TODAY IS A DAY

-we made it to Yamata, i.e. where Izumo's citizens are now. it's a different place. still the same place, but a different place
-Susa and Kushinada are the king and queen now apparently, and their son Takeru left to travel the world while their daughter Himi is sick in bed saying Isaac is in danger. guess which one we get
-Uzume died on the way to her home planet, but we can annoy her shrine through Spirit Sense (Sveta has Mind Read but it also talks to the dead). she recognizes us as Jenna's son only because there's no way she'd know Isaac but if she did she'd totally go with Isaac instead
-the town is rife with superstition, claiming that leaving the Great Serpent (which we killed) behind on Izumo is the reason for Uzume's mysterious death and Himi's illness
-eventually we go find Susa, who again knows Kraden pretty well, prompting a bunch of unrelated small talk about how Kraden doesn't age and has to use homing pigeons to talk to Piers (and, presumably, everyone else) since he can't fly or teleport or communicate telepathically. check your damn privilege Karis
-"But how would that pigeon know where to find him out of all the world? I wouldn't even know where to start!" "Then perhaps my pigeon has an advantage over you, Tyrell. Perhaps if I can teach it to throw fireballs, you'll be out of a job..."
-AIN'T NO COLD SNAP PSYNERGY ENOUGH TO HEAL THAT BURN
-"With all due respect, sir, we have more important things to do than listen to you bait Tyrell." Rief the fun-ruiner

AND THEN WE ASKED YAMATA FOR HELP WITH THE ECLIPSE

-about halfway through, Kushinada starts speaking in tongues, so that's helpful
-we ignore her to go poke Himi, which causes the Third Eye we got back at Harun to osmosis into her
-it takes about sixteen text boxes before anyone says anything actually meaningful other than exclamations. cool. fun. rad
-Susa is yelling at us in all caps because we had the audacity to give his daughter an eyeball orb, and she starts levitating at him. it's all very bizarre
-she reveals to us through divine nonsense that Luna Tower isn't just blocking light, but absorbing it, and when it gathers enough, it'll Noise Blaster
-so we need a few things: a key (in Ei-Jei), to open a lock (presumably on the Endless Wall, that giant door), and the Umbra Gear (Sveta's endgame set of equipment)
-all of this will activate the Apollo Lens, overloading and shutting down Luna Tower
-and to get the Umbra Gear we can use a map that we must've missed in Unan's treasure pile, and Himi's Search (new Reveal) Psynergy
-"Ready for another trip, buddy?" Matthew just wants to go home, he's done with all of this
-"Matthew, you're our leader! Complaining about 'fate' just makes you seem helpless!" there is a reason you are sharing the bench with Tyrell and Rief, Karis. think about what that might be

HIMI JOYNED TEH POTTY

-so, everyone else joining the party I'm basically okay with
-I mean, I'd argue against Matthew and Karis joining up with Tyrell on his dumbass punishment job, but let's assume for the sake of consistency they feel beholden not to let their trusted friend wander off on his own across a continent (it's a stretch, but still)
-but even outside of that, basically everyone here has some kind of actual connection to the story at large: your first four party members through lineage to older heroes, Amiti through his link to the mysterious mystery Adept that is Alex, Sveta is of course central to the entire Belinsk situation, and Eoleo represents someone with barely anything to do with any of this, pulled into things against his will by loss of his family
-Himi is completely arbitrary in joining the party for our eighth Adept. it'd make more sense if, say, Ryu Kou was an Adept, or if Kraden's exposure to the Golden Sun granted him Psynergy. as things currently stand, Himi's only real link to the story is "a rock you found on a random island jumped into my head so I'm joining you now"
-it would be just as sensical if a descendant of Akafubu broke into our boat looking for treasure and we convinced him to join us in lieu of any real authorities to hand him over to
-to her credit she is mechanically very unique, being a casterly Venus Adept (the first in the series) with a weapon set more like classic Ivan or Jenna (note that neither Karis nor Amiti fits this niche, since the higher-end staffs, what few there are, were Rief-exclusive up to now, and both Karis and Amiti can wield what few bows exist while Himi cannot)
-and her Berserker equivalent is basically reinviting the most boring of the tri-element classes from the Lost Age in, namely the Dark Mage. Sveta also does this to a lesser degree, with her Venus class and Jupiter class being two twists on the same basic idea
-anyway welcome to the bench Himi enjoy your stay

UMBRA GEAR HUNT IS GO

-we first go pay our respects at Uzume's grave cuz why not
-she gives us a tutorial on how to use not-Reveal, leading us to a secret part of Yamata Ruins, but aside from a Masamune there's nothing useful here yet
-unfortunately, Unan doesn't have the Umbra Map. Ryu Kou does. where is Ryu Kou right now? WHO FRIGGIN' KNOWS. if we had the Echo Gem held by Kuan we could locate Hou Ju at least, but haha good luck finding that
-we have two other leads: a Search spot just south of the Endless Wall and the fact that Ei-Jei holds a key we need. going for the Search spot on the assumption it holds a summon
-also I think being on the backline awards less XP, which might be a problem should we face any number of superbosses. oh well, screw those losers anyway
-the Search spot led to the Lonely Island ruins. I smell an extended endgame area
-oh, nope, just the Umbra Cowl. okay cool, that's two down, so let's go explore Ei-Jei or something

STARTING WITH AYUTHAY

-the Kaocho forces were still holding Ayuthay in siege when the eclipse hit, and needless to say they didn't fare well
-Ayuthay's response was to turtle even harder, with Paithos being on death's doorstep. he promises to stay alive until Amiti can return safely, so hey, thats nice
-the generals died in the courtyard, chuckling to themselves about a treasure they hid in Kaocho's palace. WELL THEN
-Kaocho's streets are full of the dead, and anyone still alive was escorted to the palace. the treasure the generals found is just a note, hinting at probably an extended endgame area (west of the hand-looking rocks in the north Otka (?) Sea)
-the palace's front doors are shut, but maybe I can enter through the Ouroboros... nope. okay, Kaocho's off the list. next up would be Passaj, I think
-Passaj is totally fine since the Alchemy Forge came with fortifications that glow like crazy, but that's just one more place under siege with little to offer for answers
-annoyed with the lack of direction by now I head south, ending up at the Burning Island, whose cave requires Himi to enter. probably another Umbra thing in here
-yup, there's the Umbra Knuckles. just gonna grab the Djinni in here and call it good
-oh one last thing: there's a door here requiring the Sol Blade to enter. ah, okay, that would be the extended endgame thing then