The large, ethereal forests of Arato. This is a very large area, and unlike the more townish areas of this game, there are no houses that would be locked for you, etc. Nope, the entire area is free to roam right from the start - well, after you close the floodgate. There's one locked gate, 'Iron fence' which you must whack open with the poker.
There's a checkpoint that activates as you enter the other half of the stage (after the Iron fence), but only if Miyako is close by.
- MO1: "Reach road to Tabori settlement with Miyako Kajiro."
- MO2: "Find grave of Takeuchi family."
- Lesser objectives:
- Opening the floodgate.
- Picking up the screwdriver.
- Overturning the marker.
Kyoya Suda[edit]
He now carries nothing, unless you had picked up "Key to storeroom" from the previous level.
Miyako Kajiro and her blindness[edit]
A new sidekick. Her problem is that she can't see anything herself, being blind - but she can sightjack into your eyes and see via them nonetheless, or so they claim.
She'll have more trouble than normal sidekicks in keeping up with the player-character. This is how her blindness works: at certain intervals, the game does a check on how close Kyoya is and what direction he's facing. You can see how during this check Miyako stops running. If Kyoya's too far away, or not facing Miyako, she is declared "lost," which is when she'll say "I can't see. Look at me properly." or "Walk slowly, will you." or "Look at me." And then you must turn back and actually face her direction. You don't have to look anywhere in particular, it's enough even if you use the FPV and stare at the ground while facing her direction! You must face her a certain amount of time, close to 2-3 seconds. Any less than that, and she'll probably not react to you. If you leave her "lost" she'll not move from where she's situated, but instead does one of the following:
- Stands around while doing something similar to the sightjacking animation the player-character has.
- Stays crouched down.
She has other phrases as well. If you get separated from her for a moment, (if you order her to "Wait" and later return, etc.) she'll say "Hurry up and lead the way!" or "About time." If you encounter shibitos, she'll shout "No!" If you wait for long periods of time, she'll ask "What are you doing?" If you make her wait and then leave her, she'll periodically say one of these comments: "Never! I never want to end up like that...", "Never ever, never...", "I hate every single one of them!" If she expects to get pulled up, she'll say "Your hand." or "I can't climb up on my own!" or "Pull me up!"
Poker[edit]
The weapon you'll find for Kyoya at the abandoned campfire, and he'll have for a very long time in this game. Its range is hauntingly short. Sharp timing is required for quick kills, but there are worse weapons in this respect, though. It's only moderately strong, but easily better than nothing.
You are required to get this weapon, as there's a gate in your way which will only open after a few whacks to the head.
Other things of interest[edit]
- About the generic sidekick command "Come here": Its function is dictated by the "blindness check." This means that if Miyako is lost, she'll not find you however many times you make her "Come here." But "Pull up" works wonders, always overriding the blindness check.
- There's another bug available with the "Pull up." Try this: go far away from Miyako and "Pull up." She'll start running towards the pull up-location - until her blindness check makes her stop. Either "Pull up!" again or run back to her, so that the blindness check is sated and she can finally start moving again. You'll see that she moves like a zombie, walking carelessly, not caring at all about Kyoya, pushing him away from her route if he comes too close. Even if you strike her with the poker, she'll continue her strange act. After Miyako reaches the pull up-location, she'll either get pulled up (if Kyoya is at the right spot) or she'll start complaining "I can't do it by myself!", etc. and everything is back to normal again.
- You can get Miyako stuck in the small puddles of this area. She just occasionally gets stuck, doing an insane little dance, turning around and around constantly. She'll stop periodically, again with the "blindness check." Then she'll continue going 'round and 'round. This glitch may require you to be on a different level of height than she is. Bonus irony points if you get her to say "What are you doing?" to Kyoya while she's doing what she's doing.
- Check out the small silhouettes of some shrines that lay atop the mountains.
- The old, rotted tree before the church gate has very poor wall properties. If you move towards it, your character will shake and sink inside the tree.