Xenogears: Solaris, part 2.
Hours 39-40: More fun times in the Soylent laboratories. This area is actually a pretty large dungeon so it's time-consuming even when it isn't being punctuated by grotesque reminders of just what it is these people are doing.
In one room, the party is surprised to discover records of themselves! Seems someone here has been keeping an eye on them. Of interest is the notes of what is to be done with each. Fei is dangerous and needs to be destroyed. Maria, Emeralda, and Chu-Chu are dismissed as "useless" and also slated to be "disposed". Bart, Rico, and Billy are listed as being desired for "animus allignment" whatever that is (this will be explained momentarily), with Rico getting an extra note that he is a test subject of Ethos in the Kislev area, who observed his battling capabilities. It's nothing we couldn't piece together previously but well, there's the confirmation. Elly is to be retained for more detailed study, while Citan just has no comments whatsoever.
The party proceeds further, with Citan opening a security door to allow them to do so. Fei asks what the facility is for, and Citan answers, saying that the whole place is basically built around experiments designed to increase the longevity of the emperor and the Gazel Ministry. He further explains that the Ministry lost their bodies in the war 500 years ago but research is been done here on how they can be resurrected. Fei asks if all the experiments, the corpses they have seen, etc., are to the end of letting these old dudes attain immortality, and Citan confirms it.
Elly, however, at this point, has had enough. She heaps accusation upon accusation onto Citan. How does he know all this, despite her parents, Jesiah, Maria, etc., not knowing it? How did he have clearance to open some of the doors here? Fei tries to defuse the situation but Elly is insistent, demanding to know just what is going on. Citan has no response. Suddenly, the lights go off.
Fei is captured, and held susupended in the air in a room covered by TV screens on all six sides. Images of Id appear, and then the Gazel Ministry appear on the screens and talk to him. And with them is Citan. They reveal that Citan has been watching Fei all this time, and had led him and his friends to Solaris. Furthermore, they reveal the purpose of his "friends", or Animus; they are special individuals whose bodies are needed for their resurrection. (Shots of Bart and Billy on operating tables appear as they say this.) They explain their purpose: to regain their fleshly bodies and to resurrect their God, which brought humanity to this world 10000 years ago, and take to the starry skies. Fei asks them if they are not content with simply ruling this world.
"What meaning is there in having control of a planet as insignificant as this? God has given us the right to rule over the universe."
Go big or go home, I guess!
The scene cuts to Elly, who is been held in a lab by Krelian. Krelian makes reference to something not mentioned in a long time, the incident in which Elly was accosted by some fellow soldiers, freaked out, and killed some of them. He reveals that the "official" explanation, that her episode was the side effect of drugs, was in fact a lie, but is cryptic about what actually happened. He reveals that he has plans involving Elly, but not what those are. He confirms that the other party members will be used for the Gazel resurrection or killed, and babbles a bit about how his methods are so much more noble. He babbles about it a bit, talking about interesting things found in the introns of Elly's DNA. While I can appreciate that this is not, in fact, technobabble, but something vaguely plausible in a sci-fi way, in practice this scene ends up pretty useless because Krelian manages to talk a lot and say nothing. The only useful thing he reveals is confirmation that Elly is the 'mother', which is somehow very important in the Deus-related plans. He also notes that this confirms some of Grahf and Miang's actions, which reveals more about his rocky relationship with those two: Miang is his ally, certainly, but it's clear they aren't entirely trying to do the same thing.
Back to Fei, who is now alone. Citan walks in and has a chat with the still-captive Fei. He tries to explain Solaris' point of view: that people are happier just being told their place in life. What could be easier? Fei is obviously unhappy, and Citan taunts him: he has failed. What can he do? Nothing. He is hopelessly bound, his friends are captive and about to be killed, and despite his efforts even Elly is now going to suffer. Fei, in obvious anguish, starts begging Citan to stop, but Citan continues relentlessly. Eventually, Fei passes out. The lights darken with Fei's point of view, and Citan says something to the effect of "Now we can talk... Id."
Back to Elly! Krelian is gone, but Ramsus is here! And he is going crazier and crazier! He babbles to Elly, demanding to know where Fei is, hating Fei, wondering why Fei is believed to be superior to him. He seems on the point of hurting Elly but instead backs off, swallows some pills, and wanders off. Ramsus has looked a bit unstable before, to be sure, but this is the first time we really see what a mess he is, when he isn't in front of Miang or his superiors.
And back to Fei again! After a series of hopeless scenes, suddenly the tone shfits dramatically, as Bart and Billy are cutting him loose. Citan is also there. Fei yells at Citan, calling him a traitor, but Bart and Billy insist that Citan saved them. Citan has their best interests at heart after all: he brought them to the Soylent labs because it is the only place with the technology to neutralise their limiters, which is something he wanted to do so that they could fight against the Gazel without psychological fear of doing so (not that this has really manifested itself yet, but I'll give this plot point the benefit of the doubt). He also reveals that he learned that Elly doesn't have a limiter, which he finds strange, and that Fei... well. He cuts off before saying anything, but something is up there too.
Citan's story still isn't fully adding up of course: is he really double-double-crossing Solaris? But he's not about to elaborate further and I can't really fault the PCs for basically going along with him now since he did just save them, whatever happened previously. Citan offers Fei and company directions of where Elly is being held so they can go free her, and then rendezvous with him in the hangar area. Citan himself goes and blows up the last Gate Generator, the one in Solaris proper, since that's the kind of thing he does. There he meets Jesiah, who is pleased that Citan appears to be on his side after all. He asks about the Emperor, to whom Citan's loyalties lie, and Citan reveals that the Emperor gave his blessing for the party to do as it sees fit. Looks like Cain and the Ministry really don't see eye to eye. Anyway, they destroy the Gate. Ramsus appears and appeals to his old friends before they can do so, but to no avail. His anguish yells of "Traitors!" follow them as they escape.
Everyone meets up en route to the hangar: all the PCs and Jesiah of course, but also Hammer and Elly's parents, with the former having learned where the latter two were being held so that they could be rescued. Erich decides to go separately from the party to secure extra transportation, figuring that with his rank and the confusion currently going on in Solaris he can pull some strings if he is alone. Fei and two chosen PCs, meanwhile, get one last stretch of dungeon to work through so that they can join up with him and escape Solaris.
Hour 41: The party reaches the hangar and is all ready to escape Solaris. Unfortunately, Hammer has decided that for the first time in over 20 hours he's going to be all-too relevant! He draws a gun and insists that Elly accompany him back to captivity. The party flips out at this betrayal, which Hammer says he had to do because Krelian threatened to "change it" if Elly wasn't recaptured (which I assume means change him into some sort of horrible Wels-related monstrosity since that's how Krelian rolls). The party is at a loss for what to do, except Medena who just begins slowly walking towards Hammer. He panics and points the gun at her instead, telling her not to come closer. She stops, but tells Elly to walk towards the party, the gun still trained on her. Elly does so. She makes it past her mother, back to Fei and company, all while Hammer blubbers at his inability to stop the situation, everything slipping away from him...
There's a single gunshot. Medena falls to the ground, dead without a chance to say any more. Hammer gives out a scream at what he has done and runs back into Solaris. A tearful Elly goes to her mother's side, but unfortunately for her, Grahf and the Executioner (the mysterious Solarian woman who was supporting Kislev) show up to ruin this emotional moment.
There's a boss fight, it's pretty easy, but plotwise it might as well not even happen. Erich shows up in a gear, stepping between the two sides, threatening the Executioner and Grahf to buy time for the party to escape. The Executioner chortles at this show, and unceremoniously uses some ether power to destroy Erich's gear. Erich gets a chance to wish Elly the best, telling Elly to keep living for the sake of her parents who loved her, before his gear explodes.
The Executioner menacingly taunts Elly. "Oh, have I overdone it? You had no time to say goodbye." But she isn't done yet. Glowing with even more ether power, she lashes out and attacks the party. Blinding pain wracks Elly, Citan, Bart, everyone... everyone except Fei, who can only watch helplessly as his friends appear to be dying. A villain deliberating causing Fei mental trauma? We know what this means.
The game's done pussyfooting around the subject of Id. In the Yggdrasil's hangar, Weltall activates on its own and morphs into the red mech we associate with Fei's destroyer personality. From the Yggdrasil, the next we see thing we see is the gear reaching Solaris, and starting to attack it.
The scene cuts back to the Executioner, standing on a smoldering dock, and now joined by Krelian. She takes off her disguise to reveal that she is, in fact, Miang, chief architecht of Fei's suffering. She is clearly pleased that Id has awakened, and believes that it will be more difficult for Fei to regain control this time. Krelian is concerned with recovering Elly, a task which has Miang has deferred to Ramsus, though both are skeptical of his chance of success. There's a bit more dialogue here which reveals that they're not entirely on the same page for motivations, but are working together for now. The scene ends with Krelian noting that it is time for them to leave, as Solaris' destruction is imminent.
Imminent indeed. More videos of Id-Weltall attacking Solaris follows, and the whole structure falls apart, the core of it crashing into a mountain and exploding. Whoa, holy shit, thousands of people (millions?) just died. Hard not to feel bad for the ones who were innocent, even if they were part of a pretty jerkass society. I kinda feel like the game glosses over the death a bit here, but I guess I can't see many of the PCs feeling that torn up about it and/or they have much bigger problems to deal with...
Meanwhile, we finally cut back to the PCs, escaping on Seibzehn, as Elly regains consciousness. She asks where Fei is, and after Citan attempts some evasive answers, he eventually tells her the truth: Fei is in the red gear. Fei is destroying Solaris. The entire party witnessed his transformation at the docks.
Id's not done yet. His next target: those inconvenient "friends" of Fei's. The Yggdrasil crew turns to Citan for instructions, but for once he is at a complete loss. Elly takes initiative and pilots Vierge out of the Yggdrasil to meet Id. Id gleefully talks about killing her. Elly tells him that if that is what will make him happy, then she will die for him. Id attacks her, but as he does, Elly grabs him, momentarily restraining him. She yells at him, to Fei, telling Fei she won't ever let him go, to please return to being Fei. Id angrilly fends her off and eventually overcomes her, but even as he does, Fei begins to wake up. An enraged Id leaves the stage once more.
The scene shifts to Shevat, the dust having settled, as people discuss what to do with Fei now that it is clear he is Id. Citan explains a fair deal of what has happened, including his own role: he had been ordered by Cain to watch Fei and determine if he was a threat to humanity. Watching Fei, Citan came to believe that he would be good for the world, and the two both held hope that Fei could use his power to challenge the evil of the Gazel Ministry and those with like-minded plans. Cain defers to Citan's judgement, saying that he is atoning for his crimes by letting humans govern their own affairs.
Citan has learned much about Id, some pieced together from things Solaris would know (such as the fact that Id had been an assassin under Grahf's control which Solaris had employed to destroy the rebelling Elru, Dominia's homeland), but much from watching Fei for the past three years, and, of course, a certain scene. We flash back now to the scene where Citan had taunted the captive Fei with his failures until he could stand it no more, and Id had appeared. This scene is pretty awesome, as Citan smoothly engages with the raging destructive force that is Id. Citan reveals that yes, he did indeed allow Fei to be held in a capture device which blocks his nerve signals precisely for this purpose (the real reason he led the party to captivity). He asks him various questions and Id is happy enough to answer. Id hates Fei, the personality which Khan Wong, his father, "created" on top of his own three years ago, keeping Id's persona bound up. Fei didn't exist until then, which is why he has no memories. However, Id has far more hate for another personality he has, which he just refers to as a coward, which Citan speculates might be the "base" personality of the whole mess. Eventually, Id tires of questioning, threatening to break out of his captivity. Citan just tells him that he can't: that even if he somehow could, he knows Id has finite available "mental energy" and would waste it on the act of breaking free. Id is pissed off, and assures Citan he will enjoy murdering him some day.
Meanwhile, a decision has to be reached for Fei. Most of the Shevat elders, remembering the time when Grahf all but destroyed the world by unleashing the Diabolos disaster, fear Fei and despite the misgivings of several named characters (but especially Elly), they elect to freeze him in carbonite, because you really can never have too many Star Wars references. Elly will have none of it, though, so that night, before they can enact their plan, she breaks him out of prison. Fei worries that perhaps he should be frozen, that perhaps if he continues to be free he might eventually hurt her. Elly notes that he wasn't able to kill her, even as Id, and that she will be there for him no matter what. D'aww.
Unfortunately, Vierge is damaged from the fight with Id, so they have to fly out in Vierge. Citan appears to give them his blessing, having unsurprisingly guessed out what Elly would do. They make their escape.
Cut to the Gazel Ministry. WHAT THEY MADE IT OUT OF SOLARIS FUCKING BASTARDS I HOPED THEY MIGHT BE DEAD; CAN'T YOU DO ANYTHING USEFUL ID?!?! Ahem. It's not yet clear where they are, but apparently the villains have a new home base. They're pissed that Cain was working behind their back and they want that Fei dead, and his little dog too! Krelian says that he has sent Ramsus after him, having turned his gear into an Omnigear with a relic he recovered from the recent salvage operations.
The scene cuts to Ramsus, recalling his orders from Krelian to kill Fei and recover Elly, and Miang's words of encouragement, that she believes in him even if nobody else does. Twist the knife a little more, Miang, will you.
Ramsus catches up with Fei, and then, something truly amazing happens. They fight, and Ramsus, with his awesome new omnigear, wins. Ramsus. Wins. At something. Anything. He is overcome with joy and cackles madly about how he isn't useless as he takes out his rage on Weltall. Even as Elly screams that they surrender, he can't hear them, sending the gear crashing to earth in his madness, apparently destroying it. Ramsus comes to his senses and realises he has ignored his orders by allowing Elly to die as well. He doesn't give a shit. Today is Ramsus Day, baby!
That said, he may also have slightly overestimted his own accomplishments. The first disc ends with a scene of Fei and Elly struggling out of the burning remnants of Weltall... as Grahf watches from the shadows.
Whew! Anyway, as you can probably tell, I really dig the whole Solaris arc. A lot of plot points pay off, there is some excellent character work, the plans of the antagonists become clear, and in general pretty much every character worth caring about gets a chance to shine. You get a freat look at a twisted society and lots of things happen; even the "victory" of Solaris' destruction, as the major villains all survive and obviously are about to be doing really bad things. Really sets things up nicely for the big endgame push which goes on for pretty much the entire disc.
Honestly, parts of this replay definitely remind me why the game is not on my short list of all-time favourite RPGs, ringing in at something more like 8/10 level. Obviously the gameplay is a big reason (and even Solaris reminds me of that: the labs were definitely too big a dungeon for a game which obviously cares far more about its story than its gameplay). But apart from that the story definitely isn't always firing on all cylinders. Just looking back, prior to Solaris there's quite a long segment of the game which was punctuated by only occasional parts (Ethos revelations, Shevat) which really delivered what the goods in terms of making me really care about the game's writing. But Solaris? Yeah, pretty much that whole place lived up to my memories of what the game does well.
Next time: people sitting in chairs, and some hilariously weak bosses!
