Bonus Chapter Options

[Rhiannon]

Okay, so I just spent all day playing Riviera, and I went from Mireno aall the way through the end of the game, and I tried out the Bonus Chapter. So now I have to tell everyone about it. If you don't want to know, get out. Because I'm going to tell you if you don't.

Right after selecting Bonus Chapter from the Extra Contents, you're taken to some sort of selection screen. I could only select "With the Sprites," but below a picture of the four girls, there was a single square that was all black. Ledah, anyone?

Anyway, when you start, Ein is all alone and he is confused. And then, suddenly, the girls appear. They ended up here when they were exploring the catacombs somehow. They don't know how. They like to say some nonsense about air bending and dimensions and worlds and stuff. And Lina worries that they won't be able to get back to Elendia. A lot.

For the most part, it plays like any other chapter in the game... except there's some sort of gauge in battles under the OverDrive that goes down after time (although I have no idea what exactly it does), you cannot do practice battles or even gain EXP, and you can actually be unable to proceed due to lack of TP. I had to restart once because of that last thing, actually. :(

You start with Einherjar, Mithril Sword, Holy Sabre, Iria's Bow, Black Scythe, Salamander Rod, and Potion. Except for Einherjar and the Potion, they only have x10 durability. How worrisome. The stats of the characters are the same as they were in RiviGBA, I'm pretty sure. Although, there IS that Mana Wisp that I don't know how to get, so you can make them stronger I'm sure.

You can find more items in chests and from defeating enemies, of course. But every chest requires TP (actually, nearly every trigger in the dungeon requires TP) so you have to be careful what you do. And some chests are trapped with enemies, and with your limited items/durability, you may not want to fight them. But then again, you may WANT to fight them for more TP and more items. They're trapped with an enemy if they're red, by the way.

Um, back to items again quickly. Not every OverSkill is learned for each item, and since you can't gain EXP, you're going to have to deal with what you have. It's really not very nice. I SO WOULD HAVE USED SERENE AGAINST HADES IF I GOT ANY SCYTHES THAT SHE HAD AN OVERSKILL WITH. >:(

All of the enemies sort of glow in battle, which is kind of neat, I guess. Also, you may have heard of a weird BG with a mountain. That BG does not show up here. Maybe in the other part of the bonus chapter it will.

TP is much more precious... you NEED TP to advance, and when you start, it's going to be very scarce. Thankfully, the enemies are mostly weak, so it shouldn't be too difficult to S-Rank them. Later on, TP is less worrisome, since you've probably saved up TP from the easiest battles in the beginning.

There are three parts (no, they're not different areas, unfortunately) that are separated by Magic Circles. At the end of the first two parts, you'll fight a boss. On the third part, though, you'll have to fight bosses in the last three rooms. The bosses, in order, are: Two Ishers, Lindwurm with two Dragoons, Archangel, Death in his second form with a Belial Queen, and then you finally battle Hades.

There is a Book of Memories at the beginning of the second and third parts, so don't worry, you DO get a chance to save.

Now, some miscellanous stuff. Lina runs into a wall, there's a Rock(!!), the power of Sprites does not reach this place, it's very dark, there are enemies hidden in the dark sometimes, you can get fancy items like Battle Pixies, there's a Bomber Kid that might do something if you bring a Bomb to him (I already used mine when I got to him, though), and you get a bunch of items after defeating bosses.

Oh, and this pretty much fixes the Archangel's little plot hole. It's said in the dungeon before you fight her that "Even angels are reborn as demons". And speaking of the story... the Aghart wasn't in the dungeon, so Ledah just doesn't know what the heck he's talking about. That, or I hate Sting. Either way, I hate Sting.

Now I have some questions. I don't know if anyone can answer them, but maybe some day... How do you unlock the other part of the chapter? Can you get something other than Clene Met in the yellow chest? What does the Bomber Kid do when you have a Bomb? What does the new gauge do?

Answer my questions, speculate on their answers, ask me questions about it, or say what you think of the bonus chapter.