I did say I wanted to play something crappy, didn’t I? I also felt like playing an SRPG. And not just that, but I wanted something tried and proven to be horrible but not too horrible (which ruled out Hoshigami). My choices were either Tactical Guild or Elvandia Story and since I’ve already finished all three TG routes, ES it was.

As I mentioned in my last post on Elvandia Story, there are three routes in the game: Light, Dark and True. True is the “mankind needs no gods” ending where you purge the continent of the menace of gods once and for all. That’s the ending I unwittingly got last time. I don’t even remember what happened after I beat the gods, but it wasn’t a bad ending IIRC. Which is all right, but a bad game would be best crowned with a bad ending, don’t you think? That’s why I chose to play the Dark route this time. This was accessed easily enough by having the right character (Valmon) stand in the right place (behind everyone else) in the right chapter (chapter 6). Good luck knowing that without a FAQ, btw.

Happily enough, it turns out the Dark Route isn’t just a retelling of the True Route with a slightly different ending but a completely different story altogether. People who were bad all along in the True Route, most notably Dora and Dori, are good all along here and even join your party. Others who were good are now mostly bad, e.g. Roshuna of Kerasos. There’s also a new character, Saide, whose identity you will know immediately if you’ve played the True Route.

I like games with such high replay value, virtually three games in one. Unfortunately not only does the bad gameplay let the side down but also the Dark Route is no more well-written or interesting than the route I did before. It’s also the “everybody dies” route and thus not recommended for sensitive, bleeding heart gamers. From chapter 20 onwards, virtually every stage will have two or more party members jumping out in front of Ashley, “Noooo, Ashley-samaaaa! We will protect youuuu!” and then dying on the spot.

All this meaningless death and destruction, coupled with the possession of the dark glaesum, slowly drives Ashley mad. Eventually he concludes, as bad guy Magdaff did, that the only way to stop all the killing is to kill everyone who opposes him. His stance alienates all his previous friends and allies, so the final chapter consists of a maddened and near-invincible Ashley – controlled by a highly amused and thoroughly enjoying this me – slaughtering all his former buddies one by one. In the end there can be only one. The game ends with Ashley in sole control of the continent but also isolated by the great power he has obtained. At least the people look happy – either that or they’re putting on a convincing enough act to stop Ashley from killing them – and for all we know they all lived happily ever after, the end.

In a better game this could have been a very stunning and moving turn of affairs. Especially after playing the happy-happy nobody-dies True Route, the Dark Route could have come as a huge shock to a player who had grown to love and care for the characters. In a better game, that is. Unfortunately this is Elvandia Story. I shouldn’t have to say any more than that.

As for the solo run, I did that as a time-saving measure, not as a means of adding extra challenge to the game. After stage 1 Ashley can’t be killed by normal means any more, so there’s no need to waste time controlling any other characters. I only saw him take significant damage twice, first from a lucky critical (even though I was wearing an accessory that claimed to prevent criticals, lol Elvandia) and second from a mage using a tome that ignored DEF/MDEF. The bad guys really should have stocked up on more of those.

Furthermore, the only time a solo run proved to be a problem was a stage where Ashley is useless because he’s stuck two steps away from the enemy. I had to break out the rest of my party for that one and even then I barely made it because I hadn’t leveled them up at all since stage 1. Of course, not leveling them turns out to be a good thing because when the last survivors turn up to challenge Ashley at the end of the game they’re still at the levels I left them at. Ashley is a level 20 post-promote god with maxed stats and Stanley is a level 2 scrub, pffft. They really should have known better.

Thanks to soloing the game, the Dark Route took only 7 hours and 15 minutes to complete, as opposed to 19 hours and 42 minutes for my first playthrough. That was short enough that I’m idly considering doing the Light Route too, even though I know it ends with Ashley as a vegetable (zomg spoilers). Maybe I’ll play something else first and save the Light Route for next month or so, dunno. I’ll think about it. Either way, I had… fun? playing the Dark Route, so I’m not done with Elvandia Story yet!