207 xenoblade - great hall of imperial palace mapped

Dear Readers,

We're still in the Great Hall of the Imperial Palace. We tried going to Melia's private quarters, but there was no access.

We then tried the corridor opposite this one but there was nothing at the end, only a silver ring. It was a glowing red item so no doubt it'll be important soon.

This corridor also had a transporter that led to our prison room. It was kinda amusing how they were ordered to accommodate us for rest when there's only a long table and chairs in there.

After that, I had mapped out the Great Hall. I'm glad because the place is so big I feel lost and vulnerable with all these time-limited quests too.

206 xenoblade - why is the imperial palace so big

Dear Readers,

I decided to explore the imperial palace more. I feel completely lost and overwhelmed here so I wanted to explore and mingle.

The guards were very proud of their position.

There were people who looked at statues of their ancestors and wonder if they devolved. More people thought it was weird this place was so big and wondered if their forefathers were giants. Whew, so it's not just me who thinks this place is a bit too big.

Another two citizens were looking at the mural and water feature. The mural depicted the battle between the Bionis and Mechonis. Their ancestors witnessed the battle apparently.

The two people here vanished and I remembered this game has different character schedules for day and for night. Urgh.... I don't need this right now. I set it back to daytime.

Galvin stood by the stairs here and came up as Overzealous soldier. He said someone saved him but didn't say who.

The opposite staircase also had someone named Lecrough standing by them. He wanted to defeat 6 Eryth Hilns to help his friend Galvin. We agreed to do it for him. He came up as Diligent soldier.

Another guard nearby had another quest for us. We agreed to defeat Peeling Kircheis on Hovering Reef 7 for him. Yet another time-limited quest.

All time-limited quests. Sounds iffy to be honest.

We learned that Galvin lost his confidence after something happened to him. Maybe we can help him recover.

We couldn't go further after going upstairs.

205 xenoblade - gathering time-limited quests in alcamoth

Dear Readers,

After Alvis left, an imperial guard rushed in, telling us something bad happened outside of the city with one of the transporters and some people were in danger. We offered to help.

This came up as a story quest.

We left the room out into the huge area we were before and saw more people with exclamation marks over their heads. Here we go...

An Alcomoth Citizen wanted to make a musical instrument and wanted materials. We agreed to collect 2 Lexos Beards from Racti Lexos at Eryth Sea. This was also a time-limited quest, which makes my headache even bigger. 

Another citizen was doing a monster ecology study but was feeling overwhelmed. I know how she feels. We agreed to defeat 5 Cruz Paguls at Eryth Sea for her. This was also time-limited and there were more of them. She also wanted to defeat 3 Eryth Ansels and 2 Ciconia Ekidnos. Both time-limited as well.

Yikes with all the time-limited quests. Does something bad happen here soon I wonder?

Someone named Ma'crish was on the steps and spoke about how we should respect everyone's culture. She came up as an advocate of equality.

I now need to get to know a new people, the High Entia. They're like Homs but they have wings on the sides of their heads.

204 xenoblade - the huge window prison

Dear Readers,

The prison we were in had a lovely view of the world around us. It also had a really long table and chairs. No one was standing up though. It was like being told to wait in a fancy hotel conference room.

I was able to speak with everyone individually. They were all puzzled. Well, it was mostly Reyn that was puzzled. Dunban said they were probably being cautious to keep us here for the time being.

The guards came and Alvis was with them. He was the one that was going to interrogate us. I told him our story and he explained that the Monado was the reason why we were kept here.

I had more questions for him but he said to be patient and I would find out what I wanted to know soon, whatever that meant.

He then ordered us to be set free to roam the city and to use this room to rest before heading away.

203 xenoblade - the emperor congratulates melia

Dear Readers,

Before the focus went back to Shulk and the others, I went to the audience chamber as Melia and a scene played out where her father and her brother and another character whose names I haven't learned welcomed and congratulated her on the defeat of the Telethia.

They gave advice about grieving the soldiers who lost their lives fighting the creature and they all sounded very royal and diplomatic. They also said the rest of our group were arrested because of the Monado. Melia was confused and upset about this.

They went on to explain about the legend of the Monado and how if it fell in to the wrong hands it could be harmful to their race, the High Entia. They wanted to interrogate everyone to ensure we were pure of heart, especially the one wielding the Monado. They wanted to know if I, Shulk was the chosen one.

When the perspective shifted back to the group, it didn't look like we were in a cage. This prison was all windows, spacious and had a grand view. I was now Shulk again.

202 xenoblade - melia enters the palace

Dear Readers,

We arrived at the gate of the city when some soldiers appered and knelt in front of Melia, calling her Lady Melia, revealing something very significant to the group about her.

She gave them some orders to accommodate us, asked us to wait, and left to report about the telethia and ask for access to Prison Island.

Suddenly, the focus shifted to Melia entirely! I continued as Melia, into the Imperial Palace of Alcamoth. It was enormous and had lovely chanting and chiming music. I didn't really stick around to chat with anyone wandering around and the heart to heart spots here weren't accessible of course.

I immediately got lost and had to go back to the centre of where all the paths split. I found where I was going by ascending some huge staircase. I met a man named Donnis who was very happy and relieved to see me. He came up on the affinity chart as a patriotic imperial guard.

I had to zoom out on the chart to find him. He was on the very bottom right corner of the chart! There's an entire right half of this thing that's otherwise completely blank. There are many many more hours of this game to get through, unfortunately.

There was also a scene with two wicked looking characters that seemed to be plotting against the royal family or whatever. Dun dun dun etc.

201 xenoblade - climbing to the city

Dear Readers,

I may have saved too soon. I have no idea how to go back to the previous area. We came up through the sea, right? Not sure how to get back so might as well press on.

We went up to the transporter Melia told us about and it took us to a new area. I collected an item there that gave me a vision of Riki collecting another one. It was a white tail. He wanted to use them as pillows for sleeping.

What followed was a series of transporters across floating islands called hovering reefs to pass through. There was a heart to heart here for Riki and Sharla but it was still too early. We continued until we got to the centre gate.