Last Armageddon (PC Engine CD) Playthrough

I'm starting to make a dent in all the Japanese import PC Engine CD RPGs I picked up while basically buying any RPG I came across at local stores for the system. This one looks to be a pretty out of the ordinary JRPG. One big difference is that your party consists entirely of monsters from the demon world (Makai). I'll be translating the text as I play. Since the one semester I took of Japanese in college many years ago is nowhere near sufficient for me to translate it myself, I'll be relying on online translators for all the text. If the cutscenes do not have subtitles, then I'll just have to make an educated guess as to what they're saying -- I will not be translating them if that's the case. I'll be using translate.google.com www.bing.com/translator and nihongodera.com/tools/kana-converter with the last site giving word by word translations. If those all match, I think I can be pretty sure that it's a decently accurate translation. It seems that this game will not have any towns, which means there probably won't be much dialogue, so I'm hoping this won't take the 5 months to get through like the last import RPG I played. With the manual translated, the biggest questions I have are regarding how exactly the monster merging will work. If two monsters in the party get merged, won't that mean that the party will reduce in size each time? If so, will I get a replacement monster? Or maybe I'm just completely misunderstanding and the monster that hits the designated level simply acquires the abilities of the monster it merges with and gets stat (parameter, in this game) boosts from the other monster without affecting the other monster. I guess I'll find out in due time, so on with the game.

...or not. Checking out the Monster Encyclopedia available at the New/Load Game screen, I don't know if every monster that can be at your disposal is given, but it does have entries for 156 of them. One thing the manual doesn't mention is that the base monsters evolve at three specific levels (5, 9, and 13) prior to the first level they merge at (17, with a 2nd merger at level 34). So, the encyclopedia lists 108 monsters from merging. With the manual stating there are 150 types of aliens, that's a lot of creatures. After taking a bit of a detour of about a week to translate the Monster Encyclopedia, I finally start playing. A minor annoyance is that you can't skip over the movie that plays prior to the New/Load/Encyclopedia screen until the narrator speaks for about 5 seconds, so you're stuck watching around 10 seconds of the opening movie every time you fire up the game. An immediate somewhat major drawback to the game is that you can only have one saved game. Starting out with the day party of Orc, Skeleton, Giant Snake, and Harpy, we're on a skeletal structure surrounded by 10 stone tablets or slates -- for some reason, the translations I've seen online for them is "Lithograph", but I disagree with that choice, considering they're large stone slabs with writing chiseled into them. Walking onto what appears to be the entrance to the large structure nets a still image of friendly monsters with voice work. I can pick out them wishing us good luck at the end, so this must be the entrance to the demon world, which you don't actually enter like I was expecting. Examining the stones, the lone red slate (Slate 6) states that 12 red stones are some sort of qualification and a phantom key is some sort of proof. One of the gray slates (72) mentions help from your comrades beyond the Fang Gate, which must be the name of the gate to the demon world, is necessary for success. Another slate (73) mentions a white continent to the northwest and the road to it will appear at night. Another (75) says to pay attention to the slates that state "Listen carefully", and it might be a good idea to write down what they say -- you better write them down immediately, as re-examining the slates only tells you what number the slate is. Finally (76), we find out that there are 108 of these slates. The other slates (68-71 and 74) don't have anything that seems important on them.

I'll talk a little bit about the battles. The menu option it starts out on is Auto-Battle, which just makes everyone physically attack the enemy. If you choose this, the battles go by pretty briskly. Beware, though, as you cannot cancel, even though the manual says you can with the II Button. Rather than getting generic experience, the monsters' parameters (stats) individually get experience depending on what it does, similar to Final Fantasy II (Last Armageddon originally released on PC-88 about a half year prior to Final Fantasy II's original Famicom release). It appears that the Health (HP), Vitality, and Agility parameters gain experience every battle. Even if a monster dies in battle, it gains experience. Checking out the Fang Gate after taking damage, it fully heals the party and removes all status ailments, including Dead, at no cost.

At this point, I'm going to try to explore as much of the landmass we're on and write down what all the slates here have to say before entering any structures. The hint section of the manual suggests staying close to the demon world and grinding up Jin in order to make weapons and armor. Since all life on Earth had been wiped out, I'm guessing there are no towns. So, unless enemies drop items, the only way to get any is to make them ourselves. There is one piece of equipment in the manual, which states that it lists every piece of equipment in the game, that we can't make, and that's the Azoth Sword. The manual doesn't mention anything particularly special about the Azoth Sword, so I guess I'll find out in the course of playing. Getting into more battles, my assumption about those parameters that always gain experience was wrong, as those four only gain experience if the monster melee attacks. If a monster only uses its special ability attacks or casts spells, only that one parameter (Attack Power for performing special attacks and Magic Power for casting spells) will gain experience. So, a monster can really lag behind the others with respect to its overall exp if you aren't having it do melee attacks while the others are. Having gained enough Jin to start making some equipment, I'm not seeing anywhere where the equipment's effects are shown. Orc made and equipped an Assassin's Dagger, but his parameters did not change. I guess I'll just assume that the more expensive it is to make, the better it is. During our wandering, one of those random natural disasters befell us, as a lightning storm reduced everyone's HP to 1. Since it was just a few steps from the Fang Gate, it was no problem getting everyone back to 100%. 22:00 rolled around, and the party changed to the night party of Gargoyle, Goblin, Cyclops, and Slime. Still scouting around the starting landmass, this party also got hit by the random natural catastrophe of tornadoes, which likewise put everyone to 1HP.

With the northern part of this continent, as well as the neighboring landmasses, having a marked increase in enemy strength, we'll stick to the southern part and check out all the slates there. Speaking of the neighboring landmasses: With monsters in every party being vulnerable to water, which means that they take damage by walking into water, it's useful that each of the three parties has a monster that can fly. As of right now, the only terrain that blocks flight is the red mountains, which just makes exploring slightly annoying. The slate (82) southeast of the Fang Gate, in the area that looks like India, mentions something being invisible but definitely there, so this might be important. Making it to the east coast and heading north and circling back, one of those slates (83) that say to listen carefully only says something like those with really bad luck have felt the horror of escaping. The red slate (7) near a small structure in the southwest part of this continent tells of a brightly shining disc that holds the "History of Ruin", and it can be found on the white continent. Continuing on our zigzag path heading north, the next slates (62, 63, 77, 78, 64, and 57) all have nothing that seems important, being more like philosophical tracts. At this point, the monsters are becoming a bit tough, so I think we'll check out the two small structures we came across, located near the SE and SW corners of the continent. During all this, Slime's Attack Power hit Level 5 and it learned new abilities. Since Overall Level 5 is also when monsters first evolve, I'm wondering if learning new abilities and spells will all happen at the same levels. I'm wondering how the Bad Luck parameter gains experience, as no one has gained a single point of experience in it. Based on Slate 83, maybe it's trying and failing to run from battle. Those small structures will have to wait a bit, as the first month is over, and the second month begins with the Salvan Crushing Day and the final party of Golem, Minotaur, Dragonewt (which is given as just Dragon on the main screen), and Andro-Sphinx. The game starts on 1/13, and I wasn't playing anywhere near long enough for the first month to have 31 days. I wasn't paying that close attention, but it couldn't have been more than a few days. Maybe the months have 14 days. Interestingly, all four monsters in this party start out with 19 exp in every stat, which is 1 less than is needed to level up. They also each start out with 30,000 Jin. This would be really useful, except that Minotaur is the only one that can actually equip anything. Since we have the Jin, Minotaur makes himself a Satan Axe and a suit of Giant Mail, using up 30k for each of them. Time goes by relatively quickly at the rate of 3 minutes per second on every day except Salvan Crushing Day. On Salvan Crushing Day, time moves at 1 minute per second. Unsurprisingly, we get hit by the natural catastrophe during Salvan Crushing Day, which is an earthquake, and it also takes everyone down to 1HP. Andro-Sphinx has the ability to Return to the Demon World (Makai ni kaeru), so she instantly teleports us back to the Fang Gate to heal up. I neglected to try out the special ability of Clairvoyance (Senrigan) with the prior parties, but checking it out with Minotaur, it shows the map of what I'm guessing is the entire overworld with all the slates marked on them as well as a flashing beacon at your location.

Picking up our exploration where we left off, making it to a little peninsula on the west coast of the northern part of the continent, one of the two slates here (56) mentions a monument that hides light and extinguishes warmth, which might be important. The other one here (49) just mentions the Snake clan's attribute of being immune to poison. Circling north and back east, the next one (50) references Minotaur's clairvoyance ability. Back to the east coast, the slate here (58) has another possibly important clue, saying something about forgetting the word "seed" and clinging to "individual" activating everything. Heading back west, we come to another small structure like those in the SE and SW corners. The slate a little to the south (41) just mentions that Dragons come in a variety of colors. A somewhat large peninsula makes up the northwest corner of the continent, and located on it are a couple slates. The gray one (34) says the Minotaur clan only has superhuman strength at its disposal. The red slate (3) says a "Mysterious Key" is on a ship that descends from the sky. I'm guessing this is the spaceship that is mentioned in the manual. Back at the northern small structure, another slate (42) is to its northeast, which only says that the Skeleton clan's existence is a contradiction. An isthmus connects this continent to another continent that takes up the vast majority of the eastern half of the map. We've ignored those structures for long enough, so we'll pause our exploration to check them out. With time moving as slow as it does on Salvan Crushing Day, our party has not changed. As a result of that Minotaur, Dragonewt, and Andro-Sphinx have all had their Attack Power hit level 5 for upgrades to their special attack abilities. Trying them out, it seems that the upgrades do twice as much damage, which makes those difficult battles much more manageable. While we were exploring, my hunch about failing to escape giving experience to Bad Luck was wrong, so I'm still in the dark as to how that parameter gets exp. I was also wrong about being unable to cancel Auto-Battle. I think you have to hit a sweet spot between the enemy's and your attacks, which I was unable to do. The only way I was able to cancel it was to put the II Button's Turbo switch on max and hold down the II Button.

Heading to the southwest structure, walking onto it shows a strange cylindrical building with a few aliens guarding it. We then get attacked by a large alien called a Gubesutos. It can poison us, which does a point of damage every round. Its standard attack isn't too dangerous, so we're easily able to defeat it. We receive ID Card Part A for our troubles. This battle can be repeated, I'm guessing, as many times as you want. I was expecting this to be a dungeon. With a quick stop back at the Fang Gate to heal up, we then visit the southeast structure. It gives the same image with the alien guards and we then get to battle a Tumuura. This alien is much more dangerous, as it can Paralyze us, and it immediately paralyzes the entire party. This is the first game I believe I've played where when a character is paralyzed, it can still cast magic. It's actually the only thing the character can do. Fortunately, Minotaur and Dragonewt have offensive magic, so they repeatedly cast Jagi (electric shock) and Fosu Maiki (all enemy fireball) respectively, while Golem and Andro-Sphinx are forced to cast Zahomu (petrify) and Deka (silence) which have no effect, but they literally have to cast spells every round. Andro-Sphinx does have Sheru (healing), so she is useful occasionally. Even when a character runs out of MP, it still has to cast spells, simply getting a "not enough MP" message. Defeating it gets us ID Card Part C. Luckily, while paralysis does remain after the battle, and prevents anyone who is paralyzed from using their special abilities, it doesn't prevent us from moving or flying. Making the thankfully relatively short trip back to the Fang Gate, we heal up and then head for the northern structure. Again, the same image is shown before we get attacked by a Domurusuku. This one can cast Sleep, which ends up being more dangerous yet, as being attacked doesn't awaken a sleeping character. After getting wiped out a couple times (I was thinking maybe it wouldn't put the entire party to sleep, but that didn't happen), Andro-Sphinx had to make some DISLEEP potions. Not knowing what the difference between the three are, as they're all called the same thing with only the color of the potion and the cost to make being different, and figuring there would be at least one that cures the entire party, she makes 4 of each so everyone can have all three. They're all very cheap, so this doesn't put a real dent in our funds. Trying again, only the most expensive one that costs all of 600 Jin cures the entire party. Since the cheapest one didn't work, I can only guess that it must be used immediately for it to work. Using up most of the potions, we're able to defeat it on this try. Unsurprisingly, we get ID Card Part B for our troubles. Now we need to find out where they're used.

Andro-Sphinx became the first monster to reach overall level 5, which gave her sprite wings. She's still listed as A-Sphinx on-screen, while in the Monster Encyclopedia, she would be Sphinx. I also learned that spells upgrade at Magic Power Level 4. So, the attack spells go from attacking a single enemy to all enemies. Trying it out in a random battle against the maximum 8 enemies, Dragonewt was able to wipe out the entire enemy with one casting of Fosu Maiki. Another thing I haven't figured out is how to use the Defense Abilities, as there's no option in the battle menu and they don't show up in the list of abilities to use if you choose to use a Special Ability. After a few more battles, Minotaur hit overall level 5, becoming Humbaba, while still being labeled as Minotaur. Also, confirming one of my hunches, Attack Abilities upgrade again at Attack Power level 9, matching the monster evolution levels. And, oh boy, did Andro-Sphinx become extremely powerful as her Phantom Voice upgraded to Banshee Voice and now, in addition to doing more damage, attacks all enemies, meaning she can wipe out most groups of enemies at this point with one attack. One quick strategy I figured out is to spend the first round having everyone defend, since it seems that the enemy can't damage a character that's defending. This will guarantee that everyone gets some experience for that stat, when they would normally only get some if they're attacked.

Before heading to the large eastern continent, we'll check out all the little islands around the western continent. The island directly south of the Fang Gate just has a bunch of trees on it. Flying west to the next small island, the slate here (81) has nothing seemingly important to say. Turning south, the next island has a couple slates on it, one (89) just mentioning it would be prudent to petrify your enemy before being petrified yourself, and the other (90) suggesting that the spells Hedge (barrier that blocks attacks) and Nuba (invisibility) are indispensable. Another of the 12 red slates (11) is on the western of the southernmost pair of islands, just saying that someone came here of their own volition. I'm not sure why that would be so important. On the eastern island, the slate (99) talks of a hospital where the Orc's true form will become known. A potentially dangerous aspect about the gray slates on these islands is that the party takes damage by trying to reexamine them. While we could continue south to reach the northern islands, thanks to the world having the classic donut form, we took a bit of damage, so we stop by the Fang Gate to fully heal up. On the large island in what's like a bay north of the western continent, the red slate (4) says not to look to the heavens as there's something there that's best left unknown. The slate on the northeastern corner of the island (27) is the one from the opening movie, and it says something like whoever returns the axis of the planet and transforms it into a place of rest will become the ruler of the Earth's surface. The northwestern slate (26) says that the Orcs have become lucky after once plundering the treasures of the dead. On the small island northeast of this island, the slate here (17) mentions a hunger demon that ate everything in the land, not even leaving the souls behind. During all this, Golem evolved to Clay Golem and Dragonewt evolved to Wyvern. Evolving is merely cosmetic, as stats do not get a boost from it -- they also don't get a boost when the monster's level increases. It appears that the overall level's only purpose is for the points at which they merge.

I was thinking the icy island up here was the northwestern island from before and we wouldn't be able to land on it, but that's not the case. There are no slates on this island, with only what looks like a large stone slab, similar to a casket, inside a barrier. Trying to examine it puts us into our first dungeon, the Cold Sleep Room. There are a couple annoying aliens in here that can inflict either Poison or Mad, although I'm not seeing any downside to being Mad -- the manual says you won't be able to control a Mad monster, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Oh, nice, Dragonewt learned Sheru (healing) at Magic Power Level 8. That's the first time a monster gained a new spell or ability as opposed to an upgrade that replaces the lower level spell or ability. On the topic of healing spells, no experience is gained by casting them outside of battle. This makes sense, as otherwise you could just sit by the Fang Gate and repeatedly cast healing spells to gain experience and then take one step to the Gate to restore MP. With the end of Salvan's Crushing Day approaching, due to the high probability of getting hit with status effects as well as a decent increase in the overall toughness of the aliens, we'll leave exploring this place until either the other two parties get decently leveled up or the next Crushing Day. Back to exploring the outdoors, but this time with the day and night parties, we head to the isthmus. Just south of the isthmus is a small island with a couple slates on it. They just mention that (51) Harpies are allowed to exist due to their terrible appearance and stench, and (52) Gargoyle have the ability to make tools. The two slates on the isthmus are more of the race attributes, with (43) the Slimes being hated because of their appearance and (35) Snakes having themselves created their image of being wicked people. A little south of slate 35 at the eastern end of the isthmus is another one of those small structures. Walking onto it, the same image of aliens guarding it is shown and then we fight Nazumaimu. It can petrify, but doesn't seem to want to petrify Slime for some reason. The special abilities of Gargoyle, Cyclops, and Slime (Goblin doesn't have any attack abilities) all do decent damage, so they're able to whittle it down a good bit before being stoned, with Slime finishing it off. We're rewarded with ID Card Part D, which gives us all four parts of the ID Card, which we then assemble. Since this has some voice work, in order to record it, I reload and have Gargoyle make all party DISTONE potions for everyone and redo the battle. The flying monsters being petrified does not prevent them from actually flying, so we're able to make it back to the Fang Gate with Gargoyle being petrified.

While we were exploring, I finally figured out how the Bad Luck parameter gains experience. Rather than failing to escape, a successful escape is what's needed, and I was only able to successfully escape via the spell Pido. While the monsters do gain all the experience from a battle they escape from, the party doesn't get any Jin -- and if Pido is successful, it'll have you escape even after defeating all the enemies, thus depriving you of the Jin. Also during our travels, all four members of the night party evolved, with Gargoyle becoming Balrog, Goblin becoming Hobgoblin, Cyclops becoming Titanclops, and Slime becoming Black Pudding. Another thing I realized is that if the day and night parties visit the demon world, an entire day passes, which explains why Salvan's Crushing Day came so soon. No time passes if you visit the demon world during Salvan's Crushing Day. So, just in case the game has a time limit, when the day or night party really needs to visit the demon world to heal, since random encounters only occur when you're moving, we'll just stay stationary until 10:00 or 22:00 when the party changes, as the monsters get fully healed while sitting on the sidelines in the demon world. Now that I'm more familiar with the game, it turns out that none of the day party members has either Clairvoyance or the ability to Return to the Demon World, which gives another reason not to explore the Cold Sleep Room with them. I'll definitely need to make sure one of them merges with a monster with Return to the Demon World at the first opportunity, as that ability also serves the purpose of teleporting out of dungeons, as it can be used anywhere.

Thanks to Hardcore Gaming 101 having a link to a site in Japanese http://www.moemoe.gr.jp/~yourtoy/last/index.html that has the text to the MSX2 release, it looks like I'll be able to translate most of the voice-only cutscenes -- the Fang Gate scene seems to be missing, so maybe it's just not in the MSX2 version. The opening movie was about a 95% match and the ID card completely matched the MSX2 text. The only thing of note from the opening movie is that some alien alliance is planning on making Earth their 131st colony and they've begun to colonize. The demons are then given the choice to either obey or be killed. For the short scene where the 4 parts of the ID card are assembled, Dragonewt (even if you aren't using that party at the time) thinks it must be the key to the alien's base, wherever that is. That website also calls those structures where we got the four ID card parts Alien Camps.

Since I'm going to leave the Cold Sleep Room for later, we start to explore the eastern continent, now with the day party. All four monsters make their first evolution, with Orc becoming Ogre, Skeleton becoming Knight Skeleton, Giant Snake becoming Stoor Worm, and Harpy becoming Great Harpy. Taking it methodically, we head up to the triangular peninsula in the northwest. Two of the three slates here (13 & 18) don't have anything seemingly important on them. The third one (14) says the Tower of No Return will take you on a fantastic journey and everyone will want to experience this. So, maybe all three parties will have to venture in there? Making our way east along the northern coast, the first slate we come across (28) mentions the Dragons' strength against fire. The next one (15), located on a small peninsula, just mentions how whether people prayed to God or cursed him, the result was the same. Continuing, slate 20 mentions how the ax is fitting for Minotaur -- Minotaurs can also wield spears. The next small peninsula jutting into the northern sea holds another red slate (1), with it mentioning a Pegasus that used to fly the skies, but it seems to have flown into the Tower of No Return and plummeted to its death. The next two slates (21 & 22) simply speak about the Gargoyles' wings and claws. The final slate (16) along the northern coast is one of those that starts with "Listen carefully", and this one actually seems to have something important. There is a legendary sword that will be revealed by the burning flame of some "Basque Tree". I wonder if this is the Azoth Sword. Turning south and starting to head back west, there are four slates arranged in a diamond. The north slate is another of the red variety (2) and it just makes another mention of the 108 slates. The other three are more that speak of the monsters' attributes, with 23 talking about Harpy's shriek, 24 talking about Orc's powerful arms, and 25 talking about Goblin's boundless imagination. The next three on our trip back across the continent are more of the monster attribute kind. Slate 32 mentions how Slime is free to move around everywhere, 33 states Sphinx can see the future, and 31 speaks of how Cyclops can see far away, which I'm guessing is a reference to its Clairvoyance ability. Back at the west coast, we won't be able to zigzag across the continent as we can't fly over the red mountains, which blocks off the interior of the northern half of the continent. As we start to head south along the west coast, the first slate (19) says something along the lines of Salvan's energy allowing passage down a new path when that energy is put into play. I wonder if this has some connection with slate 58, which mentioned something about everything being activated. The next six slates are more of the monster attribute kind. 36 speaks of Goblin's weapon and armor creation abilities, 29 just says Orc is hated, 37 says Harpy's joy is excessively vain, 44 speaks of Slime's assimilation ability, 45 says something about the vestiges of Earth being burned into Sphinx's eyes, and 53 says Goblin can see light even in darkness.

Spotting a large skull in the mountains to the east that looks like it could be a possible way to enter the interior, we go to investigate. Walking onto it, we're immediately put into battle against a multi-eyed worm-like alien called a Neruaaji. It can inflict poison and it does a decent amount of damage with its physical attack (in the teens, where everyone has 50-90 HP), but with Skeleton, Giant Snake, and Harpy doing 150-200 damage with their special attacks (unfortunately, Orc has no special attack and does practically no damage and has no useful spell), it goes down after about a dozen rounds without any trouble. This does allow us into the interior, but we'll leave that for after we visit all the slates remaining on the overworld, which I'm guessing will be the rest of them. Crossing back through the skull triggers a battle with normal alien enemies, and this happens every time you cross through the skull. During our trek, I found out that the Bad Luck parameter actually has an interesting effect, as its level seems to determine how many HP the monster will have after one of those random natural catastrophe, i.e. if the monster's Bad Luck level is 4, it will have 4HP after the catastrophe. Also during our travels, Harpy's Voice attack ability hit level 9 and upgraded to the all enemy Banshee Voice, making her another extremely powerful party member, like Andro-Sphinx, being able to wipe out entire groups of any non-boss enemy we've encountered up to this point with a single attack. On the subject of levels, the amount of experience to gain a level increases by 40 for each successive level, starting with level 2, i.e. level 2 is attained at 20 exp, level 3 at 80 (level 2 + 60), level 4 at 180 (level 3 + 100), level 5 at 320 (level 4 + 140), level 6 at 500 (level 5 + 180), etc.

The southern part of the eastern continent looks like a desert, and the sand dunes that form the border of it, as well as being scattered around the interior of the desert, damage the party. So, we easily avoid these dunes by simply flying over them, much like the water. A bit to the southwest of the skull gate, slate 54 refers to how Orc has no attack abilities. Continuing south around the desert, the next slate (65) takes a jab at how who becomes kings has been determined. Oh, nice. Skeleton's Magic Power reached level 4 and it learned the cure poison spell, Kiisu. Heading back to the northeast part of the continent and then heading back south along the east coast, the slate (39) at the west end of the bay between the northernmost peninsulas refers to Golem's water vulnerability. On the southern of the two peninsulas, one slate (47) mentions Golem came from nothing and the other (40) says that those that fight against Dragon are called heroes and are respected. Heh. Nestled in the red mountains to the southwest is another red slate (5), which only says the past was built upon blood and lust. As this is a dead end, heading back to the southeast, a pair of slates state that (48) Snake can use its body as a weapon and (55) Skeleton is vulnerable to water. A little to the southwest of the pair, slate 60 says something about the world being unable to endure under the enormous power of desire, with desire being in quotation marks. I wonder if all the words in quotes will be used somewhere. The eastern continent looks somewhat like a foot with the heel raised, like someone is walking but still has their toes on the ground. One of the two slates in the heel region (61) doesn't seem to have anything important on it and the other one (67) mentions a lone wise man who spoke about everything.

Since we've cleared the southern part of the ring of mountains blocking the interior, we resume our zigzag path, flying across to the western coast. Heading south and then back east, there's a red slate (8) in around the middle of the northern edge of the desert, and it mentions a bronze key dyed with blood that's the key to some place called Garma. In the northeast corner of the desert, another slate (66) with words in quotes says something along the lines of effective knowledge and excellence of being become double-edged swords and alternately bring stability and destruction. Circling south and back west, on the coast is another slate (79) with words in quotes, but the actual message doesn't seem to be important. All the way back on the east coast, slate 85 is one of the "Listen carefully" ones, and it says that some Magic Cloak has the power to drive off some demon. Heading all the way back west, slate 84 is another "Listen carefully" one, and it mentions that some Black Armor can heal wounds. Oooh, that would be nice. Back at the east coast is another "Listen carefully" slate (96) that says Minotaur can learn its true form at the Hospital, just like slate 99 said about Orc. I have a feeling that a sequence of 12 slates will all say the same thing for each monster. All the way back west, quickly disproving my hunch, slates 93 and 92 say Snake and Harpy can learn what their true forms are at the Church. A little to the southwest, we find another red slate (12) that just tells us that we'll be tested. Adding Gargoyle and Skeleton to the list of who will need to visit the Church are slates 94 and 95 in the southern part of the desert. Directly west of slate 94, on the outskirts of the desert, slate 102 says Cyclops will need to visit the School to learn what its true form is. A couple slates (91 & 105) on the toe of the continent bring up the water spell Bibu and fire spell Maiki, which seem be have been named after disciples of those disciplines, and that only a foolish person would plow ahead without magic. Heading back east along the southern coast, slate 100 says Dragonewt will learn its true form at the Police Station. I guess there's going to be a town somewhere that we'll be exploring at some point. Continuing east, slate 107 just says some of the strong are weak against fire magic. Slate 106 basically repeats slate 6, speaking of the red slates being the qualification and the phantom key being the proof. Slate 103 says Andro-Sphinx will learn its true form at the School.

Flying to the decent sized island in the southeast corner of the map, the slate (80) on the tip of the northwest peninsula just says something about the power to destroy being stronger than the power to survive. The slate (86) at the base of that peninsula says something like the Hyde Sword is hidden in gauntlets, which points to the note in the manual about how the Hyde Sword can only be equipped when gauntlets are equipped. Moving east along the northern coast, slate 87 says that the thing the Skeleton clan hates the most is silver, which again points to a note in the manual, this time about how the Silver Sword can't be equipped when a Skeleton, including monsters merged with Skeleton, is in the party. Two red slates are on the northeast peninsula, with slate 9 saying to know your own weakness and 10 speaking of the burning Basque Tree. That finishes off the 12 red slates. The gray slate (88) on this peninsula again speaks of the red slates and key, saying a new path won't open otherwise. At the tip of this peninsula must be the Tower of No Return, and trying to enter it just gets us an image of the door and some voice work, likely saying something along the lines of how we can't enter, since we don't have the Phantom Key. The monsters on this island are a pretty good step up in strength, with a few doing some serious damage as well as ones that can petrify us. Between the two little patches of desert, a slate (97) says Slime will need to visit the Hospital to learn of its true form. The slate (98) on the southeast corner of the island says Goblin will also have to visit the Hospital. On the southwest corner, the slate here (108) is a match for 107, only replacing fire magic with water magic. A little northeast of 108, the slate (104) just warns that the weak shouldn't enter the Tower of No Return. Assuming we didn't miss any, that means the remaining four slates must be in the interior of the eastern continent beyond that skull gate.

During our exploration, both the day and night parties all hit level 9 and made their second evolution. The day party now are Troll, Dullahan, Hydra, and Griffon, and the night party now are Devil, Bugbear, Clairbowans, and Gray Ooze. Heading back to the skull gate and fighting the battle to get through, we head to the northwest corner to find a slate (30) that states Skeleton can make tools (items). In the northeast corner is what looks like the alien spacecraft seen in the opening movie. There's some voice work when we try to enter, and I'm guessing because we have the assembled ID Card, we're allowed in. I don't want to tackle this yet, so we immediately leave. Back outside, a bit south of slate 30, slate 38 says the strongest enemy is in a strange-looking ship, which I'm guessing is that spaceship. Further south in the interior, directly below the skull gate, slate 59 doesn't say anything important. That just leaves slate 101, which I can't find. I'm guessing its in the southern part of the world along with all the other slates that say where each monster can find its true form. The one I'm missing is for Golem, and I'm guessing the location is the Police Station. Since I'm not going to wander around hunting for it, we'll head to the Cold Sleep Room.

Rather than trying to map out the place, we'll just follow the tried and true method of dungeon exploration by hugging the right wall. Oh, time in here flows at the same rate as on Salvan Crushing Day. In the Message Room, examining what looks like a poster on the north wall, an image of a hand reaching towards a glowing ball of something is shown along with some voice work. Unfortunately, this is not included in that MSX2 site, so I'll likely never know what is being said. Moving along and eventually following the directions on the wall pointing the way to the Cold Sleep Room, the day party all reaches level 13 and makes their final evolution, with Orc becoming Trote, Skeleton becoming Lich, Giant Snake becoming King Hydra, and Harpy becoming Phoenix. Harpy also reached Defense Level 10 and Wing Storm became Feather Storm. I don't know if this new Defense Ability really boosted her defense, but she's no longer the preferred target of our enemies, which is really nice since most of them did some damage to her, as now they all attack Giant Snake and are unable to inflict any damage. This party also acquired over 40k Jin, so Orc made the most expensive weapon that Skeleton or Orc can wield, not counting the Silver Sword that supposedly this party can't equip due to Skeleton being in it, the Arc Sword. Wow! Even though it doesn't show any change in its parameters, Skeleton has gone from dealing maybe 20 damage to around 200 damage with its melee attack. I'll definitely be making another one for Orc once we get the funds. Actually, it probably would be best to transfer the one we have to Orc since he doesn't have any attack abilities, as Skeleton's Missile Bone attack ability does 150 damage and can target a back row enemy. Entering the Cold Sleep Room (I guess the dungeon as a whole isn't the Cold Sleep Room, but since it's not labeled as anything, it's probably the best way to identify it), examining the one flashing thing that looks like a medical chart prompts another image to be shown with more voice work. The image makes sense of what's in the room as it shows the same layout but with what looks to be humans inside the objects. This scene is in the MSX2 site, and the humans are actually mummified, which is better portrayed in the MSX2 version's image, and one of them is holding a book to its chest. If this version matches the MSX2 version, we'll need to be using the night party so Gargoyle can read the book.

Since it's getting close to 22:00, we'll just wander around until the party change. While we were wandering around, we came across the CD Room near the stairs up. Well, that's a bit annoying. Heading up the stairs to the CD room causes the perspective to rotate 180 degrees, which means if you're holding up, you'll immediately turn around and head back down the stairs. It's nice that there are some dots on the floor in front of the section of what looks like bookshelves that indicate which one is the one to examine, as there are multiple rooms with shelves lining the walls. Walking onto the dots prompts the scene of a computer terminal in what looks like a computer server room. Again referencing the MSX2 website, it seems that we're missing the correct monster in the party, even though that site seems to indicate Orc is the necessary monster. With our current party, only the first part of what's in the MSX2 version is said, and that is that the room is filled with shining silver discs. While heading back to the Cold Sleep Room, Orc becomes the first monster to reach level 17 and thus is the first to merge. He's given the option of merging with Giant Snake, Golem, or Slime. Even though this will make him vulnerable to water, the petrification immunity makes it worth it. He also now has an attack ability, picking up Golem's Stone Ball, and also gains Golem's spells of Petrify (Zahomu) and Cure Stone (Kopu). Orc still doesn't have a defense ability, which isn't a big deal as he only gets attacked if everyone else defends or is dead, while he usually was the first target for being petrified. We also picked up another 40k Jin, so both Orc and Skeleton are now equipped with Arc Swords.

22:00 finally rolls around and the night party takes over. Back in the Cold Sleep Room, this was the correct party to have (unless you have to visit with both parties), as examining the glowing chart extends the scene to include a similar image as in the MSX2 version shown on the Japanese website. Actually, that site does show both images, but the layout of the chambers is different. Oh, yeah, Gargoyle has the spell, which is more of an ability as it's automatically used when needed, Gurandochako that allows him to read indecipherable characters, which explains needing this party. Gargoyle takes the book from the mummified human and reads it. The book turns out to be a diary, and the final entry says that the Earth has become inhospitable for humans and the Cold Sleep Room will allow them to sleep until the Earth is revived. It would seem to me that how far along the decomposition is would be way beyond the point where a human could be revived, if it was the real world. Hmm... I wonder if the Message Room also has an extended scene with this party. Heading back there, it doesn't. Making our way back to the CD Room, it seems that Goblin is the required party member, as he finds a disc titled "History of Ruin". Unfortunately, the disc player is broken, so he keeps the disc for future use. The only extra image seen with Goblin in the party is that of a CD. Leaving the CD Room and heading up the stairs, there's just a few rooms connected in a straight shot south that leads to a dead end. While we can see more of this floor, it seems we can't access it right now. So, we head back down to see if anything changes in the Cold Sleep and Message Rooms. Neither change, so we're done with this dungeon for now. The only other place we can go to is the spaceship, so we head back there.

Back in the area of the spaceship, there are some suspicious jagged rocks that seem to lead to a dark area in the mountains. That dark area turns out to be where the Basque Tree is. A voiced scene of a burning tree, then a sword jutting out of its trunk, then the sound of the sword being pulled from the tree, and finally an image of a human silhouette (likely to not give away something in the future) holding aloft the sword. This gives us the Azoth Sword, as I thought. Unfortunately, this scene isn't included in the MSX2 site. But... I just noticed that the sound recorder on my phone has a text-to-speech option, and it supports Japanese. So, it looks like I might be able to translate all of these, assuming the text-to-speech works well enough. Recording the sequence with the text-to-speech gives pretty good subtitles in Japanese, which I can then run through the online translators. It starts out with one character (I don't know which, as the only place so far that pairs a voice with the monster's image is during the opening movie, and I'm not going to try to memorize them) stating that this is the Basque Tree. Goblin then pulls the sword out with all his might. It finishes with another monster seemingly marveling at his strength (the phone wasn't very good at this one, and I can't quite make it out myself). Now that I know my phone does a decent enough job, we head back to the Cold Sleep Room dungeon. Checking out the Message Room, the message simply tells us to not lose interest in our path, as the thirst for knowledge built the prior era. We also check out the Cold Sleep and CD Rooms, as they had extra dialog not in the MSX2 version, but neither adds anything of importance. During this time, we built up enough Jin to make Silver Swords for Gargoyle and Orc, which means they are defeating just about every enemy with one hit. In addition to that, since the Azoth Sword isn't equippable and is automatically used by Goblin, the damage stacks with whatever weapon Goblin has equipped. Also, all members of the night party got to level 17 and their first merge. Gargoyle was given the choice of Harpy, Orc, and Minotaur. Since none of the three had any special abilities that this party needs, and Cyclops has an all enemy attack, I went with Orc for the better armor options. Goblin had the choice of Andro-Shinx, Minotaur, and Cyclops. I went with Andro-Sphinx to pick up her Heal spell (Sheru). Cyclops had the choice of Skeleton, Slime, and Dragonewt. I really wanted to pick up better equipment options, but Skeleton is the only one of the three that can equip stuff. I went with Skeleton anyway, planning to slightly downgrade the Silver Swords Gargoyle and Goblin are equipped with due to the manual's note about the sword. However, the manual is wrong in this respect as Gargoyle and Goblin can still equip it. The Silver Sword just can't be given to a monster merged with Skeleton. Finally, Slime has the choice of Goblin, Cyclops, and Gargoyle. Again wanting Slime to be able to equip weapons and armor, I went with Goblin. Unfortunately, even though it would be extreme overkill, the Azoth Sword is only used by Goblin, and not by any monster merged with Goblin.

The final stops for translation purposes before tackling the spaceship are the Fang Gate and Tower of No Return. The Fang Gate expectantly doesn't have anything really important to say, except possibly alluding to the fact that you can only enter once a day. The voice heard at the door to the Tower of No Return tells us that we would be capable of entering, except we don't have the required proof. With that out of the way, we head back to the spaceship. Since we have the completed ID Card, we can enter, with either Giant Snake, which the narrator calls "G. Snake", or Goblin using the card, depending on the time of day. Both characters say the same thing before we enter. Just like in the Cold Sleep Room dungeon, time moves at the same pace as on Salvan's Crushing Day. Making our way through the uneventful maze, we come across a large open area where walking on it damages everyone. Unfortunately, we can't fly in here to avoid it. Luckily, hugging the south and east walls surrounding the area, there's just enough room to walk on where we don't take damage. The aliens in here are no longer defeated with single blows from our weapons and attack abilities. They also give a lot of Jin, so that area dealing damage is easily mitigated by making all-party healing potions. Along some of the paths are what look like small floating balls that bob up and down, but they don't seem to do anything. Oh, if you hold down the I Button, you can speed up time to around 10 minutes per second. Unlike just standing in place and letting time flow as normal, you will get random encounters while speeding up time. We eventually get to a less, um, organic feel. In this area are a bunch of circular devices on the ground that we can walk onto. Ah, they're teleporters. But, this isn't a teleport maze, like one would expect. They seem to be more there just to waste your time, as most of the ones further into the area send us back to the beginning set of five. The remaining ones simply teleport to the next room, which can simply be walked to. Other than the teleporters, there is what looks like a console that we can examine. With the day party, it just says that there are a bunch of strange machines in the room, and that we don't have the right person in our party. So, it looks like we'll wander around until night arrives. While we were exploring, the rest of the day party reached level 17 and merged. Skeleton had the choice of Goblin, Minotaur, and Gargoyle. I went with Minotaur for its Clairvoyance ability. Giant Snake had the choice of Golem, Cyclops, and Harpy. Unfortunately, Cyclops was the only one that can equip weapons and armor, but it's very limited and can't use the best equipment. On the plus side, it does have the Return to the Demon World ability, which this party was lacking. Finally, Harpy had the choice of Andro-Sphinx, Giant Snake, and Goblin. Goblin's the only one that can equip weapons and armor, so this was an easy choice. Hmm... I guess I was wrong about the Silver Sword. No one in this party can carry one, since Skeleton is in it, and trying to make one fails as it's impossible to give it to any party member. At least it doesn't waste the Jin, as it doesn't complete the process. With us getting a hefty amount of Jin, it's time to start equipping everyone with the best of everything. Giant Snake is the cheapest to outfit, having only Cyclops' equipment to choose from, so he gets a Wild Club and Giant Mail. Since this party can't have Silver Swords, Harpy gets an Arc Sword. For armor, everyone but Giant Snake gets a Mars Helm, Hades Shield, Rogue Gauntlets, and Wizard Cloak. Skeleton gets Beelzeb (they probably ran out of room for Beelzebub) Armor, which is the most expensive. While Orc and Harpy can equip Beelzeb Armor, they get Black Armor, since it heals 1HP per in-game minute. Since nothing in here is doing damage, there's no point right now of giving up that special effect. I did find out that a monster can only carry 5 pieces of armor, which includes what's equipped, so we had to ditch a couple now useless items.

Now with the night party, we build up the Jin to fully equip everyone. Hmm... we can't make a Silver Sword for the final member. It seems that the monster merged with Skeleton only prevents you from making the sword. As long as it's already made, having a monster merged with Skeleton doesn't prevent the swords from being equipped or carried, even by any monsters that have merged with Skeleton. So, if possible, I'll have to make sure I make four of them for the Salvan's Crushing Day party before they hit level 17 and possibly merging with Skeleton -- that party should still have 60k remaining of what they started with plus whatever they'd acquired, and four Silver Swords costs 200k total. Back at the console, this party notices the machines in the room are the same as the ones in the Cold Sleep Room dungeon. I guess Goblin gave Gargoyle the CD at some point, as Gargoyle is now carrying it and pops it into one of the machines. The machine then displays some images on its monitor. What I think is the same female voice as in the Message Room's message says that mankind had come to understand everything and needed to perish, having made many mistakes. Whoever she's speaking for has preserved the entire history of the planet in the Tower of No Return, and we'll need the Garma Key to enter it. Is this the same key as the Phantom Key from the slates? Continuing our way through this section of the spaceship, we arrive in a room with a book on a table. Examining the book starts up a 5 minute cutscene of about a half dozen still images, with only about a half second of what could be considered close to animation. The book is the Book of Garma, and reading it, it turns out that the Garma Key has existed throughout the ages and it transforms into a shape that's representative of the era. It then shows a small number of forms the key has taken over the years. The book states that holding something worthy of the key over the book will create the Garma Key. One of our party thinks it's a joke. Another thinks it may be true, and tells of a room where their ancestors hid away the jewelry they stole from humans that was sealed with a number of mysterious keys, and one of them might have been the Garma Key. After some more back and forth among those who don't believe it and those who think it's possible, one of them suggests using the ID Card to test it out. Orc puts it on the book and it is indeed transformed into the Garma Key, with that very quick bit of possible animation showing its transformation. Now that we have the key, we should be able to enter the Tower of No Return on the southeastern island.

Since I was going around in circles searching for the Alien Message that the Japanese site had as encountering prior to the Book of Garma, I ended up deciding to map out the ship. Doing this meant I spent way, way, waaaay more time in this dungeon than I should have. In doing so, all members of both the day and night parties hit level 34 and their second and final merge level. This time, they only had two monsters to choose from. For the day party, Orc went with Minotaur over Skeleton for its electric shock spell (Jagi), Skeleton went with Andro-Sphinx over Slime for her Healing spell (Sheru), Giant Snake went with Slime over Andro-Sphinx just for variety, and Harpy went with Giant Snake over Golem to see if multiple Defense Abilities stack, even though there's probably no way to tell. For the night party, Gargoyle went with Golem over Skeleton for its immunity to petrification, Goblin went with Giant Snake over Golem for its Defense Ability, Cyclops went with Golem over Giant Snake for its petrification immunity, and Slime went with Dragonewt over Golem for its Fireball spell (Maiki). Once they hit their second merge, occasionally during battle, some earthquake spell will happen that deals 184 points of damage to everyone in our party -- it doesn't affect the aliens. This is right around half of our HP. Luckily, it never seems to happen twice in a battle, as a few of our monsters have slightly less than 368 HP. So, whenever this happens, we simply make 6 of the strongest HEALUP potions, each of which restores 30 HP to all party members. This caused me to find out that a character can only carry 8 items. Since everyone is fully equipped, Jin has no other use anymore. The door right next to the Book of Garma leads to the area with the Alien Message, which I had completely ignored for some reason earlier. Arriving at a room with what looks like a screen on the north wall, stepping on the red squares on the floor initiates a battle against a boss, Raguren. It only does physical attacks, and thanks to everyone wearing the best armor as well as their defense power being nicely leveled up, it can't damage us. Since we're probably quite a bit overleveled at this point, it goes down in two rounds. Stepping on the red squares again gets us a cutscene of the alien message. The scene starts out saying that the screen turned on when we entered the room... ummmmm... Anyway, the alien that appears on screen just congratulates us on a job well done making it this far, then has the standard line about how they could easily kill us now but want to see how far we can get. Nothing of great importance is said, but this scene actually has animation, albeit just the cliche futuristic grids and other graphics rotating on the screen. With everything that can be done in here done, we leave and head to the Tower of No Return.

Before going to the tower, I'm going to try to find that last slate (101). After not too long searching the southern part of the world, we come across it a bit to the northwest of slate 105. I was right on it being about Golem, but wrong about where it would learn of its true form, as it will be at the School. Back at the tower, the same voice from before recognizes we are qualified to enter now that we have the Garma Key. Goblin, or Orc if you have the day party, holds up the key and the door opens. Inside the tower, it appears we can't simply walk back out. However, we can exit by either the Return to the Demon World ability or the spell Pin'uddo (Warp out of dungeons) -- the spell Ireenu (Return to the Demon World) does not work indoors. In the southwest part of this floor, examining something like a piece of art on the wall cues a short cutscene. After an extremely short image of what looks like a placard with an unknown language at the top, which I'm guessing would represent the title of the piece, and rows of dashes below it that would be its description, an image of some dinosaurs is shown. The voice tells us that the first rulers of the earth, prior to humans, were the dinosaurs and they were destroyed by an ice age. The next important place on this floor is a room with a couple large statues along the north wall and an orb, or crystal ball, in about the middle. Examining the crystal ball, a human-like head and upper torso appears, telling us to present the key we imagined. Since this is a cutscene, we automatically do so, and it's transformed into the Buresu (Breath?) Key. Examining the crystal ball again does nothing. This new key allows us to enter the yellowish door in the maze-like northern section that's between a couple statues identical to the ones in the room with the crystal ball (without the Buresu Key, the door simply won't open). Having the key starts up a cutscene showing first an image of a Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex, followed by the bones of, I think, a Tyrannosaurus Rex almost completely buried in snow. The narration says that the true history of the dinosaurs was discovered in 2053AD. It then goes on to talk about how whoever it's speaking for grew tired of living a repetitive life, wanting to destroy those who were stronger than them. But, a child was born, and destroying the strong became impossible until the heavens heard their plea. They then learned of the ultimate idea of living and of emptiness and began to walk the path of ruin. It finishes by telling us to open the door to the next era. Going through the doorway and walking a handful of steps into the room teleports us to what I'm guessing is the 2nd floor. Considering it's a tower, I'm going to assume that each new area is a new floor.

The tapestry on this floor doesn't take any exploration to find. This exhibit shows the back of a man holding his arms wide below the sun. The brief narration says that humanity depended on the existence of God and that it was long after humans were born, and that there was a fool named Noah, who I'm guessing is the man in the image. Exploring the area, we arrive in a large room with four of the same statues as on the prior floor as well as another orb. The same images are shown, and basically the same dialog is spoken, except for the lead in by the game's main narrator, as it doesn't fit for this room, and the name of the key it's changed into. We now have the Gold Key. Following the bronze-colored orbs set high in the walls, we arrive at the door to the next floor. As we open the door, another cutscene plays showing Noah building the Ark and then the Ark in extremely choppy waters during the Great Flood. The narration is the voice of Noah telling about how God said the flood would come and Noah would be saved by building a boat. Noah is extremely selfish and only wants to save himself, so he doesn't tell anyone about what he's doing. His family finds out and he's forced to allow them on, as well as taking on animals for food. The flood came as God foretold and they were saved. It ends by saying that humans learned selfishness during this era before telling us to open the door to the next era.

Coming across the crystal ball on this floor first takes care of a hunch I had of needing to view the tapestry before the crystal ball. My hunch was wrong, as we get the next key from the crystal ball, with the Gold Key getting changed into the Cell Key. The exhibit on this floor shows Napoleon Bonaparte on a rearing horse, which I think answers my question about that part of the image shown when we used the CD in the spaceship. The narration says that Napoleon was too strong, and wanted to reform the era through his repeated looting and campaigns. This floor throws a little bit of a twist at us, as when we enter the room with the door the the next floor, we're attacked by the boss Mosutoraso. As with the boss in the spaceship, it only attacks physically and it can't damage us, so it's another pushover. Based on a couple normal enemies abandoning their status effect attacks when we got more powerful, I wonder if these last two bosses actually have status attacks, but we've gotten beyond some strength threshold that makes them abandon that strategy. What's really annoying is that Mosutoraso is in a small patch where random encounters happen every time we start to move. After each battle, we've advanced about a half step. Continuing to move east, it takes a few battles to clear this area. Finally getting to the door, the MSX2 version gives this as being an entry from Marie Antoinette's diary, while this version doesn't mention it being a diary entry. The diary entry is about how Napoleon wears tall shoes and a grandiose hat to hide his shortness, and that he's the embodiment of a complex that hates those taller than him, which is the reason behind his many invasions. After the entry, the normal narrator says humanity learned shame in this era before telling us to open the door to the next era.

The motif has changed, which makes sense with the boss at the end of the previous level, with sections of the walls that look like representations of some of the monsters' faces. None of these do anything, even though they seem to lead us to rooms where the north wall is completely tiled with these wall sections. In the northwest corner of the level is the crystal ball. The same images are shown, and the same dialog is spoken by the figure in the ball, except for the name of the new key. We now have the Boss Key (I think it's supposed to be Boss Key, although the item's name in our inventory has what would be a long o). Circling back down and around to the northeastern part of the floor, instead of something like a painting on the wall, there's a section of the wall where the middle of the tile is simply a lighter color. The section stands out, so it's easy to spot. The image shown is the formation of a mushroom cloud with the cap of the mushroom still on the ground. The narration says that in this era, humanity has embraced chemistry, which provides a shortcut to extinction, and that the single-minded genius, Adolf Hitler, lived during this time. Making our way to the door to the next floor/era, the lone image shown when we open the door is of Hitler in a business suit standing in front of the Nazi flag. While the MSX2 version begins with a line from Hitler, they removed that and only included the dialog from Heinrich Himmler. Himmler says that Hitler was a great man and he was aware of what Hitler was trying to do. However, being in a hurry, defying nature with the destruction he had planned to carry out was too difficult. Himmler finishes with saying it was unavoidable that they would become the era's symbol of evil, but had no regrets being Hitler's right-hand man. The tower's standard narrator then says that humanity was now able to accept the possibility of its destruction, and it's no wonder that Hitler recognized the formula for that destruction. We're then told that humanity learned despair in this era.

The next floor is one of really long dead ends, which makes navigating it very annoying. This floor's exhibit is an image of an old man holding a quill with a comet or meteor streaking across the sky behind him. The narration is that a prophet wrote about mankind's destruction, the time was peaceful and everything was enjoyed as leisure, and humanity had become the embodiment of self-revealing desire. Finding the crystal ball in a room at the end of a spiral corridor, our Boss Key gets replaced by the Storm Key (it's Storm Key in the cutscene, but Chitamu Key in our inventory). At the door to the next floor, the images are a rather gruesome one of a demon eating the head of a human and then people running around during a lightning storm. We're told that the Great Terror came in the year 1999. I'm surprised they went with such a close date, given the game was first released in 1988. The Great Terror was a demon invasion. It then says that everyone thought their destruction would be at the hands of a nuclear war or some pathogen. This shocks our party, as one is incredulous given we've been living underground. Another thinks there's something fishy about the tower, as if it was built in anticipation of us coming here. The normal narrator then finishes off the scene saying humans weren't destroyed, mankind wanted to die and be destroyed, humanity learned foolishness in this era, and history is about to end.

The 6th floor is a simple grid of square columns with a room with the crystal ball in the center. We trade in our Storm Key for the Harufu (Half?) Key. There's another room at the north part of the floor, but there's nothing in it. Hmm... Wandering back and forth through the rows to try to find what we missed, in the row between the 2nd and 3rd rows of columns, there's a spot that isn't identifiable that teleports us to the east side of the floor, which has the same layout. The exhibit is on the outside of the room corresponding to the one with the crystal ball. The scene is of a battle between angels and demons with the narration saying we never forgot the word hope and hope is all that remains. Entering the room, in which another crystal ball can be seen, teleports us back to the west side. Stumbling across the teleport spot again, we're back in the east side and avoid that room. Unsurprisingly, the northern room on this side is where the key is used. The lone image is of a couple people reading books beneath trees. The nearly 4 minutes of dialog tells of how humanity wasn't quite wiped out and prays that the next ruler won't repeat the mistakes of the past. It then goes on to say that the monsters were created by humans' imagination and that the gods will crush the monsters. The narration ends saying that the true enemy that destroyed humanity is upstairs. Our party then questions their own existence before being told to go through the door to the next era.

The 7th floor has a really annoying maze that takes up the southern part. Just outside of the northern end of the maze is the exhibit. The image is of a pile of seemingly dead naked human bodies and the narration says the origin of humanity's destruction is on this floor and that this is the end of the museum. Finding the crystal ball at the end of a corridor, we get the Mesha Key, which to me is clearly called the Mission Key in the narration. Making our way to the door, unsurprisingly standing in our way is another boss, this one a Vigas. As with the last couple bosses, it only physically attacks us and can't damage us. It has a bit more HP than the previous bosses, as it takes us a whole three rounds (after the standard round where everyone defends for those Defense Power experience points) to defeat it. Opening the door starts up a nearly 5 minute cutscene. The scene starts with a bright light that seems to shatter. A voice is heard from beyond the light. After congratulating us on a job well done making it here, it then says that evolution is the root of destruction. We demons weren't who destroyed humanity, but rather the devil in mankind's heart materialized and caused some war which destroyed humanity. After telling us that we learned of fear, an emotion mankind had forgotten long ago, it finishes by telling us to go to the real world and see the true surface of the Earth, where it hopes we won't make the same mistakes mankind did. We then see a vast vista that is the actual surface followed by some toppled office towers of a ruined city. The party realizes that we had been in the underground and that the Tower connects the underground to the surface. A large stone monument is then seen, much like the slates we'd been visiting, and it states that Earth falls on something like the military gate (I can't come up with a better translation) of the Chilius system. We then wonder if the surface was already occupied by the aliens before realizing the aliens played us for fools, making us think we were on the surface. An image of all 12 monsters (in their original forms) is shown standing in the entrance of the Tower. And so ends Part 1.

We emerge from what looks like a destroyed office building, not at all like in the final image in the cutscene, in a rather dreary, gray landscape. The building we came out of can't be re-entered. Using clairvoyance to get the lay of the land, we're on what looks like an island in the northwest corner. It's not an island, but rather in an area surrounded by mountains that cannot be flown over. Mountains seem to surround the entire region of the planet's surface, which does not resemble any area on Earth. There's actually a path through the southern part of the mountains, so we take that. I'm guessing every break in the landmass will actually be a narrow path through the mountains. There are two large areas that look like they have the bulk of the important points of interest, so we ignore them for now and instead head northeast toward what looks like a possible structure. Arriving at it, it looks like a school. Entering, my guess was correct, as I believe we're in a large atrium with shoeboxes (kutsubako). There are several classrooms, a couple rooms with lockers, boys and girls bathrooms, and what looks like indoor tennis courts. None of these have anything important in them. It is nice that when you open the doors, they stay open as long as you don't trigger an event. In what looks like a lab, a doll is on the ground. Walking to it advances time all the way to the end of the month, Feb. 28, in order for the Salvan Crushing Day party to be active, since this is Golem's event. You can't break out of this and have to wait for it to zoom through the days. Since I don't want to waste the 8 days left in the month, I reload. Finding what looks like a library, there's a photograph on the floor. This is for Andro-Sphinx. Again, I reload. Heading up to the school's second floor, there's nothing important there. Back on the ground floor, we find the infirmary with a book lying on the floor, which is for Cyclops. The book is a photo album of humans turning into monsters. Cyclops' doubts about humans deepens as he flips through the book and this awakens him to the fact that humans kill each other while also wishing for peace. He then realizes that he's one of them. The scene ends with him becoming aware of kindness and love, and that humans aren't perfect. Leaving the other two events for later, we leave the school and continue along the path we were taking.

The path dead ends and at the end of the path is the church. None of the rooms off to the sides before reaching the altar have anything in them. Taking the path to the right of the altar and following the right wall, we arrive at a room with something on the ground. Examining it, it turns out to be a broken statue that looks exactly like Gargoyle. He wonders why humans made a statue of him. After all, weren't they hated by humans? It turns out that they were once deemed important by humans, but at some point the humans' values changed, which caused the humans to view them as demons. As with Cyclops, kindness and love are awakened in Gargoyle's consciousness and the scene ends. As we were exploring the church, Goblin's Attack Power hit level 99. While it gives the experience to the next level, when that reaches 0, that parameter stops gaining experience. We also ran into an alien that can actually damage us, and it deals around 700 damage, which is enough to one-shot Cyclops. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for Cyclops being the first choice of who they attack. So, if the aliens get a first strike, he's dead and there's nothing you can do about it. Unfortunately, there's no revive magic and the revive item, Spirit, only restores 1HP and 1MP. Fortunately, the alien is extremely vulnerable to the Fireball spell, as it does over 50k damage to it.

I just noticed that the Japanese website I'm using clearly states it's the PC88 version, not the MSX2 version.

Continuing to follow the right wall, the far right door in the horizontal hallway eventually leads to a crumbling mural. Time flies by in order for the day party to be active. Giant Snake (or just Snake in the narration) unconsciously stares at it, which depicts what appears to be a two headed snake being attacked by a couple humans. This is very different than the narration, which matches the image of the mural in the PC88 version. In the narration (and on the PC88 mural), the mural is of a snake-shaped god being attacked by another god, while people are prostrating themselves on the ground and praying to the snake. Part of what must have been a much larger mural has been destroyed, which again is not represented in this version, but is in the PC88 version. Giant Snake's consciousness then sees the past when humans were holier, and his consciousness gradually becomes controlled by some power. After being in contact with the will of many humans, he's guided back to the present by that power, wondering if everything was created by humans. Kindness and love have been born in Giant Snake and the scene ends. I'm sensing a pattern.

According to the slates, there should be two more events in here, and both are for the day party. Two doors to the west leads us to a room with the church's bell. Examining it, it suddenly starts to ring. The image shown is of the front of the church, which doesn't match the design of the church as seen from outside. The ringing of the bell sends a shock to Skeleton's consciousness along with a light, which Skeleton marvels at. The regret of a human who died without his dreams coming true gave birth to Skeleton. Skeleton then feels that regret, which is... kindness and love.

None of the other rooms on this side of the church have anything in them, which just leaves the doorway west of the altar. Through the open doorway is a room with a statue of what looks like a woman holding a small child. Examining it, the image is of a mother holding a child in front of some ruined buildings. Harpy then sees the statue move. While it's in the middle of rubble, the statue itself is unscathed, as if by some miracle. The statue of a mother and child causes Harpy's consciousness to be filled by a light that had been suppressed by her demonic nature. And, you guessed it, kindness and love return to her consciousness. We've taken care of everything here, so we leave and head back to where we emerged from the mountain pass.

Continuing south and around to the east, we quickly come to a large structure. A note on the door says that no one can enter, but since the door's open, we walk right in. Exploring around, we eventually make it to a large stone tablet. Examining it, this is the machine that made the 108 slates. Either Harpy or Gargoyle (or someone in the Salvan Day Party) reads the paper on the opposite wall, which is a sort of bullet point list. Slates are made once a month on the first day of the month. They're made by absorbing atmospheric components from the surface and underground, which makes this the cause of the extremely hazardous Salvan's Crushing Day. This is another discrepancy caused by sticking to the PC88 script, as Salvan's Crushing Day is the last day of the month in this version. The mystery of the source of Salvan's Crushing Day seems to be solved. The slate is then placed where someone with the highest probability of becoming the next ruler of the planet is. A nice thing about this place is that green lights point you in the right direction. Continuing, we come to a room with a table in it. Examining it, time advances so the night party in active in order for Slime to pick up the item on the desk. The directions on the back tells us that the buttons allow for some object to move back and forth between the surface and underground. I don't know what that means, but Slime thinks it's useful to have, so we take it with us, giving us the Material Transfer Device. Making our way to the end of the factory, a large room has some device in the middle of it. Approaching it, we fight the rather nifty-looking undead boss, Ramjif. Again, it only attacks physically and can't damage us. After 4 rounds, we dispatch it. This is another boss in a patch with random encounters every time we try to move. After a few of these, we're able to reach the device. It turns out to be slate 109 in the middle of production. Gargoyle uses his Gurandochako magic to decipher what's written, which is odd that he needs to use that, as it wasn't required for the other 108 slates. It states that there's a place called Fantasy Land where the few surviving humans are living, and it is forbidden to enter unless you have the heart of a human. With the events in the school and church awakening the human feelings in the monsters' consciousnesses, and being unable to view the cutscene a second time, visiting all of these will likely be required for us to enter Fantasy Land. Examining the unique part of the wall north of the slate in production sends us out of the factory, which is really convenient.

Moving along, we're now on the western of the two large landmasses, and this is a ruined city. Navigating around here is a bit annoying, as the buildings and radio towers have that 3-D appearance, but 2-D interaction, as if they're all lying on the ground. So, you can't walk behind them, but rather have to walk "over" them. In the northern part of the city is the police station, which has POLICE in English at the top of the building, making it easy for me to identify it. Since I want to find the entrance to Fantasy Land and see what happens when we try to enter without everyone regaining kindness and love, we ignore it and continue on our way. The eastern landmass has some odd spheres, which do nothing, and what looks like barracks that can't be entered north of several skyscrapers. The hospital is in the southern part, identifiable by the red cross on the roof. Ignoring the hospital for now, we take the southeast pass through the mountains into the winding section of the planet's surface. We make our way to what sort of looks like a cul-de-sac, which is blocked off by a gate. This is Fantasy Land, and we can see some castle spires behind the gate. We're told that an emotion sensor doesn't acknowledge us and that we should leave. Since we don't have any say in the matter, we move along. Taking the winding path east and then all the way north, we arrive at a tower that looks the exact same from the outside as the Tower of No Return. Trying to enter, we're simply told to enter a number with no option to do so. I'm guessing we'll learn what that number is in Fantasy Land. While we were exploring, we did encounter that one alien that can actually damage us, and it turns out to only be vulnerable to the Fireball spell, which no one in the day party has. This means whenever we run into one during the day, we escape the battle.

With nothing else to do outside, we head back to the hospital. Checking the contents of the slates, Minotaur, Slime, Goblin, and Orc should have their events in here. With the Police Station only having Dragonewt's, this works out perfectly as we can knock out the three non-Salvan Day party members in the hospital first, and that will leave only the 4 Salvan Day party members' events. There's nothing in any of the many rooms on the ground floor. Heading up to the 2nd floor, in the northeastern patient room is a book lying on the floor. Walking over it, this is Slime's event. He stops at a pair of pages that show factories polluting the air as well as discharging their waste into a waterway. A light goes off in his consciousness as he realizes that he is that waste. Kindness and love are then awakened in his consciousness and the scene ends. Nothing else is on this floor, so we head up to the 3rd floor.

In the southwestern patient room, we find another book lying on the floor. Goblin picks it up, which is book of fairy tales, and turns to a page with an image and story about some red demon -- all the images are in black and white, so we'll just have to trust the demon is red. The story is a mirror image of Goblin, which causes him to sympathize with humans, and this awakens kindness and love in his consciousness. Again, this is the only thing on the floor, so we move on to the 4th floor.

The patient room just west of the vending machines holds the next item, a photograph, which Orc notices. It seems to have just now blown in here on the wind and is in pristine condition. The photo is of a human family (the photographer is of higher skill in this version, as the head of the boy riding on the father's shoulders isn't cut off, like it is in the PC88 version), which Orc gets enraged about, throwing the photo away in disgust. A light then appears in his consciousness and he becomes terrified. This sensation dissipates, and kindness and love are awakened in him.

Heading up to the 5th floor, we find what looks like a canister in one of the patient rooms. Inside the canister, Minotaur sees a specimen of a human fetus with two heads. This causes him to regain his lost memories of himself. The deformity he sees was caused by drugs humans were using. He takes pity on it and kindness and love arise in his consciousness. This finishes off the hospital and leaves the three remaining members of the Salvan Day party to reawaken kindness and love. This also means I'll be finding out if this party, which hasn't even hit their 2nd evolution level, will be able to survive or if I'll need to do some grinding back underground.

Disregard what I said earlier about when Salvan's Crushing Day is. I actually paid attention this time and it is the first day of the month, not the last.

Getting into a handful of random encounters confirms what I was hoping wouldn't be the case. If we get into a battle against more than 1 or 2 enemies, we can't survive. While the petrify spells (Zahomu that hits one enemy and Piezahomu that hits all enemies) do work 100% of the time, the aliens are all faster than us, so unless we get a first strike, we get wiped out. I also found out that defending does NOT in fact completely nullify damage, as the enemies are actually strong enough in relation to us to still do a little bit of damage when we defend. But it took close to end game enemies going up against characters that are still in the single digit levels to discover this. Actually, that's not quite true, as that single enemy that could damage the day and night party would still damage characters that were defending. Oh, hey, that Material Transfer Device can be used, and it sends us to the Fang Gate. Using it underground puts us at the Tower of No Return's exit on the surface. Nice!!! I was expecting to have to go through the Tower again in order to return. But... after returning to the surface, as soon as we start to walk away from the Tower, we get into a battle against a boss that looks like... Oooookay. The Kyuuboku can put us to sleep, but we're able to survive and defeat it thanks to our attack abilities. This boss can be fought as often as you want. I don't know what triggered its appearance, as we didn't have to fight it when we first arrived on the surface. My guess is acquiring the Material Transfer Device.

Since we can't survive on the surface without a lot of luck and reloading, we head back underground to do some grinding. The spaceship is a good place for this. We cruise through the 2nd evolution, with Golem becoming Living Statue, Minotaur becoming Gorgon, Dragonewt becoming Bronze Dragon, and Andro-Sphinx becoming Manticore. While doing this, I was wondering why Andro-Sphinx wasn't gaining levels in her Magic Power. It turns out that casting the healing spell (Sheru) does not grant experience, so she had to use her only other spell, Deka, which Silences a single enemy. Everyone makes it to level 13 and their final evolution, with Golem becoming Talos, Minotaur becoming Dispell Gorgon, Dragonewt becoming Royal Dragon, and Andro-Sphinx becoming Chimera. We've almost gotten to where the enemies can't damage us in here, but to be on the safe side, we keep grinding up to the first merge with the hope that everyone can merge with monsters that can equip weapons and armor. Dragonewt is the first to hit level 17, and he's given the option of Giant Snake, Gargoyle, and Golem. Unfortunately, only Gargoyle fits the bill, but he can only equip weapons, which is better than nothing. We immediately make a Silver Sword for him, so we now have one party member that can do decent damage with a melee attack, which will speed up leveling due to multiple parameters gaining experience with melee attacks. Golem is the next to hit level 17, and he gets the option of Orc, Andro-Sphinx, and Skeleton. Since I don't want to prevent the rest of the party from equipping the Silver Sword, I go with Orc. We've picked up enough Jin to make the best of everything for everyone, so Golem is immediately fully equipped. Knowing now that the only source of damage will be that single enemy and the earthquake spell that isn't affected by defense power or armor, that 1HP recovery per minute that the Black Armor grants isn't all that useful, so everyone who can equip it will be getting a set of Beelzeb Armor. Andro-Sphinx is next and she draws Dragonewt, Orc, and Slime, again going with Orc. Finally, Minotaur gets Dragonewt, Skeleton, and Harpy, going with Skeleton. That order worked out perfectly, as if Minotaur would have been first, I wouldn't have chanced hoping for a monster that can equip the best weapons and armor at level 34 and possibly get screwed into being stuck with Minotaur's rather paltry selection, and thus would have prevented the entire party from getting Silver Swords thanks to having a monster merged with Skeleton in the party. With everyone outfitted, we head back to the surface, defeating another Kyuuboku one step south of the Tower's exit. As I thought, with our much higher levels, it didn't use its Sleep ability this time. It also couldn't damage us, not even Dragonewt, who isn't wearing any armor.

It's still only mid-morning, so we should have no trouble making it to the remaining three events by midnight. Now with the party taking no damage from the aliens, with only the earthquake spell able to damage us, we make our way back to the school. Speaking of the earthquake spell, it appears to start happening when the first monster merges, it seems to occur around the 7th round of the battle, and it's actually cast by an alien (it appears all aliens can cast it), so if you incapacitate them all with something like petrify, you'll be safe from it. Back at the school, we head to the lab and Golem picks up the clay doll lying on the floor, with the image being of him holding the doll. Humans defeated God and tried to make people with their own hands. Golem was created from their despair when they realized it couldn't be done. The feeling of pity arises in his consciousness, which is kindness and love.

The next stop is the library, where Andro-Sphinx sees the photograph lying on the floor. The image is of the Great Sphinx of Giza with one of the pyramids behind it. Seeing her own image, her lost past rushes back to her. In order to show off their abilities, humans must create something other than themselves. This causes her to pity mankind, which awakens kindness and love.

The final stop is the police station. Nothing is on the ground floor. Heading to the 2nd floor, in the northwest room, we find a piece of paper on the floor. Dragonewt picks it up, and it appears to be part of some official documents. The image is of him holding the paper, which only has some writing on it. Written on the document is something about the author's sins being repaid by doing his best for those left behind. The word sin really disturbs Dragonewt's consciousness, giving him a terrible feeling. Guilt is then resurrected in his consciousness. The narration then says that Dragon was originally a human and he was the embodiment of selfishness, thinking only of himself. As a result of his selfish acts, which almost brought about the extinction of humanity, he became detested by all of mankind and was turned into a demon called Dragon. He became ashamed of his sins and turned into the Basque Tree. To atone for his sins, he created the Azoth Sword. Because the Azoth Sword awakens his guilt, Dragon fears it. The revival of this guilt, and the heart that tried to atone for its sins, gives birth to kindness and love. Left out of this version, the PC88 version ends by stating the Azoth Sword became known as the Dragon Slayer. We should now be able to enter Fantasy Land. Now that was one busy morning, as it's just shy of 9:30am.

I just remembered that note in the manual about the Hyde Sword. Wondering if there's any item that can be equipped, we make one Hyde Sword for Golem. It isn't an equippable item, but rather a normal weapon. Out of curiosity, Golem equips it and it turns out that it can be duel-wielded. So, Andro-Sphinx also gets one, as she's the only other monster that's equipped some Gauntlets, which is the requirement for equipping the Hyde Sword. The other parties will be making them when they're active. A note on creating equipment: If a monster can't equip it, it can't carry it.

Back at the gate, we pass the emotion sensor's test and are invited in. The enemies in Fantasy Land are humans with the classic fantasy roles of Knight, Thief, Cleric, etc. The enemies are also immune from all the status effect spells. Just inside the gates are three shops, a weapon shop, armer (yes, armer) shop, and an item shop. Entering any of the shops, which advances time so the day party is active, we try to ask about how they survived when humanity was supposedly wiped out. Rather than answer our questions, the shopkeepers all just repeatedly welcome us and ask what they can do for us. Since this is pointless, we move on. Since I'd like to maximize the amount of time with the Salvan Day party, I reload. As we approach the northern part of the area, time advances to when the day party is active. Since we're stuck using the day party, I reload again and visit the shops, just to have that dialog done with. Back at the northern part of town, three human warriors stand in our way. They demand we return their princess, state they've been commanded by the king to defeat the Demon King, and demand to know where the Demon King's castle is. As soon as we try to reason with them, as we're not their enemy, they attack us. This pits us against 8 random human enemies. We can't actually escape from this battle. After easily defeating them, a cutscene plays, showing them lying apparently dead on the ground. Harpy (since it's a female voice, and Harpy's the only female in the day party, I'm assuming she is speaking) mentions how this place is just like the legendary era when they coexisted with humans. The image changes to a decapitated male body with part of its chest ripped off exposing some meters labeled "EXP" and "HP", which goes with the dialog of them being robots, as well as this place not being a human town. Skeleton says something, but it was drowned out by the wind.

Now that we can move into the northern part of town, to the northwest, we arrive at what seems to be labeled as an inn. Entering, it's actually something like a hospital. Rather than moving around in the hospital, just like with the shops, a cutscene plays. The receptionist asks us what she can do for us before we hear some mechanical noises from the back. Ignoring the receptionist, we silently open the door to the back. In the room we see robots making repairs to, or possibly assembling, the robots that we fought. So, humanity was indeed wiped out. One of the robots can be heard saying something about the king's command. We then decide to see the king at the castle, even though he's likely also a robot, figuring we might discover something there.

Finding the castle at the end of an unmarked path between two rows of trees, one of the party remembers how humans often invaded the monsters of old and seemed to enjoy it. Another responds with it being funny that the roles are now reversed. There's nothing on the ground floor. On the 2nd floor, we find the king seated on his throne, which is the image the cutscene begins with. In a mechanical voice, he requests we rescue his daughter, who has been kidnapped by the Demon King. Since we know he's a robot, we toy with him, responding that we're actually messengers of the Demon King. He ignores our response and continues with his script, starting to tell us how he has 100 gold as a reward. Cyclops cuts him off short by decapitating him. His head is then shown on the floor with half of the robot skull showing. After the king's voice grinds to a halt, one of the party figures that whatever is controlling all the robots must be inside the castle and we should look for it.

Taking the stairs behind the throne room, we're in a small area with a single room taking up most of it. We can see something on the wall opposite the door. As we try to enter the room, we're attacked by a boss that is a normal human female wielding a spear. Flexing their creative muscles, the name of the boss is... Woman. While she only attacks us physically, and therefore doesn't damage us, she does have enough hit points to survive long enough to cast the earthquake spell. At this point, we can withstand four of them, but she only lasts a couple more rounds after casting it. Examining the thing on the wall, it turns out to be the main computer. The image pans up to show how tall the computer is. A female face makes up the top part of the computer, which goes with its female voice. After telling us to return to our designated posts, we ask if she created this place. She then realizes that we're not part of some program. She's flustered that we have the emotions that humans lost long ago and asks us if we're from the past. She confirms that she runs this city and the humans left behind a dream when they perished. It's her mission to see that this dream comes true and this world is the realization of that dream. After asking her if humanity's dream was really to live a repetitive life of doing the same routine tasks day after day, she says she doesn't know and is only going off of data from the past, having concluded that that's humanity's dream. Cutting her off, either Giant Snake or Slime (or presumably one of the Salvan Day party) slashes at the computer causing some electrical storm to engulf the computer. She then tells us humanity came to entrust everything to computers. Humans came to the realization that they could no nothing more and, thus, determined their evolution had peaked, at which point they wished for their own destruction. They then hid underground, leaving behind their last words. They wanted her to protect this town until someone with their lost emotions arrived, which she did from the Command Tower. We fit the bill, which signals the end of her mission, as we are humanity. The computer then shuts down, spitting out a piece of paper telling us to report to the Command Tower and deeming us the rulers of the next era. It concludes by giving the number 85419. It looks like we have that number the tower we couldn't enter asked us for.

Back at the door to the Control Tower, either Harpy or Gargoyle (or presumably someone in the Salvan Day party) automatically types in the number we received from the Main Computer and we enter after mentioning the leader of whatever is behind everything should be inside. After a handful of pretty large floors made up of pretty complex mazes with a black orb either set in the wall or floor that sends us to the next floor, we arrive at a floor with a narrow suspended walkway that's easy to fall off of. The walkway maze was so extensive that I had to map it out, thanks to the at times very high encounter rate making me forget where I was planning on going. This starts a sequence of floors with letters in the wall, with most floors having multiple to choose from. The ones that don't send us to the next floor send us back to the first floor of letters. The correct sequence is BRAINGRE and then something that looks like a flaming pillar, but I think it's supposed to by a Y, which spells out the game's developer's name. At this point, every member of the day and night party have maxed out every parameter except Defense Power and Bad Luck, so I set the message speed to fast, turn off battle animations and spend each random encounter defending for a couple turns and then casting Pido to escape the battle. Battles are taking 10 to 15 seconds. After a couple more floors, we arrive at floor (I think it's the 17th floor) with a single hallway leading north. A few steps before the door is the final boss, Human, that is the alien shown in the intro movie. Like the last several bosses, it only attacks physically and can't damage us. We also pretty much can't damage it physically, with the most damage dealt being 2. Special attacks do their normal amount of damage. Checking out spells, it turns out that Human is extremely vulnerable to the Ice Storm spell (Biburea). It's so vulnerable to it that, after defeating it, I reload and verify that Human can actually be defeated with a single casting of it. So, if you know this going in, the final battle can take about 5 seconds.

Entering the room beyond the door, the final cutscene plays. As we enter, everything turns to nothingness. The Shaman's Jar (where the monsters heal up while not active) falls to the ground and shatters. The other two parties join and then something causes everyone to get an intense burning sensation and then collapse. After some time, everyone awakens and we've transformed into humans. Earth then appears below us, which we feel an intense nostalgia for. A voice is then heard out of nowhere, and it's the voice of the final boss. I didn't notice from the angle it was shown during the battle, but it's also the same alien as seen in the message we received in the spaceship. Now that we've regained our human emotions and bodies, he explains how our monster forms were the shells of our minds. When humanity learned of its impending destruction, they came up with a project to restore the emotions they'd forgotten long ago. This involved separating their minds from their bodies and to have to two fight against each other. If the body could remember those lost emotions during battle, the body and mind would be reunited and a new humanity would be born. We were the body, while the aliens were the mind. Mankind named the spirit of understanding everything and the carrying out of the project "God", while the devil is what they called the body that became a mass of hatred. Being like a simulation, there is no actual demon world or underground world, and all that we went through happened in a mental image. Asking him what will happen to us when we become one again, he tells us that all of our memories will be forgotten because the past is an obstacle to opening a new world. If we go astray again, God and the devil could be created from mankind's subconscious and they will become mankind's tentative forms. We indicate that we're ready and bid farewell to the past. An image of a lush, green landscape is shown, and then we awaken to the warm sunlight in an endless meadow. After commenting on the lovely weather and how there's a lot of things to do, we name the land Earth. And so, the history of Earth begins. The end credits then roll.

The day and night parties ended with everyone's overall level in the mid- to high-80s and everything but Defense Power and Bad Luck maxed out. I believe I got the Salvan Day party overall levels into the 50s -- I'm not spend the time zooming through the month of March to check. While I did enjoy it, I think most people wouldn't, as there are no towns, no shops, no real character interaction, no item drops, no items to find (other than the Azoth Sword), and very few locations to explore. With almost every enemy fairly quickly becoming unable to inflict any damage, for a huge chunk of the game, battles are simply a time sink. Ignoring the language barrier, I could see a lot of people dropping it while going around to all the slates. I do not like that all the cutscenes are voice only, as this would be a major issue if you're deaf.