon. Velvet avoided that fate probably because she's a therion...

Eleanor thinks Rokurou might be considering venomization. He is. He points to Velvet as an example.

Velvet don't care as long as it reaches her goal.

Rokurou then tells everyone to relax, since it won't happen. Oh my god...

He doesn't mind the power, but he wants his self-control to beat "his rival."

Plus, if he beats the venomized daemon he can call himself "strong enough not to need the extra power!"

Eleanor: "You're ridiculous."

I'm betting "kodoku" was an untranslated word meaning "venomization." The translators must have had very little time for double-checking any untranslated words...

We check out the unvisited corridors...

I unlock every prison cell in each hallway.

In the first hall of cells, I find a Katz Box and rescue the Katz inside! No rewards again.

In the north hall, in a cell, I find Cumbrous Daggers in a gold chest!

I search the east prison hall, nothing here.

I head further down...

...deep into the depths of the prison near where Velvet was locked up.

There's our knight daemon!

Rokurou: "He definitely looks vicious enough."
Magilou: "Not as vicious as our Velvet, though."

That's a big axe the daemon's swinging!

We start the battle!

Laphicet: "Where's his voice even coming from?"
Eizen: "I dunno. Look inside?"

We surround the daemon immediately and attack him with everything!

But he paralyzes almost the entire party!

After a quick cure, we continue until the headless knight's finished!

Rokurou: "Well, that takes care of that."
Velvet: (looks at the prison below) "...yeah."

Laphicet's senses are tingling!

Velvet's prison cell's an earthpulse point! And since Velvet's the therion released by Seres...

They look inside!

While we get our rewards...

Velvet: "Welcome to the most secure cell in the entire complex. The darkest hole in Titania." She asks if Laphicet senses something. He does.

Eleanor wonders if the cell kept a therion here. She's looking at that one now.

That therion's "real hungry."

Velvet mentions that therion.

The sad music plays.

Velvet: "Every day, they would toss daemons into its cell. It would devour its fill...Never once realizing it was delivering to Innominat the malevolence of hundreds of daemons and prisoners. And then one day, there appeared before it a [...] malak, who shattered the barrier and freed the therion from its cage. But the therion knew no mercy and it devoured its liberator. And it was then..."

She pulls out her arm.

Velvet: "It was then I obtained the power. The power to avenge my brother."

Laphicet's a bit shocked that she's one of the therions.

Eizen explains this prison was the therion's "feeding ground." After Velvet left, it was chaos, and the malevolence spread throughout the prison.

Eleanor's shaking her head, trying to deny the truth about what the Shepherd really did.

Velvet reminds her about that betrayal by that "damned holy Shepherd!" Oh god...

Eleanor looks down, thinking that he had "a good reason" for doing what he did.

Velvet gets to her face!

Velvet: "To spare the world of its pain!? DON'T GIVE ME THAT! Who will spare my brother's pain!? Who will soothe my brother's despair!? He murdered my little brother Laphi!! And you'll stand there and tell me it was for the 'greater good'!?"

Eleanor's conflicted.

Velvet shrugs her anger aside, and says that's "one less therion for [the crew] to track down."

Kamoana calls to Eleanor!

Magilou thinks she's hearing voices. No, it is Kamoana!

We head back up!

Another skit automatically plays, where Magilou now knows that Velvet's a therion. I forgot she didn't know! Only Rokurou did when they escaped Titania!

I'm betting Rokurou never told anyone about her being a therion because it wasn't important at the time.

Eleanor asks Laphicet about Velvet being related to the Shepherd. She didn't tell Laphicet that too...

Eleanor now knows, since she's been trained under him...Rokurou asks her to ask Velvet for the truth. Then he goes and asks her that!

Velvet heard "whispering." Then she explains her relationship to that man, he was her brother-in-law.

Velvet: "We lived together for ten years."

Now the crew knows the truth.

Eleanor's now conflicted at what the Shepherd did.

Velvet: "To his view of the grand scheme, family is inconsequential."

She recites Spock's "ultimate line" next: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." It's a bit chilling to hear that line in this context.

Velvet: "All he did was act according to his logic."

Another automatic skit, where Rokurou and Eizen are trying to sink in what happened in the cell. Back then, Rokurou didn't know what a therion was...

And Eizen explains how "undead and phantom daemons" are formed.

Rokurou completes the sentence. So Velvet absorbed the daemon's malevolence, thus changing them back into their original selves...but they're still gone.

Laphicet's trying to figure out if Velvet could change daemons back.

Eizen mentions it's impossible. He explains further the therion's purpose to Innominat...and mentions once a human turns into daemon, "they'll keep producing malevolence as long as they live."

Laphicet apologizes.

Velvet, though, considers her powers a reminder of why she hates the Shepherd so much.

Malevolence is "fuel for Velvet's hatred."

Poor Laphicet...

Kamoana's scream rings out in the hall!

Oh my god, another daemon!? Haven't we had enough!?

Eleanor jumps down! So does everyone else!

Kamoana: "Eleanor, you really came back for me!"
Eleanor: "A promise is a promise, sweetheart." Awww...

The daemon comes knocking! And it's oozing malevolence!

Rokurou: "This must be the true survivor of the venomization process." Let's see if we can finish that one!

Magilou figures out that the exorcist meant to say "headless knight on horseback."

The Dullahan strikes!

He's weak to non elemental martial artes...but strong against wind and earth. This is going to be a challenge...

Laphicet: "Now I can't help but wonder how that horse is neighing..."
Eizen: "Get close and look if you're that curious!"

It's huge!

We keeping spamming him with attacks!

Oh no he's calling for reinforcements! Two Living Armors come to his aid!

After a few minutes, we finish him off!

The mask drops at Kamoana's feet!

Rokurou calls the daemon stronger than a "lump of headless armor." Kurogane's not happy with that remark. He didn't mean Kurogane...

The mask is alive, though!

But a monster saves her!

Ah ha! I knew it! That griffin therion was the eagle! The griffin therion eats the malevolence away from the mask!

Percival steps in saying that's his "one and only friend," Griffin.

Velvet: "So that's what Tabatha meant when she said we'd 'find out shortly.'"

Percival: "Griffin has been my dear friend ever since I was a child. Even if he's a therion now, that hasn't changed."

Griffin turns back!

Eizen asks what he's planning. None. He just wants to free Griffin.

Percival: "...it's the first time I've ever been allowed a choice of my own. When you're a prince, you're not a person. You're an institution, one designed to serve the state and its people." Of course.

Poor Prince...I can't believe I'm pitying him.

Percival: "Seeing Griffin lay claim to the skies let me imagine my own freedom. It was my lone solace over the years."

Then, Griffin became a therion.

Velvet assumes the royal family knows the Abbey's creating therions. They had to.

But Prince Percival didn't want Griffin caged up...

So while freeing him, Griffin took care of an exorcist. So the Prince is now responsible for his hawk's actions. Magilou mentions that once the therion's out, Loegres is now prone to malevolence.

Velvet: "He chose a single bird over the world."

She asks the prince the same question the Shepherd asked to Eleanor: "Why is it that birds fly?"

Laphicet brings out the scientific answer. Percival's answer is more exact.

Percival: "Birds fly because a bird that cannot fly is no bird at all."

Velvet threatens to take care of Percival if he escapes Titania. Eizen considers him a good hostage in case things go south.

Rokurou: "Let's build ourselves a hideout!"

We win our rewards from Dullahan!

Rokurou learns a new Mystic Arte, Rangetsu Heron!

We get an Armory Acerite III!

It's nightfall.

Kamoana asks Velvet where Eleanor is. Eleanor left for some reason, feeling "sad." Hmmm...