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

...aaaaaaand a dragon walks out. Mousse freaks out and runs back inside Minim, which is actually kinda cute. Anyway, this is a Fire Dragon that was awakened by Isaac's machine.

A Fire Dragon appearing near the end of the game is another thing that happens in this series. In Lufia 2, Maxim has to go to a volcanic mountain to find an old man (I believe he's the old guy who knows about mermaids) and must save him from a Fire Dragon. In Lufia and the Fortress of Doom, Maxim's Descendant has to slay an Oil Dragon to get oil for... their airship? I forget. It's something like that though.



Seena bitches at him for not making a backup plan in case he woke up a sleeping Fire Dragon. It displays its "fearsome" fire breath, which causes Seena to gripe even more. Gee Seena, if only there were someone (or ten someones) in the immediate area capable of slaying a Fire Dragon.

Isaac decides the best way to handle the dragon is to fight it with the water they dig up.

...I'm going to have to ask him to show his genius credentials, because they seem highly suspect.



Suddenly, the machine strikes water and it comes gushing out of the hole. Smelly, black water. (The gushing "water" is actually animated!)



Isaac surmises that they've struck an oil field instead of a hot spring. Are... are lava and oil compatible? Like, can there be an oil field in a place that has hot springs? Seena is pissed because oil + fire is a significantly worse combination for them than oil + water was. The Fire Dragon wastes no time breathing out another puff of fire... which hits the oil well... and causes an explosion.

It explodes so hard that Minim and, Isaac and Seena are blasted out the top of the volcano. Presumably, Yurist was incinerated in the explosion, as he is noticeably absent from this slapstick sequence.



The trio lands back in front of Gologolo Cave. Hand to God: The only line of dialogue I cut from the above image was one where Minim answers Seena's question with a "Yeah... barely." Isaac's insane rambling reactions are his own.



Minim, Dei and Seena yell at him in unison, but he assures them that everything's ok because no one (except Yurist) was hurt. Seena, in a remarkable bit of consistent characterization, says that, no, just because everyone (except Yurist) is alive, it doesn't make it ok. In an attempt to appease the Wrathful Big Mouth, Isaac agrees to help with whatever problem they have an apology.



Minim and Isaac have a spirited and humorous exchange before Minim can properly explain their problem.



It ain't no thang for a genius like Isaac: Alls they have to do is fly there. Dei wants to know how he plans to get them to fly, which is a valid enough question given Isaac's wing-contraption strapped to his back. Isaac explains that an ancestor of his invented a flying machine two-hundred years ago. And yet, here we are, two-hundred years later and they still haven't become common place.

He goes on to say that only a Shaia is smart enough to build one to try and handwave it, but that doesn't answer the question of why the Shaias aren't mass producing these babies, or at least made more than two.



Seena is skeptical, but Isaac is determined to show them his mad skillz. He asks if they have a ship, and decides to make Deckard's ship into an airship. The group automatically sails back to his lab in Mologolo.



They dock in the lab, because this is a Shaia lab so obviously it has a dock, and upon arrival, Isaac is all fired up and ready to get to work.

...unfortunately, they don't have any Floatium. Isaac is surprised to hear this, but the Researcher reminds him that he tried to recreate the events of Up last month and it caused the last of their Floatium to shatter. He decides he'll just have to go get more.



He explains, in the awkward, imprecise and misleading manner that we've come to expect from this game, that there's Floatium in a temple located to the northeast of Tower of Sorrow. Melphis pops out to ask what this Floatium junk actually is.



He explains that it's the stuff that kept Doom Island floating in the sky. You know, this stuff:


For whatever reason, some of this stuff was found near the Tower of Sorrow, but it never elaborates as to why it was found near there or why they decided to put it in a shrine.

With that, Isaac Shaia joins the party. He replaced Melphis, because she received the second most number of votes. Like Lexis, Isaac is a magician-ish character. After all, isn't there some saying about sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic? Or something? Whatevs.

Isaac comes with one IP skill: Tune Up, which raises his ATP and MAP through the power of SCIENCE! It's difficult to discern a pattern with his IP skills. He can use things like Jump Slash, Stealth Hit and Cross Mirage, so we might classify him as having similar abilities to Dei. He can use a variety of spells and has incredibly high INT. Unlike the other characters, he has access to all three elements (but lacks access to the highest tier spells). He's the only other character besides Yurist who can harness the power of ROCK and equip the Custom 65.

He has unique-ish equipment, weapons in particular, and Mologolo offers some new stuff for him: Slay Spkr (ATP + 200, hits all enemies and inflicts sleep), Gold Shld, and a Nitevision helmet (DFP + 85, prevents paralysis). There are a couple of other weapons for him, but I went with this one. I also taught him Vital Aim and Heavy Noise and Yurist Falcon Dance.

Now let's go see a man about some Floatium.


Music:Temple

Tanba Shrine is located at the northeastern tip of Fante. The graphic set used is the same one we saw at the ultimate weapon shrine, and we'll be seeing it again in the update after next. But hey, at least it's not a cave, right?
(There is still one more cave dungeon in the storyline and another for a sidequest)

Normally if you try to enter here, you'll find the door is locked, but Isaac has the key. I guess he really doesn't want anyone getting his Floatium.



The first floor actually has a save point and heal pad, as well as treasure hidden in the candelabras.

I suppose Yurist can now make pretty good use of Heal Force, given that he has 661 HP, but ShadowDance is kind of a stinker. It costs 90 IP and is only guaranteed to hit twice. Aima can use Scatter Hit twice and is guaranteed to deal damage that's equivalent to six regular attacks (12 attacks at half damage), and that's not counting her ultimate weapon activating.



D.Samurai behave in largely the same manner as their living counterparts. They use Shockwave for certain, but everything else is a mystery. They might be weak to holy-elemental attacks.

Demons appear as red fairies on the map, and will use Dark Smash and Perish. Because of their chance to instantkill, you might as well avoid them. You don't want all of a character's IP going POOF just because you get unlucky and Perish connects.

There are gold dragons in the dungeon that are mysteriously labeled as W.Dragons in battle. They mighgt seem fearsome, but they're actually slow enough that Minim and pals are able to kill them before they act.



Tanba Shrine is eight floors. The tenth floor houses several chests: The upper left corner has a Miracle, the lower right an X-Magic and the upper right is a GoddessTear. These are actually thing Minim could conceivably use at some point! Amazing!

The central room contains the Crystal MaidenFloatium. But for no reason in particular, before entering the room and activating the cutscene, Minim liberates the Cat Ring from Aima and the Daos Stone from Yurist.



Seena is easily distracted by shiny things, but then she starts hearing things. Isaac explains that the Floatium is resonating... I think what he's trying to say is the Floatium resonates with powerful waves rather than that it is powerful.

"Resonating" is sort of a running thing in this series. Important Artifacts tend to resonate (or ring, as it sometimes says) in the presence of the Hero or Other Important Beings.

Minim feels a swell of power within him.



Dei wisely points out that people who quote lines from shonen manga unironically are dummies, and Minim uses his awesome comeback skills, but before they can get into (another) fight, Seena tells them to shut it and do what they came to do. She starts to take the Floatium, but then she's immediately vaporized.



Not thinking anything through, Minim rushes forward to touch the Floatium even though it just vaporized his friend and so naturally he too is vaporized by the horrible death crystal. Dei demands to know what's going on, but Isaac has no answers.

Random floors covered: 326
Next Time: Will Dei take up the mantle of Hero now that Minim is dead? Who will be his bitchy sidekick? Tune in next time to find the answers to these questions and more.



US Art



JP Art

At 43 years old, Isaac is one of the oldest party members. I mean, he's significantly younger than Randolph, but you know, he's like 25 years older than Minim. His JP art makes him look less tiny and ill-proportioned.

Isaacs definitions of "science" and "genius" are both a bit... questionable

Such an awesomely ridiculous character design, wasted on an ugly little 16x16 green sprite. As obnoxious as this game is, I'd love to see some of these character designs in a remake with more visual horsepower.

Too bad about Melphis. Was she any good? How is Isaac?

Can someone please point me to the part of the game where Minim starts crying after being called stupid? I was trying to find it for a laugh but couldn't.

Bad Natsume.

Bad Natsume.

I bet this update is causing Nich genuine physical pain.

Isaac's not particularly great, but I wanted to get a little use out of him since there's so little game left. He has unique weapons, and a neat character graphic, for what that's worth. I'ma open up Voting Times for the whole party once we get the final character, though, in case y'all want Melphis back.

Melphis is great when you first get her, it's just that there are two other characters (Yurist and #12) who can do everything she does and more. Yurist has his Jigen-ryu IP skills and #12 is much faster/has things resembling offensive capabilities.

Minim cries rightch hurr.

Edit: I missed some music cues. At some point during the conversation in front of the cave, "Tower of Sorrow" plays, and after Minim and Seena are vaporized, "Nightmare" plays.

Chapter 19: Minim and Seena face the God of Fear


Music:Tower of Sorrow

As it turns out, they weren't incinerated by the Floatium, but rather spirited away to the Tower of Sorrowan Unknown Location. They're equally surprised to see that they were the only ones to make it there.



But they aren't quite sure where "there" is, unlike everyone playing the game or reading this LP, who all were able to identify the Tower of Sorrow by the garish green floors. Though, in Minim's defense, he was able to recognize that it was a tower, so there's that.

Daos welcomes them.



And Minim tells Seena to go down and get everyone, even though she can't because cave to the Tower is blocked off, not to mention she would be eaten alive trying to fight her way down. Maybe Minim is just trying to get her out of his hair for good? Anyway, she's not having it. She's ain't afraid of no Daos.



Minim reasons that if it's just the two of them, they'll die horrible deaths at the hand of Daos.So... what would going alone while Seena goes for help accomplish, exactly? No more defending Minim's thought processes this update. Seena assures him that they'll meet again in the afterlife, so it's no big deal. Seena is not good at issuing reassurances.



Why yes, they are doing this. Minim and Seena are going this alone, because Neverland Company hates you. Luckily, Minim took the Daos Stone and Cat Ring last update, and wasted no time equipping them to himself and Seena, respectively.

Seena won't let Minim leave the Tower of Sorrow, but thankfully the room the were teleported to has a Heal Spot, Save Point, and a Grandpa.



Granpa's been fighting in this shithole for over fifty years, and as such has somehow amassed quite a selection of goods. He sells weapons, armor, items and magic. Minim doesn't have the heart to tell the old fellar that the equipment he's selling is the same crap that Minim and Seena can get from Mologolo. His magic isn't much better: The only thing you really need to be sure you have is Mirror.



It seems that Minim and Seena were dropped off on the fourteenth floor, with the fifteenth being random dungeony. It also spawned him in a room with at least two (2) tyrannosaurus rexes, and there's no way on God's green Earth that he's goin try and handle that mess. So, just like in Leydock's dungeon, Minim busts out the Sweet Water on every floor to avoid battles.

The Revive IP can be found here, as well as a new one called Fire Sword. It's another boy's only skill. It deals fire damage and hits all enemies.

The climb to the twentieth floor is uneventful, because, again, Minim avoided all the fighting by using Sweet Water.



The twentieth is the top, and has a Heal Spot and a Save Point. When Minim approaches the center platform, the screen flickers...


Music:Sinistrals of Destruction and Terror

...and Daos appears. I mentioned earlier, when one of you made a comment about Minim's lineage that I wasn't sure he was even a descendant of Maxim, but here it is: Daos says that only people with Maxim's blood can resonate with the Floatium, so I guess that means Mimin is definitely related to Maxim. But then Minim doesn't really know what Daos is talking about, and it will never be mentioned again, so, I really don't know. Was this supposed to be a plot twist? Everyone playing the game already assumes that he's Maxim's descendant, so if was, it wasn't a very good one.

...but then, wasn't Seena the first one to hear it resonating? And wasn't she the one that touched it first...? I guess it's really not that important, because this is The Legend Returns where there's a whole bunch of talking that rarely means anything.



Daos is all, "Seriously? Just the two of you?" but Minim and Seena, despite admitting earlier that they were toast if they had to go up against Daos, are brimming with confidence.


Music:Battle against a Sinistral

As you probably guessed, this fight is not meant to be won, but like every other battle not meant to be won, you can totally do it if you try.

First of all, since it's just Minim and Seena and having them on the same wave length would be suicide, you'll notice that all your IP attacks now have cost penalties due to insufficient waves. This makes using Holy Sword much more difficult.

Daos behaves exactly as he did in the past: He hammers the party with high level elemental magic, and now casts Reduce. However, since we only have to worry about two party members, Mirror is actually a viable strategy. The easiest way to survive this battle is have Seena Mirror herself and Minim. Use Miracles to revive a character when he uses Reduce on them. Thanks to the Daos Stone, Minim will probably have enough HP to survive Daos's spells if he gets hit without Mirror up, and if that's the case you should use an X-Potion on him to heal. When both Minim and Seena are in good shape (HP and Mirror), Minim should use Holy Attack, or Holy Sword while Seena casts Zap (if she has access to it).

It's going to be a long fight, but it's not too hard. Winning nets a ton of LP and the Daos Ring, which prevents the wearer from getting hit with bad status.



Despite beating him, he uses Sinistral's Cutscene Smite on them after the battle. He tsks, tsks about how the power of the wave is so weak nowadays, but Minim isn't going to give up! Despite, you know, being on the ground and near death.



Daos absorbs energy from everyone cowering in terror right now, which I guess makes him stronger, or something. While he gloats, Minim feebly tries to crawl towards him to make him stop.



Daos notices that Minim's still alive and prepares to dispose of him.

WHEN SUDDENLY, WITHOUT WARNING OR EVEN AN ESTABLISHING SHOT, A BIG DAMN HEROES MOMENT APPEARS!


Music:To Doom Island!
(This should sound somewhat familiar to fans of the series)

Deckard yells that he won't let Daos kill Minim (or rather, that Minim can't die!) and the Airborne Axeboat flies around the tower. Isaac fires cannonballs all around Daos, and even scores a direct hit.

Minim and Seena are happy to see that the rest of the part came to save their bacon, and Airborne Axeboat (AA from now on) glides by again so Minim and Seena can hop on.

Daos has found this whole display very amusing, and is left alone to contemplate the fact that he feels this emotion that humans call "A-Mews-Mint."


Music:The New World

The AA leaves the Tower of Sorrow and lands at Isaac's lab.



At the lab, Melphis and Dei inquire about Minim and Seena's well being, and although they both claim they're doing just fine, Melphis insists that they rest.


Music:The Wounded Warrior

After a quick nap at the inn, Minim and Seena are actually feeling better and thank the party for saving them. Isaac isn't shy about announcing his contributions to the daring rescue. In fact, he takes all the credit.

But Minim doesn't care about that. Instead, he's focused on the more practical application of the AA: No more climbing up fucking towers ever again!



Hahahahahaha as if. Flying up to the top of the Tower of Sorrow cracked the Floatium, so they can't do it again. Minim grumbles about it, but Isaac's like, "Dude, you would be dead right now if we hadn't saved you, stop complaining."



Aima tries to get them to settle down and look at the positive side of things, because she is the best character. Mel wants to know what their next course of action is. Even though he just swatted Minim and Seena down like flies, he's decided that they're going back to the Tower of Sorrow to defeat him before he can start attacking random targets to make people fear him more.


Music:Tower of Sorrow

Randolph validates this by saying that people in Tanba are scared because of Daos's attacks in the vicinity. Does that include the whole Jan and Sammi thing? Minim gives the Leader speech, and says that since he and Seena managed to best Daos with just the two of them, surely with eleven people they'll still be able to winDaos is strong, but everyone works together they can save the day!

Deckard's ready. Aima believes it's time for the final battle, because she wasn't listening when Seena said there were four Sinistrals.



Randolph is old, and therefore believes they should be cautious. The "I won't let you do (bad thing) for no reason, but I suppose if you had a good reason that'd be just fine with me" thing rears its ugly head again with Melphis. Dei is once again overestimating the quality of treasure that can be found in this game and Mousse makes a noise. Ruby isa gambler, if you haven't picked up on that yet. Yurist wants revenge.



So does Seena. Everyone's all psyched up to go kick Daos's butt! Woooh!



But Isaac is annoyed that he didn't get to make a little speech thing. He asks Minim if he can join the party, even though he totally did that last update. Minim doesn't mind, but warns him that he might die. Look Minim, our party consists of a gentle-natured white magic-using Princess, her elderly bodyguard, a thief with a heart of gold, a girl literally wearing a battle bikini, and a sentimental bard who likes to wax philosophically about the nature of the human experience. Crazy Scientician is pretty far down on the "Characters that will probably die" list.



Minim thinks Isaac is a funny old man, but Isaac demands that he be called by his name and not any sort of affectionate nickname. He's officially accepted into the party, and they all do the rallying cry again.

...but Isaac stops them once again, because he forgot to explain something very important: How to fly the AA. But, you know, this is the GBC, there are only two buttons that could possibly do anything, so there's no reason to talk about it.

Minim equips the Daos Ring, while Yurist and Aima reclaim the Daos Stone and Cat Ring.


Music:The New World

With the AA, we could head to the previously inaccessible town in the southeast and get some marginally better equipment, but that would make Yurist a liar at the end of this update, so let's not.

Also pictured: Another brief insight into Minim's mind.


Music:Tower of Sorrow

Hooray, here we are again in the Tower of Sorrow. There's nothing new on the first six floors, the seventh is Daos's throne room where Jan "killed" him, and I believe a Miracle is in a chest near the stairs up to the eighth floor. I did raise everyone in the active party's SF up to 26/

Floors eight through thirteen are much less interesting than you might expect. It's a combination of enemies from the lower floors, the Oil-Volcano-Hotspring place, and Tanba Shrine. There's some new IPs here though: Deckard's White Whale, which, like upper tier magic, "summons" something to hit all enemies. Unlike the upper tier magic, the name is actually correct and it summons a White Whale:

However, it is similar to upper tier magic in that it is not very useful.

Ruby's UltimateBet deals damage equal to the combined total of her current HP and MP. After the attack, she will be reduced to 1 HP (her MP will be intact, though). As you can see though, that means she won't even deal 600 HP right now, so it's not that great. If she had the B.Manicure, which raises her max HP by 200, it would be marginally better, but still not nearly as strong as the stuff the actual damage dealers are doing.



It appears that the T-Rex enemies appear in the middle section of the Tower, too. Their regular attacks hit for about 50 HP, and as I recall their Bite is quite nasty.

Grandpa is still hanging around up here on the fourteenth and still sells the same crap he did earlier. I have in my notes that Ruby learned both Reduce and Mirror, but I don't think he has Reduce, so let's just say at some point I stopped by Gulduck and taught Ruby Reduce, k?

Enemies on the upper floors:
Blue Elves are Camilas. They can probably use Vampire to drain HP, but I don't have anything written down about them. The big green guys are Cyclops, which I think are new. They appear on the map as green monster people, and are chasers.

Minotauros look like blue goblins (or... orcs? Whichever had the horns on their head). They have plenty of HP, and a skill called Ax Attack that hits for about 100 HP.

(Also, note that I screwed up when putting my party back together. Look at all that yellow down in the bottom right corner!)

Music:Sinistrals of Destruction and Terror

Top floor, Daos appears. Minim announces that he's brought his posse here for revenge, and Daos points out that since his whole crew is there he won't have anyone to save him at the last minute this time (Daos clearly doesn't realize that there's a twelfth character lurking somewhere in the world, just waiting to help Minim out. He also seems to be ignorant of the Save Point right by the stairs).

Minim proceeds to taunt him that he's the one without friends. Not because he's a crabby Sinistral or anything, but because he killed Gades and Amon. No, that's actually what he says, which, when you think about it, is kinda fucked up for a hero to say.



It's ok though, Daos never thought of them as "friends."

Guess where this conversation is going.

Yes, that's right, it's time for JRPG stock script number 3: The Power of the Human Heart and Why it is Better than Everything Else.

Daos is a god, they have different relationships than what humans have, Minim pities him because he doesn't know ~The Power of Friendship~


Music:Decision
(I firmly believe the only reason they don't play Tower of Sorrow here is because they're already in the Tower of Sorrow)

Dei and Yurist berate him because he lacks the ~Power of the Human Heart~



Minim goes so far to call him imperfect because he lacks empathy. Well, that's what he's supposed to be getting at, what he actually says is that Daos is imperfect because he can't feel "true" pain, which... doesn't seem like that big of a encumbrance.

Daos finds this all hilarious.



But he's not going to forgive them for giving him lip, and the battle's on.


Music:Battle against a Sinistral

Yes, again. But this is the real thing. To demonstrate, Daos has a new trick: Spiritual Force of Terror, which hits the whole party for middling damage and can inflict any status effect in the book. He'll still cast his elemental spells, but that's about it.

Here's how it went down:
Round One: Holy Sword (Minim), Final Dance (Yurist), Vital Aim (Isaac), Spiritual Force of Terror (Daos -> Confuses Aima and Seena, poisons Dei)
Round Two: Holy Sword (Minim), After Image (Deckard), Shriek @ Aima (Isaac), Fire Dragon @ Ruby (Daos, kills Ruby). Oh and Aima killed Seena. Whoops.
Round Three: Scatter Hit (Aima, kills Daos)

After the fight, Daos acknowledges the ~Power of Friendship~, which is stupid because he knows what happens when you combine your Waves with your allies, because he did it at the end of both the previous Doom Island wars.


Music:Decision

He literally says, "This is the power of friends!" Sigh.

Daos reminds them that he's not actually dead, and Minim accuses him of being a sore loser. For whatever reason, possibly the humanizing of the Sinistrals that going on but never elaborated upon, Daos feels the need to respond to this accusation. He also feels the need to tell them about the One True Weakness of the Sinistrals, because he is none too bright. I mean, it would have been better to just say, "Yeah, you totally can't kill us, I'll be right back dawg," or something. But no, he has to verify that there is something out there that can actually kill them.

Whatever Daos, I'm sick of you.



See, he even elaborates on it: Unless they use a specific weapon, the Sinistrals will just come back to life as many times as they want, and with that, he fades away.

Minim asks Seena if she knows what he's talking about, but we all know he means the Dual Blade. He doesn't know what that is, because someone's got to ask questions for exposition's sake, right?

A couple of things:
1) According to Lufia 2, they can come back as many times as they like as long as Erim is around to cast Valor on them or whatever. But Erim isn't around, so Daos's threat is a little bit hollow.

2) Yep, the Dual Blade will kill the Sinistrals forever. Just like when Maxim killed them in Lufia 2, and then when Maxim's Decedent killed them in Lufia 1. Using the Dual Blade sure does prevent them from coming back whenever the hell they want.

3) I call bullshit on the fact that Minim doesn't know what Dual Blade is. He and the others have been woefully uninformed re: The Sinistrals throughout the game, but it's only been two-hundred years since they first made the scene, and a hundred since the last time they tried to take over the world. Everyone was familiar with Sinistrals and Maxim and the Dual Blade and all that mess in Lufia 1, and there's no appreciable difference in the exploits of the Sinistrals in Lufia 2 and Lufia 1, so it's totally unbelievable that Minim wouldn't even know what the Dual Blade is.



Anyway. Seena didn't think it was a real thing, but explains it's supposedly the sword that Maxim used that enhances the power of the wielder's waves. She believes they can probably find a clue as to its whereabouts at Doom Island, which I seem to recall as being the whole purpose of this journey to begin with.



So they decide to search for information about Doom Island, but they lack any leads. Minim wants to know where they should go, but, I mean, there's only one continent left to explore, so that should be pretty obvious. No matter how obvious it should be, Dei is fresh out of ideas. Yurist steps up to the plate and suggests that they head to Rosplett, because, again, the only place left to explore and all.



There are no humans there. Humans have never even so much as set foot on it. So, um, you see why we didn't go there earlier when we had the chance: Because that would make this scene a lie. Sometimes, when working with cheap materials, you have to create internal consistency when you can.

But... if there aren't any humans there, what's with that village in the middle of the forest?

So. That concludes the events of Fante. It feels anti-climatic, doesn't it? I feel like the sequence where Minim and Seena are alone in the Tower of Sorrow was under utilized. It really should have involved some sort of God of Terror mind tricks, like creating a living nightmare for them where they have to conquer their fears or something more than "Oh yeah, here, have some randomly generated floors and a boss battle."

The only Fante-character to pop out and tongue whip Daos during the showdown is Yurist, so Ruby and Isaac don't even get that. I dig these three, I just wish they had more to say and do.

Anyway, we are rapidly approaching the end of the game, folks. There are only three more dungeons left in the story to complete (plus three optional dungeons that are all vaguely related to the same subquest) and the only storyline bosses left are Sinistrals (well, that's not saying much. The last non-Sinistral boss you fight was actually Leydock?). It seems odd, doesn't it? Earlier in the game we'd get multiple bosses in each little storyline, but now we're clearing multiple dungeons at a time without having boss fights.

Also, at the end of the next update, y'all will get to vote on the team's final build, and I'll try to crank that out in a few days.

Random floors covered: 348
Next Time: Enemies that are more trouble than they're worth

Considering how a cannonball to the face barely injured a small child earliar in the game, I'm surprised they even bothered to consider it an option against the God of Terror.

After all I've seen in this LP, I seriously doubt anything in the game's plot would've been anything more than a joke even if Nintendo or Square had localized it instead of Natsume. The events feel like they were designed by writers stationed in Wackyland...or at least, people who wanted to make a PS1-type RPG but ended up having to do it on a platform unsuited for overly long jRPG cutscenes.

There were plans for a PS1 Lufia that fell through, right? I remember hearing something about that.

As I recall, that became this game

Yeah, it was called Ruins Chasers adapted into this game. From the description of it, it sounded like a cross between Wild Arms (2) and Megaman Legends: It was set in a steampunk, vaguely post-apocalyptic future where a firestorm burned through the sky (Wild Arms 2), and all the main characters are "Ruin Chasers" which means they explore the ruins of lost civilizations (Megaman Legends). Presumably, it was meant to be in the same puzzle solving vein as Lufia 2, which would push it even farther into Wild Arms territory. The main character even had a Band-Aidr on his face like Rudy. According to Natsume, who released all sorts of information they shouldn't have, it was going to be the game where the player finally got to fight Arek the Absolute.

Anyway, many of the ideas were allegedly synthesized into this game, so there's that.

Chapter 20: Minim meets a Familiar Face

Woah, another update?! Already? Yes indeedy. But you better savor this one, because it's the last one you're getting this year.


Music:Rosplett

Rosplett is the southeastern continent. Even though it's located south of a desert continent and east of a temperate continent, it's a verdant place because this is Lufia the Legend Returns and biomes mean nothing here. The music for this continent is actually quite catchy and brings to mind Kirby's Adventure. It is also, unfortunately, a song you won't get to hear much of because you can use the AA to travel around it without random battles (not to mention the fact that there's only four locations here anyway, so it's not like there's a whole lot of walking to be done).

First thing's first: Let's loot this sumbitch!


Music:Midy

...oh, so Yurist lied. Humans have been to this continent, it's just been a while. Midy differs from several other towns in that it has unique graphics that actually match the terrain of the continent it's set on: It's surrounded by trees instead of a fence and some of the buildings are trees.



As it turns out, Midy is either an Obligatory Elf Village or a Hippie Commune, depending on your perspective and how hard you squint at the sprites. The elves here aren't quite as irritating as they usually are in this series. They aren't too condescending to humans, and getting to the Elf village didn't take an incredible sequence of bullshit like it did in Lufia 1 and 2.

...well, I guess you had to play this far in the game though...



Sister informs Minim that someone named "Milka" left a message for him, but instead of telling it to him, she instructs him to head to the house in the back of the village. (It's the tree with the balcony)



See what I mean? Normally, you'd expect elves to be all, "Feh, you're a smelly human and your ears aren't even pointy. You are vastly inferior to elves in every possible way," but this fella's all, "You look different in both good and bad ways!"

There's a ton of new equipment to buy here (but most of it is obsolete for Ancient Cave goers liek us), so let's get to that:
The Gaia Blade (+400 ATP, Holy-elemental, allows user to cast Zap) is almost as powerful as the Alum Blade and can be used by Deckard, Minim and Randolph. Unfortunately, almost doesn't count. None of them can use Zap with anything that resembles competency, either. A note about the name: It has nothing to do with "Gaia" or nature or anything, despite being here in Elfville. The Japanese name for Zap is Ga-ias, and the sword had the same name, so it would be more appropriately named the Zap Blade.

As for what we actually buy:
Aima gets a PhoenStaff (+40 ATP, +80 MAP, fire-elemental, allows user to cast Fire Dragon) to supplement her ATP and a Hard Cape (+180 DFP). The PhoenStaff will prove to be a foolish investment, as will hamper her ability to kill things when she comes across enemies that resist or absorb fire damage.

Dei gets a Metal Coat (+180 DFP), while Isaac gets a Magic Scle (+120 DFP, +20 REG) and EmrldVisor (+95 DFP, prevents Confusion). Seena and Melphis get Angel Wings (+170 DFP) and Crys Braces (+90 DFP), while Melphis and Ruby get matching Magic Hats (+90 DFP). Ruby gets a Quilt Silk (+175 DFP).



For magic:
Ice Storm for Ruby, Champion X for Yurist, and Spell Break for Isaac and Ruby.

What it says vs What it does XI

Spell Break's description says that it raises the DFP and REG of all allies. What it actually does is raise the DFP and REG of a single ally. This is a very real difference in the usefulness of between raising the stats of all nine characters and raising the stats of a single one.



Moving on. (A different) Sister is waiting on the second floor of the house in the back of the village. She delivers Milka's message: Milka wants the eleven heroes to meet her at Rosplett Shrine, the elven shrine located on the southern peninsula, where she is busy praying.



Milka's prayers aren't enough to stop the Sinistrals, and what she's really doing is waiting for the Children of the Spiritual Force (hahaha I bet you thought I made that name up). Outside on the balcony, Brother wonders why the Sinistrals are able to resurrect, and says that Milka is trying to figure it out.



There is a Hi Potion on the balcony over here.


Music:Rosplett

For reference: Midy is the purple square in the center of the tress, while Rosplett Shrine is under Minim's big red dot.


Music:Temple

Rosplett Shrine is a shrine and thus uses the same graphics as Tanba Shrine and the place where we got the ultimate weapons. There's a Save Point and Heal Spot here on the first floor, as well as some totally awesome Sacred Elven Treasures!



Well. Before we start in on everything that's happening in the above image, I'd like to say that in this dungeon, the plants actually kinda make sense. Because this is an Elf Shrine, and you know, Elves dig nature and are mystical, so them being able to grow plants kinda makes sense, you know?

Also, I'd like to say that this part of the game is sort of new to me. I've played through it and all, but I typically don't fight random battles at this point in the game. Actually, I usually stop around Gologolo Cave: There aren't really any bosses left that can challenge the team (I could literally take all the remaining bosses on, in a row, without breaking a sweat), so fighting normal battles is a waste of time because the enemies tend to have enough HP that they're more trouble to fight than they're worth. Regardless, I will press on with my indepth analysis of enemies in this game that you've come to expect. You know, stuff like, "Well, it looks like it should be able to use this status effect, but I'm not sure." Because I care. I care almost as much as Natsume does.

The new enemies in Rosplett Shrine have a peculiar tendency to "hide" from the player by having a weaker enemy Minim's already encountered in earlier dungeons as the "leader" that appears on the dungeon map.

The green lizardmen running around are Dragonians, which is yet another brand of "Melee Monster" that isn't worth discussing in the slightest.

The Race appears as a red ghost that mimics Minim's movements in the dungeon. It Calls Companions, but I didn't see it doing much else.

I'm not sure if Leech is better or worse than FFT's Rich, but let's just go with it. They have blue cloaks in the dungeon. Their behavior is similar to other enemies of this type: They're fast and act twice per round, usually using their first turn to cast Mirror on themselves. They can also cast Ice Valk for some pretty hefty damage. They can probably use instant death spells.

Necromncr. wear green cloaks in the dungeon and can summon two Ghouls at a time to aid them in battle.

Assassins, which actually appeared last dungeon but I forgot to include them, are red Shirens on the dungeon map. They chase Minim down, can attack twice, and have fairly high DFP. They can use Samurai, I think, to try and instant kill characters.

Hydras are nasty buggers that attack seven or eight times, and are capable of criticaling Minim of all people for 200 HP. See what I mean? More trouble than it's worth.



Force Wave actually does what it says it does and raises the whole party's DFP and REG.

Ruby's Card Stream lets her attack seven times. She can already attack three times thanks to her Alum Card, but there's really no combination of equipment that would make this attack useful, thanks to her naturally crappy strength and low ATP weapons.



There were a lot of new enemies here.

Cerebus is a green puppy on the map and chases Minim, although they usually "hide" with HellHounds that we first met back in the Tower of Illusion (I think). They can use Dash and Hell Fire to hit one row with fire damage. Shockingly, Aima's PhoenStaff was not helpful in dispatching these enemies, so she ended up using Typhoon Toss quite a bit, due to its non-elemental, hit-all-enemies nature.

Grn.Dragons look like what you'd expect them to on the map and they chase Minim. I don't have anything else written about them.

TheDark Fry's name is slightly more excusable when you realize that there's a spell by the same name in the game. It's a blue bat on the map.

Salamandas look like red dinosaurs. I don't have anything written down for them, but they probably use fire magic and attacks. Fighting the first group of Salamandas was when I finally dropped Aima's stupid PhoenStaff, because it freaking healed them. In conclusion: Elemental weapons suck, don't use them.

The Golem is a blue robot on the map and will chase Minim. They can use Giant Knuckle to hit a column for not-insignificant damage. They're also hard-type enemies, so weapons that are strong against hard enemies, like the Alum Blade, will be useful in taking them down. You can also use magic (I personally used Reduce because when else am I gtoing to get to use it?)

Blu.Dragons are jerkfaces. They can cast Absorb to drain your MP, attack twice per round, and use Thunder Breath to hit one row for 70 HP. Worst of all is their Rionet Beam, which hits one column for 200 HP!



Evil Bat is also a thing here, and you can pick up another copy of EnergyPunch for Yurist. But, you know, he already has access to Final Dance and Scatter Hit, so this is pretty useless. Let's not dwell on the implications of Jigen-Ryu being developed by the Elves.

The tenth floor is empty, save for a elf woman and a crystal ball.



The woman introduces herself as Milka, and tells the party that she's been waiting for them. Minim tells her that he only came because he was asked to, and asks why she was waiting for them.



Because only they can save the world. There's a disturbance in the force, which she takes to mean the Sinistrals are on their way back. Minim has already forgotten the whole conversation they had at the top of the Tower of Sorrow and explains that they've already defeated three of the Sinistrals.



She reminds him that he needs to smite them with the Dual Blade to put them down for the next hundred years. She also verifies that the Dual Blade is actually a real thing, not just a legend. Minim wants to know who made such a powerful weapon.



And Milka gives a non-answer. It wasn't humans and it wasn't a god either, but we do know that it was supposed to be a weapon used by gods, originally, and a human being able to wield it was meant to signal the end of the era of the Gods. Daos has not taken this forced retirement gracefully.

Milka confirms that they can defeat the Sinistrals with the Dual Blade.



She tells him that if can he resonate with the Dual Blade, the location will appear in the crystal ball. And since he has red hair and this is a Lufia game, of course he's the heir to the Dual Blade.

The crystal displays the location:




Of course it's on Doom Islandin the Fortress of Doom. Milka, having seen it twice before,is able to identify the the old castle on sight. Seena, Dei and Minim are surprised to finally catch a glimpse of it, and Deckard points out the obvious that no one else is grasping: It's underwater. Melphis sees a whirlpool.



Randolph says that there's only place in the Southland that has a whirlpool, and that's the Al-Ayin Islands. Aima notes the difficulties this presents, but Isaac already has a plan: They modify the AA so it can be a submarine. Because this is Lufia and we have to go underwater at some point.



Problem: They need more Floatium to do it, because Floatium does whatever the plot requires it to do. Dei suggests searching for another piece in Tanba Cave, even though we got ours from Tanba Shrine, but Isaac doesn't expect there's any more there. (But just for shits and giggles, we will be heading to Tanba Cave next update to see if we can find any)

Minim resigns himself to searching the world over for some Floatium.



Milka doesn't think this is such a great idea, because they're running out of time. Erim's resurrection is nigh, Milka can feel it in the Force.



She warns that if the Sinistral of Death revives, she'll revive the other three, too, so they need to get to the Dual Blade and put the kibosh on that. Minim acknowledges that her revival powers will be problematic, and Dei admits they can't just wander around looking for Floatium.



Seena suggests they check around the Al-Ayin Islands. If the stuff is what keeps Doom Island floating, surely there would be some pieces of it scattered about the area.

Wait.

We're going to a group of islands to search for a magical material to build a submarine? I just had a really terrible flashback to Lufia 1, for some reason...

Ruby is a gambler, and Randolph says that the Al-Ayin Islands are located to the northeast. Much like the Lighthouse fiasco, he actually means they're located to the northwest, which puts them in the center of the wold.

Before they team can leave, Milka forces herself into the party. It's her duty as the Watcher of the Doom Island Wars, which is... an overstatement of her roles in Lufia 1 and 2.



Yoink.

Random floors covered: 356
Next Time: Underwater, fish don't stink.

JP art



NA art

Elves do it asymmetrically. The JP art has her in an incredibly awkward pose, but that's nothing new for the JP art for this game. The NA version does a good job of making her look like an elf: She is disturbingly scrawny and wisplike. Her legs are almost the same size as her arms!



Milka has been in every game in the series, to varying levels of importance. In Lufia 2, she stole the blueprints from Lexis's lab, which eventually lead to Maxim meeting Artea. Her role was greatly expanded on in Lufia DS, where she worked to rally the people of Elcid into believing in Maxim when he was going after Daos. She was even around when Erim finally revealed herself, which makes her comment about feeling Erim's spiritual force in this game actually mean something.

In Lufia 1, she was simply a bitchy woman blocking the entrance to Artea's room.

She's 24 in Elf years, and given that she's at least two hundred years old in human years, we could probably assume that one Elf year is equal to ten human years. In Lufia DS, however, her mother says that she's around the same age as Maxim's party, which would put her at about twenty human years. .

Voting Times

Ok, so now that we have the whole gang, it's time to decide on our party. Again. Please vote for the three characters you don't want to be in the party.



Minim (Red): Hero. Extremely powerful, great IPs, and has high DFP. He's the hero for a reason. Compare with: Deckard, Randolph.



Seena (Blue): Black Mage, interesting equipment options allow her to resist all sorts of elements and status ailments. Attack magic isn't that useful. Slow.
Compare with: Ruby, Milka, Isaac.



Dei (Yellow): Thief. Weapon deals damage based on SPD and DFP, extremely quick. Not a good damage dealer.
Compare with: Deckard, Isaac, Ruby



Aima (Green): Monk. Gives sufficient Green SF to Minim to use Holy Sword. Very powerful, killer IPs, tons of HP, crappy armor.
Compare with: The Lord God Almighty, who compares unfavorably with her, Yurist.



Melphis (Blue): White Mage. Slow as Christmas. Has access to all the healing spells in the game. Decentish HP for her job designation.
Compare with: Milka, Yurist.



Randolph (Red): Samurai. High Strength and Constitution, shitty everything else. Slowest character in the game, but good equipment options. Powerful IP and damage potential, likely to be killed by a gentle breeze.
Compare with: Minim, Deckard



Deckard (Red): Lancer. Good Strength, Constitution and Agility. Great IP and damage potential. Ok armor options.
Compare with: Minim, Randolph.



Mousse (Green): Capsule Monster. Good stats, potentially uses useful skills against bosses, but can't be controlled.
Uncomparable.



Yurist (Blue): Bard. Well rounded stats, but doesn't excel at anything. Has the IP attacks of a Monk and the spell/IP support skill list of a White Mage. Knows Final Dance. Terrible equipment options.
Compare with: Aima, Melphis, Milka.



Ruby (Yellow): Gambler. Surprisingly well rounded stats, but lacks the equipment to make anything of it. Low HP and low MP for a mage, but has the coveted Yellow SF. Can bust out unblockable full party buffs.
Compare with: Dei, Milka, Seena, Isaac



Isaac (Yellow): Scientist. Interesting equipment options, can inflict bad status on the entire enemy party. Has a variety of spells, but none are particularly useful. Can use Vital Aim.
Compare with: Seena, Ruby.



Milka (Green): Sage. Super fast, has access to all the healing magic and Holy spells. Has IP attacks based around SPD. Low HP. Basically exists to put both Seena and Melphis to shame.
Compare with: Seena, Yurist, Melphis

Randolph needs to stay on the bench, and Mousse creeps me out and probably stinks when he gets wet too. One more... hmm, the new character gets a go, and Yurist's little-of-everything job only makes him boring. Kick him out to remedial history lessons.

I say to ditch Melphis, Mousse, and... Seena, I guess? I have weird tastes.

My vote goes to benching Randolph, Melphis, and Mousse. The old man's defenses are made of glass, the princess is outclassed by other healers that are faster and/or have options besides healing, and the shaggy dog man is completely uncontrollable.

Non-racist, non-asshole Elves? Lufia: The Legend Returns truly challenges all of our small-minded conceptions of what an RPG can truly be.

That's a surprisingly good trick. Not just for this game, but for JRPGs in general.

I vote out Randolph, Melphis, and Issac.

Boot Randolph, Mousse aaand maybe Isaac. Also, I request that we bring Melphis back onto the squad for a spell.

Melphis, Randolph, and Ruby.
If you really want to squirm, then do a bonus where ya boot Minim, Aima, and Yurist (Then again I wanna see someone try the final boss like that anyways :P)

Randolph, Ruby, and Mousse. I kind of want to see Isaac go, but that'd leave you with only one source of yellow IP.

Since everything Melphis can do, Milka can do better, might as well kick her out. And without the princess around, Randolphs got nothing to do, so he can go too.

...and what the hell, Mousse too.

Can't believe you guys want to boot Mousse. He's free extra attacks.

Ditch Deckard, Yurst and Melphis. Mechanically there's no reason to use balanced characters in this game.

Is that supposed to be Wraith?
...If Nich suddenly disappears from the forum, it's because Natsume killed him over a decade ago, but like Wile E. Coyote suspended in midair, he just didn't realize it yet.

Also, abbreviating "blue" as "blu." doesn't actually save them any space.

In a more perfect world, Yurist would be super useful for free, unblockable healing.

It's meant to be the spirit of the Elves' latent racism that they sealed away in the shrine (which is why the Elves aren't racist jerkfaces). They don't talk about it in the game, but in some of the supplemental materials, it talks about it in the section about Rosplett.

Haha, just kidding! Natsume is shit!

Let Melphis and Randolph continue enjoying their vacation, boot Yurist to make room for the new girl. Much as a like the idea of a guitar-wielding, he doesn't seem to be getting to do much.

Chapter 21: Minim and the Fortress of Doom



So this is our final party. Milka simply took Mousse's spot, and Isaac and Seena traded places because I was stupid when I was putting the party back together after Minim and Seena's battle against Daos.


Music:Midy

First thing's first: Milka needs some serious upgrading. She's practically naked when she joins the party, so the first stop is back to Midy for some equipment. There are two weapon options for her: The MistRapier (+380 ATP) for physical damage or the Hammer Rod (+200 ATP, +80 REG) for healing. The Hammer Rod has lower ATP than the weapon she comes with, but she's probably not going to doing anything that requires her to have high ATP, so I opted for it. For armor, she can get the Quilt Silk like Ruby and the Lthr Knit (+100 DFP) for headgear.

After that, it's time to stop in at the Church for magic: Milka learns Champion X, Fry and Zap here in Midy. The party makes a quick warp back to Alstadt so she can pick up Stronger and then to Redwood so she and Yurist can get Help.

Now that they're properly outfitted, it's time to explore Tanba Cave, in search of Floatium that totally isn't there.


Music:Cave # 1

Tanba Cave looks like all the other caves on Fante and houses a collection of enemies from the Rosplett Shrine and onward through the final dungeon. It's really not worth sticking around to fight.



Shadow Hit is an uninteresting IP skill for Dei. I swear I think I have a couple of other IP with the exact same description.

Isaac's Chaff, on the other hand, is actually quite nifty: It buffs the entire party's DFP and SPD. Well, the SPD boost is probably more exciting than the DFP boost, but still.



The thirteenth floor is the end. The tunnel's right branch leads to an X-Magic and Body Seed, while the end of the south branch holds the Egg Key and a Revive. Not Floatium, though. Bummer. I wonder what this Egg Key does, though?

Just kidding, I know exactly what it does!


Music:Forest Labyrinth

Next stop: Rosplett Forest, which we can now explore thanks to Milka.
(Actually, I think you can enter once you've defeated Daos and have been directed to explore Rosplett)

The forest acts like a gateway cave: You can travel straight through to the other side, or take the side path into a randomly generated dungeon. Since we need wood to rebuild Siantao, you can bet you sweet keister that it's gonna be located at the end of this dungeon.



Rosplett Forest looks and sounds exactly like Copley Forest. The music is good and the greenry is a refreshing change of pace from CAVES CAVES CAVES CAVES TOWER SHRINE CAVES.

The dungeon itself is populated by all manner of wolves, fairies and elves, as well as enemies from Rosplett Shrine. Otherwise, it is significantly less magical than Copley. There's no looping screens or benevolent forest spirits or cat girls or anything.

Hit & Hide looks neat, but neither Isaac or Dei have the ATP to make Damage x 6 compare to the stuff Aima, Minim and Deckard are slinging.



Tenth floor: The northern path leads to the Risk Blade, which describes itself as boosting your power but lowering SPD and DFP. It boosts ATP by 380, but that's worse than the weapons Minim, Deckard and Randolph have, and worse than the weapons you can buy in Midy, so I can't see any reason to ever equip this.

The winding path to the east snakes around to the Great Tree that Gantz requested for Sidequest III: Salvaging Siantao at Some Point way back in October. We'll finally be able to bang that out next update, but right now we should get back to The Plot (such as it is)...



The Al-ayin Islands are located at the center of the map. Mercifully, there's only one cave, only accessible by air, so there's no chance of repeating the Horror of the Alumina Caves.


Music:Cave # 3

Another cave. At least this one looks like the cave on Lidal, which, as far as caves go, are probably the most interesting type.

The Vile Jelly is almost never attacks alone. It will usually be paired with another brand of Jelly from earlier dungeons.

There are red lizardfolk running around here called L. Shamans. I never caught them using magic, but surely they can. They tend to come in backs with yellow goblins, which are a new variety of melee monsters: G. Knight. They can Call Companions, but they are super weak, to the point that I don't even understand why they're here at this stage of the game.

Also of note: R.Dragons. One would assume they're capable of using fire-based attacks.



The Al-ayin Cave actually has several new IP skills, and it's mega-stingy with them. First up, and most importantly: OctoStrike, which deals Octopus Prime-elemental damage strikes Octopus Prime no matter where he may be attacks eight times. Minim is the only character who it would be worth using this with.

Upright is ok, I guess. It knocks off ⅙ of an enemy's current HP, but Yurist can already quarter an enemy's HP with Final Dance, and we're a past all the timed battles...



Milka comes with Critical and the only other thing to say about it is that it has the same effect as Shadow Hit, except characters who can actually hurt things can use it.

FortuneDice is Ruby's final IP. The effect is based on what number appears on her dice:
1 ???? (Probably deals one damage to enemy)
2 Fully heals the party's HP
3 Fully heals the party's MP
4 Deals 1,000 DMG to one enemy
5 Fully heals Ruby
6 Ruby takes 1 HP DMG

While that sounds nice and all, it requires 100 IP to use and only two of the effects are particularly useful (deal 1,000 DMG and full MP restoration). It isn't too difficult to restore the party's HP to full (we have two Champion X casters, plus Dei and a sackload of GoddessTears, not to mention the various healing IPs spread around the party) and fully healing Ruby is a waste of turn.



Skeletons frequently appear with weaker undead enemies. They're really quite strong, dealing about 100 DMG per attack.

Cpr.Dragons look vaguely like red triceratops on the map. They can use Spark Breath, which seemingly hits the same row twice. The damage it deals seems to be highly variable: Milka and Yurist were barely phased (barely double digits against Milka, and only single digits against Yurist), while it hit Ruby for 120 each time.



The Floatium is down on tenth floor. There are no branching paths, just a single, winding path littered with treasure. Well, in some cases, it's more like "treasure" than treasure. I don't understand why chests have Revives anymore. We have three characters who can cast Valor and dozens of Miracles. I don't need Revives anymore.



It's nice that someone build like, an alter for the Floatium instead of it just being, like, embedded in the cave walls or something. Minim asks if this piece is sufficient for undersea travel, and Isaac says it is. And... that's it. No long, drawn out cutscene or arguing, no being spirited away to another dungeon, they just grab the stone and that's it.

Sometimes you have to count your blessings.