Ardy Lightfoot: Ardendum

I was perhaps too brief in covering Ardy Lightfoot and the unexpectedly grim fate of Catry. It turns out that there’s a little more to the story—or at least alternate versions of it.

The ever-helpful GSK pointed out an Ardy Lightfoot audio drama. Released only in Japan, it peppers remixes of the game’s music with dialogue tracks that retell its story in abbreviated form. 

Catry’s arc is notably different. For those of you who don't want to scroll down a few paces, I'll recap: in the game she swipes a gem and is immediately swallowed by a giant worm, which Ardy explores to find Catry’s acid-drenched skeleton or just her possibly unconscious form, depending on which regional variant of the game you’re playing. 

The audio drama instead pits Catry against Ardy in a duel of swords (or possibly ninja daggers). Catry is very much out for blood and screams that she’ll kill Ardy, who steels himself to fight. The clash leaves Catry gasping her defiant last breaths while Ardy moves on with the sadly frustrated tone that all proper action heroes adopt when forced to slay an enemy. It’s a typical enough encounter that takes care to set Catry up as murderous before her demise. This contrasts sharply with the game, where she only ties up some villagers and steals a crystal before meeting an unjustly harsh end in a Dune-ish sandworm’s stomach. 

GSK also observed that the giant creature may not be a direct Dune reference, however. The Japanese manual for the game calls the worm-contained level “Tremors,” presumably referencing the 1990 monster flick with Kevin Bacon, Reba McEntire, and a bunch of subterranean alien worms called graboids. Granted, Dune’s shai hulud were a likely influence on the graboids anyway, but this connection will serve anyone who still plays that game about connecting Kevin Bacon to everything. 

The Mansour reminded me of the Ardy Lightfoot prototype, where Catry’s corpse has a different sprite. Opinions are divided over whether it’s merely a messier rendition of her skeleton or deliberately meant to show her corpse partly digested. Either way, it’s not pleasant to see. 

ArnoldRimmer83 questioned why Catry’s last scene was considered appropriate for an otherwise kid-safe game. Possibilities include it being someone’s covert fetish (which is never out of the question in any creative work) or a reference to some movie, comic, or book with which many of us are unfamiliar. I rather think it could be a case of the game not knowing what to do with her. As I pointed out in my previous entry, tales like Ardy Lightfoot usually have the hero rescuing a doomed opponent and earning their respect and future assistance. However, the game already has a helpful rival with Don Jacoby, a wolf who dresses like Indiana Jones and rescues Ardy a few times. Giving Catry that role wasn’t necessary, so instead she’s either abruptly murdered or callously left within the worm’s innards. 

Of course, such conjecture would be aided if there were more background details on Ardy Lightfoot. I still can’t find much concrete info on the game’s development, but it seems like there’s plenty lurking beneath its surface. 

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