Hundreds and hundreds of randomly generated floors! Lufia: The Legend Returns

Chapter 17: Minim in a Regurgitated Plotline

I told y'all we're going to be marathoning this. Actually, in all likelihood we won't get to the end of this game before 2011, but you know, we can dang sure try to get as close as possible!

There will be Voting Times at the end of this update.


Music:Tanba Village

Today's update brings us back to the main story (Sinistral Huntin'), so let's dive right in. Following Ruby's suggestion, Minim arrives in the village of Tanba. The town greeter, named Sammi, informs Minim that there's a location called the Tower of Sorrow nearby, it started glowing recently, and the glowing precedes bad things (in this case, earthquakes). I'm no genius, but I'd say we've found Daos... but Sammi has more to say:



A patrol group, led by her fiance Jan, has gone to investigate the Tower of Sorrow. You know, because "The Sinistral Tower is over that way, have fun!" would be too easy and there wouldn't be able to cram in nearly as much banal dialogue!

Also of note: A man nearby, named Yurist, who is simultaneously concerned about Jan's well-being and calmed by the knowledge that Jan, as a skilled warrior, will prevent anything bad from happening to the team.



There's some stuff around town. The Church has some neat magic to buy: Resistance targets one ally and prevents them from being inflicted with bad status; Storm is the most powerful thunder-elemental spell and targets all enemies; Strongest fully heals one ally; Valor revives one ally with full HP. I, uh, didn't have enough LP to buy all the spells I wanted because I wasted a lot bringing up Dei's yellow SF in the last dungeon, so it ended up with Ruby and Melphis learning Resistance, Seena learning Storm and Minim getting Strongest. I decided he needed Strongest because Seena, Melphis and Ruby's Stronger spells heal well enough, while Minim's is a waste of MP, but with Strongest, he'll be able to actually heal allies worth a damn.

I couldn't afford Valor for anyone.



Holy shit look at all those treasure chests! All of these things could conceivably be used at some point! I mean, I'd rather have a really awesome pieces of equipment, but you know, whatever.

You wanna know something? Despite the "generous" cash reward from Leydock, it's not enough to buy a single weapon here in Tanba. Everything's like 23,000 G and up. Screw you Leydock, your shitty reward is more of an affront to me than the taxidermy. (Not that I actually need to buy weapons here, really...)

A Silver Rod (+140 ATP, +60 REG, effective against hard and dark-elemental enemies) and Soul Robe (+130 DFP) for Melphis; a Plat Plate (+220 DFP) and a Plate Helm (+80 DFP) for Randolph; Soul Robes (+130 DFP) for Ruby and Seena; Tower Shlds (+80 DFP) for Deckard and Dei, and an IndrTurban (+75 DFP, reduces damage from thunder) for Aima.

Randolph's Plat Plate is actually the best body armor you can buy for him. The best is probably the Mtl Mail, which can be found in the Ancient Cave. It only offers about 20 more DFP, but it also gives him an extra 100 HP, and he needs all the help he can get in that department.



Hello Conspicuous Cemetery, I'm sure you won't be the setting for a cutscene at the end of this update. The grave in back has a Life Blade (ATP + 320, regular attacks heal the target). Theoretically useful, only Minim, Randolph and Deckard can use it and they'd all be better off being able to use regular attacks.



Mt. Tanba is just a gateway cave. I, uh, don't remember which cave music is played here. Sorry! We'll be back to explore the Cave in Mt. Tanba for a sidequest later in the game. Right now it's full of powerful monsters from I think the final dungeon.


Music:Tower of Sorrow (I am so thrilled I get to link to that as the background music for the dungeon it's named after instead of as cutscene music)

The Tower of Sorrow looks exactly like the Tower of Illusion and the Tower of Death, except it's green.

Lots of new enemies here, although it's possible some were from Leydock's Basement.

The blue kids that chase Minim down are Clowns. They have high evasion and can cast Fireball, but waste an awful lot of turns giggling.

Amr.Hornets are so completely nondescript I didn't even write any notes about their behavior down. I imagine they can use Needle Shower and can probably inflict some sort of status effect with their regular attacks.

Jurahans also chase Minim down, and appear as green armor. They can Call Companions to bring in a Phantom.

S. Knites are in the same boat as Amr.Hornet in that I have nothing to say about them. They look like skeletons in the dungeon.

That's not Shiren, it's a Ninja. They can attack twice, but their attacks only average about 30 HP against my party. I think they can probably pull off instant kills, I mean, that would make sense, right? It's baseless speculation on my part though.


Music:Normal Battle (I haven't linked the regular battle theme since, like, the first or second update, so might as well right?)

See? More new guys!

Vmpr.Roses are red flowers in the dungeon, I imagine they can absorb HP from the party. Maybe they count as darkness-elemental enemies, too. I honestly have no idea.

There's yet another variety of ghosts here, but Haunts don't seem to add anything new or exciting to the mix.

Just like their brethren, King Hydras are stationary (unless you trip a bear trap, I guess). The only two things I've seen them do are Destroy Beam, which deals considerable damage to one target (it was enough to kill Ruby at max HP), and Destroy Laser, a wussy attack that hits one column for around 30 HP (although it usually didn't hurt the front line characters at all).

I'm not sure what Wyverns look like in the dungeon, but they can use Poison Tail to hit an ally for about 165 HP (and presumably inflict poison).

DeathArmrs exist, but that's all I can tell you about them.

La Fleshias are yellow flowers in the dungeon and use Confuse Pollen to try and confuse one row. Their regular attack can probably cause confusion, too.



Strong Cure isn't good for much, because it's limited to characters who have crappy max HP. Perhaps that will change by the end of this update...

ScatterMist has the same description as ScatterHit, but it omits one important detail: It hits every enemy. So when Aima uses ScatterMist, she hits every enemy six times. This is... actually not all that useful. At this stage in the game, Typhoon Toss is really enough to take down most enemy parties, and it's like 20 IP cheaper.



The seventh floor has a healing pad and save point, so you know what that means! There's a throne room, like the one in the Tower of Death, and it has treasure on either side. Minim, like always, refuses to continue up the tower, leaving us with only one option: See what's going on on the throne.


Music:Sinistrals of Destruction and Terror

Jan and his trusty ally Guard are here and confronting Daos. Jan demands to know if Daos is the one responsible for the earthquakes. Of course he is (Daos is a catfish!), and he makes a thinly veiled threat about how he can destroy Tanba instantly if he so wished.

I cut out some dialogue here, but Jan's all like, "I won't let you do that!" and Daos is like, "Pfft like you even have a chance," and then Jan says he'll defeat Daos, and Minim steps in to warn him about how tough Daos is.



So they decide to team up and take care of Daos!


Music:Battle against a Sinistral

This is a timed battle, like the one against the Ancient Dragon (M). You have three turns to win it, or it ends automatically. Like in the battle against the Ancient Dragon (B), your new soldier friend will pop in at the end of the turn to attack the boss. Here, Jan's attacks will get progressively stronger: The first is something like 200, then the next is like 400, and the final one is, I believe, around 1,000.

Daos himself will use the most powerful elemental magic: Fire Dragon, Storm and Ice Storm, and that's about it.

On the first turn, Minim used Holy Sword, Aima used Scatter Hit and Seena cast Zap. Minim and Aima did the same thing on the second turn, but Dei had to bust out a GoddessTear because of how damaging Daos's Storm spell was. On the third turn, Minim and Randolph used Holy Attack and Deckard used Afterimage. Jan got the final hit in to finish him off.

The reward for defeating Daos within the time limit is the Terror Armor, which raises DFP by 280 and can be equipped by Randolph, Minim and Deckard. I gave it to Randolph even though I just forked over like 30,000 for that Plat Plate earlier this update.


Music:The Wounded Warrior

After the battle, Jan triumphantly announces that he's read all of Daos's moves and performs the coup de grace. Guard congratulates him, but Jan humbly admits that he only succeeded because he had help.



Guard asks Jan if he's going to get married to Sammi now that things have gotten peaceful, and I cut a lot of this conversation because it's really similar to the one we sat through after Minim defeated the Ancient Dragon (B). Guard kind of teases Jan about marriage, and then Jan invites Minim to the wedding.

Minim's response: "Uh....yeah." He doesn't care about any of this either.

Jan and Guard leave, and Seena pops out to ask what the hell is going on. She wonders if that wasn't the same Daos as the one they met in Elcorano, but Minim believes that it was definitely the same guy. You know, he saw Daos for like three minutes a month a go three dungeons ago, so maybe he shouldn't be so sure of himself.

Seena asks if this means that Jan is super strong, but Deckard doesn't think that's the case. Jan's not a wuss, but there's no way he could take on the Daos they met in Elcorano. Unsure of what to do, they decide to return to Tanba, instead of heading up the Tower of Sorrow to see if Daos is lurking up there.



Guard (not to be confused with Guard) is impressed that Jan defeated the guy in the tower. I wonder how impressed he'll be in a few minutes. A little girl is waiting in Tanba to direct Minim to the church. Although she loves weddings and wants to be a bride, she has chosen not to go hang out near the church to catch a glimpse of the bride or whatever.


Music:Wedding Bells

As soon as Minim approaches the church, a cutscene takes over. Jan and Sammi exit the church as man and wife, and the onlookers cheer them on. Sister gushes about how pretty Sammi looks and Sammi thanks her. Brother teases Jan for marrying the only hottie in town (for which Jan cheerfully apologizes), and tells him to take care of her.

The couple stops to address Yurist. What's this Yurist guy's deal? Are they a trio of best friends that grew up together? Is he the unlucky one that loses out in the love triangle? Sadly, the game will never elaborate on the trio's relationship.



Yurist congratulates the couple and tells them to be one with nature.

And that's when the Flickering Screen of Incoming Disaster shows up and the music fades out.



Gee I wonder who it's going to be?


Music:Sinistrals of Destruction and Terror

Daos descends in front of the church. Sammi clings tightly to Jan, but he reassures her that he'll protect her. He's surprised that Daos is alive, but Daos and everyone reading and playing along is like, "Duh?" Jan wants to know what he wants. Don't worry Jan, he just wants to give you a wedding present.



Jan starts in with that "I know your moves" nonsense, but Daos has other plans. He blasts Sammi with the Pink Energy of Evil Meddling, which sends Jan into a panic. Sammi assures him that she's ok though. Jan demands to know what Daos did to Sammi.

(You can see Minim down in the lower left screenshot, you know, in case you forgot that he was in this scene. Lord knows he did.)


Music:Nightmare

He just laughs at this and watches his plan unfold. Sammi leaps away from Jan and starts screaming for him to stay away. Daos has made it so that she sees Jan as a beast (let's assume he means, "Horrible Monster from the Depths of Hell" and not "Black Bear").



He goes on to say that she's going to be driven mad with fear and basically kill everyone. Then he nicely supplies her with a sword with which to murder everyone horribly. She charges at Jan, but he manages to parry (I suppose he has his sword under his tuxedo... that seems to be a common thing for weddings in the Lufiaverse). He's shocked by how powerful she is, and Daos explains that she's now as strong as him.



Jan pleads with Sammi to snap out of it, but according to Daos the only way it'll stop is if Jan dies. Or Sammi dies. Either's fine. He laughs about the irony of the happy couple being forced to kill each other and disappears.

After Daos leaves, Minim remembers that he's in this game. Actually, Seena has to remind him, but whatever. They both charge at Sammi to try and get her to stop, but are knocked away.



Minim confirms that she really is as powerful as Daos and they won't be able to stop her without "getting serious," Jan begs her to stop and Sammi screams more incoherent nonsense. Yurist steps in to try and talk some sense into her, but to no avail.



But God bless him, he's trying.

Unfortunately, his Dr. Phil hippie mumbojumbo causes Sammi to run over to Sister and try to kill her. Jan manages to get to her and restrain her before she can hurt Sister, but Yurist warns him that since Jan is the thing that she's scared of, he'll only make things worse by holding her down.

Jan decides that there's only one way to save Sammi: He draws his sword (maybe it's the sword Daos gave her? I don't friggan know)...



...and stabs himself. Yurist rushes over to try and help him and questions why he would do such a thing. Jan explains that if he dies, Sammi will get better, and that he'd rather sacrifice himself than allow Sammi to become a murderer.


Music:Beloved

Yurist wants there to be another way, but there wasn't. Jan asks him to take care of Sammi, and just before he dies, Sammi regains her senses.

At least... at least he got to see that her sanity restored before he died, right? That's... that's something, right?




Music:Sinistrals of Destruction and Terror

Aaaaaand to rub salt in the wounds, heeeeeere's Daos!



He was disappointed by the way things turned out. I guess he totally expected Sammi to kill Jan, or Jan to kill Sammi, or Sammi to kill someone, at the very least. Daos calls him a stupid human, which prompts Yurist to stand up and tell him to STFU.

Daos, like the other Sinistrals, isn't used to people speaking that way to him, so he decides a good smiting is in order.

And he does so. He smites Yurist.

But! But! Nothing happens. He does the Sinistral Smiting Beam thing, and Yurist kinda just shrugs it off like it ain't no big deal. Yurist's magical ability to not die horribly by way of Daos will never be explained.



Yurist wants to make him pay, and Minim and Seena jump in to help.

Minim decides it would be best to prepare for this battle, what with the new character and all. Like all new allies before boss battles, Yurist gets whatever we have laying around. Luckily for him, we have some good stuff: The Custom 65 from the Ancient Cave (so he can rock out) and the Bunny Ears (his best headgear), as well as a Jet Ring and a Sanity Ring for the hell of it.

Yurist comes with three IP skills: Cure Force, Cure and Revive. Revive is new, and it's like using the Revive consumable items on the entire party. In other words: Not terribly useful, for the same reason those items are largely useless. Luckily, Yurist can also learn Final Dance (from the Tower of Illusion), and he does so. I subbed him in for Randolph for that very reason.


Music:Battle against a Sinistral

This is another timed battle. Daos behaves the same as he did last time. Here's how I won:
Yurist opens with Final Dance to shave off a quarter of his HP, Deckard uses Afterimage and Minim Holy Sword. On round two, Minim uses Holy Sword, Aima busts out Scatter Hit and Seena Zap. Third round goes the same way, except Minim uses a regular attack instead of Holy Sword.



The reward is the Daos Stone, which raises HP by 300 and all other stats by 100. Of all the unwinnable boss fight rewards, this is the absolute best. The bee's knees, if you will.

Daos is impressed that strong humans exist and the takes off. Because, you know, he's a Sinistral and that's what Sinistrals do. They show up, make a fearsome display of their power, congratulate any humans left standing, then run away.

I mean... this is twice that Minim has beaten up Daos, so his, "I WILL SHOW YOU THE TRUE FACE OF TERROR" doesn't hold a lot of water, you know?

Anyhow, with that final threat, the scene fades out and reopens at Tanba Cemetary:


Music:Lost Peace

It must suck that they had to bury him in a grave that was already there. After Yurist says his goodbye, he asks Minim if he can come with, you know, for vengeance. Don't think for a minute that Minim is going to turn a new friend. Yurist is ready to forsake his entire life zen philosophy in order to get revenge on Daos.



Minim is ready to go to the Tower of Sorrow for the final showdown with Daos. But this is TLR, so nothing will be that simple: Brother comes running up to tell Minim that the cave to the Tower of Sorrow has collapsed because of an earthquake. Yeah Daos, running away after getting your ass kicked and holing up in your fortress, that'll show 'em true terror.

Seena wants to know what they should do. Aima says they can't reach him by land or sea.



Causing Dei to suggest that maybe they could go by air, but how would they do that? Build an airship? What kind of nonsense would that be? They've only existed in Estpolis for the past two hundred years!

Yurist suggests that they go meet this game's Shaiaa scientist in the town of Mologolo. The directions he gives are sort of confusing, it would have been better just to say it was to the northwest of Tanba along the coast.

Jan's grave has Sammi's Engag Ring on it. If a character in the active party is wearing it, everything in stores is half off. I'm sure Sammi won't mind, right?





Random floors covered: 310
Next Time: Wackiness! Unobtainium! A dramatic cliffhanger!

JP art



US art

The US art gives a radically different impression of Yurist: He's more effeminate. His pose is more closed off... less defiant than how he stands in the Japanese art. The guy in the Japanese version? Yeah, he's the guy that stands up and tells Daos to go fuck himself. Yurist is a 27 year old traveling minstrel, which makes his relationship with Jan and Sammi all the more confusing.

Voting Time!

First of all, we need to decide on who's going to get the Daos Stone. It's male only, so it's limited to Minim, Dei, Randolph, Deckard, or Yurist. In my opinion, Yurist needs it the most because his equipment is so shitty.

We have one other problem: We now have ten characters, but only nine spaces in the party. We need to decide who gets benched. Let's take a look at our characters and their pros and cons:



Minim is the Hero and one of the most powerful characters in the game. His Spiritual Force is Red, which raises ATP. We've collected a ton of powerful unique equipment for him, including his ultimate weapon. He's the only one who can use Holy Sword. There's honestly not a whole lot to gain by removing him from the team.



Seena is our heroine and resident Mage. Her Spiritual Force is Blue, so she boosts MAP and REG. Offensive magic isn't that useful, but she can use single target healing spells. She has access to lots of ailment and element blocking equipment.



Dei is a Thief. His Spiritual Force is Yellow, for MP and SPD. He can steal, and he's fast enough that he is almost always guaranteed to act before the enemies in case you need to do some emergency healing with items or whatever. His light armor equipment class gives him a ton of resistance to thunder spells, for what that's worth. The biggest draw back from removing him from the team is that we'd lose a character with Yellow SF, making it harder to use IP skills.



Aima is the party's awesome Martial Artist and I'll be ignoring any votes to bench her. If we did take her out of the party, we could pass the Cat Ring and the HiPow Ring on to other characters. Her actual armor tends to be unique and not very good, but her natural stats are high enough to where it doesn't really matter. Her IPs are cost effective and devastating for the enemy, even without her ultimate weapon (which we have anyway).



Melphis is the Cleric. Her SF is Blue, and her armor is basically the same stuff as Seena's. She can't use Seena's weapons though, which gives her slightly fewer immunity options. She's got lots of MP and can learn all the best healing spells. On the other hand, she's not really good for anything but healing, and she can do that outside of battle. If we remove her from the party, we'll be losing a Valor caster, but that's really the only drawback.



Randolph is a Samurai with Red SF. He has high natural STR, which translates into high ATP, and decent CON, but the rest of his natural stats are in the dumps. His armor set is the same as Minim's, meaning he has access to the stuff with the highest DFP boosts in the game... but look at his HP. They're awful. He barely has 300 here at level 47, and that's with HP-boosting accessories. If we cut him from the lineup,we can pass those accessories on to other, more deserving characters, or we could give him the Daos Stone to help compensate for his bad stats.



Deckard would best be considered a Fighter or Gladiator: He's faster than Minim and has more STR, but has lower CON. Deckard is a solid member of the team, but we didn't get his ultimate weapon (although he has something almost as powerful). To be honest, I usually use the third column to heal or run support anyway, so he doesn't get to do a whole lot in boss battles. He's got powerful IP and good equipment options (the same as Dei). It's not like he's a bad character, it's just that he usually ends up acting as a meat shield and little else.



Mousse the Capsule Monster: Has Green Spiritual Force, crazy stats thanks to his ultimate weapon, and powerful attacks. He also allows us to get in four actions every round instead of three. But... you know.... it might be better to ditch him and make room for a character we can actually control.



Yurist is a Bard. His Spiritual Force is Blue, like Seena and Melphis. He's a jack of all trades and can fit into several different roles: Magically, he has access to all of Melphis's healing spells, such as Champion X and Valor. I believe he can also cast instant death spells. For IPs... well, he practices Jigen-ryu and has access to all of Aima's attacks. I think there's like two of the SPD-based attacks that he can't use, but otherwise he can learn Energy Punch and Scatter Hit and all those good things. He can also use all of the healing IPs we've come across.

His equipment is generally cruddy: For weapons, he's mostly stuck with rapiers. The Custom 65 he has equipped is actually more powerful than any of those, and as far as pure ATP goes, it's his best weapon. He has a mostly unique armor list, most of it consists of godawful knits. I think the best he can get only raises his DFP by 100. To compensate for his crappy selection, he could probably use the Daos Stone.

Yurist's biggest draw is his ultimate weapon from the Ancient Cave, which heals the whole party for free when used.



Ruby is a Gambler. She has Yellow SF and a similar spell selection to Seena. She can equip cards, some of which will give her access to the strongest elemental spells when equipped. She had dreadfully low HP, but lots of unique IP skills. Theoretically, Ruby is the most powerful character in the game and can hit the damage cap. In practice, she probably won't, and her biggest draw is her ability to buff the whole party without having to worry about Mirror.

Please pick a character to be benched, and pick a male character to equip the Daos Stone.

Don't worry, they're gonna be Lufia-ing it the fuck up in the coming updates: Shaia, Dual Blade, a returning character who isn't a Sinistral, the works!

Yeah, dude, you had most of them unconscious, you could have embalmed them then instead of waiting until they were awake and itching to kick your butt.

You're just like Minim. Just like him.

Yurist can heal wounds and kill monsters with the power of ROCK.

Randolph hangs around, desperately hoping a monster doesn't notice and end him.

I think the question is pretty open and shut, myself...

Lufia: The Legend Returns. For Lovers!

I don't really care about Yurist enough to beg you to keep him on, but he does seem a bit more useful than say, Mousse.

As I recall from my time with TLR (from, like, 9 years ago), having a fourth character doing stuff every turn is much more useful then having a character you can control, but losing the extra hit. And, as such, there's only one character worth subbing Mousse out for, and he's a seeeeecret chaaaaaracter.

Daos stone, meet Yurist the bard.
Daos stone become Daos pick!

Also, bench Melphis.

I say give the Daos stone to Yurist, and bench Randolph, though does losing a Red IP character affect much?

Randolph's still in the party? I'd already forgotten him, I say we make it official.

Daos seems... not too bright. That makes Minim the logical heir to his possessions.

I checked this thread hoping for a localization gripe, and that's just what I got.

"La Fleshia." That's a good one.

La Fleshia? What... what was it supposed to be?

Anyway, bench Randolph and give Yurist the Daos Stone. Let's jazz this team up a little bit.

I'd go with Deckard sitting things out, given the column mechanics of action economy he's the most redundant. To keep your tanking up to snuff let's given Randolf the Daos stone.

Dear God.

Mousse is ok in regular battles, but is mostly dead weight against bosses. He only has two really useful abilities against them, Tail Illusion and Mysterious Bubble, but Tail Illusion is really rare and he's much more likely to just defend anyway.

Not really. If we replace Randolph with Yurist, the only characters who would be without Red IP would be Yurist (in the center) and Dei (back row center), so that's not too big of a deal.

Don't worry, there's at least four more monsters I can think of off the top of my head that will blow your mind. (In a bad way)

Plants are Terrifying and Want You Dead.

La Fleshia's definitely a bad translation of an awesome carnivorous flower, but let's not forget the headless knight named Jurahan. Oh Natsume, you need to take some break once a while to here more instruction on making less embarassing translations. Though I hear Rune Factory 3 and Lufia DS are more competent in that regard. Yes I'm quoting FoMT again. =P

Anyway, throw Melphis on the bench and give the Daos Stone to Deckard. He needs it so he doesn't have another case of bleeding out from getting whacked by her.

Why are there clowns in the Tower of Sorrow? Are they sad clowns? Also, toss the stone on Yurist, and ditch the old man.

Really, have there been enemy layouts in any RPG dungeon ever that have actually made any sense? Besides, this is an RPG where ships have bushes and forests have staircases.

I'm willing to forgive La Fleshia. It almost sounds like it could be intentional.

Well, if Natsume localizations wwere capable of puns or wordplay, at least.

What's the Plat Plate supposed to be spelled out as? I'm reading it as Plate Plate, and imagining Randolph in platemail made of dinnerware.

Stone to Yurist, bench to Randolph.

I think it's supposed to be Platinum Plate.

But your idea is better.

If we're taking suggestions then I would call it the Platypus Plate.

- Eddie

Because Daos is the God of Terror and Clowns are Fucking Scary.

I don't want to bench Randolph on account of the fact that old people are so rare in JRPGs. I'm thinking the idea of benching Deckard is the good idea.

Randolph's HP is to much of a liability. Bench him and buff Yurist with the stone.

I just love being the greatest source of your coulrophobia, Boss.

Bench Randolph, and give the stone to whoever needs it most.

Bench Randalf for Yurist, give the stone to the person with the spell that can heal 3/4 of their max HP.

Chapter 18: Minim learns Science

The votes are tallied, Randolph was kicked from the party and Yurist equipped the Daos Stone. Randolph was unceremoniously stripped of all his equipment, revealing that completely naked, he has only 174 HP. His Giant Ring (+100 HP) was passed on to Ruby to help boost her HP and Dei got his Muscl Ring (DFP/ATP + 10, HP + 40). The Terror Armor was given to Deckard, who gave his Drgn.Scale to Yurist. This is his best armor by a wide margin.



When we last left things, Jan had killed himself, his fiance Sammi was left alone and in tears, and the path to the Tower of Sorrow was blocked off by a cave-in. Also, Minim bought his allies magic he couldn't afford earlier: Valor for Melphis and Yurist and Strongest for everyone who could learn it.


Music:Dr. Isaac Shaia

Luckily, Yurist had a lead: A Scientician living in the town of Mologoro. Or Mologolo. You know, whichever. Mologolo is a town of hard science, and as if that's not evident enough from th sign. Clearly, the folks who wrote it didn't value the importance of Freshmen Composition.

Information gathering: There's a laboratory here and the Professor is trying to "dig up a hot spring" on Gologolo Island.



Shopping would have been much more exciting if he had come here before the Ancient Cave, but here goes:
Melphis, as usual, gets decked out (because she didn't get anything awesome from the Ancient Cave: Crys Wand (ATP + 160, DFP + 80), Gown (DFP + 160), C.Iron Shld (DFP + 85), Blue Beret (DFP + 80, reduces Ice damage).
Seena gets a Lapiz Ball (MAP + 90, "Has heal power" - I think it heals targets instead of causing damage), and [b]C.Iron Shld[/b[ (DFP + 85).
Ruby gets a Gown (DFP + 160) and a Blue Beret (DFP + 80, reduces Ice damage).
Aima gets a Silk Toga (DFP + 160), while Dei and Deckard get Gold Shlds (DFP + 90, reduces Fire damage)



For magic, Fire Dragon goes to Ruby and Seena, and Destroy (instant death to all enemies - it's basically useless, but why not?) to Melphis.



You can tell which building is the laboratory: It has a satellite dish. You know, because science. Unfortunately, the Assistant at the lab says that Prof. Isaac is down at Gologolo Island, exactly where Girl said he was.



Yes, Isaac is a member of the illustrious Shaia family. Lexis Shaia helped Maxim fight the Sinistrals two hundred years ago, while LyleRaile Shaia inflicted Maxim's descendant with the most godawful fetchquest ever a hundred years ago.

The Bunny Tray raises DFP by 55 and can be equipped by all the girls (and Yurist). Of course, you know, everything that's been buyable since we landed on Fante has been equal to or greater than this. It can be taken into the Ancient Cave, for what that's worth.


Music:Fante

...speaking of landing on Fante, that reminds me: The boat is back at the beaches of Elcorano, and Minim's on the other side of the continent. Luckily, a quick cast of the Warp brings the boat up to Mologolo, and he's free to sail down into the gulf to... a volcano island.


Music:Cave # 3

Professor Isaac's research assistant is waiting in the entryway to Gologolo Cave to tell anyone who comes by that Isaac is digging up hotsprings inside. Inside the cave, the right path leads to a save point and the Hot Spring, which works as heal spot. Despite this game's fondness of fantasy JRPG tropes, we are mercifully sparred a wacky bathing sequence.



The left path leads to the dungeon, which is yet another cave, and as such it looks exactly like all the other dungeons we've encountered on this continent besides the Tower of Sorrow. The sole IP here is Solid Attk. It seems uneccesary.



Mummies look like skeletons and chase Minim down like he's Abbott or Costello.

There are also Cokatorises lurking here. They more than likely can petrify.

Samurai use Shockwave to deal a piddly amount of damage to a single target, and can also use that Samurai ability to try and instant kill characters.

The blue StoneGolems mimic Minim. Gorgons can do that Attack skill that hits a column,but I don't recall it being too nasty.

Antares are new, right? They're red scorpions and can use Poison Needle to damage and poison one target.

This dungeon is eight floors.



On the event floor, the lower path leads to some treasure.


Music:Dr. Isaac Shaia

The upper, obviously, leads to the event here. Unlike in a lot of dungeons, the event doesn't start automatically when you enter the room, but rather when Minim speaks to the man fiddling with a strange machine.

Isaac introduces himself as a great scientist and an illusionist. The "illusionist" bit comes up a few times, but it never really explains what it means by that. Let us assume that this is not the original Isaac Shaia, but one of several clones created by a teleportation machine. The original (and all the previous clones) have drowned.

Warning: The appearance of a scientist will not make things any less asinine. Sorry!

Seena wants to know what the deal with the machine is. It drills holes in the ground.



He's using it to dig a hotspring, because the best place to build a hotspring is under eight floors of random, monster-infested dungeon! He switches the machine on, and the whole place begins to shake. In fact, it shakes after each line of dialogue is spoken. It shakes so much, Seena comments on it.



Isaac, being a genius scientist, says that it isn't supposed to be shaking this much, but continues to let the machine run. Nothing's wrong! It's fine! They're just close to hitting a water source!



His reassurances fall on deaf ears: Yurist pops out to say that the shaking isn't natural, and even Mousse is pantomiming a big ol, "Danger, Danger!"

The shaking continues, until finally, a wall up in the corner of the room explodescollapses.