"Teacher says, every time a bell rings, a dweeb gets his wings."

[indigozeal]

- I poked around the Empire for a bit, trying to determine where the other party members were being held, but I was not even offered an entrance on the world map to the palace that I believe contained the prison. After no leads materialized, I eventually opted to give up and explore the path toward which the NPCs were trying to railroad me, which was investigating a "dimensional rift" that appeared to have opened near a local landmark in Rainbow Hawaii Land. After venturing through to an inexplicable temple and defeating a boss monster within, I discovered...Savyna, bound to a cross. All your missing party members are held captive thus, in fact - in their own separate temple behind their own separate rifts bound to their own separate crucifixes.

This raises more questions than it resolves: I realize that killing them outright would mean no more game, or at least a very sad storyline development and a heck of a trudge to refill your roster, but why aren't the others in the Imperial prison from which party leader pro tem Xelha escaped? Why are they enshrined in temples? Were they going to be used in some ritual? What makes this disparate band of strangers so special and/or suitable for sacrifice in the dark arts, as opposed to some hapless townsfolk or something? Why go to all this trouble with people of whom it's better swiftly to dispose? And what is it with Japanese game makers and crucifixion, anyway?

- For that matter, how do the characters' wings fit into all this? It's an appealing visual - the game takes place in an archipelago floating in the sky, and most of the characters sport wings that they use in part to get around, but only in crisis situations, like a battle - the rest of the time, they're hidden/disapparated. Imaginatively, they're not all of the angel mold - Xelha, for example, sprouts an iridescent pair of beetle wings, Savyna a spray of peacock feathers (that don't look able to support flight, but anyhow). The people of the mechanized Empire, though, deride those who rely on "Wings of the Heart" instead of machines and technology, and indeed, even the open-minded, curious Lyude, devoid of his kinsmen's chauvinistic attitudes, has no wings. Furthermore, it's a rather big deal plotwise that Kalas was born with only one wing and uses a mechanical prosthetic to compensate, suggesting that there's no way of naturally regaining lost or missing wings through the will or the heart or what have you. Savyna, however, was once part of the Imperial army, during which time one can presume she had no wings - but she clearly has them in the present day. You could probably come up with a couple explanations here, but I guess I'd like more exploration of how people got these wings, how exactly they're linked to a person's heart or mindset, what the significance is of an entire culture spurning a part of their anatomy, etc.

- It occurs to me late that Lyude's brother Skeed (what a name) is really just Kiefer from the Angelique gaiden with a dye job, but it also occurs to me how miniscule an audience there is for that crossover reference.

- It's going to be tough, if not impossible, to replay this game. I'm kind of enjoying being a character in it too much, and that's not an act I can duplicate on a repeat run-through.
.