Had to continue the series so I started up the second Untold game. Being not so keen on playing another 86 hours over the course of 8 years I choose the picnic mode and guess what? 45 hours later and I'm done... and I actually recall the whole game! And playing it this close to the ending of the first game I can see that it's pretty much structured the same way. Explore 5 floors, fight a boss, go into this side dungeon (Ginnungagap in this game), explore till stuck, back to labyrinth for another 5 floors, a new boss and so on until you reach floor 20 and the twist is revealed, go to floor 25, defeat boss and back to final stretch in the side dungeon for the true final boss. Cap the level at 65 and you are good to go.
In between floors do some quests and gather materials and money to upgrade your equipment. Another side thing is gathering ingredients for helping your guild restaurant and deciphering the clues for the recipes, a bit like the alchemy clues in Dragon Quest VIII (the PS2 version that is). So that is the basic structure, what is the story? You, the main character and your best friend Flavio have been sent by the Midgar Library (where Simon, Arthur and Raquna came from in the first game) to escort Princess Arianne. She's been tasked with performing a ritual that's needed every 100 year to uphold a seal on the Calamity, another Yggdrasil core. Entering Ginnungagap for the first time you meet Chloe and Bertrand forming the last part of your Guild as you continue the adventure.
Bertrand is probably the most interesting character. A former fafnir knight that lived over a 100 year when his princess took his place in the ritual to stop the calamity. Cause the twist is that the fafnir knight is doomed to die and that happens to be the main character, chosen by Arianne when you saved her as a kid. Due to having 2 fafnir knights the system breaks down during the final phase so you have to save Bertrand that was taken instead of you and then you have to find another way to stop the Calamity. So you gets hint about the Overlord living in the flying castle. You meet him, turns out to be some sort of computer program, kills him and have now the power to fight the Calamity. Back in Ginnungagap you meet the Calamity and defeats it, but during the celebration it awakes again, putting all your compatriots out of commission except Arianne that intends to spare you from your faith, but you take her place and her love for you (I think at least) awakens the dormant powers that the Overlord gave you after dying so you get a super powered form that destroys the Calamity once and for all.
After that someone is talking with the citizens you meet, explaining that a bright light shone from the labyrinth and a shooting star flew south. The guild left sad as they missed one of their members, pretty much hinting that you died. The final scene is the guild deciding to go south in order to try and find you as they believe you are still alive. The end!
It was a fun little adventure. Don't know if it's due to the easier difficulty or the fact I got the skill system better this time around. Passive skills for the win. Sadly the last Untold story and with it the more story oriented games in the series. I will probably play the Switch versions afterwards, both to compare and play through the third game before continuing with IV and so forth.
