Shining Force II (Gen) Playthrough

Played on my Genesis cartridge.

This seems like a good game to do a playthrough topic, since I have a tendency to forget what I’m doing in RPGs when I take a break for more than a couple days. This is the first time I’ve played the game, except for very briefly to test out the cartridge when I bought it back in 2012, which is what I’ll be playing on. I beat the first game in 2011, so don’t remember much about that beyond it being pretty rudimentary. Time to fire up the old Model 1 Genesis and dive in. Before doing so, is it just me or does the little map in the manual looks like a T Rex sneezing out an arrow if you flip it over?

I watch the sequence that Slade’s character description in the manual mentions, which sets up the entire game. I’ll go with the default name of Bowie. Since I don’t know what I’m in for, I choose Normal difficulty. Oh, look, yet another JRPG where you start the game waking up in bed with the first person you encounter being your mother. Nothing is to be found in my house, with a bookcase being the only thing I can interact with. Of course, before following my mother’s order of hurrying to school, I explore the town. I like how the doors of the buildings you enter stay open, making it easy to know which ones you haven’t been in yet. Oh, shoot, I can’t enter the castle or exit the town. The lone shop is also closed right now. I’m not exactly sure what that odd little thing next to the shop is. Other than the harbor also being inaccessible, I find and head into the school. I’m assuming the girl is Sarah, but don’t know who the boy is, although he looks like the Chester in the manual. He mentions Jaha, who I’m guessing is the person asleep in one of the houses. Sarah tells me Astral is in the basement, but he looks a bit off, then moves out of the way so I can head downstairs. After finding a medicinal herb in the pot down here, I talk to Astral. Not saying much, I head back up, only for him to ask me if I thought the storm was strange just before I head back upstairs. Taking my seat, Astral comes up and is interrupted by someone from the castle, informing him that he needs to see the king, who’s injured. The boy turns, and I’m sure it’s Chester as he’s a centaur. Sarah has a plan to get us in the castle, so we head there, with both her and Chester joining the party.

Back at the castle entrance, Sarah says we have a package Astral left behind, and of course the guards allow us in to deliver it. Looking around the castle, we loot the armory for… an herb, angel wing, and antidote. Bummer. Other than mention of Galam to the north being an ally and of an ancient shrine to the south, there’s nothing of note, so we head into the king’s chambers and find him still in bed, surrounded by the princess, minister, and Astral. After Astral lightly reprimands us for coming, he has us follow him into the Ancient Tower, which we were barred access to while wandering around the castle. Figuring we’ll be getting into a battle, we head to the church to save. Following Astral into the Tower, he looks around, and a devil that Astral thinks is going to try to possess the king appears from a symbol on the ground. Looks like we have our first battle on our hands as six more Gizmos appear. After one aborted attempt thanks to a bunch of misses, and warping out of the battle, we head back in and defeat all the Gizmos, except for the pink one that never entered the battle, with everyone gaining a level in the process. The Gizmo teleports past us and heads out, likely to possess the king. Following Astral out of the Tower, we find him in the princess’ chambers in a standoff with the suddenly spry king. Astral successfully exorcises the Gizmo from the king with a powerful spell. “Don’t worry about him. If he dies, it doesn’t matter. He’s old anyway.” Lovely sentiment, Minister. After the troops head out to try and kill the Gizmo, the king says we need to study Grans Island and will need the aid of the historian Hawel who lives northwest of the town of Yeel, tasking us with bringing Hawel back.

Oh, hey, I can go to the harbor now. Checking all the barrels on the lone ship, we find an herb and a Quick Chicken, which I give to Bowie, boosting his Agility by 4. Woohoo! Back in town, an inventor wandering around is looking for some sulfur. I wonder if this is important. Ah, so that thing next to the shop is a fortuneteller’s table. Near the town entrance, Jaha joins us. Yay! A pet shop has also opened in the building with what looks like a jail cell in it, and all the animals can talk. The weapon shop is now open, so Bowie and Chester get their weapons upgraded. It’s off to Yeel, and as soon as we leave town, we find ourselves in another battle. Oh, nice! Chester’s short spear is ranged. We quickly dispatch the oozes and huge rats and do a little exploration of the area. An inaccessible castle is to the northeast. To the south is a cave, which turns out to be where the game intro scene takes place. We pick up the Power Water that Slade left behind, giving it to Sarah for a nice +3 to her attack power. Nothing else can be done in here, so we leave. The only other place in the area is the town of Yeel in the northwest corner.

In Yeel, it seems Hawel is also being sought out by the Galam soldiers, who we find out are led by a Mr. Lemon. Approaching the northern exit of the town, Hawel’s student Kazin offers to take us to him. Upon leaving, we again find ourselves in battle, but Kazin isn’t part of our fighting force. Having no issues with the oozes, huge rat, and huge bat, we continue to Hawel’s house. With no response from inside, Kazin opens the door and we find Hawel on the brink of death thanks to a couple Galam soldiers who were after his notes on Ground Seal. He then tells us that the Ancient Tower seals away a devil. He then tells us to search for the jewels that powered the seal, the ones Slade took in the intro sequence. Hawel then blinks away into nothingness in classic JRPG fashion. Kazin joins our party to fulfill his master’s dying wish. Before leaving, we take the antidote and healing drop from his chests. It’s not like Hawel will need them anymore.

Back to the castle, but not before we have to battle through the soldiers that killed Hawel. Having little issue with them, their leader praises our battle strategy and then somehow knocks out Bowie. We wake up in, surprise, surprise, a jail. On a table in our cell, I find Chirrup Sandals, which I have no clue what they do. Everyone’s talking about Ground Seal and how Galam and Granseal are at war, even though they’re allies. Slade happens to be in the cell with Sarah. Overhearing our conversation and feeling remorse for what he did, he uses his thieving abilities to free us. Just as we’re about to try to escape, Slade again comes to our rescue, opening a secret path in our cell. As we’re about to enter the secret path, Slade offers to help us escape. While we’re escaping, the king is sending his troops out to avenge the death of his messenger. The army leaves and as we’re about to leave, we have another battle to fight. After defeating the soldiers, archers, and mages, Slade takes the Jewel of Light from their leader and we find out King Galam has the other jewel. Slade then gives Bowie the jewel and it fuses to Bowie’s neck (or something on his neck). Slade then joins our party so he can find the other jewel. Before heading out, we upgrade Sarah, Chester, and Kazin’s weaponry.

Upon leaving, another battle awaits us. Hmm, it seems “delivering a package” is turning into the go-to plan. This time it doesn’t work, as Slade is recognized. Making quick work of the enemy, thanks in part to there being no friendly fire from Kazin’s Level 2 Blaze, we make it back to Granseal’s castle town. Arriving in town, the guard at the entrance is lying dead on the ground. Looking around town, the animals from the pet store have escaped, and we find the little green fellow in the building next to it. Naming it the default Kiwi, it joins our party. Woohoo!! Oh, oh, it only has 7 HP. It might be a chore to keep it alive in battle, although it does have a nice defense stat. Unfortunately, I can’t find the other two pets.

Heading into the castle, most of the guards have been slain. Approaching the throne room, Astral is trying to convince Lemon that his king is possessed and that Granseal didn’t attack. King Galam has taken Princess Elis into the Ancient Tower and eventually we, along with King Granseal and the Minister, follow. Passing more dead guards on our way, Lemon has also fallen to the King’s power and is laying on the Tower’s steps on the verge of death. We take the long, winding path to find King Galam, with the Princess held hostage, and Astral in a standoff. Their duel ends in a simultaneous knock down. As the Princess tries to escape, King Galam is able to summon a fighting force, which we get to do battle with. We get our first “exhaustion” as Slade goes down to one of the rather nasty Dark Smokes. Other than that, we had no other issues, with Sarah tending to any wounded. King Galam still has a trick up his sleeve as he’s able to recover and uses the Jewel of Evil he’s carrying to open the door to the Evil World (really clever name there) and starts drawing Princess Elis and himself into the door that’s rather high up. Thinking quickly, King Granseal and the Minister fling Bowie up in order to save her. Before falling to back to the ground, Bowie is able to wrest the Jewel from King Galam, with help from the Jewel of Light, and now both Jewels have fused to Bowie’s neck and have merged together. King Galam and Princess Elis are then sucked into the door to the Evil World. Oh, oh! Looks like the Tower’s about to collapse! We saunter out of the castle and to the boat docked in the harbor just in time to watch the whole town get swallowed up by a massive earthquake. Most of the townsfolk have also made it to safety on the ship, so we head off to the continent of Parmecia to the east.

After a rough landing, everyone starts tearing apart the ship to build a new Granseal. It’s nice that Slade got all better during the trip. The only thing of note onboard the ship is mention of granite-mining for the town at North Cliff. And of course we’ll be going on a rescue mission there. Oh, we’ve got ourselves a real Willy Wonka here. You can’t hear me if I don’t want to rescue him. You deaf in one ear or something? Since I can’t refuse, we head off on a rescue mission. After spying the injured fellow laying on the ground (wow, that’s some good eyesight), we’re immediately in another battle. The enemy being spread out with a body of water in the middle made this battle a little tedious and dangerous. Nonetheless, we had no major issues with them. Making it to the guy who’s laid out, he tells us that a huge rock fell on him and there’s a rockslide blocking the tunnel, which I’m guessing is the mine. Heading back to the ship, it blinks into oblivion and our new town starts to take shape. A year passes, and the King is worthless, moping over his daughter. After Astral tells us that we need to build alliances in order to establish trade, I can explore our new town. Raiding all the pots and barrels, some Cheerful Bread is found in a pot. Wow! Astral is fast! He can beat me from the King to a table outside the Tactical Base! Maybe he can teach us that teleportation spell.

Leaving the castle, there’s some commotion about a big bird that’s come into the town. Just about everyone in town is by the bird, which allows me to loot all the houses. I wonder if this is the only opportunity to get the Healing Drop from the chest in the weapon shop. Joining the crowd around the bird, it’s too quick for the kids to get a hand on it. The Minister arrives, puts a stop to the little brats harassing the bird, and takes it to meet the King. Since the crowd didn’t disperse, there’s nothing to do but follow them back to the castle. The bird turns out to be Peter, the legendary phoenix. A legendary name for a legendary bird, if I do say so myself. Peter promises to take Astral to see the god Volcanon at Mt. Volcano, but the Minister and King command Astral to stay at the castle. Peter then joins our party as we head to Mt. Volcano in the far east. We get a parting gift of 100 gold from the King. How nice. Yay! I can finally save again!

Now that everyone in town has dispersed, the guy next to the weapon shop says he’s invented an explosive to blow up the rocks blocking the cave, but won’t give us any. Jerk! We upgrade the weapons for Jaha, Chester, and Bowie before heading out. Back outside, we have two available paths east. The northeast path is where we rescued the knocked out guy, and as long as we go south around the body of water, we don’t have to fight a battle (I just Egressed out of the battle we got into). Since the cave is blocked, there’s nothing we need to do along this path right now. So, we take the southeast path and immediately get into a battle. Yay! I got a ranged attack back with Chester! Boo! Peter isn’t controllable and decides to always move 2 squares, rendering him useless in the battle. Before heading to the town, since we can’t get to the cave in the middle of the lake, we enter the cave that can be reached and find some guy named Paseron, who’s here studying the petroglyphs, blocking the entrance. He tells us someone named Rohde told him about a family with an ancient tomb. I’m guessing we’ll be meeting Rohde soon. Anyway, Paseron just keeps pacing in place and blocking our way, so we leave and go to the town to the north.

Entering the town, the kid near the entrance thinks we’re spies and runs off to tell the mayor. Hmm, seems that all the houses are locked. This must be Ribble, as Paseron’s house is here. Interesting… There’s a hollow in the big tree in the middle of town. Oh, you can investigate the little sword sign next to the shop. I never tried to do that before. Nice little touch. Well, at least one house isn’t locked. And as soon as we enter, an old man pushes us back out, demanding to know who we are. He accuses us of wanting to conquer Parmecia, and Peter steps in explaining our situation. That does wonders as they do a complete 180 and declare themselves allies of Granseal. Now that everyone has come out of hiding, a female centaur is wandering around and wants to join our party. With absolutely no say in the matter, not even a fake decision, May joins us. Ok. I’ll take it. Inside Kesaran’s house, his diary mentions needing the Achilles Sword to defeat Taros in a shrine. Duly noted. Talking to Kesaran, he tells us Rohde lives in Hassan, and he thinks there are ruins under Ribble, but can’t find the door, thinking the big tree is key. Hmm, I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that big gray square in the center is the door. Another person mentions Hassan is a port to the south. Inside the weapon shop, we get directions to Mt. Volcano: go east and then north along the river and we’ll find the Cave of Darkness. Slade’s weapon is the only one that can be upgraded here. Oh, look, a woman’s husband went to a cave and hasn’t come back. Never seen that before…

It seems we have two possible destinations: Hassan to the south or the Cave of Darkness to the northeast. Or not, as we can’t go directly east. South to the river, then east along it is the only new option. Another battle awaits us as soon as we enter the next map. Kiwi had a bad case of death, er, exhaustion, thanks to the vampire bats’ Blaze spell, but other than that, we don’t have any real issues. Following the river and taking the northern bridge, we make it to the Cave of Darkness, but I don’t want to fight the hobgoblin right now, as… Wait a second. The map function has no issues with the darkness. Um… Yeah, well, there’s goes that bit of difficulty that I’m guessing should have been there. Casting Egress, we try the southern bridge instead in hopes of finding Hassan, but to no avail. Exploring everywhere else across the northern bridge, there’s nothing else over here. So, it’s back to the Cave of Darkness to deal with the hobgoblin. Peter decided to almost pull off a suicide mission going after the hobgoblin by himself. Luckily, Chester was able to get in range in time to save Peter’s bacon. Having spotted a chest along the way to the hobgoblin, we pick up a Silver Tank. I wonder what that does.

Exiting the other side of the cave, we take the path to the village of Polca (aw, too bad we don’t have a Dot in our party), which is peopled with mostly centaurs and beastmen. Helping what turns out to be a fairy up (I’m not quite sure what it was supposed to look like at first, maybe a turtle), it mentions some Him, but won’t tell me who he is, and then vamooses. I’m guessing we’ll be running into the fairy again relatively shortly. Stopping in the weapon shop, Bowie, Sarah, and Kazin get upgraded weapons. Ooh, there’s a special item, so we buy the Power Ring, eating up half of our remaining 6k Gold. Ok, arriving at having multiple items equipped is extremely unintuitive. We pilfer a Protect Milk from the weapon smith’s house. Approaching the northeast exit, the volcano erupts and shortly afterwards, an injured boy limps into town and collapses. He’s carried into the mayor’s house, and following them, we don’t really find out much and surprisingly aren’t asked to find a healing item for him and the mayor simply hopes he survives the night. Hmm, nobody’s dialogue changed, so what to do, what to do. I guess we’ll just head out of town to the east.

Shortly after leaving town, a group of monsters are searching for someone (I’m guessing the boy) and mention the town of Bedoe having birdmen. We then get to do battle with them, as they think we’re from Polca. Defeating one of the death archers ends the battle with a message that “they” have been waiting for Bowie. Checking back to see if there is any change in the boy’s condition, which there isn’t, we save and head back toward the mountain. What looked like some sort of climbing path up the mountain turns out to be Bedoe. The two birdmen guarding the entrance won’t let us pass until they notice Peter. The bartender tells us about the greater devil Creed, who lives alone in Devil’s Tail. While here, we upgrade Chester, Jaha, Slade, and May’s weapons. On the second level, we find a Quick Ring in a pot. Nice. Arriving in the throne room, it seems the devils came from Grans Island. After the troops disperse, Peter introduces us and King Bedoe tells us that Zeon, the King of the Devils, has been unsealed, and he might destroy the world. That’s not good. Now it’s off to see Volcanon and hopefully calm him down. Ascending the stairs out of the throne room puts us at the base of Volcanon’s shrine. Speaking to Volcanon, Peter introduces us as being from Grans Island, which ticks Volcanon off so much that he revokes his protection of all the ground-dwellers. Volcanon tells us we’ll have to fight the devils with no help from him, and must reseal Zeon. Peter fully joins our party to help seal Zeon. Yay! I should be able to control him in battle now! Talking to King Bedoe, he tells us to go see Creed for some info, and his mansion is located along the river. He then directs us to Polca to get a raft. I was wondering about that since I don’t recall seeing any mansion along the river, which I’d fully explored. We’re also told of a Goddess Mitula, who lives north of Tristan.

Arriving back in Polca, the Bedoe guards that were sent to talk to the mayor are in battle with some devils and only the guards’ leader, Luke, survives. As the beastman that has a portrait steps in to help, we’re noticed by Luke. The wolfman, Gerhalt, joins our party and, after the devils knock out Luke, we enter battle. Ok, those zombies look like dogs. The enemy placement made keeping everyone alive was a bit difficult, but after a few Egresses to revive the fallen, we make it through unscathed. Luke comes to and we head to the mayor’s house to get a raft. Before heading there, we talk to everyone in town. From the townsfolk, we find out there are ancient ruins in a desert to the south, there’s a desolate port town to the south, and a huge monster lives in the river. Oh, oh, that monster might make our future rafting a bit perilous. Back where the fairy was earlier, a turtle-like being tells us about magic tunnels in ancient times. The blacksmith tells us of a rumored rare metal in ancient times that special weapons were made of (hmm… mythril?). There’s lots of seemingly important info around here now. Now to get that raft. The boy looks to have recovered, but the only thing he tells us is that he’s blind. Ah, so the boy’s name is Oddler and the mayor sent Luke in Oddler’s place to the devils. In exchange for not telling King Bedoe about that little underhandedness, the mayor gives us the town’s last raft. As we start to leave, the mayor asks us to take Oddler with us. Oh, why not? It’s not like we have a choice, even if you say you won’t take him at both “decision” points. We now have two tagalongs.

Outside of town, the promised raft is waiting. Luke then decides to join our force so he can fight along side us. Time to explore a bit. Heading south, there’s a shortcut back to that previously inaccessible cave in the river south of Ribble. Continuing south, at a branch in the river, we run into the monster we were told about. I’m ready for a break and am not interested in fighting this battle right now, so I reload from Polca. Exploring the river east instead, there’s nothing on the little pieces of land that we couldn’t reach before and we run into some rocks at the first bridge, making the way I first went the only option. Before heading back to the river monster, Luke gets his sword upgraded. Oh, wait, I didn’t try east on the river south of Ribble. Taking that, and then trekking a bit around the land we can now access, we reach a desert area and have to fight a battle. This turned out to be a bit of a hassle as the zombies successfully poisoned some people, notably Kiwi which was the death of him, and Luke turned out to be a magnet for the enemy. On our third try, everyone survives and we make it to a cave.

Entering, someone who looks a little on the gray side (maybe it’s just my TV) seems to be expecting someone named Petro. As the screen scrolls up, there’s also an old man here, and he thinks we’re Petro and demands some Sky Orb, which Petro apparently took. Approaching us, the old man realizes we’re not Petro. Talking to the boy, we’re told that our ancestors could fly and there’s a Nazca Ship, whose last known location was Grans. Talking to the old man, who turns out to be the grandfather of the boy and Petro, he tells us that Petro took the Sky Orb and went to Grans Island. Following the old man after he walks away from us, he then tells us a little about the tunnels and the only one that’s still usable is the one to Grans. He then joins us so he can get to Grans Island. Well, that was not quite something I wanted to happen, with the river monster still not taken care of. We take the Steel Sword from the chest, giving it to Luke since he could use the upgrade more than Bowie, and leave. Since there turns out to be nowhere else we can explore, the river monster is our next objective.

After a quick stop in Ribble to save, we’re off to fight the river monster. Actually, before that, let’s see if Paseron’s still pacing in place at the shrine to the south. Heading there, he has left, or at least has gone inside. The old man is able to break the seal on the temple’s entrance and we enter what he says leads to the tunnel. And we get to fight another battle. Having little trouble with these enemies, the old man heads to the door in here and is unable to open it, and claims Petro locked it. Inside the chests here, we find a Wooden Panel, whatever that’s for, and a Power Water. Hmm, it seems the old man has vanished. Let’s see if we can find him. He’s not in Ribble. Heading back to Polca, he’s not here. Continuing to Bedoe, a little sequence happens outside the entrance with one of the chicks seemingly trying to fly with what I’m guessing is one of his parents. The chick, Screech, is unable to and crash lands on Bowie. His parent simply thanks us and they bolt. The old man isn’t here, and I can’t find Screech or his father, being that no one is given a name in town. The last place to check is back at the shrine where we met the old man. Yep, that's where he is. We’re simply told that we can’t get to Grans from here. So, NOW it’s off to take care of the river monster.

We get into an annoying battle where you have to draw the Kraken’s arms and legs to the raft. About half of the team got wiped out, but we made it through. Both forks of the river lead to dead ends at shoals. So, we enter the town just south of the battle and this turns out to be Hassan. After snagging the Mithril from the chest west of the church, we set about exploring the town. Another piece of Mithril is in a barrel at the port. Doing some serious shopping, everyone but Chester and Luke get upgraded weapons. A monk tells us that their ancestors came to the continent while chasing after some soldier named Max. Inside the bar, we find a Running Pimento. Rohde is here, but won’t say anything more than that he’s extremely busy. Hmm… One person says if we have something historical to talk about, he might open up. Hmm… Maybe having the old man with us? Well, rather than heading back there, let’s see what else is in this new area.

Taking one step west outside of town triggers another battle, and, oh, joy, more desert to slog through. Breezing through the enemy, there’s a wooden structure on the next screen west. Oh, hey, I can promote some people, so let’s do that first. Yes, Bowie wants to be promoted to the a fighting class… “To the a”, huh? Bowie became a Hero; Jaha became a Gladiator; Peter became a, well, a Phoenix (the K became an X); May became a Bow Knight; and Gerhalt became a Wolf Baron. Ooh, some of their portraits changed. Let’s see, Bowie now sports a stylish headband and a brown cape, Peter got some serious flowing locks and now is green, and Gerhalt lost his sailor accoutrements and now looks like a classic wolfman. Entering the wooden structure, a rather large guard says he’ll attack if we don’t leave. Peter doesn’t think it would be a good thing if we did, so we turn tail and leave. Re-entering triggers the exact same sequence. The only other thing of note around here is a suspicious opening in the northern mountains that leads to the shoal-infested river. Going back to the old man, their dialog doesn’t change. Well, there are some historians in Ribble, so maybe we need to bring one of them back with us to talk to Rohde.

Back in Ribble, Paseran is still working out east, and Keseran is of no help. Out of curiosity, I try the Wooden Panel on the big tree, and it turns out to be the key. Woohoo!! Exploring, we find the Achilles Sword. Nice. Hmm, not much of an upgrade over the Steel Sword, but it’s apparently a key item. That’s odd, one of the large stone bowls can be walked onto. Since Keseran’s diary mentions the sword, maybe he’ll have something new to say. Nope. The old man? Nope. Maybe the Sword is a topic-starter with Rohde. Ding, ding, ding! He tells us the sword will allow us to access the Ancient Caravan. Rohde then joins us, claiming he’s the only one who can drive it. That’s a bit egotistical. The only place we can get to is that wooden structure, and with one of Hassan’s townsfolk mentioning needing him to go west, now that Rohde is with us, maybe that guard will allow us to pass. Entering, Rohde tells us the guard is Talos, who Keseran’s diary states that the Achilles Sword is needed to defeat. Apparently our dallying was enough to cause Talos to attack. Neat! Promoted characters get new battle music. The diary was accurate, as the only thing that damaged Talos was the Achilles Sword. We then get access to the Caravan, which was behind Talos, with Rohde at the wheel. Picking up the Healing Water from the chest, we leave. Heh, the caravan looks more like a koala bear laying on its back, smoking a stogie.

Back in Hassan, a centaur is by the entrance. With no say in the matter, Rick joins our force. There’s also a merchant at the entrance with some weapon upgrades. Nothing else in town changed, so I have no clue where to go next. Let’s try back in Ribble, since Rohde is with us. Geez, Keseran. You need to get out of the house. The door to the ruins is OPEN. Nothing changed here. Hmm, someone in Hassan said something about going west, so we head back. Aha! You can drive the caravan over the shoals. So, that’s what the opening in the mountains is for. Heading along the shoals, we come to a cave. Entering what appears to be a mithril mine, the only thing in here are a handful of miners, and one of them mentions a fairy. I wonder if that’s the same fairy that was in Polca. Because one of them is sick, they can’t clear the tunnel. Checking the extinguished campfire, we find a Dry Stone. With nothing else to do here, we head out and continue along the shoals to a new area. Actually, it’s not a new area, just west of Ribble.

Heading back to the place with the caved-in mine from a while back, we get into a battle. Oh, nice! That Robin Arrow has a range of 3 squares. Since we’re in the area, we head back to Granseal. Nothing. Starting to head back towards Ribble via the shoals, there’s a bit of land south of the cave and more shoals we can cross to a truly new area. Hmm, that patch of woods looks odd. Entering the square, it turns out to be a town. We pick up some Fairy Powder from a vase in one of the houses. Another mention of a fairy, and this time that it went to Creed’s mansion and hasn’t returned. We’re told that an Elric went out to find the fairy to help a sick dwarf, which I’m guessing is the sicky in the nearby cave. We find a Vigor Ball in a chest in the northwest corner of town. That’s odd. You can get to the west edge of town and start walking around the perimeter beneath the trees, and if you move south from the break in the trees in the north, you exit town. Ok, how to get to that chest east of the southern entrance… Wow. Getting methodical, we start trying to move against every bit of tree and discover a hidden staircase just to the west of the entrance that puts us on top of the trees. Crossing the “bridge”, the chest holds some Mithril. Heading back to Hassan to save, we promote a couple more people, with Kazin becoming a Wizard and Slade becoming a Ninja. Kazin still looks half-baked, while Slade now sports a turban and a sinister smirk.

It’s time to head back and explore the area west of the cave. Before that, we got into another battle outside of Hassan. Chester can finally be promoted and becomes a Paladin. Shortly after passing the town in the forest, we enter another battle. For as tough as those Orcs are, they sure don’t give us much experience. Rick did pick up enough experience to get promoted and he becomes a Paladin. Seeing if the merchant by Hassan’s entrance has weapons that require a promotion to equip, he now has a Shining Ball in stock. Since we’re awash with gold, we drop the 1k on it. Whoa! Slade can now equip the broad sword, which almost doubles his attack. Kazin is also now able to upgrade to the flail. Since this game doesn’t give any item descriptions, and the manual only has a handful of descriptions, let’s save and see what some of these items do. Protect Milk boosts Defense, Running Pimento boosts Range, Dry Stone does nothing, Fairy Power is a consumable that does nothing (at least, out of battle, it doesn’t), Vigor Ball does nothing, and Shining Ball does nothing. Reloading, it’s back to heading west of the forest town.

Approaching what looks like a pit in a clearing in the forest far to the west, Oddler can hear someone crying inside of the pit. Entering, we spot a young elf flailing in a pond at the base of a waterfall. As we near the pond, some monsters arrive. The pond is used by the monsters to trap their food. This solves a missing persons problem we didn’t know existed. Well, we can’t have that, so we get into battle with the monsters to save the elf. Wow, do those harpies hit hard. Plus, they can poison. Oh, so Slade now gets spells. As thanks for saving us, the elf Elric joins our force. Peter then suggests we go see Creed. But, we haven’t even seen his mansion yet! Before heading out, there are a couple promotions to take care of, with Sarah becoming a MMNK (I would say Master Monk, but the manual has that as MRMK) thanks to the Vigor Ball, Luke becoming a… Bird Battler (um, ok), and the newly added Elric becoming a BRGN (are there two abbreviations for Brass Gunner, since the manual lists it as BRGR?) with the Silver Tank. Leaving town, now that we’re over max active party members, we swap out the useless Kiwi with Elric. With a quick stop back in Hassan to upgrade Elric’s weapon to the Robin Arrow, we head off to try to figure out where to go.

Nothing changed in the mithril mine. Let’s try back at the forest town. One of the guys upstairs in the bar/inn says only the fairy knows how to get to Creed Mansion. So, I guess we need to find the fairy. But we were told that it hadn’t returned from the mansion. Hmm, there’s a priest up here who can perform all the rights at a church. Was he here before? That would have saved some time since I kept going back to Hassan to save. Did I just not ever come up here before?!? I found the Secret Book in the bookcase. And I already promoted Kazin. Dangit!!! I was under the impression that there was a 2nd promotion involving the special items, not that they created a choice in promotions. Oh, well. We’re told that Elric might know where the fairy is. But, how do you talk to him when he’s in our party??? Well, the only thing I can think of is to go back to where we found Elric. As we walk onto that spot, Elric pops out and moves a rock and it opens up a tunnel in the nearby mountains. Approaching the western exit of the tunnel, a somewhat hidden path can be seen. Finding the entrance, we make it to a few chests with an Angel Wing, Brave Apple, and Medical Herb. Well, at least the Brave Apple sounds useful. Let’s see if there are more hidden paths. Ooh, sneaky them! Another hidden path by the chests leads to a chamber, which couldn’t be seen, with a piece of Mithril. Checking every section of wall, no other secrets are found, so we leave.

Of course, as soon as we leave, we have another battle on our hands. Thanks to our welcoming party, at least we know we’re in the right place. Heh! I love the scale of the mansion. What is this?!? A mansion for ants?!? Having little trouble with the enemy, we enter Creed’s Mansion. Not having an appointment, we’re asked to leave by Creed’s servant, Goliath. Rather than coming back at a later time, Oddler suggests we try a more direct approach. Unable to sneak by Goliath due to his ability to teleport, we try the room he was going to go into and get ourselves miniaturized to the size of ants. Um, I guess it IS a mansion for ants. Goliath picks us up and adds us to the collection. Suddenly in the world of Micro Machines, we need to figure a way out of this predicament. Exploring around the “desktop kingdom” that we’re now in, someone mentions time does not flow here. Gee, a town lost in time? Haven’t seen that before. Hmm, the concept of 3D vs. 2D is a bit off here, as the bookcase would need to be lying on its back rather than standing upright for the scene to make sense. Being told the chess army is good training makes me think this is meant for grinding. The king of this domain, King Ponpei, tells us there’s a tunnel in “Floor World” that leads to Creed, and that he’ll allow us to go there if we can beat the chess army. Heading to the bottom of the chessboard, we begin battle, arranged on the board like chess pieces. Wait a second. Three queens? After many, many Egresses, we’re finally able to wipe out all the pieces with only Slade not making it out alive. For our troubles, King Ponpei rewards us with a Cotton Balloon, which will allow us to leave the Desktop Kingdom. Trying to use the balloon does nothing. I guess we’re stuck here for a bit longer.

Ok, that battle was extremely tedious. I ended up needing to be extremely patient and waiting for each chess piece to advance and attack us one at a time. In every battle where I lost a number of troops, I was advancing to attack the approaching piece, which caused that character to get swarmed. Needing to stay in diamond formation to avoid their spellcasters damaging multiple troops also added to the tediousness. It also didn't help that we were getting next to no experience, so we couldn't even level up to make things easier.

The guard that required the king’s permission to pass moves aside and allows us to go to the Floor World. Using the Cotton Balloon, or rather the three balloons, we float down. I’m not quite sure why Peter needed one… So much for the balloons, as they pop when we land. Starting our exploration, near the southwest corner we see someone unable to lift a ring lying on the ground. We’re warned about devils being in the tunnel to Creed, and that Randolf seems to be the leader of the people of the floor kingdom. Entering the lone door down here, this is simply a place to save. Hmm, somehow the Caravan made it down. Nothing else is down here, so we enter the mouse hole. After a bit, we get into a battle against some oozes and rats, the leader of which is… Willard. That might not have been the most obvious reference back in 1994, being about 23 years after the movie (and almost a decade before George McFly was in the remake). Well, that battle was easy, and they actually gave us some good experience. There’s one coin in here that we can stand on, which looks suspicious, being on a sort of green rug, but there’s nothing there. Exiting the other end, Creed is rather upset with Goliath for adding us to his collection and wants to see us. With Goliath heading off to bring us to Creed, Peter announces our presence and Creed returns us to normal. Telling him that we want to know about Zeon, Creed tells us he’s sealed in Arc Valley. The fairy we’ve been told about also makes an appearance when Peter mentions Zeon. We then tell him that Zeon has been freed. Creed then mentions someone named Mitula, who, like Volcanon, is invulnerable to everything but Zeon. Creed then leaves to talk to some Evil Spirit.

Following Creed down into the basement, we see him summon Evil Spirit. Unable to see what Zeon is up to, we offer up the Jewel of Evil, but because Bowie also has the Jewel of Light, and the chain they’re fused with is made of Mithril, Creed is unable to detach the Jewel of Evil. Simply bringing the jewels near Evil Spirit works and we find out devils are headed to North Parmecia, which apparently is where Mitula is. While Zeon hasn’t regained his full power, he does have enough to interrupt our little séance and asks Bowie to bring the Jewel of Evil to Arc Valley in return for Princess Elis. He ends our conversation, and Evil Spirit, with a bang, and we head back upstairs. Talking to Creed, he tells us that storytellers in Tristan in North Parmecia might know something about the Jewel of Evil. I guess that’s our next destination. Before leaving, we take the fairy with us to aid the sick dwarf. Not quite done here, Creed has offered us one of four people to help in our quest: Eric the knight, Randolf the warrior, Tyrin the mage, and Karna the priest (snot nose? Really?) Since I have that Secret Book, I’ll take Tyrin. Leaving by the non-front door, we find an Antidote and Medical Herb in the garden. As we leave by the front door, Oddler somehow communicates with Creed and leaves our group, staying at the mansion, and Creed tells us we’ll soon learn why he has chosen to stay behind. Having noticed a chest while searching around the garden, we skirt the river on the other side of the entry bridge and pick up a Healing Rain.

How to go north… I’m guessing through the Mithril Mine. Before that, we head back to Hassan to save and, wow, that Leather Glove is a nice upgrade for Sarah. The merchant also has a Protect Ring and Goddess Staff in stock. We buy the Protect Ring for Sarah. Unfortunately, no one can wield the pretty pricey Goddess Staff. The Healing Rain does nothing outside of battle. Tyrin started out at a high enough level, so he becomes a Sorcerer thanks to the Secret Book. Back at the mine, the fairy heals the sick dwarf, suggests the dwarves help us, and then leaves the group. That was quick. As thanks, they give Bowie (for some reason, Bowie must have an empty inventory slot) a Cannon, which will destroy large rocks. They then get back to digging the tunnel, which allegedly will go to Grans Island. They also mention a Dwarven Village on Grans. I don’t recall such a village from the beginning of the game. Now to find some large rocks. Hmm… The cave with the rockslide? Before going there, since we have Mithril in our possession, we head back to the blacksmith in Polca. Maybe he’ll start us on our way to some special weapons. Nope.

Replacing Gerhalt (since he’s the highest level non-magic-user) with Tyrin, we start heading back to the blocked cave. Since we pass by New Granseal, we stop in and it turns out that they’ve been expecting us. While here, since a little birdie mentioned a hidden special item, we start hunting around and find a Warrior Pride at the base of, or behind, the shield in the Tactical Base. Approaching the throne, Peter mentions that Elis is alive, which breaks the King out of his funk. After filling them in on the details of what we’ve been up to, Astral rejoins us as an advisor. He suggests we use some explosives to clear the cave. For the newly built house having the door on the north side so it’s not visible, you’d think there would be something inside the barrel. I guess the Deals items are available in all shops, as the Goddess Staff is also for sale here. The weapon shop also upgraded its merchandise. Finishing our shopping spree, the guy next to the shop sees our Cannon and gives us some dynamite. Now, it’s off to the cave!

As we are about to leave town, a female elf, Janet, who claims to be Elric’s love, approaches us and joins our force. First thing first, she gets promoted to Sniper and we buy a Robin Arrow for her. May then gets replaced by Janet. Heading back to the cave, we get in another battle against tougher foes. We have very little trouble with them. Noticing one of the monsters is carrying a Blizzard, we head back to town and buy it from the weapon shop. And the Blizzard has no use outside of battle. Heading back to the cave, as we approach it, the cannon automatically gets deployed and Rohde gets called out to operate it. One quick cannon shot later and the cave-in is removed. Rohde becomes infatuated with the cannon and joins our fighting force as a BRGN. As soon as we enter the cave, we get into another battle. Breezing through the battle, we pick up a Fairy Tear, another item with no use outside of battle, from the treasure chest and exit the other side of the cave.

Entering the nearby town of Ketto, one of the signs near the entrance says the church is closed, so we head back to New Granseal to save. Remembering the ring the Lilliputian fellow couldn’t pick up, we take a quick trip back to Creed’s Mansion only to find that the ring is not there anymore. Returning to Ketto, the devils have pretty much taken over, prohibiting the sale of weapons. But, making our way around to a dwarf, he goes rogue and will sell us some weapons. We find some Bright Honey in one of the houses. I might need to look up an item list just to save the time of having to try everything out to see what they do. The church might be closed, thanks to the devils, but the priest can perform everything as normal outside of it. That’s convenient. Well, that was a rather uneventful stop.

Continuing east of Ketto, we see some devils pretty much wiping the walls with members of the Pacalon Army. I have a feeling Higins, the leader of the Pacalons, will be joining our force after defeating the devils. The leader of the devils turns out to be one of Zeon’s advisers, Geshp, and it seems he aims to possess Higins for some nefarious plot. Time to put a stop to that! Aw, Geshp teleported out rather than fighting us. After having next to no trouble with Geshp’s lackeys, Astral exorcises the Gizmo from Higins. Revived, Higins tells us that he was in search of allies for Pacalon’s fight against the devils. Higins then joins our force. Continuing east, the river has partially dried up, and of course we can’t cross it. Finding a bridge, we make it to what looks like a castle or a keep of some kind. Since everyone here except the shopkeeper are centaurs, the statues are of centaur soldiers, and Higins is a centaur, I’m guessing this is Pacalon. The shop has a Black Ring, in addition to the Goddess Staff, in stock. Ooh, it adds 10 to the Attack of Wizards and Sorcerers. Just in case Kazin gets attacked, it’ll be a nice boost for a possible counterattack. Oh, no! It’s cursed!! We find another Cheerful Bread in a vase in a house. I really should start using up those stat boosters. Finding the church, we uncurse Kazin, removing the Black Ring. Well, that was pretty much a waste of 6500 gold. Another shopping spree has us down to about 17k gold. Using all the stat boosters, Kazin and Tyrin get the Cheerful Breads, Luke gets the Protect Milk, Chester gets the Power Water, and Bowie gets the Running Pimento (to be able to get out of danger if needed). I’ll keep the Brave Apple’s automatic level advance for the final battle.

Entering the castle, one of the soldiers tells us that the devils came from Nazca, which is west of Moun, and that they locked Moun’s gate. He also tells us that the vicar Frayja has the key to that gate. The drought brought on by the devils is really sapping everyone’s strength. We find some more fairy powder in a barrel. Investigating the basement, we’re stymied by a locked door. Hmm… This little area outside near the priest must have a purpose, so let’s search every square. Nothing. Approaching what looks to be the leader, I’m assuming the guy in white is Frayja. Speaking to him, he asks us to save Mitula, who is in Tristan. That’s conveniently already our next destination. With nothing else to do here, thanks to that locked door, we leave and head north. One step north into the next map gets us into another battle. The enemy says something about restrictions before the battle commences.

Continuing north, in the northwest is a town, but its gate is closed. I’m assuming this is Moun. Heading back to Pacalon Castle, nothing has changed, so we trek back and take the northeast path, collecting some Mithril from the mountains (not sure how anyone would find that other than by luck or searching every square in the game). Approaching the mountain bridge, we find some monsters eating it. Ok. There’s also a damsel in distress on the bridge, so we have another fight on our hands. Those Great Shots are working wonders. Having a little bit of trouble due to the restricted battle area, we are able to save the woman, whom Astral seems to be smitten with. As we start to continue on our way to Tristan, the woman reveals herself to be Cameela, a leader of the Devil Army. Oh, no! She’s after the Jewel of Evil. Well, just try to take it! No one else has been able to. Astral displays some wizardry and she runs away. As she leaves, she warns us about Geshp and a new foe, Zalbard. Continuing across the bridge and then north, the path dead ends at a town.

Entering the town, a talking duck greets us. This must be Tristan. A fairy tells us that the Ground Orb gives Mitula her holy energy. Gee, I wonder if someone will steal that Orb. Checking out the small cave in the town, we find a healing seed. That’s a bit disappointing. Entering Mitula’s shrine, or what I thought would be the shrine, we’re in a cave. Heading downstairs, we find another healing seed. Upstairs nets us a protect milk. Nice. Kazin gets its benefits. Heading through the back of the main entrance, we’re blocked from entering the shrine by a priest. Astral suggests we try to make a break for it and sprint by the priest, but the priest has a trick up his sleeve and shortly reveals its true nature to be some sort of devil. Ok, there’s a chest on a small island. I wonder how we’ll be able to get to it after the battle. Defeating the enemy, the music changes and we continue toward the shrine. Zalbard speaks to us from inside the shrine and asks us to come inside. Before doing so, Zalbard and Astral talk about some Odd Eye fellow. Hmm… Is Odd Eye actually Oddler? Entering the shrine proper, Astral insults Zalbard by calling him ugly. And we’re in another battle. The layout made this a bit easier than it could have been thanks to the enemy with no ranged attack not moving around the barriers, allowing my ranged troops to pick them off. After that, I moved Peter over the “moat” around the altar to drain Zalbard’s MP, since he has enough HP to survive two Level 2 Bolt spells Zalbard loved using as soon as someone got in range. Finally, Luke and Rick sacrificed themselves to use up Zalbard’s physical attacks when we finally got into fighting range.

Defeating Zalbard, he claims to have no idea where Mitula is, and then drops the Ground Orb that he pilfered. The Orb then flashes, finishing off Zalbard, and the Goddess Mitula appears from her statue. Mitula then tells us that the Jewel of Evil has sealed Zeon’s power. Peter comes up with the great plan of keeping the Jewel forever, but Mitula says Zeon will regain his power if he stays in Arc Valley long enough. Um… Then, the Jewel doesn’t really seal his power, now, does it? She then tells us that the Ancient Tower back in old Granseal is actually Arc Valley. Before leaving, she tells us to listen to the storytellers, and then says we need to find the holy sword on Grans and the Jewel will lead us there. I guess that means we’ll eventually be going back to that old man and hopefully he can get that door to the tunnel to Grans Island opened. Before leaving to find the storytellers, we raid the chests for some Mithril and a Critical Sword. Checking out the rooms in here, we examine the statue in the west room and awaken the sorceress Taya, who promptly joins our force. She then tells us we can use some ancient ship in Nazca to reach Grans. More chests are in here, so we snag a Power Water and a Healing Seed. The east room has several statues, one of which says to attack Zeon at his mouth with the Holy Sword. The rest just give some backstory. Leaving the shrine, I could never figure out how to get to that chest on the island. Now to find those storytellers.

As we start heading for the town entrance, a bird warrior flies in looking for Bowie. It turns out to be Screech from Bedoe and he wants to join us as thanks for saving his life back when he was a chick. As Peter says, he sure grew up fast. He then joins our force. I don’t know if it’s important, but we’re told that if your spirit is stolen, you become a vampire, and become mortal again if the spirit is purged. The turtle in town saw a ship in the western sky. There’s no sign of the storytellers here, so maybe that’s our lead. Rick uses the Power Water and then we leave and start heading back west. That opening in the southern mountains in the first screen west of the big wooden bridge is suspicious. Back near Pacalon, the river is flowing again. Entering, we’re actually told it’s Pacalon. The ground seems a bit brighter than before and there are puddles all around, but all the trees are still dead. A centaur in the castle mentions a warrior from the south that went to Moun. In the throne-without-a-throne room, we speak to the man in the white robe, and he wants us to accompany him to Moun. So, is it Nazka or Nazca? Yep, that’s the vicar Frayja. With Frayja in tow, will that door in the basement get unlocked? Nope. There has to be a way in there. Looking around, there are some suspicious stones near the outdoor staircase. Searching the room near the staircase, we find a hole in the wall right where those stones are. Heading down the stairs and into the locked room, we pick up some Mithril from the chest. Now it’s off to Moun, and then to Nazka.

Or that was the plan. As soon as we leave the castle, Geshp is waiting for us, and had been waiting for Frayja to leave the castle. Preventing Frayja from running back into the castle, he summons Cameela to get the key from the vicar. Cameela and Geshp apparently have some backstory and she refuses, but does allow him to use her army, then promptly leaves. Geshp does the same, and we’re stuck with fighting Cameela’s army. Breezing through the battle, we start off toward Moun. As soon as we enter Moun’s map sector, we find ourselves in another battle. Scanning the enemy, one of the Pegasus knights has a name, and his dot on the map is green instead of red. Hmm… After about a half dozen rounds, Jaro gets fed up with fighting for devils and joins our side. Thanks to Jaro disregarding his health and attacking at every possible point, he gets knocked out, but is revived by the plot after the battle. After the dialog of him joining us, he relapses and needs a priest to revive him.

Arriving in Moun, the devils have seemingly killed off the townsfolk. Frayja blames himself for their deaths and joins our fighting force, giving us a much-needed second healer, and then we're immediately in a battle. We pick up a Mage Staff from one of the Necromancers during the battle. Ok, those mud men are extremely strong hitters. Taking out the rat (or at least what looks like a rat) shaman, we start searching for survivors. From beneath a rock, someone named Zynk, who claims to be from the past, appears and tells us to follow him down the stairs beneath the rock, which supposedly leads to the survivors. Of course, before we do so, we look around town and don’t see anyone, so we head down the stairs. We arrive at a room in the tunnel with about a half dozen people in it. Searching the barrels and vases, we find a Running Pimento. Speaking to a Gyan, we tell him that the tunnel has been cleared, which allows him to go back home, which he starts to do. Stopping to ask why we’re in North Parmecia, Peter tells him that we’re fighting the devils, at which point Gyan decides to join our force. Exiting the other end of the tunnel, we have a girl paint Bowie’s portrait on an easel. Isn’t he just so dreamy? Since this is a dead end, we start heading back, only to be stopped at the room’s entrance by Zynk. Having overheard our conversation with Gyan, he, described as an ancient soldier, decides to tag along. Exiting the tunnel, the townsfolk are back above ground.

Finally having someone for that Goddess Staff, we buy it for Frayja. We’re told that there’s supposedly an Arm of Golem somewhere in town, and that it moves around, seemingly in search of something. We find it in the northwest corner, but can’t interact with it. Ah, for some reason the C-button doesn’t work, but we can manually search with the A-button to acquire it. I guess we’ll need to find the rest of its body. Since everyone is still in the underground room, where were all the people now above ground in town hiding? With nothing else to do in town, we exit by the western entrance and eventually arrive at a desert with a large ground drawing of what looks like a thunderbird or phoenix. As we enter the desert, Cameela is waiting for us. Geshp then appears, mentions that Zeon put him in charge, then disappears, leaving Cameela to fight us. “You want me to be die!” She stands between us and our ship back to Grans, so it looks like we get to kill off the first of the main baddies (or maybe second, if Zalbard counts). Interesting starting formation. Not putting up too much of a fight, upon her defeat, Cameela gives us the Sky Orb, which will allow us to drive the Nazca Ship. She then warns us that Geshp has Prism Flowers, but Geshp reappears and finishes her off before she’s able to tell us what the Flowers allow him to do. Zynk seems to know something about the Flowers, but won’t tell us. Heading back to Moun to save, the shop has a Wish Staff for sale, so we buy it. It’s a downgrade for Frayja, but no matter, it might have some use.

Back at the desert, we walk across the sand drawing’s eye and end up getting sucked into some underground chamber. The chest by the entrance holds a Nazca Cannon, which is a nice weapon upgrade for May. Ah, so this is the ship. Popping the Sky Orb into the console, the ship rises into the air. The view changes and the sand drawing turns out to be the ship. The scene switches to a conference between Zeon and Geshp, where Geshp suggests they shoot us down, and needs the services of Odd Eye, who was mentioned a while back. A new enemy is named as Zeon suggests using Red Baron since Odd Eye still isn’t 100%. After Geshp takes off, a new character appears, mentioning that Bowie has some hidden powers. So, the Prism Flowers turn out to be some sort of laser cannon, and Geshp unleashes a barrage at us. Sustaining some major damage, Zynk manages to crash land us on a cape. Evacuating the ship, we start heading to Arc Valley, wherever that is. Searching around the map sector, there’s a tiny house at the base of the mountains. Entering, it appears to be a dojo. Looking around before talking to the master monk, we find a Brave Apple in a vase. The monk serves as a priest and we’re able to save.

We go the only direction we can and in the next map sector, we run into Geshp again. And yet again, he takes off before the battle. How nice. All the enemies start in a single cluster. Ooh, that Wish Staff attack boost special will come in handy. Aw, it’s only got a limited number of uses. Well, we can’t have that. Reload!! This battle gives us a bit of trouble thanks to how much damage the enemies can do. The late battle appearance of the mud men just delayed things a bit. With that out of the way, we continue our westward travels. Entering the town of Roft in the southwest corner of the last battle area, the guy at the entrance thinks we’re soldiers from Galam and starts to alert the town. Peter assures him that we aren’t and after a second look, the man agrees and calms down. I guess one of the Dragonewts dropped a Heat Axe, as we can buy one from the shop for Jaha. It turns out to be a disappointing shop, as it has no other upgrades. We pick up another Blizzard from the not-so-hidden chest in the southwest corner. Zynk turns out to be from this town. We’re told that only a Dwarven blacksmith can work with Mithril, and that the blacksmith lives in Grans Forest. Entering a house in the back of town, we find Petro, the jerk that locked the tunnel causing us to go through a bunch of unnecessary trouble, seemingly on his deathbed. Petro’s death riles up Zynk, and he joins our force as a Robot. With nothing else to do here, we leave town.

There are two possible paths west. Trying out the northwest path first, we run into Geshp. Um, let’s try the southwest path instead. After crossing several bridges, we arrive at a cave. Entering what turns out to be a temple of some sort, we’re greeted with a teleport maze. Oh, joy. After the first teleporter, we find the rest of the golem. Putting its arm on, Claude regains its power and joins our force as thanks. Yay! Now let’s take our time and see where the multitude of teleporters take us and if there are any nifty items to be had. Either the tiles that are exactly like the teleporter that got us here are not actually teleporters, or they’re out of service. One of them does create a bridge that gets us to the door that Petro locked in the temple south of Ribble. Leaving this place behind, we stop in Roft to save and then head to the battle with Geshp. I thought we were going to be able to finish him off since he didn’t teleport out, but he’s nowhere to be seen on the battle map. That was an extremely annoying battle, thanks to the Prism Flowers being able to attack everyone that’s lined up with them. Fortunately, they actually also damage any of their allies in the line of fire. Taking out the Executioner, it drops a battle sword. Geshp reappears, lamenting the loss of his precious Prism Flowers, then threatens us, saying he’ll be back with Red Baron and disappears again. There’s another unreachable chest in the southeast corner.

After a quick jaunt back to Roft to revive the fallen and save, we utilize the tunnel and head back to Creed’s mansion to see if my hunch about Oddler/Odd Eye is correct. Arriving at the mansion, we notice some gray blotches on the floor. Goliath tells us that Oddler regained his memory and went berserk, and that Creed tried to stop Oddler by falling into the sea. So, I’m guessing those splotches are supposed to be damage and it seems my hunch was correct. The miniaturized people have returned to normal and the three characters I decided against taking join up: Eric the Knight (I’m not quite sure why there’s an E in the class abbreviation), Randolf the Warrior, and Karna the Priest. That was worth the trip. We can now open the back door into the room that held the Desktop Kingdom, but it doesn’t seem to have any purpose beyond being a door.

With our forces bolstered a bit, we go back to where we left off and promote the trio we picked up at the mansion, with Eric becoming a Paladin, Karna becoming a Vicar, and Randolf becoming a Baron with the Warrior Pride. After upgrading our new troops’ weapons, we head back through the last battlefield and, immediately upon exiting, Geshp is waiting, vowing revenge for our destruction of his flowers. After introducing us to Red Baron, who’s blocking the path to Galam, he again teleports away before the battle begins. Looking around the battlefield, there’s a suspicious section of the forest across the river, and there seems to be a slight narrowing of the river near the suspicious spot. Ineresting… Red Baron has an unknown amount of HP and his bar is two-toned. I ended up making this a lot harder than it needed to be by trying to level up our new recruits. That stupid dark cloud (or whatever) in the northwest corner would always throw a wrench into my plan as it actually slowly advanced on us, rather than doing nothing like all the other out of range enemies, until it was in range to attack. Getting past the hell hound, executioner, and three bow riders, and then the dark cloud, that start out near us unscathed is the hardest part of the battle. As I suspected, Red Baron simply has over 99 HP, which is displayed as ?? Boost really came in handy, as my main muscle was Bowie and Sarah (she really started packing a punch with that Master Mage promotion). After defeating Red Baron, Astral removes his mask to reveal him to be… Lemon, the captain of the Galam forces from way back. Of course, he was being controlled and defeating him broke that control. To atone for his sins, he rushes off-screen to kill himself. Not so fast, as Astral says he’s a vampire and the task won’t be so easy. With that finally over, we head back to Roft to revive the fallen and save.

Continuing south of the last battle, we arrive at Galam Castle. Checking around for important information, Lemon has gone south, the bartender mentions a ghost that may have been the priest of Yeel, and Lemon was looking for the Holy Sword at the Ancient Temple. Oh, hey, I can go through that one door now, and we find some Fairy Powder and Healing Water. That’s it? Hmm, I don’t remember this ladder before (was this where that secret path we took when we escaped the jail came out?). The tunnel seems to just be a dead end. This place has to serve some purpose, so we start searching around and the center wall of the chamber yields some Mithril. As we exit the castle, the scene switches to Zeon and Geshp. Zeon is quite upset that we defeated Red Baron and gives Geshp an ultimatum to kill Bowie. I guess we’ll finally get to fight Geshp this time. As Geshp teleports out, that guy from before teleports in, and it turns out to be Odd Eye. It looks like we’ll be fighting Odd Eye after we dispatch Geshp.

No one had anything to say about that odd patch of forest, so let’s go back and try some things. That narrowing in the river looks like a place a bridge would be. Checking our inventory for anything that might make sense, we did pick up that dry stone in the mine with the dwarves. Using the dry stone, it looks like it dried out the river to create a crossing. Never mind that the water continues flowing through the dry patch. Shockingly, the odd patch is another town. Being nothing but a maze of undergrounds rooms, this must be that Dwarven village. One of the vases holds a Demon Rod. Sounds cursed. Looking at the stat upgrade, yeah, it’s gotta be cursed. I could make someone Super Cursed by equipping it and the Black Ring. Trying it on for size, yep, it’s cursed. Oh, there's a little icon on the character screen indicating the cursed status. I didn’t notice that before. Sure, I can spare the 4375 gold to uncurse Kazin. I don’t know what being cursed does, but I’m not going to chance it. At least one of the outdoor chests has something useful, as we pick up a White Ring. It would be pretty sneaky if this were cursed, too. Oh, nice, a +10 defense for Vicars or Bowie. Karna can use that. Finding the blacksmith, we hand over some Mithril to make a weapon for Bowie. In addition to the Mithril, it costs 5000 gold. Just how long do we have to wait for our weapons? Exiting town and immediately re-entering is apparently enough time, as he’s already made a Critical Sword. Turning in the rest of our Mithril, we get a Great Rod, Grand Cannon, Supply Staff, Valkyrie, Misty Knuckles, another Critical Sword, and a Halberd. After all that and selling back the old weapons, we’re still at over 100k gold. I don’t know how well we did with the weapons, but it sure opened up some inventory space.

Exiting the castle to the south, Geshp is waiting for us, and we finally get to fight him. During the battle, a dark gunner dropped a buster shot. Nice. The burst rocks that pop out of the ground provide a minor nuisance, but once we got by the chaos wizard and its level 4 Blaze, it was just a matter of sacrificing a few troops against Geshp’s rather damaging attacks. Level 2 Boost really came in handy as almost our entire party gained its benefit all at once. Defeating Geshp has caused him to lose his powers, so we let him go. Zeon isn’t so forgiving and kills him as he is leaving the area. While looking over the battlefield, I noticed a tiny little something in the trees in the southeast corner. After reviving the fallen and saving back at the castle, we head there to find a statue of a devil’s head. Looking around, we’re able to get around the back of it and find an Evil Lance, which I’m guessing is cursed.

Entering the village in the west, we encounter Lemon admitting his guilt to world and attempting to jump to his death. Here’s an idea: Maybe you should remove your armor. Investigating the hole he created, he pops his head out, bemoaning his inability to kill himself. We then check out the seemingly abandoned, with the exception of the priest, village. Playing the piano in the bar opens “something”. Back at the church, it opened the floor that the priest was standing on to reveal a staircase. The priest now thinks we’re devils and tries to drive us away with a holy symbol. While trying to convince him that we’re not devils by telling him we’re not devils (I mean, how can you argue with that?), Chaz appears from below and convinces him that we’re not devils since the holy symbol didn’t work on us. Astral tells Chaz that we’re from Granseal, and he introduces himself as Hawel’s son, which is how he had a hunch about who Astral is. Oh, yeah, this is Yeel. Heading downstairs and telling Chaz that we’re searching for the Holy Sword, Chaz digs out a book about the sword, except a crucial bit of information seems to have been ripped out of it and stolen. Shocking. Speaking to Chaz, he joins our force as a Wizard. We then find a Quick Chicken and Evil Knuckles in the treasure chests. As I suspected, the Evil Lance and Evil Knuckles are both cursed. It’s so nice that it doesn’t supports 3-digit stats, as I can’t tell the attack ratings of Sarah’s weapons. As we start to leave Yeel by the southern entrance, Lemon pops out of his hole and offers to join us so he can die fighting with us. We accept the Red Baron, Lemon, with open arms. Heading south puts us into another battle, so I reload and we leave by the northern entrance.

The only thing north of Yeel is Hawel’s house, where Kazin joined us. So, after Bowie eats the Quick Chicken, we head south of Yeel to defeat some devils that have their eyes on becoming greater devils by delivering the Jewel to Zeon. Gee, I really need another cursed Evil Ring that the evil bishop dropped. We have little difficulty with the hydra and its friends and, after buying the Holy Thunder back in Yeel, continue south. Oh, there’s a piece of Mithril in the mountains near the cave. Let’s head back and see what we get made from it. Bowie gets an upgrade with a Levanter. Oh, he’s the only one who can equip it. Must be pretty special. With that successful little diversion, we head back to the cave near where we found the Mithril. Oh, yeah, the cave is actually the temple in the intro sequence. As we near where Slade stole the jewels from, the Jewel of Light starts glowing and pulls us to where they original resided, blowing a hole in the wall. Since there’s nothing else to do, and that chest upstairs in blocked by the fallen pillar, we enter the hole and find Excalib-- the Holy Sword implanted in a stone. Again, using the C-button doesn’t work and you have to manually search the sword via the A-button. Bowie pulls the Holy Sword from the stone and acquires the Force Sword. Doing so opens something in the temple, which I’m guessing is the door to the tower Astral then mentions needing to find. Geez, the Force Sword is better than the Levanter, so it looks like getting that made was a waste. Heading back upstairs, rather than opening something, it moved the fallen pillar out from in front of that last chest. Opening it, we get an Evil Axe. Ok, so what did it open? At the devil’s head statue? Nope. Hmm… Maybe something happened in Yeel. Nope. Bowie’s house? Nope. Oh, wait. One of the statues in Tristan said to “attack Zeon at his mouth with the Holy Sword”. Heading back to the devil’s head statue, Bowie uses the Force Sword on the statue’s mouth and it opens up, revealing an egg. No, wait, it’s a passageway.

Navigating our way through an annoying maze of stairs and slides, we finally arrive at a door, on the other side of which is Oddler/Odd Eye. Of course we’re not going to just give you the Jewel, so it’s a fight to the death. Odd Eye doesn’t have any spells, so that should make things a bit easier. Oh, yay. Every time you cast Egress, you have to go through the maze again. Well, this battle is EXTREMELY annoying due to the AI of pretty much trench warfare. Having the enemy do absolutely nothing, except maybe pace back and forth, until you get within range makes for very tedious, slow, boring battles, and this was the worst so far. I had to look up what Aura Level 4 does, since it seemed like it would only heal the caster, which seemed like a waste and not in line with the lower levels of the spell, and thanks to its full recovery to all troops, I was able to just mostly ignore his posse that never leaves his side to focus on Odd Eye and defeat him without too much trouble. I don’t know if his attack automatically puts you to sleep, but it happened on both of his physical attacks that didn’t one-shot kill. The hardest part was being able to approach him and survive the handful of troops that always hovered around him. I even tried to draw them out one at a time, but after attacking and having my troop fall back, it did the exact same thing and hunkered down back at their starting area. I don’t know if you’re supposed to grind up to where you party is pretty overpowered, but with my party (outside of the healers and Bowie) being at Level 19, it was just a matter of being extremely patient, cycling through all your troops for probably around 5-10 minutes at a time as the 2 to 4 troops that someone must have touched one of the tiles that signals them to start advancing toward us slowly advanced, and then picking them off, up until you get to the last group. This is the epitome of why I’ve gotten to where I really dislike the battles in this game. Odd Eye says he knew we’d win and missed our time together before blinking away into nothingness.

After heading back to Yeel to revive a save, we take a detour back to the dojo. Skirting around to the back, we find a woman bathing in the base of a waterfall. Well, a bathing scene can be checked off the list. She turns out to be Sheela, a former pupil of Astral. She’s out for revenge on Red Baron for killing her fiancée. Astral explains how Zeon is behind all the killing, and we’re aiming to reseal him. She must not know or remember what Red Baron looks like since he’s standing right in front of her. She then joins our force as a Master Monk. Heading back and past where we defeated Odd Eye, Creed is waiting for us. He lends his aide by serving as a priest. Oh, this sucks. You can’t access the Caravan in here, so to do so, you have to exit all the way back outside, through the Odd Eye battlefield and maze, then come back, again navigating through the absolutely pointless maze and then the Odd Eye battlefield. Extremely annoying.

Exiting behind Creed, we find ourselves on the exterior of a tower, and some enemies are waiting for us. This is a nice failure at 3D. Changing to all healers and ranged attackers, we have little trouble, outside of the annoying demon masters, and continue up the tower. After a few screens, we reach King Galam and an unconscious Princess Elis. After some brief dialog, we enter battle against the king. Once again using the tried and true strategy of fighting little clusters of enemies while the rest do nothing or patrol a small area, Galam and his 200+ HP goes down relatively easily. With Galam breathing his last, Princess Elis wakes up. A huge door in the far wall opens and Zeon appears. We then immediately enter battle. Hmm… Zeon has no HP. Or maybe he has 400HP, as he’s showing with ??/?? HP. At least we can Egress out to save. Oh, so he has 500 HP. Well, that was easy. It’s nice that that one pyrohydra just sat there and took it from May, as it would not move out of its starting spot since it couldn’t reach anyone. That made the final rush a bit easier with one less enemy to worry about. On our second try, we defeat Zeon. Wow. You better not have epilepsy. Since Zeon ended up almost always physically attacking Bowie when he was in front of him, only using his dragon breath once, I was able to station my ranged troops around him and just pummel him to death, keeping Bowie boosted and having Frayja use Level 4 Aura from afar.

With the extremely buff Zeon flashing into nothingness, King Galam comes to. I guess we didn’t actually kill the old man. As Princess Elis approaches him, saying he was possessed by a devil, Galam suddenly springs to life and grabs her, having become possessed by Zeon. To save Elis’ life, Peter takes the Jewel from Bowie’s neck and brings it to Zeon. After putting Elis back to sleep, engulfing Lemon in fire, and swatting away Peter and Astral, Bowie does some quick thinking and knocks the Jewel out of Zeon’s hand. Getting swatted away himself, Bowie’s hidden power, or something, revives Lemon and he starts to attack Zeon, only to get engulfed again. Another special power from Bowie and Lemon is finally able to grab Zeon and pull him back into the door, which slams shut, I guess resealing him. Goddess Mitula then arrives; explains how Volcanon protected Lemon from Zeon’s fire; takes the Jewels of Light and Evil; says Elis has been poisoned, which can be cured by a kiss from her true love; and leaves to reseal Zeon.

Two years pass and Bowie is back in Granseal, which is exactly like it was at the beginning of the game. The poison has finally purged from Elis, but she still needs to be kissed. Obviously, Bowie is her true love based on the complete lack of anything that suggested it. I think it should be Slade. Approaching the left side of Elis’ bed, a close-up of Bowie kissing her is shown and the credits roll. After the credits, Elis has awakened. The old hag from the annoying loading screen then thanks you for freeing her from the enchanted forest and returning her to her true form of Mitula. Oh, gee, after a few minutes on the Fin screen, there’s another battle against all the game’s bosses. Oh, lovely, Red Baron’s Dark Sword worked against Bowie. Yeah, I’m not wasting any more time on this game to try that battle again.

The party I used for the final battles is:
Bowie (L30 HERO)
Sarah (L33 MMNK)
Chester (L28 PLDN)
May (L29 BWNT)
Rohde (L25 BRGN)
Elric (L24 BRGN)
Karna (L37 VICR)
Tyrin (L23 SORC)
Janet (L24 SNIP)
Frayja (L46 VICR)
Sheela (L20 MMNK)
Chaz (L22 WIZ)

My final playtime is 79h 50m.

My overall opinion of the game can be boiled down to the tedious, boring battles. With battles taking on average probably 60 to 90 min, it completely overshadows the town aspect. I also really didn’t like how experience is determined, as it is based on how much damage you do, creating a rich-get-richer scenario and making it extremely difficult for the low level characters to catch up in levels. I tried leveling up the trio at Creed’s Mansion that I didn’t originally take, but other than the Priest Karna, after probably 10 battles, the two fighters couldn’t even sniff level 10. I can’t help but compare it to Dark Wizard on Sega CD, which released a month later in Japan, and Dark Wizard blows this game away. I can’t give this game a positive score. Overall, I give it a 4/10.