#who raised that person to be like that like???? c someone call CPS and save this child from themselves jfc | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mystech-master · 4 years

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A while ago, I made a post discussing my thoughts on Nu and Lambda, in it I also described why I personally can’t ship them, even if I also said you could do mental gymnastics to ignore the Saya clone stuff (read it to understand what I mean).

But, they aren’t the only ones to have this issue; What about Noel and Celica, two more MAIN characters who have a similar issue in their storytelling.

I will go into that now, starting with Noel (beware possibly long-ass post)

Noel is one of the main characters, and one of the most important characters in the setting (to many fan’s displeasure), so of course she is highly tied to the MC Ragna, even getting a lot of shippy moments with him. This is in spite of her being a Murakumo.

Now in my Nu and Lambda thing I said that b/c Ars Magus is weird and not an exact science and seem to be made from Saya’s soul not her DNA you could do mental gymnastics to ignore that and make the shipping okay. Could you do that with Noel? I say NO.

Not only is Noel MUCH closer to Saya (seriously put a picture of her next to young Saya from flashbacks and she looks exactly like what she’d grow up to be), but she is also apparently made from the largest chunk of her soul.

The games seem to go along this thought process with her:

Noel is a Murakumo -> Noel is not human -> Noel is a weapon -> cue angst

but the fans have the thought process of

Noel is a Murakumo -> Murakumo Units are clones of Saya -> Saya is Ragna’s sister -> Murakumo Units are clones of Ragna’s sister -> they are Ragna’s sisters.

This gets even more stupid once Izanami comes in and we learn SHE is Saya, not Noel (her being an amnesiac Saya would’ve made things much easier), because then it is like “See, Noel isn’t Saya, THAT’S Saya!”. Also Blazblue has a while thing about roles, like Ragna has ONE little brother and ONE little sister: Jin and Saya, respectively. But fans say he can have multiple little sisters but the story doesn’t because “roles” or whatever (using the weird stage terms that Rachel and Amane use).

Like, here is an idea I had for CS’ plot with more emphasis on Noel actually being Saya rather than just a clone/copy, or at least more focus on her connection with Ragna to HAVE that sibling instead of just taking the “I am not human” thing from the Murakumo:

They escape from the Cauldron at the end of CT, and Ragna now gets a god look at her, maybe he does think that this IS Saya, and you can have a bit of an emotional scene here, but Noel runs off b/c A. she is still shy girl and a MAN is so close to her, and B. this is still the SS-Class Criminal Ragna the Bloodedge. A bit of angst there because Ragna supposedly thought something horrible happened to Saya (based on a flashback in CF with Jubei).

Much, MUCH later, he can meet up with Noel again, before she is kidnapped by Terumi for the final act of being the Godslayer, maybe with Makoto there. This is where they can actually talk and bond for a bit so Ragna has an actual reason to go running off an saving her. This is where Ragna can explain his little sister to the two, maybe thinking that he got Noel confused for Saya since she looks just like her.

But, then they start piecing together everything. Noel has weird memories of Ragna, and she has amnesia from before the destruction of Ibukido after the Ikaruga Civil War. SO, what if Noel IS just an Amnesiac Saya who has trauma induced amnesia from the Ibukido stuff? This is great for Noel because all this time she might also be worried about her humanity after the shit with Nu in CT’s true ending, and maybe a cryptic line from Terumi/Hazama, but now with this information, she reaffirms that she is HUMAN, she has a family (imagine the reaction when she learns that major dickbag Kisaragi is her big brother). We could then maybe cut back to someone watching them cryptically commentating, and when we cut back Noel is in the middle of telling Ragna, her newly re-discovered big brother, about what she’s been up to, her adoptive family and her time at the Military Academy. Maybe here we could also have a gag reel where, like a later one where they try and help Celica improve her sense of direction, Ragna and Noel cook something. We get some fun-sibling time and get to see Ragna’s cooking hobby in semi-canon action. He’d call her Saya, but everyone else calls her Noel since that’s what they know her as (think of it similar to how Vegeta calls Goku by his Sayan name “Kakarot” while everyone else just calls him his Earth name).

THEN we have Terumi come in and kidnap her.

Rachel stops Ragna from running after them for cryptic warning BS, then the fight with Jin, then the fight with Terumi, etc. everything happens the same from there. Only it isn’t some random stranger who Ragna all of a sudden is risking his life for, this is the little sister he lost so long ago.

Then comes the shit with Izanami. One idea that had was that Noel IS still a Murakumo AND Saya, but she is Saya’s good half fragmented off when Izanami was made. Izanami is one part the Origin’s Drive and one part Saya’s Darkness. So Noel breaking off from Saya is kind of like M.Bison from Street Fighter removing all the good from his soul to use Psycho Power, resulting in Rose.

Then in CP, we can have an extra layer of conflict because Noel is trying to save Tsubaki, who points out that she is affiliated with a wanted criminal, Ragna the Bloodedge. Remember, Noel just wants to be a normal girl with a normal life. She already has the issue of her humanity with being a Murakumo, but then you have the more societal BS of being related to a super criminal. She cannot be “normal girl“ Noel Vermilion, AND friends with Ragna the Bloodedge, SS-Class Criminal at the same time.

Tell me that wouldn’t all be a really good alternative.

Also being able to refer to the three MCs as “The Siblings” is just so much easier.

and then we got Celica A. Mercury.

she flops back and forth between, Ragna’s mom, and Ragna’s love interest.

Celica A. Mercury in Blazblue Chronophantasma, is well, a Chronophantasma. A copy of someone who isn’t supposed to be alive in the current timeline. Specifically, Celica is the younger sister of the Great Sage Nine, one of the Six Heroes who defeated the Black Beast 100 years before the setting of the games. the ORIGINAL Celica, after the Six Heroes were almost wiped out by Terumi, proceeded to become a nun/sister in a church built over the remains of the Black Beast’s corpse, as she has a unique Order power to nullify seithr. With her healing magic keeping her young and healthy she lived there alone until Jubei brought the three siblings, Ragna Jin and Saya, to be under her care for an undisclosed amount of time. This is where people get her being Ragna’s mom, even thought nuns/sisters are more just general caretakers instead of parents, but she is still a female maternal figure who looked after Ragna so you can see where people get that.

But then you get “teen” Celica, the one the games show in the story. She is from the Dark War, where she actually met Ragna first. Ragna was sent back in time, with Amnesia, to fill the role of the unsung 7th Hero “Bloodedge” and stop the Black Beast for a year allowing Nine to arm humanity with Ars Magus. Celica apparently fell in love with him because she is very affectionate and familiar with Ragna once she is brought to the future as a Chronophantasma.

The story really does ping pong between her being very motherly, specifically her scolding Ragna and Jin for fighting in CP, and just being a naive child, see her complaining when people get on her case about her awful sense of direction. But it is really hard because the image of the sister seems to flash over her, which the other characters seem to notice, but much like Noel and Saya, no one in the story EVER seems to connect the dots and have that change the relationship between them.

Now I personally don’t like the ship because she is a naive child in a woman’s body, with the stupid no sense of direction gag, to her scolding Ragna and Jin as if they were Natsu and Gray from Fairy Tail who are just fighting for some dick measuring contest when we all KNOW the actual reason is more complicated but the story just seems to abandon that and GGRRRR!!!

But, looking at Celica, really you can;t do the whole “Schrodinger’s Relationship” thing like they’re doing with Saya and Noel and the Murakumos. They need to COMMIT, to a role.

If Celica is Ragna’s MOM, no ifs and or buts, then 1. They need to make her less of a cutesy child. and 2. Maybe age up her design, Litchi has the design vibe of someone who is “older” than the cast, maybe something similar to that. Just imagine another angsty scene of Ragna meeting this woman who has the same face as the Sister who raised him who he KNOWS 100% is dead, so no mistaken identity shit like I already suggested with Saya/Noel, and her looking at him with her face is just MOCKING him, especially since his first two meetings with her in CP are after he gets his ass kicked (once after he is sent back in time after Nu kicking his butt, and once after Kagura knocks him out and arrests him). Also you’d have to undo ALL ship teasing in Phase Shift, or just use one of my friend’s ideas and just have Ragna be a reincarnation of Bloodedge instead of going back in time.

If you want Celica to be the cute girl love interest, and this is the option I feel most people would want either b/c shipping or the cute girl waifu factor that Japan likes (I base some of m reasoning based on “could this be made”, then you’d have to undo all connections between Celica and the Sister. My simple idea was instead of Celica living all those years she dies there, but Nine also had a bunch of other caretakers go with her to help take care of the church. I mean Nine is one of the Great Sages AND a member of the Six Heroes you’re telling em she wouldn’t use some of tat fame and authority to make sure his little sister is safe when she is all alone out there. Seems almost out of character with how fiercely protective Nine was of Celica. Of course this all means that the Sister that raises Ragna and the siblings is less important as she is just a nameless backstory character in a similar vein to Noel’s adoptive Parents, but is is a much easier thing to do than the previous option.

Either of those two options are good IMO, but I still think Celica needs to grow up a bit and release how much everyone around her is an asshole before I can fully ship her and Ragna.

So, what do you guys think? Noel being fully Ragna’s sister leading to much more interesting plot stuff, and Celica committing to either the cute girl love interest or mom role. I feel lkike my ideas are good, but what d you guys think?

#blazblue #my thoughts #noel vermillion #ragna the bloodedge #celica a mercury

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democratsunited-blog · 6 years

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Rahm Emanuel quits Chicago, but can the Democratic Party quit him? – ThinkProgress

https://uniteddemocrats.net/?p=9453

Rahm Emanuel quits Chicago, but can the Democratic Party quit him? – ThinkProgress

On Tuesday, incumbent Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued a surprise announcement: He would not, as many expected, seek a third term as mayor of Chicago. The shock announcement prompted radically different reactions. Working-class locals largely rejoiced at the news. The local business press, on the other hand, wore their frowns so tight that they risked pulling a muscle.

But while Emanuel may be retreating from public service after almost three decades, it remains an open question as to whether he will take his malign influence over Democratic Party thinking with him on the way out the door.

The Creed of High Emanuelism can be fairly summarized as “debt service uber alles.” Those tetchy about borrowing will find the philosophical tools necessary to resist proposals that might raise the material quality of life of modern wage serfs.

Those so illuminated hew to a higher set of beliefs. Charter schools are a superior option to public schools because someone else is underwriting them. It’s just to strip guarantees of basic financial security from people who lose their jobs because the alternative is expensive. Universal preschool might sound nice as a cure to the exclusionary expenses of private childcare, but unless there is something that costs $90 billion for the government to stop doing — well, you’re just not being realistic.

Emanuel did install universal pre-kindergarten and kindergarten for Chicago kids, by the by. But because the doctrine he represents means some rain’s gotta fall in your neighbor’s yard if you want it sunny in yours, the city was made to draw blood from other stones. Sometimes that meant cutting off services. Sometimes it meant charging taxpayers more for them.

One of Rahm’s first revenue-raising proposals in 2012 hiked the penalties imposed on drivers who forgot to renew a city parking sticker. At the time, jacking the fine for missing the annual renewal cutoff for your car from $120 to $200 was marketed to Chicagoans as a $16 million annual bump in city revenue. In practice, however, it didn’t deliver even half of that windfall, a ProPublica and WBEZ investigation found, but it did drive thousands of black residents into bankruptcy.

On the savings side, Rahm’s early decisions bore a similar haves and have-nots divisiveness. He shredded the city’s public mental health services to save $3 million, and closed 49 public schools to save hundreds of millions more.

But the real swindle involves something called tax increment financing (TIF). The policy tool effectively escrows all future increases in revenue from a given tax – usually property levies – for the mayor’s office to dish out as it pleases. If the collections level prior to the TIF siphoning is sufficient to pay for schools, trash collection, and emergency services in future years, the public doesn’t notice much of a downside. But when those costs grow, the associated growth in tax collections can’t be tapped to cover the basics.

And Emanuel was especially aggressive in his use of TIF accounts. The total siphoned away from schools and other baseline services hit $561 million in 2016 alone and jumped to $660 million – a third of all property tax collected by Chicago – in 2017. Because Rahm’s policies prevent that money from going to the struggling school system, CPS had to seek a state bailout worth well over $200 million in 2016.

The flood of cash into TIF accounts put the lie to the crisis narrative propagated by those in favor of cutting back public education services and diverting more public dollars to charter school organizations like UNO, the venerable Latinx organizing network in Chicago that rapidly built 16 charters and used state and city money to give lucrative construction contracts to family members of both board members and local pols to whom it owed favors.

So, there are those who do profit from Emanuelism. But they tend to be private entities. During Emanuel’s tenure, TIF pelf flowed into shiny entertainment districts instead of the blighted neighborhoods pitched as the policy’s priority recipient. It went to health care companies instead of public mental health facilities. It was routed to tourist attractions like the city’s Navy Pier rehabilitation instead of the after-school programs and mentoring services and skills-building programs for adults that locals in the city’s struggling communities of color have long sought. This shuffling of public dollars into private hands delivered some job growth, though not dramatically more than could be derived from a more responsible, communal allocation. And all the while, those who could not get their kid into the glossy new charters watched the schools and community services in their neighborhoods wither under the ever-increasing pressures manufactured by the tax revenue diversion scheme.

Chicago’s specific story under Emanuelism has enough scandalous ins and outs to numb the mind, and raking through the wonky weeds beneath it all could carry more than a few book proposals. But it all follows the same logic that has infused the national Democratic party since Rahm’s first White House stint in the 90s, and even earlier for many in the party.

Rahm’s long, national tail

The ideological and tactical tensions within the Democratic Party are typically portrayed as an issue of personalities. Campaign strategists tend prefer this simplistic, reductive framing of disputes; it suits their objectives to reduce their sloganeering to poll-tested superficialities.

It’s impossible to understand how Rahm fits into that malign framing of American politics without beginning from a superficial perspective: the country’s overall political outlook at the end of President George W. Bush’s time in office.

For a certain generation of young people in the Bush years who imagined futures in politics, Emanuel was a hero of sorts. A practical hands-in-the-dirt doer, yes, but more importantly a sharp-tongued disciplinarian inside a party that mostly blamed Ralph Nader for an election where Al Gore failed to win his home state. Rahm’s career looked like the blueprint for people eager to rescue everything from civil liberties to foreign relations to poverty policy from the all-snaring jingoism of the post-9/11, post Bush v Gore world. If people who proudly nursed their Bush-era sorrows by watching The West Wing saw John McCain as symbolic of a stubborn bipartisan rationality, Rahm stood as the exemplar for the another subset of those fantasists — those annoyed the show hadn’t aired on HBO so the characters could cuss like sailors.

Years later, though, it’s easy to see how shortsighted the Rahm-worship was. Party discipline to win elections is one thing, but denuding that party’s ideas cabinet of its keenest, boldest proposals once it actually wins governing power is quite another.

Barack Obama’s presidency came frontloaded with a Sorkiny sheen that suggested a golden age of unleashing progressive policy was on the wing. But as the poetry of campaigning deferred to the prose of governing, the pressure to retreat from idealism was laid on the president. Emanuel was a central figure in that retreat, and the contretemps over the Obamacare “public-option” was perhaps the most high-profile example of Rahm’s eagerness to tie one of Obama’s hands before negotiating with Republicans — themselves bent on maximal intransigence from the outset — over Obama’s sundry campaign promises.

Emanuel’s approach to politics could have hardly come as a surprise. Long before he returned to Chicago, Rahm spent years as a prime mover for imposing a conciliatory approach to Democratic policymaking in Washington. He spent five years as a senior adviser in the Clinton White House when the party’s tendency toward political self-harm was dubbed “triangulation” and praised as savvy. After a profitable interlude in the financial industry, he held Illinois’ 5th District congressional seat for three terms. Muscular enough in that short tenure to turn heads, he was handed the party reins for House campaigning ahead of the 2006 midterms, burnishing his reputation further when his Democratic charges finally retook the chamber after a dozen years of Republican rule.

When Obama needed a chief of staff, he installed Emanuel. Arriving at the depths of an economic crisis brought on by the same financial sector mavens that plumped his own bank accounts, Emanuel quickly set about blunting progressive instincts in the new administration. When Christina Romer called for a larger stimulus package, less focused on unproductive tax incentives, Emanuel was there to cut her legs out. “What are you smoking?” he retorted after one early Romer pitch to go big.

The ensuing recovery was the slowest in American economic history, and among the most unequal. By 2013, Berkeley economics professor Emmanuel Saez calculated that “the top 1 percent” had captured “121 percent of the income gains in the first two years of the recovery.” Those lower on the economic totem pole fared less well. As Annie Lowrey reported in September of 2013, while the incomes of the bottom 99 percent had “started growing again — if only by 1 percent,” they were being lapped by their more well-heeled peers — the top 1 percent enjoyed a 20 percent surge, while the top 0.01 percent glided into the new Gilded Age on a tidy 32 percent gain in income.

At the same time, the sorts of policies that should have been proving grounds for Emanuel’s capacity to whip friends into shape and force pre-compromised versions of progressive policy through a narrowly balanced legislature instead fell to ruin. Card check legislation that could have revitalized union organizing died quietly. Cap-and-trade climate ideas premised on harnessing market forces to combat humanity’s primary existential threat at minimal public cost – the exact sort of capitalism-friendly version of public-interest rule that Emanuel’s ilk are supposed to specialize in – perished as well, although with a bit more noise.

Rahm left the Chief of Staff job after 18 months to run for mayor, conveniently taking him away from Washington just before the Tea Party wave destroyed whatever was left of Obama’s legislative elbow room. But the telltale creases of Emanuelism run across Obama’s entire approach to politics and policy over his eight years. A disastrous budget deal that capped public service investments from the federal level for years, a simmering terror about borrowing levels that was premised in part on flat-wrong mathematics by high-profile economists, a tawdry kabuki version of accountability for the bankers who’d crashed the housing market – they’re all consistent with the Rahmian worldview shared by the same generation of Democratic Party know-it-alls that rose, and then fell…to Donald Trump.

Two years on from Obama’s tenure, there has been ample time to learn some necessary lessons. It’s not clear an exhaustive retrospective has been undertaken. The same day Rahm shocked Chicago politics by quitting the race, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) pledged to retain the “pay-as-you-go” policies she imposed during her last tenure as Speaker of the House should she get the job again. That policy, requiring that any penny of new spending be offset with cuts or new taxes elsewhere, sabotages the agenda being offered by those candidates currently thought to be engineering a coming “Blue Wave.” And it is Emanuelism enshrined in caucus-wide policy, a promise to always fight with one hand tied against Republican counterparts perceived as reasonable, good-faith partners.

If there’s a lesson to be taken from Rahm’s decision to step aside this week in Chicago, it’s that these philosophical weaknesses in Democrats’ theories of change are the proper venue for debating the party’s future – not the attendant cults of personality, or the theatrical mise-en-scene of The Resistance, or the tired bleats of mainstream pundits who, sniffing the nascent scent of a socialist revival, eagerly turn out to participate in a red-bait cosplay re-enactment. Those distractions only perpetuate the idea that the most important matter to be resolved is who’s up and who’s down in the party hierarchy, rather than what the Democrats believe needs to be done in the real world.

The loser in that cozy symbiosis is substance. The Democratic Party’s civil war isn’t actually about differentials in the chummy fellow-feeling that Hillary or Bernie engender in voters. It is about whose skin should matter first when government has to choose who to help and how. That war’s been on for thirty years, not three. And Rahm Emanuel was a decorated field general for the side that’s won that fight at every modern turn: The Democrats who care more about the people to whom we owe money than about the far larger, materially disadvantaged group on whom money might be better spent.

Read full story here

#Democrats

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thehallofgame · 7 years

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Valkyrie Profile Lenneth Ending and Hint Guide

At the suggestion of yaseracat I’m putting together the Valkyrie Profile Ending Guide and Walkthrough I wish existed. I’ll list the method(s) for reaching ending A, B and C in as concise, spoiler-free terms as I can manage as well as some tips and tricks that may improve player experience. Scroll to the bottom for links to my sources and more detailed guides.

If you only want to know the steps to Ending A, B or C read the bolded sections only. The other bullets are meant to provide hints for difficult dungeons and instructions for finding the best items. This is not a complete guide or walkthrough and is intended for people who just want the cliff notes on getting a better experience out of the game without spending hours tracking down the information they need.

Some things to know before starting your first game of Valkyrie Profile:

Easy difficulty is sort of a misnomer. You cannot get the “true” ending, ending A in this mode. The early game is easier, but lack of supplies and experience make the late game much harder. Normal difficulty is fine but you only access all of the content by playing hard mode. Hard mode isn’t very much more difficult than normal and the additional supplies and recruits makes up for the slight difficulty hike. I recommend playing the game in hard mode.

There are three endings. Ending A is the ‘true/good’ ending and is quite difficult to achieve without a guide. Ending B is the default ending that the player is most likely to get if they play through the game. Ending C is the ‘bad/failure’ ending which is also quite difficult to get by accident.

Valkyrie’s “Seal Value” is the key to achieving ending A. Her seal value is listed on the status page which is accessed from the party menu. Seal value is distinct from her evaluation score. Evaluation monitors how well the gods think Valkyrie is doing on Midgard, and dipping too low results in Ending C. Seal value, however, is perhaps best described as Valkyrie’s faith in the gods’ leadership. Having low seal value during certain points in the game is what leads to earning ending A.

There are no stores in Valkyrie Profile. Instead at the beginning of every chapter you are given materialization points which can be spent in the ‘Divine Items’ section of the menu on the world map and at save points. Check back every chapter because new items will be added.

The more pleased the gods are with you the more materialize points and better items they will give you. At the beginning of every chapter Freya will give you a list of what she wants in an Einherjar. I recommend writing this down or screenshotting this. Of course you can also always look it up later. When you level up your characters they will earn capacity points (cp) which can be spent under the Skills tab on the menu screen. There you can improve their personality traits, give them new combat skills and purchase the skills Freya requested. Certain abilities like negotiation or swimming are not found here and the player must Divine an item that confers said ability. These items will be under the accessories tab on the divine item screen.

In hard mode all of your characters will begin at level one. This isn’t a problem because over the course of the game you collect “event experience” which can be doled out at will from the experience orb under the party tab on the menu. This is best used to prepare characters for Valhalla and get new recruits you want to fight in your party to an appropriate level.

The transmutation skill is extremely useful. It can be used under the item menu to transform items the player picks up into potions, new spells or skills. Valkyrie starts at level one transmutation and there are ways to increase her skill later in the game.

You can send up two einherjar every chapter but only need to send one. If you are shooting for ending A then I recommend sending only one well trained einherjar a chapter.

If you bring and einherjar back to a location that is important to them they may have a small scene with Valkyrie and collect a special item. I recommend doing these toward the end of the chapter and saving before you go to look so that you do not consume valuable time periods. This does not happen for all einherjar.

You can revisit a dungeon any time to train in it.

If you like you can keep the artifacts you find at the end of dungeons or give them up to Odin. Some of them are useful but most of them are not except for dematerializing for more Materialization Points.

As in many Tri-Ace games there is a very difficult post-game dungeon called the Seraphic Gate. You can collect all possible 8 Flame Jewels from dungeons on Hard Mode that will be useful in that dungeon so make sure to search every dungeon thoroughly. They will be in normal chests.

How to get Ending C:

This is a joke ending more than anything. The easiest way to get it is to simply consume all of your periods resting (open the party menu and press start) every single chapter until your evaluation falls to zero. Freya will summon you for a scene and then the game will end.

How to get Ending B:

If you want to get this ending and still enjoy all of the game’s content the easiest way is to never send the Einherjar Lucian to Valhalla. The tips and tricks for the dungeons in the ending A walkthrough still apply equally, just feel free to ignore the bolded sections listing rules for getting ending A. Scroll to the end to find tips for the Ending B final dungeon.

Ending A walkthrough:

Chapters 1-3: Do not visit Gerabellum, Small Meadow, Brahm’s Castle or remove the nibelungen ring. There is some wiggle room here so if you do any of these things it will not doom you. However I find it is easier to follow the above guidelines.

-Some general tips:

If you find ‘broken’ items such as swords or armor, save them. You will be able to transmute them later.

Cave of Oblivion dungeons have very difficult enemies. Especially early in the game. Save these for the last thing you do every chapter. They consume 2 periods.

Chapter 1:

- Artolian Mountain Ruins

You will find the Treasure Search Accessory here. I recommend equipping it and leaving it on for the rest of the game.

- Solde Catacombs

The trick to this dungeon is to slash the stationary statues and push/pull the nearby stone obelisks to where the statures stood. Tap x to have Valkyrie grab the obelisk.

Take the Emerald Necklace Artifact at the end of the dungeon for yourself. If equipped it confers extra capacity points during level ups.

- Don’t forget to send Freya an einherjar before using the rest of the periods in the chapter to train or rest.

Chapter 2:

- Nethov Swamp

The only thing to note here is that the boss is at the bottom of a cliff in the forward-most section of the dungeon that you cannot climb up again. Jumping down the cliff to challenge it will end the dungeon so make sure you’ve explored as much as you want prior to that.

Claim the Bark of the Dryad artifact from the boss. This is transmuted to a useful accessory in late game.

- Salerno Academy Dungeon

The trick here involves using different perfumes found around the dungeon. If you go straight right from the entrance you will find a journal with clues to the puzzle

You will also find ‘strong acid’ that you can use to slow a plant’s regrowth. When you use it try not to take side paths on the way to your goal because after some time some plants will still grow back (particularly the one blocking the boss).

Do not walk through the fountain as it will wash off perfume. Use a vine to the right to climb over the fountain.

The artifacts Holy Grail and Tiara of the Holy Empress are useful in the early game and you may wish not to send them to Odin.

- If you return to Hai-Lan with Nanami after recruiting her you gain a very powerful early game staff.

Chapter 3:

- Brahm’s Castle will appear as a dungeon in this chapter. If you are going for ending A DO NOT ENTER. At the very least do not challenge the boss this chapter.

- Camille Village, where you recruit Kashell, is a dungeon you can choose to visit and collect two powerful swords from.

There are freezing beams and odd flesh walls in the dungeon that block progress. Use Valkyrie’s crystals to reflect the freeze beams to the walls. Valkyrie can shatter the frozen walls with her sword.

The Golden Fowl is a useful artifact and Grand Sting is a very good weapon for early game.

- Clockwork Mansion

This is a difficult puzzle dungeon. You will find a door with a scroll with some basic instructions on the puzzle. I will post written instructions on how to navigate the rotating rooms but I personally find following along to this video more helpful: https://youtu.be/gw448m-EvU4?t=8m25s

This is a path that will get you through the rooms: Down-Right-Right-Right-Up-Left-Left-Up-Up-Right-Right-Down-Down-Right

The above path is from this FAQ https://www.gamefaqs.com/psp/931113-valkyrie-profile-lenneth/faqs/49087

If you make a mistake you are stuck. Stand still and a floating samurai head will eventually appear. Touching it will return you to the beginning of the puzzle.

The artifacts from this boss are the Mirage Robe, very useful mage armor, and the Mirror of Pleiades which carries a 50% chance of reflecting enemy magic.

Chapter 4: Beginning of the meta-plot. (It’s time to start bringing down your Seal Value).

- Transfer someone who meets Freya’s requirements to Valhala right away as this raises your seal value. You can divine the Angel Lips item under the accessories tag in order to give a einherjar the negotiation ability.

- Visit the Small Meadow in the North of the continent. (-15 SV)

- Visit Gerabellum in the South West. (-15 SV)

- Visit Brahm’s Castle, a dungeon marked by a red dot on an island in the west. When offered the choice decide not to fight the boss. (-15 SV)

This dungeon is timed. It is possible to get everything in one run of it but don’t worry if you do not. You can repeat the dungeon as many times as necessary, even if you don’t challenge the boss on your first run.

- Cave of Thackus:

You will find a sorcerers’ corpse near the entrance. You can speak to his ghost, but also make sure to search his body to find an item needed to complete the dungeon.

You will find a floating orb on the other side of a waterfall. Strike the orb with one of Valkyrie’s crystals.

You can strike the underwater plants and they will float to the surface for use as platforms. You can also jump on them while they are still under water and they will carry you to the surface.

You may claim the Bracelet of Zoe artifact if you wish but you will acquire several more over the course of the game.

Talk to the sorcerer again on the way out for some bonus experience points.

- Dark Tower of Xervah

Strike the giant hearts to progress through the dungeon.

Getting ‘eaten’ by the mouth traps in the floor will transport you to a stomach-like area. Standing on the grey mounds will suck you into a pipe and spit you out in another part of the dungeon. On the far right of the room there are some items hidden behind a fleshy blob, including a flame jewel for the seraphic gate.

For some reason there is a flesh-wall you can only pass after being eaten and coming out the middle tube.

The Hel Servant boss battle is a pain. You need to kill both enemies in the same turn or they will revive one another.

The Artifacts they leave behind are all good to have. The Manual of Resurrection is useful in late game, Holy Sword Seraphy is a good weapon and the spear Basilisk is useful if you use Lawfer or Aelia.

- A scan will indicate an available Einherjar in Flenceburg. Make sure to save on the world map before going to Flenceburg because this cutscene will transport you directly into a dungeon. It is important to remember if you leave this dungeon before defeating the boss you cannot get ending A. I recommend having one save file on the world map and another save file for your time in the dungeon in case you find you need to level grind some to beat the dungeon.

You will enter a basement level with red runes on the wall. Remember how to return to where you entered. After striking two shield carrying statues a teleport pad in the area will be unlocked which takes you to the boss. However, if you backtrack to where you entered the red-runed level you will find a second teleportation pad. Using it will allow you to collect the Creation Gem from a chest. Equipping Valkyrie with the gem unlocks level 2 item transmutation. If you have the Manual of Resurrection (an artifact found in the Dark Tower of Xervah) you can transmute it twice to make the Creation Jewel which unlocks level 3 transmutation.

If you have the Creation Jewel equipped you can transmute Unicorn Horns into the Unicorn’s Horn mage staff which is the most useful staff in the main storyline.

Additionally those ‘broken’ arms and armor can now be transmuted to powerful items.

Proceed to the boss battle.

This boss battle can be a little tough. I recommend giving Valkyrie a bow or the Mage Slayer bow and going after Lezard in the back first.

- Remove the Nibelungen Ring before the Sacred Phase.

Chapter 5:

- Arkdain Ruins

I haven’t tried this myself but this dungeon is supposed to be a good place to grind for xp. You can leave the ruins (but not the map) through the front door and renter and the enemies should have reset.

There is one tricky ledge with a save point on it that’s hard to get to. Create a crystal on the underside of the ledge as close to the edge as possible, then shoot another photon at it. Jump on the resulting sparkle cloud and use that to get up onto the ledge.

The bosses drop multiple artifacts. Take the Robe of Brytain. You will be given the wand and the star guard in the next sacred phase and in any case the wand is weaker than the transmutable unicorn’s horn (if you don’t have unicorn’s horn you may wish to take the wand now).

If you use Valkyrie’s crystals you can climb over the giant crystal at the end of the dungeon and collect a very useful item from a chest there.

- Citadel of Flame

You can slash the fire balls to help you get through them. (There is a chest in the first room. It only contains an Eye of Heaven. Don’t worry if you have to leave it.)

In the first room in the dungeon there is a hole in the floor beneath a raised platform covered by the firestorm. Jump down the hole to progress. You’ll find a switch there.

At the end of the dungeon you will find a dead end. On the left side of the room there is a pot that you can pick up and throw through a gap in the wall. Have Valkyrie carry that pot and catch fireballs in it to unlock the boss.

All of the artifacts dropped by the boss are at least somewhat useful. The Eternal Lamp prevents freezing just by being in your inventory, Infernas is a useful sword for the end game and the Holy Water of Mithra is good to have around if you tend to use items in combat.

- You must send Lucian to Valhalla in chapter 5 or 6 in order to get ending A. You can divine the Pearl of Karula to confer the ability to swim on an einherjar.

- Remember to take the nibelungen ring off before the sacred phase.

Chapter 6:

- Lost City of Dipan

Explore to find a strange contraption and trigger a scene.

Once that is over you need to go upstairs in the first Private Residence you encounter and speak with a person there. This will allow you to find a hidden room in the topmost and leftmost part of the castle. Approach the bookshelf there and press x.

The boss is located behind a stained glass window above the save point in the castle in the present day.

Reflect Sorcery is a good spell to have for this battle. Kill Gyne first because he is a healer.

If you are using Lawfer or Aelia you may wish to collect the Dragoon Tyrant. It is useful against dragons, and if you haven’t transmuted the Crimson Edge with the Creation Jewel, the best spear you currently have access to.

- Sunken Shrine

This is a fiddly dungeon and if you have too much trouble I recommend following the instructions listed in one of the FAQs or the Let’s Play linked at the bottom.

Once you’ve managed to drain the water completely run all the way to the right and have Valkyrie pull a stone tablet there to the left. This prevents the tablet from blocking the door while it’s under water. The switch in the next room can only be used whilst it is underwater.

The thing to note here is the shattered pieces of Valkyrie’s crystals float. You will need to use these pieces to activate underwater switches. They look like brownish boxes on the roofs of underwater passages.

Take down the boss as quickly as you can. It hits hard. The artifacts it drops are Reflect Armor which is quite good, a merely okay sword called Farewell and Tear of the Cosmos which can be transmuted to Holy Water of Mithra if you like to use items in combat.

- Check your Seal Value before sending anyone up to Valhala. Sending an einherjar nets +12 SV. Your goal is keep your Seal Value below roughly 38. If you have not yet sent up Lucian send him up now. If you’ve followed the instructions you shouldn’t have to worry and can send someone up. If you’ve taken some detours you may need to skip an einherjar this chapter. Your evaluation will take a hit but you’ll recover.

- Remember to take the nibelungen ring off before the sacred phase.

- If you have achieved ending A you will see a scene that takes place in valhahla during this sacred phase. If you have not seen this scene you are locked into ending B.

Chapter 7:

- You are now on track for ending A or B. (if you want to stop reading now just know that you MUST visit the valley of weeping lilies before the end of chapter 8 to get ending A. Valkyrie will be summoned to it during a spiritual concentration.) You can send further einherjar to Valhala if you like but do not have to. As long as your estimated worth stays above 40 you will be fine.

- Forest of Spirits

This will appear as a dungeon and the elves will give you tasks to complete before they repair the flame jewel.

Fire attacks are vital against the enemies here.

The true boss of the Forest won’t appear unless you visit a second time. Head to the mist where the elf village was. It is now a maze. Go down, left, down to reach the boss. The boss drops two decent artifact weapons though the ones you can make with the creation jewel are better.

- Tombs of Amenti

This is a huge and complicated dungeon. Explore thoroughly because there is a Flame Jewel for the Seraphic Gate here.

The player needs to find and collect two jewels. After picking them up create a large crystal on the pedestal and break it. This will provide enough weight to open the door.

Kneel and slash to break the giant pharaoh heads’ beards and chins. You can now slide under them.

You may find yourself locked in a room after being touched by floating ghosts (like in the clockwork mansion). Break the pharaoh heads on the wall the exit. This nets you 20000 event experience so you probably want to get caught at least once. Equipping the Dimension Slip (transmuted from Bark of the Dryad) will allow you to pass the ghosts unharmed.

In the room where two spiked pillars are approaching Lenneth at once slash the bottom one to stop it until the top one passes overhead. Now jump over the bottom pillar.

Homosapiens is the correct answer to the riddle that opens the door to the boss.

The boss is able to heal himself if his HP falls to critical so try to take him out in one shot once he gets in that range.

The boss’s artifact drop is mostly useless. Mask of the Dead king is a decent piece of equipment and the Ambrosia may also be useful.

Chapter 8:

- If you have achieved ending A you will be prompted to return to Weeping Lily Meadow. This is the point of no return so you may wish to get any additional training or item divination out of the way first. Do not run out of periods before entering the meadow because this will sacrifice your chance at Ending A.

- The Orihalcon will become available this chapter to Divine. It is very expensive but can be transmuted into the best sword in the main game.

- Arianrod Labyrinth

This dungeon is teleporter based. Set the switches to the number of the floor you wish to go to and proceed.

Path A (all items and the boss): 1, 10, 8, 18, 16, 21, 13, 12, 14, 7, 6, 11, 17, 25

As reported in this FAQ https://www.gamefaqs.com/psp/931113-valkyrie-profile-lenneth/faqs/49087

You can also keep track and hit every room and enemy in the tower for some good xp gain.

The artifacts Shadzard and Unicorn’s Horn can be taken at the players discretion. Secrets of Zolon is useless.

- Palace of the Dragon

The key to the puzzle in this dungeon is to remember the numbers of the Tarot Card paintings you encounter. I recommend writing them down. Make sure to examine every painting as they often have items hidden behind them.

If you see a large obelisk blocking a door push it aside.

Inserting different stones you find in the dungeon into statues will teleport Valkyrie to different areas.

You will enter an area with four statues facing in different directions. Memorize or write down the directions they are facing. You will later unlock an identical room in the first area of the dungeon. Turning all of those statues to match the directions of the ones you’ve memorized will open a door.

You will eventually find several arches in a row that Valkyrie can enter that mimic a wall of paintings seen earlier. The order to enter these to solve the puzzle is 6, 5, 1, 4, 3, 7, 2, 8 where six corresponds to the far left arch and eight to the far right and so on.

You will encounter the guardian statues next. Touching them will transport you to a room in a labyrinth. If you keep running you will eventually come to a room with a teleporter statue you can use to try again.

Follow the first guardian statue and he will open a door in the middle of the room. Follow him into the next room and avoid him to collect the treasures in the area.

The next guardian you meet is much harder. You will need to jump over him four times before he ‘tires’ and stops moving. Approach him to take a new teleport stone. It is sometimes helpful to create crystals to use to help jump over to guardian.

The boss drops the Dragoon Faith which is a good piece of armor. The hourglass of the gods will transport you five periods back in time so if you feel you need more time to grind you can take it. Scroll of Golem is useless.

- Celestial Palace

This dungeon contains a section where Valkyrie can fall off the map. If this happens Valkyrie will be returned to the world map. Note that most of the chests in this area are rigged with explosive traps. I find it easiest to jump and grab and overhead chain to avoid them, though running to the edge of the platform is usually far enough

The Berserker Bow and Armor of Aleph artifacts are both very good and worth keeping.

Asgard Hill Dungeon (Ending A):

The bosses here are deadly no matter how well trained you are. The best strategy is to equip the Guts and Auto-Item (with Union Plume set to 100%) and tough it out.

Bloodbane (boss 1): I find him the hardest so don’t get discouraged! He will hammer your party hard so just keep attacking him without bothering to heal. He drops Levantine which is the most powerful sword outside the Seraphic Gate. Equip it.

Fenrir (boss 2): He is weak to fire and uses ice attacks. The artifact Infernas will kill him in one blow. Otherwise equip any freeze checks you have and use fire based attacks.

Using the save point after Fenrir unlocks the Seraphic Gate. You cannot return to the main game after saving in the Serpahic Gate so finish the game before entering.

Loki (Final Boss): You only have to survive the first part of the battle. There will then be a scene and Valkyrie will receive a significant power boost. She’ll do the most damage in this fight so launch her Nibelung Valesti as often as possible. There is a lot of variance here depending on the level of your party. It may or not be feasible for the player to heal/fight defensively. I prefer to hammer Loki to death either way and skip healing.

Joutenheim Palace Dungeon (Ending B):

You will find a room with three different colored flames and a pedestal. Put the red colored flame on the pedestal and then combine it with the blue. You will obtain the Daisy Fire and the ice walls blocking progress earlier will melt.

Bloodbane (boss 1): I find him the hardest so don’t get discouraged! He will hammer your party hard so just keep attacking him without bothering to heal. (Equip Guts and Auto-Item with Union Plume at 100% in the skills menu). He drops Levantine which is the most powerful sword outside the Seraphic Gate. Equip it.

You will come to a point with a large block of ice blocking the path onward. Note it. You will find the Fire of Purgatory later and need to make a dash back to it. The Dimension Slip will be a big help here.

Surt (Final Boss): If you use the same tactics as Bloodbane you should be able to batter Surt down with relative ease.

Sources:

https://www.gamefaqs.com/psp/931113-valkyrie-profile-lenneth/faqs/49087

By Paul Michael aka VHAYSTE® this FAQ is extremely detailed and something I reference often. It also includes information on the Seraphic Gate, which I have not included, and step by step walkthroughs to every dungeon.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD03C5211691DDA62

Crimeinpartner’s let’s play series isn’t the only one out there, but it is the one I’m most familiar with and the series I followed to do my first A ending run. It is very thorough and a great visual reference if you prefer watching and following along to puzzle solving solutions. He does speak quite a lot though, so if you’re bothered by that there are certainly many more series out there.

#Valkyrie profile #Valkyrie profile Lenneth #valkyrie profile ending guide #valkyrie profile lenneth ending guide #valkyrie profile walk through #valkyrie profile lenneth walkthrough

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