It feels like Shogo and his party have been in the library for a long time now, and with Final Fantasy Lost Stranger easily passing the 200 page mark, it seems like a perfect time to be able to go out and see the larger world out there!
Well, about that…
Shogo and his friends have been split up, with he, Rei, and Alus entering the book world and Sharuru and Duston on the outside. Between Byblos, the illusions, remnants of feelings left from others before them, and the twisted dimensions, the dangers seem endless. Shogo and Rei are worried about all of those of course, but he’s also concerned about Alus, who is somewhere else.
But that’s the one thing that’s solved easily! Alus not only casually appears right away, he’s found the drive to keep pushing forward — and push back against the Byblos frog force. If Lost Stranger were a Final Fantasy game, he’d be one of those characters players would be begging to hopefully be made a permanent party member and not a temporary one. Alus has some cool abilities, although I’d have to disagree on what game he was reminded of.
Also, a side note. Shogo begins to have flashbacks of (and fear) an attack called “FlareWave”, and I couldn’t connect it with the visuals. But the translation notes states that “FlareWave” was used in the NES version of the game due to text limitations…but that game is Final Fantasy III, which never had an English NES release! It’s “Particle Beam” in the DS remake, Dissidia, and Pixel Remaster, the latter of which is based upon the NES version. Final Fantasy Wiki states that “FlareWave” was used in a fan translation, and I could not find any other uses of “FlareWave” besides this unofficial patch. It really threw me because I kept connecting the “Flare” part of the name with the high-level fire spell of the same name, and I was like, “When does Final Fantasy III‘s final boss use fire attacks??”
Anyway, by the time Alus goes on the offensive, the manga gets very busy visually. Obviously, you have Alus and Byblos trading blows, but volume 7 is full of mysterious voices, both speaking aloud and in characters’ heads. These boxes, with their inverted colors, can overwhelm the pages. This matches the stress and mania Shogo feels, but as a reader, sometimes it can be hard to see beyond cries of “Frogger!” and such to see what’s happening. Even the actual action scenes are jam-packed with impact SFX and follow-up attacks. With Kameya using a lot of shading and screentones, this is not a book to be read when you are in a hurry or there’s not good lighting available. Some readers may find the pages thrilling with the continued homages to Final Fantasy, but I would have preferred a little more whitespace.
The manga does have some downtime as Sharuru and Duston discuss what to do, but their big scene is accompanied by a lot of waxing poetic. So while they may be just standing around, the dialogue boxes are also a lot to take in.
Final Fantasy Lost Stranger may finally end this arc (or perhaps the arc-within-an-arc), and Alus makes volume 7 immensely enjoyable in both skill and personality, but the chapters can be a little much. I think these chapters were probably best when they were serialized, as readers had a whole month to appreciate them and browse them casually. But back-to-back, Byblos’ frog-based tricks and psychological manipulation are almost overflowing in the pages, and I never felt like I could just sit back and enjoy the ride — or Alus’ coolness.