PLAY VIDEO GAMES TO DECREASE STRESS, THEY SAID

-last time we were in a mountain roc's butt. it'll probably get worse
-we need all the members of the band to signal Sveta apparently, and I recall Vande was dicking around in Kolima complaining that no mountain rocs ever flew down there to visit him
-missing a Djinni in Port Rago so lets backtrack there
-also by this point Rief's equipment selection is becoming a real flaw for him. he's currently carrying the Grievous Mace at 88 attack, with the second lowest being Matthew's Sword of Dusk at 100 (and even that's getting old)
-meanwhile Karis' Sylph Rapier is at 124
-we accidentally meet Briggs in his ship while trying to fish out a Djinni and he tells us that Ryu Kou used to be a prince of a nation Volechek destroyed
-Briggs is meanwhile moping in his bed about how the boat that was useless the first time he attacked won't be fixed before Eoleo's execution, so he can't go be useless a second time
-everyone yells at him for being a bad father and I want this cutscene over already so I can get a Djinni
-"I am completely opposed to helping this man in any way." same here Amiti
-Karis says that even if we don't want to rescue Eoleo anymore (????????????) we still have to go to Belinsk (??????????????????????????)
-oh hey, a Zodiac Wand. congrats Rief you have a weapon upgrade now. I'm still not throwing you into the party frontlines because I don't like you
-in any event I don't think I can reach the Djinni yet until the crew finally gives up on fixing the ship, which is annoying but oh well
-wait no I forgot stairs exist we're good

FINE WE'RE GOING TO BELINSK

-apparently the full moon aggravates beastman tempers causing serious infighting, so instead they have public executions to slake that bloodlust, like civilized people
-anyway we need to play the Arangoa Prelude so whatever I'll request it get in my party Sveta
-needless to say Tyrell is dancing like an idiot man to the song despite it being a very laidback smooth jazz song
-its smooth jazz is strong enough to animate the musicians' instruments though so thats cool
-this unseals a hidden passage under the statue in the square and gets Sveta to telepathically contact us
-she says the song will entrance beastmen that hear it and it allows her to contact us, and she tells us to GET IN THE CHOPPA. okay fair
-once inside we are able to use macaronis to open doors
-Sveta meets us after one and warns us about the Tuaparang, or Zenith Tribe, which Blados and Chalis are members of. they're apparently a conquering military faction with zero care for citizen well-being
-"Sorry to butt in on your 'special time', but we do kind of have a job to do here." shut the FUCK up Tyrell, they were legit building character about the double-edged sword that is telepathy. maybe people want to develop characters that aren't "loud abrasive idiot nobody likes"
-Sveta apologizes to Matthew for getting him into things over his head, but honestly it ain't no thing, Tyrell does worse maybe four times a day
-she also joins proper, messing up our Djinn totals in directions, but again, totally fine. she takes a frontseat and Tyrell fucks off to the back to go be terrible with Rief. this also lets me arrange a few classes I actually like, with Matthew as Guardian, Karis as Fire Monk, Amiti as Sage, and Sveta as Bruiser

HEY SVETA HOW'S IT GOING

-Sveta is one of the few instances of Golden Sun making attempts to individualize characters beyond base classes a bit more. first, she is the only person capable of wielding fist weapons (and only those weapons). second, she can take on a Beastform in fights, granting her incredible strength at a cost to her Djinn, putting one in recovery each turn she goes beast
-anyway Ryu Kou uses the Magma Orb off camera, changing the terrain so we can advance since the path behind Sveta just up and vanishes for no clearly defined reason
-this leads us to a mysterious gate. everyone comments that someone is pushing us to do something, but it's not the Tuaparang because ????????????
-to her credit, Karis backs up this entirely unfounded theory with the very good point that if the Tuaparang wanted to use the Magma Orb down here for themselves, there's no need for all this skulduggery: just kill the roc, take the orb, and be done with it
-Sveta brings up the point that the ruins are linked to the full moon, as is the festival Belinsk holds for the revival of an ancient civilization, bringing to light the possibility that this may be the goal of Volechek/Tuaparang/MYSTERY (Alex)/MYSTERY (completely unknown element that feels tacked on for reasons)
-they try to play this as a choice: either we continue and risk doing whatever our antagonists want, or we retreat and let Eoleo and Hou Ju die, except if we try to retreat...
-...huh, would you look at that. the Retreat Psynergy worked. WELL THEN

AND THEN WE BROKE A BUT THOU MUST?

-Sveta elects to wait at the base of the stairs while we go finish preparing and stuff. okay, fair enough, she has to stay no matter what we do, royal family and all
-only problem is... now what? we can't return to the Goma Plateau because the Cloud Passage was one-way and Border Town is in lockdown
-we can't go back to Port Rago and look for a ship there either, because the only ship being worked on its Briggs' crummy old ship, and he's gonna crash that into Belinsk as soon as its fixed anyway
-this is the number one lesson that Camelot completely unlearned (or lost from their staff) following the first two games: IF YOU ARE GOING TO GIVE PLAYERS A CHOICE, EITHER MAKE IT A REAL CHOICE OR MAKE IT BLATANT THAT IT'S NOT A CHOICE AT ALL.
-(and yes, they did know this before. you could refuse the Wise One's quest, which does eventually lead to humanity's destruction even if the quest itself is to effectively condemn humanity to a slow death. it works out in the long run at least)

OKAY FINE LET'S DOOM THE WORLD I GUESS

-soon as we go back to the main tunnel the walls slam us back into no-retreat-except-with-Retreat path again
-a few puzzles later we're treated to the sight of a fight's aftermath, complete with statue warrior embedded half into a wall
-only a tremendously strong Adept could've done that. It was Alex, of course, but ignore that
-the Tuaparang are ruled by a "High Empyror" which only puts Drama Mistery to mind. this is, needless to say, a good thing
-"Well Matthew, what's our next move?" ITS TIME FOR ANOTHER EXCITING GAME OF "HOW WILL KARIS MISINTERPRET MATTHEW'S EMOTIONS"
-for this round, I'm going with angry, to mean "why the hell are we even here, we could just leave, at this point the worst case scenario of us not being here is that Eoleo and Hou Ju both die, which sucks for Ryu Kou but is overall pretty acceptable considering that we're fulfilling the goals of the biggest conquering nation around otherwise"
-Karis chooses to interpret this as Matthew wanting to just rush in and get the jump on the Tuaparang or Volechek or whoever else might be in. oh, so close, but not quite. bronze medal
-investigating the tablet causes the fallen Tuaparang soldiers to vanish before we can ask them anything (they weren't in any state to talk anyway) so we can do the puzzle of the week, which appears to be mini-chess only we can't reach all of the board
-this in turn leads to a massive clockwork orrery or something, which I am going to leave for later