This part of the game is only available after the split, and only if you chose to go to the castle rather than follow Ridley.
Any non-human characters that you previously recruited in this game will no longer become available for missions. They will still remain in your friends list in the menu section.
Meeting at Castle
If you chose to go to the castle, you will show up for a strategy meeting. After a series of cut scenes, you will gain control outside of the castle. Make sure you don't sleep at Jack's house until you are ready to progress to the next part of the game.
You are now free to recruit some more characters, buy new weapons, etc. If you are short of money, just buy the weapons instead of the armor. You will be getting two sets of new armor for free shortly.
Once you are done recruiting who is available, you might consider leveling up some of the new characters. On the other hand, if you have been leveling up a lot, it will take a long time to raise the new characters to the current level of your party. Since will you probably be replacing them with the guild leaders eventually, you might want to keep that in mind.
Thanos will tell you about a guy in Carl's Pub who turns out to be Jasne crying about Ridley leaving. You should visit Kain, Ortoroz, and Ray C. Ross (who is the owl in the president's office of the Vareth Institute). Each of them will assign two members to work with you. You should recruit them at this time, along with some additional characters that are now available. For more details, see Recruitment: Meeting at Castle.
Leave for Wind Valley
When you are ready to progress the game, sleep at Jack's house. You will not be able to leave Radiata City by any other gate until you return from Wind Valley, so make sure you've done everything you need before this. You will see some cut scenes with Ganz, Flau, and Rynka, and then Al will wake you up and tell you about Wind Valley.
When you wake up, some new missions will be available. You can do them either before or after your trip to Wind Valley. I like to do them before since both missions give me some nice armor that can come in handy. Before you leave, read the note on recruiting Dynas in the next section.
Here are the missions that are available to you:
- Stop Lord Star
- This mission will allow you to recruit Lord Star and Sebestian, and some armor that will prevent all status afflictions. Complete this mission before the battle golem and it can help you with that fight.
- Another Battle Golem
- This mission will allow you to recruit Ursula
- Instead of getting paid, you will get some new armor that resists all status afflictions.
Once you are done with the above missions, you can recruit some characters. For more details, see Recruitment: Leave for Wind Valley.
Wind Valley
You can fight the fake transporters for experience, collect the various treasures, or go directly to the Wind Dragon.
The Strategy Guide has a map that can show you which are real and which are monsters. There might also be a map available from gamefaqs, but you really don't need any maps to tell the difference. If you approach a real transporter, the camera will turn to show you where you will be blown across to. If you approach a fake transporter, this doesn't happen.
Read the notes about recruiting Dynas before you approach the back area with the Wind Dragon. I never had any problems with the Wind Dragon, even with only three in my party. Remember, however, that I tend to level up a lot, so if you don't do that, you might want to be more careful.
For instructions about recruiting Dynas, see Recruitment: Wind Valley.
Return From Wind Valley
After the Wind Dragon has been defeated, you will get some cut scenes and end up near Fort Helencia, where you will encounter Sir Gawain. You won't be able to win this battle, so don't worry about it.
Next will be some more cut scenes where Jack is in the Castle Infirmary. After this will be a touching cut scene with Ganz and Cody. When its all over, you will gain control of Jack outside of the castle.
When you get back from Wind Valley, you can do the previous missions if you decided not to do them before. You will also have some new missions available:
- Defeat Rocky
- This mission will allow you to recruit Rocky. (The strategy guide claims you can get this after the duel with Gawain, but I got it after the monk training mission.)
- Even though Rocky is part of the Olacion Order, you don't need to recruit him in order to get Kain.
- Algandars Castle
- This will allow you to recruit Ardoph and Dimitri, and get the Demon Armor, as well as the Book of Angels that Leona is looking for.
- The Demon Mail has a very high defense, but continually drains Jack of HP. Personally, I don't care for it, but others think it is great. If you wear it, then you should either have Auto Cure equipped or have the healer concentrate on healing you.
For instructions on how to recruit more characters, see Recruitment: Return From Wind Valley.
Meet with Dynas
When you are ready to progress the game, sleep at Jack's house. You will be invited to meet with Dynas. Then you will meet the large man from Vancoor Square again, who wants you to help him get into the castle. (Great timing, huh?) Go to the castle for the meeting, watch the movies, and you will gain control outside of the castle when the meeting is over.
At this point, you will be allowed to enter the castle. This means you can recruit some new characters, and finish recruiting Walter. For details, see Recruit: Meet with Dynas.
Fire Mountain
If you sleep twice at Jack's place, you will be ready to leave for Fire Mountain. There will be some cut scenes, of course, so sit back and take note. If you look at the face of the fire dragon when he takes off, you might notice a resemblence to a previous character. You will have to travel through the Goblin town, so either avoid the goblins or fight them for experience. (You will have to fight some, but there are others you can avoid.) The map in the strategy guide doesn't show it, but there is a recovery circle in the north east section of the area.
There are two areas to fire mountain. In the first area, rocks will rise and fall periodically. This means that you can't move forward or back for a certain period of time. If you get to a ledge, wait a few seconds to see if a passage opens up.
If you didn't get the Blood Orc's Horn earlier using the training method, here is where you can find one. You will see a Blood Orc on a side path as you first enter, and there is another one on top of a vine/branch at the west end of the first area. Once you enter into the second area (climb down a vine at the north west corner of the first area), you will find some more.
When you get close to the Fire Dragon's home, a cut scene will take over. Also, after you beat the Fire Dragon, you will automatically be taken back to the castle. This means you want to come back later and open a couple of chests that you couldn't get on your first trip.
Meet Genius in the Sewers
A new mission will be available concerning the sewers again. Be very careful before you take on this mission. It will trigger two events: Ganz's Letter, and the Fireworks Date. If you don't want either of them to kick in, you should avoid finishing the mission.
If you wondered about the shrine that Elwen and Alicia visit every day, there is another strange thing down there. Head there, but this time you will see a cut scene when you get to the square room. It appears that the original builders of the city constructed some things down there. Genius will show you some strange paintings and explain a few things. He is trying to figure some things out, but is stumped. You will actually give Genius a clue to solving his riddle.
When the cut scenes are done, you will be outside of the place where Genius is staying. Go back inside and talk to him to recruit him.
Once the mission is complete, you can recruit the following some additional characters. For details on who can be recruited, see Recruit: Meet Genius in the Sewers. Avoid going into Jack's house if you don't want to progress the game.
Ganz's Letter
At this point, the Blood Orc homeworld is accessible. That is a great place to level up if you need to. That is the area next to the Ocho region. If you tried to go there earlier in the game, Jack would stop and say something about coming back later. This is later. None of the other new areas that you visit from the non-human path are available.
If you haven't done the non-human path, near the Travel Pig is a rock with a rope hanging down. Use it to descend to the Orc Caves. One of the things you can get there is a Kings Toadstool, which isn't of use (except you can sell it), but it is used to recruit some black goblins on the non-human path. It doesn't carry over between games, but I have been told that if you sell it to the first store in the Void Community, it will be available for sale during the next game. This will let you recruit one black goblin early, but you actually need more than one to recruit all the black goblins. Maybe more than one store will have it for sale during the next game, which could help.
If you sleep at Jack's house, you will receive a letter from Ganz, followed by some other cut scenes. Some new characters will then be available. See Recruit: Ganz's Letter.
Fireworks Scene
If you then pass your mailbox (possibly a day later), you will notice a letter inviting you to the fireworks. This is a cut scene type event. The person you will be watching the fireworks with depends on which female has been in your party the most. (For this date, Charlie counts as a female.) Obviously, this only includes the characters you could have recruited by this point in the game (so, for example, Natalie isn't available). Not all females are listed in the strategy guide (Elwen isn't, for example.) See the separate section on the Fireworks Date.