Hey! It’s been a long while since I last did an event story review. I’ve been preoccupied with other things, but I now have time to write reviews! I just hope I haven’t lost my touch during the hiatus from my last review to this one.
There are small spoilers for Abyss and Legendia in this review.
This whole event is about Kanata and Vicious meeting Natalia and her entourage, Guy and Chloe and trying to find a way to stop an abnormal weather condition happening around the region Natalia lives in and it revolves around a guardian spirit that protects the area.
This is the first event where Kanata and the group are separated with Kanata and Vicious being the stars of this event story while Misella and Aegis are elsewhere, waiting for them to return. Given that Aegis is in the group, the event most likely takes place some time after chapter 3 perhaps between chapters 4 and 5.
I actually like that it focuses a lot on a few Crestoria characters. I do like the cast, but it’s great to focus on less because the group is already the stars of the main story. Giving them more screen time with one other character and how they interact with crossover character of the day gives them insight on their characters.
Kanata, for example, still helps those in need and is fervent of his aversion towards the vision orb system. Natalia and Guy compliment his noble demeanor. Vicious is still his chaos-loving self. His annoyance at people’s blind hate is still prevalent as he helps out Natalia by putting her blame on him.
Natalia in this universe is not a princess but the daughter of a lord and his successor. She loves her people and does her best to solve problems as future Lady of House Lanvaldear. What’s unusual about her is that would seek the help of transgressors—criminals—for her investigation. Given that Kanata and Vicious are good “criminals” in a way Natalia senses no harm from asking them a favor. Natalia going all out for people is still present in this universe where she risks her own life to put herself on Vision Central to plead for a man’s innocence. I liked Natalia a lot in this event because she stayed true to her character in the original game and not a shell of her former self like how some characters are in Crestoria.
Guy in this universe seems like a different person. He’s not Luke’s servant but Natalia’s. He’s not afraid of women given that he’s guarding a woman and is accompanied by Chloe. I mean, Guy’s normally a calm individual and his way of watching out for Natalia is reminiscent of how he’s always watching out for the younger ones in Abyss. I’m not really sure how I feel about this version of Guy. On one hand, my Abyss crack ship Guy x Natalia has its moments, yet it feels rather odd to not see Guy as his dorky self.
Chloe’s an unusual choice to put as someone’s bodyguard since she never was one canonically, but it works. Chloe is a justice-loving knight who protects the weak. She’s reckless and headstrong just like she was in her original game. Though, we’re not entirely sure if she’s a mercenary for hire or her actual bodyguard. In Legendia, Chloe was a knight that helped people in need while looking for her target of revenge. Given that she hates rain or water canonically, seeing her as a part of a story that involves rain seems ironic at best. Though, I’m not a fan of how Chloe just blurts out insults at Vicious and doesn’t apologize for her actions.
I think the best aspect about this event story is that it shows that people’s mindsets regarding condemnation can change, even if they shift the blame onto someone else. Yes, it’s good that Natalia and the village guy didn’t get condemned, but it sucks that villagers put the blame on Vicious. I mean, I guess it makes sense given he’s the Great Transgressor, but it feels like they’re just dodging the blame and putting it onto another just so they won’t get blamed for messing up in the future.
The only confusing thing about the story was the guardian deity. Was the squirrel really its totem creature or was it just an assumption that turned into a misunderstanding? Maybe I’m not thinking deeply enough…
Another confusing thing is that event titles usually correspond to what the event is about. Farah’s event was called “Lure of the Forest Fruit” and it was about monsters going crazy over forest fruit. Patty’s event, “Summer Treasure Hunt” was about Patty and Norma going on a treasure hunt with Senel tagging along. Natalia’s event is called “Late-Summer Sunflower”, but the event mainly talked about rain. I’m not sure why they named it after sunflowers when there are no sunflowers. In flower language, sunflowers have many positive meanings across cultures such as loyalty, good fortune, etc. Perhaps, Natalia is the sunflower in the downpour. Either that, or I’m just reading into it a bit too much.
I also find it intriguing that Vicious gets referred to as a monster at one point, from Chloe, and in the preview for chapter 7, Vicious does, indeed, have a demon form. This event was also long before Chapter 5 got completed, so it was interesting to know about the wild assumptions people have with Vicious.
I have yet to use the Natalia SSR stone because I don’t have enough wind SSR units to use it. The stone has Mastery V, which means it’s best for SSR units for that mystic arte damage. I never had any wind SSR units until about a few months ago and I got another one recently; I only have two wind SSR units right now—SSR Yuna and SSR Sorey. Which unit fits the Natalia stone best? Which unit did you stick yours with? I’ve used SR Guy stone once and it was okay. I just need to find that one unit for it.
The raid monster for the event, Storm Serpent, was kind of hard for me to beat because I didn’t have SSR wind units, so I had to use my SR Wind units. If there is a chance that Storm Serpent reappears, I think it would be less challenging since my wind units have gotten stronger and I’ve gotten more strategic. I honestly had a hard time gathering up enough exchange currency for the stones.
Overall, I didn't enjoy this event as much as Patty’s, but it was still enjoyable in a way. My feelings for this event is similar to Farah's. The Natalia stone is very useful for wind units. I hope that Natalia and her entourage appear in a side story or the main story sometime soon.
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