After last week’s cliffhanger I’m sure that it’s pretty easy to guess that Dan’s wife, Debora has been kidnapped. Way less predictable, the infants were left unharmed and within the walls of the castle. It initially seemed odd to me that such a mistake would be made by the villains, but then again, traveling or abducting someone with infants in tow seems a lot harder and like it might be easier to get noticed. Also obvious was the chancellor’s involvement in the plot. Yuji Horii’s narrative stance on traitors seems to be a bit on the disapproving side, as the monsters double-crossed the chancellor and left him for dead in a rural cathedral. His last moments were spent begging the hero for forgiveness.
His wife still in danger, Dan didn’t have much time to dilly-dally, so he quickly headed into the dungeon to confront her captors. The scene at the top of the dungeon is where things get hairy yet again. One of your father’s murderers, Kon the Knight stands atop holding poor Debora hostage. A battle ensues, but Dan is unable to damage Kon on his own. He posesses a shield that prevents any significant damage to his person. It’s yet another unwinnable battle, which started to bring back those feelings of hopelessness and vulnerability that I felt when Pankraz was murdered before Dan’s young eyes. Once again, Horii does something big here by forcing you to stay alive and fight Kon without losing the unwinnable battle. It’s important to see that Dan, the hero, is no longer as weak as he once was. The defeat that he suffered directly at Kon’s hands cannot be replicated, but neither can Dan prevail against this sturdy foe. It’s a stalemate (you know I had to do something with the chess-influenced titles of the antagonists in this game!)
Just when things are looking most dire, Debora intervenes in the fight, lowering Kon’s shield with some mysterious power she posesses. In yet another brilliant Horii moment, Dan is shown that no matter how much he has grown in strength since he lost Pankraz, he is not alone and the strength of his family is a force that cannot be reckoned with. By leaning on his wife, Dan and his merry band of monsters are finally able to defeat Kon and complete 1/3 of the vengeance for the murder of his father, but things are never as easy as they seem.
Bishop Ladja shows his ugly mug again to make Dan’s life miserable yet again. We learn that Debora’s power is the result of her blood line. She is a direct descendant of an ancient hero. Waitaminute…she’s the hero of legend? Talk about turning convention on its head. The joyful rescue and reunion is tragically cut short when Ladja’s magic transforms both Debora and Dan into statues. There is yet another cruel caveat to this cruel result, both Dan and Debora are fully aware of their surroundings. It’s not a Sleeping Beauty-type affair where they are unconscious throughout this whole ordeal. They are being forced to watch the end of the world by Bishop Ladja’s cruel hands.
After losing his mother to a kidnapping, being forced to watch as his father was brutally murdered in front of his eyes, and being forced into slavery, now Dan, a recent father of twins and more or less a newlywed finds himself a self-aware statue on the auction block of some strange amphitheater. The two guys selling the statues found Dan and Deb at the top of the tower where they fought and brought them here to turn a buck. Dan is purchased for 20,000 gold and sold and separated from his wife. Players are treated to a hint of what is to happen to Deb as one of the sellers has “other plans” for her.
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