Heartwarming / Another Eden

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

In General

• When one think about it, Aldo's involvement in the Episodes (and some character quests) is this. Picture this: all of the central characters of the episodes basically face some sort of ordeal that, while probably not impossible to overcome alone, probably would have shaped them differently had Aldo not come into the picture. Aldo not only helps these characters out, but also in some cases allow these characters to earn their happy ending. Examples include Sophia (who can finally write her happy ending and continue writing about the people she had met after she spent at least 20,000 years trapped in a book and had her tale forcibly rewritten), Jade and Saki (who are able to reunite as siblings and live fairly normal lives after they were turned into grimoire test subjects by their own father), and the Nopaew boy (who is able to reunite with his mother and find friends after spending his time in isolation).

Main Story

• After seeing a ghostly vision of Galliard, Helena manages to lift the entire Riftbreaker and prevent it from falling. Power of Love indeed.
• After the party learns that Aldo is actually not Eden but rather the Chronos family's cat Kyros, Feinne reassures Aldo that it changes nothing and that Aldo is still her brother, and even laments in the epilogue of Part I that she lost "both of her brothers" before Aldo managed to cave his way back through spacetime tear.
• Feinne and Aldo reunite with Professor Chronos in Purgatory, who tells them that he's proud of them.
• In Chapter 57, Altena tends to and bonds with the Sacred Beast after the corruption driving it mad has been expelled. Fast forward to Chapter 60, which takes place in the ruined future of Garulea, and the party is beckoned by a mysterious cat. It turns out to be the same Sacred Beast which has effectively waited for Altena for 20,000 years. As it passes away content, it infuses her with its power, giving Altena the capability and resolve to fight on the front lines with your party. This is even intregrated into gameplay as Altena joins at level 70.

Episodes

• It may be cheesy, but Helena reviving Galliard with a kiss.
• The final episode of IDA School Part 3 reveals that the Mother AI has been acting erroneously due to its inability to fulfill Mana's wish of wanting to see her mother again. Mana clarifies that she wants to interact with Mother face-to-face, and the AI does so by projecting its physical embodiment for Mana to embrace. As the Dream World collapses, the AI willingly lets go and tells Mana to live her life in the real world — a stark contrast to its possessive behaviour prior.
  • Mana's character quest, available after concluding the episode, leads to her using her powers in the Dream World to reconstruct Mother. While the whole quest starts with Fukahire asking Aldo to investigate the Dream World's anomalous resource consumption, Fukahire decides to not do anything about it so that Mana can return whenever she wants to be with Mother.
• Sophia and Cynthia's interactions in "The Lost Tome and the Silver, Unfading Flower" qualify in general, with Cynthia is very dedicated to help her "sister" and Sophia caring for Cynthia in her own way despite her apparent annoyance. Cynthia even constantly glomps Sophia whenever they manage to reach their milestones, which is rather adorable.

Symphonies

Mythos

• Song of Sword and Wings of Lost Paradise:
  • Arguably doubles as Tear Jerker, the opening of the first chapter has Aldo going to the Corinda Plains and confiding to Shanie about Eden, since the pieces of the Four Great Elementals scattered across the place is similar to the Alpha Geo Prisma that Eden had in his body and he feels close to Eden every time he is there. Even after all those times, Aldo never stops looking for a way to save Eden.
  • In Chapter 3, one point has the player controlling Clarte to talk to everyone while they are taking a break in their journey. While talking to Thillelille, as she tells her story and tries to assert of how much better she is than Melina, Clarte's response is to sincerely compliment at how hardworking she is. Thillelille is taken aback by this, as most people usually give her strange (if not downright mocking) look whenever she tries to prove her worth. And despite her rivalry with Melina, she states in roundabout way that she works hard to be better than her so Melina doesn't need to have too many things to worry about on her plate.
  • After spending the first few chapters of the Mythos as the designated Butt-Monkey, Chapter 5 depicts Prai in more respectable light as a priest that the people of Merlot Ward look up to - and for good reason. When the flashback shows the child NPC in the chapter asking Prai if he came to Merlot Ward because someone in the church "doesn't like him", Prai immediately denied it and reassured the child that he came there because he genuinely wanted to help the people there.
    • One tavern event in Chapter 5 is about Prai being given a piece of cloth by the kids of Merlot Ward, so he can use it to wipe the dust from his knees because he kneels so much. Prai feels that he can't accept such a gift when the people of the Ward are barely scraping by and he hasn't done enough for them. Thillelille, in a rare moment, advises him to instead use it to wipe the tears from his eyes when he's lost all hope, and to turn towards the future.

Character Quests

• Aldo defending Lokido from all the humans calling the half-beast a fiend in his character quest, calling them out on their Fantastic Racism.
• Amy's father Za'ol reminiscences about their life together for Amy's second character quest, and it's quite cute.
• After completing the Two Knights and the Holy Sword episode and finishing Anabel's 5-star character quest, a bonus sidequest unlocks. After having both their memories restored with the Anna's assistance, the estranged sisters are finally reunited, and Deirdre gets appointed as Anabel's aide.
• Gariyu's motivation to become stronger is to prove his worth to Vaschtal, the dragon that raised him. He first gets to this goal by obtaining the Eternal Flame and awakening his Another Style, but he's not satisfied, and goes to challenge even Salamander to prove his strength. After Salamander confirms he can match Vaschtal at their prime, he seeks out Vaschtal's soul in Purgatory. Aldo thinks Gariyu's going to obliterate Vaschtal with his newfound power, but all he does is demonstrate it so that Vaschtal will finally stop coddling him in his dreams.
• Mariel's character quest reveals what she believed to be her greatest failure: once, a man came to the temple when no one else was around and sought healing. Mariel had faith in her healing skills, only for the man to reveal that it was "his heart that needs healing" and sadly left the temple. As you go through her quests, it is eventually revealed that the thief whom Mariel eventually helped to work in the temple so he can leave his thieving ways behind (and properly make a living for his son) was the same man whom Mariel had failed once, and this time she had successfully healed his heart.
• Cetie's character quest:
  • At the end of Cetie's third character quest, Cetie thanked Aldo since he no longer has to be alone in his quest for justice, only for Retro and Clock reassuring him that he is never alone. Especially considering the two pods usually bicker with each other, it's nice to see them finally agree on something.
  • This is reinforced once again in the end of Cetie's Another Style quest, where he reveals that as a member of Cardinal Vestige, he can be either ally or enemy (or sometimes both), and ultimately he belongs to nowhere and admits that there are times when he feels lonely in COA. Hearing this, Retro, Clock, and Macaron proceed to reassure him that Cetie will be okay and they will follow him anywhere regardless of his affiliation, and Aldo even reassures him to take a break once in a while. In the end, Cetie seems to have lightened up quite a bit as he declares that he will take a ride with Synth Hydra, which is also reflected in his battle lines.
• Dunarith's character quest:
  • Despite Dunarith admitting that he had been performing Ascensions for his own ends (i.e. as penance over what happened to his sister) and calling himself a liar, Aldo reassures Dunarith at the end of his quest that his kindness and compassion are genuine.
  • The end of said quest also revealed that before meeting Aldo, Dunarith had all but given up over what happened to his sister. After watching Aldo still helping him out despite his dark secrets, though, gave Dunarith hope that he can still guide the souls to their final resting peace and to save the lost souls - possibly, his own sister's included.
  • Dunarith's AS quest shows off more of Aldo and Dunarith's friendship. Aldo calls him one of his dearest friends, and prays for his and his sister's happiness. Dunarith gladly expresses that the feeling is mutual.
• During Yipha's second character quest, she gets anxious over the thought of Mariel knowing that the supposed Cool Big Sis was a Lazy Bum all the while. At the end of the quest, Mariel admits that she knew what Yipha was like all the while, and how she cut corners with her rituals and go relaxing at Hozuki's. Yipha is devastated, but Mariel goes on to say that she likes this free-spirited side of Yipha, and assures her that being perfect all the time will only exhaust her. Yipha is moved to tears by Mariel's words.
• Going through Cetie's Another Style quest and Hardy's third character quest reveals that Hardy has been rebelling against Cardinal Vestige on his own, all to free Cetie - his adoptive brother - from their clutches. Even in the opposing sides of law, Hardy still looks after his adoptive brother in his own way, even if he has to resort to drastic methods.
• Myunfa's character quests have some very sweet interactions between her and Aldo. Aldo only wants to use his wishes for her benefit and not his own. In return, when Aldo is fatally wounded in her final quest, Myunfa - having turned into human at that point - willingly turns back into a kettle spirit to save his life.
• While Shanie deciding not to tell about her feelings to Aldo at the end of her Another Style quest may be frustrating to some players, it is also heartwarming since she decided not to do it out of consideration for Aldo's quest, knowing how important it is to him and how her feelings may end up burdening him if she decides to tell him. This shows that not only she loves Aldo, she values him as good friend despite having suffered from doubts about men around her due to the curse that plagued her.
• Premaya's third character quest:
  • In the character quest, Premaya attempts to stop her alternate personality from taking over her body and causing destruction of Elzion. While fighting in the alternate personality's deepest part of mind, Premaya is outmaneuvered due to the area being her alternate personality's domain. Just as she is about to be killed and deleted for good, however, a shadow of Aldo appears and saves her. Later, it is revealed that the "Aldo" that saved her was the manifestation of her feelings to him, whom she had grown to hold dear in her heart.
  • In the end of the quest, Premaya decided to try giving her alternate personality a chance once again by raising her right this time, not because of she is bound by her duty to raise her, but because Premaya sympathizes with her.
• Premaya's AS quest not only has her learning to cook because she wants to make Aldo happy, but also at the end of her quest, she willingly swaps out with her Split Personality so she will have the chance to feel the similar warmth that she had been feeling throughout her quest. She truly has grown to genuinely care for and cherish her other half, instead of merely viewing her as part of her duty. On the same note, Feinne also seems to be more than happy to teach Premaya to cook, while also tactfully pushing Aldo to taste Premaya's cooking before she switches out so she would know the result of her efforts.
• In Philo's third character quest, having learned his nature as the spirit of the World Tree's memories of Benedict and what once happened to the tree, he tried to go back to the past to destroy it so the tree won't be able to cause pain for others, only to be stopped by Poporo. Poporo reassures him that even if it is true, the tree also carries the hopes and dreams of many people including his family, after which Philo breaks down in tears and reveals that he doesn't actually want to disappear. At the end of their heart-to-heart talk, Philo calls Poporo his "big brother", which caused Poporo to break down crying from knowing that he still has a family to look after to.
• Despite the Darker and Edgier nature of her quests, Melissa's third character quest managed to end in hopeful note:
  • Despite Melissa practically offing Eddie as her "gratitude" in her previous character quest, he still chose to save her without second thoughts when he spotted her being left to dead by her maker. He noted that she had subconsciously shown him mercy by not permanently killing him by destroying his core. And his offer of his place as her safe haven still stands, but this time, Melissa takes it to the heart.
  • After running through all her character quests alone while confronting her developing sense of self and the betrayal she's enacted and faced, Melissa's last scene in her third character quest has Aldo finally intervene. The only thing he does is provide Melissa an avenue to discuss her newly-discovered feelings, as that's what friends do.
  • Even before that, the very fact that after having lost her original purpose, the first thing that Melissa thought after she recuperated in Eddie's place is to seek Aldo to where they first met (the Spacetime Rift) instead of accepting Eddie's offer to hide in his place. Whether he realizes it or not, Aldo's presence is like a light to the playable characters, Melissa included.
• Through some shenanigans, Myrus and Aldo have to take care of a baby. While Myrus struggles with the task at first, after dealing with the scheming relatives trying to harm the baby, she sings a sweet lullaby to help calm it down.
• Pizzica's second quest leads to the siren she's helping trying to strike another Deal with the Devil to clear up a misunderstanding. When the sea monster tries to alter the deal more in its favor, Pizzica willingly offers her own soul, as she treasures the happiness of her fellow sirens over her own safety.
• Melody's first two character quests reveal that she suffers from social anxiety that she is only able to overcome by cosplaying as her favorite fictional character, the Magical Girl "Pure Melody", and that she's attending the IDA medical school to become a doctor. In her third quest, a boy who's a fan of her cosplay social media account asks her for help overcoming his own shyness so he can enter the "Mister Junior Elzion" contest. Melody reluctantly agrees, but the "training" she comes up with only seems to make things worse. He's about to give up, but Melody decides to meet him one last time - wearing normal clothing - and confesses to him about her own struggles. He then decides that he will enter the competition after all, if Melody can do him a favor first. Aldo and Melody go to watch the contest, and when the contestants are revealed, the boy is wearing a cosplay outfit that Melody made for him, and he charms the judges and the crowd when he tells them what it means to him. He qualifies to proceed to the next round of the contest, and the boy's father, who had hoped to protect his son by discouraging him, apologizes to his son for not believing in him - and also apologizes to Melody, for having told her that her outfit was inappropriate for a doctor when she attended his guest lecture at the IDA medical school. Inspired by the boy and his father, and remembering that when she first used her cosplay outfit to act brave it was to become a better version of herself rather than to try to escape from the parts of herself she didn't like, she resolves to become "Doctor Pure Melody" and cheer up sick children with her cosplay while treating them.
• Lovely's AS quest. No more yanking the dog's chain here, she gets to finally reunite with her husband Samolyn. It's abundantly clear that they love each other dearly.

Other Sidequests

• One sidequest has you helping out an ill girl in Aldo's hometown. With the help of time travel and future medicine, you're able to give her a cure for her condition. She writes a letter to the guy who helped you make the cure, saying she now has hope for the future and thanking him for giving back her life.
• A sidequest in Garulea starts with helping a specter find an old friend of his. When it turns out that friend is the Mask Demon that you've defeated much earlier, the specter is saddened but understanding that she'd die by Aldo's hands while with the Specter Army. Still, he politely requests a fight to help move on, and at the end Aldo helps him gather some flowers to mourn the fallen specter.
• A sidequest available starting from Chapter 3 of "Song of Sword and Wings of Lost Paradise" has Moke (Thillelille's pet) running away from the party, feeling depressed that it is not as popular as Noah or as the party's resident cat among the villagers. The one who goes through great lengths to look for Moke is Clarte, who proceeds to save it when it is about to be killed by a monster in Davola Underground Cavern. At the end of the quest, Clarte half-jokingly offers to become Moke's new master when it is still depressed due to Thillelille not understanding why it ran away, only for Moke to happily accepts.
• “Those who weave eternal prayers”, unlocked after completing the “knight” episodes and Anabel’s character quests ends with Anabel regaining her memories of Deirdre being her sister, and the two share a touching reunion. Anabel makes Deirdre her aide-de-camp and promises to make sure the other knights learn to like her despite her dark powers.

Others

• At the Tree of Eternity, wander into one of the dead ends in this small map and a voice will beckon you to receive their blessing. After receiving the healing, you can continue traveling forward to find a statue surrounded by flowers, and the nearby old man names the flowers and statue the "Setaka Blooms" and "Rildy's Figure," making it clear that this is the World Tree that burst out of Dogma Tower. Even after 20,000 years, the same tree you helped out in the Celestial Tower episode fondly remembers you and will lend a helping hand to the party.