Jo's Atelier

I've been meaning to make a Playthrough blog for years but I guess FINALLY I've gotten a good reason to do so: My friend @stereocats sent me a copy of FRONTIER：無限を消える時詩 ("Mugen O Kieru Toki Uta", kind of like "Poem of Time Vanishing Into Infinity"), an unreleased SFC game, and it would be literally illegal for me to keep it to myself.

He found a whole batch of these cartridges in a lot from an acquisition at his company. Apparently it was going to be the studio's, Southern Cross Soft's, very first game, but we couldn't find much information on it. Well, enough dilly dallying, let's get into the game!

"Dazzling light hides it, thousands of worlds grow hazy."

"Ah, the fleetingness of the human world, days passing unseen."

"Water flows to somewhere far, not knowing its destination."

"But still, when light shines in, people seek the truth."

The game opens with this little poem, then introduces us to two characters, as they witness a comet.

The blue haired man speaks something cryptic about the time of humanity. The tiles and the text scroll remind me a bit of Final Fantasy 4.

The white winged girl, though, expresses surprise like a normal human being.

Cut to us protagonist, as we wake up inside our crashed spaceship. P08e, the ship's robot attendant, tells us that this is an uncharted planet orbiting a star that should have no planet, but regardless it's apparently a lively planet with signs of civilization.

And as we attempt to leave the ship, P08e decides to tag along.

the first treasure chest we find contains a "C-Drive" – basically, an action command. In this game, you only have five slots for C-Drives, which means every move counts (except for using items, thankfully). Starting with only a "Blade" C-Drive, I eagerly equip the newly acquired "Chakra" drive.

Now, here's where things get interesting: each stat is linked to a level, and equipping C-Drives to higher levels boosts their power (but also drains more energy). So, I strategically set "Blade" to level 0 for quick, efficient stabby-stabby action, and "Chakra" to level 2 for a nice, rejuvenating heal every couple of turns.

The battles in this are are a bit hard for Phau, but thankfully P08e is a beast, with massive HP and with the powerful T4-Rocket ability which damages enemies 4 times and costs only 1 Stamina. So I use that opportunity to grind a little bit around the Healing Fountain.

Which I'm glad I do, because...

No savepoint, no nothing. Pretty tough boss, to boot - Phau by herself would've been obliterated. Thankfully, with P08e's rockets we get by, and Phau gains 3 levels from the ordeal.