TWO DAYS LEFT, Part 7: BLACK SPACE
(If you've been playing for a long time, trying saving and returning to the main menu screen. It's, ah... it's different.)
SUNNY'S HOUSE
SUNNY will wake up, as ever, in bed. HERO will greet SUNNY as he leaves the room, revealing that he finished all the chores and made breakfast. Stand-up guy, that HERO. Follow him out of the room, and perhaps save in MOM's room. (Unless you want to potentially redo all that weirdness in BLACK SPACE.)
Head to the bathroom, brush your teeth by checking the notes from MOM on the mirror, and head downstairs. KEL and HERO are in the kitchen, finishing breakfast. The doorbell will ring, and KEL will run off to answer it. Follow him to find KIM. She's asking for help with AUBREY, who seems to be missing from her home.
Party up and head outside. You can high five KEL again for an achievement. You can't properly explore the town until you've checked up on AUBREY, so head east, then south a block, then west, to her house. The HOOLIGANS are all out front. Knock on the front door and HERO will discover that the door was unlocked.
AUBREY'S home is absolutely riddled with garbage, and you can find some TRASH on the floor if you hunt around. AUBREY'S MOM is on the couch, watching TV, though she's non-responsive. Head into the rear hallway and you'll find more TRASH, as well as a ladder. AUBREY'S room is at the top, and she's inside, angry at the intrusion. HERO manages to defuse the situation, and after finding the photos missing from BASIL'S PHOTO ALBUM on AUBREY'S wall he insists they go back where they belong. The game will show you where each one belongs.
Once you've placed all the photos back into the PHOTO ALBUM you can have a look through it to finally see the complete set... almost. There's still one missing. The gang will make amends at last, and AUBREY will join the party. Head back outside and AUBREY will apologize to the HOOLIGANS, then send them on their way.
FARAWAY TOWN
You're meant to go see BASIL at this point, though with AUBREY on the team you can now properly explore FARAWAY TOWN. Let's see what's changed since yesterday:
- Down the street from AUBREY'S home you'll see the house of the CHECKERS GUY and the PIGTAILS LADY, and if you helped their party prep on previous days it will be decked out with balloons. Knock on the door and PIGTAILS LADY will ask for help with cooking. Once everyone's done with the food you can look around the house, though there's nothing interesting inside. (SUNNY is a harsh critic of their bed.)
- You'll find MINCY in the CHURCH, and you can provide the usual encouragement to keep her drawing. Head into the graveyard and you'll find MARI'S grave in the northwest. You can leave FLOWERS from FIX-IT here for an achievement, as well as a scene between the cast. Check the FLOWERS once the scene is done and you can have one last picnic with MARI.
- If you visit KEL and HERO'S room in their house you'll see a quick scene. HERO really doesn't like spiders. Once that's done you can play some video games with the gang.
- Visit the home of ALL-AMERICAN GUY, beside KEL'S house, and he will have lost his TV REMOTE once again. Grab the TRASH beside him, then head to the kitchen. The TV REMOTE is sticking out of the pie that's sitting on the table. ALL-AMERICAN GUY will reward you with another ORANGE JOE for bringing his REMOTE back. Yay.
FARAWAY PARK
- There are three more bags of TRASH to collect and hand over to the OLD LADY in FARAWAY PARK. If you've been diligent up to this point - which is to say, you've collected 25 bags of TRASH, which will have taken this long to do - she'll give you an ETHEREAL CD.
- The gang can play on the equipment in FARAWAY PARK by checking the swings, and you'll see some dialogue with AUBREY.
- KEL and HERO'S family is picnicking in FARAWAY PARK. Speak to KEL'S DAD and he'll give you $20 to go buy them some MEAT from OTHERMART. You can buy MEAT from the MEAT MAN in the top-left corner of OTHERMART for $7 apiece. Take the MEAT back to KEL'S DAD and he'll suggest dropping by in the evening.
- If you speak to the OLD HOBO in FARAWAY PARK, he'll tell you that he's won the lottery. Huzzah! He'll then give you back all of the money you've given to him up to this point, times two. Nice!
- If you head to the former hideout of the kids, in the northeast of FARAWAY PARK, you'll find that it has been taken over by the RECYCULTISTS, followers of THE HOLY BIN. Fiends! We'll explore their trashy HQ below. There are four pieces of TRASH? surrounding their hideout, and if you check on the north side of the pond you'll find a SEASHELL.
- Pass in front of the VENDING MACHINES just outside FARAWAY PARK and AUBREY and KEL will argue over sweet drinks. (ORANGE JOE does sound pretty gross.)
FARAWAY PLAZA
- HOBBEEZ is largely the same as before - aside from a spot where you can read comics - though ANGEL is now hanging out inside. If you visit his sister, ARTIST - she lives down the street from BASIL - she'll wonder what's taking ANGEL so long. Tell ANGEL as much and he'll run off to complete his errands and go home. Follow him back and you'll receive a RARE CARD from Artist, after she... disciplines ANGEL. Yeesh.
- If you've given him enough money, the GUITAR GUY outside GINO'S PIZZA will say that today is the day he leaves FARAWAY TOWN. He isn't sure how to break the news to his family, and says he'll speak to his sister JOY first. (Speaking honestly, I didn't know about the tutoring missions. I'll edit this once I can get through the SUNNY ROUTE a second time.)
- Head into GINO'S PIZZA and the gang can have a seat at the top-right table. KEL is quite the pig. You can, as ever, deliver pizzas while you're here if you need money.
- OTHERMART is the same as usual. If you need cash, speak to the OTHERMART LADY to swat flies. Otherwise...
- The GRUFF GUY whose pipes are constantly leaking is back in FIX-IT, and he'll rush off to give the pipes one more try. He lives on AUBREY'S street, in the house closest to the CHURCH. The problem will finally be resolved when you visit his home, and he'll give you a GHOULISH CD as thanks.
- If you check the garden section of FIX-IT you'll find CHARLIE, looking at the flowers. She'll give you a FLOWER CLIP. While you're here you can, as ever, clean up the store and earn some cash.
RECYCULTIST HIDEOUT
If you enter the trash bin home of the RECYCULISTS you'll find it's, well, filled with trash. Grab the STEAK KNIFE off of the ground and use it to slash through the traffic cones in your way. Snag the TRASH by the traffic cones, then head north. There's a RECYCULTIST up here that the kids can battle. They're easy foes to defeat with normal attacks. Whenever you defeat a RECYCULTIST, put HERO in charge of the party and you can recruit them to follow you around.
Head west to find an intersection with two more RECYCULTISTS. Beat them up, and grab the TRASH near the lower RECYCULTIST. Climb the ladder to the left and head one screen over. TAG in KEL and launch a rock to the right to drop down a ladder on the lower level.
Make your way to the previous screen, head down the ladder, and go west. Take out the two RECYCULTISTS to gather more TRASH, then head up the ladder you dropped down, grabbing the TRASH beside it on your way up. Tag in AUBREY at the top and she'll mash the giant trash block that's in your way.
There are two more bags of TRASH past the block, as well as two more RECYCULTISTS to wallop. In the next room to the east you'll find one more RECYCULTIST to fight, as well as two more bags of TRASH and a save point. There's an army of RECYCULTISTS up here, and so long as HERO recruited four RECYCULTISTS they will get out of your way.
Climb the last ladder and you'll meet the RECYCLEPATH, head of the RECYCULTISTS. He's on a mission, and won't let a bunch of kids stop him.
RECYCLEPATH
Accompanied by two RECYCULTISTS, the RECYCLEPATH is a... well, he's a boss. He can gather stacks of trash to hit your characters for variable amounts of damage, and is capable of summoning in more RECYCULTISTS. He can hit pretty hard, and if he happens to target SUNNY can end the battle really quickly if SUNNY'S HEART is low. Have KEL use ENCOURAGE to boost SUNNY'S attack, then just wallop the RECYCLEPATH, ignoring the RECYCULTISTS entirely. Heal as needed using KEL and HERO. SUNNY'S attacks are more than enough to bring the RECYCLEPATH down, especially if you use FOCUS first, though it will take a few turns.
If you defeat the RECYCLEPATH you'll earn an achievement. If you don't... well, you won't. Either way, SUNNY will wake up, revealing that the whole RECYCULTIST thing was just a dream. Go figure. You can now picnic at the nearby blanket, if you wish.
That's all for FARAWAY TOWN, yet again. Head to BASIL'S house on the southeastern street of FARAWAY TOWN. He's not home, unfortunately, as his grandmother needed to be rushed to the hospital. The gang decides to check in again later.
We've pretty thoroughly explored FARAWAY TOWN by now, so head back to SUNNY'S house in the meantime. The gang will talk a bit, and then you'll finally get a look at SUNNY'S back yard as they all go out to look at the treehouse. Have a look around - does this place look familiar at all? - then check the photo on the wall, beside AUBREY. You'll receive a TOY BOX KEY, and you can add the photo back into the PHOTO ALBUM to complete the set.
Have one last look at the PHOTO ALBUM, if you wish, then follow the gang back outside. Everyone will have a tender moment in the yard, and by the time you regain control FARAWAY TOWN will have moved on to the evening.