Part 18: The Seven Needles
Before Lucas leaves the Old Man’s Paradise to find everyone else, Alec asks if he was with Duster. If you say yes, he says he’ll let Wess know. If you say no, there’s an awkward pause. Alec remarks that Lucas found one of the Magypsies on his travels. He adds that though the Magypsies may not look trustworthy, they are, and that they might be able to help Lucas find his missing friends. When you leave the nursing home, Boney sniffs something peculiar and runs over to the source. When you find him, you also find Ionia, all tied up.
There’s a crowd around him, but nobody is helping him – they’re just watching Ionia roll around. One bystander asks if he can say something completely off-topic. No matter your answer, he will say that he found a doorknob on the ground, and threw it as far as he could. The doorknob Thomas pulled off in Chapter 1 sure has been going places!
Ionia says that he was assaulted, not knowing by whom. When Lucas is the one to help him up, Ionia remembers that he was the boy that met him at that certain place at that certain time in Chapter 4. He adds that he knew Lucas was special as soon as he saw him, and that he must be the one the Magypsies had been waiting tens of thousands of years for. Because he was attacked, he wants to check and see if the other Magypsies are also alright. Fortunately, two bystanders offer to row him and Lucas down the river to Aeolia’s house with their boat. Before we go there though, I’m going to walk around Tazmily and see what people have to say, with Ionia following.
There are two kinds of dialogue that most people have to say. The first type of dialogue deals with Ionia; some people are afraid of him, others are confused, and some are affirmative of him. I’m more interested in the second kind of dialogue, which involves people talking about New Pork City.
At Isaac’s house, you’ll find a note posted on the door that says, “Going to the big city. See you all later.”
If you talk to Jill, she says, “It seems like the factory’s been closed down. So I expected my little Biffy and Butchy to come back home, but they wound up going to some New Pork Something-or-Other instead.”
At the Yado Hotel, Jackie says, “Visitors from the big city have really dropped in number. Conversely, people wanting to leave this village for the city are on the rise. In which case, it would be best to move our hotel to the city. Right? Well, that’s what I think, at least.” What Jackie says here is true – people are leaving Tazmily in droves. There have been less and less villagers in town since chapter 5. People are more interested in the promises of a city than they are in their local neighbors.
If you go all the way over to the Clayman factory, the Pigmask who hired you will say,
“Oh, hey there, Lucas. The factory’s going to be shut down soon. They say they don’t need Claymen anymore. Or the clay, or the factory… It seems no one needs me anymore, either. That makes me sad. Hahaha. I’m being sent to New Pork City when this place shuts down, too. Thanks for everything.”
This Pigmask was only ever used to be an employee, and now that his job is no longer needed, he is no longer wanted as a person. Additionally, the factory only existed to continue King P’s scheming. Now that it’s no longer needed, the building will just remain where it is, unwanted and unused, forever.
Dona says, “Do you know about the big city? I bet there’s much more happiness there than in this entire village!” The quantifiable quality that is happiness is in short supply in Tazmily – it’s poor and therefore unhappy.
If you talk to a lady at the beach, and if you have Leo-Leo’s sweater, Lucas will ask if she sewed it for him. She says, “Of course I didn’t! I didn’t sew this sweater, but I’ll throw it away for you.” I was amazed that this joke existed in the game. It was a secret enough to even get the sweater, and finding one of his exes is even more of a secret!
Another development comes from Nana. She says, “I’ve figured out what my bad habit is. I’ll put it in one sentence. I never shut up.”
Also at the beach is a pig whose been soaking up some sun for a very, very long time now. He says, “Oiiink?? (The words “Oscar” and “Mayer” appeared to me in a dream. But I don’t know what they mean. Oscar. Mayer.)”
If you go up to the Club, you will hear that it’s shutting down. If you take a look at the binoculars there, you can take a good look at the Thunder Tower that was destroyed. Some of the townsfolk also remark that there haven’t been any lightning strikes as of recently.
When you decide to finally go to Aeolia’s house, Ionia remembers that he is tied up and asks Lucas to untie him. After that, there is a loud noise, and the earth quakes. Aeolia begins fading away. He announces that the needle-like object in Osohe Castle that he has protected for so long has finally been pulled by someone who is able. Depending on the heart of whomever pulled it, the fate of the world could be at stake, as the Dark Dragon living beneath the earth will obey their wishes. Aeolia reveals a hidden passageway to Osohe’s courtyard, and then vanishes, content with the life he lived.
When Lucas and Ionia make it to the needle, a purple gas swirls from the ground. Ionia says he can’t sense whether the person’s heart who pulled it was good or evil – he sensed nothing, adding, “Could there be people in this world without hearts?” This doesn’t mean the situation is hopeless, though, as Lucas was able to learn PK Love, which means he too can pull needles from the earth. Ionia then gives a big explanation as to everything that’s going on:
“First, know this.
These are specially-protected islands.
We reside upon these islands with a limitless power.
That power is the Dragon that sleeps in the darkness under the islands.
The Dragon is incredibly large. About as large as all these islands put together. Because the Dragon is asleep, these islands are protected from disaster.
But its power is too great for humans to control.
It was for this reason that our ancient Magypsy ancestors placed seven “Needles” in the Dragon to make it sleep.
One needle for each Magypsy.
For a very, very long time, we have continued to guard the Needles.
But it has been told that someone to wake the Dragon will appear when its power is needed…
However, if the one who needs the Dragon’s power has a heart of evil, that power will obey all that is evil. It’s very possible that everything could be completely destroyed simply to satisfy wicked ambition.
On the other hand, the exact opposite is what we hope for. If a person with a heart of good pulls the Dragon’s Needles and uses its power, the fate of all evil will be washed away, and all life as we know it will shine brightly.
That is what is told.
Finally, listen to this, but don’t worry.
When each of our seven needles is pulled, we Magypsies will cease to be, our millennia-long lives over.
Isn’t that just romantic of us?”
That was a lot, wasn’t it? After all that, Ionia says again that only those who know PK Love can pull the needles, and that Lucas is a chosen boy. In the courtyard, you can find the Pigmask Commander’s phone, which is ringing. When you pick it up, the person on the other end says they’ve located the next Needle, but the monkey is needed to open it. He says he’ll explain all the details later, and that the Commander needs to visit the Chimera Lab. He asks if you know where it is, and when Lucas responds, the Pigmask on the other end says the Commander’s voice sounds uncharacteristically cheery today. Ionia flies away like a sheet of paper to guard his own Needle.
This is where the game gets very video-gamey: “Get the seven things to get the one big thing.” In Chapter seven, Lucas will be on a race to pull more needles than the enemy to awaken the Dark Dragon. He will have to go to all sorts of new locations and fight all sorts of new enemies. This is the longest chapter in the game by far, but I don’t know how much of it I’ll actually be analyzing, since this analysis isn’t about game design.
When you leave the castle, Boney prompts you to visit Nippolyte, where he is paying his respects to Hinawa. He says,
“Lucas. Have you seen Flint? He was just here visiting Hinawa’s grave. He’s probably headed back into the mountains yet again to look for Claus. Look for Claus, visit Hinawa’s grave. Look for Claus, visit Hinawa’s grave. That’s all your old man does anymore. His only salvation is you, Lucas. You’ve grown so strong that Flint doesn’t need to worry anymore. You’ve grown to be a truly good lad. Here. Flint gave me this. He asked me to give it to you the next time you came by. Supposedly, it’s a good luck charm your pop’s treasured since he was a boy himself.”
He gives you the Courage Badge. Lucas has grown to great heights since the start of the game. Now, he’s on a mission to save the world. But before we save the world, you know what we must do: we have to talk to everyone in the village again!
If you re-visit the nursing home, Wess says, “Every time I see you, the expression on your face gets more and more gallant. But each time you see me, I haven’t changed at all, huh? That is quite something.” Lucas is getting stronger, physically and emotionally.
That’s actually the only interesting new piece of dialogue there is at this point. There are less and less people in the village every time you visit, and when you do try to talk to people, almost every single person talks about how they want to go to the big city. Of the approximately 40 villagers who have lived in Tazmily, 30 remain.
This concludes part 18 of the analysis.