Ranshima Monogatari Lairland Story – How to get the true ending (spoiler free)

Despite its cutesy look, this game can be unexpectedly dark.

Some years ago… wait, how many years is that?! So, uh, many many years ago I played an obscure Princess Maker-like game called Ranshima Monogatari Lairland Story on the PSP. I played it and played it, got a number of endings and had a great time in general, but I never did get the “true” ending that tells you the story behind your mysterious charge Chilia.

Time passed, and I moved on to other games, but then I heard the game had gotten a Switch port and an English translation, so I decided this was a good chance to support the brave (but clumsy) localizers and also get a few more endings. Playing it again after 13 years, I found it rather more tedious and childish than I remembered, so after one playthrough just to get the hang of things again, I made a beeline for the true ending to put the game behind me once and for all.

*Note, it’s mainly so tedious for me because 1) I played the heck out of it years ago and I’m really not into replaying games, 2) I dislike visual novel-type games even more than I did long ago, and 3) I don’t like flag-type “buy the strategy guide” games where you have to be at the right place at the right time with the right stats or that route is closed off for that playthrough. If you don’t have any of those problems, Lairland Story is a nice, affordable little game that will keep you busy for a couple of days. The characters are (mostly) nice and each playthrough is just the right length to allow for multiple playthroughs, unlike, say Princess Maker 5, which I liked a lot but simply can’t play again because it was waaay too long.

I couldn’t stop giving her crazy outfits and hairdos even though it was a waste of money

Anyway, on to the title: how to get the true ending of Lairland Story. Spoiler free. The spoiler free part is important, because I got all these steps from a YouTube video, which was awesome and very easy to follow BUT it spoiled the whole thing in the video. Here’s a link if you don’t mind spoilers: Lair Land Story – how to get the True good ending (not the marry Chilia one)

Personally I like to spoil, but I only like to be spoiled when I’m actively looking for spoilers. For the sake of people like me who want to see the game’s true ending for themselves, here’s the step by step guide to which events you need to trigger and which stats you need to raise (only one).

Preparations

It is recommended that you aim for the true ending on at least the second playthrough so that you can set bonuses like the card that gives you 2000 Eve to start with in order to make your life easier. Set your room ambience to the highest (50 Eve) so that it rises quickly. This will enable you to reach ambience 400 quickly so you can hold 2 parties a season. The goal of doing this is to raise Chilia’s affection as high as possible, so be sure to travel with her every chance you get and try to choose answers that raise her affection. You will also need 3000 Eve quite early on and 2000 Eve at another point, so try to keep those funds at hand at all times. Having Chilia work high-paying jobs is good, having her do lucrative research is good too.

Now to the events proper. To get Chilia’s true ending, you need really high affection (I had 999 at the end) and to see certain events in order.

1. Meet Dark Mage in the Streets in Spring 885. Reset until you find him. He might appear in early, mid or late spring, but keep visiting the Streets until you find him. Let Chilia decide what to do with the necklace.

Meet the Dark Mage again on another day in Spring and pay him 3000 Eve. There will be an automatic event shortly afterwards.

Screenshot of Chilia and the Dark Mage in Lairland Story

This is not the time to be stingy, Herol!

2. In Fall 885, visit the Church to learn more about Chilia’s pendant from Fay. BTW for all these events, there’s often flexibility in when exactly in a season an event will occur, so don’t despair if you don’t get an event in a particular outing, but do despair if you haven’t gotten it by the end of that season. Keep multiple saves just in case.
3. Summer 886, there will be a bard in the Plaza singing about the First Hazard.
4. In early Fall 886, visit the Church until you see an event with Fay dropping books. There will be an option to help her and another option to ask about the First Hazard. Ask about the First Hazard instead of helping her, because you’re a jerk.

Don’t look at me, I’m a jerk.

5. Visit the church in Late Winter 886 to talk to the priest. The guide I read said to find Fay in the Bathhouse first, but I never did and I still got the true ending.
6. In Early Spring 887, meet the Dark Mage in the Streets again and pay him 2000 eve.
7. In Late Summer 887, the priest should pay you a visit at home.

8. There will be an automatic event around or before Winter 887. Hug Chilia when given that option.


9. Affection should be around 800 in Winter 887 if you’ve been traveling with Chilia, holding parties, decorating the house etc. to raise her affection. A Mysterious Man will pay Chilia a visit.


10. Keep raising Chilia’s affection until it reaches 999. You might not need it that high, but that’s what is suggested both by the video guide by a Japanese guide I checked.

11. Late Spring 888 is the end of the game and your evaluation. Play through till the credits roll to get a post-credits scene.
12. Do NOT start a new game plus. This is where many people trip and fail. Reload your last save like nothing happened and play everything again up to the end of Late Spring 888. Try to save close to the end of that period to minimize the amount you have to replay.
13. Keep watching till the end and enjoy the changes in the new, true ending.

Non-spoiler comments about the true ending

I wanted it, I got it, so how do I feel about Lairland Story’s true ending? Well, it’s good to finally get some closure on Chilia’s past, where she came from and who she was before losing her memory. Some parts of her background still aren’t fully explained, like why she appeared in the church in front of Herol, how she deleted the monsters with her song, why she called herself Chilia (I feel like that was explained elsewhere but I forgot), etc. But you do get some solid answers about her past, and that’s enough for calling it a day.

On the other hand, the true ending isn’t a very happy one for a lot of people. Her past was really tragic, so I can’t help feeling that Chilia’s better off in the endings where she never recalls her past and instead blithely moves on with her new life and new friends. A certain tragic event that happens in 891 (three years after the end of the game) doesn’t seem to happen in any of the other endings either. Maybe Chilia’s sunny personality kept everyone so happy that nothing bad happened, or maybe her presence acted as a protection for the kingdom… or maybe everything goes to hell after the regular endings, but they don’t tell us. The true ending calls a lot of things into question if you want to dive deeper into it… which I don’t.

All’s well that ends well. I’ll definitely play the sequel if they ever release it, otherwise it’s time to put Lairland Story behind me. Next up, I’m playing Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side Fourth like I said I would, but… 😑 I think I’m too old for otome games now. More on that another time.

What I’m playing lately (September 2024)

death scene in xenoblade chronicles 3

…one regret… If only I could get the time and energy I spent on you back…

Just realized it’s been almost two months since my last post. Just a few notes so you know I’m alive and still gaming. Quite actively, actually, but nothing really worth writing about.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 – Definitively dropped. I tried to get back into it. Loaded it up, moved a little bit and was thrown into a long cutscene. “Aha, now I remember why I stopped playing it,” is what I thought wistfully to myself as I deleted it and filled the space with other games.

I ran out of momentum, that’s all. With some games you need to keep plowing through until you finish, because once you quit… That’s all she wrote. I can’t even remember the story any more, so there’s no point looking up the ending on YouTube. I’m gonna assume everyone lived happily ever after (or died. Died is fine too) and move on with my own life. Actually I do have a few more things I could say about XC3 and why I quit, but they would be spoilery so a separate post would be better. Or nah, it’s okay. Never mind, let’s move on.

Nobody. Especially not from you. The whole game was a giant mess of awkward.

Epic Seven – It’s their 6th anniversary now, so they’ve been giving out a lot of goodies as well as hunt, gold and EXP buffs. I haven’t rolled anything great or pulled anyone amazing yet, but I did get an ML dupe which let me unlock the Galaxy Coin Shop after like 4 years of playing. Now who to get, Requiem Roana or Lone Crescent Bellona? Hmmmmm… Honestly I had no idea that taking a short break of a few months this year would cause me to miss out on the most broken PVP characters of recent times (Dragon Bride Senya, New Moon Luna, Empyrean Ilynav). It’s like they planned it or something: “Haha, she’s gone, bring out the good stuff!” I’m still playing catch up and racking my brain to figure out strategies for Guild Wars. And trying to save mystics for Harsetti. And I gotta finish Episode 5, Fenris’s side story, Bittersweet Dessert Festival, save up for a second pity so I can pull Jenua… so busy.

Another Eden – Still trying to catch up to where I had reached before I lost my account. I regret not trying harder to get my old account back because I’m still plowing through old content and it’s been months! Guess I underestimated how seriously I played this back then. And I really miss my Pizzica-chan! But there’s light at the end of the tunnel now, barely. Just a little more and I’ll make it through the old stuff and start tackling the new content (tons and tons of it). Unlike before, I’m not making any effort to fight super bosses or anything vaguely tough/annoying, so things are going pretty fast. Proper post once I finally, finally make it out of the woods into new content.

Magic Chronicle Isekai RPG – The most recent game I posted about sadly (?) seems like it’s about to shutdown. Without any notice from the developers, it seems to have gone into ‘maintenance mode,’ which is where a game stops releasing new content or characters and just re-runs old content ad nauseam until the playerbase dwindles and then they shut it down. I hear King’s Raid is in maintenance mode now, which makes me sad because I liked the little I played of it.

It’s rare (possibly unheard of?) for even major games to make it out of maintenance mode, much less one as obscure as Magic Chronicle Isekai RPG. This game lives and dies by nickel and diming players, so for them to not release a single new character, a single new P2W package, or even re-run a limited character banner means they’re well and truly sunk. I’m giving them to the end of September to announce something concrete, otherwise I’m uninstalling.

That doesn’t mean I’m done with idle games, though. I’ll be looking for a replacement. I already tried Memento Mori and the art style and girls-only focus weren’t for me, but I’m still on the lookout if anyone has suggestions.👍

Update: the developers formally announced that Magic Chronicle Isekai RPG will be shutting down on October 29th 2024. I have already uninstalled, though. What a waste of potential. I really liked some of their modes like the Island Bounties and the Valley with all the gimmicks. Oh well…

Love Nikki – Same old, same old. They’re still actively releasing new suits, but I have suits in almost every genre now, so my focus is on hell suits (the good-looking ones, though. Some are needlessly elaborate), lifetime suits and the task suit de jour. My diamonds are around 14,000, which is probably the highest amount I’ve ever had in this game. I find it hard to save diamonds in Love Nikki because I have it filed in my brain as “game I am willing to spend money on.” Which means I don’t hesitate to spend diamonds because I can always buy more IMO. In practice I almost never do buy diamonds, but just knowing that I can if I want to makes me a lot more profligate. Now I see why gacha companies work so hard to get you to make that initial purchase, even if it’s just $0.99. Food for thought.

And that’s where I’m currently at right now. Trying to get back into Switch gaming, but I fear the combination of gacha games and YouTube have destroyed my attention span for good. If a game takes more than a few minutes to get going, I already start checking out mentally. Plus with gacha games and YouTube I’m not actually paying for the privilege of having my time wasted and my intelligence insulted, so it doesn’t hurt so bad. I like the lack of FOMO and the conclusiveness of “regular” games, but that’s about it. Does that mean I’m now lost to the world of console/PC gaming? Not quite, not quite. At least I want to try all the stuff I’ve bought already, seeing as I can’t get a refund. After that will come… the reckoning.

Magic Chronicle Isekai RPG – Money, money, money, money, money

It’s not that strategic TBH. Not that fun either. And the battle UI doesn’t look like that.

In case you’re wondering what I’m up to since I dropped Persona 5 Royal, I finished a playthrough of Lair Land Story, tried to get back into Xenoblade Chronicles 3 with limited success (haven’t given up, but the magic is totally gone) and kind of gave up on console games for now.

I’ve mainly been playing Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space, and regretting the loss of my previous account because I realise now that I had done a LOT of content that I’ll need to do again, urgh. Okay not need, but really. The game has a ton of content. On the other hand, insane power creep means the Jillfunny and Piggie I pulled can one-shot or two-shot just about every mob or boss that doesn’t absorb Water. More on AE if/when I exceed my previous stage in the story.

Today I’m here to talk about another game I’ve been playing, an idle game called Magic Chronicle Isekai RPG. It’s my first idle gacha, I think? “Idle games” are a genre of games where resources accumulate in the game over time and you log in once or twice a day to collect and allocate them. Strengthen your characters a bit, enhance your facilities so you can collect more resources, then log out again.

The cat at the bottom collects the stuff for you, and you later unlock a cat assistant which does dailies for you.

In theory it’s perfect for the busy gamer because it doesn’t make many demands on your time. Daily tasks don’t take long, and there’s no need to log in on specific days or at specific times for rewards/guild wars/all that nonsense. At the same time you still get the dopamine hit from raising stronger characters and getting better gear, progressing in the various modes, etc. so it’s the best of both worlds. In theory.

Mobile/gacha games have a reputation for cash-grabbing which I think is both fair and unfair. We’re all trying to make a buck here, but some practices are downright scummy. On the other hand, no game holds a gun to your head to spend on it, and I’ve gotten just as much entertainment from free games as from paid, so I’m not against the free-to-play model. Value for money counts for a lot.

That said, while there’s nothing with a game company trying to make money to keep the lights on, when does monetization go too far? Magic Chronicle Isekai RPG (name is too long, will call it MCIR from now on) has so many daily, weekly, monthly and progress passes and assorted packages that I got dizzy trying to keep up with them. Plus whenever you complete any achievement in the game, a character pops up offering you a long list of packages you can buy to “celebrate.”

I tried to screenshot all the various packages available, though I’m sure I’ve missed a few, plus new ones are always coming out. Check these out, though:

First thing you see every time you log in. Who decided it was 5000% value anyway?

Lots of these every time you clear anything.

Gold weekly pass, not to be confused with other weekly passes.

Just because it’s fun to paywall QOL features. I do prefer permanent stuff to temporary passes, but this game is too over the top for me.

Material pack (you can get most of this stuff just by playing, but that’s how these games roll)

Daily pack. I forgot to screenshot the weekly and monthly packs, but you get the picture.

Different types of daily pack in addition to those above.

More montly packs separate from those above.

Space-time heroes are super powerful and can’t be pulled normally, but this doesn’t even give you Odin, just his gear. And those prices…

I don’t know what that statue does. I’m assuming it washes your car and makes you breakfast in bed, otherwise why would it cost $49.99?

More “just because” offers.

Not sure what the point of buying just one Chronos is, TBH, since you need tons of dupes to max a character. Maybe there are more copies below the fold, dunno, duncare.

Meh. They should have at least made her cute.

I think it’s about 100 gems to $1, so this would be $1,500 for a single character. And you think your gacha game is greedy. Ahaha, ahahaha.

Incremental strength increases for your character. Not worth it IMO. Actually almost nothing I’ve posted so far is worth it.

I recently made an Eternal+ character and unlocked the Ancient Relics mode, which came with, you guessed it, another pack offer.

Assorted passes for clearing various game modes.

I have no idea what this one is about.

Or this one either, TBH. There’s nothing to exorcise in this game. Hm…

Ah, this one. Treasure hunt is a board game mode with piddling rewards, and what you get for $22.99 here is even more piddling.

Now this powder does significantly boost your party’s power… but I’d rather be weak than spend $29.99 on it.

If you’ve been counting, that’s 26 passes, packages or offers so far, and I didn’t even get all of them.

Luckily this game doesn’t have any meaningful PVP or rankings, so there’s no real pressure to get stronger other than at your own pace. I like the art direction and the character designs (the chibis are not too chibi either, which is good). I also enjoy some of the modes like the Valley and the race trials and sanctum. It’s more of competition against yourself than against others, and in fact, taking longer to grow means you’ve got that much more content to cover without burning out, so it’s all good.

I quite like MCIR TBH, so I might write a proper post about it later, especially since there isn’t much information about it out there. And I’ll probably try other idle gachas as well when I get tired of it. The reason I made this post was just to marvel at all the monetization, because I’ve never seen anything this aggressive in all my gaming years. It also answers the question: “What world-shatteringly important things have I been up to that kept me from posting for almost a month?” Now you know.

It is enough to play 103 hours of Persona 5 Royal

Press release (June 25, 2024)

It is with a not particularly heavy heart that I announce the parting of ways between me and Persona 5 Royal. This is in accordance with the “It is Enough to Play A Little Bit of a Game” Policy that I adopted six years ago to preserve my sanity. I thank the Phantom Thieves for their many hours of service and wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

I will now take a few questions from the press.

Why did you drop Persona 5 Royal?

Because it was boring. Next question.

Also they never gave me the chance to decorate this room properly.

How can you say it was boring after obviously loving it for the past 100 hours?

Clarification: It had become boring. There’s something called “too much of a good thing,” and Persona 5 Royal had just outstayed its welcome.

What exactly was the problem?

1. I was just ready to move on. I thought the original ending of the game was okay despite a few lingering questions, and I’m ready to play other games now. In particular I’d gotten tired of the battles and using the same spells and monsters over and over again.

2. The epilogue (of sorts) revolves around characters I either actively dislike (Akechi) or never really cared for because they didn’t affect much (Maruki, Yoshizawa).

3. I found it especially odd and uncomfortable for Akechi to just join the Phantom Thieves like he didn’t casually murder Haru’s father just a few months ago. And isn’t sorry. And hasn’t paid for his crimes. You know how in some games you can’t recruit character A if you recruit character B? I thought it would be like that and you’d have to pick between Haru and Akechi. But nah, the team acts like they have to work together with the guy who killed Haru’s father and tried to kill Joker, like we haven’t been doing just fine on our own so far. They might put up with it, but I don’t have to.

4. There wasn’t enough interesting content left to do. I had done most of the confidant routes already, and I realized I wasn’t interested in the ones I hadn’t done – Ryuji, Ann, Makoto, Futaba. Yes, there are party benefits to maxing out their routes but no, I still didn’t want to do them.

Talking about yourself, Ake-shit?

Any chance of returning in the future?

Never say never, but in practice I rarely replay JRPGs. I don’t even care enough about the ending to watch it on YouTube, so it’s safe to say I am well and truly over this game.

What’s next on the agenda?

Deleting Persona 5 Royal from the Switch and getting all that space back felt really sweet, so I’m going to force myself to either finish or definitely drop Xenoblade Chronicles 3 so I can get that same feeling again. Once I’m done with that, I’m planning to play Tokimeki Memorial Girls’ Side 4. It’s been ages since I played an otome game (they just aren’t my thing any more, if they ever were) and the TMGS games were much better than most of the rest.

For non-Switch games, I’ve dropped Epic Seven for a bit but I’m still playing Love Nikki plus the other games I mentioned downloading last time. I also have the games I mentioned in my 2024 resolutions to try, which I will seriously do in the second half of the year, though it’s very likely that I will be trying them briefly and deleting them sharp-ish. Thus is the life of the discerning gamer.

One more question…

Please direct all other questions to my agent. I’ve got to get back to my video games. XC3, here I come!

Playing Picross S Namco because Persona 5 Royal is boring me

I would have been playing Picross (PICROSS S NAMCO LEGENDARY edition, to be precise) anyway because it’s one of my favorite game series and a must-buy whenever it comes out, but it didn’t help help that the extra dungeon in Persona 5 Royal is just so boring. I don’t care about any of the added characters or their long drawn-out sob stories, but at the same time I can’t bring myself to drop the game. Urghghhh.

I keep telling myself to just drop it like I’ve done with so many others before, but I’m so close to the end… Gaahhh… And that’s why I’ve been taking refuge in the latest Picross. I know almost none of the Namco characters or games depicted, except Pac-Man, but that has never stopped me before. The only thing that stops me from playing Picross is that Jupiter/Nintendo isn’t releasing them fast enough. You people, don’t you like money?

I’m a bit disgruntled this time because the Mega Picross puzzles are just too easy. I’ve almost finished all of them. And as usual there are only a few Color Picross puzzles even though it’s my favorite mode. They were too easy too. I don’t think it’s because I’ve gotten better at this, because a few weeks ago I was (re-re-re)playing Picross e6 on the 3DS and getting stuck all over the place. I still haven’t finished all the puzzles in that game, and I wonder if I ever will (correction: apparently I’ve finished it before. Which means my skills have declined? Yikes).

So anyway, if I’ve been gone a while, it’s because the third semester in Persona 5 Royal is a boring, bloated mess that is steadily depleting all the goodwill I had built up for the game. I’ve already removed Persona 5 Tactica from my Switch wishlist ‘cos I’m like nah, I don’t wanna deal with these people any more.

That said! I also re-downloaded Another Eden last week and I’m doing the Persona 5 collab again but this time I actually know who all these people are, so that’s kind of cool. I also downloaded an AFK gacha game called Magic Chronicle Isekai RPG because Bluestacks recommended it. I’ve never been this aggressively marketed to in my life, it’s amazing. Pop-ups and sales all over the place and constant roadblocks if you’re not strong enough – which you won’t be, you F2P pig-dog. I’ll talk about it some other time, right now I’m just enjoying it in a perverse kind of way.

I’m planning to take a break from Epic Seven and also force myself to finish P5R this weekend, so I’ll have more time for playing and writing about new games. Here’s hoping I don’t fill the gap with more Picross!