Beds are Useless. Carpets are forever!

Last night we saved Calberona from the evil Galcia. There was no real reason for this, but we're heroes. It's what we do. Also, I'm not having much fun, and writing these updates is becoming a bit of a chore. I'm gonna start sprinting through these until something happens. These updates are gonna be more Wiki-ish than my standard affair.

Exploring the town seems to indicate that Barbara is from here. Her consciousness was teleported away before it was sealed. For millennia she walked alone, so it makes sense she has no memory of this. However, it turns out she's a descendant of the town's founder and great wizard, Barbarella. Have her use the Sand Container in the Elder's House, and we can talk to the Elder. By the way, I don't remember where I got the Sand Container. The Elder teaches Barb the ultimate spell, Madante. As she does, she dies in a nonsensically horrendous fashion. We can now talk to the old couple in the north house. They'll make us a magic carpet if we can find the old one.

And we can find that by winning a Style Contest to the southwest of the Medal King. You'll need to win three times, and the rounds seem to get harder and harder. This is utterly stupid and a waste of time, and I hated it. Why is style a thing?

With the Magic Carpet in hand, we can explore even further! In the southwest most continent is a castle. In one world, it's inaccessible, but in the other, you need to go through a long maze-like landscape that makes no sense from a game development perspective. Regardless, the one you can reach is totally ruined. The only things around are a treasure hunter and a well. Wells are magical in this game, so use it. It'll take you to a well crafted palace filled with a dozen people. Here we learn that the King is trying to summon a monster even more powerful than the Demon King. I don't know if the Demon King is Mudo or the even more powerful creature a few people are starting utter rumors about now. As we should have guessed, the summoning goes wrong, and the citizens get killed off left and right. As we escape, we see the knights hide the legendary armor, The Armor of Orgo. When the event is over, we're teleported back to the ruined castle and can follow the knights' steps to find the armor.

To the north of this castle are the snowfields of Mt. Snow. Everyone is frozen except for a man in the basement of the inn, who's running it now, and an old man who tells us not to go to the cave to the northeast. Ignore the cave in the north and go where he told us not to. We'll meet a snow queen who wants us to meet Goran. Goran was the old guy. Go back to him, and we'll see him telling Terry (remember Terry) the same thing he told us. When we tell Goran we met the woman, he'll say the same thing he did before. I ignore him again and convince Yurina to remove the curse. Mt. Snow will be filled with life again. In the church is the famed scholar, Zam. He'll tell us the passwords to get into the cave to the north. They're wrong, but it's the thought that counts. Head down, slide across the ice, don't break the ice by staying around the edges, and you'll get the Rusty Sword. Terry will follow us down and say it's supposed to be legendary, but this is just a piece of junk. Because he's a prude, he lets keep it. Muriel seems interested when he says his name, even though we already knew it from Arcbolt. Return to Zam, and he'll tell us about the town of thugs, Longadeseo. Despite being home to ruffians, it's also home to a legendary blacksmith. He gives us a pass, as well. I've already been there, but a guard wouldn't let me pass, so let's see if this pass works...

...tomorrow.

This new Demon King better show up soon and tie everything together.

Unda Da Sea...I Find a Key

I don't know if it's better, but I can't swim.

Last night's episode of randomly walking around and randomly fixing other people's problems randomly got me a Mermaid Harp. The Harp allows me to go underwater and find new locations, as well as the whole world to explore. We can go under the reefs that blocked our path to rivers and the outer ocean! And the first thing I did is go east of Pescani.

In the ocean lies a sunken ship. At the bottom of this small ship is the Final Key, which unlocks all treasure doors! From here, I did some backtracking to find all of those annoying locked doors that contained treasure that I couldn't reach before. All the castles have some, as do several dungeons. I think I got most of them, but I know I'm missing the Slime Arena place. Seeing as I don't have slimes, I don't care, but I should pop in and get the Small Medals for the King.

But on to the plot! West of Grandino, not whatever I called it last night, is a staircase down. It doesn't take us to the other world, but rather, to the throne of the horse god himself, Poseidon. Getting the Shield of Sufras sequence broke this, but he's supposed to tell us about someone named Glacus. Between the Sunken Ship and the Style Smith is a massive castle. It's massive both on the map and inside. Fortunately, nothing is too scary inside. It's a long maze spanning four floors. On the third floor, you need to move water from the top of the screen to the bottom. Step on the golden pressure plates to do so. At the end of the castle is Glacus. He tells of Calberona, a city he cursed because he feared the spell they know. Madante sounds fun. To prevent us from unsealing it, he attacks.

Paladin Rek learns a spell called Magiward. Magiward defends against magic attacks. Sage Barb knows Barrier, which does the same but specifically for Ice and Fire spells. Barb also knows Bikill, which doubles the attack power of whoever it's cast on. These three spells make Glacius a simple task. Healus when need be, but Rek and Hassan were doing a combined 250 a round, so it's not long. As our wannabe fish king dies, we see the city being restored in the other world. But that's not where I went.

I explored around more and found the real world Lifecod. On the mountain path, we see Rand arguing with someone who looks suspiciously like Rek. They both don't notice us and return to the town. We enter and talk to everyone, and some people mention how we look slightly different. Tania is just glad I'm here. Talk to the Elder, talk to Tania, and return to the Elder. We'll see him chatting with Rek. The same whirling animation that happened when the Hassans merged appears, but the other Rek runs away. We chase after him down the mountain path and meet with him near to where we found the Club in the other world. This Rek knows what needs to be done. He has an existential crisis before thinking it's best to fuse. And then a small child runs in to tell us Lifecod is under attack!

We all get back to the town and see it ablaze with monsters everywhere. Enter all the houses and beat up the mobs before going home. There's a boss we have to fight to end this scene, but I've already forgotten how I did it. I'm sorry, but I'm not paying that much attention anymore. The game's story is long gone, so why bother? He seemed easy, though. After we win, the town returns to normal, and the Reks merge. Oddly, we fuse into the real Rek, so I think we have a new main character. Tania asks if we can still be family, and Rand tells us he'll take care of her.

And now, with the Reks merged, we return to our real home. Reidock Castle has prepared for our homecoming. We meet the new general, Franco. Apparently, we've grown up together, but I (the player) have no way of knowing that. The royals throw a party, and we wake up in bed next to our mom. We walk the castle halls and regain our memories. Most are from the time just before Mudo attacked, but there's one where we see Rek's dead sister, Sarah. I'm sure the soup she made was wonderful! In the morning, the King gives Rek an old heirloom, The Helm of Cevas. It's a Legendary Helm akin to the Shield I got the other day.  I then start making my way toward the restored Calberona. But I'll learn more about their magic carpet...

...tomorrow.

So what's the deal with Muriel? We know a lot of her backstory, but where's her real world self? All these random adventures, but they can't toss her anything? I guess there's still time, but Grandmaz showed up to the Reidock party and said our fusion wasn't as complete as Hassan's or Muriel's. So Muriel already merged? [insert shrug emoji]

Tales of Love and Stealth

Last night we reached Foan? Why? I dunno.

We go to see the King of Foan, Foan, who's staring into a mirror. But not just any mirror, a cursed mirror with a Princess trapped in it! After finding him, he asks if we know about the Mirror of Ra. Not only do we know of it, but we have it on our fifth party member I never use. He uses Ra on the cursed, and we see a demon behind the Princess trapped therein. Foan informs us of a legend about an evil magician who lived in a tall tower in the desert. The chancellor tells us to use Identify to open the door. However, the tower isn't there in this world. In its location is an old dude who also tells us about the tower. Switch worlds and heading to the place takes us to the Magician's Tower.

Floor One has us simply finding the correct stairwell up. It's the lower left one.
Floor Two has us walking on the outside of the tower. Don't fall off, or you have to start the climb again.
Floor Flour has us climbing a long staircase. There is no gimmick.
At the top of the tower is Miralgo, cooking some food. He's upset we're here but tells us why we trapped the Princess anyway. She said no to his marriage proposal. Female autonomy, am I right!? Anyway, we fight.

So, I've spent about two or so hours powerleveling my classes. By now, I'm on class three or four for my characters. Rek and Hassan are both fighters with access to a move called Swordline. This move attacks five times. The first hit is a strong, basic attack, and the other four are at half damage. The trick is, though, it's random who they hit. If there's only one target, though... Miralgo summons aid from time to time, but they're only slightly scarier than the average random encounter. I had Muriel casting Increase, and Barbara was relegated to utility. Miralgo wasn't affected by Sap, and he cast Bounce on himself, so I didn't try again. I had no problems with this guy but watch out for his teamwide magic attacks.

As he dies, he'll free Erica, and we should return to Foan. Foan is waiting for us, and we all head down to the mirror. He chants an incantation, and the cursed Princess is cursed no more. Because love is strange, he asks her to marry him, and they go do their King and Queen thing. Foan gives us a Watergate Key as thanks, which allows our ship access to the south sea.

I take my sweet time and explore around. I find a Style Shop I won't care to use and a few more locations, but I'll only talk about one right now. Far to the west is the fishing village of Pescani. The fishing sucks because monsters have taken everything. One villager even says the monsters are taking tribute. Most talk about Rob, who was injured one day at sea and now hides in the back of the cave in town. They think something is fishy, but I think he's back there to be one with nature, if ya get my drift. Talk to everyone, then talk to the Fishmonger. He'll say how he's sick of waiting and head for Rob's house. They'll have a talk, and then Fishy will leave. As we leave, Rob exits as well. Follow him like a ninja! This is a stealth mission, you see. Do not talk or walk in front of him and hide behind corners. It's actually pretty well done for a SNES game. If he catches you, you have to do this whole thing over again from Fishy's House. After he discreetly presses a button to open a secret cave, we can follow him in.
 
As we enter, we see Rob talking to a mermaid. The mermaid hides, and we have a conversation with Rob. Answer No and then Yes, I think, and we can advance. Rob doesn't want us telling others about the mermaid that saved his life, but he does want her to return to the rest of her people. The monsters that roam the seas would kill Denae, so she can't just go home. Return to your ship and enter the (world map) cave north of town. One of the squares will trigger a conversation between us and Rob, where we volunteer to take Denae home. Denae doesn't want to leave as that would make Rod sad, but he talks her into joining us. She gives him a kiss and says they'll meet again. Take Denae over to the Mermaid Reef north of San Marino. Most of the mermaids there will flee, but one will notice Denae. This is Dina. She'll be overjoyed her sister isn't dead and rewards us with the Mermaid's Harp. The Harp allows us to turn our ship into a submarine. It looks likes I'll be trying to avoid the bends...

...tomorrow!

During my travels, I found the castle of Gangerlo. It has a confusing history with Kings, Queens, and Empresses. Some are around, some are old, but there's one still hiding. One generation killed women, while the current one seems cool. There's also some evil mob boss. I don't know if he's a mob, but the name sounds Italian, so, ya know, racial stereotypes. After talking to a man in the church confessing his sins, he proceeds to the mob's HQ. He tries to discuss the release of one of the prisoners, which he's responsible for. Women haven't been jailed in years, so everyone calls him a loon. Return to his house, and he'll utter "Muri" in his sleep. In the castle is a dungeon that used to house women to be killed by a jealous Empress, who's still around. Someone mentions a girl who escaped with her flute... This didn't go anywhere, but Muriel is involved, so I wish it had. Give me some plot damn it!

Also, apparently, Iria and Gina died and have been reincarnated as kids. The translation team who worked on this kinda gave up a few days ago on tertiary and secondary dislodge, so I'm not sure what happened. I think I stumbled upon it online. All I got was cell numbers when I returned to Amuro. I also got the Shield of Sufida while I was nearby, so Rek has the best shield in the game already. Gonna help speedhacking through the rest of this mess.

I Don't Like Kids

So we need to get the kid baptized, but he doesn't want to be baptized. As someone who has been baptized and later wished he hadn't, why am I doing this? To show off the new jobs I'm using because I mastered round one!

We take young Holse down to the baptism cave...and he runs away. You'll find him back in town, not the castle, in the northwest house. Return to the cave, and we'll have to do deal with three trials.
Trial One has us killing ourselves. His entire shtick is casting Confuse on the whole party. Dancers, which Muriel is, seem immune to this spell, but her DPS isn't very high. I'd like to give a strategy here, but there isn't any. Make everyone a dancer, maybe? After the fight, Holse ran off again. He's still in the cave near the treasure chest on the first floor.
Trial Two tends to put party members to sleep. Sadly, he doesn't spam this and will actually hurt you. Treat this guy as a long random encounter. Holse will have ran off, again, and can be found just north of the stair we took to get to this floor, but down the staircase in the area.
Trial Three gets two attacks a turn, but one will always be Defense, which, ironically, lowers the entire team's defense. I had Rek and Hassan attack the whole time while Muriel and Barbara were casting Increase. Muriel and Rek healed from time to time, but I always had one character canceling out Three's Defense spell.

At the bottom of this cave is a priest. How did he get down here? Regardless, he tells Holse to stand under the waterfall for a while until he's been suitably baptized. There was no real need for him to even be here. A cold Holse asks to be taken home, which we do. A party is thrown in his honor, and he seems a lot more mature than he was before. As a reward, we get the Magic Key. Like the Thief's Key, it opens doors throughout the world. Specifically, red doors. One such door is to the southwest.

Behind the door is a well guarded by a mimic. Defeat the creature and go down the free well. As we have before, we'll have switched worlds. Travel east for a while, and we'll come to the town of Clear Veil. Clear Veil is known for its flying bed, but no one seems 100 percent sure it's real. Several people seem to be weirdly in love. Anyway, there's nothing here, so exit town, then head west until you find another out-of-place stairwell on the world map. Climb them and walk east again until you get to whatever world this is' Clear Veil. The citizens are morning the death of a ten-year-old boy named John. His parents are in the church trying to get something out of the priest and having an understandably rough time right now. Follow them back to the house in the north. In the first Clear Veil, this was locked but is open now. They'll discuss some stuff, and another man in the weapons shop will talk about the Badge of Courage and where to find the stone for it. It was something John really wanted, and his parents want to fulfill their kid's dream.

Far to the north of Clear Veil is the location for the rock, the Wall of Destiny. It's a sheer cliff! You can enter the safe room on the bottom, but everywhere else are random encounters. Climb on the various rock hold paths (I don't know rock climbing) to find chests. You should notice a random hole in the wall with no path to it. That's the place we're looking for. Fall from the path above it, hold up on the controller, and you'll latch to the outcropping just below the hole. Climb in, and you'll find the Golden Pickaxe. You can now clear several walls in the dungeon. Some will open areas to treasure, and others will take you to the top of the wall. At the top is a large rock. Use the pickaxe on it, and you'll get the Fragment of Courage, which can be turned in the badge. Return to Clear Veil and talk to the mourning mother. She'll turn the rock into the badge, and the dad will thank you by letting you spend the night there. For some macabre reason, he's letting you use his dead son's bed.

All four party members hop into the child's bed. At some point, the colors get strange, and the bed begins to lift up and rise from the floor. As we're warping about, we see the spirit of John hang out for a moment to thanks us. As a reward, he lets us use his flying bed. This functions like the Magic Carpet in DQV, except we can't deploy it wherever we want. In that sense, it's like a terrible airship.

I spend the next hour looking around the world, finding new towns, stairs/wells between worlds, and future dungeons. I made very little plot progress. To finish tonight, I found the castle of Foan. This is important for two reasons. 1.) The Princess is cursed, and 2.), the King has a waterway key. The waterway is keeping my boat from traveling out of the inner ocean on one of the worlds, so I'd very much like to open it.

But I'll do this tomorrow.

I'm getting bored. There's no plot, no depth, no nothing. What am I doing? Why do I care about finding another Rek? This part of the game is really falling apart with all the unconnected events. I'm beginning to reach Trials in the Sky levels of apathy. There's no casual pedophilia, so I probably won't be dropping DQVI, but when's something fun gonna happen?

The Northern Island of (not very) Happiness

North northwest of Arcbolt is their in-process Northern Passage. Its purpose is to link Arcbolt to the North Village. The North Village has five people, so good on Arcbolt for caring about these three huts!

But first, we need to beat their monster problem. The first few floors are safe and filled with NPCs: workers and guards. Behind the wall of guards are two monsters just chillin'. They get upset when you approach and attack.

The key is to hope they don't use their teamwide magic ability at the same time. Barb won't gain HP when she levels, so I'm beginning to think about leaving her behind. Back-up characters still gain Class EXP, so it just makes sense. As for the battle at hand, defeat the tiger guy on the right. Two turns should do it, and the remaining guy lacks any real oomph. If you leave the dungeon, these guys respond, so let's get deep into the cave. The place can be short, and I suggest you make it through as quickly as possible. The stairway down to the second floor is in the northwest. The next stairwell is to the southwest. Lastly, go straight up. The paths are a bit windy and mazelike, but you should be able to navigate them. On the bottom floor, it may be worth examining one of the eggs for your imaginary bestiary, but otherwise, just get to business. We see the Blue Swordsman, who isn't Brast, who we saw carting the coffin as we entered Arcbolt Castle, stand before a dinosaur. He doesn't let us fight as a great action scene (for the SNES) takes place, where Terry easily defeats the upset mama lizard. He takes its corpse and returns to the castle while we walk out a loser, again. Hassan beat us, Terry beat us, Amos hates us; are we the hero? Anyway, the random encounters down here are gone, so explore and find the two chests I skipped over.

We return to the castle only to be told how great Terry is and for him to wave his new Thunder Sword in our face. Go back to the tunnel, and it's now open to the North Island. There are only a few small huts there but travel east and then south from them. We see the very odd sight of a staircase on the world map. Take those stairs, and you come to the other world. Travel around for a while, enter a cave that takes you under the mountain range, and we come to the desert city of Calcenda. The citizens will mention a great place called the Land of Happiness and the boat that takes people there every full moon. Some people wonder about loved ones who went, and others are more interested in staying here to fix the dried well. But wouldn't you know it, tonight is a full moon? Enter the church and leave, and it'll be dark. The "ship" to the Land of Happiness is rumored to be on the west peninsula. Something odd is defiantly there.

It's a small island that can be piloted like a boat. A few of the townsfolk are already onboard, being entertained by the crew. The bartender gives Rek a drink. And then another because underage drinking is looked well upon in this place. We go to sleep and are woken up later that night by something terrible.

Two blue monsters are kicking at us to get up. We comply, and they take us to the nearby castle. There we see an army of monsters worshiping a giant bird named Jamiras. He claims to be the next Mudo. The people we saw on the boat have been turned to stone and are behind us. We, however, are to be sacrificed! For some reason, they let us keep our equipment.

Jamiras occasionally acts twice. As long as he doesn't spam his teamwide breath attack, he isn't too bad. He's susceptible to Sap and Defense, so get his Defense to 0. Cast Increase a few times on your guys. Don't be afraid to have Hassan be the only attacker for a few rounds. Jamiras can do a lot of damage in a short time, so it's all about staying alive. Really, if this guy wasn't so fast, I'd call him easy.

When he dies, all the monsters will die (?) with him. The people we saw on the boat will be turned back to normal, and the souls of those who came here long ago will return to their old selves. We all return to the town, but we get to keep the boat. Interestingly, one of the saved citizenries will ask who will take the place of the monster who took the place of Mudo. That's deep, man. One of those we saved from Jamiras was the Medal King, but I can't find him yet. We can explore quite a lot on our ugly boat, but most of these places will end up with us getting our butt kicked. Instead, swap worlds and return to that sleeping guard in the south gate. It turns out his dream was one that got caught up in the Land of Happiness mess, and he's now awake. The gateway through is also opened, so let's explore the next kingdom.

We'll come to the village of Holcutta first. There's not much here, but everyone tells us about the rowdy Prince, Holse. The castle we're looking for is a bit to the west. Explore around a while and eventually talk to the King. He tells us that the heir to the throne is supposed to be baptized at age 15, which Holse currently is. Unfortunately, the path to the font is infested with monsters. Being the adventurous type, he asks us to take his kid down there. The chancellor goes to get the heir, who's gone missing! We now have to play hide-and-seek. In his room, an aide will tell us about how he (the aide) hid in a barrel once, impressing the kid. Checking the room of barrels, he's in there. We go to the King, he tells his son what's to happen, and Holse joins the party. Down the stairs we go, and Holse tricks us into letting him escape. We find him on the ledge outside the escape tunnels, and he joins proper. Our goal is to the south of Holcutta, but I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

Why do I feel so aimless right now? I want a big evil to slay, but all I've got now is busy work. I mean, I like killing monsters who deserve it, but why do I feel so empty. I'm walking around with no goal, which is what real world me has been doing for years, and I'm not into it.

Peace Time is Boring Time

So, I'll let ya in on a little secret. I didn't do anything today. I tried, but I had no idea where to go.

After finding the rebuilt Temple of Dharma, I got my characters new classes. Rek and Hassan are soldiers, Muriel and Chan are priests, and Barb is a wizard. A very, very fragile wizard. I know it's basic and boring, but it's early on. I'll throw in some diversity when they've mastered class one. After I left the Temple, though, I walked around aimlessly for two and half hours. Everyone kept telling me about the Temple. Even Grandmaz built up some special dinner, twice, to inform me about it. Because of that, I teleported from town to town.

In Lifecod, Tania is happy I'm home for a little bit, as is everyone else.
Shiena is extending the Bazzar to celebrate world peace.
Our Reidlock still has Sheba as the acting King, trying to make sure everything is still peaceful. She also threw Golad in jail despite him not doing anything in this world.
The citizens of Gent are healing people left and right.
San Marino's mayor has left the job, and the town is looking for a new leader. Joe is around but is too preoccupied with Sandy, I guess. Hassan does tell his parents that he's home, but his dad doesn't seem to care.
Gina and Iria are hanging out in the church basement, and I never checked the other Amaru.
Everything else I found tonight seems like it's important, but we won't know for sure until later.
South of other Reidlock is a gate, but the guard is sleeping and hid the key "to the north," The island north in his world is inaccessible.
North of San Marino is a mermaid reef, but they all hide when our ship approaches.
I did find something of interest but messed it all up.

North of Mudo's castle is the town of Monasterio. It's home to Amos, the local hero. Ever since he was bitten, he's turned into a monster every night. The townsfolk try to protect him, but I told him all about his ailment. I went to help him out by finding the Seed of Reasoning, but when I got back, he was gone. Who knows if I'll see him again, but don't tell him he's a monster if you want a sixth party member!

Out of places to go, I went looking for a guide. East of Monasterio is the castle of Arcbolt. They've been having some monster problems in their north cave and are looking for capable soldiers. We see a man pulling a coffin as we enter, so we talk to the guard. They let us in, but the next one challenges us to a fight.

Don't bring Barb in here. She has less than 50 HP, so is likely to just be one shot. Not only that, but Garcia seems to have a high crit chance. He can't handle Rek and Hassan being cured by Muriel, so it's a fairly simple fight.

Walk deeper into the castle and explore if you'd like. The next guards we have to beat up are just before the throne room. Scott and Holidy are a combination of what we just fought and that Biggs and Smok fight from Torukka. Beat up on Holuday, as he can defend Scott and is likely to die first regardless, so we're just gonna push things faster. Once again, poor Barb dies. We can now talk to the King of Arcbolt, who confirms the happenings. There's a monster in the northern cave, which seems to be an important project for the kingdom. The monster is incredibly strong and killed a whole squad who went to defeat it. The only survivor is the blue swordsman and captain of the guard, Brast. Brast will fight us to see if we're worthy of entering.

He can be a bit of a problem. He likes to spam teamwide physical attacks, so leave poor Barb out of this again. Fortunately, unlike the other guards, he is susceptible to Sap. Muri should keep casting Increase if need be, while Rek and Hassan wale on him. Muri didn't survive the battle for me, but Brast didn't do much damage to Hassan outside of his special moves.
After he loses, the King allows us to hunt the monster plaguing his kingdom. He gives us a blue coffin to hold the proof that we won, and we'll do that...

...tomorrow!

Man, I hope this is plot relevant. Most of tonight had me thinking happily-ever-after is a terrible game mechanic. A ray of light in tonight's waste of time was I got my first classes nearly halfway mastered. And I hope Amos didn't have a personality!

The Worst Battle Ever!

As we return to ...real Reidlock, we don't see The King, Queen, or Soldi. I'm also getting quite confused about what world we're in. Where did we begin? Where are we now? Am I the Muffin Man? Maybe I am a bowling ball dreaming I'm a plate of sashimi!?

Everyone is confused, so we wait around for a day. We get tired of waiting, so someone tells us to go find him. As we leave the castle, Barbara suggests that the King meant HIS castle in the other world. We follow up on her assumption and learn she's correct. But first, we get thrown in jail. The soldiers are dumb and think the King hates us, but the situation is quickly fixed, and I wonder what the point of it was, to begin with. The Queen still has no idea how she became King in our world, but we'll talk about that later. Everyone talks about the Dream World, where Rek started, and its connections to the real world. The King then tells us of how he came to be Mudo. He was sailing to the island where Mudo was, as even then, they were at war when a bright light shone above him. When he "woke up," he was Super Kami Guru in the seat where we beat him. The next thing he remembers is what we just did to him.

We all go outside, where the King continues to tell us that real Mudo is still out there and waiting to conquer the world. The only way to reach him is by ship, which the kingdom lacks now. However, far to the north is the village of Gent. They have a magic ship that the King requests. Before we leave, speak to some of the townsfolk, and they'll tell you General Tom was executed before Geban left town. Does this explain Soldi's disappearance? Heading to Gent takes us to another city with magical healing properties. Don't upgrade Barbara's equipment here! Head to the Elder's House, and he'll decline the King's request because there's no one around to captain the ship. As we go to leave, his grandson pops in and gets informed of who we are. Another flash of light appears above the boy, Chamoro, that tells him to travel with us. I like when gods have plans for their subjects and actively try to help them out. We all experience this, so it's an easy sell. Chamoro takes us to the boat dock, sealed with magic, and unlocks everything for us. The party then heads to an island in the bay to the south. Barbara stays on the ship, which is why I said not to equip her.
 
We see a beached ship nearby, but there's nothing there. Cross the poison fields and get ready for the lava floors because this dungeon is a doozy. I'd suggest finding a map because there's some good stuff in the chests soft locked behind lava. There are also a few mimics. If you need to leave, you can return to the ship south of Gent on the world map, so it's not a big deal. There are only two floors of lava, and the dungeon eventually gives way to a quiet cave. Keep heading north, and we come to something that looks familiar.

Remember the first scene of the game? We're back! The only difference is we're confused, and there's a priest here now. Chamoro really ruins the nostalgia vibe. Hassan scales down the rock cliffs, we walk up to a ledge, Muriel plays the ocarina, a dragon flies us to the depths of a castle, and we're in the same room as before. We can open a door we couldn't, which has some good stuff, but otherwise, same thing (featuring Chamoro).

Unlike before, we can now explore the entirety of Mudo's Castle. I kinda wish I didn't. There are plenty of treasures, a mid-boss, and EXP and gold, sure, but the boss, man... Feel free to follow the same path as you did before, but I explored around. There are several dragon statues you can fight, which are probably the easiest fights down here. One way leads us to the jail cells. There's something in one of the cells, but we can't interact. The other way takes us to a tea party with one of Mudo's commanders. He's not very hard. Everything is so draining, though. The mimics, the demon pots, the constant battles: I scream. Regardless of how you do it, you eventually find a statue of Hassan. Both figures begin to illuminate, and we see the two combine after our Hassan has a moment of philosophical inquiry. Now fused, Hassan knows everything that's happened. We HAVE been here before, and he IS the son of those two in San, not El, Marino. The dream world Hassan and the real one have merged! He also learns a new Skill called Spirit Fist that kinda sucks.
Keep on keeping on until we have another psyche-up moment before the door of Mudo's throne. We enter, and the same exact thing happens! We're tosses around and exploded, but this time, Rek has the Mirror of Ra. I'm so glad that McGuffin has more than one scene of relevancy. He falls to the floor of his house in LIfecod as he did when the game began proper, but Tania has the Mirror. She says she looks funny, and Rek looks into it. A flash of light engulfs them, and we're all transplanted back into Mudo's throne! A fight breaks out.

Round one, yes, round one, is tough. Mudo has two friends, which can be as deadly as he is. Defeat them as best you can because they hurt, Mudo will waste a turn summoning more, and they're fragile. One Berserk from Hassan can finish them off. On subsequent summons, they're grouped together in that strange battle form Dragon Quest does. As for Mudo himself, he likes to breathe fire. I had Hassan continue to use Berserk while Muriel and Chamoro healed. I should have used Chamoro's weapon, the Gent Cane, a lot since it heals. Sadly, I have in the sack... While not fun, he is doable. His second form, though...

He beat him, and he gets upset. The gloves come off, and I'm no longer having fun. Muriel and Chamoro are out of MP and can't heal. Rek only knows basic Heal, returning 30 HP, and isn't good enough. I can't buff myself, Mudo is immune to debuffs, and I hate this game! I saved scummed every turn that went well for me, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Maybe if they let us leave at some point in the dungeon, I wouldn't have done this, but nope! We're stuck here after TWO challenging dungeons. Mudo is alone but loves his debuffs. He can put a character to sleep and make several dizzy, making them more likely to miss their attacks. He's added an Ice Breath AND the ability to summon lightning to his repertoire! AND HE CAN ACT TWICE IN THE SAME TURN!!!! Like I said, no shame! I did what I needed to do. Have Hassan attack normally, with the Fire Claw equipped. If Muriel and Chamoro are out of MP, have them parry the whole fight. They're oddly good at tanking that way and more valuable than doing one damage. Rek should attack, but don't be afraid to use Heal when need me. Chamoro had just enough MP for five Healmores, so I tried to use them when necessary. Muriel got off one Upper, on Hassan, and went to defend. I tried to absorb the dizziness and save stated every turn when I had enough HP. After an hour of scumming, I somehow had everyone survive. I was willing to sacrifice the mages, but I'll take my win. I won't brag or be proud, but I will let everyone have their peace. Mudo wonder's how he could be beaten (by cheating) and explodes.

Everyone return to Reidlock, where the King thanks us for saving the world. He still wants to know where his son, his Rek, is, and he asks us to keep searching. I'm curious myself, so I take on the task. Gent allows us to use the boat, which means we have sea travel now. The only clue as to where to go now is the Temple of Dharma seems to have been restored. We travel to San Marino and walk to the Temple, but it's still destroyed. But what about the other world? Its rebuilt. I find the nearest preacher, save, and get ready to plan the whole reason I wanted to play Dragon Quest VI: the Job System. But what classes will I assign my team? Find out...

...tomorrow!

I want to swear so badly, but I also want to keep this blog suitable-ish for all ages. Instead of making old Mormon me weep, I'll just say that I really really really hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate this. And by this, I mean that fight, but I copy/pasted the wrong tense and don't care enough to fix it. Let's hope the game returns to its enjoyable self tomorrow.

Dream World?

We were halfway, hopefully, through finding the Mirror of Ra for the King of Reidlock. And then we came back to the town of Reidlock, but everything was different. Before, the King never slept, but here the King AND Queen are always sleeping. And the Prince is missing?

And to make things odder, Rek looks just like the Prince? Or at least with the correct clothing. Buy the Royal Clothes in the armor shop. They're pretty good, so you won't feel like you're wasting gold. A soldier will mention your resemblance and send you to the castle gate. The guard there will be pleased that the Prince has returned, as will the commander above him. Walk to where the King is, and we’ll see him asleep. General Tom, but not Soldi, will escort us. The Queen mutters something about a mirror, and her worst half is snoring. The acting ruler of Reidlock, Geben, will then enter the room and demand to know who we are. He sees through our "disguise" and asks us who our long dead sister is. I answered Tania, but that was the wrong answer. We’re immediately kicked out of the castle, and Tom has to suffer for allowing us in.

Out of anywhere to go, we keep heading east. Eventually, we run into the town of Amoru. The claim to fame of this isolated place is the water, which, if boiled, can cure any disease. The inn is full, and the church is inaccessible, but otherwise, nothing is here. On the first take, I thought I had spoken to everyone, and nothing advanced. I opted to get lost and walk around the world. Returning to Lifecod, our home, we talk to Tanis, who is doing well. She says she had a dream that she and Rek lived together but weren’t siblings. Everyone else in town congratulates us on becoming a soldier. Judy, not Julie, says she's given up on Rand and is in love with Rek. She asks him to marry her. The Bazaar is nearing its end, so stock on up on Medical Herbs while you can. And then I remember that first town I went to when I first became translucent. I went back to ??? and found those creepy thieves had kidnapped the mayor’s daughter, Eliza. They took her to the well to the north and are demanding a 5000 gold ransom. The mayor can’t pay it, but I head up anyway to see if I can do anything. The party pretends to be emissaries from the mayor and wants to trade the 5000 for Eliza. We don’t have that much, so they get mad, and we do battle.

Biggs and Smok aren’t anything to worry about. Biggs can guard Smok, taking all damage for him. He can also heal if need be. Cast Sap a few times and hope Rek’s Bladed Boomerang hits the poor boy twice because of his guarding maneuver. Neither man hits very hard, but Smok can do a Tower Guard wind up, so prepare accordingly. They go down, and we save the day. Eliza and the Mayor thank us, and we get a Seed of Life that raises the HP of whoever ate it. You can also get 5000 gold from him if we say we’re with the bandits, but who’d want to be confused with them? Biggs and Smok ran away, so I suspect we might see them again later.

Once again, out of places to go, I return to Amoru. It turns out I missed someone who mentioned that a woman named Gina lives in the basement of the church. Talking to him triggers our allowed entry to said church. The priest and Gina say we can sleep there tonight, as the inn is still full. And then we fall through a hole…sorta. We wake up in a room that looks similar, but a dude is outside who had no idea we were here. Gina is gone, too. When we exit the church, it looks like Amura, but before we can investigate, the river that flows through town turns blood red. Everyone panics, and we go to look into that.

The cave north of town is now opened up, and we see a pink haired woman leaking something red into the river. Like, a lot of it. She’s muttering to herself that she can’t wash it off. This is Gina, but a lot younger! She elaborates that she killed her friend, Iria. We can go deeper into the cave just north of her. There is nothing down here to wary about. Who knew getting lost and grinding could make one so strong? The cave is a long maze of various staircases and a few floating log rafts that we need to navigate through to reach the bottom. There’s good money to be had down here, as well as treasure. At the bottom is a man looking on as an injured man is dueling a monster!

The Horror Beast looks bad but isn’t too scary at this point. Two Saps and a Surround makes him fragile. The only thing to watch out for is Confusion Dance. I had no way to cure the status ailment, so hope the confused character doesn’t hit too hard. The man who was fighting him was Iria. The Horror Beast popped out of the chest sitting on the pedestal, and Gina struck him, Iria, in the battle. We all walk back to the top and ease the mind of poor Gina. Somehow, her mind got befuddled, Probably from the Confusion Dance HB cast, now that I think about it. As confusion is want to do to someone, Gina started panicking. As thanks for helping, we get a Speed Ring, which increases the agility of a character. Any time a stat is doubled is great! Return to the church bed and hit the hey. We’ll wind up in the other Amoru, and a man named Iria will talk to our old Gina. The two will reunite, and Gina will feel like we had something to do with this, so she hands us the Mirror Key, which is said to unlock the tower of mirrors. Weren’t we looking for a mirror?

North of fake Reidlock is a tower. The key we got opens it, and we now have to fight our way up. It’s a lot harder than the last dungeon! On the first floor, we have to find the way up. One of those mirrors isn’t a good mirror but, rather, a door. We have to fight three poison zombies.

This is not fun. The three are tanky, can heal, and infect our characters with poison. Have Hassan attack the whole fight, and Murial should be ready for an Antidote while Rek attacks. Have him heal if need be. Once one goes down, they begin to cascade, but those three are pretty touch-and-go early on.

Head into the right tower and go up the maze of stairwells. There are only two to choose from, but one leads to a dead end. At one point, we’ll meet a girl who can’t see her reflection. I thought she’d be a vampire boss later on, but I was wrong. At least, for now. This is Barbara, and she’s in the same position as Rek and Hassan were before they met Muriel. She’ll tag along as we’re the only people she’s spoken to in ages. She almost forgot her name. Further up, there will be a switch to trigger that, I think, opens the other tower. Don’t head there yet, as we need to knock out a Tesla Coil. At the top of the spire are two black orbs that generate some energy. Move them out of view of the mirror they’re in front of, and they’ll break. As they do, the room they’re holding up will weaken. Do this for both orbs, and then head to the left tower. Find the secret stairwell using the mirror, and do the same. A room will fall to the second story, so take the quick jump down because fall damage doesn’t exist in Dragon Quest!

Enter it and pick up the Mirror of Ra. We’ll also turn Barbera human again, and she joins us as the fourth member of the battle team. I think she’s a Black Mage type character, but she’s too low level to be of use now. Outside out, Return to real Reidlock, and talk to the King.

That night, we’ll plan our attack on Mudo. In the middle of discussions, the King will fall ill. Commander Soldi, who is not Tom, senses something is amiss and asks us to use the Mirror of Ra on the King. Something flashes and the King turns into the Queen. We let her rest and talk to her in the morning. This is Shera, and she thinks the real King may be Mudo. We’re all confused, so she joins us as we take our planned attack on Mudo to the southeast. How long has she been reigning?

If we return to fake Reidlock, she doesn’t join us, so nothing advances. We’re still locked out. So make your way to the poison fields to the south of Reidlock! We see the two soldiers guarding the gate are dead, and we get the chance to save at a wandering priest. The dungeon proper is another cavern maze. The monsters aren’t bad, but there are plenty of them. I hope you’re good for an attrition dungeon. We eventually come to a gated part of the place where the real gimmick happens. We have to navigate a dark room. To get through, just fall. This will lead to two golden plates that we need to stand on. That will trigger grates above the darkroom to open, allowing for light to venture in. We can see where we’re going now. Do this twice more later on and follow the darkroom as far as you can to open the fifth. Loop back to the first light and head up the stairs to the throne room of Mudo.

He’s definitely hard, but oddly easy for a great and powerful evil. Cast Sap twice and get ready. Mudo casts a lot of fire spells, including a teamwide attack. Muriel will probably be healing the whole fight, so, hopefully, you have Healmore. Barb’s attacks somehow did more damage than her magic. I don’t remember any status effects, so I guess the attrition dungeon gets an attrition boss.

When the dust settles, use the Mirror of Ra on Mudo to reveal that he was the King. But the King has no idea how he got here, and he seems to know Shera. The plot thickens, so we all return to real Reidlock to figure out what’s going on. But I’ll do that…

…tomorrow!

I have to type a lot because a lot happens. But a lot only happens because I want to keep playing. I wanted to call it a night before fighting Mudo, but I really wanted to fight Mudo. I really wanted to keep playing to find out who Shera is, but I really wanted ice cream. Good games are good!

We are Sekhmet?

The King of Reidlock gave Rek and Hassan a mission: Find the Mirror of Ra. The only clue of its whereabouts is it's to the northeast. It's a terrible clue, but what can ya do?

Traveling past the gate, the party eventually comes to a church. It's just a church, but there's a guy who was with us when the King gave the order. Cool? South of this place is a lone man looking to build a second house. For reasons not explained, Rek tries to help the man after a convoluted conversation. Hassan reminds Rek that they have more important things to do, like save the world, and sits this one out. Sadly for the two construction workers, they have no idea where to even begin. This upsets our Beefy Boi, who then offers help. And by offers, I mean he does the whole thing in a matter of minutes. Hassan thinks there's a future for himself in this. As thanks for building the second house, the guy we helped offers us a whole lot of nothing. For reasons not explained...

He does give us a clue about some ancient temple that might aid us. The Temple of Dharma is said to be across the river to the east. The man went in search of it but never found it. Perhaps we can succeed? Entering a tunnel system hidden in the desert nestled between the forest to the east, we come to another hole in the world. Falling into it takes us to the outskirts of a ruined temple. And we're incorporeal again... Inside the temple is a lone bandit who has pillaged all the chests. The only thing we can find is the Magic Map, which shows us our location on the world map. It works very strangely when we're physical, though.

Far to the west of this temple is the town of El Marino. Once again, we can't interact with anyone, but we can pay to sleep at the inn. At the docks are two star-crossed lovers, Sandy and Joseph. Sandy is the mayor's daughter, and Joe is some dude, as far as I could tell. There's also an upset third party in this triangle, Amanda, who doesn't want them to be together. Meet these three people and head to the mayor's house. He loves his dog so much that he asks his daughter to bake it a proper dinner. Sandy does this but steps out at one point, allowing Amanda to sneak in and mess with the food. When Sandy returns and gives the dog its food, we learn Amanda poisoned it! The priest is able to save poor Pero, the dog, but the mayor throws Sandy in jail. There's also a house with two parents awaiting the return of their child, Hassan. Our Hassan says it isn't him, but cogs begin to turn in my head. Doing this triggers the next important plot advancement.

Head to the docks and find the ferry to Reidlock. But we reached this place by falling through a hole. How could a boat travel to Reidlock? One of the people in the waiting room can interact with us. She was one of the party members in the opening scene and is named Muriel. She offers her aid in becoming visible again, and we follow her to Grandmaz' house. Grandmaz, being old and seeing no reason to hurry, will help us in the morning. The next day, she sends us off to a cave in the south to find an item that will make us tangible again. Before you leave, search the cabinets for the Star Fragment. It'll help soon.

RPGClassics calls it the Cave of Dream-Seeding, but I couldn't find an actual name in the game. The cave is a quick romp down with monsters not terribly scary. Maybe it's because I was walking around for a while, trying to make gold and become too strong, but I had no problems down here. I'm not saying it's a breeze, but I had no difficulties getting to the bottom. Getting out was something else, but I'll get to that in a moment. Muriel tags along but doesn't do anything. At the bottom of the cave is a monster guarding its sweet nectar. It won't let us take some, so it attacks.

Bloody Paw is a simple fight. Rek and Hassan can straight attack it, with Rek casting Sap whenever Paw casts Upper. I tried to lower its defense, but it would always just restore it. I'd rather save the MP for healing, so I gave up that pursuit. Alternatively, use the Star Fragment you got in Grannmaz' house. It'll confuse the monster, which causes it to either do nothing or attack itself for three terns. You can Sap it then with less fear of repercussions. The Star Fragment remains in your inventory after use, so I plan to use it on future bosses. The battle left me weak and vulnerable, so getting out was a bit harder than getting down. Rek had no MP, so the typical mob worried me. After only one save state scum, I managed to exit, and Wyvern Winged my way back.

Once again, Grandmaz had little concern for us and said she'd help us tomorrow. At dawn, we talk to her, and she prepares the item Bloody Paw was guarding. Something happens, and we regain our physical selves again. Muriel was once in our position before she was helped by Grandmaz in the same fashion. But she won't tell us how she spoke to her in the first place for some mysterious reasons known only to an old lady. Muriel decides to join the team, and we return to El Marino. We learn Sandy has made bail and joined a traveling merchant. We also inform the mayor that we saw Amanda poison Pero, and while he does believe us, we see him take no actions against her. He does feel terrible about Sandy, though. If we tell Joe this, he sets off to find his love. We, on the other hand, board the boat to the mysterious Reidlock Castle. And we'll try to figure out this castle's connection to our starting point...

...tomorrow!

Yep, everything is expensive, and gold is rare. I'm gonna have to figure out what to buy and skip soon. All while trying to figure out the questions I need to be answered about this world!

March is Dragon Quest Month

Deal with it! Hot off the trails of the Heavenly Bride, I'm heading to the Realms of Revelation. To hell with whatever I had planned, I won't let the fires die yet!

The game starts with a man and woman sitting around the fire. The man wakes up, and the woman asks him if he slept well. Another man comes down from the rocks and tells the others that they've made it to Mudo's Castle, and it's time to move. We're never informed who those two people are, but the man we're playing as I have named Rek. The wiki said that's what his name was, and I can make terrible puns when I REK bosses. I put out the fire and follow the others up to a ledge overlooking a castle. The woman plays her flute/ocarina, which summons a dragon to fly them into the depths of the castle itself. Were ocarinas a big thing in Japan in the mid 90s? While we're down here, we continue to the top of the screen and eventually arrive in a foggy room. In that room is Ozzie from Chrono Trigger. Only he's the size of the Namekian Elder from DBZ. Rather than do battle, he causes the party to levitate, bounce around for a minute, and then explode.

We hear thumping sounds and stuff falling as the camera opens up in a well lit room with Rek on the floor. His sister, Tania, is standing over him, trying to get him awake. She then tells Rek that the Village Elder came by looking for him, and we should go to his house at the top of the town. As I leave my house, the first thing I notice is how amazing the graphics look. The forest in the background is one of the most beautiful things on the SNES. There's one qualm I had with DQV that I won't be having with VI. Rather than head straight north, I walk around the town. I find a leather hat and several stat seeds I immediately feed to Rek. I hope he's the chosen one this time. I also gain some information about the world at large. Mudo still exists, and he's trying to take over the world. We're in a small mountain village protected by the Mountain Spirit with the village ceremony to please the spirit is upcoming. In that ceremony, Tania is supposed to have an important role involving a crown that the village gets from the town to its south, Shiena. Heading to the Elder's House confirms all of this, but the guy who usually gets the crown has become too old, so the Elder asks Rek to do it. He gives us a bag of our village's best mercantile items, silk and woodcrafts, and sends us on our way.

The world map is freakin' gorgeous! I also like the theme, but I hurry on to the mountain path. There are a few ways to get down, but another villager lying in the grass gets my attention first. We meet Rand, who has a crush on our sister but may already be in a relationship with the Elder's grand/daughter, Julie. I think that was her name. He's napping, so we carry on. The best way down is to fall off the ledge to the right. You skip a few floors and find the club: a weapon that nearly doubled Rek's attack power. Be careful in the equipment menu, as the game locked up a few times. ROMHacking can be a rough experience, I guess. You really should walk everywhere here to open chests, get EXP, and find gold. Gold was at a premium in V, so I suspect it will be again in the sequel.

At the bottom and to the southwest is the town of Shiena. It's bazaar season, so there are a number of unusual shopkeepers. There are three we can sell our stuff to, but find the girl in the back. She pays 350 gold, a higher number than 300 or 320 the guys on either side will offer. With the sack emptied, we now need to find the crown maker. He lives with his family to the northeast, but he's not home. His daughter will say he went to the forest across the bridge to the west since all the good wood is missing. Looks like we'll be heading that way.

Let me tell you how much I hate onions, both in real life and in this game. My first encounter with sentient, evil bulbs was an ambush where I died. My second was a four-on-one assault where I died. After some trial and error, I made it to the forest and then passed it. On the world map is a hole. Walk towards it, and you'll appear in a subscreen. There, we see an old man yelling for dear life as he hangs above the open chasm. I wonder to myself if we're on a floating continent as I look at the ground below. We help the old man up, but our footing slips, and we fall into the hole.
We wake up on the otherside just fine, but we're oddly see-through...

There's another world map, where a slight variation on the overworld theme plays, and we see a town in the distance. Entering and trying to talk to the NPCs reveals they can't see us. They sense us as random sounds or a gust of wind. But we can hear them. We learn of a well to the north, creepy bandits nearby, and a random assortment of village gossip. The only clue I got was the well, so I headed north. Inside a strangely build hut was, indeed, a well. Rek jumped in and found himself north of the hole where we saved the old man. More importantly, we're perfectly tangible. We headed back to Shiena, where we found the old map. He was the crown maker, and he gives us the crown for free as thanks for saving him. Which means I get a free 350 gold to upgrade my armor. Defense seems like the way to go thus far, so I'm going to prioritize that.

We return to ??? and give the Elder the crown. The sun is setting, and I'd like to reiterate how much the graphics have improved over the other Dragon Quest game I played. After a long day, Rek takes a nap and wakes up in time for the festival. Rand gets us as Tania leads the procession from the Elder's House to the church. We all follow her in. There, the ceremony takes place. Tania hands the priest the crown, who puts it on the spirit statue in the back of the room. As Tania goes to leaves, she stands before Rek, and things get weird. An image of, probably, the spirit is displayed as Tania tells Rek that he has a destiny he needs to fulfill. He will go on a long, arduous journey but will be vital to the whole world. Tania comes to afterwards and tries to shrug off the possession. Everyone leaves, and the parting begins. Most people are dancing and already drunk, but two people are in the north of town. Rand is trying to get Tania to marry him, but she's not ready for such a commitment. Rand is heartbroken but not done trying, and he's totally blowing off Julia, waiting for Rand in the weaving room. The whole day has been a thing, so Rek goes to bed.

In the morning, Rek talks to the Elder. He tells the young man that he should follow the advice of the Mountain Spirit. Rek should head to Castle Reidlock, south of Shiena, and talk to the King. The Elder hands Rek a pass and sends him on his way. In Reidlock, the whole town is trying to fight against the forces of Mudo and is looking for royal guards. To become s soldier, one must travel to the Tower of Trials and climb to the top. But only one person can become a soldier at a time, which sounds like a terrible way to amass an army. Following five others down, one of whom looks familiar, we come to the first dungeon in the game, Tower of Trials.
Floor one is about finding the correct staircase up while avoiding the spike floors.
Floor two is navigating the easy maze.
Floor three has us fighting the first boss in the game. Tower Guard is no joke, dude. He can do 6-10 HP a blow and wind up for an attack that does 20. He'll indicate when this attack is about to happen, so try to parry it. Hopefully, you have enough MP to cast Heal a bunch and a few Medical Herbs. It takes a while but is pretty simple.
Floor four has us dealing with the Pokemon/Sylph CO. moving floor pannels.
Floor five has us spotting the liars. There are three doors, but only one leads us to the correct place. The path to take is the leftmost one. The middle is a floor trap, and the left one takes us to a deceptive golden ring. If you fail, you can try again with no punishment.
The final floor has us taking on the boss of this place, Nelson. Sadly, I was low on everything, so I had to turn back and re-heal. By the time I got back to the castle, the familiar guy had already beaten Nelson and made his way into the final room. I don't know what the item was, but I returned to Riedlock a failure. I kinda dug this, to be honest. Actions should have consequences, especially in a competition with six people. It sucks to suck, but I'm glad the win wasn't given to me.

Back at the castle, we see Hassan, the familiar guy, become a soldier while we walk around the castle. We discover the King's personal carriage is missing a horse, so I guess I might as well try to find one. As we leave, Hassan catches up to us as he has the same idea. Far to the west is a forest clearing where a wild horse lives. If we came here alone, the horse would just run away from Rek. With another person, though, we can trap it. Rek and Hassan tame the horse, take it back to the castle, and the knight commander informs us of what a patty can do together. For breaking the horse, he makes Rek a soldier and takes us to the King. The King gives us an order about the Mirror of Ra, which was an item in DQV. It has the same myth as here. The King thinks it can help us find Mudo when he teleports and sends us to obtain it. And we'll do that...

...tomorrow!

Day one plot dumps, man. I'm digging DQVI a lot more than I am DQV so far. I know it's still early, but the difficulty is a lot more manageable, aside from onions, and has a brisker pace. I kinda hope it slows down, though. I can't imagine how long this would have taken to type wi a phone!

A new passion kindled!

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride/Tenkuu no Hanayome (DeJap) is the first Dragon Quest game I've ever played. I've heard nothing but good things about them, but I was a Final Fantasy Fanboi and spent all my allowance there. Even the few DQ games that reached American shores never even got a look from me for reasons I'm not sure about. I know they existed. Did I just never think to go find one? Did I ever find one to begin with? Regardless of my eyesight, intelligence, or finances, I can already tell skipping the series was a massive misnomer in my life.

What didn't I like about Dragon Quest V? The first person battle system. I like seeing my characters attack. I want to see that sword or hammer move across my screen. Here, though, it's a flicker of light on the enemy. It's a lot boring. Other games at the time had numbers pop up over the heads of the hit target. I'm not one to bemoan reading, but seeing "Abel hit for 50 damage" for 25 hours gets boring and tedious. It's cool to let things automatically go. There's too much B Button pressing.
Inventory management sucks. Just, in general. I understand in games like Fallout, but the limited slots in RPGs at this time will get painfully annoying when you want to move several items around at once. And selling items one at a time gives me nightmares. It's just more button mashing!
I don't care about monster hunting. This was before Pokemon, so I won't compare the two, but I have no interest in lugging largely irrelevant creates with me. I want to know more about the people. What's Bianca's favorite food? How do Alus and Tabitha feel about each other? What type of surrogate parent was Sancho and/or Objeron? Instead of that, we get a significant amount of code for monsters. Monsters who we can't even see in battle! And this goes into my next topic, as well.
The few human characters are pretty bland. Again, I know it's 1992, but Final Fantasy IV, 7th Saga, Illusion of Gaia, and Ys are contemporaries that did this very well. One dimensional characters are a thing of the NES! What type of kids are these royal orphans with heroic blood flowing through them? They made a manga about it, so I wish they'd have added some scenes to the game. Typing this really makes me regret the DS version would have ran on my computer. I know there's an option to talk to party members there, which would have made this a moot point. Ultimately, I won't let this tiny detail ruin my enjoyment because that's all I found "bad" about the game.

So let's talk about all the great things it does!

Unlike most games, Dragon Quest V has you play a character from his youth into this teenage life and ends in (what should his been) his middle ages. There are a few modern games that do this, but here's the first instance that I know of. Wikipedia says it's the earliest pregnancy in video games, so there's that. You don't play everything, but I'd imagine a slavery mini-game would be 1.) tacky and 2.) boring. As would standing still as a statue for eight years. This is a slightly elongated way to say that Enix really pushed the envelope in a few places. Even if trying new things fails, which this did not, you always have to give a perk to companies and people who try to advance whatever they're doing.
As much as I didn't care for monster hunting, you have to admit it's a big task to program so many monsters with levels, spells to learn, AI, and catching traits. Pokemon came out four years later with 200 percent more monsters but a lot less of the features. Pokemon get four moves, whereas DQV's get a lot more. Field moves, battle moves, inventory, and sex. Pokemon, at the time, had a lot more flash but less soul. And the monsters had color pallets.
I mentioned before my qualms with the graphics, but that was before I saw the magic animations. Zap and Bang blow anything the first few FFs had. They're prettier than a lot of golden era effects, too.
I really enjoyed the music. I'm beginning to learn I have a thing for sea travels since, once again, I love me some ship music.
The plot and characters are great! They're not THAT one dimensional and do have plenty of growth. It feels rushed at times, but King Henry has more to him than the entire cast of FFXII, Marievel, and Chu-Chu put together. You see characters grow from event to event. A few second guess themselves, change, and have reasons for doing so. Bianca and Flora are both smart and question this marriage before helping out of the kindness of their hearts. Henry isn't the snot-nosed brat he was before. I'm not saying slavery is the key to troubled teens, but I'm glad he wasn't the obnoxious kid from when we first met him. It makes sense for him to have changed, and it's okay to show and not tell us that. Sancho explains why he never told Abel the truth when he was little. And so many secondary and tertiary characters change as the whole world changes! Oracleberry is a place I didn't go to while a kid, but I've read it's a dump if you do. Ten years later, it's a boomtown. We see other characters go from sexy barmaids to mother sprites. A "lazy" husband turns into a dutiful shopkeeper. Bianca has a whole world of twists and turns in the years after she met Able. The guy who taught Abel the Return spell goes from an energetic old man to a man about to die. It's sad that it happens, but that's life, and the game isn't going to shy away from it. The real world won't. Maybe this could have been expanded with new buildings in more locations, but it's hardly a deal breaker.

I absolutely loved this game, but I seem to be having some writer's block. All I can think up are things I've said again and again. I'll try to finish fast, then. I didn't want to stop playing Dragon Quest V at the end of the night. The three hours flew by, and all I wanted to do was boot it back up. I wanted to know more about the story, meet old friends, and see how it ends. Would Able get to know his mom? When does Bianca rejoin the party? What new twists are there on this planet? My next game schedule has been slightly messed-up, so I don't know what I'll play next. It was supposed to be FFVI, but I already played that, and I kinda want to play another Dragon Quest game. I'm probably gonna play another Dragon Quest game. I've said in the past that a game should make you want to play more games like it, and DGV has done this better than anything else I've played in n long time. A few years ago, I played most of the Ys games in a few months, and I'm really wanting to try that again with this series. I love finding new loves!

At last, there is peace.

I did all the stuff I wanted to do last night, and it meant nothing. Closure, I guess? And a waste of money!
 
Return to El Havan and take the ship north. The giant gates can now be opened and reveal three Goddess Statues. Place the Rings of Fire, Water, and Life on them, in any order, and a black portal opens up in the back of the room. Enter it, and more SNES CGI will tear your screen as the party is warped to the Demon World. Martha talks to us once more and resigns herself that we're here. She then wishes us luck and sends us a Sage's Stone. The Stone can be used in battle to heal the whole party a decent amount of health. I didn't figure out how to use it until the final battle, where it performed admirably.

We land west of a desert maze on the world map. The bottom path takes us to the city of Jahanna, the last refuge in the game. The citizens talk about being saved by Martha: transformed to humans and protected by the waters she's summoned around the town. More importantly, here's the final weapons and armor shop of the game. It's all incredibly pricey, made worse by the fact that mobs drop almost no gold in this world. 400 a battle is lame! I focused on armor because the world map battles were beating me up every few steps.

Seriously, the world map is the hardest dungeon in the game! Dragons, Ogres, and Machines, oh my! Fortunately, Enix cares about its fanbase and allows us to Return to Evil Mountain once we've stepped foot in the place. The monsters in here are easier than they are outside. Some we've seen before, and others are new. Maybe it's because of all the leveling up we get down here, but I had a slight breeze getting through here.
The first floor has us avoiding spiky floors. RPGClassics suggests casting Stepguard and walking over them, which would be a lot faster than how I did it.
Floor two is a maze. Some of the offshoots lead to treasures, others to mimics, and some to nothing.
Floor three has us on a cliff. It's straightforward enough. There's another small maze between here and what appears to be the top of the mountain.
And at the top, we finally meet our mother. She's absolutely thrilled to see him and hold him for the first time in thirty years. She then tries to ruin Alus' legend by sealing Mildrath, turning on her "boss," I guess. The game isn't clear what she does for the guy, but she seems to have some role. Demons were guarding her as we approached. Her powers, as great as they may be, are not enough to stop Mildrath's evil. Martha is struck by lightning and dies. Abel has now seen both of his parents killed before him... But he then sees his parents get back together. The spirit of Papas comes down and tells his wife that it's time to let the kids do their work. They both have total faith in their descendants.

Martha joins the party as a disembodied voice and guides us through the next portion. Just below her is a cave filled with treasure. It also houses the Key Item we need, the Holy Chamberpot. To reach it, you need to figure out the Pokemon/Sylph Co. floors. It's easy enough. You also gain Abel's best headgear, the Sun Crown, alongside the Pot.

Exit that cave and go south into another. Martha tells us to pour the Chamberpot onto the lava, and the way forward appears. Down it is another maze. Don't fall into any of the pitfalls, but make your way to the northwest. This leads to one of those '90s sliding puzzles, where you can move one piece at a time. You only have to move four (on the left side), and I didn't get into any fights. Don't fall into the holes that exist for some reason. Once you get to the door, follow the ledge, enter the neat chamber room, and try to open the chest. The chest will alert two mobs on the otherside of the door, who aren't hard. The Hellbattlers are a joke compared to everything on the Demon World Map. Behind them, though, is the final room in the game that contains only the final boss, Mildrath.

Mildrath is the typical 90's, RPG boss. He thinks he's a god. He hates us. Blah Blah Blah
Round one exists to weaken us. You can buff up, but I probably shouldn't have. It just spent much needed MP. After he beat him, he congratulates us and says he now has to use his full power!
Round two is more a puzzle. Mildrath's actions are scripted and will use the same attacks in a row in a six turn order. His actions, and your actions, should be as such.
Round one: He will breathe fire. Everyone should parry.
Round two: He will crit a character. No one died for me, but it's worth being wary of. I had Able use the Sage's Stone, which heals most, if not all, the damage the breath attack did. Alus should attack, and Tabitha should use Bikill on him.
Round three: He will cast Blazemore, hitting one character for decent damage. If your characters have enough HP, ignore it. Abel can either heal or attack. Alus should attack, and Tabitha should either cast Bikill on Abel or switch out to whoever has the highest attack power.
Round four: He does nothing but will prepare an attack. If you have enough HP, everyone should attack.
Round five: He casts Explodia. Everyone should parry.
Round six: He removes all buffs. Sage's Stone/attack/Bikill Alus
Repeat for an hour. There's probably a faster way, but I never had any problems with this strategy. It took a while, especially since I stopped Bikilling for awhile and just let Able, Alus, and Boro attack. A part of me wishes I would have gotten the Falcon Sword for Pippin and let the random dude kill Mildrath, but, as it was, our good kitty, Boro,k got the last kill with a 50 damage bite. To sum up: Able should use the Sage's Stone or Healall a lot/ Alus should attack, and Tabitha should buff/switch. Defend when obvious.

Mildrath then fades away, with us as the victors. The next scene has us in Zenithia talking to Dragon Master. He becomes emotional, blaming it on being a human for so long, and tells us we should see our friends before we celebrate!
He flies us to El Havan, where the Elders tell us more about Martha.
Reinhardt, where we buddy up with Henry, and Maria tells us how she feels about Bianca. Dale wishes we should stay here, but we have a kingdom to rule, as well.
Santa Rosa is restored. We talk to the priest, see our old house in inhabitant, and speak to the old acquaintances.
Salabona is where we talked to Ludman, who really wishes Abel married Flora. Flora and Andy are so happy for us.
We see Bianca's dad before leaving him to rot in this nameless village.
At last, we return to Granvania to dance and enjoy our family life, as well as the peace we all fought for.
Castle Zenithia floats around the world map as the credits roll, and, eventually, we see some wonderful words that everyone loves to see.

"The End"

Family Gathering

Where's my wife?!


Head to Aurphia and talk to the picnicking woman in the upper right corner. Buy her book and take your Dragon Master airship to the only location I haven't been to, The Great Temple. I think that book you got is the key to getting in. Abel and Henry helped build this eight years ago, so it's nice closure to see us ruin it. Walk on in but not through the front. To the right of the main gate is a side house. Inside is one guard, a Snakehands, and behind him is a glorious suit of armor. Looking this up indicates you need the Final Key to access this, so good job, me. It is the final Zenithian Armor. Alus is now fully equipped, so we know we're getting close to the end of the game. But we ain't there yet. Return to the concourse and go through the main gate. Two guards will tell us about a sermon by someone. The slaves in the crowd are clamoring for the priest and someone named Martha...

Turn around and talk to the guards, who think there's something odd about Abel. How dare he have hope in his eyes? Two Dragon Warriors attack us, but unlike this dragon warrior, they suck. Walk around the railings and come to the front of the Temple. A woman claiming to be our mother asks us to join the Order of the Light, a religious organization we've heard a bit about through the game. They're an apocalypse cult, and that's all we need to know. After a rather convoluted conversation, "Martha" reveals herself to be Ramada. He's sad and pathetic and dies easy. Behind him is the statue of Bianca, but the staff Tabitha used on Abel doesn't work.

Beating up the unholy woman loosed the grasp on the crowd, and they begin to talk to us like normal people. One of them says Ivol, the high priest of the cult, put a deeper curse on Bianca to make sure the Legendary Hero would never be born. Another spectator is Gigo, who we might remember. He says he wants to get home, so I need to remind myself to talk to them on their isolated island to the southeast. The last one of importance says there's a hidden stairway behind the table. There is no table, but there is a grey block on the floor. Investigate that, and we'll find the old stairway down that Abel once climbed during his enslavement. And there's a new dungeon down here, too.

It's a strange maze with random walls and paths that lead nowhere. We need to navigate it as best we can. There are more Black Dragons down here, but they're not the worst things anymore. The Evil Spirits can forcibly change your tactics, causing your other characters to do seemingly random things. I've been on manual mode the whole game, and I don't like when characters perform acts I don't want them to...like waste my Megaelixer! Don't worry too much about the treasures. One of them sucks, and it'll be easier to get in a second. At one point, we can take a path off the way we're supposed to. Down that path are two skeletons. One of them is, probably, Joshua, Maria's brother and the man who saved Abel and Henry years ago. His last thoughts seemed to be of his sister, and he wished her well. The poor man deserved better than this.

When you reach the bottom of the Temple, we meet the man in charge. Ivol, which I'm just now seeing is a misspelling of evil, is quite upset. Not only has the Legendary Warrior been born, but we've killed his friend, Ramada. It's nice to see evil care about friends. He's also fair in his actions, so maybe he wasn't that evol. He brings everyone in our wagon down here for the battle about to unfold.

And, boy, did we need them. This dude is rough. He's immune to debuffs and wipes away buffs. I still tried to cast Increase and Bikill, though, allowing Abel and Alus to do around 200 damage. The trick here is to swamp out Tabi for someone else. I had a revolving door of Sancho, Boro, and that random soldier, Pippin. Ivol has high defense, so Tabi was only going to be doing 1 damage. Sadly, the replacements didn't too much more, but Boro's 20 was high enough to keep him around. Make sure Abel and Alus have at least one Elvan Medicine. MP is at a premium with all the team wide attacks we're about to be struck with. There's going to be a lot of healing. Don't cast magic on our enemy, as his anti-buff magic doesn't affect his Bounce spell. You can cast Bounce on your team, but it only reflects one of his attacks, so it might be hard to heal. A shame you can't switch targets and bounce a heal spell off of him back to you. It would have made this battle a lot easier. 210 a turn...

But, if you're good, eventually, the hardest fight in the game will swing in your favor, and you'll be victorious. Ivol is, again upset but plans to let us do what we want to do to save the real Martha. But first, he lets us in on the story. Martha works for the Demon King, Mildrath, and if we try to save her, we'll all die. He then tries to open the gate to the Demon World, but something stops him, and he dies. Truly, Ivol wasn't very ivil. In his place is the Ring of Life. We pick it up and walk our way out of the dungeon. All of the mobs are gone, so it's peaceful. As we come to the exit, we hear a voice from the ring. After twenty six years, Abel hears the voice of his mother. Martha tells us not to venture into the Demon World because Mildrath is too strong. Not even the Legendary Warrior may be able to save us. She wants us to enjoy our new family where we're safe. When we see the sun again, a light emanates from the Bianca statue, and we see her return to her true self. Apparently, we've been traveling for two years as someone mentions that it's been ten years since Bianca got to hold her children.

We all return to the Granvania, where the kids cry and snuggle with their mom while Abel prepares to ignore his own. Objeron doesn't want us to go, but Sancho and Pippin are down. After family time, Bianca, Alus, and Tabitha want to go too. Alus, especially, wants to fulfill his destiny. If you leave him behind, he gets mad. I, of course, choose to all go together. Boro and Curie are my monsters, and we head to El Haven. The elders tell us the gate to the Demon World is in the Water Shrine, so we'll need our boat. We need the three rings of Water, Fire, and Life to reach it. I have all three, so I'll venture into the end...

...tomorrow!

Everything has a purpose, and I love it. I think tomorrow might be the end of the game, and I don't know how to feel. I want more, but this feels great for a game made in 1992. I ventured into the Emblem Cave tonight to get Abel's best armor and level us Bianca a little. There's some shopping I need to do for Boro (Fairy Village!), but I'm pretty much fully prepared. I am excited!

Less than meets the eye.

After failing to find the path to Fairyland last night, I continued to fail to find the path to Fairyland tonight. I found a large tower in the southwest of the map, which saved me time later, though.

After giving up on my search, I went to the internet. East of Saladona, in the valley of the mountains at the base of a river, is an inconspicuous forest clearing. In that location is a forest maze. I got lucky and only wandered around for a few minutes, but I get the feeling others may have tapped out here. After meeting two random people, Alus and Tabitha tell Abel they can see a creature near the burning firepit. After a short conversation, the kids go after the creature Abel can't see. Abel follows suit. They end up in a place we haven't been to in eighteen years: Fairy Village. Everyone, mostly, remembers Abel, and the armor shop has new gear. It's overpriced but quite good. Return to Bella and Powan, who will direct us to another fairy below her. That person will give us clues to the Fairy Queen, who may be able to grant us what we need. She gives us a Fairy Horn and instructs us to blow into it at a select location. And that location is the lake I thought Zenithia Castle was in last night!

Following the instructions will take us to the Fairy Queen. She will give us a Golden Orb, but it lacks the powers needed to make the castle float once more. She does say that we'll have to change the flow of time to restore its magic. In a room above her, a man tells us to stand in front of a painting. The world begins to warp and change in some top-of-the-line SNES CGI, and it returns to normal but in a strange spot. We're back in Santa Rosa! Talking to our old friends reveals it's just after Abel first went to Fairyland. The person we need to talk to is just outside the church. It's our old self! We trick Baby Abel into swamping the Orbs, with him getting the useless shiny one and us getting the magical one. When we first played here, there a handsome man hanging outside. Who'd of thought we'd be that handsome man? Before we leave, we can talk to Papas and warn him not to go to Reinhardt, but he doesn't believe in fortune tellers. So we exit out the front gate and return to Zenithia Castle. Talk to the man we saved in the mines, Pusam, and he will place the Orb. The camera cuts to the world map, and we watch Zenithia rise from the lake bed and into the sky!

Somehow, the castle becomes filled with people who tell us about The Dragon God. One mentions the Tower of Bobel, which I assume is my next destination. Zenithia Castle acts as a traditional airship, able to fly over the tallest of mountains. Slowly. Like, very slowly.

Remember that tower I talked about earlier? That's our destination. Before we go in, talk to an old man in the castle about a Grappling Hook. The tower is locked, but we can enter through the top. Rappel down and travel carefully. It's not often you enter a tower dungeon from above and treat it like a basement. There are some tough monsters down here, but I don't know if they're worth it. The Black Dragons are hard, maybe too hard, and there's another guy, Tiger Looking Fellas, who barely give any EXP on defeat. In one of the rooms, we see a dying priest who warns of two ferocious monsters who have the Eyes of the Dragon. Keep going down, and you'll see a giant dragon's head, which looks important. Fall from the unrailed portions of this area, and you'll come to the actual entrance of the tower. Trigger the switch, and you can now enter and exit like normal if you need to do so. Keep going even more down, and we come to a maze-like basement. In the right wing is a boss named Gonz. For some reason, I opted to fully buff my characters. Poor Gonz never stood a chance, doing zero damage to everyone but Tabi. Alus' Increase and Tabi's Bikill and Decrease are no joke. Remember this strategy from henceforth because I plan to make liberal use of it. Behind him is an Eye of the Dragon. In the north wing is a familiar sight. It's Gema.

He remembers us, and we remember him. His only regret is not killing us, which is about to a wise concern. Gema has a lot of attack power and HP, so make use of the above strategy. Abel will spend most of the fight healing since it's such a long battle. I had Tabi using the Magma Staff as an item since Gema can cast reflect. Alus should be doing over 200 damage a pop. The only time you should change this is if someone becomes Numb/Paralyzed. The accuracy of Gema's paralyzer isn't high, but Tabi seems to have a weakness for it. Use Alus' Numboff if this happens. With only minor save state scumming, I managed to kill Gema with Abel, wielding Papas' Sword, just for the deepest of revenge.

Behind him is the other Dragon's Eye. Return to the Dragon Statue, don't fall off, and place the Eyes in their sockets. This will open the dragon's mouth and allow us to venture into a safe place to pick up the Dragon Staff and the Dragon Orb. Returning to Zenithia has us interrupting two people questioning who Pusam is. He wasn't in Zenithia when it fell...or ever, it seems. Pusam asks us for the Dragon Orb, which, because we trust him, we allow him to hold. Suddenly, Pusam turns into the Dragon God! The two people who didn't know who he was shape-up and Master Dragon gives us the Zenithia Bells. The bells allow us to summon MD on the world map, the true airship of the game.

With the world at our disposal, I call it a night.

I did do a sidequest, though. In Solabona, Flora's dad is in a panic over a glowing urn. We check it out and see it glowing red. He says that's bad news and goes to prepare for an ancient demon attack. And then that ancient demon attacks. Using the buff strat, we won and got a Final Key as our reward. Who knows what this opens, but I feel like I was involved in a familial blood tie duel. I'm iffy on time travel stories. There's always some paradox that ruins the storytelling. I can always wipe this under the theory of multiple universes, I guess. Makes more sense than most of Chrono Trigger's paradoxes.

Batman, Superman, and Abel walk into a bar...

Objiron informed us of our mother's, Martha, birthplace. It's far to the north on another continent and, to get there, we have to take a watery maze.

On the eastern side of the landmass is a cave. Take the ship we were given in Granvania into it and navigate through. Beware of the Blizag monsters. When they spawn in threes, they're worse than any boss. They love to spam Snowstorm, which my team seems weak against, somehow. Everything else is fine. There is a large door on the northwestern front, but it's locked, and we can't open it. South of that leads us back to the world map. In the middle of a mountain valley is the tower city of El Hevan.

You, technically, don't have to talk to anyone here, but you should do so for the plot. At the top of the tower are four elders. They inform us about themselves, our mother, and legends. Once upon a time, God created three spheres: Heaven; home to himself, Earth; our home, and Demon World; home to demons. Some people can maintain and open barriers between the world, and all of those people are from this city. Over the millennia, though, their ability to do so has dwindled. Our mother, however, was a powerhouse in that department. The elders suspect that's the reason she was kidnapped. When Papas came to marry her, everyone hated him for it for that reason. But, as I said, all of this information is optional. The real goal here is to find two items: The Magic Key and the Floating Carpet. The key opens various doors around the world, and the carpet allows us the fly. Only over land and sea, though, not hills, mountains, and forests, though.

At some point in all of this, we learned of a tower that leads to heaven...or something. I forgot what it was, so I looked up the way to go. Because I didn't know where to go, I traveled around the world. Back in Reinhardt, we see Henry dealing with the tiny version of himself we dealt with eighteen years ago. Heirs of Reinhardt, man. We also returned to Telepordor, home of the Legendary Helm. We talk to isis, who senses great power in our son, and we head down to the helmet again. This time, Alus tries his luck, and the metal helm actually shrinks to fit his head. We now have three of the four Legendary Items, with only the armor left to find.

After finding the tower nestled in a long mountain range, we fly the carpet across the ocean, river, and land to land nearby. It's a fairly quick trip up but filled with a few treasures. At the "top" is a man telling us that this tower once led to Castle Zenithia. Now, though, it only leads to air as the castle fell long ago. Besides the man is a chest containing the Magma Rod, which is used to open the path to the castle's new location.

Once more, I have no idea where this castle is. The guy said it fell into a lake, but the only nearby lake has nothing but a lilypad in it. Somehow, the sky castle fell south of El Hevan. Use the Rod on the mountain range that completely surrounds a random cave and enter. Inside are some fun puzzles! We have to make our way to the bottom using minecarts. There are a few offshoots but, for the most part, turn all the levers to proceed. On the second main stretch, we see a man sitting in a cart stuck in a loop. Free him, and he'll say he's from Zenithia and has been stuck in that cart for twenty years. What's he been eating to live that long? We then escort him out, doing the same puzzles as before. As we take one last minecart out, we begin to fall into a deep blue sea.

When we come to, we're in a ruined, flooded castle. Many of the ways through are blocked by water, so go where you can. After finding the hidden passage behind the throne, we learn why the castle fell. One of the magical artifacts that allowed Zenithia to float fell off its pedestal. The man we've been escorting can find the whereabouts of it by examining what little remains. Remember that Gold Orb we got when we saved Lenoire Castle? That wasn't a reward. That was the Zenithia Floating Orb. It was just happenstance that we found it there after we beat Boss Ghost. Without Able and Bianca knowing it, Zenithia fell right at that moment, eighteen years ago. Which isn't that long for being a long lost ancient civilization. However, we know that the Orb is destroyed. Gema smashed it after he killed Papas and enslaved Able and Henry. Fortunately, the man we've been escorting says he knows how the make Zenithia raise once more! The fairies were the ones that created the orbs long ago, so maybe they can do it again? According to legend, there's a tower to the west that leads to Fairy World, which we shall climb...

...tomorrow!

I really like how everything we did in the past comes around to the future: The Orb, the fairies, marriage. There's so much fun, low-key foreshadowing!

History Repeats

We last left off in Granvania Castle, the potential site of Abel's birth. Many of the citizens echo what Isis said last night. Since King Papas left all those years ago, his younger brother, Ojiron, has been ruling in his stead. People have mixed emotions about him but also say something about the Chancellor. It's a JRPG, so always be suspect of a chancellor.

Investigating the castle doesn't lead to much, so find the smaller house on the right. Inside, we see a sister talking to a man who has a familiar name. It's Sancho! He says we look familiar and is ecstatic after we've introduced ourselves. He's even happier to see Bianca, and we have gotten married. Sancho takes the couple to see Ojiron, who's overjoyed himself. He knows his role and gladly cedes the throne to the rightful ruler. And then Bianca passes out again.

Once more, she's fine, but the nurse tending to her reveals that Bianca is expecting! Despite only getting married, what feels like, just a few days ago, Bianca is pregnant. Somehow, she managed to hide this from Abel. What's even crazier is she's about to pop! Plans are made to crown Abel, but the Chancellor has his qualms. He brings up an old tradition of heirs venturing into the Cave of Trials to the northeast. After convincing Ojiron that it's the right thing to do, Abel ventures into the cave.

The monsters inside are your standard affair, but the puzzles had me reeling. The first room had me confused to all hell. The answer, however, is simply to follow the square the skeleton is on. Choose the rightmost door, then the one to its left. The third from the right is the last. Go to "leave" the dungeon, and a new stairwell down will be there. To solve the dam puzzle, move the rock near the entrance to the lock. Place the rock behind you, open the door, and wait. The final puzzle has you finding the broken pillar. Beyond the bridge is the Symbol of Royalty. I try to Outside out, but magical energy prevents it from happening, so I guess we have to hoof it. As we cross the bridge, we're attacked by three men who said some people don't want us to be King. It's interesting because there are only five people who know who Abel is.

This fight is easy. Jewels didn't want to play, but its tankyness was welcome regardless. Note to self: Bring its intelligence up a few points. And NPC told me dumb monsters won't listen to you. I think it's four? The sword I got from the Medal King absorbs HP when it hits, so Abel is nearly immortal. Even after they've died, we still can't Outside out. Walk back to the first puzzle and try again. This time, it will work, and I think it's the only way to leave.

Return to the castle and speak to Ojiron. The Chancellor accepts you as King but seems to leave the town. Not only that, but Bianca is in labor. In a scene reminiscent of the game's start, Abel hangs out in the throne room until someone tells him his children are born. Yes, plural. Bianca has twins: one boy and one girl. She asks us to name them. I name our son, Alus, as that's his name in the movie. Abel's daughter gets the name of Tabitha, as that's my favorite option in the wiki. The next day, Abel's coronation ceremony happens, and he officially becomes the King of Granvania. And then another scene reminiscent of the start takes place...

A large celebration spanned the whole night, and all the inhabitants of the castle are out cold. Some are out due to drink and others due to sleep. Abel wakes up in the church, where even the holy men are out, and stumbles around the bodies laying about. He makes his way to his, or at least Bianca's, bed. Where is she? The balcony is empty, so I search the bed. Suddenly, the midwife, with our children, appears and says Bianca was kidnapped. The whole place sobers up, and an emergency meeting takes place. Everyone is off to search for the missing Queen, and the Chancellor is nowhere to be found. Venture over to his chambers and search through his dressers. In one, you find a Flying Shoes. Use them as an item, and you'll be teleported across the sea in front of a church. People inside will give us clues that Bianca's been taken to the North Tower.

The Demon's Tower is a pure maze of traps and pitfalls but weak enemies. It's an attrition dungeon, and you only need to worry about the traps. The left door takes you some random dude waiting for his brother, the middle takes you to a few treasures, and the left takes us upwards. There are a few triggered battles along the route, but they're no big deal. There's a spikey wall puzzle, but the walls won't hurt you, so just run into them until you don't trigger one to spawn. That'll be the way through. The next puzzle has you avoiding fire traps by placating a rock between you and the source. The first one is manageable, but the second one was less so. I ended up just powering my way through. Getting hit twice wipes your party, so heal between blasts. Don't bother with ice floors. Turn both levers and proceed to the three thrones.
The first boss is an Ogre Level 20. He's easy.
The next is a Wyvern Level 35. Another cinch.
The third guy, Jahml, starts off being INVINCIBLE until Bianca steps in. In round one, Abel does 1 damage. Bianca tries to protect her husband, and a light emanates from her, fully healing Abel's party (unless someone is dead) and removing the barrier of Jahml. It becomes another long, albeit easy fight.

When the dust settles, Jahml prophesies that Bianca has the blood of the legendary hero and thinks her kids will be the ones to ruin whatever is he has planned. To stop this from happening, he bursts into smoke, turning Abel and Bianca into stone statues. The man in the basement earlier enters with his brother and says how lifelike these statues are. They then make sexual comments about Bianca. They drag us out of there, and a scene is shown where they sell the royal couple. Only Abel is auctioned because they have other plans with Bianca. I don't know what those plans are, but I kinda already can't wait to kill them.

A man buys Abel for 2000 gold and uses him as a birthday present/good luck statue for his newborn son, Gigo. We then see a rather touching, though forlorn for Abel, scene where Gigo grows up. We see him take his first steps and run around the yard. But all this happiness ends when demons from the sky swoop down and kidnap him, saying something about "the right one" and slavery. A month passes, and the man who bought Abel is inconsolable that his son is gone and takes his anger out on Abel, knocking him to the ground. Years pass as he lies there until a group of people show up one day and ask to borrow the statue. The man readily gives it away, and the young girl swings her staff. When she does, Abel becomes himself again.

The man with the kids is Sancho! And he's brought Alus and Tabitha with him! It has been eight long years since that dark day has happened. They all return to the Granvania, fill Abel in on the evil surrounding the world, and prepare to find Abel's mom and his wife! Which shall be done...

...tomorrow!

Our son can equip the Zenithenan equipment! Has there ever been a game where we're not the chosen one but the father thereof? I can dig this twist. It seems odd, so I hope Alus is good! I will say, though, the whole pregnancy thing is a bit rushed. I know it's the SNES, and there's limited time, but the game has a day/night cycle. Nine months didn't pass in the time we climbed the mountain. And there's no way she's not showing after nine months with twins. Lufia II did something like this, and it ruined the whole game for me. Or maybe it was the making of a badass woman into a housewife, I forget. So what's the deal with SNES and childbirth being...oddly done? Why not do another time skip and let Abel rule for a while?