Bonus #8: Breath of Fire II Walkthrough—Valerie (Ryu's Mother)
CLARIFICATION ON THE "POORLY IMPLEMENTED" COMMENT:
I've always thought this flashback would've made more sense while Ryu was actually talking to Valerie... Perhaps just after she had reverted from her dragon form. It wouldn't have been missable, it would've been more directly relevant to what was happening on-screen, and it also would've explained why it was being narrated in the 1st-person... Though it also may've dragged out the scene for too long.
I don't know. I just always found it a bit jank, the way it just pops out of nowhere, then spends 12 minutes on mostly known information (the only real revelation being that the dragon of Gate was Ryu's mother...which was already pretty heavily implied anyway).
OTHER QUESTION:
This could be me taking things too literally, but... I was also confused by the stated objective of "Watch for signs that the Dark God may be awakening", as Valerie states in 2:10. It implies that she's going to investigate and report back what she finds... But there's such an air of finality to the goodbyes, like they're not expecting to see her again. She never goes back to visit, either...
It seems like it would've been simpler to just directly state "the seal's gonna start breaking any day now. Go out there, wait for however long that takes, then stand guard once it does". That is what she ends up doing anyway...
THE ROUTE:
Dragnier:
Talk to the orange man in Dragnier's lower-right house, then walk out to become Valerie.
Go down to the lower floor, enter its rightmost house, then talk to the old woman.
Go back in the house Ryu was in to move on.
Gate:
Go down to the village, then enter the lower-left church for the next cutscene.
Go back inside the house, go upstairs to talk to Ryu, then go back downstairs for the next cutscene.
Go all the way back up to the sealed door, then go through the last cutscene.