Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask (The Five Stages of Zelda-Game)

[LaZodiac]

Once more, into the breach.

Zodi Streams: Ar Tonelico 2 [29.1] Omni-Luca

Video Length: 1:48:09

[29.2] Raki

Video Length: 1:39:56

Before we get into the video description proper, this is the first airing of Qwerty's incredible bit of programming, EXEC_OVERLANG/, a bit of blue-magic that will allow us to see the Japanese script of the game alongside the two English variants. While none of us directly knows Japanese, Qwerty knows some folk who can take advantage of this. It's not a perfect program- mainly in that the script-dump doesn't actually include every single conversation in it for some reason- but for our purposes it is fully functional and really cool imo. Everyone praise her for this- we wouldn't be doing this project without her and she's put in a full 300% into this entire thing and I adore her all the more for it.

In this episode, we handle two major events; first, Luca's level 7 dive, wherein we see the absolute pinnacle of her compartmentalization and suppression and self-hate, every previous layer's masks combined into one "Perfected Whole" that has, within the confines of her mind, embraced the idea that as long as she is this perfect, flawless being, with the status of the pope and the charisma of a high-class therapist, everyone will love her unconditionally. Every single mask has, at this point, become responsible for her success, a complete refutation of her own reality. Even within her dreamscape, the slaves she's gathered with her various personalities have all simply devolved into a single thought; love her to avoid her inevitable wrath should that love run out.

This is a rough mental place to be in, and this is perhaps the one time I'll praise the fact that the Cosmosphere stuff effectively never affects the main plot, because Luca's ability to just, swallow all of her emotions has been laid bare to us as a genuine skill she has... a skill that hurts her so, so very deeply, and it is here that we see the proof of that hurt. A massive hole in her psyche that is on the very edge of thought. This is the final layer where, I feel, Luca has control, and that hole represents that. Anything past this point, anything Luca cannot control, anything that hurts her so much that she cannot simply bury it under a mask, gets pushed into the hole. It's why Cocona is the defiant one we see threatened with it- it's clear Leglius and Amarie within her mind are afraid to, but Cocona is the one who is speaking out about it. She's Croix's sister, she spends all her time with Croix, she is indicative of... something she cannot fully suppress. So she must be thrown into the pit.

And at the end of it, when Croix- assisted by Luca's childhood memories and the icon that represents them, tells her the truth? That he cannot love her behind all these painful masks? She shatters, the hole opens up, and everything falls in. What we'll find on level 8, I'm not sure... and what we'll find on level 9 will take a bit since apparently you need 50 000 DP for it and over the course of the entire entire game we've only build up to almost 40 000 what the hell?? That's a lot!

As for the second major part of the game... after reminding ourselves on what we were actually doing, we remember; Laude showed up at Reisha's house right as we left with the unconscious Luca, and convinced her to come with him to the Moon Culvert to find something. She left us a note, and with that in hand we head to the Moon Culvert. It's a dungeon we've already been to, with an elevator to a single extra room that leads us to the heart of the land for all of Metalfals... and because of Reisha's lullaby singing, Laude is able to get his hands on it.

Of course at this exact moment, Raki appears and yeets the old man off the edge of the Culvert... and in the struggle to get the Heart of Gaia, Reisha pushes Luca out of the way of one of Raki's attacks. After the boss fight, we... it...

As I said in the stream; this is the moment where a game cements itself into your very dna as something important, something meaningful. I wouldn't recommend Ar Tonelico 2 to just anybody (just off the top of my head, Robin would never so much as want to glimpse this game) but to say it as truthfully as I can, this moment more than anything else has made this a game I'd recommend. The early parts are rough to get through, yes, and we've talked about that a lot. The good writing is here, in the end game, and it shows- and this exact moment may well be the pinnacle of it. The early chuft is worth getting through for this. The writing, even the official release, is solid. The voice acting, in both languages when they have it, is exceptional. The music hits in just the right way, and it all just... man. Man.

Video games really are something special sometimes. If I was a kid when I played this, this would have rewired my brain. It's rare to see a game successfully do a "Aerith's Dies" moment, and of all the games I've played this might have been one I expected to do so the least? But when the song magic hits, it hits.

Remember to tell the people you love that you love them, and have a good day.