reynard531

Okay, now it's time to head to the Sleeping Castle. I stopped by the merchant before the castle to resupply again, because I got hit on the way back. I had about 734,887D. I skipped all the fight until I got to the castle.

The icon on the map shows a castle that's colored pink, white, and purple. It also has a little flag on top that's white with a single red heart. How...ironic.

You can enter the place without any dialogue or cutscenes or anything. You enter from the south, and the first map you see is a garden. When you get on this map, the Anti-Shield Potion is strangely still in the inventory.

This garden is actually rather nice looking. It's has a stone path that goes in a sort of cross pattern, and in each quadrant there's this almost complete square made of bushes, with benches inside them. The center of the path has a small patch of grass with some flowers, three blue, two red/pink, and one white. There are glowing street lamps here too, the same design as Sleeping City.

This first map has two buried items. One is a Dream Catalyzer. The other is a Total Elisir.

The only exit off this map is to the north. This next map is filled by a large hedge maze. There is a way out, but you should search the whole maze for a few items of loot. I also noticed here that the brick walls surrounding the place are painted pink like Sleeping City.

There are three buried items in the maze and one chest. Two of the buried items are S-Potions. The other buried item is a level 3 Explosion Bubble. This makes for the second level 3 Explosion Bubble you will ever get, so hang onto it. And if you sold the first one by accident, at least you have another. The chest here contains an X-Potion.

Once you have all the loot, you can focus on getting out of the maze. This is the exact way through the maze:

Enter the maze through the one opening on the lower left corner.
Take the first path to the right.
Go down that path and turn left at the first chance
Turn left again
Go up a little bit
Go right all the way, ignoring the path that goes downward
Go up again, and then turn left, then go downward, then left again
Go up and then take the vertical path to the left
At the end of the path, turn right
Go down and and around to the other side of the hedge wall
On the other side, there's another hedge wall making a perpendicular angle with the wall you went around

But what's this? The path out of the maze is being blocked by someone. He's dressed in white and blue and has his arms crossed over his chest. Blond hair, blue eyes...why yes people, it's Prince Charming, the leader of the personal guard of the Four Princesses. And after the Red Apple Tree, he's the second official boss in this game.

First, save your game right here. If you don't you will regret it. Also, if you don't want to engage him, don't get too close. You don't need to get rid up next to him to set him off. That wall that makes the perpendicular angle helps make the spot where Charming's in a sort of square. The minute you take a step into that space, you engage him.

Now before I begin, I'd like to, as before, go over what I went into this battle with. My team was Alan, Jack, and Alessa, in that exact order. Money wise I was doing very well, 734, 887D. In terms of supplies, I had 45 Potions, 32 S-Potions, 28 X-Potions, 45 Dreams, 30 Wonderful Dreams, 14 Dream Catalyzers, 44 Elisirs, 10 Total Elisirs, and 29 Reborn Potions.

Everyone had their special attack ready, and in terms of bubbles, I had this:

Alan
Weapon: Fire level 2, Thunder level 2, Vampire level 3, Ice level 2, Reborn, Regen level 2.

Armor: Life level 3, Fire level 3, Earth level 2, Dreams level 3, Chaos level 2, Life level 2, Ice level 3, Dreams level 2, Surprise, Medusa level 3, Multiple Attack, Counter Attack

Jack
Weapon: Fire level 1, Life level 2, Thunder level 2, Dream Eater level 2, Holy level 2.

Armor: Fire level 3, Thunder level 1, Life level 3, Ice level 3, Turbo, Dreams level 3, Earth level 2, Chaos level 2, Life level 2, Dreams level 2.

Alessa
Weapon: Explosion level 3, Ice level 3, Darkness level 1, Regen level 3, Fire level 3, Thunder level 2, Cure, Mirror level 3, Poison level 3, Holy level 3, Slow level 3, Dream Eater level 3, Medusa level 3, Shield level 3, Comet level 3.

Armor: Life level 3, Dreams level 3, Life level 2, Chaos level 2, Earth level 2, Dreams level 2, More Armor, Ice level 3, Fire level 3, Poison level 2.

Those level 3 Fire and Ice Bubbles on Jack and Alessa's armor are the ones I had on Hook and Wolf's armor. They weren't using them, so I thought I would move them around. I didn't actually use Explosion or Comet here, but I figured Alessa was the best person to have them because the spells cost lots of DP and she's the only one who could afford to use them.

Now if you go up to Prince Charming, this conversation starts:

Prince Charming: ...you killed my troops...and now you want to enter the Castle? [not a proper noun]

Jack: Go away Charming, and we won't hurt you. You're not obliged to obey the princesses. It's not your battle.

Prince Charming: Yes it is! I'm their servant and I will serve them as long as I live! Prepare to fight!

Alan: Okay, if that's what you want...

And that's it. Personally, I love this conversation. You know why? Because this is perhaps the only time in the actual dialogue (and not a quest hint) that the game acknowledges that Alan isn't traveling alone. Jack actually got to speak to Charming, and he said we won't hurt you, we, as in we are a group.

Also, in the portrait of Charming when he speaks, it looks like his eyes are brown, not blue, as they are supposed to be. Maybe they are blue, it's hard to tell.

I really don't want these to get too long, so I'll put the rest in another post.