Let's Play OFF: Completed!

So I went through a few updates earlier to remind myself of various things, and I noticed that most of the videos for music no longer work and the image for a miner Elsen is broken now. I don't know when I'll have the time to fix those things, but I will at some point. (I also noticed quite a few mistakes on my early posts now that I swear I read over hundreds of times...  )

Anyway, let's begin!


As this is a "what I missed" update, we're back in the unpurified zone 2.
Let's start with a complete item guide for the mall, as it was too complicated to go over in the main update we did that in.


I don't believe we've gone over these spectres:

Gilles de Rais (x2)
After all, a very mundane ghoul.
HP: 130 / CP: 0
Strong resistance against Add-Ons

Adversaries purified.
360 experience points gained.
110 Credits received.

Anyway, from the entrance to the first floor, to the right twice, down once, right once, and down once again you'll find...


A Fortune ticket has been found.


Have we gone over that enemy? I don't know. I noticed a lot of enemies we didn't go over when I was going through the updates.

Massu (x1)
Ghoul of a fulminant chakra.
HP: 120 / CP: 35
Light weakness against smoke

Adversaries purified.
370 experience points gained.
100 Credits received.
Silver flesh received.
Luck ticket received.

(Small note I forgot to mention, I may go over some treasures I've already gotten, since I can't remember which ones I have gotten.)

Anyway, back to the entrance, head down once, left once, up twice, and left again to find...


Two Luck tickets have been found.

Now from the second floor entrance, head down, right, up twice, left twice, up, and right twice to find...


...a room we've already been in before with an item we've already seen, the Monday. From outside here, go left twice, down once, right... quintlice? Five times. Down, left twice, and down again.


A piece of Belial's meat has been found.

From there, go up, right thrice, up twice, left thrice, up, left twice, and up for...


Two pieces of Silver flesh have been found.

You'll notice there's another chest over there that we can't access due to barrels blocking its way. Not sure why that's there. That's it for this floor. Now to the pedalo!


Now, from here: don't go to the island. There's actually a bit of a secret if you head into the open sea behind it.


Another island! And in it you'll find...


A Min-Woo Tunic has been found.
Min-Woo Tunic: Defensive equipment (2) for the Batter

Unfortunately, I can't get that on my main save...   
Anyway, head back to the mainland, there's nothing else out in the sea; I've checked, it's all just looping unless you head toward the mainland. Now let's go back to the park!


Now for the part of this update I've been dreading...
Anyway, head out to the right and as far right as you can, then go up to the balloon on the island. Pop it and you'll find...

Two pieces of Silver flesh have been found.

I believe we did this on my first run through, so yeah. Now head left and down until the fan things take you to here:


Head left (not to the wall or you'll get swept away) and down to find another balloon.

A Fortune ticket has been found.

Now head back up and to the right. Depending on which fan you took, you may be lead a little further than you'd think. It's alright, there's still a path back to the balloon on the island adjacent to the first popped balloon if you avoid the fans. If you pop it...

Four pieces of Belial's meat have been found.

Head up, left, down, and right. The fans are about to get more confusing. Head to the ones that are jutting out more from the others in the big block of them, and you'll end up here:


Head right a tiny bit, up to the wall, then left and down to the next island through that opening, avoiding the fans. Pop the balloon and you'll find...

A Loyal Symbol has been found.

Hit the wall of fans on the left side of the little... cove... thing, and it'll take you where you need to go next. From there, traverse solely on the smaller blocks into the area on the left—they don't push you. There you can access the switch I used before, which I don't believe I explained how to get to. From the switch, head down into any of the fans and then carefully tread the open waters down the path. Head left when you reach the area on the opposite side of where you came in. There are barely any fans in the area around the last balloon, so simply get there, pop it, and find...



An Inspiration has been found.

And would you look at that, it's the item we got in our first trip to the purified zone 1! Speaking of... let's head back there.


And here we are.


As I said, I can defeat these Secretaries with relative ease now. This one only took four of my most powerful competences.

Adversaries purified.
800 experience points gained.
300 Credits received.
Omega Level 8 achieved.

(This is now on my main save, so that level is permanent.)
I head down the train tracks and to the mines.


I'm not sure if I mentioned this, that bridge to the place we met our first Add-On is now gone. That house contains nothing.


Not sure if I went over that chest, so here goes:

A Fortune ticket has been found.


There is now a chest here in that room we had to check the unlit lamp to open.

An Inspiration has been found.

We certainly need it in such a dead place... are these the only items here?


This area is now littered with those metal boulders that were stacked in piles before. You can push them around. I head into the house on the left and push some boulders around on the other side to reach the old station.


Heading down the tracks to the right I find...


The postal service. In the lobby there is a chest:

Two pieces of Golden flesh have been found.
Golden flesh: Recovers a large amount of CP

...That bodes well.
If you try to go on the elevator, it... doesn't work. Oh well.
Heading back down the tracks to the barns now.

Adversaries purified.
1600 experience points gained.
900 Credits received.
The Batter Level 10 achieved.
Run with Grace has been acquired.
Alpha Level 9 achieved.

Well, that was an eventful battle! Forgot to mention, the Secretaries' main attacks are Natural Algorithm (just damages) and Logical Value (pretty sure it damages, and it also has a chance of muting or poisoning you). Now let's look at the new skill Batter learned!

Run with Grace: Special attack of the element Plastic.

Ahh, looks like we're getting into our first elemental attacks! Now those weakness and resistance parts of the Wide Angle will come into play.
...except it completely slipped my mind that Run with Courage is a Metal attack until I saw it while going back for screenshots oops :I

Back at the barns... well, you can't actually go to the barns themselves—seems they won't let you walk that way. But move around the boulders 'til you can get to where the cows were being harvested and you'll find...


Two Jokers have been found.

So that's nice.

Adversaries purified.
800 experience points gained.
900 Credits received.
Omega Level 9 achieved.

Now, heading down the tracks again to the furthest point...


Alma.

If you check the calendars inside the room where we had to answer questions about them before, you get this:

That's not interesting.

So if Batter says it isn't, then it isn't. Let's go!
Out here...


There's a present for us where Zacharie was.

Ten Eyes have been found.

...Ew.
The meat pool with the pedalo to the left is blocked off, and the area to the right will let you use the pedalo point but won't call a pedalo. So we must enter the maze.


In here, the voices in the background music are softened, but there is still banging and crying for help.
...Aaaaaand I lied—there is absolutely nothing to do in here, and the pedalo point did call a pedalo—on the other side. Hopping on and down the corridor we went through last time. All the way to the right of the area where we had that block puzzle there is a chest:


Four pieces of Abaddon's meat have been found.

Adversaries purified.
2400 experience points gained.
900 Credits received.
The Batter Level 11 achieved.
Alpha Level 10 achieved.
Requisite Embrace has been acquired.
Requisite Embrace: Special attack inflicting Blindness

Yet another eventful battle! Now, in the middle area where the block puzzle was, there is now a door. Enter and you'll find...


A... giant... playing card?
Anyway, in the chests are:

A Monday has been found.
The Grand Finale has been found.
Grand Finale: A bizarre object, associated with plastic.

Oooh, that sounds cool and important.
Anyway, as the enemies of purified zone 2 are still beyond my reach, I'll end it OFF here. Signing OFF. You guys are OFF the hook. OFF course I have to make these OFFul puns.

It's good to be back.

Now we continue our adventure in earnest.

Enter zone 3?
> Yes
No


This music is very ominous... I have a bad feeling about this place.







And those factories don't help. But let's head inside anyway.


Let's check that little square on the counter.

There's something written here... "I'll be back in a minute."

Let's head down the stairs near that M... block... thing.


The music in this building contains weird... train?... noises. It's kinda creepy.

The monorail is free and accessible to all personnel.
Sensational, isn't it?

It... certainly is.



Vesper Monorail.
Please choose your destination.

Area 2
Area 3
Area 4
Cancel

I'll hold off on going anywhere for now; I want to check where those stairs going up on the top floor lead to.


The people here are much more... laid back than the ones we're used to. It doesn't sit right with me.

The plastic is beautiful today...

I guess it's the best view you can get for an Elsen.


...WELL THAT'S SOME INTERESTING MUSIC.
Um.
Yeah.
It sounds... really... peculiar. Like bodily functions.
Uh. Moving on. This is a rather large room---

Purification in progress.


...Why are there spectres here? Isn't this some sort of a residential zone?
Anyway, let's get the Wide Angle on them:

Blind Spectre (x2)
Aggressive ectoplasmic incarnation.
HP: 210 / CP: 25
No weakness/resistance

Mute Spectre (x1)
Misleading ectoplasmic incarnation.
HP: 180 / CP: 30
No weakness/resistance

Crown of the Dead (x1)
Diabolical and airborne royal headwear.
HP: 130 / CP: 40
Light weakness against smoke

So the crown is an enemy as well? Interesting.
That battle went too quickly for me to find out what their main attacks were unfortunately.

Adversaries purified.
1200 experience points received.
355 Credits received.
Omega Level 10 achieved.
Photographic Blur acquired.

Cool, let's look at that new skill we got for Omega—


I got... teleported... outside?
Strange... Well, guess there's no going far in that room for now.
Let's check out that competence Omega has now:

Photographic Blur: Attack ignoring the adversary's defense.

Sounds cool. If you'll notice, most of the characters and enemies seem to have a theme to the names of their attacks; for example, Omega's theme is photography. Alpha's seems to be friendship, and Batter's is obviously baseball. Anyway, let's head to Area 2.




And here we are.


Gee, this place looks familiar for some reason. :I

You should not make so little noise when you walk. It's abnormal...

There's the Elsen I know. That always-nervousness and obsessed-with-being-uniformly-identical-and-normalness.


Let's check out that house.


Not much of interest here, but let's have a look around anyway. There's some memos on the walls:

Memo: "If you do not work your hours daily, you will not get any dessert."

The horrors of this ruthless government! I must liberate these people at once!   

Memo: "Do your job well and you will be rewarded."

And that's all the other memos I can examine say. I'll just heal and save real quick, then head off to the neighboring house.


Doesn't seem to be anything of interest in here. However, outside...


Our path appears to be blocked. Or, as Batter puts it...

This obstacle blocks the access.

...So, let's head to Area 3.





Oh man, they shook things up a little. :I

Sometimes, when I go to sleep, I'm afraid that my legs won't be there anymore when I wake up...

These dudes just get gloomier and gloomier as we progress through the areas.


Is that... snow? Ash? Either way, our path appears to be blocked. Literally. So, Area 4 it is.


A special access card is required to enter Area 4.

...WELL, there goes that plan. Guess I'll just backtrack through the areas to see if there's any paths that I missed. I'm guessing that we have to make it through that green room in Area 1 somehow.


Hey, remember how we ran into an enemy in this room? It seems that certain tiles trigger them (and always the same group of enemies too). So it's a maze of invisible tiles.

Adversaries purified.
1220 experience points gained.
380 Credits received.
Inspiration received.
Alpha Level 11 achieved.

Adversaries purified.
1220 experience points gained.
380 Credits received.
Inspiration received.
The Batter Level 12 achieved.

Adversaries purified.
1220 experience points gained.
380 Credits received.
Omega Level 11 achieved.

...Which, if you can tell by the amount of battles that just took place, I'm not too good at navigating. :I
But if I remember correctly, there's something we didn't check in the station...


And that's this on the wall.

It's a poster full of stamp marks. Take it?
> Yes
No

I think that might be the "special card" needed to get to Area 4. Might be.
...Nooooo, it wasn't. :I Oh well. Might as well go back into the green—



I think my stamped note can help me here...
Baxter, you can display it anytime by pressing the SHIFT key.

...WELL, that was convenient. Let's take a look at this.


I'm... guessing you have to follow the colored blocks by number? I'll try that.


Working so far, but let's talk to this guy.

Are you aware that the patterns made by the leftovers on your plate mean something?

Um... sure.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll uh... bye.
*runs away*


Well, that note got me here, so must be that works. You just have to follow the marks on the floor that correspond to the marks on the stamped note. Let's see what's in here.


...Um.

Good day, dear reckless accomplice!
...Zacharie?
I've somewhat changed, anatomically speaking... But you have obviously recognized me at first glance! I'm your friend, the Judge!
Zacharie?
...WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON
...
So my disguise is no match for your keen and unforgiving eyesight...
Pablo isn't really in top-form at the moment.
I'm going to replace him for some time.
So the Judge is incapacitated... interesting. Wonder why.
Anyway, I'll be hunting down obscure clues that I shall take pleasure in revealing to you little by little in the most destructive manner.
Ah ah ah, I can already smell the good times!
Oh, Zacharie. Never change.
...
Are you going for a stroll near the dormitories in the meantime? I've heard that the spectres there are quite active.

So I guess we go there next. Uh, wherever there is. Probably at the end of one of those colored box maps. Well, let's head back out and down another path.


Hey there, dude.

Be guided by jubilance, and you will avoid the spectres quite easily.

Seems that's all he has to say, so let's keep walking this green path down the very long straight that I only noticed just now when I was about to say let's go back and follow the brown path when there is no brown path to follow from the beginning.


I don't believe we can stray from this straight right now, so into this door it is.


Why is that man staring at the shelves?
Let's read that memo.

Memo: "There are no ghosts under the mattresses."

Ohhh, this must be the dormitory, and those are beds.

Uh... Uh... I... I'm hiding nothing! I promise...

...You sure about that, dude?
Well, let's head up. There's a chest in the room above us.

Two Fortune tickets have been found.

There's a man in the next one.

There's no need to fear. No one bears you ill will.

Thanks, dude.
Where are these spectres Zacharie told us about? I haven't seen any y—pERFECT FUCKING TIMING



...
Who are you all?
(spectres close in on him)
Are you... spectres?
(they close in again)
You... You're not bad ghosts, right?
(Elsen man walks forward to them, I bang my head on the desk)
O... Of course not... You're our friends.
(spectres attack him, spurting blood)
This... this isn't a serious injury...
I'm sure...
(spectres hit again)



Taste my holy wrath, corrupt souls.

Purification in progress...


Easy win for me really—same spectres we saw in the last room.

Adversaries purified.
1200 experience points gained.
355 Credits received.



May salvation be yours, children of the devil.



...
People act very strangely around here...
I should go talk to Zacharie.

Examining the corpse brings this message:

He's dead.

The memo up on that wall says:

Memo: "Do not bring the dessert to bed."

Think that's what the "I'm not hiding anything" dude did?
Anyway, let's talk to Zacharie then.



So Baxter, how did your investigations go over at the dorms?
It seems that the people here aren't afraid of the specters.
...
Not afraid of the ectoplasms? That's very odd indeed...
I must admit that I have very few customers in this zone, so I'm not very well acquainted with their local customs.
Maybe you'd better go see Area 2. They call it the "Treatment Rooms."
Okay.
It's simple. You just have to take the underground monorail.
We should have a race. If you get there first, I'll give you an item for free.
Fuck.
Hey, by the way, you've only been to the western dorms. Perhaps you should explore the east before heading off to Area 2.
...How does he know that? o.O;;

Aaaaand... he doesn't move. What happened to the race? Is he waiting for us to explore the eastern dorms?

Anyway, I'll race off to Area 2 just to make sure he... isn't... theeeeeere...


SHIT.

Ah ah ah, too bad Baxter! I've arrived before you.
At the same time, it was scripted. You had no chance of success anyway...
So, here's a little something to help you forget the pains and sorrows of such an unappealing defeat.

A Golden flesh has been found.

I'll leave you now to search the area. If you find something suspicious, don't hesitate to let me know as soon as possible.

Aaaand he exits off into the house we checked earlier. (Which is why his back is turned in the image above, cuz I forgot to get the screenshot until he was walking off.)
Speaking of exiting OFF, that's it for this update! Next update, we'll be checking out the east dorms if we can and then investigating the Treatment Rooms. Because... well, Zacharie wants us to. I dunno. He's acting kinda weird. Er... weirder.
Yeah.

As you can see, I found my way to the east dorms.

Adversaries purified.
1200 experience points gained.
355 Credits received.
Alpha Level 12 achieved.

Er... with a bit of battling. Anyway, you just have to follow the black path until the fifth block, then switch over to the brown at six.

The phantoms aren't evil... You shouldn't be scared...

Aaaanywaaay, let's read the sign by the door.

Adversaries purified.
1200 experience points gained.
300 Credits received.
Inspiration received.
The Batter Level 13 achieved.
Special Homerun has been acquired.

...Fuck. I stepped a bit too far out of line.
Anyway, let's check what that competence is.

Special Homerun: Special attack of mediocre impact.

Finally we have something more powerful than Furious Homerun for the Batter! Let's head back in.



Memo: "The chore of cleaning is assigned to you based on your employment number."

Cool beans. Let's head in.


Nothing in that first room, so let's talk to that dude in the second.
Actually, there's two of them (one off screen), so let's talk to both.

I believe zone 3 is the best place in the whole world.

I love the cafeteria food.
Yes, I love it a lot.
Yes.

...Okaaaaay, that's nice. I think.
Next room. There's a memo on the wall.

Memo: "If you do not attack the ghosts, they will not attack you."

As we've already seen, that's not strictly true.
There's a man in here to talk to.

The director said the spectres are nice. It must be true.

I don't like this "director." Sounds like a liar.
In the next room there's a—eh?


Well, this is interesting.

Add-On Epsilon has joined you.

Let's check out the rest of the room for a sec.

Memo: "Dream sweet dreams at night."

I'm... not exactly sure they have a say in that.
In the chest is...

A piece of Moloch's meat has been found.

And now, let's check out the Add-On we got!

Nom: Epsilon
Classe: Holy Spirit
Grade: Add-On [III[
Statut: Pure
Level: 12
Health Pts: 1203/1203
Compt. Pts: 155/155
Exp: 50567/59760
Attack: 169
Defense: 104
Esprit: 150
Agility: 155

It has the Choleric Symbol and Aura of Justice equipped. Let's check out its competences.

Classic Drama: Increases and ally's attack lightly.
Baroque Drama: Increases an ally's defense lightly.
Surealistic Tragedy: Special attack of multiple, low impacts.
Abstract Tragedy: Special attack of multiple, mediocre impacts.

Sounds like this Add-On is focused on dramatics. Seems a bit more strategic than the others. Its competences use a heck of a lot of CP, though.

Well, with our new partner in tow, let's head out to the Treatment Rooms!


First, let's pay a visit to Zacharie. Maybe he'll want to know we visited the east dorms.


I'm never gonna be able to get used to his new mask.
Which means I'm lucky, cuz if you enter the other house...


He's back to his old item vendor self! :D
He walks in through the right/left wall depending on the house, so I assume they're connected. Let's talk to item vendor Zacharie first and see if he has any new wares.

I should make a bit of money nonetheless, after all.

He now sells Inspirations, which is a treat. Whatever they do.
He also sells a couple of new items:

Hidden Symbol: Offensive equipment for Add-Ons.
Colour of Hatred: Defensive equipment (3)

I bought both to equip to our Epsilon. I also bought the Michael Bat for Batter.
Now that we've had a chat with Zacharie, let's have a chat with... erm... Zacharie.



 So, what's new?
Nothing.
Alright. Come back when you have fresh news, then.

...WELL, guess we're not telling him about our adventures in the east dorms. Oh well.


Let's head in.


Interesting... seems there's a switch that's been blocked off. But over here...


There's three more switches, one with the number zero over it.
LET'S PULL THE PRETTY LEVERS AND SEE WHAT THEY DO   

The switch is currently on ON
> Flip the switch
Do nothing

The switch is now on OFF

Let's see what that did. (I only did the first switch.)

Purification in progress...


...WELL, APPARENTLY THERE'S SPECTRES HERE! And quite an... interesting one... at... that...

Von Gacy (x1)
Ghoul with an unbridled haircut.
HP: 260 / CP: 30
Light resistance against metal

"Unbridled haircut." You don't say. Well, it was an easy victory, only took two hits.

Adversaries purified.
330 experience points gained.
135 Credits received.

Thankfully, that didn't transport us out like the last big, green, enemy-infested territory did.
But the switch appears to have done nothing, so let's pull some more.

The switch is currently on ON
> Flip the switch
Do nothing

The switch is now on OFF

Again, nothing. Let's look at the important-looking zero switch.

The switch is currently on ON
> Flip the switch
Do nothing

The switch is now on OFF

...I'm waiting for a thing to happen... giant monster to fall from the ceiling... blocks to go away... nothing... nothing... nothing. Bummer.

Adversaries purified.
660 experience points gained.
155 Credits received.
Eye received.
Eye received.
Eye received.
Omega Level 12 achieved.

During that battle, I got a new status condition from those guys—Omega was palsied! Means it could not move at all. Paralyzed. It went away after the battle.


Hey, look what's disappeared.

The switch is currently on ON
> Flip the switch
Do nothing

The switch is now on OFF

This switch HAS to do something.


It... did... nothing.
Let's talk to the locals.

The director said if we work properly, we'll keep getting it...
All the better! One should work his job wholeheartedly!

That dude actually uses the miner sprite, but as I said, it's currently broken.
Wonder what this "it" is they get for working properly.

If... If I pierce the pipes... I could make it come out...
But if it escapes, I would never get any of it again...

...I have a bad feeling about this it.
But right now, I'm confused about the switches. Maybe we need to turn the others back on?
...That did jack shit except block the switch again. Well. Let's converse with Zacharie.



So, what's new?
Nothing.
 Alright. Come back when you have fresh news, then.

...Okay, now I'm really stumped.
Maybe we have to do something with that zero switch...? Let's try it.



Access to the Treatment Rooms authorised.

Indeed we did! Leave the blocked switch and the zero switch OFF, the others ON. Let's head in.


ANOTHER SWITCH PUZZLE   
Guess we should talk to the locals...

I think there's a problem with the dessert.
My portion today wasn't as big as usual...

...OHHHHHH. I know what it is now. Gotcha.
There's a switch up here.

The switch is currently on ON
> Flip the switch
Do nothing

The switch is now on OFF

That unblocked the switch over there.

The switch is currently on ON
> Flip the switch
Do nothing

The switch is now on OFF

That appears to have blocked something in the side of the room I can't access. Let's turn the switch up here back on and see what happens.

...Nothing. It doesn't even block the switch over there anymore. But I noticed that the switch that I thought activated the blocks merely moved them one space backwards... weird.

And I just noticed we can access that side, so let's do it.



...
.....
hhh...

That... breathing noise was... timed to the dialogue. Um.
Let's move on to THAT MAN UP THERE.

It's such a pleasure to work every day...

Okay then.
I noticed a chest down by the other guy, so let's open it.

...Except there's a block in the way. Let's flip the switch again.
Nothing happened.

Well, there's another switch by the blocks, so let's pull that.
That... got rid of the chest's block, but moved the other ones even further back. Huh.

A Fast Symbol has been found.
Fast Symbol: Offensive equipment for Add-Ons.

I'll equip that to Epsilon, I guess.
I pressed the switch on the other side of the room near the top and that appears to have gotten rid of the barrier. So you have to have all the switches on off for it to disappear. Let's walk in—

Entrance reserved to factory workers only.
Security test...
Please enter the passname

(Not sure if I got the first line of that right, I missed it... :I)

Anyway, the password is VON GACY, because it shows a white silhouette of it to the side of this dialogue box.

Code correct.
Entrance authorised.



No... No...
(spectres close in)
The... The sugar...
Do-... Don't touch the sugar...
Sho... Shove...
Shove off, spectres!
(spectres jump, Elsen makes a high-pitched breathing noise)
Get out, get out!!
(the spectres are attacked by him and disappear)



You...
...You want to eat our sugar too!

Purification in progress...


...HOLY FUCKING SHIT

Calvary-burnt (x3)
Employee of Vesper on sugar deprivation.
HP: 220 / CP: 30
Light weakness against smoke

Their attacks can poison you, and they sure attack quick. However, it should be easy if you have enough CP, especially with Epsilon on hand.

Adversaries purified.
1020 experience points gained.
420 Credits received.



No... No, we must protect...
The sugar...




Mmmh... It smells awfully good around here. Without doubt, that is due to these piles of immaculate white and granular powder.
It seems to be sugar.
I think it is sugar.
Seems so.
Ah ah ah.  Well, this is quite surprising, I didn't expect to find such an ingredient at this po... in this place.
...What were you about to say, Zacharie?
Maybe we'll find the answers to that in Area 3...
Logic obliges us to go on with the third after the second one after all. Remember, we're in a video game.
We've got to do things the constructive way.
Well, go on, I'll meet you again when you're there. Hurry up.

He walks out and back in.

By the way, I suggest you be careful on your way back. The employees seem to be feeling a bit under the weather.
They even appear to be in a bloody bad temper.
OK.
See you later.

I swear he's acting kind of suspicious lately... Guess we'll see what that means soon.



They, uh, seem to be trying to surround me.
No matter, we'll just walk off—


Motherfuckers.

The phantoms are nice, they didn't attack the sugar! You're lying, you're lying!

Purification in progress...

Adversaries purified.
960 experience points gained.
330 Credits received.

Why are you lying?

So yeah, these guys attack if you walk into them, so be careful. Just flip all the switches back on and you're set to leave. I'll just heal up and save at Zacharie's abode real quick and be on my way to Area 3.


So that stuff falling from the sky must be sugar. The blocks are gone, so let's head up.










Jump?
> Yes
No

Jump?
> Yes
No

music:

Game of the Mortal Fall
Catch ten Add-Ons before the timer runs out so the Batter won't crash with a bloody noise.
Be careful about the phantoms! If you touch three of them, you lose.
Press Enter to begin!




This... was REALLY FREAKING HARD. @_@
Thing is, you can't just touch the Add-Ons—you have to be smack dab in the middle of them. That would be easy if they lasted on the screen for say, two seconds. But they don't. They don't even stay there for a second. They just get there, then leave. And you can't just glide through them either, or the game won't recognize it. However, towards the end Add-Ons will start to appear more and closer together. Dodging the ghosts should be easy enough though, I touched several on my first successful run and they didn't register. Also, for some reason when you fail due to damage, you have to tell it you want to try again twice. It doesn't help either that I had to run through this several times for screenshots, but I got better at it each time.





Let's talk to the man who's too busy doing some indiscernible task with the sugar to notice a man just fell down the chimney.

The... su...
The sug...
The sugar...
.....
Put the sugar in the tube, the sugar in the tube!
...in the tube.

...You, uh... you don't look so good there, guy.
Let's get outta here.



...

You... What...
Where did you come from?
I'm the Batter, and I jumped down the chimney.
Ah.
What is this place?
...



Uhm... You're here in the sugar ovens of Vesper, the northern part of zone 3.
Here, we burn the corpses of people who have died, and, thanks to an ingenious sewer system, transform the vapour into sugar.
The tubes which traverse the factory walls direct it to the Treatment Rooms, where it is washed and purified from the remaining ashes.
Then the sugar is distributed to all employees as a reward for the work they do every day.

It's a secret element...
The fifth element...
The most important element...







Because without sugar, people could no longer bear reality, and they would go mad.

Who's responsible for this?
Are you... you bringing me sugar?
No.
The director is responsible.
He... He's in Area 4.
Okay.



These are the sewers he's putting the sugar in.

Jump?
> Yes
No


And we end up back here.
Now that the dramatic tension is broken, I should mention that the game has a tendency to, uh, freeze when you try to jump down the chimney to the sugar ovens... yeah...   

I found that the only way to remedy that is to log out and then log back on—otherwise, the game keeps freezing up no matter how many times you restart it.

Anyway, Zacharie's not here, so I guess we'll stop on the monorail—


You have impeccably bad timing, sir.

I'm here, I'm here!
Welcome, Baxter.



Uhm... You're here in the sugar ovens of Vesper, the northern part of zone 3.
I know, that's already been explained to me.
...
Ah.



All the better, all the better. That certainly buys us some time.
I must purify this zone's guardian.
Ahaha, of course, of course. That's what I thought.
I have an Access Card for the monorail.
Let's hurry to Area 4 to meet that mysterious director.

He gets on the monorail, and we should too.

Vesper Monorail.
Please choose your destination.
> Area 4
Cancel

Guess that leaves us no choice.


We set off at a dizzying speed and—WHUMP

Attention. Attention.
Obstacle detected.
Vehicle is unable to move forward.

...
It seems that there's a slight problem.
So... weren't you about to take a look outside while I keep watch?

Er... I didn't know I was, but sure. :I


Man, it's dark in here. Let's talk to the man who is for some reason wandering around the monorail's path waiting to be killed.

What are you doing in the middle of the track?
...
hhh...

Purification in progress...


...Whoa. Uh.
Hi?

Critic-burnt (x1)
Employee of Vesper on sugar deprivation.
HP: 1000 / CP: ???
Light weakness against plastic

His only attack appears to be called "???" and it doesn't do damage or anything—all it does is make the breathing noise and spread the word "HELP" across the screen, getting slower as his health goes down. It doesn't help that there's no battle music—just the monorail music.

Adversaries purified.



hhh...

He disappears.
There's nothing else here, so let's head back into the monorail.

So, what's blocking the path?

Obstacle disappeared.
The monorail is going to re-depart.
Please be careful during departure.


We set off and Batter says nothing.



This time I'll precede. We'll meet up again later.
Take care of yourself.

Let's get cracking.

music:

The music here is... unsettling, to say the least. Let's heal and save then head off to the right.


I don't like the look of this place. Let's head up that long path above us. I won't enter any doors until we've checked out this entire hallway.

There was just a door and another room up there, so let's head forward from where we were.

And hey, there's a man here, let's tal—

Purification in progress...

music:

...tHIS MUSIC IS TERRIFYING   

Adversaries purified.
920 experience points gained.
320 Credits received.

...I am avoiding these guys like the fucking plague. o.o;;

They look freaky in the halls too:


This place doesn't sit with me well at all. I love it.

On the end of that long corridor facing the door and down, there's a treasure chest.

A piece of Golden flesh has been found.

Anyway, the only other thing to do here is go in the doors, so let's do that, starting with the long hallway of doors facing the entrance.

The first one is locked, but the second... one...


isn't... shit.

My...
Legs... Sting me.

Purification in progress...



Jesus fucking Christ, this music.

Pastel-burnt (x1)
Malicious employee of Area 4.
HP: ??? / CP: 900
No weakness/resistance


...a fUCKING HEAD APPEARS OUT OF ITS MOUTH AS A SECOND ENEMY THAT'S DISGUSTING
I can't get a Wide Angle on the, uh, head, so let's just beat this guy. Which cost us Omega, and a metric fuckton of CP.

Adversaries purified.
1200 experience points gained.
Silent Symbol received.



The... The city belongs to us...

...This place is really fucking disturbing.
Let's check out that Silent Symbol.

Silent Symbol: Offensive equipment for Add-Ons.

That Silent Symbol is our most powerful Add-On equipment yet, so let's equip it to Epsilon because he'll be running out of CP most often (I assume the Symbols only apply to normal attacks and not competences).

Anyway, in the chest we'll find...

A Music box has been found.
Music Box: A small music box.

Ah.
All the other doors on this side are locked, so let's go to the other side of the room along the vertical path. (This room is shaped like an H—we just checked the doors in the connecting piece, now we're checking the right hallway.)

There's a door at the top, and in it we find...


ZACHARIEEEEE I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW HUG ME PLEASE

I have nothing but good and wonderful stuff with me. Buy something, my friend.

He now has these in stock:

Aura of Clairvoyance: Defensive equipment (1)
Canepa Tunic: Defensive equipment (2) for the Batter
Colour of Force: Defensive equipment (3)

I bought one Canepa Tunic and four of the others (one per team member), leaving me with barely any Credits because these things are expensive. I then equipped the most powerful of my equipment I could to each team member and sold what I didn't need. This left me with 3091 Credits.

As I said, the other end of the room just has a chest, so let's check out the other end of the H.


Just this door is left now, then we can progress to our left.


Hm. Let's check out the bookcases.

These are books about sugar.

Ah.


A... game controller?


...Um.
Oh, you enter the code by pressing the arrow keys to select the different buttons and pressing the space bar to enter them. Let's try out the Konami code, I guess.

...No go. Well, I'm stumped, so let's keep moving and assume the answer's here somewhere.


Caaaaarefully avoiding that man...


And that one...
Let's enter the doors in this hallw—GODDAMNIT THE MUSIC

Adversaries purified.
920 experience points gained.
320 Credits received.
Silver flesh received.
Alpha Level 13 achieved.

Well, I guess some good came out of that...   
Anyway, into the first door.

...Locked. Second door?


...Filled... in with... bricks.
...Hang on, then how did the door open inward?   

Aaaand the rest of the doors are locked, so around the corner we go to a similar hallway on the other side. The third door opens.

music:

...To a rather empty room with its own music. Weird. Nothing there, I checked every space.
The next door opens to...


...An almost empty room with the same music.
Examining the desk gives us...

This desk goes through the wall.

Push it?
No
> Yes

And when we return to the other room...


...We can now read that note that was blocked by chairs in the other room.


...They... know about us? Huh? What is going on? And why are there red letters?   

The rest of the doors are locked, and there's more to explore downwards. This room is shaped like a 5, so now we're at the bottom of it going from the right door to the left.

In the first room is...


...Stairs.
And down the stairs is...


...More stairs.
And up those stairs is...


...Judgerie?

Ohoho! But what do we have here? Wouldn't that be a music box?
I must admit that this object interests me highly. To possess it is a desire very close to my heart.
Would you agree to entrust it to me in exchange for a valuable clue?
I don't like the sound of him having that for some reason.

> Yes
No

...But we'll go with the obvious plot advancement anyway.
Ahaha! Beautiful, beautiful. This is a smoothly conducted business.
Now open your ears widely and listen attentively to this welcome advice of mine.
In the game folder, your browser will find the file "Read me."
Its name is not innocent. I'd suggest an active, assiduous reading.
That's all.

Ohhhh! That's a clever way to tell players how to deal with the trouble with this puzzle, I guess.
In the FAQ of the READ ME file, there's this little gem:

READ ME wrote:Q : Are there any secret codes to unlock stuff?
A : There is one, namely this one: Down - Left - Up - Right - Z - J - B - D - B - Start.

Guess what that's for? Yup.
Another door in this corridor leads to this room...


...where if you open the invisible treasure chest like I did before thinking to take a screenshot, you'll find a nice treat:

A Friday has been found.
Friday: Equipment that is beneficial to competences.

I'll equip that to Epsilon, thank you very much.
Back at that controller, let's enter the code...


Um. However we do that.
Wait, that note we saw was probably the positions of the buttons on the right, that's why letters were highlighted and there were Xs and stuff. So Z is the top, B is the right, D is the bottom, and J is the left.

CODE CORRECT
Access to the lower level authorised.

So now if we go back in this middle room...


Those blocks are gone.

music:

This music just got more dramatic and more creepy.
Let's read the note.

Executive suite's note:
You must not be here.

Charming.
As we walk down the hall more notes appear on the walls.


And they all say the same thing.

Executive suite's note:
You must not be here.

Executive suite's note:
You must not be here.

Executive suite's note:
You must not be here...

Welp, let's be here. Through the door we go.


Haven't seen one of these in awhile. This time, you have to treat it like it's upside-down; the bottom-right is number one, the top one is zero. That frees the path.


I think you guys know what's coming up.
Guardian of the third zone.
This is it.