Why was Vahn?

I've been here ALL month. Rather than linger on Legend of Legaia any longer, let's get down to brass tax.


What does the OG LoL do that sucks?

Let's start with the story. It gets confusing and weird. Unless I missed something, there are also a number of plot holes. Do sim-seru function without the Great Genesis Tree? I also never found the reason why everyone thought the mist was holy. I assume it's because of Rogue, but what was his endgame in this? If there's nothing there, what are you ruling over?

The gameplay was fine, but it gets pretty boring once you've "unlocked" all the arts. Spam the same buttons repeatedly until your opponent dies. And in random battles, there's no difference between this and traditional turn based games. And don't get me started on how useless magic is.


Those may be the only deeply flawed issues I have with the game, but those are some of the most vital parts. Perhaps the good can outweigh the bad!

Noa quickly became one of my favorite all time characters. Her bubbly personality and infectious optimism with adorable ignorance towards common things drew me to her. I don't see myself in her, but she's just so fun!

The charm! By god, the charm! All the fun little things I want to see in RPGs are here. End game stats are the greatest. More importantly, gear actuality changes appearance when equipped. This was practically unheard of in 1998, but it never really caught on despite everyone everywhere loving it. Not even Final Fantasy stole this idea, but some "nameless" company did it! Shout out to Prokion! Nine-year-old me would have loved this game for that inclusion alone.


But that's kinda it. Everything else is middling, although far from terrible. Time for the numbers!

Plot: mixed bag. I've only known Noa for thirty eight hours, but if anything happens to her, I will kill everyone in this room and then myself! I don't care for her brother, though. 7/10

Gameplay: too long. Tedium sets in about twenty five hours in. Bosses become punch sponges, and new gear costs way too much. But the dungeons are short and fun. Shame magic is useless... 6/10

Sound: hookless. I enjoyed the variety of tracks we hear, but it's missing those earworms I need. 8/10

Visuals: lenient. I probably could dock the game for its use of pallet swaps, but there are enough enemies for me to say, "Look! The gear changes!" Flashy magic spells, unique locations, and quality are within. 10/10

Charm: love it. Legaia has memorable NPCs, a decent world, exploration, and just enough cute little things to make me see the game's got It. Lingers a but, though, and gameplay tedium creates more flaws... 7/10

Add those numbers up and deduct the cost of gear aggravation (-2) and the questionable translation, which creates some... odd moments of text (-1), and Legend of Legaia is a solid 35/50. A good seventy percent fits well. I enjoyed my time in Legaia, but I don't know if I could recommend it. The fighting game aspects are only novel for so long, and the weirdness with translation ("silence") keeps it in the cult classic realm. I didn't mention this anywhere else, but there are four different endings, all made at a choice after the final boss. That's always a plus!

Into the beast

Cheating is punished inside the Juggernaut, so save state often, including as you kill the final boss. Or be a real manly man man, and don't cheat!

The Bio Castle looks like it's inside the guts of Juggernaut. It is, so this is a wonderful representation. We'll travel across muscle, blood, sinew, and intestinal villani to reach Brother Cort. Each section has its own little thing that makes it different from anywhere else we've been. Treading water in a river of blood, lots of jumping, and a dumb pressure puzzle at the end are all within. Along the way, we'll get one final chance to collect all the seru we've encountered during the game. We can also find the ultimate equipment for all of our characters. They're sitting in chests, so it's rather anticlimactic.

The only story scenes are about halfway down. A save point lies before it. Inside the room are the villagers of Rim Elm. They're being sucked into Juggernaut just as Conkram was. They're still cognizant, and a few yell at Vahn for being wrong. Maya and Mie get a zoomed in scene, and they promise to remain strong. Dad and Nene don't, but trust us to save them.

The party finds their way to a tunnel. They stop, and Noa feels a breeze from behind her. Suddenly, a river flow charges and pushes them into a bottomless pit. Gala catches a ledge with Vahn and Noa holding on to him, but Gala's hand slips, and they all fall down. They land on a muscle tendon of Juggernaut, and Noa is the first to get up. She senses an energy she's felt before. Floating above them, in what appears to be Jug's heart, is the still living Cort. Noa tries to convince Cort to return to being a human, She's learned what love is, so many that'll reach him. It doesn't. Cort's in his full blown god complex phase. He wants to wipe out the human race, and now we have to stop him.

Obviously, I cheated for this battle, but I don't know if I needed to. Cort seemed really weak. His combo did less than 2000 damage, and his AoE attack is telegraphed. I summoned our ra-seru, which you get from leveling them up to the max level, for a combined ~13000 damage. A few Points Cards and Miracle Arts later and Ol' Corty kicked the bucket.

Our ra-seru informs us that we succeed just in time. Hari's life persevering powers of the Great Genesis Tree have run out. The seru time is up. They unequip themselves from us and float overhead, and we get one final word to our friends. Noa starts to panic and begs Terra to stay. She doesn't want to be alone. Terra reminds her that Noa has Vahn and Gala now. Gala, despite the contention, doesn't want Ozma to leave either. The ra-seru scolds him for relying on outside power and forgetting his basics. Vahn is still silent... Meta, Terra, and Ozma say one more farewell to the humans and wish them well. The seru will soon be gone, and the age of man will begin again anew. But they have enough power for one more thing...

We see a final CGI scene where the remains of Juggernaut are turned to stone. We see Rim Elm villagers are also petrified and dead in the remains, but three lights light up the area. The rock chips on Mei begin to break off...

A month later, and Vahn, Papa Val, and Nene are at the Rim Elm Genesis Tree. The final power of our ra-seru revived the villagers and granted them stronger, more resilient bodies immune to wear, tear, and illness. Dr. Usha wanders in and is upset that Vahn's about to go on a journey. He should aid in rebuilding his home, but he's gonna nope out... Usha wants to write a book about saving the world, but he'll settle for interviews with the family. Usha asks Vahn why he's going on the journey, and we get four choices. These actually mean something and change the final ending of the game. I replied that I wanted to see the mist free world!
After this, I spoke to Maya and Mei. Mei wanted to come on the journey, and I let her. It'll be a nice date.
We can speak to many friends who've come to visit the heros, including the Disco King, who taught Noa how to dance, Tetsu, and Lucres.
Luctes brought Usha here and told us the Soren will become earthbound. Their seru will soon be gone, so they might as well learn from Grantes!
The save point is also broken because it's tied to Tieg.
The elder tells us that Noa left and took a random baby with her. He believes that child is the reborn Cort, who she wants to raise. She suspects everyone will hate him because he tried to destroy the world, so she took him to safety.
Pepe and his dad are also here as a pit stop on their travels.
As Vahn and Mie prepare to leave Rim Elm through the wooded fence, the entire village wishes them luck, and the two begin their journey to Drake Castle!

The credits roll, and we see the final scenes for our friends. Noa is in Jeremi with baby Cort at the top of the tower.
Gala is teaching at the monastery, and it has new recruits.
Cara is at home, and Grantes returns with a fish. The fish is still alive. Cara is either shocked or excited.
Sol is a bustling tourist town.
The flying wagons of Octam still function... for now.
The Soren exist.
Usha's interns are still making bombs...poorly.
There were a few others, but they're whatever...
The final scene is a flower growing from the ground. I think I see the Absolute Fortress in the background, so I assume this is Conkram.

Advancing this takes us to a stats screen, which is hella rad. The game has tracked battles, escapes, time, highest combo, damage, KOs, kills, arts learned, magic gathered, and treasure found. I got 88.4 percent!

And with that, we're returned to the main menu.

The End.

No happy endings.

We return to Conkram, but there's something missing. Like, everything. The clamshell that we saw on the world map is closed. The party climbs it, and Noa calls out to her parents, hoping desperately for any response. The area is barren, devoid of anything. Gala assumes that the city became such a vital part of the sim-seru that it vanished as its parasite did when the mist disappeared. He believes that the King and Queen knew this would happen. Noa gets mad at Terra because Terra should have known this would happen. Noa wanted to know it. Out of anger, confusion, and a realization that this journey brings nothing for her, she tells Terra she hates her. Noa breaks down and starts crying, and everything jumps ahead a few days. We've returned to Rim Elm.

Nene has to wake up Vahn, who's enjoying his retirement from saving the world. I can relate. Our friends are waiting for us, so let's go for a walk around Rim Elm. Everyone is glad to see us. We can also have a final match against our master. He's faster than me and whooped my ass, so maybe he should have saved the world?

Poor Noa is living with the elder. She's despondent and looking out the window. The loss of her family caused her to have an outburst against Terra, and even she's not talking to Noa anymore. The girl has never been more alone and hopeless. Sadly, Vahn is a silent protagonist and sucks.
Maya leaves her house and encourages us to talk to Mei. She's becoming a high class tailor and enjoying life. She's changed, as has Vahn, apparently. Out of character, Vahn moves in and kisses Mei. She turns red as Maya comes back. Vahn has to go talk to Gala at the Genesis Tree...

I don't remember what they talk about because they're interrupted by a kid telling them someone's asking for them. We can guess it's Usha, but the kid said his name is Songi.

Noa beat us there, as has our master and a few other townsfolk. I try to assume Songi has changed, but Vahn's quickly proven wrong. Songi starts talking about ruling the world and destroying Rim Elm. Tetsu tries to defend us but is quickly stopped with a single blow. Songi says he pulled his punches. I don't know why because he summons Juggernaut! He's fused with Cort, and Songi is going to use him to take over Legaia. But not just our world but Seru-kai as well.

Juggernaut does something and turns Rim Elm into a similar location as Conkram. Songi seals something to prevent us from stopping him and leaves. If we truly want to save the world, we need to travel to Seru-kai and get him there.

Eru Mai is our gateway. After the party prays to Tieg, an interdimensional hole opens up. As we go through it, Terra encourages everyone and wishes them well. The rest of the seru tell us more about the ra-seru. They're supposed to be fail safes in case Rouge got freed. They're supposed to do what they're doing and help mankind save the two worlds. So it's all going according to plan!

Everyone arrives in a world with floating blue hexagons around. It's a short walk filled with seru you probably already have, and there's a giant Genesis Tree at the end. The Great Genesis Tree is trapped in a special type of sim-seru, and Songi is draining the tree's power. After he compares himself to us, saying we're all being manipulated by the ra-seru, which he has, and reminds us he's the perfect being and best to become god, a fight starts.

This sucked. Songi's attacks do between 1500 and 3000 damage, and there's no way to know who or when he'll strike. I died and realized I'm kinda over Legend of Legaia. I cheated and gave myself a permanent max HP code. Sorry.

We beat the ra-seru that was inside Songi, and his body starts to convulse. Humans aren't capable of being in this realm, so he's being torn apart now that his seru is gone. He curses us and dies. But he fatally damaged the GGT. All the seru will soon die, and we will follow along with them. Suddenly, three lights appear overhead. It's Hari! They're the words of Tieg and, therefore, immortal. They appear and grant the tree more power at the cost of their souls, allowing us to empower it more. But it's only for a short time. We'll need to defeat Cort again to save our world before the tree dies. Time is running out.

We're warped back to Legaia and find ourselves on Mt. Rikuru, where we met Noa. The Rim Elm tree is dead, so this is the closest. From here, we can explore the world one more time. Our friends are boring, but we still should travel to three (two) places. Our ra-seru has one more level to gain. Terra's level is the tree on Rikuru, and Ozma is his tree in Voz. Vahn has to seek the tree in Sol. Hari will give us even more last of his power. And with that, I'm ready to finish this!

We walk back to Rim Elm, and Vahn needs a second to stabilize himself. Gala reminds him of all the miracles they've done throughout the journey, so what's one more. Noa seems less enthusiastic, seeing as her hometown looked a lot like this, so there's no guarantee the villagers will be alive on the otherside. The ra-seru unseal the magic block over Juggernaut's mouth and climb into the final dungeon. And I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

Why did Songi help us? Are sim-seru not reliant on the Great Genesis Tree? Let's see how this ends!

We did it, everyone!

Jette's Absolute Fortress is the longest dungeon yet. It's several screens long, splattering through caves and high tech hallways. All the mobs are seru monsters you can learn (if you haven't already). I didn't stick around to get the ones I skipped. The second screen has us coming face to face with our longtime enemy. Juggernaut is sitting in a pool of mist. There's a pipe above him, showering him with more mist. But it's asleep. As we climb the caves behind it, Juggernaut will stir, but he remains sleeping. What dream does a monster have? The party eventually reaches a raised area with three levers on it. Turn the right one first and return to the floating platform just before it to get the treasure. I think it was a weapon for Noa. Triggering the left switch has us meeting the final Wiseman of Conkram.

Jette says the same things about the mist being holy and whatnot. He changes into his seru outfit, and a battle begins. Jette works the same as everyone else without a team attack warning. The only thing special about him is he can clone himself. The clone is sad and pathetic and dies easily while providing no threat. It's just annoying. Jette's combo attack is also stronger than his magic, so that's fun. As he dies, he sees our future. It's a desolate wasteland.

The team continues up the fortress until they reach the top. Jette's dead, so there's nothing standing in our way! The team starts to destroy the Mist Generator, but Noa suddenly gets a splitting headache. We (the player) see a man enter the room and call out to his little sister. Both Jette and this man remember meeting us ten years ago. This is Prince Cort. He says more stuff about the holy mist, and Noa yells at him, denouncing him as her brother. I'm sure you can figure out where this is going...

Cort starts the battle by putting a shield on himself that negates damage that isn't from an art. It breaks when he takes 25000 damage, half of his total HP. While that's up, he'll spam one of two moves: a team wide attack or a single target religious reference. The cross does more damage, but I prefer everyone getting hit. It's easier to plan around. The first time I fought him, Cort only attacked with the team wide spell. Why did I mention that? Because Cort has a stupid attack that practically one shots everyone, even at full HP. There's no warning, and I died. Dumb! I went back in and broke his shield. From there, I finished him off with the Points Card.

Cort is confused why he sucks and tells us his seru powers the Mist Generator. If one dies, the other will, too. So he falls into the pit and lands "in" Juggernaut's mist pool. The entire tower starts to shake as the machine breaks, landing on Juggernaut. This appears to kill the mighty sim-seru. But can we get out? Noa asks the aether why her brother would do such a thing, but there's no answer here. The team needs to escape and only has forty seconds. The wall behind us collapses, so I use a Door of Light to leave. Noa is confused because this is a random pipe and not the entrance. Gala says some things that don't matter because we're knocked into a pit by a wave of mist.

Cara wakes up Vahn. The party is outside the fortress, and the mist is gone. We saved the world!!! Cara is here because Grantes wanted to watch. He was given his wings back by his dad but plans to return them. Grantes wants to live as an earthbound person now and makes out with Cara. Noa watches from a too close a distance. Anyway, they leave, and we'll talk to Noa's parents...

...tomorrow!

Why was Cara there? What happens if we don't have a Door of Light? I wonder how long this epilogue is?

Why is Vahn the main character?

Noa 4444 lyfe!

The inn normally costs 10000 gold a night, but Conkram is in a frenzy, so we can sleep for free! It's an empty building when we wake up as the new weapon demonstration is about to begin.

There's a glass cylinder in the middle of town, and Zeta is the master of ceremonies for this reveal. He says this is the weapon that will defeat Sol by empowering a user's seru. A volunteer ventures into the cylinder, and the camera cuts to beneath the castle. Prince Cort and Jette, the Fourth Wisemen we haven't met, operate a computer. Jette turns on the machine, and mist begins to flow into the cylinder in the middle of town. It suddenly goes haywire, and too much mist is forced into it. The volunteer inside becomes a monster and breaks the glass, allowing the mist to envelop the town. A few citizens are killed while most flee into their homes. Gala tells us we're responsible for saving Conkram now and gets the team to run to the basement. A hole in the ground is before us, and it's an interdimensional gate between our world and Seru-Kai, the home to the seru. Specifically, a place called Rogue's Tower.

The party jumps in and sees a fragment of Rogue careening by us. Our ra-seru say things I don't quite understand because the plot is getting weird with proper nouns not being proper. Either way, we arrive at Rogue's Tower and need to reach the top. If we kill Rogue, the mist will stop. To get there, we need to navigate Sabrina's gym from Pokémon. Occasionally, the tower turns into a living organism, so don't teleport during that phase. It'll warp you to a dead end by default. The other thing we'll need to do is defeat "stronger" versions of the berserker and the winged lion. Killing them empowers the bigger teleport circle that lets us ascend to a higher floor. Our target, Rogue, is on level four.

Rogue only attacks every other turn, but it'll be a team wide move that deals 800 damage to a spirited character. When it's not doing that, it's changing elements. When it changes, Spoon yourself. I ended up circling through healers while my other two either charged or unleashed their Miracle Arts. At level thirty one, Gala gains his full stamina bar. Vahn did the least damage.

Rogue dies, and he's a load bearing boss. The tower collapses, but our ra-seru warp us out. The King is yelling at his underlings and son as we pop out of the hole. He demands everyone remain here to repent but asks us to come to the throne room after Gala tells him we saved the world. Nebular notices Cort is wearing a seru. Noa tried to reveal to her parents she's their daughter. The King rewards us with the Nemesis Gem. He calls it a waste and wishes he could give us something else, but Cort doesn't want us to have it anyway. But it doesn't matter. We can see the Queen on the roof, and Noa almost tells her who she is again. All Noa wants is recognition from her parents, but she understands. Minea gives her her ring, which increases the wearer's HP by 25 percent. Despite not knowing, they both comment that Noa is a good girl. We also see the symbol of Conkram, a clam on a pedestal, open up...
We return to our Conkram, and (the player) see a scene where Cort and Wisemen find the Rogue fragment that passed us on the way to the tower... The trapped Queen urges us to end the Mist Generator and says she loves Noa. The King states the same. We'll have to return to the world map and to the north to Jette's Absolute Fortress, where I hope the Gates of Hell are because we're using this Nemesis Gem and saving the world...

...tomorrow!

Vahn serves no purpose so far.

...it's a time travel story...

Tubular.

The Soren elder immediately gives us the go ahead to be taken to Zora's Floating Fortress. We only came here for the new gear...

Luctes and co. lift off from the base and take us to the Karisto Mist Generator. It's located deep inside the floating castle, a place where many Soren have been killed in failed counteroffensives, so Luctes drops us off on a connected ledge. We now have to walk the caves to reach the throne room. Along the way, nothing really happens. The only sort of gimmick is we need to beat up a slave and turn something off. I don't know what that switch connected to, though. Garra, the final wind seru, can be found here, and there are three dark seru, puera, as well. They have a roulette attack, so be careful. I didn't bother to try to learn them because I don't see a point. I'm never gonna use them, grind them, or care. They take 120 MP to summon anyway!

The party reaches the throne room, but it's empty. We (the player) witness a scene where the Soren have to hide (by flying into the air) because a blue creature has arrived. But we examine the door behind the throne because that's where the mist generator is. Sadly, it's locked. There's a choice to make, but neither matter. We'll have to leave the room, but as we do, the trap is sprung.

Zora walks in. Her loyalty to Prince Cort has led her to this day, and a battle begins. Zora is more annoying than anything. Her team wide attack deals 1100 damage, but her combo is kinda weak. Her worst move is her ability to spam petrification. I tried to use my usual strategy, but I got annoyed and just finished her off with the Points Card.

Songi becomes the center of attention next, as he's here to drop the truth. Zora is a pawn. Her entire existence, including this castle, is a trap for us. We were to be lured here and killed, one way or another. Songi then Galic Guns the door to the Mist Generator. As we enter the room, he informs us he's going to destroy the ra-seru inside the generator. An egg Grantes gave Zora is powering the machine, as all of them have. Our ra-seru knew this but said it's best that we kill them. The CGI scene of the machine being destroyed automatically runs as we enter the room. Songi is on his floating turtle and reiterates that the mist from here was fake. Zora is still alive and tries to retort, but Songi is closer to Cort than the "bossy" woman who claims to love him is. Out of spite, Songi finishes off Zora with another Galic Gun.

And with that done, Songi begins the trap again. He plans to make sure we die here as originally planned. The generator made fake mist, but it did power the castle. And with that gone, we're gonna crash into Legaia. We had six minutes, but I escaped in less than two. We reach the landing zone, but Lactes isn't here. Air friction causes the rock we're standing on to break apart, and the force of it causes Noa to fly off the edge. The Soren finally realize we're here and save us, just as the castle crashes into a bay north of Beru.

The Soren elder informs us the real Mist Generator is located in Conkram. We can finally go to Noa's hometown, and she's thrilled. Before we take off, Luctes apologizes for his rudeness when we first met. He then gives us a teleport stone because this is a one way trip. We can be dropped off, but we can't be picked up. The mist is thick, so we'll need to parachute down. Everything goes as planned.

Conkram is encased in a giant clam... and everything is moving. Noa tries to call out to her parents, but the horrifying body morph of the seru that is Conkram takes Gala's attention. This game suddenly became a horror story. The party hears a voice and finds it coming from a man being eaten by the seru. He calls for help, and that's all he can do. But our goal now is to find whatever we can.

We enter the castle, and Noa, for the first time all game, feels something other than sheer excitement. She's afraid, but Gala promises to protect her. We find our way to the clam pearl, and inside it is a person! Queen Minea, who can finally meet her daughter again. Her love for Noa has kept her sane during this ordeal. But she also knows who Vahn and Gala are, so whatever. Minea knows we're here and says the Mist Generator is in Jette's Absolute Fortress. The only way to read that is through a tunnel to her right, but we need a Nemesis Key to open the door. Sadly, none of those exist anymore. We'll need to go into the past. She tells us to find King Nebular and obtain the Seru Flame. The King is in the basement and in a similar predicament as his wife. Vahn picks up the flame and is told to light the torches in the Room of Mirrors, which is on the Queen's left. He does, and the party goes back in time. En route, Terra warns Noa not to interact with her parents or else she'll create chaos that the mist will thrive on.

Past Conkram is a happening place. We arrive before the mist and ten years into their war with Sol. Their new weapon will be unveiled tomorrow. We can look around the castle and town and pick up a lot of interesting things. Firstly, Noa has a brother. People talk about a Prince Cort, who helped design the new weapon. We also see Zeta, Dohati, and Zora, and they're advisors for the royal family. And their personal guards are the Daliles family. There's finally no new equipment, and it's the middle of the night. After talking to Dr. Usha, we realize we should probably rest at the inn. We'll witness this new seru enhancing weapon...

...tomorrow!

Things got interesting real fast.

What is Love?

My quarterback!

Grantes is still sitting at the bar because grounded birds are terrible people.

Grantes is more open to speaking with us, but he's still standoffish. Hand the piano player the sheet music Cara gave us, and she'll remark how simple it is. But it's still very good. A somber but still regal and somehow hopeful track plays, which Grantes recognizes instantly. It's the same song Cara played when she took his flute. He's more open to discussion but doubts Cara still loves him. Noa doesn't understand love yet, so Gala does it. Noa finds it fascinating! But Gala's words reach Grantees. He asks us to tell Cara something, but it's stupid because we meet both of them in Cara's house in Buma.

Noa shouts that she's here as she walks in on Cara and Grantes in a near moment of passion, embarrassing both the adults. As thanks for reuniting the two lovers, Grantes tells us the whole story. He was a Soren until he was cast out of his tribe for falling in love with Cara. They took his winged seru as punishment, and that's what he's been moping about since. But Cara's more import now. But his worst sin was falling for Zora's deceit. She promised him plenty if he gave her the seru eggs in Buma's Genesis Tree. But Zora betrayed him after her floating castle was built. Grantes gives us his flute, which we can use to call his people atop Mt. Dhini to the north. Cara also finally gives Noa her egg. We can hang around to discuss what love is, and Noa finally figured it out. Sorta. Cara calls her romantic love silly and envies what Noa has.

Mt. Dhini is at the top of Karisto, so enjoy the walk. The layout of it is reminiscent of Ratayu but without the hidden paths. It's really disappointing. There's a new earth seru, iota, and you can find an accessory that rewards you with fewer encounters. Vahn plays one note on the flute, and four Soren descend from above. We're too high of altitude for the mist to be here, so they're safe. The Soren get mad that we're not Soren, but Gala insinuates they're allies of the mist. The leader, Luctes, refutes that, and Gala informs them we're here to save the world. We need their help to reach the Floating Castle, and the Soren have a discussion. It ends because they need to talk to their elder. The three nameless boys pick up our party and take us to Soren Base. We have to speak to their elder...

...tomorrow!

Grantes is Luctes' brother, and they're both the children of the elder. Scandalous!

Boss rush.

I have a lot to type and not time to do out in!

The "skyline" of Uru Mais is dominated by a smooth black Central American pyramid. We enter the field, and Gala points out there is no mist. Noa sees a house and thinks we can dream in there. They can't, but there is a notebook warning about hearing voices at night. I didn't know what it meant, so I climbed up the pyramid.

There were three pegs that came together at the top. A voice spoke to the party, and we activated three doors on the side of the pyramid. I went to the back first for some reason, and it brought us to a cave. Gala suddenly fell into a fugue state and walked forward as though possessed. Terra tells Vahn and Noa to leave him; he's about to dream.

We witness the moment his feud with Songi began. Songi was jealous that Gala was better than him. During a training ceremony two years ago, Songi sabotaged the battle. He obtained some drugs from a woman in Biran and gave them to Gala. Songi told Gala it was a Fury Elixir, which he had already taken. Guilt racked him, causing our rival to ask Gala to take one to even it up. It was not Fury but the drugs. They kicked in, and Gala was as good as "dead." After Songi won, he found out Gala knew what it was the whole time, which just upset Songi more. The voice told Gala that what he did was right, and that he shouldn't beat himself up for it. "Humans create their own happiness with their pride."

The party was warped back to the top of the pyramid, and a peg glows. Eight ethereal beings appear around them, but they don't speak in complete words.

Noa was next, and her room appeared to be a wheat field. The same thing happened, and we see her being held by her parents as a baby. It turns out Noa is the princess of Conkram. An adviser enters the room and warns the King about "Cort." We skip ahead, and the Queen asks a man to take baby Noa far away from the mist. The man grows light wings and flies away. As he soared over Mt. Rikuru, where Vahn met Noa, the mist appeared. The man crashed, and a wolf approached the baby. Terra then ascended from the sky. The voice congratulated Noa for never giving up hope despite all she'd endured.

We return to the top again, and the beings are less translucent and talkative. And then Gala gets mad. Terra and the rest of the ra-seru have an idea as to what's going on, but they're not saying anything. Gala demands answers he never gets but tells Ozma they'll split up if their goals ever differ.

Vahn's room is a beige kaleidoscope. His dream takes place shortly after his sister, Nene, was born. The birth caused his mother to bleed out, and Vahn overheard his father and elder discussing the healing waters of Drake. Despite the dangers of the mist, child Vahn somehow left the village to find the water. His father went looking for him but got wounded in the process. While the two were away, his mother died. The voice tells Vahn not to live in the past and always look for the future.

We're returned to the top, and everything is revealed. We came here to speak to the divine god, Tieg. The beings around the party tell them Tieg is half human, half seru. One day, he split himself in two and let the two halves of him live in the two separate worlds he created. This went well until a traitorous seru, Rogue, tried to fuse the two. He was sealed away for a time until he escaped and brought the mist with him. After telling us this, the beings do a dumb dance and bring everything into a pocket dimension where the Fire Drops exist. Tieg tells us the drops are chaos manifest.

As we try to leave, the world starts shaking. Juggernaut shows up, shoots a laser at the pyramid, and poofs away. Our enemies are too slow. Cara laughs, and Noa asks for her seru egg. Cara promises to do so if we save Beru.

We take the Fire Drops back to the doctor. These all powerful things are made into bombs, whose creation is the least stable method of science! But it makes four bombs.

One is used to open the path to Koru, and it went off well before the three seconds Usha told us it would... From here, the party needs to split up. They need to detonate the other three bombs at the same time from three separate directions. The three will need to open and close doors for each other to reach the destination, which was pretty fun. Although it was very short! The three prepare to plant the bombs, but they're interrupted.

The Daliles family is here. Their over-the-top words annoy Gala, but they pep up Noa. Regardless, we begin three boss fights that are functionally the same. They're all one-on-one with mirrored images of each other. The Daliless have the same attack pattern: combo, combo, art. My pattern was: after the setup/stat boost, Miracle Art, heal, Spirit. It went well and worked, even if Vahn was slower than his opponent somehow. Gala and Vahn can use Spoon, but I had Noa use a healing bloom. After They lose, they all fall off the cliff where Koru is.

The party plants the bomb, and they go off at one. Noa is angry at Usha! We (the player) see that the Daliless are dying but still alive. Their fighting spirit is still thriving, and they have one more card to play. They're loyal to Zora and the mist and fuse with the still breathing Koru. They will detonate him themselves for the sake of destruction! Our party wakes up to see the fusion light in the hole the bombs didn't make. The ra-seru tell them what's going on, and they decide they need to kill Koru. Heal, save, and get to level twenty seven!

This is a gimmick battle. We have four rounds to remove "100" HP. If we fail, we have to reload. Start this battle close to max AP. I used the first round to extend the stamina bar to perform Miracle Arts. This didn't work, so I just used the Point Card.

The heat in Koru's body escapes, and it melts the glacier around Buro. There's no downside to a billion tons of water flooding the valley. We automatically go back to town, and Gala remarks that the town is actually very beautiful when it's not frozen. Noa doesn't care because we have three trees to save. Each character empowers a single tree, and the area is restored. Cara is impressed, but she reneges on the deal. She's busy lamenting that she buried the heart of herself and her lover, Grantes, here.

The party walks away and sees three people flying overhead. These are the soren and are the key to destroying the Floating Castle. But they ignore Noa's adorable calling to them. Cara rejoins us, and her hand is bleeding. She gives us sheet music, which has the notation of the flute she played with Grantes. The fairy tale the lady told us a few days ago is about Cara and Grantes. Maybe we can change the soren's mind with music, but I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

I chose a stupid time to go into overtime. And I haven't edited anything in a week. RIP me...

Pointless mid boss

Before the Warrior Square Genesis Tree dirt is a strange gate puzzle that confused me. It was short and probably didn't need to exist. We had to pull a colored lever which turned off the same colored electrical gate. The gate turned off as we passed. It wasn't particularly difficult, but I didn't enjoy it for some reason. Probably the random encounters...

We reach the middle of the room and prepare to plant the seeding. We're worried about Songi and Gaza, and do you know what happens when you speak the devil's name? A portal opens before the team, and Songi pops out of it. He remarks he's glad they're thinking about him, but there's a guest. He brings forth Gaza, who's been equipped with a sim-seru. Songi leaves, Gaza tells us he's going to stop us, and a battle begins.

As far I could tell, Gaza uses Neo Star Slash every other turn, but this might have been happenstance. He also has two single target moves that can do 900 damage. I had equipped Luminous Gems to everyone, but this was wrong. Gaza isn't light elemental anymore, so don some Ebony Gems. Noa was equipped with a War Sign and a Guardian Ring to boast her arts and guarantee they all hit. She was doing nearly 3000 damage with her Miracle Art. With Gala on Spoon duty, and Vahn as a backup to both, I only had an issue when I decided to straight tank a Neo Slash.

Gaza is still alive, but his time is running out. The death of his sim-seru and wounds across two fights have mortally harmed the old man. But he can still be of use. Our ra-seru tell us they need a spirit to revive the Genesis Tree now, and they can use Gala's. He accepts the role, thinks about his family one more time, and Vahn places the seedling between his legs. The party activates their powers, and the tree grows. A beam of green light illuminates through the central spire of the Sol and clears the mist from the area. We mourn the loss of Gaza but notice his beloved Astral Sword is before us. He's given Vahn his giant sword. Before leaving, Gala reminds us that Noa looks like Gaza's granddaughter. Noa calls the tree "Grandpa" and promises to save the world. I don't know why, but this got me. She even gives the tree one more look before leaving.

The lower floors of Sol are active again. The new arms dealer has new gear, and there's a famous man at the inn. Emperor Etore VIII is here. Why a random inn? I dunno! But he's somehow heard about us and has a message we need to hear. Dr. Usha gave him a passcode but didn't tell him to what. But the Emperor gave us the combination, and Deez told us to go north. Both Beru and Usha's lab are up there. Also, stay at the lower inn. Noa will have one more dream where her parents tell her this is the final time they'll be able to talk to her. They've been found. Their lights are replaced by a purple one that laughs at and taunts Noa.

We (the player) see a scene in the Floating Castle. Besides being the Mist Generator for Karisto, it's also home to Zora. The three Dallies kneel before her, wanting to fight our party. Zora says no because they have Koro, but Gi convinces Zora anyway. They leave, and we see Songi was listening in.

Beru is a frozen landscape, but there are three Genesis Trees here. Noa runs ahead to see them, and we (the player) see Cara lamenting the state of her hometown, and it mirrors her heart. She leaves before Noa catches up. The party tries to revive one of the trees, but it's frozen. Any further attempts run the risk of killing it outright, and this upsets Noa a lot. She doesn't take struggling well.

Farther west is an oil well looking thing. There's a sign next to a pipe, and Noa calls up to it. Dr. Usha calls back and asks for the password Etore VIII gave us. Inputting the code lets us up, and Usha drops his elevator! We introduce ourselves to the doctor, and that takes all night. He eventually told us our next set of goals that I didn't understand. But we need to unfreeze Beru, and the only way to do that is with a seru named Kuru. Zora said that name... But if we approach him, he'll explode, so we need something called Fire Drops, which we can get if we sleep at the birthplace of the seru, Uru Mais. Usha's wife has the key to Uru Mais, and she gives us a quiz about it for some reason. Uru Mais is to the west, and we'll get there...

...tomorrow!

The Astral Sword sucks! It's actually fine, but it's highly inefficient with the stamina system.

I'm cheating.

To advance the plot, we need to do A LOT of nonsense. After beating up an old man, we needed to reach the basement of the city to plant a Genesis Tree. As we walked up the Tower of Sol, we found eight Sage Chests that function as a gimmick. To unlock the basement, we need to fill those eight chests with Seru Bread. The bread costs 6000 gold, or we can send Vahn into a tough battle gauntlet against bosses in Sol's Muscle Dome. Winning the easy circuit gets us just enough coins to buy eight loaves of bread. Too bad I died at the very end and only got fifty eight!

Rather than subject myself to stuff that will make me hate the game, I'll kill two birds with one stone and use some action replay codes to get unlimited money. I did have Noa become the greatest dancer legitimately, though.

After we feed the eight sage chests, Vahn activated the console to deactivate the not-penguin that blockers our path down. The console also projected an image of a man named Dr. Usha. Usha said "hello," and Noa said "hi" back, but this was an automated gif. Usha created this as the mist formed to protect whatever's in the basement from the monsters. He doesn't know if he's still alive, and that's all. Seemed small, but I'm sure he'll be important soon. We go down to the basement and look around the library. Mary's Diary is here, but who's Mary? We keep walking around until I find a save point, and we'll plant this seedling...

...tomorrow!

Yeah, that was all I did. I even started on time tonight, too, but I needed that Speed Charm, and that muscle dome is dumb. I also learned some things about Gaza. His grandkids, one was named Mar, died by the seru monsters. He's made it his mission to kill all seru ever since, and his single goal may have made him lose his mind, hence why he thinks we're the bad guys.

Babel Tower

There are two ways to go from Karisto Station: northwest and northeast. The map indicates west is a dead end in a mountain basin, so I went there first.

This is Sol, and it's a vertical tower that stretches high into the sky. Noa is excited by such a sight and runs forward. She listens to Gala and doesn't go in alone, thankfully. The party enters the not-Eldridge, and the ra-seru feel a great evil onboard. However, they also sense people living at the top. Sol is so gigantic that the mist hasn't reached the upper floors.

Reaching the top felt like a weird maze. We have to travel around a small, circular staircase, and rooms extend every few feet. Usually, they're small rooms, but there are a couple of connected areas that look like inns. Exploring from there eventually takes you back to the stairs, but I think they took me to the same place. I'm roughly 93.2 percent sure I just got lost, though. Ultimately, you don't even need to venture into them yet. Heading down the stairs brings us to a giant penguin that blocks the path. It says something about sages, which I'd bet involves the golden treasure chests scattered around Sol. They all contain stat boosting items, so seek them out for multiple reasons. But we'll return to the penguin later... The new seru named Spoon can be fought here, and it heals the whole party.

As we approach the safe areas, the team hears a fight behind a door. We suspect that a monster just killed someone because the sounds stop as we reach the door. It's flung open, and an old man is there! He begins yelling with a Ye Olde English accent, threatening to kill us because we're monsters. Gala points out the obvious, and Gaza apologizes...sorta. He doesn't actually feel bad, but he just recognizes that the team is human. After realizing Noa isn't someone named Mar, he then goes down the stairs, which is not towards safety.

Above him are where the people of Sol live! It's a bustling area with a lot of things to do. It's why this update entry might feel kinda small. We can enjoy an arcade fighting game with pallet swaps of our characters, a battle arena, and have Gala participate in a comedy act. We (the players) don't get to see it, but we hear it went well! There's also a jazz club, a private club, and a bar. And at that bar is Cara. She's upset at a man named Grantes. Grantes doesn't respond and only drinks. Cara is mad because he seems to be living off her, which makes Noa think he's a pimp. After Vahn and Gala dance around what a pimp is, Noa realizes that pimps are bad people and flying dropkicks him. Pimp. Cara asks her to stop, and Noa gets confused. Bad people need to be punished, but Cara and Gala are trying to get her to calm down. "Adult things" don't make sense to her, and I'm kinda confused, too. Either way, we all go our separate ways. A woman at the bar extorts us for a fairy tale about a winged man falling in love with a human after he lost his flute. We can also find a kindergarten class to learn Cara steals to provide for the school. She's well liked in Sol! THERE'S ALSO MORE OVERPRICED STUFF!!!

At the top is a Biron Monk hut. After Gala convinces Old Deez that we're cool, we learn a Genesis Tree is at Sol. It used to be in the basement, but it died. Fortunately, a seedling still exists. Deez gives it to us and asks us to place it back there. We leave the hut, and Gaza starts to threaten us again. He calls us evil and promises to stop us. Noa is confused, as am I, and no amount of talking will stop Gala. Four monks get thrown aside with ease when they try to stop him, so it's down to us.

Despite being old, Gaza is tough. His basic combos aren't too bad, but his beloved Astral Sword can cripple a character, even at max health. I learned just how strong Miracle Arts are as Noa reached her max stamina blocks (9) and unleashed them. Should everything hit, she can do nearly 3000 damage. Keep Vahn and Gala ready to heal, and this fight will be long but manageable.

The party laments that this battle didn't need to happen, and they call for a medic. Gaza is alive. But then Songi opens a portal and flies in on a floating turtle. He claims we killed Gaza, and now we're the monsters. Songi takes Gaza with him, and we're confused. It doesn't matter, though, because we have a penguin to get past. But I'll do that...

...tomorrow!

I may need to magic grind soon. My healing is falling behind my enemies' damage.

Cort...Gort?

Dohati's castle is quite the trek west. And reaching the top of the castle isn't going to be easy either. It's lengthy, windy, and loopy. All the while, you'll be accosted by seru, many of which were easily missed throughout the archipelago. I gotta say, having these mid dungeons as a reliquary of seru is a good idea! As the first earth seru was a dungeon before, we finally get a damaging light seru here. Aluru is something you're gonna wanna get. My only advice is to take the left path first. It's a dead end, but there are two treasures. They're not world altering, but I trust you want them anyway. Enjoy the escalators!

At the top is another engine, just as there was when we fought Zeto. Also, just as before, an evil lich/warlock teleports in to stop us. Also, also like before, he turns into an amphibian.

Dohati might actually be a bird, now that I think about it. He only has two attacks, so expect a long and boring battle. The basic blows are pretty pathetic, but Chaos Breath hits everyone for 800 damage and can inflict poison. There is no warning for this. So it's another Spirit Clash, but Aluru's upskirt magic blast does almost 1500 damage. Too bad that takes 90 MP, so it's hard to spam and leaves Orb a rare use.

Dohati will curse his san-seru and remind us a Juggernaut already roams the world. Dohati left it with his master, Prince Cort, and those are his final words. The ra-seru destroy the engine, but another ra-seru is left hanging. The four of them illuminate before the strange one breaks apart. The humans question what happened, knowing the stones spoke a language the humans couldn't. The ra-seru refuse to elaborate but promise to reveal all later.

We automatically return to Ratayu, and Saryu is still apologetic. He promises to restore the town to how it was before, and we leave to see the good news of the missing mist.
Vidna is back up and running, even though it's still cold. The springs are now a public bath. The shelter guy hates the attention he has now, so he hides in his shelter.
Jeremi is the same, but Pepe can finally reconnect with his father.
Octam is now an above ground village again. Some people still live in the cave, mostly the elderly and those who tend to the Hari Memorial. There is new, overpriced gear...

But our goal is the top of the tower. As we've walked this world, we've noticed strange, forked pillars jutting out of the water like skyscrapers. And now there's a golden railroad between them. We've also been hearing about flying wagons! We can finally experience them! Talk to Doctor Octopus at the top of Octam's Pyramid. He and his crew will take us to the next country with mist, Karisto. They can only take us halfway because the good doctor transforms into Final Fantasy IX's roo from Gargent. Noa is excited and gets on first, but the ending gets weird. The crew has to detach themselves from our carriage before the mist makes monsters out of the workers. Sadly, the gondola has no breaks, but at least we're not lost at sea like the crew. We crash with full force into the Karisto Station.

Cara pulls us out of the burning wreckage, and everyone is confused. Gala asks her how she got here, but Cara can't answer it. A floating rock, the Sky Castle, soars overhead, spewing mist as it does. Noa eventually asks how Cara can survive in the mist without a seru, and Cara says it's her good luck charm. It's a ra-seru egg! Noa asks for it, but Cars thankfully doesn't relinquish it. Instead, she runs away. And we can now explore the new lands, which I'll do...

...tomorrow!

A tourist poster informs us this world is called Legaia. It's all making sense now...

PS: At some point tonight, we learned Conkram, the place where Noa is from, started a war that may have involved the mist.

Homewreaker

The climb up Mt. Letona confused me. Offshoots are strangely hard to see, and I have terrible eyesight. I got lost for a few minutes before seeking out a map. There are a few caves we'll need to traverse, with hidden paths dotted about as well. Nothing too sneaky, but keep your eyes open on the walk. The new seru here is my first earth magic, misheru. I could have gotten one at Shadow Gate, but I didn't stick around there long enough to collect it. Something for overtime tomorrow, I guess. Misheru is something I'll need to grind up because it can lower enemies' defense.

At the top is the Genesis Tree. Our ra-seru warned us that the tree's energy was fluctuating, and we see why now. It's trapped in an electrical pyramid. Noa touches it, gets shocked, and calls it a "spooky wall." With no other discourse, we make a walk of shame back down the mountain. As we do, though, Songi is waiting. He knew we'd be here and placed the trap. He's looking for a fight! His seru is empowered, and it turns his skin grey for this battle.

I found this kinda boring. Songi lacked KO power if you're over 700 HP or can defend against lightning. While he does that, I Spirit up every other turn to unleash double and triple arts. I think this is the strategy I'll be employing for a while. It feels painfully slow, but it's safe and works.

As he said before the battle, Songi removes the barrier he placed on the tree. He encourages us to keep fighting and then jumps down the mountain. Everyone is confused, but they revive the tree, and the mist around Ratanyu dissipates. Vidna is still shrouded, so don't check it out.

Ratanyu is freed from the seru monsters, but no one is happy... But we need to get to the Mist Generator! We report our progress to the guy in charge, Saryu, and he tells us he's tired and to leave. He never gave us the key he promised. Now we're angry and plan an uprising! It seems the rest of the town is behind us. Saryu has levied high taxes on everyone, mind controlled the guards, and the Seru Bride program is more akin to a sacrifice than a wedding. I buried the lead on that, didn't I? His current bride-to-be is in the inn.

Elena is dressed in a fun outfit. She knows she's about to die and asks us to visit her parents from time to time. But Noa thinks this is dumb! She offers to take Elena's role because Noa is strong and can survive whatever is about to happen. I give her the okay, and we can prepare. There's more overpriced gear in the market... When you're ready, return to Elena, and the two will switch positions. The guards appear to take Nolena away, and we (the player) see the procession. It ends in a terrifying location where brides are kept in test tubes to power a seru called Juggernaut. Juggernaut is a man made seru, and the thing Saryu is being worked on is the second one. The first blew up Rim Elm's wall... Noa tries to flee, but the guards shock her into paralysis. Terra gives out a warning to Meta and Ozma that Noa is in danger. The two prepared for this, and they rushed to the castle. They dispatch the two seru guards, that they can learned if you're lucky, but the rest of the path is clean. They take the winding path to the console of the Juggernaut and confront Saryu. They scare off the scientists, and the ra-seru treat Noa. As they do, Saryu joins them and gets mad. His shadow grows, and the climax begins.

Van Saryu is a stronger Songi, but he uses his team wide attack more often. As he gets low, he'll borrow the power of Juggernaut to up his strength. He activated it too late, and Noa finished him off with a 1200 combo.

Saryu was possessed by seru, similar to Xain. A woman in town tells us this is a san-seru, another man made god. Unlike Xain, Saryu is still alive. He realizes all that's happened and turns off the machine, killing Juggernaut in the process. This entire ordeal was conducted by a being named Dohati, the same guy Xain told us about. Dohati built a castle to the west, where the Mist Generator is. Saryu undoes all the damage his evil self did and gives us the key to the generator.

Everyone is happy now, and the music in town becomes worse. But the inn is free, and Noa has another dream about her parents. They tell her they did something terrible. But we'll work towards that...

...tomorrow!

The end of this arc is coming!

Catastrophic Cooling

Vidna is shrouded in mist, and the streets are empty. Gala points out the windmills that have been protecting the town for ten years have stopped moving. Did the geothermal lava power them? The team sets out to find survivors. What few entities roam the streets are seru zombies, and monsters are now encounterable. But there are people around.

When we first came here, a lot of people told us about a crazy man named Donpas. He has been constructing a safe house in case something like this happened. Now, though, many of the citizens are hiding here, including Pepe. Sadly, though, Donpas is missing. We can't find him, but we can explore the engine room for the windmills. It used to be flooded in boiling water, but it's traversable now. We'll find a bunch of stuff down here, including the salt the mayor of Octam wants. Pick it up and return to him. He'll give us an accessory I don't understand and suggest we visit the town of Ratayu to the northwest. It used to be "guarded" by a hot river, but it's probably cool now.

He's correct. As we approach the village, our ra-seru sense a Genesis Tree nearby. We jump the gap and explore the town. It's also filled with zombies and monsters. Stay a while to let Gala finally get the seru Songi attacked us with. There's also another amber book in town and a note about a chosen marriage. I get rape vibes from it...

In the back of town is a grand castle. There are more chests off to the sides, but there's a strange being in the throne room. It's clearly a seru monster, but it can talk? It hands us the key to the Genesis Tree and promises a key that will take us to the mist generator if we revive it. All this creature wants is to be with his bride. Noa thinks it's romantic. The gate is to the east, and I'll explore Mt. Latona...

...tomorrow!

I did some art training tonight. I had fallen behind, and the new things I learned more than doubled my damage. Noa did over 2000 damage!

Doom!

Octum Underground is where everyone who once lived in Octum Overground fled to. It's also where Noa's bff, Hari, lives!

After visiting the inn, the party walks across a narrow ledge. As they do, an earthquake begins to shake the area. This is a daily occurrence, and everyone is on edge because of it. The village used to be larger, but all the stone pillars the houses are on keep falling. Many people live in the central mayor's house now. The woman whose home is ruined escapes with the help of someone else, but all she's ever known is now at the bottom of a cave. Next to this area is Hari's house, the House of Meditation. But he's asleep, so talk to the mayor on the third floor of his house. The mayor reiterates the history of Octam, but a knight rushes in, knocks Vahn on his butt, and tells the mayor Hari is awake! We all rush over, but the mayor is banned from entering. Hari wants to talk to us.

All three of them! Before us are three male toddlers who are identical triplets. These are the fabled Hari. One is the Hari from the past, who tells us where the mist came from as well as the seru. The seru aren't a gift from god, but they accidentally came here. As did the demon who created the mist.
The Present Hari tells us the demons want to destroy the world and that we should go further beneath Octam to stop the earthquakes. They're from the demon.
Future Hari warns Vahn and Noa that their future is filled with woe. He doesn't expand on that Vahn, but he tells Noa her parents are alive in the kingdom of Conkram. But meeting them will be disturbing.

They all go back to sleep, and we leave. As we cross another cliff, a second earthquake shakes the area. Haris's house is the target this time. A guard knocks over a nun in fear, but both escape. Sadly, the Haris and two of their caretakers stay in the house as it falls below. As we look down into the void, three lights shine up to us. The spirits of the Hari Boys inform us they knew this would happen, and they reiterate our need to go down to the Fire Path.

Before doing so, I slept at the inn. Noa had another dream where both of her parents spoke to her. They want to see her but can only communicate through this dream veil. I get mad that there's more gear I can't afford and exit through the west cave.

The Fire Path is filled with rocky jump paths and looping cliffs. The cliffs circle around the homes of Octum. We can even see the ruins of Haris's house down here. This is also another opportunity to get Nova. About halfway through, we feel another earthquake. The party thinks the mayor's house pillar is rocking, and they know time is running out. But I gotta ask, where's all the fire?

There it is! We exit into an active lava flow. Gala thinks we need to turn back and find another way, but our ever impulsive Noa jumps onto a floating rock. It moves on her command, and it convinces the men that is how they'll get deeper in. The rock takes them to a chest before leading us to the Minion of Mist. Before talking to him, though, find the new seru magic, gimi gobi. The timeframe to get this is short...

A minotaur/centaur is headbutting the pillars. But he's kinda really dumb and doesn't realize we're the ra-seru users his master, Dohati, told him about. That is not the name Zeto said... The team keeps bugging him until it finally hits that we're his bad guys, and a battle begins.

Xain hits incredibly hard. His moves do 800 damage with ease. His worst move, though, has a warning. He'll charge up an attack, so spirit up! Orb and Vera will be spammed here. Xain is weak to wind, and Noa can do 1000 damage with duel spam Frost Breath. I found this tough, but all my grinding was worth it.

The seru that possessed Xain is forced from the monster. He jokingly promises that he's going to ruin our life with his last act of breath. He falls into the lava, and then the lava stops. Xain froze everything! The party isn't sure if that did anything, but we can walk out of the (not) Fire Cave and report the good news to Octam. There's a new water seru magic here, so gain Freed first.

We return to town, and everyone's really thrilled. The pressure of a sudden fall is off their minds. It is colder, though. The mayor thanks us and asks if we can get him sauna salts from Vidna's hot springs. He also gave us access to the elevator back to the surface. The team warps to Vidna, and why are the windmills not moving?

Fallout: Legaia

The team enters the fabled town of Octam. Noa gets excited because Hari will finally tell her what her dreams mean. Even by her standards, Noa is excessively animated. She runs around the town, asking for Hari at the top of her lungs. The fact that Octam is deserted never crosses her mind. As usual, Gala has to calm her down. He points out that no one is around, and no one is responding. You can point out the exact moment when her heart breaks. But then she remembers the Genesis Trees. Maybe if we revive one, Hari will come back? She asks Terra, but the ra-seru can't find one nearby. Gala suggests moving on with our plan, which was to find Hari, but Vahn can suggest looking around before we move on. Noa blows him a kiss, and we search the desolate village.

There's nothing here. The only thing of note is a new seru we can learn, which is a game changer. Orb can heal the entire party for the low price of eighteen MP. There's also a book that tells us about Octam and the surrounding area, and it's a free version of the tour guide in Vidna. When you're done finding magic, head into the temple from the ground floor. It takes us through various temple looking rooms until we get to a strange room with four books. Read them in order from top left to right, then bottom left to right. The books tell us, the ra-seru users, that the denizens of Octam knew the mist was coming, so they hid underneath the town. To reach them, we need to make the flower bloom at the Shadow Gate using a Star Pearl. It reminds the party that the woman in Vidna told us about these books. After reading the fourth book, a staircase opens beneath it. Before going down, inspect the crystals before the books. They're a key to something later...

The new staircase leads us to a locked elevator. And it turns out we've been followed. An alluring woman, who we'll learn is named Cara, laughs at us from the stairs. She thinks we're basic treasure hunters/thieves. After a conversation where no one tells anyone anything, we get Cara to say she found the Star Pearl, but she pawned it off on Zazan in Jeremi. What's the timeline for this stuff? One of our party members asked how Cara got through the mist...

Zazan quickly hands over the pearl, and I went back to Octam. There was nothing there because the destination was Shadow Gate to the east. And someone's waiting for us! This is Gi Delilas, and he's a ninja. He heard we beat Zeta but is upset that we're a bunch of kids. For some reason, he wants to fight our leader. I try to say Gala is the head of our group, but he submits that it's Vahn. Why is Vahn the leader? So that means it's time for a fight. Noa wants in, but it's tradition for Delilass to fight one on one. But then his family shows up! The quick and agile Lu and the big and strong Che. But something happens, and all three need to leave...

This is when the crystal code I told you about in Octam comes into play. Earth, Wind, Fire, Water. The flower statue in the middle of the field blooms, and a drop of water sits in it. Vahn drops the Star Pearl into it, and now it acts like an elevator. It takes us to a branching path dungeon. There's a new seru down here, Nova. As I said, there are a number of branching paths here. There's a treasure at the end of all of them, so if you go more than two screens without finding one, turn back. Nothing's too fancy, but the Life Ring is nice. There's a strange floating path towards the end. It looks complicated, but it's not. Vahn can jump on and off the bouncing bits. After a loop around a rock, we'll reach civilization! Noa is excited because Hari must be here this time! So we'll explore Octam Underground...

...tomorrow!

Two dungeons tonight! I beat my average tonight!

Mail Boy

Jeremi is a town of two halves now. Most of the people are thrilled and happy to finally be free. The other half, who are cooped up in the bar, are struggling with survivor's guilt. They all lost someone dear to them in the last decade. The piano player asked us if she had done something bad. The bar is kinda hidden, and I didn't visit it last night, so I must have missed an interesting scene.

When the party left the tower, they were mobbed by sexy fans. A couple of creepers hit on Noa. The mayor, somehow, broke up the group, and we spent the night at the inn. The party can now sleep here for free. Explore the town, scream at them for their exorbitantly priced gear, and find Zalan. He's missing his wife and child because they went to Vidna just before the world ended. He wants to reconnect, but the mist is still around Vidna, so he can't go. He writes a letter and asks if we can find Yuma or Pepe. Pepe is just north of the hot springs, and he lives alone. Yuma fell ill three years ago and died from it. Pepe is glad his father, Fat Fingers, is still alive and asks us to return Yuma's ring. Doing so makes Zalan sad because his wife died, but he's still glad their son is doing well. They can't reconnect yet, but Zalan becomes a jeweler for us, but I didn't check if he was useful now.

It's time to find Hari in Octum! But I didn't do that either. Everything in this game is stupidly expensive, and bosses are kicking my butt. I took the time to explore the archipelago and found a city cut off by a lava river beneath the town. Some monsters reward 500 exp and gold on defeat around there, so I spent time grinding. I still don't have enough, but I'm moving on...

Rem Temple tomorrow...

Dream man

The Ancient Wind Cave is now devoid of mist. And the man, Old Man, I annoyed earlier has forgotten all about our run in and is excited to have customers! I didn't use the inn, but I ran out of money buying his stuff. There's also a switch in this alcove that opens the door further north. This path is free from mobs and takes us to another person excited to have patrons for the first time in ten years. The Old Witch offers us a free night at her inn that I'm obligated to accept.

That night, Vahn, Noa, and Gala have a dream that each are in with each other. It's nice and lucid. A light that Noa thinks is her mom is floating around, but then it speaks. Hari is a being who exists between worlds, and he knows about the mist. He learned it all from Rem, a god in this world. Hari wants us to find him in Rem'e Shrine, located beneath the town of Octum. Octum is to the north of us in the middle of the Sebucus Islands. When the team wakes up and leaves (after talking to the orphans), Old Witch gives us two Door of Winds, the game's fast travel system.

The Sebucus Islands are a huge archipelago chain. As we travel north, we pass a high tower, but I keep walking because I see a town. Vidna is a safe haven from the mist because the windmills that line the town keep it at bay. That's not how windmills work, but okay. Before the world ended, it was a hot springs village. It's free to use now, but we don't gain anything by stepping in them. Other than gear we still can't afford, there's a woman from Rem Shrine. Hari told her to wait for "three ra-seru users to visit the town." She's been waiting for us for ten years to tell us the same thing Hari, an alleged 1000-year-old man, did in our dream.

I went back to the tower that was named Jeremi. Unlike Vidna, it's been ruined by the mist. Zombies walk the town, and seru can be fought. Fortunately, our ras detect a Genesis Tree at the top of the tower that we're about to learn is the Sky Garden.

The gimmicks have returned, and this is a vertical maze. We have to go up and down the elevator system. It's simple and short, with only about five floors. There's a new magic seru we can collect named Swordie. It's a wind spell that is pretty cheap and good. At the top is a garden, and the Genesis Tree is found in the back. But something is gnawing on it, draining the power of our favorite flora. Noa tries to pray the weird bug thing off the tree, but all that does is annoy it.

Berserker is hard. It hits for massive damage and likes poison. As it gets weaker, it'll cast Stone Circle and kill your entire party. I tried a few times to defeat it by using the new magic spell, but I couldn't muster it. Instead, Berserker can be killed with Nighto. It'll usually do nothing, but it can confuse the bug fairly regularly. More importantly, though, it can outright kill Berserker. And that's how I did it because this felt dumb. Our party combines their powers to revive the Genesis Tree after

Two people who were in the tower begin to return to their senses. They take notice of what we've done, and Noa and Gala pantomime how. Everyone is excited, so it's time to see what Jeremi looks like now...

...tomorrow!

Why is everything so expensive!?!?

Savior of Drake!

Things got weird last night IRL, so all I did was some grinding. Good thing, too.

The Mist Generator is in the central valley of Drake. The three approach the area and notice the smoke stacks emanating from the ground around an industrial freight elevator. The ra-serus confirm this is the source of all that's defiling the world or at least this part of it. They all go down and enter Zeto's Dungeon.

This is the most traditional dungeon so far in LoL. There are no gimmicks unless you count a lengthy maze as one. But maybe it is!? It's three floors of a winding maze, and all the enemies are seru. So let Gala catch up on his magic and make sure to get everyone the new fire hand creature. Seek vera, especially. Floor one is a series of floating walkways, and floor two is a hallway. As you'd expect, the save point means you're going the correct way, so collect everything you can. There's a new weapon down here everyone can use that's better than anything else.

Beyond the save point is a man in the rafters. It's Songi! He taunts us again, but Gala shuts him down. He's got his moxie back with a ra-seru and wants a rematch. Songi doesn't realize Gala has one and accepts the battle. Noa tries to get involved, but Gala tells her to stay back.

This is a one-on-one, and Gala is somehow faster! This is fortuitous because our rival hits hard. But as long as you have the vera magic, you should be fine. Stay above 300 HP to make sure.

Songi is shocked that Gala gained that much power from one ra-seru and jumps back onto the rafters. He warns us that Zeto is waiting for us and suggests we win before running off.

The elevator down is right behind the battle, and it's a quick walk. On the otherside of the door is a large room with an engine in it. This is the mist generator. Gala wonders if they'll be able to stop such a thing, and Ozma assures him they can with their combined powers. As the team gets closer to the generator, Zeto teleports in. Noa recognizes him as the man who hurt Terra the wolf, and she wants revenge. The rest of the team agrees, and they rush him. Zeto suddenly turns into a crab!

I died the first time I did this battle. Zeto only used Big Wave, which is a two turn attack. I got cocky and didn't use spirit, which resulted in my team taking 500 damage each... The second time had more varied moves. Zeto had a basic combo that did 300, and he could try to poison someone. Zeto is weak to fire, so the new seru magic we found was helpful and did 400 damage. That and Vahn's hyper art spam, which can be done twice a turn, can take out the 3000 HP in due time. Just make sure to spirit when Zeto warns you he's about to murder you.

He'll revert to his lich state and is confused how he could be killed by humans. All he wanted to do was bring the divine mist to them. As he dies, he calls out to his master... 

The party combines their power in a wonderfully awful CGI cutscene to turn the generator to stone, stopping it and freeing Drake Kingdom from further problems. As the party leaves, we see a ra/seru/egg drop into the void.

We automatically return to the monastery and fill the master in on our actions. He's thrilled but suggests we visit the kingdom to the north, the Sebucus Islands. Maya is also in the room, and she's ready to return to Rim Elm. Vahn can say that he wishes he could go with her, but she kinda tells him off. He has a world to save. Noa bids her off, and Maya wishes Gala good luck.

Despite her words, I went back to Rim Elm. I spoke to Mei and Maya, and Mei got really mad. She's upset that Vahn lied to her about finding her mom. Everyone is confused, including her. She's a bundle of emotions, as many fifteen-year-olds are, and she doesn't know how to handle them. Maya calms her down, but then Noa ruins it. Noa is a very empathetic person, and Maya's tears cause Noa to cry, too. Maya, already the team mom, consoles the girl, offering to be her mother as well. Noa has told her about the dream she had in Drake, so this will only be short term. Maya asks us to find Noa's mom. Another villager thinks she knows where Noa is from... But we'll start looking...

...tomorrow!

Act one is in the books, and I haven't gotten an advanced look on my review yet. That's usually a good thing!

The not a twist.

West Voz Forest is, as one would expect, a heavily wooded area. It's close to the mist generator, so it's a place where the doom cloud lingers and makes for an unpleasant experience. It's difficult to see. Fortunately, it's a straightforward path. There are a couple of offshoots that are indicated by hollowed out fallen trees that act as tunnels. If you see one, take it. One will let you out a single chest that contains fertilizer. Down the main path is a strange, dancing plant. Gala called it a Bridge Plant because it can be climbed on when it's fully grown. Noa wants to eat it. But that bridge takes time, so baptize it in fertilizer to make it grow immediately. It takes us to our destination, but there's no good news there.

The Genesis Tree is dead. Too much mist has caused it to fully wither beyond anything the two ra-serus can restore. But our presence causes it to change anyway. It becomes translucent, and a strange thing grows inside it. Meta says this is a seru egg. It'll grow into a proper ra-seru when it hatches, but now it's just an accessory to defend against lightning. But there's worse news.

An explosion rocks the area, and the characters see a pillar of light emerge from the monastery. The players see smoke billowing from it. Gala is concerned about his kinsman, so I Door of Light out.

We return to Bilar to see the defenses are broken. The fans, lever, and doors are destroyed, and mist now profanes the area. Corpses lay at our feet as the party splits up to investigate. Gala goes off on his own while Vahn and Noa find Maya. She's now a zombie, but she's not aggressive. I wonder when she equipped a seru? Noa tries to rip the seru off Maya, but Terra warns her to stop. Forcibly detaching a seru from its host will kill the human. Since zombie Maya isn't causing any problems, we let her be and go find Master. We did discover a note she wrote first to Mei. She's viewed Songi and Gala as her children and thinks they need her more than Mei. So she won't be going home soon... Master's in the kitchen with the sane survivors and the women. There are not many of them. He tells us that Songi did all this. What a surprise betrayal... He found a seru in the East Vox Forest and showcased his power by attacking his friends and home. When Gala learned this, he went mad and left to find him. He didn't get far, and he rejoined us as we left. This felt like an official joining of the team.

The East Vox Forest is visually the same as the west. There are different mobs, and two of them are seru Vahn and Noa can learn magic from. I'd rather have it than not. The added gimmick here is found in another tree path. We'll find the Weed Hammer, which isn't as dumb as it sounds. Noa is confused as to what it is, and Gala says it can smash the crystal grass that blocks the path in this dungeon. It opens up to a few treasures as well. It's a lengthy dungeon, so good luck.

We'll eventually reach the Genesis Tree, and it's still alive. But we're not alone. Songi was waiting for us. The rivalry between him and Gala has grown to a point where Songi wants all the power, and he has it. Gala calls out his multiple violations of the creed and challenges Songi to a fight. Noa wants in, but she promised to let the two have a one-on-one fight. It doesn't go well for our monk. He's slow in general but looks stationary compared to Songi. And Gala's attacks don't even phase the opponent when Songi lets him move. Songi is disappointed in the duel and insults his old brother. Out of frustration, he summons two new seru, Vigaro.

The difficulty here is there are two of them. They do a lot of damage and can kill Noa if they gang up on her. The other two will take three full rounds to bring to a knee. Sprit up and unleash multiple arts per turn. The trick is to combo the arts by linking/using the final input as the first input for a second art. Noa can do this with ease, and Vahn will take some thinking. Gala sucks, so I had him on healing duty. But he's slow as mud, so there's a lot of hope with this strategy. You can learn magic from them, but I'd suggest trying that on the second one and blitzing down the first. The magic cost for their move is higher than our max MP anyway.

Songi points out how useless Gala was there, and he has a point. He taunts us before saying we'll meet again. The party is upset and annoyed, but they have other things to do now. They revive the tree beside them, and the trifecta of the ones we've already reactivated cause a wide purification of Drake Kingdom. The only mist that remains is around the generator, and it's far thinner now. Not only that, but the tree causes the seru egg to hatch. Ozma is born, and it chooses Gala as a host. It asks first, and Gala accepts with no coercion. Ozma is a blue boxing glove.

We automatically return to the restored Biron. Master officially excommunicates Songi, but he does the same to Gala. Noa gets annoyed because Gala did the right thing, but Gala tells her to settle down. He knew this would happen but accepted it needed to be. The power rift between him and Songi is too vast without it. And he wants revenge! Maya joins us, and she's fine now. She asks if we're going to the mist generator. We can try to take her home, but she gets mad. She wants us to see this through and prevent the mist from returning to Drake. So, with that, we set out to the central valley of Drake. And I'll get there...

...tomorrow!

Our ra-seru noticed something about Songman...

Legend of LeGala

Drake Castle is louder than it was before, and Noa is worried. Vahn can assure her she'll be fine, or he can warn her. I went with the second choice. It doesn't matter, though, as we're greeted by King Drake and his retinue. Somehow, he's heard about our actions and wishes to discuss who we are and what we've done. Before we do, though, Noa takes an interest in Drake's mustache. She really has been alone with only a wolf her whole life... After we tell our King what we've done and our next course, Drake hands us the watergate key. As we leave, he gives us another task, should we accept it: save the world. We were already doing that, so okay, sire. The market has sprung up outside the castle, and Noa is excited. She leads us around the vendors, and Vahn tries to teach her about money and what an inn is. She also tested us on some things, and I got five healing shrooms. Before leaving, sleep at the inn or the room opposite the King's bedroom. Noa has a dream where she chases after a light. The light wants to see her, and Noa thinks this is her mother.

The dam is to the east of the castle, and Vahn stops the river so he can cross. Where does the water go now? There's a new special attack for Noa in the water logged chest.

But our destination is our original destination: Biran Monastery. It's where Mei's mom might be and home to monks who shunned the usage of the seru before the mist ever appeared. Along the way, we can get a glimpse of where the mist generates down in the central valley. The mist is too thick and powerful for our ra-seru to do anything in it, though, but maybe more Genesis Trees will aid us?

We reach the temple in the mountain and notice a lever on the floor. Triggering it causes fans to blow, the exit to lock, and the mist to disappear. The door before us is thrown open, and an opposing man greets us. He's shocked to see human visitors and welcomes us. Before us are the monks of Biran. The Master dismisses his students, including Master Teacher and Songi. We tell Master what we're doing, and he tells us about two nearby Genesis Trees. But we can worry about that tomorrow; it's partly time now! He runs off to prepare the feast, which the women who have been hiding here will make. We can look around, and one of the first people we see knows us. It's Maya, Mei's man! She recognizes Vahn even though it's been ten years. She's glad to see us but has to run off to help with the feat.

We can walk around the temple to get a lay of the land. Master Teacher and Songi used to be friendly rivals at the top of the temple's pecking order, but a rift formed between them. Songi wants power and is willing to equip himself with a seru to get it, but MT is an ardent believer in the creed. Noa can try to inform Maya about Rim Elm, but she got caught up in Maya's excitement. After talking to everyone, including the Master, the feast begins. We start by ruining it by telling Maya her husband is dead. She runs off to grieve, and Noa emphasizes. She only learned what suffering meant earlier today but is getting a good look at it now. Talk to everyone in the room until Master joins us. He saw Maya was hurt and asked if we wanted to take her back home. I "cut to the chase" and tell the truth. He's glad we did. He doesn't share his feelings, but we eventually go to bed because there's a mission for us.

There are two trees to the north of the monastery. For some reason, Master wants to visit both at the same time, even though one group can't do anything. Songi will take two other monks to one forest, and we'll take Master Teacher to the other. Whatever forest we offer to go to will result in Songi butting in and going that way. We (the player) see him plotting to get a ra-seru of his own that way. I'll end up going to the west forest. MT joins the group, but Noa thinks that name/title is dumb and wants to know his real name. It's Gala!

Maya is waiting for us as we leave, and she offers words of encouragement while she thinks about her home. We can get a fourth glimpse of the Mist Generator, and Gala gets confused when his new friends talk to their rock bracelets. He can't hear them and doesn't want to. Far to the north of the West Voz Forest is the Ancient Wind Shrine. There's nothing here, but we can annoy an old man and learn a lightning spell. Noa cannot. But I'll walk through the western forest...

...tomorrow!

I spent some time training Gala. He's kinda bad, though. He's slow and lacks enough skill to perform arts unless he's spirited. Along the way, I also looked up arts for Vahn and Noa. Why do they have so many!

Weirdly proportioned female

Drake Castle isn't a true dungeon as much as it's a transitional area. There are monsters to be found, including the fire seru that attacked Rim Elm. Make sure to kill one so Vahn can learn its fire magic. The castle does have a gimmick. We'll need to find several keys throughout the area to unlock the exit to the back. Along the way, we'll see the citizens of the castle trapped in mass prisons. Various books and notes inform us this was a choice they made. The King saw this tragedy coming, so everyone kept themselves out of harm's way in the hope a savior would come along. The north exit takes us to a mountain with a name I can't remember, and a Genesis Tree is atop it. As we approach the foot of the mountain, Meta tells us our friends are at the top. As Vahn picks up the pace, we (the player) see the game from a new perspective.

We're now Noa, and she's flanked by a friend and teacher, Terra the wolf. It also looks like a rat, but whatever. Terra is a kind and wonderful wolf, as she guides and encourages Noa through her "tutorial" dungeon. It's mostly just to get Noa a few levels and to learn the Lizard Tail art. She also randomly learned Blizzard Bash, which is fun. Noa is quick and gets four attacks a turn, but she feels fragile. Fortunately, Terra can heal her between battles against the mole people.

After Noa is done training, Terra wants to tell her something. Before she can, an earthquake affects the cave the two are trapped in. For the first time in a long time, the two can exit the cave. Unfortunately, it's now filled with mist and monsters. Getting out is surprisingly hard, so I hope you got all the healing shrooms. After enough struggle, Terra points out the exit, and the two girls can finally leave the Snowdrift Cave.

The same mountain Vahn is starting to climb is just south of Noa and Terra. Terra wants Noa to go there and reach the top to interact with the Genesis Tree there. The path there is straight, and the only thing to worry about are the cutscene falling rocks. This cave is crumbling. The monsters aren't a concern because Terra has joined the group for this section, and she is willing to use heal when Noa falls low. Terra seems immortal, so there are no worries. Focus the pump bats because their wind magic hurts. After the entrance collapses, Terra tells Noa the real reason they're here. Terra is a ra-seru that has inhabited this wolf for twelve years. But that wolf is getting old and is about to die. The two need to visit the Genesis Tree to facilitate the transfer of Terra from the wolf to Noa. Noa is worried at first, but she knows she can trust Terra. There's another cave ahead that's guarded by a golem. It's big, but Terra's still a healer. Beyond the golem is the Genesis Tree.

Terra tells Noa that she once resided in this tree but was awoken by a crying baby. Noa was that baby. They get ready to revive the tree, but Zeta shows up. He demeans the ra-seru and (presumably) the survivors of Rim Elm before realizing another ra-seru is right here. He calls forth a winged lion named Caruban. This looks like the thing that broke Rim Elm's wall, but I don't think it was. Zeta orders it to attack Terra, and a simple headbutt takes out the aging wolf. Zeta then tells it to do whatever it wants with Noa, and he leaves. We then cut back to Vahn.

Vahn has to make his way up the mountain. Go right at the fork because there's a weapon for him at the end of the path. The gimmick for the side of the mountain involves Vahn having to jump across cliffs and ledges to reach the summit. Along the way is a new seru that can used to heal. Vahn will travel through a tunnel and see Noa being chased by Caruban. Save first before Meta tells us to help her and Terra.

Caruban is a strong boss. He can nearly oneshot Noa, so I had her on healing duty the whole battle. Good thing I had so many shrooms and whatever Vahn collected! Be prepared for a team wide fire breath! Neither character did any damage against the lion, which is another reason to keep Noa on healing duty. My plan ended up casting gimard until Vahn ran out of MP. But I never got that far! Caruban died after a few casts.

Terra asked us to help her to the Genesis Tree and revive it. The green jewel that is Terra left the wolf and attached herself to Noa, and the wolf walked away from the party. Noa wanted to give chase, but Terra asked her to stay here and let the beast die with honor. I tried to chase after it later but didn't find it. Terra equipped herself to Noa and told her to go with Vahn to save the world. And she might find her real parents in the process. Vahn can, in theory, turn down Noa's request, but I skipped the charade and let her join. Noa finally spoke and thanked me!

Meta reminded us we found the King of Drake behind bars, wearing the dam key we need to use. We (the player) saw the castle return to normal when the tree was revived, so that's our next destination. Legend of Legaia has a quick exit item, which can be found on the mountain, and I used it. We'll speak to royalty...

...tomorrow!

In her world sprite, Noa looks to be eight. Her battle model makes her look to be a well developed woman in her early twenties. But she's actually twelve, so I have questions, Prokion/Contrail!

Légende de la Terre

It's French!!!!

Anyway, Legend of Legaia (la Gaia, get it?) is a game I know nothing about. What's the main character, the villain, the world, etc.? I do know it's well regarded by JRPG fans with bad backs these days. It was developed by several companies but was published by Sony in 1998. Were they looking for their Final Fantasy killer at this time? Could this have done it? Let's find out!

The game starts with important backstory. God created humans who had his wisdom. But they were weaker than the beasts and really stupid, so they were constantly almost going extinct. To protect his failed children, god created the seru. These stone like creatures fused or equipped themselves onto humans to make them stronger, faster, and not suck. That was the beginning of human history. But a few short years ago, a strange mist descended onto the world. It caused the seru to go crazy and attack the humans. And any that were equipped to humans made the humans act like zombies. Humans have now withdrawn to isolated areas of the planet, away from the mist and protected by walls. One such village is named Rim Elm...

A young man named Vahn leaves his house one day and walks around the village by the sea. He peeks into a house but keeps waking until he finds a green, dead tree in the middle of Rim Elm. The village elder and some random little girl come up to him, and they discuss the Genesis Tree. It exists, and it calms the spirits of many villagers, especially Vahn. It's his last day as a child, and he'll be joining the hunters, a group of people who leave the village to hunt food for the town, tomorrow. The three pray for good luck before Vahn takes another walk around town. This is when we gain control. As he leaves the well the tree is in, a woman exits the house he peeked into earlier named Mei. She's sowing Vahn's new hunting clothes but needs some updated measurements for him. Vahn can take this conversation in several ways, depending on player's choice, but they'll lead to Mei waiting at Vahn's house.

I took this time to look around the village and get a lay of the land. Vahn's martial arts instructor is on the beach and can give you the rundown on combat. It's part turn based, part fighter, part programming. On a character's turn, you can input a series of commands that the character will act on. These commands are based on enemy position, so don't use low attacks on flying mobs. If you input a certain series, the character will perform a special attack called an art. Tetsu teaches us how to summersault.

Mei bemoans that Vahn has grown a lot since the last measurements, but she does what she needs to do quickly. Vahn's little sister, Nene, embarrassed her when she asked if Mei is in love with Vahn. But Vahn's not-girlfriend leaves, and twilight falls upon the town. The hunters return home, and everyone is excited. But they shouldn't be. The men haul back a deadman. Juno, Mei's father, was attacked when the mist rolled in. While the mist doesn't affect humans, it always brings forth the mad seru. The villagers take Juno's corpse home, and an elderly couple stay with the grieving Mei. Vahn heads home and goes to bed.

The entire village is awoken by a loud bang. Vahn checks it out and sees most of the village is at the massive gate. Something is knocking on it... A voice from nowhere talks to the villagers and says they're all going to die. A strange being that resembles a lich teleports in and suggests the humans end their struggle and accept the seru. Vahn's master tries to attack the lich, Zeto, but a barrier stops him. He then calls outside the walls and tells a massive (presumed) seru to attack. The wolf like being screams, and the wall crumbles. A squad of tiny seru invade the town.

Random battles against a green slime and a wolfman can occur, but the seru, gimard, appears on screen. Don't fight the gimard. They're too tough and take a long time to kill. Instead, just walk around the village. Villagers ask for a safe place, and Nene can heal you if the mobs get to ya. The goal is to talk to the Genesis Tree but check in on Mei first. She'll give you a reward when all this is over that I don't think you'll get if you ignore her or don't take her back to your house.

Vahn will approach the Genesis Tree, and another voice calls out to him. A green and red rock appears before Vahn, urging Vahn to equip him. This is Meta, and it's unlike any other seru. Meta is a ra-seru, and they're not affected by the mist. Vahn fuses with Meta, who wants him to bring everyone in the village to the tree. This is done automatically, and everyone gathers around the deadwood. Meta wants everyone to pray to the tree for safety and peace. Despite everyone not trusting a seru, they trust Vahn and do it. The tree begins to glow and bloom before a wave of mist clearing energy shockwaves out from the tree. The mad seru... disappear, and neither Zeto nor the wolf titan are anywhere to be seen. Vahn, out of exhaustion, collapses.

He awakes in the morning to see the funeral for three people. Two randos and Juno. The elder preaches about the world's gods and the afterlife as they push the bodies out to see. A mourning Mei chases her father's coffin, but the tears stop here. They actually made tears for her. The devs are good, and why is that what I was focusing on? A mother tries to teach her young son about death as the scene skips towards midday.

Vahn will no longer be a hunter. Meta has given him a new role: save the world. Vahn's to travel the world and revive the Genesis Trees scattered throughout. This will remove the mist and restart human development. As he leaves, Mei runs out to him. She's finished his hunter clothes and wants to see them used. She also gives him her pendant, which increases HP by ten percent. The village elder suggested Vahn visit Bueno Temple to the north. He believes that Mei's mom, Maya, could still be alive if she's there. That's where she was ten years ago when the mist first appeared. A shop has also opened up in Rim Elm that sells gear.

Along the route to the temple, Vahn finds a fountain where the village hunters are resting at. A stranger no one has ever seen before is also there, regaling them about his home, Drake Castle. The man asks Vahn to see if the king is alive, which I'll do...

...tomorrow!

I'm enjoying LoL so far. Obviously, there's nothing groundbreaking yet, but the charm is already apparent. Also, the wall being destroyed reminds me that the Attack on Titan: Final Season, this time we probably mean it, I swear; trust me starts tonight.