We’ve arrived at Yamatai Village. It’s time to enter walkthrough mode, and believe me, we’re going to need it here as I imagine this place was pretty damn confusing for anyone trying to play without translation.
Yamatai Village is pretty big. These settlements seem to get bigger and bigger no matter how small and rustic they look on the map. In the original series the problem here involved a sacrifice to Yamata no Orochi. This time around the problem seems to be unrest around the sacred shrines. There are four of them – Cat, Raccoon, Fox and Snake.
Before then there’s the usual bout of information gathering and stealing things out of pots.
The mysterious mountain leads to the elf village Yamatai has some kind of deal with. It’s not possible to enter right now as it’s protected by a magic force.
The most important quest item we need to pick up here is the Eastern Book of Secrets. That unlocks the Ninja, Samurai and Taoist jobs. There are various other NPCs looking for that information. Kappas are sumo wrestling with the young men, who don’t seem to be trying to win too hard. There are more nods to Japanese folklore with a Yuki-onna that can only stay married so long as her husband doesn’t realise she’s a Yuki-onna (he seems oblivious enough that she doesn’t have anything to worry about).
Yamata no Orochi is still about and still requires a yearly sacrifice. There aren’t any shortage of volunteers for this in Paradox world as they’ve figured out sacrifice means being licked to a state of extreme erotic bliss for a year and then coming back home. Alice mentions Yamata no Orochi is very old and very tough, so I’m guessing she’s an optional boss along similar lines to Sphinx.
There are not one but two battlefuckers in Yamatai – Yayoi...
Likes swords |
...and Satsuki.
Likes nipples |
As for actual plot, first we need to find and talk to the village headman. He can be found in the main hut here:
Village head's hut |
This is the NPC you need to talk to |
So there are our missions. Time to head to the shrines. This is a separate location reached by following the road north through the village and walking onto the next screen.
The base of the hill is fairly touristy. The shop here sells various treats. Ilias is here with her pitiful party and she and Alice bicker as usual. The shrines are reached by walking up the steps by the north exit. Thankfully there are shrine maiden NPCs located at each shrine and at the base of the mountain to shortcut walking up or down all those steps.
The first shrine is the cat shrine. In the warehouse next to it you can recruit the last of the unfortunate quartet if you have one of them in your party when you talk to the Unfortunate Nekomata. She(?) will also give you an item that unlocks the Nekomata race for beast girls.
A cat girl. Nya nya. |
(although it might have been fun if the game randomly slipped a level 60 nekomata in as one of the encounters outside the village)
It was this one in my playthrough |
I put the adorable kitsune pair, Kamuro and Kitsu, in my party to see if they had any additional dialogue when talking with the NPCs. Other than cooing at the cute normal foxes wandering around outside they don’t. Two new kitsune (which I imagine we’ll fight later at some point) are guarding the gate, but we’re allowed entry for now.
Nero is here and is getting mobbed by foxes. I don’t know why to be honest. Machine translation got a little lost here. Fox tails decorating his clothing that the other foxes don’t like? Answers below if you know, please.
Not really sure what the foxes are doing with Nero |
Unhappy Tamamo |
However, this does count as resolving the problems with the Fox shrine. Onto the Raccoon shrine.
Just outside the raccoon shrine is a group of rat girls. They seem to be plotting some kind of coup over the fact they don’t have a shrine of their own, but I think they’re just background NPCs.
There’s nobody at the Raccoon shrine other than a crying Kitsune. Talk to her and you find out she’s crying because she challenged the Raccoon God to go to the Yamata no Orochi caves and she never came back.
So it’s a rescue mission, and an excuse to visit those caves.
So off we go... next post.
(I was originally going to put all the shrine stuff here, but we’re already over 1,000 words.)
-> Next: Yamata no Orochi Caves
From what I recall, Tamamo reveals that Alice's mom is involved with her being sealed.
ReplyDeleteAlso, pay close attention to one of the paths in Orochi's cave that is seemingly a dead-end.
A recent translation update explains why Nero is mobbed by foxes here. He mentions that it may be due to his upbringing, and this is further explained during the events in Grangold Castle where he calls a certain person his teacher.
ReplyDelete