Princess Alena's Adventure

Long ago, a tomboy princess kept sneaking out of her castle. Does this game have a framing device?

Princess Alena of Santeem is a monk. I thought that would give her more stuff to do in battle, but I was wrong. Fortunately, she has a party with her.

We start off with our monk being brought back home. She has the habit of sneaking out of the castle, much to the King's chagrin. Sadly, the King is an idiot. There's a broken wall in Alena's room that she can easily break. After exploring the castle and finding the feather cap (in her room), break the wall and jump down. Talk to the cat because it's a cat, and jump down to the ground floor. There's a guy on the opposite corner, but he's locked in, so head to the world map! As we approach the nearby village, two people will exit the castle. Rather than take us back, these guys will join us. We had the opportunity to talk to them earlier, where we'd learn these are our friends and tutors. Cristo and Brey join the team, and they're the things that make this adventure different from Ragnar's. Ragnar and Alena have the same mechanics, but Cris is our D&D style cleric. Meaning he brings the heals. Brey is our traditional black mage, but he only has one attack spell: Icebolt. But, for now, hang around the village to level up and get some money. We have three people we'll need to deck out, and making gold is tough. I got to around level four and bought a bunch of stuff before heading onwards. Mostly because I died at the upcoming fight.

To the north is the village of Tempe. The citizens bemoan the curse of their village, eventually telling us that a monster lives to the north and kidnaps young women. Alena is a young woman on an adventure, so maybe she could use this as a sneak attack. Speak to the priest in the back of the town, and we'll volunteer to be used as tribute. Two men will enter, and we'll get in their pack. The priest makes a pun as we're taken to the altar. While there, we see three monsters surround us, and we jump into a boss battle.

Chameleon Humanoid is flanked by two feral dogs, which are random encounters in the area. Take out the ads, and then focus on the lizard. I Upper'ed my defense and tried to sap the opponents before going in just for the fun of it, but I was probably too strong at that point for it to have meant anything. Getting money this early really is tough... And with that, we save the town. We skip to the next day, and everyone is super thrilled about us. This is what royalty should do for their people, right? The item shop is open now, so check that out before heading back north, past the altar, and on to Frenor.

Word around town is the Princess has come to Frenor for a visit. But I'm the Princess? We'll find her in the inn, so let's go and see who the real royal daughter is! As we enter the second story, we'll see someone getting kidnapped by two people. I tried to give chase but last them on the world map. And this is when I got confused. I couldn't figure out where to go, which will be a reoccurring theme tonight. I found a cave south of Frenor, but the difficulty spike had me turn back. I then walked around the world map and came to the desert oasis of Bazaar. But neither of which told me where to go. Apparently, there's a ransom note in the inn, but that passed me by. The note, I assume, would say they wanted the Golden Bracelet that Frenor is known for. An old woman informs us that they got rid of the bracelet long ago because it brought trouble. It's currently sealed at the bottom of a cave, south of here.

Now, this place sucks. The encounter rate is through the roof, and the mobs are tough. I ended up needing to grind for both exp and gold (to buy stuff in Bazaar) until around level seven. And even then, I had a tough time getting down there. I backed out twice, each after getting the first two treasures. On B2 is the chest containing our bracelet. I was at level nine at the time, and Cris learned Outside. Outside is the Dragan Quest equivalent of Exit, which I used to escape this hell. Return to Frenor and walk around the world map (more grinding) until night falls. We'll see our kidnappers and the "Princess" waiting for us in the graveyard outside of town. We'll hand over the bracelet, and they'll release the girl and leave. She tells us she was just acting to fleece people and apologizes. Her friends will enter, and the three of them will leave the world forever. As a reward, she gives us the Thief's Ring, which can unlock a bunch of doors around the world. There's nothing good right now, but it'll be useful later when I don't have it. But, even with it, we can't open red doors.

Return to Bazaar to get a reminder that something dire has happened to the King. I read it before going into the cave, but this felt more important. When we get back home, we'll learn the King has lost his voice, and we need to find a way to fix it. One of the guards says the guy in the locked room might know, and the Thief's Ring can open his door. The old guy tells us the bard in town once lost his voice. So find him in the large building, and he'll say that Birdsong Nestor cured him. We might be able to find some in Bazaar. The item seller there says they once had it but sold out. The faeries in the west of town might have some, though.

This is another dungeon with far too many encounters. I was pretty much geared out by now, but they just kept coming. Our mages have such low HP, so we need to heal all the time. And the mobs do so much AoE damage, and I hate this place! Get to the top, and we'll scare away the two faeries that live here. One will drop the Birdsong Nester, though, and we can turn to the King. It works, and he tells us that he gives us his okay to keep exploring. He's been having a reoccurring nightmare as of late. He tried to tell his council about it, but the grief of it caused him to lose his voice. But he thinks we might be able to save the Kingdom. We can now use the teleporter to the east of Bazaar. We can see Ragnar if we come to it at night. This takes us to the Kingdom of Endor.

Endor has a lot of forests, yes. More importantly, they're having a tournament. Buy new gear in town and talk to the King. Since both of us are royalty, we'll know each other and get on well enough. He informs us that he's throwing the tournament in order to marry off his daughter. The winner gets to marry the Princess, but he has doubts as to whether this is the right thing to do. As he should. Right now, the guy who's looking to win is named Necrosaro, and the Princess doesn't like him. He asks us to win the whole shebang because gay marriage is outlawed in this country, it seems.

We'll need to fight through five randos with great sprite work. It's way too good for how unimportant they are. It'll be one-on-one, though, so stock up on Healing Herbs. We'll be allowed to heal up between fights, but only Alena has them in her inventory. The only strategy she can do is attack, so Ragnar it up! The first four aren't special, but the last one can clone himself. We'll need to strike the real one a few times before we'll win, but I never got too low on HP for him. I managed to kill a metal slime outside the castle, so I was at level thirteen. We'll all wait for the final confrontation between Princes Alena and Necorsaro, but Saro will never show up. The King will declare us the winner by default, saving his daughter from his stupid plan. We can now continue our journey.

In theory... A soldier from Santeen runs up to us and asks us to return home. He'll immediately die, so something terrible must have happened. Go to the world map, and Return home. The music is gone, and the castle will be devoid of life. I didn't check the town, so do that for me, please. Alena, Cristo, and Brey will walk around the empty keep looking for anyone or a clue, but we'll find nothing. As we go to leave the castle, we'll end this chapter.

This sucked. I was lost for so long and got incredibly frustrated. Random battles happened every three steps at one point, and it just sucked the joy of exploring and spelunking around. And since I didn't know why I needed the Gold Bracelet, I felt like I was baptizing that damn kid again. Then I found the tower, it sucked too, and I had no idea why I wanted to climb that or even how to open the door (it's the Thief's Ring). I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's chapter. But once I get everyone together, it should be fine. Dragon Quest: Prologue Simulator!

Chapters of the Choosen!

March is still Dragon Quest month, so we're playing some Dragon Quest. This time around, I want to finish the Zenithian Saga. It's a very loosely linked trilogy, mostly just because of the most powerful gear. I think this is the first one, so we're jumbling it up! Dragon Quest IV was the last game for the NES, so it makes some sense.

A child is seen sparring with her master. She is eager to continue, but it's time to rest for the day. We gain control of the child, and this is our hero. Before I started the game, we got a chance to name them and even pick their gender. Super Smash Brothers Ultimate calls this person Solo, so I will, too. But because I'm not a Hero main, I've chosen a female Solo. Solo walks out of the basement and hears a voice. A frog leaps out of the water and calls itself a princess who was cursed. The frog hears a voice and retreats into the basement. We can follow, but I did some exploring. There's nothing to do, but there's enough world building and character backstory to make it worthwhile. Break some pots for items. Inside the sparring room is not a frog, but our friend. I've forgotten our friend's name, but she informs us that she's learned how to use transformation magic! She's willing to teach us (I think), but it's time for supper. Head home, talk to your parents and enjoy the meal.

And that was the prologue! But I'm not playing the DS version because it runs like butt on my computer.


Chapter One: The Royal Soldiers
A group of sprites in blue, with another in pink, are standing in a grand castle. Their King enters and gives everyone their mission. Children throughout the kingdom have gone missing, and villagers from Izmet have asked the royal guard for aid. Everyone's mission is to find the children and stop their kidnappers. Everyone disperses, and we get control of our first party member.

This is Ragnar, and he's a bit boring. He's a soldier with no magic, so he'll only be able to attack for this chapter. It's nice to get the brute out of the way first, I guess, but it's a terrible tutorial. But at least it makes everything easy.

We can explore around the castle and town of Burland. Everyone gives NES style tips on playing the game and clues as to where to go. There's a dresser in the lower right room of the castle that contains a free medical herb. To the south of town is a red haired woman named Flora. She's been looking for her husband, Alex, who disappeared some time ago. I wonder if he's connected to the children? Since we're poor and the shops have mediocre gear, let's head to Izmet.

I took the long way! I battled around the area for a while until I got to level three. I had just enough money for a shield in Burland, which'll help in the upcoming cave. By level three, you should be able to one hit everything you'll be seeing for a while. En route to the cave, I got to level four! Nothing down here is scary, but there are air rats (as they're called in the DS version) that can summon backup. They're pretty good for money. Northeast of the cave exit is the village of Izmet. By now, I noticed the game has a day/night cycle. I don't know why this surprises me since the other two Dragon Quest games had it, but I just didn't expect a game from early 1990 to have one. This will change who we can talk to and what they might say when we're in town. And it's perfect because we can get all the info we need at night.

Several townsfolk tell us that one of the kids were last seen wearing fancy shoes before they disappeared before everyone's eyes. There's also a man named Alex, who was caught stealing bread, in jail. He's an odd one... For something mildly disturbing, we can catch a peeping tom spying on a fortune teller in the inn's bathhouse. He'll give us a clue we'll need if we get lost, and that's to return to Burland with knowledge of Alex being in jail. Follow through on that and speak to Flora. She'll follow us back to Izmet, but she's not a combatant. Take her to Alex, and he'll have no idea who she is. She'll then slap him, and it'll fix everything. As a reward for finding and fixing them, Alex tells us that he knows where a "secret playground" is. Four squares down and four squares east of the Izmet town sign will take us there. The merchants in Izmet are better than in Burland, so keep track of everything. Find the "playground."

It's a well surrounded by poisoned swamps. The only place to go is down the well, and a voice will guide us through the rest. We can ignore these words, and there are plenty of good things at the end of the offshoots. Unlike the guided path, though, monsters will attack us. The guys are a lot stronger than what we've already seen, so bring herbs and/or love quick save scumming. Watch out for the sizemages the most. They can use Blaze, which hits for twelve HPs to Ragnar. There's also enemy healer slimes!
The first is the way out, which we should ignore for now.
The second dead end is just that.
The third takes us to a room with nothing in it.
The fourth is a medical herb.
The fifth and sixth just loop around to each other.
The seventh takes us to a great partner, Healie. Healie is a healer slime that wants to be human. He thinks that hanging around with them will make him one, so he'll join us. His attack stats are terrible, and he doesn't gain levels, but he can heal. Healing is the most important magic in any game, so I already love him. Could be a bit more useful, though... At least carry some items and level up!
The eighth path is to 650 gold!
If you've followed the voice, then you'll come to the final dead end with a treasure chest surrounded by four pillars (?). In there, we will find Flying Shoes, and the voice no longer talks to us. I have no idea if you can use them in here, but I had all this money sitting in my pocket, and there's plenty of great stuff to buy in Izmet. I purchased a bronze armor and a scale shield. Don't worry about the weapons for now, but I should have got the better hat instead of the shield. There is a reason for this, so don't worry. Once Ragnar and Healie are at full strength, see what those Flying Shoes can do!

We'll sail into the air and land in a tower to the east of Izmet. We'll see a man drag a child away from us, and we'll give chase. It took me a while to notice this, but we're at the top and work our way down. My only word of advice is: if you see a door, go through it. There's plenty of new stuff down here, from seeds to gear. There's a scale shield here, which is why I suggested skipping it in town. There's also a Sword of Malice through the second giant golden doors. This is far stronger than the spear in Izmet. Just south of those golden doors is a stairwell down. It's a dead end, but there's also a healing square at the back of the room. By now, it's incredibly necessary. I died in here when I first tried, but we'll be magically revived and end up back at the priest in Izmet, with the only penalty being losing half of our money. The mobs tend to use a lot of magic (pixie, ozwad) and buffs (lilype). Giant chickens can also put you to sleep. Healie's low defense and HP pool, combined with his slow speed, usually makes him act last. And considering Ragnar is an old man, two sluggish characters are going to get hit a lot. Healie couldn't keep up, and Ragnar fell. It's too bad I walked right past the healing square...

Shortly after the heal spot is a dying soldier from Burland. His final words are the only plot advancement in this chapter, and they warn us why the children are being taken away. The ruler of evil has returned, and it is said that the legendary hero who will defeat him is but a child now. If the BBG takes all the kids and kills them, his rule will last forever. In the room below us is the man responsible for kidnapping the kids. A child will run towards us, and we can see another in a cage off to the side. There's a strange entity in the middle of the room, but it's the guy on the throne who says he has no time for this. This kicks off the first boss fight in the game!

Saro's Shadow and the Giant Eyeball stand before us. Both do a lot of magic damage, but there's nothing we can do about it. All Ragnar can do is attack! I took out Saro's Shadow first, but the eye can be killed in one hit, so I should have done that. I thought it was the real target of this fight and figured shadow was an ad... Guess not. I'd imagine, once Eyeball is gone, Saro becomes easier. Healie nearly survived, but our slow speed meant he couldn't keep up healing. But it doesn't matter, and the jail cell will open once we win. Both kids come running up to us, and we escort them back to Izmet. All the mobs are gone now, so explore to find anything you may have missed. The soldier who told us the legend has passed, but you should have informed the other soldier that he can head home. I doubt it changes anything, but it's the right thing to do. You can climb to the top of the tower and jump off, and this'll set us across the lake. But there's a Wyvern Wing in the tower, which we can use on the world map, and it'll take us away, too.

Once we're in Izmet, the kids will see their mothers waiting for them and run up. Everyone will thank us, and the soldiers will be amazed at our strength. Alex and Flora will be gone, so follow after them and return to the King in Burland. The couple says they're in our debt, and everyone else is much the same. I also think all random encounters are removed at this point, so do what you want. As we enter the castle, we'll automatically walk towards the King. He, too, will say how cool we are and promise to reward us with whatever we want. Ragnar tells his liege that he wants to go on a journey, which the King okays. He also grants us 2000 exp, which gave me two additional levels. And with that, we come to the end of chapter one.

Ragnar not having any special moves, magic, or whatever, really is a bad way to start the game. It makes everything seem like a brain dead experience with no strategy. But I trust the next character or two will add to it, so I guess this is better than going last? The music is fun so far, and I'm glad there's story. As long as we don't start walking about aimlessly like DQVI, I think I'll enjoy this. It feels like a Dragon Quest, and I want to keep playing!

I feel weird not leaving off with a "...tomorrow" It's like I'm doing something wrong...

Lunar is a strange game...

 Lunar: Silver Story Harmony is a game first released on the Sega CD as Lunar: The Silver Star. According to Wikipedia, it's the best selling game for that console in Japan. The PSP remake updated the visuals, gave us a slightly different translation, and (I think) changed the order of a few things. This was my first dip into the Lunar franchise, and I have to say, I don't know how I feel about it.

The bad:
What's with the sexualization of children? The onsen scenes, the bromides, and the skimpy outfits all made me feel gross. I don't know how old Royce is, but Jessica, Mia, and Luna can't be older than fifteen. The guys get into the creepiness too, but that's probably not a counterargument. I'm not going to say anything, but I'm looking at all the devs sideways. Were these in the SCD version?

Something I groaned about several times in the updates: mob variety. There were only about ten monsters in the entire game, and you'll be seeing them in every dungeon. The only difference is what color they are. Tactics are the same for every enemy.

Another thing that makes mob variety bad is how bland dungeons are. There are almost no puzzles anywhere. Every dungeon is a small maze with no gimmicks or memorability. The sewers are the only one that comes to mind, and the area with the MP stealing chests. But I don't remember where that was, so...  The final dungeon tried something with its forced combat and teleporter nonsense, but it was too little too late to mean anything to me.

For a game with an emphasis on music, I wasn't big on the OST. A lot of it is my own peccadillos about peppy, upbeat songs, but I thought a lot of town themes were the same note plays on a different melody. Even the instruments were similar. It's a lot of flutes, so maybe the remastered version just got stuck in a rut? And the tiny amount of tracks means you're going to be hearing them pretty often.

I hate Nall. Why does he get more lines than anyone else, especially the supposed main character? And he's a one note guy! All he talks about is fish with the occasional comment about pretty girls. I don't understand why he's the center of attention in a game where he's unnecessary. Replace half of his something for Alex to say, and Alex becomes a more well rounded person. He needs it. And if you want a quazi silent protagonist, give the other party members more stuff to say to make them better!

Because the other characters need it, too. Most ofo them are pretty bland themselves. Kyle's only trait is his hedonism.
Jessica seems torn between two personalities: The prim-and-proper woman her mother was and the pirate king Mel is. But we don't see much of it. She's clearly more like her father, but I guess she wears her mother's clothes?
Nash is a wannabe eugenicist, but he never overcomes that. I guess he does after that scene before we kill Xenobia, but that's a very touchy subject that I remove to handwave away. But he is a kid, so...
Alex is a kid who wants to be a hero and then bang his sister.
Mia is a genuinely good character, at least. She's the daughter of a hero, sheltered (it seems) in the chambers of the guild, and the heir apparent to it all. But she doesn't think she can do it. She's stuck with her own emotions and confidence, and saving the world brings it out of her. But as long as she has he friends, she knows she can do it.


The mixed:
The battle system has a lot of fun things going for it. I loved the idea of the quazi strategy squares on the battlefield. We can move our characters around to avoid AoE damage or set ourselves up for an attack next round. And every character has their role, which is the most important thing I want in combat. But it's not without its flaws. There are very few skills to use. Nash only gets three attack spells, all ofo which are of one element. He also gains some status effects, but I never used them because it's an RPG. Mia has two types of damage, but her Fire Charge attack is the only one you should for boss fights. Alex and Kyle also only have one attack to use in any particular scenario. Jessica, though, only has healing spells. She can never do damage without her Special Art or by getting into the front line, which you don't want your healer to do. There's no need to wonder if changing your strategy will be worthwhile, risk to be hard, or things to try, so it makes battles feel the same. Monotony isn't fun. And to make matters worse, enemies don't even have elemental weaknesses, so it doesn't matter anyway!

The plot is so obvious. I knew most of the twists just watching the opening cinematic, and before we finally got control of Alex. I knew Nall would turn into the dragon, Luna was Althena, and Alex would want to bang his sister. Ghaleon, a hero from fifteen years ago, being the main villain threw me for loop, though. I knew he'd have something to say in it, but just not how big. Luna turning evil was also pretty fun to see.

The good:
I liked the Vile Tribe. Their outfits need some work, but there's some decent depth to them. The three sisters being ununited at the end was a fun twist. And each sister has a different reason to follow Ghaleon was nice. One wanted to be recognized,  another wanted power, and one came to her senses just in time.

The world of Lunar is filled with a lot of characters. Each city feels different than the others, even if one is based on a strange trope of inbreeding. Burg is a quiet mountain town, but Mariba is a bustling metropolis. Nanza, a thief's fortress, is filled with miscreants and the opposite of the quirky inventors in Iiuk. And it has a good backstory about the Blue Star in the sky, it's birth from the Goddess, and even some future hopefulness of returning.

Now, it looks like I hated Lunar. Buuuuuttttt, I kinda enjoyed it. I'm not gonna say it's a good game or something every gamer should play, but it was just fun enough. The low difficulty of Lunar, the straightforward dungeons and combat, and the obvious plot twists make me think this is a beginner's RPG. If you're interested in plot heavy stories but can't spend sixty hours on something with too many mechanics, then this is the game for you. I also need to remember that this was originally on the Sega CD. Sega CD was between the Genesis and the Saturn in 1992. Technology, especially the futurist CD, was a new thing then. Developers were figured a lot out, and Lunar hit some spots that Nintendo couldn't at the time. If you can look past the creepy scenes, which you probably shouldn't, and the strange outfits by our villainesses, then pick up the first Lunar game. I wonder the original/PS1 version is less sexy? I know the music is true to the SCD, so give it a try and tell me. I don't see me moving on to Eternal Blue, but I might skim some of the extra stories around Alex and friends. There's a lot of it! 

For google sheet record keeping:
Playable Characters:

Alex - 7

Luna - 7

Ramus - 5

Nash - 6

Jessica - 6

Mia - 7

Kyle - 7

Tempest - 3

Side Characters:

Dad - 4

Mel - 6

Lemia - 6

Laika - 7

Myght - 3

Villians:

Vile Tribe - 7

Ghaleon - 8

Azure City of Althena

We're at the start of the final dungeon, so let's get to the top!

There are only about four or five different mobs in this entire location, most of which are more palette swaps. The only thing new is the giant Rooks from Chess. As you'd expect, they're quite tanky and hit pretty hard. There are also some bull demons fellas who can net you over 10000 EXP.
 
The city is split into three different sections.
Section one will force us into battles. As we enter open areas, red gates will block our path out. To advance, defeat the mages in the room. The bull demons are an optional challenge, but you might as well kill them. The majority of the team's final equipment is found down here at the various dead ends. About halfway through, we'll see Luna running towards us. She tells us that Ghaleon diverted his attention to something else, letting her getaway. Luna suggests we just leave this place and let Ghaleon lead us because humans need to be ruled. Our team has our doubts that this is the real Luna, and that's confirmed when she transforms into Royce. We prepare to fight our longtime rival, but she places a curse on us before running away. We know she did something, but we're not sure what. The effects of her hex are that our party members will randomly fall asleep at the start of a battle. It was never Alex, and I had Jessica with Lunar's version of the Ribbon, so I never felt defenseless. If you didn't climb upwards, you're probably going to find a dead end and treasure.

At the end of the first section is Royce. I don't remember exactly what was said before the battle, but it isn't hard. There is only one strategy for Lunar bosses, and I'm sure you know it by now.

Section two is a confusing mess. A voice will tell us that we need to remember meeting the Dragons, and those memories should guide us through this place. I have no clue what that means, but we need to find the correct paths through various teleporters. This, too, is split into three sections. Section One's only exit is the south telepod in the first room. Section Two is a nonsense of warps, so good luck. There's a lot of treasure hidden about, so I'll let ya know you're on the right track if you find the Goddess Statue. Section Three is more straightforward. Go upwards. There are a few things to loot on staircases down, but we're climbing to the top. At the end are four warps gates, and the top one takes us to meet Xenobia.

Xenobia gives us a heartfelt speech about how cool Ghaleon is before doing some psychological assault on us. She'll send us to another dimension where we all have a chat with our inner demons. They speak of our fears and insecurities.
Jessica is torn between her want to explore and her father's expectations.
Kyle wants to give in to hedonism before the end of the world, but he's here instead.
Mia's confidence has always been questioned by herself. She's always been projected to be the next leader of the Mage's Guild, but is that what she wants?
Nash still thinks Ghaleon is right, and he'd rather be a slave than dead.
Alex is confused as to if this really is the real Luna.
Nall ruins everything by making everyone realize this is a trap. They all still need to break out of their chains, but I think it'd be more poignant if they came to that conclusion themselves, rather than the annoying rat.
Jessica realizes she's the daughter of a noble and a pirate, and she's inherited the spirit of both.
Kyle finally comes to see what it's time to get serious, which is now. He still jokes about sacrificing himself for all future slackers, which I found funny.
Mia comes to terms that she does want to follow Lemia.
Nash decides that slavery is bad, and he should stop judging people by s single, worthless trait.
And Alex just loves his sister so much!
We all return before Xenobia to defeat her and free Mel. But we'll make sure he's fine later...

After a quick set of staircases, we reach Ghaleon. He commands Luna to do her duty, and Luna begins to do whatever it is she does. Ghaleon reiterates his plan to become the new god of Lunar and keep the peace through force. He intends to use Luna/Althena's power to make himself the supreme being. We even see Luna grant him some of her energy before we fight. Speaking of which...

I almost died! His tactics and spells are the same as before, but he's got a few new tricks when he gets low on HP. His first is to shield himself from all damage. I don't know long it lasts, but it tipped the tides in his favor. His deadliest move is a physical attack that killed everyone but Kyle, who it missed. We were at max health, and this wiped us out. For some reason, though, I opted to see if Kyle could do it. Mostly, I was curious if I could even do damage at that point. And wouldn't you know it, Kule did the last 1500 HP I needed to win. Maybe he is the hero he always thought himself to be?

Ghaleon collapses. His last words are that of confusion. But we still can't celebrate. Alex goes to talk to Luna, but she's still evil. She tries to stop him by casting lightning on him, which I instinctively blamed Nash for. Sorry... Ghaleon gets up and regrets that he was never needed to be god. I don't know what that meant, but he dies anyway for reasons I've forgotten. But Alex loves Luna, so he keeps pressing towards her. She continues to summon lightning, but he eats it. As we get close to her, Luna drops the charade. She reveals that she's been in control the whole time, I think, but she can't stop. She believes that only she can bring peace to this land, and if she stops now, everything will wither and die. The city is still absorbing magic from all across the globe, and only she can stop it. But this means she, and her human body, will die. But Alex doesn't believe that. Despite warnings from his sister, he steps into the magic field around Luna. His armor is taken from him, but his body is still intact. He keeps calling out to Luna, and she takes his hand and stops blinking. The Azure City begins to shake, and the rest of our party members know they need to leave. There's some trepidation, but they trust Alex and Luna. Nall transforms, and we cut to a cliffside near the bay.

We all see the city fall into the bay, the massive tidal wave it makes, and the explosion that follows. There's plenty of magical mumbo-jumbo around, but no Alex and Luna. Jessica, Mia, and Nall begin to cry. Suddenly, a light appears, rising from the ruins of the city. The dead ground everyone is standing on turns green again, and water returns to the dried lakes. The sky opens up, and the Blue Star illuminates Lunar once again. And then the universe blinks, and Alex and Luna are floating there. Luna is no longer running for mayor of sluttown, and our party is ready to get back to enjoying life.

We're all in Mariba for a final farewell. Jessica and Kyle head off to see if Mel is okay. One is less excited about it. Mia and Nash go to inform Lemia about what happened. Luna suggests we see Ramus one more time.
Ramus is glad we're okay, and his store is doing better than ever. It turns out sponsoring the guy who saved the world is great advertising. But he's too busy to go home, he asks us to tell his family the good news. He hopes he can have a relationship as good as Alex and Luna's one day, and we can buy the last two bromides from him. It turns out the bromides are our female party members in various forms of undress. Like, how do these exist? Why do they exist? Did Jessica and Mia let an artist draw them when they're naked? Why? They're kids, game. Stop being creepy.
Mia and Nash are taking to Lemia. She doesn't trust Nash but offers to trust the new Guild Leader. Lemia can no longer be the head of the Guild, so she steps aside, and Mia will now handle everything. Mia says she loves Nash, but in a way that indicates it's only as a friend. So this means a student is running the school? Too much power!
As we return to the Goddess Statue, the last member of the Vile Tribe teleports in. Phacia is alive and well and is preparing for her role as their new leader. She lets us know they're going to find an uninhabited part of the Green World to live and do so peacefully.
Jessica and Kyle and meeting Mel. The family has a wondrous hug until Kyle, hiding behind Alex and Luna, opens his mouth. He runs out, but Mel asks him to come back. Mel gives his okay for the two to date, seeing as Kyle's changed his life around. Apparently, Jessica and Kyle have known each other for a very long time.
Alex and Luna need to take the boat back to Burg, so they stop by the bar for some reason. We can say farewell to Tempest and Fresca there, and things get awkward. Fresca is ready to have a large family with her husband, so she asks when Luna "plans to bear Alex's children." Fresca is excited that their kids will get to play together when they meet, but both of our teenaged protags are too embarrassed to say anything.
Just outside is Laika. Alex tries to talk to him as he's still Dyne, but he reiterates that he's Laika now. He congratulates them on saving the world and says he's got more adventures to do now. He knows he can't see and collect it all, but he's just happy to have a part in it. He wanes poetically about being a being in time or something... sure.

The credits roll over the Blue Star, and the camera casts down to Alex and Luna (and Nall). The two hold hands as they reach...

The End.

The Beginning of the End

As Phacia said, there is a secret entrance to the left of the blocked main gate. On the otherside of the hole is a small maze that kinda resembles a town. There's a lot of "ultimate" armor in here, but we'll still be left looking for more after tonight. The mobs are swapped versions of what we fought last night. The destination is northeast, so have a look around elsewhere, first, for the loot. We'll enter a palace like area and climb our way up. Along the way, we'll meet someone new who has a lot of power. Taban is the architect of the Grindery, Ghaleon's super weapon. But he's an inventor of so much more than that. He says he'll stop us with his new invention, which has a silly name. Rather than some strange mechanical monstrosity, our old pal Nash will rise from the floor.

Bash tells us that we never should have come here, and us doing so ruined his whole plan to save Mia. He's wearing a stupid looking suit of armor that is a cross between Siegmeyer from Catalina and a chicken. The armor magnifies his power, which he uses against us. He opens fire on us twice, but he never harms Mia because he's a simp. Mia walks over to him and gives him a good slap. She calls him some choice words and says that this Nash isn't the man she fell in love with. I don't know how you could love Nash to begin with, but you do you, girl. Nash looks regretful but starts to understand. All he ever wanted to do was protect Mia, but he never thought he was that strong. He assumed that falling in line under Ghaleon would allow the two of them to live in a peaceful world. But Mia wouldn't choose slavery over peace. Over the journey, she's come to learn what she can do and what she needs to. But Nash is an idiot and doesn't change his mind, so we all have to fight him.

Nash is pretty weak, but he's still stronger than he was because of his armor. He also seems resistant to magic, so have Mia buff our frontline and wail away with Sword Storm. After we win, he can finally see Mia as a strong, independent woman who don't need no man. He sees the folly of his ways, and our party promises to pay him back for destroying the engine...once this is all over. We have the option to forgive, which is actually a choice, sorta. We still end up forgetting what he did, but he has to promise not to do it again, so... Anyway, while this is happening, Taben escaped out the back, so, with Nash back in the group, we follow him.

We keep following until we reach (what I think is) an elevator. Taben is there, but so is the bossman, Ghaleon. We can't get to them, but we really want to. Our whole goal this time was to stop Ghaleon from activating the Grindery. As we look on, we hear the tower begin to shake. We cut to the anime, where things start to break apart. It falls until we can see, at the base, a monstrous tank. It begins to drive forward with the skyscraper on top of it towards civilization, with Ghaleon in it. We quickly head back to the airship and try to catch up. We do so with ease, but the barrier that was once around the crater is now around it, so we can't get to it. Are we to sit back and idly watch Ghaleon get his way? Mia thinks she knows where The Magic Emperor is going: Vane. Or, more importantly, the Goddess Tower. Jessica flies us to Vane because there's a secret weapon there. Nash tries to get everyone off the city while Mia talks her mom into letting us into the Silver Chamber. We can, and we all head to near the jail cells. There's nothing here but a large screen and several blue orbs. On that screen is the slowly approaching Grindery. All of us, including Nall, take to an orb. Mia says an incantation, and we can finally see the true purpose of Vane. Throughout the game, we've been told that Vane was built to protect the Goddess Tower and has been floating around it for years. We're now the last line of defense between Ghaleon and Althena as the two superstructures have an uncomfortable silence for a moment while we each look on. After a moment, each will fire upon each other. The Grindery launches two shots that resemble a dragon's head at us, and we shoot one ball. Both blasts hit, and both damage each other. Vane is shot out of the sky and lands at the base of the Goddess Tower. Meanwhile, the barrier around the Grindery is gone. But it's still standing, so we'll need to go in on foot to end this! We can use the Dragon' Wings again here, and this is the last time I can explore, although I don't know what is there to find.

As we approach the Grindery, we'll look for a way in. One appears, but so does a small army. Six knights and two mages will attack us, and it got a bit nasty for me. The knights can only do a move that does sixty damage, and there's more of them than us. Depending on how fast your team wants to go, this might result in a loss. Fortunately, they're pretty fragile. We'll need to fight two times, so be prepared. Before the third fight, what we think is the end for us, arrow fire will save us. Once again, Tempest and Frasce have shown up to offer relief. They buy us time to enter the Grindery, which we make use of.

We'll need to climb a while through pipes and doors that lead places I didn't really grasp. The mobs in here seem new, and all have angelic names. I liked the one who wields giant cannons. Sadly, they're weak, so I don't know how strong they are. They give great rewards, though. Nearly 5000 EXP! There's more ultimate armor in here, and I hope I didn't miss any in the maze. At one point, we see something very disturbing. Quark is tied up to various tubes. He's knocked out, but it's clear that Ghaleon is using the powers of the dragons to run this abomination. Eventually, we'll come to a locked door with no keyhole, much to Kyle's chagrin. He tries to ram through it, but it's sealed with magic. A wounded Phadra enters, and Jessica tries to heal her. There's no time, though, and Phacia opens the door. As she does, Royce and Xenobia teleport in, and the three sisters have a fight. We learn that Phacia was never really on Ghaleon's side. Ghaleon showed up one day and started bossing everyone around. Because of the Vile Tribe's predicament, it meant a lot to them to even be acknowledged as an existence. They all thought it was a way to be free, but Ghaleon never promised that. Phacia now sees through it all and knows he was just using them all. The others don't see it, and I sense a fight about to happen. But Phacia urges us onward to Ghaleon, so we go through the door.

After some stairs, we reach Ghaleon. We have an "I'm evil" speech, most of which I found standard from twenty five years of gaming. But, at least, we can take revenge on the ultimate traitor. It's a battle that feels tense but isn't really. Have Jessica use Saint Litany (what it's called in the PS1) to make sure we heal between turns. She'll have to use her heal all move most of the time, too, but what else can she do? Ghaleon is pretty resistant to magic, so have Mia buff the front line before doing her multi hit fire spell. Nash can do whatever, but I had him as a backup healer (items/MP). Ghaleon usually performs a spell that hits the whole screen and does between 100-150 damage per attack, but it's split between two attacks. Alternatively, he'll perform up to four basic blows. He often mixes and matches, though. It's is why we're gonna need as much healing as we can get. He's the toughest boss yet, but as long as everyone plays their part, he's easy enough.

With Ghaleon dead, we start to rejoice. But we shouldn't because Luna isn't here. Also, Mel is still stoned, but who cares about him? On another set of stairs behind Ghaleon is our wonderful sister. But something's not right. Alex calls out to her, but she doesn't respond. When Luna turns around, she begins to laugh. She says all we've done is a waste, and she's now embracing her true power of a goddess. Luna, taking fashion advice from the slutty members of the Vile Tribe, transforms before us. She looks out towards the Goddess Tower and begins to sing. The area around the mountain shakes and lights up. The ground quakes beneath, revealing that the tower is a lot more than what we can see. From the area rises a massive fortress. We all hear a laugh, and we know who it's from. Ghaleon appears before, upset that we thought we could kill a puppet. Luna is holding him in a lovey-dovey way. With the Azure City of Althena, the thing that provides power to the Goddess, Ghaleon is ready to rule the world. But can stop him!

No, we can't. You can fight for twenty minutes and use up all your items, but Ghal's, functionally, immortal. Listen to Nash and just give up. As we're all about to die, something happens. Alex wakes up, without his Dragonmaster armor, in Jessica's bed in Meriba. Nall flies in (how'd he open the door) and lets us know it's been three days. We took the worst of the fight, and everyone else is up. But Nash and Kyle are a bit...uh... Mia and Jessica are in Mel's study, glad that we're not dead. They tell us they're ready for a rematch, but their worse halves are dealing with other some inner demons. Both are at the bar at the docks. Kyle is drinking heavily, preparing for the end of the world. Nash is looking out the window in a fit of depression. He's regretting turning on Ghaleon because Nash sucks. Alex and Nall can talk neither of them out of their stupor. Return to the manor, and the girls will try to bring them back again. Jessica gets into another argument with Kyle when she calls out his cocky, tough guy personally. Kyle getting wreaked must have broken something in him. And just like that, he comes back around. I don't understand their relationship... Mia tells Nash he's a wuss because she's going to fight no matter what. Because he's a simp, he joins the team. As we finish this, Laika comes in and offers to aid us one more time. He lets us explore around Meriba for a bit first, so check in with Ramus. He's offering free healing items because we're the Dragonmater. We can also get bromides of our female party members for reasons... Lamia is also where we first met Royce if you want to talk to her. But we can't leave, and the Dragon Wings are dead, so we have to talk to Laika.

Laika will do some stuff, and we'll all be teleported to Dyne's Monument. While there, he apologizes for not telling us the whole story. He lets us in on why Ghaleon hates Dyne and what went down after they beat Eifel. We see a cutscene where a scantly clad Althene is praying. Dyne is walking up to her, and Ghaleon is yelling at them both. He thinks their plan to save the world won't work. Both of his friends ignore him and carry on. We see Dyne's armor give away, and he's wearing something that looks like Laika's. Althena disappears, and a baby with blue hair drops into his hands. Laika continues: humans have relied on Althena for everything for too long. At first, she let it happen, but soon they started fighting over her attention. Fifteen years ago, she and Dyne concocted the plan to let humans be on their own. Althena turned into a human to live among them. That human is Luna, and Laika knows this because he was there. Laika is Dyne. I don't remember if it was now or during Ghaleon's "I'm Evil" speech, but the idea is brought up that Ghaleon is doing this to fill the power gap that this word needs. Ghaleon will become the god Lunar needs to keep the peace. But now we have to finish this and save Luna! Dyne tells us to take his sword from the "gravemarker," an action Alex has tried many times in the past. This time, though, he does so with ease. His Dragonmaster armor is put back on, and we're prepared for one more assault. But how do we get there? The City of Althena is too high for the airship, but Dyne tells us we have a dragon. Nall suddenly knows what he is and transforms into a White Dragon. But he's not the withered wyrm that Quark was. We all climb on his back and set for the City of Althena. En route, we can see that the group around us slowing turning grey and looks like the Frontier does. We'll end Lunar; Silver Story Harmony...

...tomorrow!

The most obvious plot twists in the history of gaming have been revealed. I wasn't sure if Laika was Dyne, but it makes sense. Everything else about this scene, though, was clear before we got control of Alex. I have mixed feelings about this game, but I'll discuss them in a few days.

Dragonmaster

We have to find the home of our new friends Tempest and Fresca. I don't know why, though...

To do that, we need to venture through the Lost Woods. At various points, the party talks about what we're in. We sense magic in the area, and there's a campfire, presumably, set up by the citizens of Pao. As we keep digging through the deep forest, we start to notice that we keep coming back to the campfire. Eventually, we come to a dead end, I decide we're lost, and the party wants to spend the night at the camp. During the night, some of our party members have a soliloquy while everyone else sleeps. Jessica starts talking to Kyle, but he passes out. Nash thinks about Mia and all the hardships they've gone through. And then all the stuff we still have to do...

In the morning, we're woken by two men. We all prepare for a fight, but then they notice Alex is wearing the symbol of Pao, the Black Dragon Necklace, that Tempest gave him. All is well, and the men offer to show up the path to Pao. This forest is magically inclined, and the only way to get through it is to say an incantation at a certain fork in the road. They do this for us, so don't worry about it. They open the way, and we can head into the city on the plains, Pao. Several townsfolk give us a clue that there's a sickness going on. Kyle ignores it and calls it a cold, so this didn't age well. Some suggest they can hear a song playing in the distance and think that might impetus for this suffering. When we meet up with Tempest in his tent, we begin to succumb to this illness. Mia collapses first, and then Jessica follows. Frasca enters and informs us that the song is coming from the Black Dragon Cave and passes out. After we've set our female party members to bed, Tempest runs out on his own some to get revenge and end this plague. We need the Elder's permission, as opposed to the chief, so head to her hut. She'll quickly give us the go ahead, so follow Tempest.

My goodness, new mobs! We're up against cursed floating skulls, types of lizards, and a new mage, the Corona Knight. Why does this word keep showing up all the time?! None of these guys are tough, and this entire zone is a battle of attrition. Without a healer or good mage, it's gonna be a bit of a slog. To make things worse, there are several trapped treasure chests. Nothing attacks or gives us a status ailment, but a purple mist will take our MP. I don't recall seeing traps like this, but I'm all for it. It's possibly debilitating, but it's pretty easy to manage. It's minor things like this that can give bland dungeons some oomph. We catch up with Tempest not too far in. He's glad we're here since even he's having some trouble. He'll join the party and is helpful enough, I guess. From here, this place becomes the hardest maze in the game. For starters, head north from where Tempest joins. It takes us to a dead end with treasure. From here, you're on your own because I had no idea where I was going.

But, eventually, we'll reach an area where a voice calls out to us. The spirit of the Black Dragon appears and tells us he's befallen the same fate as his brethren. His physical body still exists but is being controlled by Ghaleon. But he senses Alex has the power to save the world, so he rewards him with the Dragon Armor. He also tells us the Trial of the Black Dragon is to find the purity in his heart. He leaves us, and we continue on until we reach his sanctum. The body of the Black Dragon is there, but so is Luna?!

She's singing a song that's causing Pao to suffer. We all call out to her, but she doesn't respond. Ghaleon enters and tells us that Luna is the key to ruling the world, so he's brainwashed her. To prove that Luna is out of our hands, he has her sing another song. This song paralyzes us, leaving us defenseless for an attack by the Black Dragon. After a few turns, it ends. Tempest is upset because he wanted to kill Luna and be done with it, but there's no way we were going to let him kill our sister/girlfriend. Despite being beaten, Alex stands up and tries to reach Luna again. He starts to play his ocarina, which temporarily breaks the spell. Luna starts to come too, and this causes the armor set Alex is wearing to begin to shine. In an anime cutscene, everything he's wearing activates, and his sprite changes. Alex is now an official Dragonmaster. Despite such an event, Ghaleon still holds all the power, and he attacks us with the Black Dragon again.

But this time, we're functional. Start the game with your special arts, regain, and spam Blade Storm. Jessica has no attack magic, so make sure she heals every few turns. As every other boss, Black Dragon has no killing power. We'll win in time, but it doesn't mean much. Ghaleon is impressed we can beat a legendary beast, but he can reapply his spell to Luna, who then summons a new Black Dragon, somehow. The two of them climb onto it and leave. We didn't get Luna back, but we have a Dragonmater and might have saved Pao. We return to the village to see. Nash seems unhappy.

We enter Tempest's house and see all the girls preparing to go in after us. With our return, though, they don't need to, but it's nice to see such great friends. We inform them of what happened, but Laika enters because of course he does. He congratulates us on achieving our goal, but we don't feel too heroic. But we're not done fighting! Our party is back together, and we plan to head to the Vile Tribe's headquarters in the Frontier. We need to see if Myght is done with our airship. Before leaving, speak to Tempest again. He'll grant us Alex's best sword (I think), an heirloom for the Tribal Chief he doesn't use because he's an archer.

Mught isn't quite done, but he will be tomorrow. He tells us he can sleep here if we don't touch anything and the team breaks up. Jessica and Kyle almost tell the other they love each one another, but Kyle screws it up. You'd think Jessica would take the lead on this? Nash and Mia are discussing how hard the journey has been, but Mia is totally down for it. If she's to the next Guild Master, she should be involved in saving the world like her mother was. Nash, though, is uncertain. In the morning, Myght will wake us up because the airship is done. We'll all talk again, but Nash will step aside before we lift off. He reiterates that he cares for Mia and wishes that she didn't have to join us on this. He then "gimps" out (as Jessica will call it later) and summons lighting, targeting the airship. Royce, his old friend, will teleport in and tell him he did the right thing. We'll all argue, and Jessica and Kyle will want to kill Nash, but Royce will teleport Nash away. Nash only broke the engine, but that's no easy fix. Someone thinks we can use the balloon's engine, and we learn that the inventor (whose name I forgot) was once an apprentice of Myght. We last knew it was in was Raza, so he head there. The barkeeper tells us it's in the bazaar, but no one wants to buy it. We'll get it back for free, to head back to Myght, and he'll install it overnight.

Laika shows up again to ask why we're still here, and the usual explanation happens. The team will break up again as they did last night, and we'll be ready in the morning. Myght and Laika see us off, and Laika, as we're leaving, asks us to fix what he failed to do... Who really is Laika!?

We fly over the barren wasteland of the Frontier, which looks a lot like the moon. We approach a large tower, but there's a forcefield in the crater. Jessica lands the airship, and we have to find a tunnel to get inside. The Talon mines are the only thing we can access, and it's another maze. The first part is more of a town, and we can speak to many of the Vile Tribe members. They all think we're ugly monsters. Most of them, though, are slaves used for mining ore that Ghaleon needs. They seem cool with it, but they really wish things were better for them. They can't rest, get drunk, and I doubt they're getting paid. Many share their hatred for both Althena and the Ghaleon. Good luck navigating this part. The second section of the Mines is a normal dungeon filled with new mobs. The only ones worth talking about are the pink knights. They're immune to all physical attacks, so only Mia can harm them. I'm sure Nash could but screw him. Eventually, we'll come to a chamber filled with peaceful miners. Nothing happens, but as we enter the next room, we'll hear a collapse behind us. Kyle thinks we should keep going and leave our enemies to their own devices, but everyone else wants to see if they can help. I think the game will make you do it, so just go along with it. We'll see one of the miners burying under fallen rocks. No one else him out of fear of their lives, so we dig him out. As we do, pink nights show up to yell at us. We were instructed to never stop working no matter what. Failure to listen causes them to attack. They're not special, so good luck, Mia. After the fight, we'll contuse through the maze. Phacia teleports in and says something I didn't expect her to say.

Near the exit, we'll reach a graveyard with a Goddess Statue in it. Even out here, in hostile territory, the Vile Tribe still needs the Goddess' magic to live. We'll also see the guy we saved waiting here. He gives us some helpful warnings and goes back to work. A little deeper on, the room grows dark. When the light comes back on, Mia and Jessica will be trapped. Xenobia has taken our mages hostage and promises to kill them unless Kyle and Alex fight. Reluctantly, they do so. However, they both do 0 damage. This annoys Xenobia, but then Kyle suggests simply killing Jessica. He'd die for Mia, but the beast girl is annoying and hot headed. This caused Jessica to get mad, and then I got confused. Xenobia freed Jessica and Mia, but I didn't understand why. I think she expected Jessica to fight Kyle, but why did she release Mia? Either way, it turns out that lover's quarrel was an act. With all of us free, we take our sights on Xenobia. Before we can do anything, she attacks us with Shadow.

Shadow is largely resistant to magic, so Mia's best contribution is buffing Alex and Kyle's strength. Jessica will need to heal a lot because Shadow does a lot of AoE damage and can hit four people in one turn with its basic attacks. Our knights are doing nearly 1000 damage, and Jessica can outheal everything, so this is pretty easy. Return to the Statue to heal, and head out into the crater. We can go to the tower, Ruld, but I went to a strange place. It's a town, but it's filled with monsters who are stuck in cocoons. Someone suggests that they need to stay in there their whole life or else they'll die. Althena'a magic is what gives life to everything, and there just isn't enough of it out here. I'm starting to understand why the Vile Tribe hates Althena; this is torture... In the back of the area, we'll meet Phacia. She won't attack us, but she'll actually offer us aid. We're skeptical at first, but she says she's different from her sisters. She thinks the Vile Tribe should ask for forgiveness. He can choose not to trust her, but I might as well. She'll give us the password to the tower and leave. Should we trust her? We'll find out...

...tomorrow!

I never liked Nash, so I hope he stays away from my party again. Give me literally anyone else. I also went around and told my old friends and family I became a Dragonmaster. Doing so will have Dad teach us that Laika brought Luna to them fifteen years ago. The two bonded quickly, and even then, our parents knew their kids would bang. Whoops, ruined the game again...

Myght-y smart

We rose the Blue Dragon Tower last night, so we have to enter it now.

The mobs are the same, but the rewards are really good. It's worth hanging out in here to level up if you want to grind. The Goddess Statue is right outside, and the enemies are weak. To get through it all, we need to navigate through water pools. They'll warp us around a few areas, and it's a confusing endeavor. Some of the pools are traps, and elementals will attack us, though. It takes a while, but with the low mob difficulty, it's not a terrible walk. And MP restoring items drop all the time in here, so think of all the headaches you'll save later! There is no boss at the end, so go all out.

In time, we'll reach a dimly lit room. Nall will call out to see if anyone is here, and the area will light up as the Blue Dragon appears before us. He's a bit talkative, and we can't get a word in. We try to warn him about the Vile Tribe and what they did to the Quark, but ol' Bluey would rather let us continue on our journey. He opens the path to the Dragon Helm, the same piece of armor we saw Dyne wearing in the opening of the game. When we get it, we all hear a roar outside. The Blue Dragon is gone, with only Phacia remaining. I'm glad one of our BBGs is properly dressed. We talk for a bit, and we get a glimpse of why the Vile Tribe hates Althena: it's the only way they can think to get out of their exile and harsh environment. But she'll quickly teleport away, and we return to the mourning village of Lyton.

A few citizens give us the idea to travel east across the Tamur Pass. Before I went there, I did some digging through the Forbidden Woods. It's infested with strong enemies that are just slightly not worth it. I'm not sure why this area exists, but I got through it to the Althena Spring. Jessica got her onsen scene if you're into underage girls...

The Tamur Pass is a rocky canyon filled with more palette swaps. There are also a number of signs, most of which are lies. There are no falling rocks or secret passages (that I found). It is worth exploring around, though, for a few bits of new armor. Even if it's bland, I like that everyone has a lot of unique items. Sometimes you have to suffer through a sandstorm. But like all other weather patterns, I don't know if this changes anything. Eventually, though, Xenobia will find us and attempt to end our journey here! She'll summon a small host of magically immune knights and a mage to back them up. I used up my Special Arts in the first battle, but this is a test of attrition than anything. The number of mobs will double on fight two, but they're the same as before. Before the third round, though, two saviors will appear! From far away on horseback, a man and woman will rain archer fire onto them, scarring even Xenobia away. They leave before we can talk to them, but I suspect we'll meet them again. They got an anime cutscene! Leave through the south exit, and we'll come to the town of Tamur.

It's a village on the edge of the Frontier, home of the Vile Tribe. Many of its inhabitants are concerned, but others just want to drink the world renowned alcohol. In the back of the place is ol' Laika. Even our characters start to wonder how he keeps being everyone we're going. Laika gives us further clues, I think, about the Black Dragon, but we need to see a man named Myght first. Apparently, we need to fly again. We learn later that the Black Dragon is somewhere in the Frontier, so I guess it's easier to fly over the badlands? He offers to escort us to Myght, but only Alex can join him. We can turn him down to explore the locations east of Tamur, but you might as well agree now.

The two of them will begin to climb Myght's Tower while the rest of our crew is in the bar. There's a boy guarding the entrance, but he lets us pass with Laika here. The two of them have to get through some pretty easy mobs, but they're only a breeze because Laika hits for nearly 1000 damage across three swings. Just when I felt like Alex was getting strong, Laika shows off how weak we are. You should probably just auto battle this whole place. At the top is a crotchety old man who farts when we meet him. Laika comments that he's actually gotten less stinky, and the two old guys start to talk. Laika introduces us as the next Dragonmaster and asks the crazy older guy to build us an airship. With surprisingly little arm twisting, Myght agrees. It'll take a while, so Laika will hang around here, and Alex can return to town.

As I said, everyone will be in the bar. Kyle's drunk and even Jessica is, too. Mia's just there, but Nash is gone. Eventually, he enters to let us know there's a commotion in the town square. We all go over there to see our two saviors about to hang an alleged conman. We have an option to do nothing, but Nall wants us to cut down the poor man. As we do, he runs away, and we meet his executioners. This is Temptest and his wife, Fresca. They were enacting "Plains Justice" because that man lied about being a doctor and sold fake products. Honestly, I'm down for what they did. Tempest then accuses Alex of being in league with him, which he denies. But Tempest doesn't believe it, so the two of them duel.

Tempest is no joke, man. He gets three attacks and can do over 70 damage per turn. I had to use a few healing items, but don't worry about skills; I found normal attacks to be more effective. I won, but I wonder what could have happened if you lost? Afterwards, Tempest quickly changes his tone. They've been looking for their village songstress for three days, which Nall thinks is the only reason we won. The two of them give us a token of friendship, which is a carved idol of a dragon. They then head home before continuing their search. This encounter, as well some NPC banter, inspires everyone to find Tempest and Fresca's home of Pao. I assume that's through the Lost Woods, so I'll be finding fairy children...

..tomorrow!

Finally, a short update on Lunar. It's nice!

Red Dragon

We need to fly!

Last night, we got some stolen balloon blueprints from the Thieves Guild. So our mission tonight is to find the original inventor. Iluk, a town in the south, is known for its eccentric tinkerers, so there's the best place to start. As the NPC's, map, and gamer sense tell us, this is the correct place. In one of the houses is the guy who wrote up these blueprints before they were stolen. As thanks, he offers to build it for us, but he's missing one more thing: A bug. I don't know how a bug can help us, but I'm just an average man and no genius inventor. The bug we need is located behind the town. But to get to the garden, we need to ask the botanist in his weird basement. He grants us access so long as we close the door behind us. We don't close the door, but we're in anyway.

I got lost for a while here because I wasn't sure what to do. I expected a boss, but I was wrong. Instead, we need to find the pink cloud bug. It'll be on the field, but it'll surround itself with its more violent kin in battle. At the very start, it'll run away, so it'll be a typical battle. Mobs in this area like to inflict everyone with sleep, and they're pretty good at it. The EXP is pretty good. The garden is pretty simple as long as you don't go all the way to the back, get lost for a while, and have to fight your back only to fight out again, you should be fine to go all out. Bring a warp wing with you, by the way. That's something I'm quickly finding to be a wise decision. Anyway, after the fight, we'll have to chase the pink bug around the dungeon. There are three fights through until we get to the last place. After we take out the last of Pinky's friends, Kyle will lead one final charge to surround it. We'll be successful, and we can return to town. You can also inspect the giant carrots for some party banter. The inventor will tell us that it takes a day to fill up the balloon, and he lets us spend the night at his place.

Alex has a dream about Luna. She's singing until the screen turns red, and Luna starts to call out to him. When everyone wakes up, we'll be excited to take another step to find her! We'll head up to the guy's house, but the balloon still isn't inflated, much to his surprise. After a second of waiting, though, it'll burst up in full bloom, and we can take the to the air! Jessica says the controls resemble that of a ship's, so she's our pilot. She's perfect, and we land peacefully in the middle of an active volcano.

Despite appearing to be active, it's actually pretty cold. Someone surmises that it only looks active to ward off potential adventures and is a magical illusion. This appeases everyone, and we start our search for either Luna or the Red Dragon. The worst thing about this place is traps. They're easy to notice, though, so just be aware that if you see a spot that looks hot, it is. Occasionally, walls of fire will erupt before us, but these areas are also the opposite of hidden and even billow before they burst. The mob variety continues to suck with nothing new down here. Besides that, be on the lookout for rocks that we can use as explosive elevators. They'll take you to other areas of the map. As we enter the final room, a voice will call to us. It'll tell us to go with confidence, and this is the trial of the Fire Dragon. In the back of this room are four walls of permanent flame. We will have to pass through them and eat the damage, or we'll be stuck here forever. This was the courage part of the trial. I didn't check, but I don't think the damage is high. As we get past it, we'll see two daises before us, and another voice will call out. Royce's stupid outfit will teleport in. She says more evil stuff, then calls in her two dogs to watch us die.

The Bronze Dogs only sorta look like dogs. Start the battle by using most of your special arts moves, but you may want to wait on Jessica and Kyle's. Mia's will make us immune to damage (or at least fire damage) for a few turns to let us kill one bad puppy, so it's worth doing. Jessica should use her team regen spell, which I can't remember the name of. Focus on whoever you want to, including using Kyle's art. When one dies, the other one has a surprise for us. I don't know if being alone triggers it or if it was happenstance, but the remaining dog set itself on fire. The next turn, in used Flame Rush, which deals about fifty damage to the whole party. Mia's art skill ran off, so it hit everyone, but Jess's regain healed most of it back. Each dog only has 3000 HP, so it's not a tough fight.

Royce will feign upset that we killed her dogs and teleport away. As she does, she reads our future, which makes us think the Red Dragon is already gone. Jessica thinks it's a huff piece to hide her fear. In the next room, though, is the absence of a dragon. After a moment, the spirit of the Red Dragon will appear before us to let us know her physical body was taken long, long ago. But she grants Alex the Dragon Shield and says she wants to rest now.

I walked back to the balloon because I didn't have a warp wing on me. We all got back into it and set sail again. This time, though, it didn't go so smoothly. Something went wrong, and we began to fall from the sky. Jessica managed to save us, but we all spun out of control in a far too long anime scene that was mostly yelling and praying. We landed in Raza, but the locals were more interested in our balloon than anything and hauled it away, leaving us to dust ourselves off. Lykia is still here, as is Lily's granddad. We let him in on the bad news but promise we're still on the hunt. Lykia gives us a clue that the next dragon can be found in the Layton region to the east, near a lake. To get there, head to Meyrod and cross the newly rebuilt bridge.

This is the best world map theme yet. There's a number of places we can explore early, but I went to the town. The music here is something that even the characters can hear, but they say it's terrible. I actually kinda dig it, but I suspect it'll get annoying soon. The locals tell us they can usually hear the music of the earth and wind in their city, but something is causing it to sound like a headache. It's killing the melody that a city full of singers want to hear. But with the Vile Tribe seeking vocalists, this might a blessing. Regardless, the Chief asks us to fix everything, both for them and so they can summon the Blue Dragon in the lake.

We have to walk through a cave will a lot of pitfalls. Once you realize where the sinkholes are, you can avoid them. However, at the bottom of them are usually treasure. You'll also have to fall through one to reach the end. Once again, mobs are palette swaps. In the back are two rocks and four holes from which the sounds are coming from. We'll have to push the rocks into the wall on the left. Our characters say the music changes, but I can't hear any difference. Return to the Chief, and you don't need to use a wing this time. The Chief will thank us and let us enter the Blue Dragon Tower. To reach it, we'll need to go to the lake to the north (from the village) and have two lovers sing a song together. First up is Jessica and Kyle because they're actually a couple. Kyle sings so out of tune that it doesn't work. Nash has the hots for Mia, so that's couple enough. Neither of them believes in their vocal prowess, so they, too, fail. With no option, everyone suggests Alex use his ocarina. It might reach Luna, and their combined powers will summon the tower!

Alex beings to play, and we cut to Luna, Lily, and the three unnamed singers in a cage. Luna begins to sing her song, and the others join her. The Vile Tribe teleport in, and each comment about the power. Ghaleon enters and merely thinks that this is a herald to his world domination plan. But it works, and the tower rises from out of the lake. And we'll explore that...

...tomorrow!

Who is Laika, and why does he know everything? And why is he being cagey? Also, don't read the books in the Vane library. They're totally going to spoil one of my foreseen plot twists...

...that's what the soap is for...?

Alex and Nall teleport to Meriba, and it's under attack?!

Jessica is taking care of a few new mobs: stronger gargoyles and some tanky knights. We aid her, and the three of us try to figure out what happened. We let her in that Ghaleon betrayed us and enslaved Quark, and then she thinks all these monsters are a distraction. What the Vile Tribe really wants is Mel. We can explore Black Rose, but it was monster infested, so I didn't. Those knights, dude, are tough without magic. So I went straight to Mel's Mansion. A guard tells us he's fighting in the training arena, and the path there is clear. When we get there, we see Mel talking to one of the scantly clad women. He's talking to the one who pretended to be Lamia, Xenobia. She's started that we're here but then just tries to kill us. She shoots a black ball of magic at Jessica, but Mel steps in front of it. It doesn't kill him, but the final hero is turned to stone. Xenobia and her monster crew laugh at us and teleport away.

Jessica tries to undo the curse but is unable. She states we'll need to kill the one who cast this curse to break it. She begins to cry but musters her father's courage and composes herself. With the same confidence we mustered when Luna was taken, she'll join the party. A few NPCs think Vane might be a target, so teleport there. It is under attack, but Mia and Nash are taking care of it... sorta. There's a boss in the middle of town, and no one wants to help two kids. Alex and Jessica show up, and the four of them take it down.

I don't remember the name of this guy, but he's your standard boss affair. He's got a lot of HP but no killing power if you heal every few turns. Blade Storm away and use Mia's Fire Circle. Try not to have your characters lined up because the boss' strongest move is an eye beam. if you need to, select defend, and you can guide your character around the map a bit. That's something fun I learned tonight. We'll all head to the Grand Hall and let Lemia in on the news. Her mind is still warped, so she has no magic powers anymore. After a bit of back and forth with Mia, Nash, and Lamia, the kids will join the team. Mia's prepared to overcome her shy demeanor to save the world, and Nash has the hots for her. He also blames himself for working as Ghaleon's informant for so long, looking for singers the whole time. Lamia gives us a clue to the next dragon: to the south of Narna is a volcano that might be our next destination. But to get there, we may need to run into Kyle.

Warp to Narna, and we'll see Xenobia trying to kidnap another singer. Hmm... The singer in question is tall, dark, and covered in makeup. She also has a very deep voice and great boobs. After the gargoyles surround our poor songstress, she snaps and removes her outfit. It was Kyle all along for reasons that he never explained. He effortlessly defeats the assailants, and Xenobio promises her revenge before teleporting away. Kyle and Jessica have a fun little lover's spat, which is a scene we're gonna hear a lot going forward... Eventually, he joins the team, and all five slots on our menu are taken up. But there's no room for Luna? Head south past the same mobs we've fought, and we'll enter another new world map. I kinda did this theme the best.

We can go to a number of places but stop by Reza. We've heard from a few NPCs that Rexa is home to thieves everywhere. As we enter, wouldn't you know it, Nall gets mugged. The thief stole our Dragon Wings, so we can't warp anymore. We chance the guy to a bar and see Laika, but he doesn't do much. Speak to the bartender, and, after Kyle sways him, will give us a clue as to how to get our Wings back. We need to head to Meryod and find the Thieves Guild's liaison. We'll have to walk through an annoying forest, but we'll get there eventually. As we enter, Kyle warns us that this town is filled with inbred hicks. He's right, and everyone speaks with a very southern/Appalachian Mountains drawl. And they all have the same name and talk about being a happy family. What a strange thing to add to a game. Anyway, upgrade your gear and cross the rickety bridge. The guy we need to find is in the bar, but talking to him does nothing. The rotten bridge will collapse, and we'll all end up in the straight. Jessica goes down first, and Kyle goes after her. Everyone else suffers from more poorly designed woodwork.

Alex is fine, and Nall catches up to him, so we have to find the rest of our team. We can see Mia being hit on by a local, so we need to save her. Inside a nearby house is Jessica, crying over Kyle's body. She comments that he's an idiot. Kyle can't swim, but she's "better than a fish.". Her tears cause Kyle to get up and start looking for the person who's making his love weep. An oddly touching scene plays out that shows they both love each other even if they suck at showing it. Nash is in the bar, so head there. He's found the guy we already found and is trying to get the thing we need to join the guild. But the liaison isn't giving it up because we misunderstood the rules. We need to make him say, "I give up." Kyle does his thing, and the two start a drinking contest. Kyle wins with ease, and we get our next mission. The actual way to join the guild is to climb Damon's Spire and get a treasure!

So it's back through the forest, but something is waiting for us at the end. The statue of Mel is there, and he beacons us to come closer. As we do, a black mist forms around us, and Kyle pushes Jessica out of it. It turns everyone but her into stone. Jessica tries to dispel it again to no avail. From the statue comes Royce. As the Vile Clan member attempts to kill Jessica, Kyle breaks free of his stone prison. The love he feels for Jessica is stronger than any curse. The two of them then have a duel, which Kyle wins with ease. Power Slash does 300 HP, so spam that. He wins, and Royce has to teleport off, which breaks the curse on everyone else. With renewed vigor, we return to getting our wings back. But Kyle breaking free strats to turn the cogs in Jessica's head...

I did a scene that I think I regret. Off to the side of the forest entrance is a Shrine to Althena. We can bathe in the hot springs, but it's only the guys. All of them get all soapy and misty together, but was there a reason someone drew Nash, a 17-year-old's, exposed butt? Big creeper vibes, man.

Damon's Tower is just south of that, and I think I hate it. There are six floors, four of which have mobs on them, and they aren't worth the reward. There are no restoration areas along the route, so MP is at a premium. To get to each floor, we need to open walls by stepping on red switches. There will be a lot of backtracking down here and remember, mobs don't respawn... At the stairs up, we'll need to answer a question correctly. I don't know if you can fail these.
The first question is about the history of the world. Nash offers to answer it, but Mia has the correct response.
The second question is about the ability to control strength. Kyle thinks he can answer by ramming into the wall, so Nash responds, "skill."
The third question is to cycle through all of your teammates. No one is the weak link.
And Finally, we all have to work together to make something out of clay.
Kyle makes a crowbar, Jessica makes a necklace her mom gave her, Mia makes a monster she thinks is cute, Nash makes Vane (but he really wanted to make Mia), but all of those are wrong. Alex, via Nall, has to command the group. Nall has everyone make "Luna," but everyone thinks it's Althena. This grants us access to Damon's Library at the top of the Spire. He hands a book with something stupid written on it and suggests we read everything in here one day. Daman is the keeper of knowledge, so it might be helpful. But we need to get our wings back, talk to a dragon, and save Luna first. I used my Warp Wing to get out of this place and went back to Rusa.

Turn the book in to the barkeeper, and he'll let us go into the bazaar. We can show our new emblem to the guy at the counter, and Kyle will get our wings back. As we leave, we'll hear Xenovia talking to a girl named Lila. Lila is a singer known throughout the entire region despite only being a little girl. We bust into her room to stop the kidnapping, but we fail. Lila's grand/dad comes in and demands that we help save her. He asks us to follow him, and we learn that the only way to get to the Red Dragon Cave is if we can fly. There's a guy at the bazaar who hands us Balloon Blueprints, which we can take to an inventor in the city of Iluk. But we'll need to do that...

...tomorrow!

Lila gets sexualized before we meet her, so it's really creepy. Between that and the Nash's ass scene, I'm kinda creeped out. Despite that, I (and the party as a whole) are wondering why the Vile Tribe keeps kidnapping singers. You'd think Luna would be the one? Also, I've read Kyle can open the red treasure chests, so guess what I'm going to do!

The Plot Begins

The Village of Lann is on the otherside of the bandits' pass. The citizenry inform us that the Dragonmaster has taken residence on a swamp filled island in the middle of the bay. It sounds like an ignoble place to live but stay with me. The people keep telling us that he's outlawed fishing, and, if anyone approaches the island, he shoots them with a fireball. Definitely noble...

Head to the elder's house, and we'll see a meeting. The locals are mixed on what to do, but there's a woman in white ready to lead the charge against the Dragonmaster. She introduces herself as Jessica, a healer from the Shrine of Althena. She's a very energetic girl. She joins the team, and we go procure passage to the island. There's a boatman who's afraid to let us have his livelihood, but Jessica manages to convince him.

It's raining when we reach the swamp, and it's filled with various new palette swaps. Monster variety in Lunar is really bad. Watch out for the dark areas of the map as that can harm you. It seems to be 1HP a second, so it's not too bad. There are several treasures that give you a strange effect. They can confuse you on the map, but you're just fine in combat. All it does is reverse your controls. It's strange, but I kinda dig it. After two screens, we'll reach a simple tent and a man calling himself Dragonmaster. He sincerely thinks he's got the legendary title, but Nall asks him an easy question to confirm it. "What are the colors of the legendary dragons?" DM, whose name I didn't bother to remember, starts strong but goes off in crazy colors at the end. He quickly summons his frog, which according to Chrono Cross, is a perfectly fine dragon.

This isn't a hard fight. All the Dragonmaster has is physical attacks, and we have two healers. Nash should use Bolt, and Alex should use Bladestorm. DM will usually use his basic attack command, which can hit up to three times for a combined 60 damage. He usually hits multiple characters, though. Otherwise, he can perform a Splash attack, which hits an AoE radius. He lacks killing power with one healer, let alone two. After the battle, he'll be alive and tell us why he's done it. He just wanted to be superior to the people in the small town. That's pretty much it. He learned magic and found a giant frog that let itself be commanded, and the rest is history. He runs off with the promise that he'll turn his life around.

Return to Lann, and we'll see that Phacia has come seeking the fabled Dragonmaster as well. She congratulates us on our job and returns to the Shine. Jessica asks who that is, and we tell her she's her boss. Jessica has no idea who this is, so she's going to do some digging. Se bids us farewell, wishes her drunk boyfriend could be more like us, and goes looking for who Phacia is. Despite us going the same way, we have to return to Vale. Before we leave, we learn the singer, who was near the Goddess Statue, has been kidnapped.
 
When we get to Vale, we have to follow Nash, who's prepared our meeting with Ghaleon. Nash has filled him in, but he's left out the part with Jessica. They didn't get along, so the arrogant mage pretended she didn't exist. Ghaleon thanks us but wants us to reiterate it to Lemia, as well. He goes to set up that meeting with Nash. Nash tells us not to see Mia, but we totally ignore him because he sucks. Mia prepares tea for us, and we fill her in on what happened. She's thrilled to hear such tails from her peers but then gets sad. We're all about the same age, but she's experienced very little of her life. Nash rushes in to let us know the meeting in the Grand Hall is ready. We finally met the last of the living four heros, but it's a rather abrupt ending. After we inform her of what we did, Lamia's tone changes. She accuses us of trying to overthrow the Mage Guild and puts us in prison. Luna is taken away, but Nall and Mia can get away. Mia later comes down to free us from our prison, and a strange woman takes our attention. She's muttering about some stuff because a Memory Wipe Cap has been placed on her head. The strange prisoner is wearing the same robes as Lamia and even has the same hairstyle and color... Mia's brought a Goddess' Mirror, which she plans to use. Mia believes something is possessing her mother.

Anyway, the four of us wonder where Luna could be. The only possible location is the Star Chamber. Lamia, Ghaleon, Phacia, and the fortune teller, Royce, all went there to do something with Luna. The door to the Star Chamber is near the prison, so Mia breaks the seal. She wouldn't normally do such things, but hearing us has given her the push she's needed to be a force of change. As we try to climb, we're stopped by a strange force and teleported outside. Mia forgot to mention that this is a place for mages only, and physical weapons can't be brought in. We'll have to unequip all of our weapons if we wish to proceed. The tower starts off being mostly straightforward, but it ends up splitting into three paths. The left one takes us nowhere, while the right one takes us to treasure, and the middle portion is to the top. Despite not having weapons, Mia and Nash can use magic, and Alex can still use his Firestrike. Mobs are pretty easy to AoE, so make use of the full restore on level up.

When we reach the top, Luna is singing Lamia, Ghaleon, Phacia, and Royce a song, and they're asking if "she's the one." We bust in to break it up, and Lamia and Mia have a chat about family. Mia's being scolded, and the woman we found in the prison starts to act. Mia uses the Mirror, but nothing happens. Suddenly, the prisoner steps forward, and the Mask she had on breaks to reveal that she's also Lamia! Gee, who could have seen this coming. Despite us being small and worthless, all the women in the room give up the charade. They transform into scantly clad members of the Vile Tribe, a group of people banished by Althena long ago. They tell us they'll get their revenge and teleport away. As a gift, they leave four gargoyles behind.

I think this is a boss fight? The gargoyles don't do any damage, so do what you will. I was still unarmed and low on MP, but there's no threat. Even Luna and Mia took 0 HP from their attacks. Re all return to Grand Hall to prepare for what's next. Firstly, Galeon apologizes for being so easy to manipulate. He then says we need more information, and the best place to start is to ask the dragons. We only know where Quark is, so we'll start there. Lamia is still loopy from the Mask, so Mia will have to be acting Guild Master in her steed, and Nash stays behind to assist. Everyone else will travel back to Burg.

We spend the night at Mel's and meet with Jessica. She acts like we've never met because she doesn't want her dad to know she's an adventurer. He sees so much of her mother in her, and Jessica doesn't want to break Mel's heart by acting more like him. But it turns out Phacia put a spell on everyone to get the head priestess job, but Jess skipped that day. We stay in her room that night, Luna has the same nightmare she's had before, and we set out to Burg. While on the boat, Galeon asks Alex why he's becoming a Dragonmaster. Alex says he wants to protect everyone. In response, Galeon asks if he'd be willing to sacrifice the one he loves the most to save everyone. Alex can't answer that, and Galeon says he understands. Alex isn't DM yet, so he doesn't need to have an answer. But it's something he should think about.

Saith is as it is, and we have to walk through the Ghido Forest. I tried to go to the cave, but Nall wanted to check in on Burg. We saw our parents and had a nice gathering at the spring. Alex and Luna simply reminisced, but Galeon said something comparing himself to Eifel, the masked man from the start of the game. If you go to Dyne's Alter, he gives us an idea that the two of them didn't get along...

White Dragon Cave is also the same as it's been. We walk to Quark, and he and the Hero talk for a brief moment. It's brief because Galeon immediately attacks him. Galeon reveals himself to be the Magic Emperor and traps Quark in some magic field before absorbing the dragon's power. Next, he kidnaps Luna because "she's the one the Goddess gave her power to." He tries to kill Alex and Nall, and the screen goes black.

We wake up in our bed at home. Our dad informs us that the man who "saved" us in the forest also saved us here. Laika is waiting for us near Dyne's Monument. Our savior is cagey, but he hands us something called Dragon's Wings. He asks us what we're gonna do, and I respond, "save Luna." He's glad, as is Nall. Nall was always going to try to save his friend, so Alex is happy he won't have to save both of them. Laika sets off to whatever he was doing, and I test out the Dragon Wings. They're a teleportation device that lets us return to any place we've already been! Fast travel this early is rad! But I assume we're heading back to the Mage Guild, which I'll do...

...tomorrow!

Who is Laika? What's the deal with Galeon? Why didn't we take off the cap from the real Lemia? Some of those questions are good, but mental gymnastics for stupid things are stupid.

Peace be with you, Ramus.

We're chasing the current jeweler, Dross. We have to fight our way through a sewer system that's oddly hard to do. The monsters down here can hit hard and fast and tend to group up a lot. Ramus' lack of stat growth is finally catching up to him as he's gonna spend a lot of time unconscious. But because they group up, they become easy fodder to Firestrike, Alex's AoE skill. If you run low on MP, and you will, keep in mind that floating light bulbs will take a full party a round to kill. The fish are pretty weak, though, and the hermit crabs are tankier than anything. To get through, you're gonna need to find several switches to drop a corresponding bridge. There're several offshoots down here, most of which lead to treasure. The path to reach our prey is the south (east) most one. There are two other treasures that we can't get to yet, one of which is a red chest, but those are accessed from elsewhere in the town.

We come to a dead end and see Dross. He remains unrepentant and even calls for his pet. Rather than a dog or something, it's actually a sea serpent. Not a real dragon, more of a snake, I guess. But this guy is pretty tough. Water Serpent can't walk on land, so he spends all his time in the water. This means that only range and special skills can reach him. I had Ramus using a bow at this point because that knife was not helping, so he could still do damage. As could Luna, but she had to be on healing duty the entire fight. Fortunately, he does get close enough for Alex to strike at. But WS's attacks are all deadly and can wipe out anyone with two hits. His basic blows do 50 damage, and he has an AoE fire move that hits everyone. Hopefully, Luna can stay back, and Ramus and Alex can stay at opposite sides on the y axis. I had to use two Zephyr Blades and the first Goddess' Blessings to win, but we managed to do so. He nearly got us, and it's fights like this that keep me from using Ultimate Attacks until bosses.

But Dross is still alive. However, he's not feeling as cocky as he was. He tries to bribe his way out by giving us 500 Silver, which Ramus takes. Ramus keeps the heat on him by letting him know he's taking over his business. But, to prove he's not a terrible boss, Ramus offers to keep him on the staff if he turns his life around. Oddly, Dross accepts. Ramus lets us know he'll probably fire him after he's learned everything Dross knows...

We return to Ramus' new shop to see Nash is waiting for us. He tells us he's gotten us an in at the Mage Guild and a way to speak to Ghaleon or Lemia. But the game gives us another fake option to turn him down and continue on with our dragon seeking quest. No matter how long we tell him no, we're gonna have to accept. Lame... And with that, Ramus informs us that his journey is over. He has a business to run and turn around now, and he doesn't think he has much more stamina in him for this. Nall is sorry to see him go, and I am too a bit. He wasn't good, but he's served as an admirable tank. Monsters really seemed to hate him. Nash joins the team, and we can finally leave Meriba.

We can go to the mountain path, but we can't get far. We can also go to Althena's Shrine but don't do that just yet. Head to the Spring. When we get there, a man will inform us that this teleporter is how we reach the floating city of Vane. But to get there, we need permission. There's someone calling themselves the Magic Emperor, and Lemia has declared that all new recruits must seek an application from the Head Priestess of the Shrine to enter. See why I said to skip that?

The woman in charge is named Phacia. She has long, grey hair and speaks in a rather monotone way. She gives us the app, and then we learn a little more about Althena. She's really into singing, so Luna is pretty excited. Both she and Phacia want to hear each other sing, so plans are made for that. Return to the Spring, and we're allowed to pass. But first, we need to go through an initiation. The Cave of Trials lies before us, and it comes with a gimmick. We can't use items. And guess who forgot to heal up!? The good news is there are two wizards throughout the trail who can heal us. We also get a full heal when we level up, so that's rad of you, Lunar. The monsters can be a bit tough, but mostly the palette swapped monkey. There's a secret passage near a man in green for the treasure, by the way. Near to it is a Mightehenna Pokemon. I point it out because you can get over 1000 Silver from those fights. After you finish the cave, you can come back here to grind on them if you need money. At the end is a boss.

Trouble Truffler (in the PS1 version) is a giant mushroom. Its only attack is Mad Spark, an attack with a large AoE. In hindsight, I should have had Alex rush up to keep him away from Luna, but oh well. Buf Alex a few times and go all out with Sword Dance. I do about 300 damage, which is better than his Firestrike. Because Mad Spark his everyone, Luna had to use her heal all spell the whole. It's a similar battle to the Water Serpent, but a lot easier. After you win, make sure to get the Healing Ring from the left path before heading to Vain!

As we enter the college, Nash will be waiting for us. There was also a woman who rushed by us, but nothing came from it tonight. Nash offers to give us a tour until Ghaleon can see us. Luna is feeling tired, so she goes to rest in the courtyard. While there, she hears a lute being played with the same melody as Alex usually plays on his ocarina. Playing it is a handsome elf with silver hair. He knows this song was thirteen by Dyna long ago, and Luna starts to feel weak. Oh no...
Meanwhile, Alex walks around on his own. While doing so, we discover that Lamis has a daughter, Mia, and all the boys have a crush on her. She's to be the next headmaster and is beautiful. Also, Lamis might have gone insane... We can meet up with our fortune teller, Royce, here, so I'm slightly less suspicious, even if she really wants to tell us our fortune. On the left side of the first room are two guards who suck at their job. They're guarding Mia, and they let us right through. While there, we see her crying, but she quickly recomposes herself. She and Alex have a friendly chat until Nash rushes in and simps over her. He apologizes and drags us away. Our meeting with Ghaleon is ready.

We enter his room, and he's the same guy who serenaded Luna earlier. We talk about becoming a Dragonmaster, and he tells us he has a favor to ask of us. There's a man who claims to be a Dragonmaster in the region of Lann. He wants us to check it out and report if he's the real deal or a fake. He also suggests we stay here to study magic, but I want to find dragons. It turns out myself and a seventeen-year-old boy have a lot in common.

The mountain path is now crossable. There are two chests that are trapped, and they're very deadly. Gas will come from it, and it'll summon six dragonflies. The gas makes us confused, and our characters act irrationally, even for an RPG. They kept wanting to run away for me, which is a blessing a curse. Nothing good comes from them, so do what you will. After the climb, we'll come to a "bandit" hideout of Nanza. We couldn't pass before because it's off limits, but we have official permission. But we can't leave because we need the bandits' bosses' approval. We now have to go on a hunt for him that's kinda dumb. We can find him twice before we're supposed to, but it doesn't do anything. We have to talk to various people and follow the clues. The "north" tower, "east" tower, kitchen, his bedroom, and the jail. He's tossed as all get out, but the jail guard tells us we can pass. The whole time, Kyla is yelling at "Jessica," who we suspect is the daughter of Mel. Kyle is on the PSP start screen, so we'll see him later. But, we'll do that...

...tomorrow!

Maybe, I dunno. Typing is hard without a pinky finger, so I'll end this now.