I’ve been working my way through the Working Designs catalog in release order and have made it to Vay. This will be my second playthrough. I found it to be pretty mediocre on my first playthrough, so hopefully my outlook will improve. Also, hopefully it won’t have issues with my Model 1 Sega CD, like Lunar: The Silver Star did, and I won’t have to dig out a different system (I also have a CDX hooked up, but I think the laser is dying in it, so it’ll have to go 0-for-2 before I need to go digging).
After watching the intro FMV with a few standard JRPG plot points, and… wait a minute. You seriously can’t skip the opening FMV? After watching Sandor and Elin’s wedding unceremoniously broken up, it looks like I’ll be trying to rescue my new wife. As my parents, the king and queen, are dying and dead, respectively, my father tells me to seek out Otto the Wise, our Sage for guidance. A soldier tells me that the kingdom of Danek is responsible for the attack and abduction of whom I’m guessing would now be the new queen. Of course, Otto is in a cave. I have my first objective and will likely gain some battle experience on my trip there. Being told to loot the Vault before leaving, I hunt around the castle for it. It turns out to be down a hidden corridor in the hall I originally emerged from, which doesn’t have a noticeable entrance itself. I pick up a long sword, 1500 gold, and a phoenix heart. The long sword is a nice upgrade over the short sword. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any armor. Lovely. There are no item descriptions and the phoenix heart isn’t in the manual, so it’ll be a save-use-reload to hopefully find out what it does. I saw there was a cheats section on GameFAQs, so I checked out the hidden room with all the FMVs. Too bad the two outtakes’ audio is just loud buzzing. Oh, A+B+C+Start is a soft reset. And I was able to skip the opening FMV. So, maybe it’s only unskippable if there isn’t a save file. With everyone else dead here, I leave and head south to find Otto in Pauth Cave.
Nice, you can even run outdoors. Along the way to the cave, I come across the town of Jeffle, just like the minister (or whatever he is) told me about. One of the soldiers in the inn tells of a fortress to the far west. Another person mentions a Fort Gilan and that the people in Smythe should have some info about its status. Putting that 1500G to good use, I upgrade my equipment and leave town. Gaining my first level of experience, things will go a bit more briskly, as you regain all your HP and MP on level up, which will eliminate many trips back to an inn. Finding the cave, I decide to test my luck by ignoring it and heading west to the next town. This isn’t a good idea as I run into some raging bulls, which do some decent amount of damage. Giving up on that idea, I head to the cave. Making my way through the somewhat complex Pauth cave, I arrive at an old man and young boy sitting at a campfire. I quickly learn the boy’s name is Pottle, who, given that he has a write-up in the manual, will likely be joining me. Finding out the old man is indeed Otto, I fill him in on the details. Of course, he knew me as a wee lad. Asking how to defeat Danek, Otto tells me of the Legendary Armor and that I’ll need the five orbs to unlock its power. He thinks one of the orbs is on the island of Magmal off the west coast. Being impatient, I start to rush off to Magmal, only for him to tell Pottle to join me, and I get a cutscene. Yay! A healer! Fully looting the cave, we head back to Jeffle to see if anything changed. Other than one person figuring out I met Otto, since Pottle is with me, everything is the same. So, back to Castle Lorath. The minister just exclaims that the Legendary Armor must only be a myth. With nothing else to do, it’s back to the western path I started up earlier.
Not far up the path, we enter the town of Smythe. The sentries near the gate tells us that Danek attacked Smythe and Gilan. We find a jelignite in a pot, which I’m guessing is a battle item that inflicts fire damage. Ooh, a graveyard. Must… search… all… gravestones. Aw, nothing. In the bar, we find out that Gilan, which stands in the way to Coryan, is occupied. Ah, so Smythe wasn’t attacked. The sentries must have been in Gilan when it was attacked and fled here. Interesting, behind the rear building is some train tracks that lead to a cliff face with no cave in it. Entering that building, we find Earo, who makes the weapons sold here. He has nothing else to say, but since he’s given a name, I’m guessing he’ll become important. After upgrading our equipment, we leave.
Continuing north along the path, we enter Fort Gilan. For being occupied, there seems to be a distinct lack of soldiers. Trying to enter one door, we can here people talking about new ATACs, which I’m guessing are the metal soldiers we’ve heard about. So, the ATACs are what were used on the raid of Castle Lorath. We learn the commander’s name is Sadoul, and that Elin’s been taken to Kerzalt. “This fortress is crawling with Danek forces…” Hmm, coulda fooled me. Pottle mentions a secret tunnel in Smythe we can use to get by this place. Since the plot won’t let us proceed, we head back to Smythe.
Back in Smythe, we talk to the blacksmith, Earo, who says the entrance to the tunnel is in the graveyard. I knew there would be something up with the graveyard because there’s almost always something hidden in graveyards. Searching the gravestones again, this time one of them moves aside (or gets kicked over) and reveals some stairs. Ok, these monsters hit pretty hard. It’s the first time I’ve actually had to worry about my health. That silver knife we found in the treasure chest here does do some nice damage against the undead here. Oh, Sandor started learning spells at some point. He can also heal. Woohoo!
Exiting the tunnel, we find ourselves on the upper level of Fort Gilan. We shortly run in a Tall Man in front of a big praying mantis-like monster. After a bit of banter, the man turns out to be Sadoul. As we advance on him, he somehow takes off and we’re left to fight the Supermantis. Playing around to see what works best, it’s vulnerable to fire spells. Our first attempt was unsuccessful. Using the herbal extracts we’ve picked up, we enter the battle almost fully healed this time. Well, it looks like being level 6 and 5 isn’t high enough, so we’ll have to grind up a few levels. Heading back to town to stock up on herbal extracts, the inventory system can only handle single digits, so the 20 extracts take up three spots in our inventory. I just leveled Pottle up once, used up all our MP casting Flame and Blaze, and almost all of the herbal extracts we bought, and were able to take it down. This was enough to liberate the fort and all the friendly soldiers returned. Talking to the people who have returned, it seems we’ll be having trouble getting a boat to make it to Magmal Isle. Typical.
It looks like my Model 1 Sega CD is having issues, completely locking up in screen transitions about every 15-30 minutes, as well as 3 times during the Supermantis battle. I tried out my CDX and it couldn’t load the title screen. So, I dug out my Model 2 Gen/SCD combo, and hopefully it’ll fare better. This will be the first game I’ve played on it since I lucked into it at my local Goodwill. My last option would be my JVC X’Eye.
Exiting the other side of the fort, the lone path west leads to a port town and then a cave to the north. Entering the port town of Coryan, we’re told that their ships were all taken by the Danek troops. We’re also told of a monster that lives on Magmal Island, and that the Wind Fairy, Sirufa, who lives in Windspur Tower, might be able to get us to the island. The weapon shop sells a battle claw, which can’t be wielded by either of us, so I’m guessing we’ll be adding that mercenary at the dock to our party soon, and she’ll be able to equip the claw. Leaving the bar, the mercenary has taken off to Droust Cave up north. Talking to the bartender is the actual flag that causes her to leave. There’s nothing to do here, so we follow the mercenary to the cave.
In the cave, we find the mercenary fighting what looks to be a soldier. A babette? This isn’t Cosmic Fantasy 2. Sandor recognizes the creature she’s fighting, so we offer her our aid, and enter battle against a night gaunt. It takes a couple tries to defeat the gaunt, using Flame with Pottle. After the battle, a short cutscene plays, introducing us to Rachel, who joins us after we tell her our tale. After a quick trip back to Coryan to upgrade our equipment, we finish looting Droust Cave and exit the other side. A short trip north and we find Windspur Tower.
In the tower, we find Bashy’s Flute, which is another item I have no idea what it does. Hmm. I would have thought Pottle could equip the static sling. The rear room on the ground floor has a little alcove in the back wall, which I’m guessing will serve some purpose. Finding Sirufa’s Kiss, again I have no clue what it does, but it is usable, unlike Bashy’s Flute. Making our way to the top floor, and finding a bronze shield (meaning I wasted a good chunk of gold buying one for Rachel), we meet Sirufa. She somehow knows that we want to resurrect the Legendary Armor just from us telling her we want to go to the island. She warns us of the danger near the lava pits. She then sends us to Magmal Island, arriving next to a Danek transport ship, which we commandeer, allowing us to travel between Magmal Island and Coryan whenever we want.
Huh, you can actually get into a battle on Coryan’s dock, since it’s part of the overworld. The only things on the small island are the dock and a cave, so we enter the cave. I got my first status ailment, as a Powerbunee muted Sandor. The status dissipated after the battle, which is something the manual doesn’t cover. We eventually make it to a room where a few of the Danek soldiers have been killed by something. Searching what looks like a sheet over something, the voice of Romrus, one of the wizards that sealed the armor a millennium ago, warns us about trying to take the orb. Of course we ignore it, and choose to take the orb, which causes the sheet to turn into an Earth Elemental to fight us. Utilizing the full heal upon level up, we entered the battle at very close to full health. Surprisingly, Flame works really well against it, considering it also casts fire spells, and with Pottle’s Balm healing a lot better than before, we’re able to defeat it on our first try. Entering the room beyond the elemental, we pick up the first orb, the Orb of Earth, which causes the cave to collapse and the island to sink, as seen in a cutscene. We’re able to escape back to Coryan during the cutscene.
Greeting us at the dock is a soldier, who’s been tasked with bringing us back to Lorath Castle, as Otto’s waiting there to speak with us. The boat is still at the dock, but we can’t use it. Since we’re rather flush with gold, we buy a power ring for Pottle for its +20 Attack and decoder rings for Sandor and Rachel for the +10 Wisdom. Stopping off at each town on our way back to Lorath Castle, there is some changed dialogue, including a humorous bit from the bartender in Jeffle. They’ve cleared out all the dead from the castle and are rebuilding. One of the guards mentions that Kerzalt is far to the south. In the throne room, Otto is waiting and tells us that the second orb is somewhere in Kerzalt. A little of Elin’s past is told to us, and then we’re told to take the ship at Coryan to Shadhook in Kerzalt. We’re also told to seek out the King of Kerzalt, as they’ve been allies for many years. Hmm… The passageway where the game started is inaccessible. So, it’s back to Coryan.
Before entering Coryan, we stop by Sirufa in her tower. She has nothing important to say, so we head to the ship. Boarding, the boat automatically takes us to Shadhook. Dang it! We found a power ring in a crate. That was 5000 gold wasted. Hopefully, future party members can equip it. We get a geography lesson, finding out that Danek is on the eastern continent. With nothing else to do here but upgrade equipment, we leave town and head east. Making our way through a mountain pass, we arrive at Kerzalt Castle, which is under alert and won’t let anyone in without ID. Trying to pass the guards at the main entrance, the minister comes out and confirms that Sandor is the Prince of Lorath. We learn that Sandor’s late father’s name was Erik. After learning that King Erik is no more, we’re ushered into the throne room to speak with the King. He tells us that Krager, the mage of yore, lived in the caves around Hayhill Downs. I didn’t see any cave during our trip here. The King then summons the court magician, Prudence Jurissa, to aid us. After an introductory cutscene, she joins the party. Woohoo! She can equip the power ring! One of the soldiers here tells us there’s a Danek Base to the south, across Mt. Bole, and then to the west. After looting the castle with the exact same layout as Lorath, with a joke about why from one of the guards, and finding a couple nice upgrades for PJ, we leave and head southeast.
Not too far down the path, we enter the town of Hayhill. We’re warned of the nearby Raxaal Cave being a place where everyone who’s gone to it hasn’t returned. Other than learning that the cave is likely swarming with undead, there’s nothing important in town, so we leave and continue south. Just northwest of Mt. Bole is Raxaal Cave, so we head into the cave. There are a bunch of undead in here, so we head back to Hayhill to buy a couple silver axes. We find a nice Thor’s Shield, which PJ can equip, even though she couldn’t equip other shields. Of course, we also find a silver axe, meaning I wasted a bit of gold. Adding to the list of items that I don’t know what they do, we pick up an Angel’s Cross. A few levels down, we run into a door sealed with a spell. PJ easily dispels it and we’re able to enter the chamber, where we find a coffin. Opening the coffin, we enter battle with a Vampyr. It took a few tries, but with all silver weapons and a whole lot of healing, he goes down and we’re rewarded with the Mysterious Vizier of Xaal. Ok, so the Angel’s Cross is equippable in the Other slot, but it doesn’t increase any stats. Maybe someone in Hayhill knows something about the vizier, so we head back.
On a technical note, it looks like my Model 2 Sega CD isn't having any issues. The only issue I had was that it took a couple tries to recognize the memory cart when I transferred the save file.
Talking to everyone in Hayhill nets us no new information, so we head off to Mt. Bole. Ah, so that’s what it’s for. If we had explored the mountain before the cave, we would have run into the wall that is the stairs that are too high to reach. PJ recites the spell on the vizier and we’re lifted up to the staircase. I could have sworn the old man in Hayhill said this place was teeming with undead. Reaching the top of the interior of the mountain, we find a blue orb either floating above a large well or embedded in the wall behind the wall. Searching the well, the voice of Krager is heard, much like with the previous orb. Of course we’re going to challenge the Wind Elemental to get the orb. It doesn’t seem to be vulnerable to any spells, so we just peck away at it with physical attacks while healing as needed. After about a half dozen tries, when all else fails, grind. Pacing back and forth, we level up to 21 and still can’t survive. So, we head back to town and, now that we have a bunch of gold, buy 20 strange brews. Back at the elemental, we’re now up to level 22. Testing out the Angel’s Cross on Sandor, this accessory reduces the elemental’s lightning attack from 80 damage to 20, and it does like attacking Sandor. Using up almost all of the strange brews we bought, we’re finally able to survive and get the Orb of Wind. The mountain then collapses and we’re back outside.
Now that we’re south of the mountain, we head west and find ourselves at the Danek Base. I really don’t want to be here yet, especially since we were supposed to be looking for a town. Heading back east, we find a town straddling the river. Entering the town of Mortyr, Otto greets us. He proceeds to tell us that to get to the Orb of Water, we’ll need the Wedge of Ice, Blanket of Fog, and Water Gear. He says the Wedge is in Mortyr. It happens to be the town treasure and if we save the town from the Daneks at the base, the mayor will give it to us. Talking to the townsfolk, we’re told the village of the Dragonriders, Segazzi, is to the south. Burning through our 40k gold, we’re almost able to fully upgrade everyone’s equipment. Now with a reason to go to the base, we head back.
The enemies in the base are some hard hitters. As we make our way through, Sadoul makes a return appearance, talking with a Jeal about some plans. They continue talking, and Elin’s full name of Elynthia is brought up, and the reason for her kidnapping is that she holds some hidden power. Gee, haven’t seen that before. They then move on to the subject of the orbs and think that the two we have acquired have simply had their traps sprung. They then end their conversation and split up, with Sadoul going back to Elin. Following Jael back toward the entrance, he’s nowhere to be seen, so we head back the way Sadoul went. Ascending the stairs, we find Elin with Sadoul. It seems Elin has developed a case of amnesia, and claims to have never seen Sandor before as well as having pledged allegiance to Sadoul. We then get to fight the huge robot, Gigatron, behind them, as Sadoul and Elin just saunter right past us and out of the chamber. Lightning magic works great against it, with Shock doing just about as much damage as L-Bolt for half the MP cost. The ladies are our main attack as PJ unleashes Shock and Rachel is able to do good damage with her Hacksaw Claw, while the guys mostly cast Balm except for when Sandor got Muted. We’re able to withstand its rather powerful attacks and are able to defeat it rather easily. This causes the Gigatron to self-destruct, destroying the entire base. Some sort of aircraft, presumably with Elin and Sadoul aboard, is seen flying off and we head back to Mortyr.
The mayor is still standing near the entrance and, keeping his word, gives us the Wedge of Ice. He then tells us to go to Segazz. Wait. Is it Segazz or Segazzi? As soon as we leave Mortyr by the south entrance, we can see a shrine on a mountain. Circling around to it, it’s inaccessible, so we enter the town a little to the southwest. Or rather, the shrine we can see further to the south as we get close to the town. Other than an empty platform, there’s nothing in the E. Shrine, so we head back to the town, ignoring the cave a little west of the town. Entering Segazz Village, I’m not quite sure what they were going for with the joke from the guy near the entrance. There’s not much to this village, with a tool shop, inn and a currently empty house, as well as a whopping 6 people, including the shopkeepers and Otto. After filling Otto in about Elin, he tells us that Sadoul is controlling her mind. Shocking. He then mentions that, long ago, there was a magician in Marwick named Elynthia. He then tells us that the Water Gear is in the mountain shrine, the Shrine of Pegasus, that we couldn’t access. He then suggests flying there on one of Segazz’s dragons. Unfortunately, the village chief tells us that their last dragon recently died fighting one of Danek’s airships. But there might be an egg in the cave to the west! Now we find out from one of the other villagers that the shrine to the south is one of three Dragonshrines where the dragons were sheltered.
We make the short trip west and enter the Dragon’s Layre. What starts out as a straightforward cave turns into a bit of a maze of stairs. After picking up a nice Elves’ Bow for Pottle, we eventually find and take a dragon egg. Returning to Segazz, Otto casts a spell and the dragon hatches. We hop aboard and the village chief commands it to fly us to the Shrine of Pegasus. Entering the shrine, we quickly find the Water Gear. Two down, one to go. The dragon then takes us to the E. Shrine and lands on that empty platform. Seeing what happens if you talk to it, it flies us across to the W. Shrine. Talking to it again takes us back to the E. Shrine. Since we need to know where the Blanket of Fog is, we head back to Otto in Segazz. Otto is no longer here and the Chief tells us that he went across the bay to study the Shrine of Water. There’s nothing else to do, so we go back and ride the dragon to the W. Shrine.
Taking two steps to the west, we’re in the town of Cannisk. We’re told of an Eternal Lady and a Shrine of Toth where she might be found. We’re also told of the Temple of Solon on the seashore, which some surveyors paid by Danek are investigating, that the Shrine of Water is supposedly under the sea, and Solon’s spirit is supposed to haunt a tower of unmelting ice. I was kinda expecting to find Otto here. Wow, that Elves’ Bow is expensive. After upgrading our equipment, we head out in search of Solon’s Temple. Oooook, there’s a harpy-like monster called a Skank. To the south is what looks like a temple and to the north is a tower. Let’s see what the temple is first. Entering Solon’s Temple, Otto is waiting for us. Not being of any help, Otto just tells us to return when we find the Blanket. Since there’s nowhere else we can go, it must be in the tower up north.
The Flame Edge works wonders against the monsters in the Ice Tower. We find a suit of Plymetal Armor for Sandor, meaning we wasted a chunk of gold on a suit of Silver Armor in Cannisk. We also find a suit of Light Mail for PJ, but it has worse stats that the Scaled Tunic, so it must have some spell protection or something. It’s nice that we’re regularly getting over 1000 experience from random battles in here. More wasted gold, as we find a Silver Shield for Sandor, replacing the newly purchased Knight Shield. After picking up a Knight Helm for Sandor, we finally make it to what looks like a large statue of a bug-like creature. Other than creeping Pottle out, it does nothing, so we continue past it and find the Blanket of Fog in a chest. Gee, I wonder if the “statue” will attack us. Yep, we get to fight the awakened Arachylix. Thanks to it being weak against fire, everyone but Rachel is able to do good damage to it with the inexpensive Flame spell, with Rachel always healing. It did a good amount of damage with physical attack, with an added Poison effect, but it tended to want to cast the spell that poisons everyone but does no damage. Even without healing up via leveling before the fight, we were able to defeat it on our first try. With Blanket in hand, we head back to Otto.
Otto just happens to have figured out how the device he’d been studying works, and the three items are essential. He goes on to say that the Orb of Water is in the sunken Shrine of Water. Using the three items, he gets the device working, and… the game freezes. I thought something was fishy when the music didn’t loop and went quiet. Resetting and skipping through the dialog before it finishes the music track, the game continues without a hitch. The Shrine of Water and a path to it rise from the water. Making our way through what’s called Aquanale, we find the Orb of Water on a platform. Bracing for a fight with a guardian, we get none. Instead, after taking the orb, Jeal shows up with four troops. We get to fight the four Danek Soldiers, who fall easily with basic physical attacks. So, Jeal is the Danek emperor. After Jeal runs away, the orb’s trap is sprung. We actually have to run out ourselves, instead of in a cutscene. As we make it back to the bridge, we do get a cutscene as Jeal cowardly skewers Pottle from afar, sending him to his death, but not before Pottle tosses us the orb. His equipment goes along with him, which we can’t have. After watching the temple sink back into the bay and Jeal fly off in an aircraft, I reload, re-destroy the Danek Soldiers, and then unequip Pottle. It’s a good thing I didn’t pull that trigger on buying the 32000G Elves’ Bow for PJ. We get no time to mourn Pottle’s passing, as we just happen to get into a random battle as soon as the cutscene ends.
Interesting. Solon’s Shrine has new music. Otto tells us that the next orb is in Penan, which is allied with Danek, and the dragon should take us there if Segazz’s chief commands it to do so. Flying back to the E. Shrine, we talk to the Segazzi Chief, and he agrees to our request to fly to Penan. He joins us on our trip back to the shrine, and commands the dragon to take us there, mentioning the town of Hogshead being near the shrine. Hopping aboard the dragon, we’re taken over the mountain range to the S. Shrine in Penan. It would be nice to get the choice of destinations at all the shrines. As the chief said, Hogshead is very close to the shrine.
Entering the desert town, we finding Jasper in the bar. Pressing him about the money he owes his niece in Segazz, he pretends to not know who she is. Unfortunately, the last screen of dialog scrolls by too fast to read. Nothing is important here, so we leave. The lone path leads to a large desert with a cave on the northwest outskirts. Someone in Hogshead mentioned an Oasis, so we’ll look for that. Finding it around the middle of the desert, we enter Vaygess. The person near the entrance mentions this is a common stopping place for those searching for Maytake’s treasure, and that there’s a casino here. Woohoo! We’re also told that Castle Penan is to the east. Hmm, I didn’t see that earlier. Aww, you can’t actually play anything in the casino. I like the chest that drains all your gold. Really, unless you haven’t saved for a LONG time, who’s not going to just reload? With nothing to do here, we head out to search for Castle Penan.
Geez, we must have been just far enough to the left for the castle to not come into view, as it’s directly east of Vaygess and a short distance off the desert. Entering the castle and the only accessible door inside, we see a soldier arguing with someone named Yan. It seems Rachel is from here, or at least is acquainted with Yan. Rachel is concerned about the town of Treefall, and Yan informs us that it’s become occupied by Danek. Since the current king of Penan won’t do anything about the situation, Rachel steps up. We learn of Prince Leopard, who’s the son of the prior king. There’s a sewer system here, but only the royal family can enter it. The king also runs a toll road. It seems we can’t get to the eastern half of the castle. Speaking to the king, he’ll grant us passage in exchange for the Eye of Kalif, which is held by the monster Maytake. There’s only one place we haven’t been to, so Maytake must be in that cave.
It’s pretty obvious that we’re in the right place, as the cave is named Maytake. This place is a bit annoying with the monsters that drain MP. Entering a chamber with no encounters, on a raised portion is what looks like a half snake, half dragon, which I’m guessing is Maytake. Speaking to it, we tell it that we’re not here to fight. Pleasantly surprised, Maytake offers to gives us the Eye of Kalif if we can sing a song for it. Sandor tries his hand at it and Maytake cuts off his atrocious singing. PJ then tries and fails miserably. Rather than trying and failing, Rachel suggests hiring a pro. Maytake is patient, so we’ll try to find one at a likely spot: in a tavern. Since we haven’t had anything to do at Vaygess yet, we try there first. As we try to enter the bar, we can hear someone getting their harp taken from them by the bouncer as a result of not paying their tab. A wandering minstrel then comes out of the bar, running into us. If we can get his harp, he’ll help us out. This will require paying his tab. Talking to the bartender, the bill comes to… 20,000 Gold!!! What a lush! Handing over almost 20% of our gold, we get his harp, which doesn’t show up in our inventory. We then get introduced to Lynx in a short cutscene, and he then joins our party. Hmm… The music didn’t start playing after the party joining fanfare. Trying to leave town, the game freezes again. Looks like music cutting out is a bad omen. Heading back to Maytake, Lynx is even worse, getting an actual sound effect to show Maytake’s displeasure. Lynx draws his weapon against our pleading and we enter battle with Maytake. Flame works wonders on him, and Lynx’s Balm always seems to heal 100+ HP, so the battle is won on the first try, with Maytake only casting Stone once. We didn’t kill him, just gave him a good beat down. When we start to leave him in peace, hoping the king will take something else, Maytake gives us the Eye and we’re teleported out of the cave.
With the Eye in hand, we head back to the King. Entering Penan Castle, Lynx warns us that the king is not to be trusted and leaves the party. Handing over the Eye, of course the king won’t let us pass through, as he’s in Danek’s pocket, and gets us to stand on a trap door, which sends us down into the sewers. Making our way through the maze, blocking the way out is an Ebony Dragon. As we’re about to do battle, Lynx reappears behind the creature and rejoins us for the battle. I hope it’s easy since you can’t save in here. Shock works wonders and it goes down without much trouble. We exit the way Lynx came in and find Yan waiting for us. We fill him in on our travails and then go to confront the king, only to be surrounded by his guards. Lynx reveals himself to be the lost Prince Leopard. The guards are still loyal to Leopard, so they stand down. The king turns out to be the backstabbing minister who likely had Leopard’s father killed. Lynx then exiles the king. It looks like Lynx will be back with us for a while longer. One of the guards tells us to see some Sentinel Tree. Now, it’s off to Treefall.
Following the only path, we make our way to the village of Treefall. So, it seems Yan has been traveling with us. We’ll need to find the Elder, who is being held by a powerful wizard and we’ll likely have some trouble with her bodyguards. This is the almost-requisite town with encounters. Everyone’s relieved to see Rachel. Unfortunately, the shopkeepers won’t sell anything and we can’t rest at the inn. Entering the elder’s home, he is being held by the High Commander Rosale, Master of Monsters. Is she a disciple of Gaia? She then tells us she was Jeal’s chief wizard before Sadoul showed up and that she wants the Orb of Fire to show Jeal who’s the better wizard. We then enter combat with Cmdr Rosale and two Ultragoyles. The Ultragoyles can cast a strong all-party fire spell. Yan wasn’t kidding about her bodyguards being tough. I ignored the advice of going after the wizard first and got wiped out. On our second try, we went after Rosale first, and she went down in the first round, taking her healing ability with her. Freezyr actually works against the Ultragoyles, preventing them from casting spells for several rounds. Unfortunately, it’s a bit expensive at 25MP. Leveling up Lynx to 25 so he has 200MP and one extra casting of Freezyr available, we try a third time and are successful, thus liberating the town. The elder then tells us the secret of the Sentinel Tree, which is a hidden magical sea of fire in a cave beneath it, likely to be where the Orb of Fire is. He then gives us a magic key to unlock the door to the cave. This town has some nice equipment, draining our entire stash of 200k Gold. Showing his gratitude for saving the town, the innkeeper will charge us more than any town up to this point to stay the night. Gee, thanks a bunch. Diana says her brother is in love with Rachel. But, isn’t Diana Rachel’s sister? Anyway, we’re off to find the Sentinel Tree.
Heading north, as it’s the only way to go, other than back to Penan Castle, at the end of the path is the tree. A bit surprisingly, we can pass through here and on to the land of Marwick. Walking into the tree automatically has us search the roots for the door, find it, and use the key, putting us in the Root Route. Heh. These days, some knickers would definitely get in a twist over the name of the minotaur monster in here. The monsters are a pretty good step up in power in here. What’s up with the cyclops monster named Madden? With Maddens and Ogres taking 4 rounds to kill, and throwing in the Ogres’ freeze and Medusas’ stone abilities, this definitely looks like it’ll be a multiple trip dungeon. They do give a lot of experience, though, so it’ll only take under 20 battles to level up. Maybe we can knock it out in one go. After descending a few levels, we find ourselves in Fire Lake, which should put that Ice Sickle to good use. Considering its cost, we only bought one, banking on finding one in here. Somewhat appropriately, we find a Goat’s Beard. The Lava Ring we find should help out against those fire-casting enemies. Dang it! No ice sickle to be found in here. So, back to Treefall to buy one for Lynx. Back in Fire Lake, we make it back to what looks like a face in fire. Talking to it, which is named Igneus, it knows who Sandor is and apparently has been waiting for him. After a little more dialog, we enter battle against Igneus. Unfortunately, there are no ice spells in this game, but Shock works extraordinarily well. Igneus falls easily and we proceed to snag the Orb of Fire. PJ recognizes the name Igneus gave for his master, Ardor, as one of the magicians that sealed the Legendary Armor. With that out of the way, we just need one more Orb and the Armor should be ours.
Upon leaving the Tree, Rachel decides to stay in Treefall and leaves the party. Looking at the manual, we should be meeting our final party member, Kinsey, and probably soon. Just in case Kinsey can use any of Rachel’s equipment, I reload and unequip everything. If anything, we can sell it. Heading to Treefall to see Rachel, she doesn’t have anything important to say. With that uneventful stop done, we head back to the Sentinel Tree and continue north into the land of Marwick. A ways up the lone path, we enter the borough of Marl. Unfortunately, nothing for sale here is an upgrade, unless I really want to boost PJ’s already high Wisdom with a weak weapon. Speaking to the lord mayor, Otto has already filled him in about us. Otto was here to view the ancient books. Unfortunately, the mayor has to keep up appearances and can’t openly help us. There’s nothing about the orbs or Vay Armor in the books. However, the Eternal Woman’s shrine, the Shrine of Toth, is nearby to the east, which is where we should be able to find Otto. You won’t mind if we pilfer what’s in these chests, will you, Mr. Mayor? Of course not. With nothing else here, we leave and head east to the shrine.
Before heading there, we explore the area. To the north is Marwick Castle, but we can’t get very far into is as the large doors just inside are locked. We can cross the river and head further north, but I think we’ll go to the shrine instead. Maybe we’ll meet Kinsey there. Due east of Marl is the Shrine of Toth. It seems the Eternal Lady hasn’t been seen in three years, ever since a Danek commander came to speak to her. Finding Otto in the rear chamber, he tells us of the spell of Rejuvenation, which is what allows the Eternal Lady to live for so long, and that he thinks that she sealed the final Orb. He surmises the commander who talked to her three years ago is Sadoul. He then casts a spell that allows us to see the past and what happened during that visit. Now viewing the past, the Eternal Lady turns out to be… Elin! The Danek commander is indeed Sadoul. And Sadoul turns out to be Ardor. He wanted her to help him out in his devious plan, but she had none of it. As she casts a spell to severely damage him, Sadoul is suddenly wearing the Vay Armor. As he casts a spell to kill her, she teleports out. And, we’re back in the present. Otto thinks the priestess here may know something about Elin’s or the Orb’s whereabouts. Talking to the priestess, she says there’s a labyrinth below the shrine and the Orb may be down there. The entrance is beneath the statue in the rear chamber. Talking to Otto, he joins us, but not as a party member. Searching the statue, it moves aside revealing a staircase.
Heading in, there aren’t any monsters to bother us. We find a library, but searching every bookcase, as well as the mural on the back wall, yields nothing. Continuing along the main path, the back chamber does have monsters in it. Dang. Well, it is a labyrinth, so I guess that’s to be expected. Following the right wall, we make our way through the labyrinth and find the Legendary Armor of Vay! Woohoo!!! Now we just need that last Orb to activate it. We also need to free up inventory space to actually equip it, as it requires at least one empty slot to apparently remove the current item into first. All that worthless Rune equipment we found in here is just taking up space. Surprisingly, nothing was protecting the armor. After selling off some stuff, the Vay Armor is currently worse than the Plymetal Armor. Speaking to the Lord Mayor of Marl, he tells us that Jeal thinks the Orb of Soul is hidden in Marwick Castle, and has come to search for it himself.
Arriving back at Marwick Castle, the front door is still locked. Otto blows the door open with a spell and we can now enter. Ok, so this music track that plays in castles and temples is causing issues. I have to make sure I don’t cause a screen transition while it’s loading the track, and there are encounters in here, so I really have to pay attention to where it is in the track and make sure I just wait for the end if it’s getting close. Otherwise, the game will freeze up. Sometimes it’s been taking a good 30 seconds or more to reload the track and then it seems to be fine. So, patience is the word in here. Fighting our way through some very tough enemies, we navigate to the secret chambers with some consumables. I never did try equipping the other Vay items, and it turns out that the Vay Blade is an upgrade, while everything else is a downgrade. Arriving in the very spacious throne room, we find Jeal sitting on the throne, flanked by a couple large armored soldiers. After some threats, Jeal has the two Iron Giants attack us. The standard enemies in this place are all much stronger than them. Shock does work really well against them, but it’s really not necessary. Of course, Jeal is absolutely floored that we defeated the giants. As we advance on Jeal, Sadoul teleports in, and, in a cutscene, skewers Jeal with his sword. Sadoul sees we have the Vay Armor, and then tells us that we won’t be able to figure out how to activate it. Sandor mentions the Orb of Soul, to which Sadoul responds that we’re looking in the wrong place. It’s not like we had much choice in where to look at this point. He then says that only Elin knows where the Orb is. Finally, he tells us to go to Danek Castle in order to prove ourselves, and the castle is to the north, after which he teleports back out. PJ figures out that Sadoul is Ardor and Otto takes off, somehow able to make it through all the enemies that gave our fighting party quite a challenge. Lynx mentions we’ll need a ship to reach Danek Castle, and there’s the port town of Penzance to the north. As we leave, all the enemies have vacated the castle, making the trip out a breeze.
Exploring the area north of the river, there’s a town to the east, a cave with a town on the other side to the northwest, and some weird looking thing to the northeast that turns out to be a mine called Redcliff. The quetzalcoatls in here hand us our lunch, so we head to the eastern town, which turns out to be Penzance. Of course, the Danek has shut down the ships here. Talking to the people outside the bar, I guess Radcliff is a fortress, not a mine. A girl named Arvy is being hassled by some Danek thugs, which means we’ll be helping her out. Entering the bar, she’s surrounded by a few Danek soldiers. Stepping in, we enter battle against the trio of Rough Daneks, and easily dispatch them. They run off, and asking how we can repay her for saving her, we ask about getting a boat. She takes us to her grandfather, Koban. After hearing about what happened in the bar, he vows to blow up the fortress. The final party member, Kinsey, finally is mentioned, as she’s succeeded Koban as the captain of the ship, Sullivan. Redcliff Fortress has some big guns that can sink ships, so if we want to do any sailing, we’ll have to take the guns out of commission. Koban then accompanies us there.
Before heading to Redcliff, we check out the bar, which we couldn’t do before. The town on the other side of he cave is Exeter, and the people there allegedly won’t let in outsiders. We find a Leather Teddy in a crate, which Lynx surprisingly can wear, increasing his “Babeliness,” as the manual shows. Back in Redcliff, other than the quetzalcoatls, the enemies are at or below the toughness of the ones we encountered in Marwick Castle. A few floors up and we arrive at the rather large cannons. Koban goes to disable them while we stand guard. Nothing attacks us while he sets charges at each of the cannons. We apparently run out of the fortress with no encounters and watch from outside as the fortress explodes and disappears from the map. I expected a cutscene for that. He then says he’ll arrange a ship for us, mentioning Exeter. Is it possible to kill a Flee-bag? They all run, as made obvious by the name, and we’ve done over 5000 damage so far. Other than a few thanks, nothing changes in Penzance, so it’s off to Exeter.
I guess we would have gotten blocked from entering by the guards if we’d have entered the cave earlier. Koban tells the guards he’s here to see Kinsey and they let us pass. Thanks to Koban assuring them, we’ll be able to enter in the future without him. Leading us to Kinsey’s place, she’s ecstatic that he finally got around to blowing up Redcliff. Kinsey is then introduced in a cutscene and offers to sail us anywhere we want. Koban then heads back to Penzance and we’re free to explore the town. Someone in the inn tells us that there’s supposedly a floating fortress on par with Redcliff. Meeting Kinsey at the dock, we set sail for Bonarren. With the town in sight, some unknown ship attacks us and we’re sunk. Fortunately, we’re close enough to Bonarren and seemingly everyone aboard makes it to land.
Everyone comes to, and Kinsey becomes our final party member for the stretch run. She then suggests we head to the town of Hectare to the south where we might be able to get another ship. Ah, so Bonarren is the name of the land and Hectare is the town we were about to reach. For as good it is, the Tiger Paws are pretty cheap, so everyone gets one. Why is the Aura Armor so weak when the other Aura items are so strong? A very expensive trip to the shops nicely upgrades our weaponry. So, what sunk us is the ship called the Charnel. I’m at a loss as to what 31370 is referring to. Entering the mayor’s mansion, a lady in a storeroom gives us a Spark of Hades, and will apparently keep giving one of them to us if we use it. The kid in the dining room makes a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reference. Talking to the mayor, he’s simply really busy and is of no help. Since there doesn’t seem to be anything to do here, not being able to get a replacement ship or any leads on doing so, we leave and explore Bonarren Island.
Whoa! I killed a Flee-bag! And they’re worth 30,000 experience! It took getting an attack advantage for a free round of attacks and then everyone attacking before it acted, which I think put us around 10,000 damage dealt. So, they’re this game’s version of Dragon Quest’s Metal Slimes/Babbles, which I figured would be the case. South leads us to a dock with a metallic-looking ship, which I’m guessing is the Charnel. Before trying to board, we turn around and head north of Hectare. Aw, Kinsey doesn’t have any healing magic. The north path just leads to a peninsula, so we head back to the ship. As we enter the dock, the screen pans the ship and then we resolve to attack it. There’s not much else to do. None of the barrels around the dock hold anything. Phooey. As soon as we enter the Charnel, the door slams shut, trapping us inside. Sadoul’s Chief Technician, Betty June, who’s also the captain of this ship, then mocks us and tells us that she’s in the control room. Saving isn’t an option in here. She mentioned there are metallic enemies, so Lynx re-equips his Laser Spear. I guess if you sold off your Laser Spear, or never bought one, there’s one inside a crate. Making our way to the control room, Betty June shows off her arrogance, and then climbs into her toy, the Eviscerator, and fights us. PJ’s shock works wonders thanks to her high Wisdom. The biggest thing to worry about is the Eviscerator getting off a double attack, which can almost one-shot everyone. Sandor and Lynx go down, but we’re able to defeat her in one try. Kinsey then orders her to pilot the ship to the Ossyk coast, to which she refuses. Otto then arrives on the scene and proceeds to hypnotize Betty June and has her convinced she’s our ally. She’s now on board with taking us to the town of Dunton in Ossyk. Otto then tells us that what he did to Betty June is how Sadoul is controlling Elin, and that he can defeat Sadoul’s control over Elin. We then head off and dock at Dunton.
Betty June gives us the option to go back to Hectare. In Dunton, we learn that Danek Castle is to the north of the river. We’re told that Sadoul is building the Fortress of Draktyr on an island to the north. Wow! I thought Hectare was expensive! Other than really expensive weapons and the ridiculously expensive Angel’s Harp, there’s nothing to do here, so we start heading north. Geez! For as tough as the green dragons are, they give a paltry amount of exp. The conjurers can be devastating in a group if they start casting the all-party fire spell. We make the relatively short, but quite dangerous, trip to the green Danek Castle.
Entering our first battle, the twistedness of Sadoul comes into view as the background has big baby heads integrated into the walls. Also, the first monsters we run into are arch-chimeras which take at least 7 rounds to defeat, while they have the all-party fire spell. It appears this place will be very tough sledding. And then there are the Evileyes, which like casting the lightning spell that does about 130 damage to everyone. And they can come in groups of four and take 4+ rounds to kill, so if everyone is maxed out with 999 HP and they all decide to cast that spell every time, they can wipe out a completely maxed out party in 2 rounds. This is going to be a serious grindfest. After grinding for a few hours to get the 150k gold to buy a Dragon Blade, we’re getting close to everyone having 999 HP (everyone’s between levels 50 and 59). Lynx equips the Dragon Blade and we head off to hopefully successfully tackle Castle Danek.
Of course, blood dragons are extremely rare in this trip. Even with all the leveling up, it still takes 9 rounds, NINE!, to kill a single arch-chimera. It’s so nice that the chests near the entrance hold useless items. Of course, the Lava Ring doesn’t protect against the fire spell that the monsters cast. It looks like the only viable strategy is to only actually fight battles against a single enemy, hoping they don’t spam all-party spells that there’s no way to protect against, or against only assailers or destroyers, running away from all other battles. Since any multi-enemy battle not against assailers or destroyers will pretty much wipe out our full health party (heck, just a single evileye can almost wipe out our entire party), there’s going to be a TON of reloads in here. It would be nice if you could change equipment during battle, since the Dragon Blade is a downgrade compared to the Beam Lance against everything but dragons, which are in here. Hmm, since Sandor was down to 5 MP, I tried a Flame against the arch-chimera and it did about 2x his physical damage. So, trying it out with PJ and her 250 Wisdom, it did about 10x her physical damage. That’s opens up another battle possibility. What?!? A piece of equipment that’s actually an upgrade? Wow!!! Since most battles are against 2 or fewer enemies, due to screen real estate of them, Kinsey ditches the whip and equips the Odin’s Blade. Its sap enemy HP ability will come in handy for healing purposes. With this place becoming significantly easier, we make it to the Red Dragon’s lair, but we can’t get to it right now since the platform, or whatever it is, that should take us there is inoperable. There is an actual shop in here, in the form of a big, pudgy baby face in a wall named Fred, and it sells the items we found in here, including the Odin’s Blade. Nice.
Taking the final corridor of the three here, we exit the castle and are in Danek. While we still encounter blood dragons, the monsters in here are a marked downgrade as we run into warlocks and elite guards again, as well as the new arch fiend, which only does standard physical attacks. This area is the standard maze path that is in many JRPGs, or rather a handful of long, winding paths. The 2nd to right path from the hub room leads to what looks like the next area, so we backtrack to explore the other two paths. Ooh, there are Flee-bags in here, too. Which means if we get an attack advantage, we’re guaranteed of killing at least one of them. This area is so easy, I either run from blood dragons since their rewards just aren’t worth the trouble or turn on AI and breeze through the battles. Finding a Plasma Whip and Beam Lance at the end of the remaining paths, we head back to Fred to sell them and buy two Odin’s Blades. Unfortunately, PJ can’t wield it. Or at least that was the plan, as we’re short due to us not getting half of what we’d pay for them. Aargh! I guess Kinsey will have to do without one for now, as we should be unlocking the full power of the Vay equipment soon. Back in Danek, we enter the door we passed up and get a long straight bridge with disappearing and reappearing faces along the side. It leads to a large mouth. Oooooook. Hmm… It appears healing magic works like it should in here, as Balm only heals about 20 HP, as opposed to ranging from around 20 to 120 HP everywhere else. Inside the mouth is what looks like a console along with two large glass tubes with what looks like a very large baby in each of them. The console does nothing. Ah, you can go around it. It looked to me like the room didn't extend beyond the console.
Entering the next area, a disembodied voice welcomes us. Sandor recognizes it as Elin, and we automatically advance to find her at the back of the room. Sandor then tries to remind her of what happened three years ago in an attempt to snap her out of it. Sadoul has convinced her that Sandor has evil intentions, and she is about to attack us. As she approaches for battle, the orbs resonate and break Sadoul’s spell over her. She then explains that in order to prevent Sadoul from learning her secret, she ate a Flower of Forgetfulness. It turns out that she has had the Orb of Soul the entire time. The next mystery is how there are two Vay Armors, as Sadoul is also wearing one. Sadoul then teleports in and Sandor immediately wants to attack him. Elin stops Sandor, saying that as it is right now, we would have no chance against his armor. Elin talks to Sadoul and he says that his armor also fell from the sky, except it was dormant. He's been trying to figure out how to activate it over the last 1000 years, and has only partially done so, which explains his comment to us a while back about how we would never figure out how to activate ours. They then talk of the ancient technologies. Sadoul then does something to Elin, as a cutscene plays where she appears to die and then becomes the Orb of Soul. Her voice is then heard and she commands the orbs to return to the Armor of Vay. Rather than fight here, Sadoul tells us to meet him at his fortress in the sky at the island of Draktyr and promptly teleports out. A loud noise like the roar of a dragon is heard and we all rush outside to investigate. Another cutscene plays, showing most of a nearby island rising into the air with some structure in the center. Otto then rushes in, mentioning the Danek aircraft being somewhere in the castle. Ah, so Red Dragon is the name of that thing we couldn't operate before. It seems Otto has already remedied that situation. Oh, Sandor’s sprite on the right side of the screen has changed, showing him wearing the armor, but his walking about sprite hasn’t.
Well, that’s a load of crap! Sandor automatically equips all the Vay items, and whatever he had equipped just disappears. So I lost that Odin’s Blade. Luckily, I don’t need too much gold to buy another one. But that’s still 110k gold down the tubes. Then again, I doubt I’ll have anything else to buy from here on out. It appears the Vay equipment has fused to Sandor, as he can’t unequip it. With a couple grand to spare, we’re able to afford the Odin’s Blade without needing to grind. Heading back to the Red Dragon, finding it before doesn’t register as Sandor’s relieved we were FINALLY able to find it. As Otto said, all it takes is Kinsey to think of where to go and it automatically goes there. Some rather heroic/dramatic music plays as we fly to Draktyr and automatically enter the fortress. I like how that sequence automatically advanced so the music ended just as we arrive. And…. you can’t save in here. Well, not without using a trick. It looks like we can’t leave, either, which makes not being able to save somewhat logical.
Well, it looks like using AI in here is not a good idea as the enemies have status effect attacks and under AI, curing that ailment is top priority. And, boy, do they like casting them. Battling our way through a bunch of enemies that can freeze and drain MP and picking up a handful of consumable items, we make it to a room with the standard full party healing spot. Yay! You know, if you can’t exit here, as it seems to be the obvious final area, why are we getting gold for defeating enemies? This new area is just a grid of chambers that likely all except for one return you to the starting point. It’s time to get methodical. Yep, every one but the 2nd to right of the top row sends you back. At least you can heal up after every attempt. In the center of the top wall of the chamber grid is a set of what look like windows in a Mickey Mouse head pattern, which could be important. And then we get the stanard teleport maze. Making our way through that, there’s another healing platform to take advantage of. Now in a pyramid-like structrure, there are no random encounters, so we pick up the handful of nice healing items at our leisure. Entering the lone door, we finally make it to Sadoul. After some banter about him ruling the world, we’re suddenly at the summit of the fortress and we enter battle. Conveniently, Lynx has 520 MP, which is juuuuust enough to cast Panacea 4 times. However, Thyxaal’s 4x attack is really useful for having Sandor deal some major damage. Since there’s no spell to recover someone who’s unconscious, we had to suicide when Lynx got taken down by a double hit from Sadoul and utilize that Lifestone to recover the party with full HP. It’s definitely beneficial for Sadoul to cast Blitz and do about 120HP of damage to everyone but Sandor (the Vay Armor really reduces magic damage) rather than physically attacking. Using a couple stardusts to fully restore Lynx’s MP, and repeatedly casting Thyxall on Sandor is enough to defeat him on our first try -- and if you lose and weren't utilizing the trick to save in here, it would likely be pretty frustrating to have to go through the entire fortress again for another try. In a cutscene, Sadoul vows that his isn’t the end of his reign and then we instantly are back on the Red Dragon and watch as the flying chunk of the island crashes into the sea. Back at Castle Lorath, Sandor gets crowned king. We then see Otto seal off the armor and send it into the depths of the planet and the credits roll.
My final party level was:
Sandor -- L67
P.J. -- L67
Lynx -- L65
Kinsey -- L60
I enjoyed it more than I did on my first playthrough. I think that had to do with knowing this time going in to not expect anything special about it. And there really is absolutely nothing special about it, except maybe the cutscenes, which might have been impressive in 1994. While I did have fun, I’m keeping my rating at a 5/10.
