Ooh good to know about Khalid's sword and crowns. Unfortunately, I've already mastered Counter so no good there. I have been playing with Formations, just earned a new one last night from the couple who make you do the dream world. I'm also using skinny Robin.

I tried my hand at the tournament and made it to the second round, but got knocked out quickly in the second round by an annoying mage team where it seemed like every enemy used Life Drain. So I gave up there and did my first mercenary gig for Fazos I think? I saved just before I did it, because the UI is a bit misleading. I figured I simply needed to reduce the enemies moral to 0, but it turns out I needed to push the leader unit into the end field of the enemies side instead. I got the hang of it after my third attempt.

After that, I couldn't really find much else to do in the smaller towns, so I headed to Pidona where all the action seems to be. I met up with Sarah and Thomas. Was a little disappointed that Ellen and Sarah's reunion was a simply "Hi" I mean we've both been adventuring for ages, I was expecting a bit more of a scene when they reunited, especially considering they didn't leave on the best terms. Followed Thomas to Muse's house and helped saved the kid tapped in the Archfiend's old castle. You would think the people in the slums would just move in there considering its abandoned. Afterwards, I entered Muse's dream world to face off with the Dream Eater. This was a nice ode to Cyan's dream eater experience, but sadly I enjoyed VI's version a little better since we were watching a character we grew with whereas here we're getting glimpses of the psyche of a person we just met. Like both, I had to eventually look up a solution to it cause its not very good about cluing you into what you do during the loop part. I really wish I didn't have to be stuck with Charl and Muse for this mission. Not helped that only after the fact did I learn that I was meant to give him the Silver Armlet to make him less useless. Of course, I had a funny moment where again, I really wish the game gave you better item descriptions, cause I convinced myself that Khalid, whom I had given the Silver Armlet to for the defense bonus could dual wield if you gave him a second sword, not realizing it was the silver armlet doing it until again, right after the fact. Charl wasn't a bad character per se even without the item. He sparked a pretty decent Spear move. My real issue was just not having access to my fll party because the dream world turned out to be a really great place to level. Since I was stuck with Charl, I opted to bring the Minstrel since I had him as a bench-warmer, but I really should have chosen Robin so I could spark some more moves with him. I ended up getting Riptide and Dragon Tailspin for swords, Big Swing and Cranium Splitter for spears, Thunderkick for melee, Incorporeal Stance and Running Slash for Great swords, Rotator for clubs, and Megahawk and Hyper Hammer for Axe. I also learned Avoid Hypnosis and Avoid Decimate (though that one was in the Archfiend Keep) as well. Great place to level except for Muse who seriously could never catch up. I dragged her into the final fight anyways since the rest of my team was so beefy and learned later it helps you avoid his nastier second phase.

With that done, the circus is in town but I couldn't actually see anything so I left and saved for the night.