Curate of Curiosities

When I wrote out my final thoughts on Dragoon Entertainment's games, I had taken it for granted that the hole made by the unavailability of the Skylight Freerange games would never be filled: I don't own either of the consoles they were made for, and the developers of their respective emulators wouldn't put making them playable.

But last fall, the team behind Vita3K, the only usable emulator for the redheaded stepchild of Sony consoles, released a major update that increased compatibility for a number of overlooked titles, Dragoon Entertainment's games included. Nevermore would these games lock up at the title screen to the point of forcing a device restart.

Granted, there are still a few hiccups, such as the audio crackling while it gradually slows to a halt, but from what I already know about The D's approach to sound design, I dont find it to be a major loss.

Where we last left off when playing the demo of the PC version, we were tasked by Colonel Sanders with meeting up with the Liches, led by someone known as the Polydegmon, in order to stop the NDC, which is for some reason being supported by the province's government.

This is almost the same background used for scenes with the evil team in Skylight 2. These don't look like the NDC, but they seem to have both them and Alberta's government in their pocket, while at the same time keeping tabs on someone called the Exorcist. So I wonder which unassuming-looking murderer will end up being their ringleader?

Back to the game. There are three major cities in this game, Brandon, Portage la Prairie, and Stonewall. We start out in Portage la Prairie, and were in Brandon when the demo wrapped up. The Liches are headquartered in the smaller settlement of Steinbach, the easternmost landmark on the map. Stonewall just happens to be on the way there, and as soon as we enter, we get involved in a complaint against local law enforcement.

For the uninitiated, Lifeless are living bombs. In gameplay, they're a bit harrowing to fight, especially when there's more than one of them in a closed space. But here, in the plot...tell me again why someone in goverment is supporting the NDC?

We can finally see the extent of the devastation that the Northern Burning has brought to Canada. Not only do there seem to be only a few populated areas in this province, but each of them has been reduced to a few nondescript square buildings.

And not just that, but although this disaster happened less than twenty years ago, they already have movies calling it a legend and a myth in the same sentence! Unless this is supposed to be a reference to Titanic: The Legend Goes On.

Going further east, towards the Liches' territory, takes us to Winnipeg, the province's capital. Oh sorry, after the NDC took over, they renamed it Impossible, after the creature that they worshipped as a god and who has been dead for several years.

We go through the Lifeless laboratory, find the children-turned-Lifeless, and there we are met with a moral choice on how to deal with them. Almost like it's a real RPG!

We decide to put them out of their misery, which probably would have been more effective if it weren't for the random swear.

While The D's previous games weren't squeaky-clean language-wise (Alberto telling Diamo to go eat a dick comes to mind) it's this game that kicks the swearing into high gear. Two of our party members, Robyn and Arthur, seem to have swearing as their primary character trait!

There's a river going right throught the middle of the city, and none of our party members can swim, nor do any of them have a swimming section in their skill trees. So our only way across is through a subway tunnel. Good luck telling the entrance apart from all the other samey buildings in the city.

These tunnels are absolutely lousy with Indestructibles. But fortunately, I have a plan. Okay, not really. I wasn't exactly planning a build for this playthrough for a while, until I realized that I could put points in golem summoning and have them deal with the baddies while I stayed in the corner.

And with that, it's on to Steinbach.

So this must be a Lich.

He doesn't think that we have what it takes to join forces with them, so what does he do? Sic a purple-skinned, one armed monster called a Terror on us! What a trustworthy bunch!

Yeesh. I know that the various symbiote strains have effected nearly everyone, but I've never seen it make someone look like an obvious villain before!

Like they've been doing to the rest of Canada, the NDC has been causing the Liches trouble, but they have an ace up their sleeve: The Illusion Symbiote. I wonder if the party will end up faceing its effects at some point?

You've probably noticed that I haven't said much about the gameplay. This is because every single quest in the game follows the same formula: after watching a cutscene telling us where we need to go, we follow the quest marker to some abandoned buiding or cellar or whatever, where we go through a series of rooms filled with identical enemies (and occasionally some Indestructibles) before reaching a boss encounter that, more often than not, consists of the same enemies that you've been fighting on the way there.

Looking for side material? Don't worry! It's more of the same, except your reward, instead of a cutscene, is weapons that might fit your party's current build that have slightly higher numbers attached to them than normal! And now I dread to think what would happen if The D were to start developing mobile games.

Back to Stonewall, the Sentinels, the town's de facto law enforcement, has a bit of corruption for us to deal with. They don't mention exactly who they're taking bribes from, but I have a hunch that it has something to do with the anarchist group murdering and raping its way across the province.

And suprise surprise, that's exactly who it is!

After a bit more of this, we finally run into the Exorcist. Our group is corrupt since they brought about the Northern Burning, and for that we must all die. He's made quite a bit of progress on that end, having single-handedly destroyed most Severin branches throughout Canada, leaving only the one in Alberta. However, he's willing to show some mercy if we agree to help him take out both the NDC and the Liches.

Personally, I'm not taking any advice from someone who wears a meatloaf on his face.

Sabine (don't recognize her by name? She's the one in purple with her cleavage out) takes issue with this arrangement and runs off to blab to everyone about how the company she works for was responsible for the firestorm that swept Canada. But there's no way that some rando spreading rumors can do much against us, so we don't have to worry about her for now.

Although our organization is still meant to be a secret, we've already made quite a name for ourselves for aiding the struggle against the NDC, particularly in Stonewall, so now whenever we enter any of the towns, we get forced into a combat encounter with them. We were already opposing them anyways, and this helps the still-loyal Sentinels, so it's not so bad. Asking the Sentinels to allow the Liches to operate out of the town, however, is a slightly trickier proposition, that can only be resolved by diving into a dungeon and killing more rogues.

Meanwhaile, Sabine runs into the Exorcist and, with no allies left, joins up with him, providing us with both of their backstories in the process. The Exorcist used to be part of Severin, until they experimented on his brother. If I were one of the heads of Severin, especially after the Northern Burning, I'd seriously consider changing the group's name, at least.

Between Robyn and these guys, I wonder if Vivziepop ghost-wrote for this.

We have to go through the Impossible (to navigate) Skyscraper in order to corner the Exorcist, but that's easier said than done due to every part of it looking the same, and while most dungeons have checkpoints at the beginning and just before the boss room, this dungeon has three of them in total, making it more likely that you'll get turned around.

At the end, you fight both the Exorcist and Sabine at the same time, and they may be the hardest boss in a game full of entirely unremarkable ones.

Combat in this game has been mostly a snoozefest, but for this boss fight, you either have to pay attention or get lucky. Neither the Exorcist or Sabine can do a whole lot, but what they can do, they do very effectively, especially since that one thing is hitting you very hard.

RIP Meatloaf Face.

Who should meet us outside the skyscraper but the Polydegmon? He tells us to our faces that he does not need us anymore, and demands that we hand over the Competency Technology at our disposal to help them fight off the NDC.

Either hand over our technology to a bunch of Red Skull cosplayers, or break off our alliance with them, with potentially deadly consequences. Well, these liches may be scary, and their leader may have jaundice, but they are definitely our best bet to be rid of them for good. And besides, maybe now that they have what they need, they'll finally leave us alone.

What's more, since Sabine is about to turn the entire province against us, we now have to track her down and kill her.

So either the Liches are unleashing the technology that we gave them, or they're holding a sick rave party.

On the way to Impossible, we help the Sentinels at Stonewall smoke out some more rogues in their midst, and then meet their leader, from whom we find out that they used to be part of GTAL from Skylight 1, which would explain their not wanting to get involved with another mostly ineffectual law enforcement organization.

Once we reach Impossible, we find out that the Liches set off a Symbiote weapon to turn the NDC members into Terrors. Since Sabine ended up turning as well, we can now kill her guilt-free. More disturbingly, it means that the Liches' strategy with Severin's technology is to spray and pray. From the average civilian's perspective, is there any difference between them and the NDC?

Meanwhile, Tanner is pissed that his trying to show the public that the anarchistic terrorists are benevolent has failed due to them being anything but. I have no idea what would possess him to take his chances with them. Maybe the reason is buried somewhere in the story recap menu, but I don't want to go through any more plot exposition than is necessary.

Back to our headquarters, something is...off. There's a crowd gathered in front of the pizza place that we were using as a base, and some of them are praising the Polydegmon for saving Winnipeg from the NDC and exposing the organization that burned the country down. The same organization that we're associated with, that is.

So this is what happens when the Polydegmon gets ahold of our tech. He lets slip that our organization was associated with the perpetrators of a nationwide disaster to a public ignorant of the nuances of the situation, then sits back while they take matters into their own hands.

"Hello, my name is Addie. Would you like to see the expansion that was added to the console versions?" No thanks, we don't want to risk making more enemies.

Back to Stonewall, home of the only allies that our group still has, to find a way to clean up the mess that we helped make. Our strategy, steal their stock of Illusion Symbiote and use it against them. Of course, this involves going through another dull, samey dungeon.

From there, we set up our plan: make a bomb out of the Symbiote, have one person carry it to the outskirts of Stonewall, rejoin the group, lure the Liches to it, and set it off, and that's the end of the Liches.

But it's not as simple as that. It's never so simple. The Liches have caught on to our scheme. But why? Why would the Liches want to stop us at this point? They have what they wanted, the NDC is no more, and Severin already has a target on its back. Why not just sit back and let the vigilantes do their work? They won't attack the group that they see as heroes, after all.

Kaboom. The bomb goes off, with us at the dead center. And if that wasn't bad enough, the rest of the party is set upon by a horde of Liches and Terrors. You know how in the first two Skylight games, unarmed attacks do more damage with each consecutive attack? The same is true here, and one of our party members specializes in it.

Wait, isn't Sabine supposed to be dead?

For the next gameplay segment, we escort Sabine through a plain blue hallway filled with ghosts. Thrilling. I take it they're doing the same thing as with Skylight 1, one squad takes out some grunts, while the other tangles with the final boss. But despite all of Skylight 1's issues, neither of them were this tedious, even after I found the AI exploit with the final boss.

What's even funnier is the game tries to jumpscare you right after, with Terror Sabine rushing at the screen.

It's the Polydegmon! I'm not going to ask how he's immune to its effects, or how he somehow has control over its effects on people, but what at shock it is that he turned out to be a villain. And like the Exorcist, he's motivated by a personal vendetta against the group. Maybe I should have sided with Meatloaf Face earlier...

Looks like it's finally time to rumble with the Polydeg...oh wait, the rest of the gang came in and shot him.

So, it turns out there is no final boss in this route, just a horde of Liches and a hallway full of ghosts. And fittingly for the end of a route that requires us to join forces with the most obviously untrustworthy faction outside of the NDC, the ending's a dud as well: each of the party members get murdered by vigilantes, the main guy freaks out for a bit because he's still under the effects of the symbiote, the end. At least the NDC's been deal with...well, only the ones that were in Winnipeg.

And that was Skylight Freerange. A bit of a disappointment, but what did you expect? Its plot's still a mess, but nowhere near to the same extent as The D's earlier games. While the open world is ambitious, there's nothing to occupy it with other than identical-looking enemy gauntlets. At least it's the shortest of The D's games that I've finished, at only five hours.